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While fiction offers a temporary escape from reality, nonfiction brings the world into sharper focus. Here are my favorite nonfiction books from 2007:

"The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. This disturbing piece of investigative journalism asserts that some theories of the late economist Milton Friedman have adversely impacted economies around the world. Klein claims disasters are providing opportunities for the exploitation of millions of people under the guise of spreading democracy and free markets. She demonstrates how crises were exploited in Chile, Russia, South Africa, China and Iraq and in situations like Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami and 9/11.

"Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," by Robert Dallek. President Richard M. Nixon remains an endless source of fascination for historians. Nixon's powerful national security adviser was Henry Kissinger. Dallek examines their bizarre partnership. Each man had a massive ego. They were complete opposites in their personalities but they were drawn together as if by magnetism. They scored diplomatic coups. Ultimately, this odd pairing dissolved, as Nixon's presidency collapsed in a whirlwind of accusations and paranoia.

"Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties," by Michael Lesy. When we think of Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, we think of gangsters with tommy guns mowing each down over bootleg liquor. Lesy went through the newspaper archives of the period and discovered that the Windy City was actually pervaded by violence among ordinary people. He has compiled haunting stories and photos that depict a city drenched in homicide. They were killing each other for a few dollars in Chicago. Eerily fascinating.

"Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919," by Ann Hagedorn. That was was the year that followed the end the Great War, the war to end all wars, World War I. It was a deeply troubling time. Hagedorn revisits an America that seems torn from more recent headlines. Terrorists were mailing bombs. The government allowed an overzealous young J. Edgar Hoover massive latitude to conduct surveillance and wiretapping. The U.S. Army was bogged down in a civil war in Northern Russia. A native Daytonian, Hagedorn now resides in Ripley, Ohio. 

"It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush," by Joe Conason. President Nixon failed in his attempt to amass unbridled power. The wiretappers of 1919 were eventually reined in. By 2007, we had an administration that had consolidated presidential power again. Conason looks at how Vice President Dick Cheney came up through the Nixon administration and 30 years later has elevated White House secrecy to Nixonian levels. He scrutinizes how George W. Bush has used executive orders to consolidate power and how the Patriot Act imperils our freedoms.

Honorable mentions: "Young Stalin" by Simon Sebag Montefiore; "The Landmark Herodotus, the Histories;" and "The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson." 

Book reviewer Vick Mickunas blogs daily about books at www.DaytonDailyNews.com/booknook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com 

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The titles

"The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," by Naomi Klein, Metropolitan Books, 558 pages, $28

"Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," by Robert Dallek, Harper Collins, 740 pages, $32.50

"Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties," by Michael Lesy, W.W. Norton, 344 pages, $26

"Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919," by Ann Hagedorn, Simon & Schuster, 543 pages, $30

"It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush," by Joe Conason, Thomas Dunne Books, 238 pages, $25