ended with a list of books about stuff that actually matters. The ones below also helped me understand how we got here and why so many things seem broken. Like all such lists, it's very personal: I grew up straight, white, and male in a small town in western Canada fifty years ago, so you might already know many of the things I needed to be told, or might need to learn things that I still haven't heard of. Additions to this list would therefore be very welcome.
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Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy McMillanCottom2018. Describes how a large part of the educational sector in the US exists to translate government grants into personal debt for the poor and private profit for the rich.
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Owning the Earth Linklater2013. The idea that individuals can own land is a lot younger than most people realize, and its emergence holds a lot of lessons for today's debates over intellectual property.
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Seeing Like a State Scott1999 and Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Graeber2019. The first explains why large organizations always prefer uniformity over productivity, and the price people pay for this; the second explores the proliferation of meaningless busy-work jobs.
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Twitter and Tear Gas Tufekci2018. A nuanced look at how social media is and isn't changing politics and protest.
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The Spirit Level Wilkinson2011. An evidence-based exploration of how and why greater equality is better for everyone.
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The View From Flyover Country Kendzior2018 and Hiding in Plain Sight Kendzior2020. Essential reading about the rise of authoritarian kleptocracy in the United States.
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So You Want to Talk About Race Oluo2019. A sharp-edged analysis of everyday racism and how to confront it.
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The Great Transformation Armstrong2007 and Doubt: A History Hecht2004. The first book chronicles the critical centuries in which Confucianism and Daoism arose in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in the Middle East, and rationalism in Greece; the second Traces the evolution of one of the great traditions in Western thought (one which even today makes many people uncomfortable).
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Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists Baker2006. Explains history through biography, and does well at both.
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Building Powerful Community Organizations Brown2007. The best practical guide I know to creating and sustaining grassroots groups with a purpose.
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The World That Never Was Butterworth2011. Explores the early days of the anarchist movement, and in doing so shows how governments create the villains they need.
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Trick or Treatment Singh2009. A sceptical (but not hostile) look at alternative medicine that is incidentally a great primer on standards of evidence and how to interpret scientific findings.
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Four Futures: Life After Capitalism Frase2016. Explores four scenarios in which our reactions to increasing automation and worsening climate change play out.
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Bury the Chains Hochschild2006. "Slavery was to the nineteenth century what oil is today: morally repugnant but economically indispensable." The fight against it was one of the first great triumphs of democratic activism.
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From the Ruins of Empire Mishra2013 and Black Wave Ghattas2020. The first is three intellectual biographies showing how the peoples of Asia responded to the West; the second is a history of the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and how it has shaped the history of the last half century.
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The Last Utopia Moyn2010. Argues that human rights became the defining issue for post-war progressives only because others failed.
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Humanizing the Economy Restakis2010. A history of the co-operative movement and a blueprint for its future.
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The Emperor of All Maladies Mukherjee2011 and How to Survive a Plague France2016. The first is a history of cancer and its (mis)treatment; the second, of the AIDS crisis and how victims and their allies came together when society as a whole let them down.
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The Dictator's Handbook BuenoDeMesquita2012. Presents a slightly cynical theory of why bad behavior is often good politics.