How to Understand the Struggle for Black Freedom After Emancipation How to Understand the Struggle for Black Freedom After Emancipation
Five important books tell the tale.
Nov 30, 2016 / 5 Books / Erica Armstrong Dunbar
5 Books You Need to Understand the Origins of Incarceration 5 Books You Need to Understand the Origins of Incarceration
Elizabeth Hinton’s celebrated new book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime (Harvard, 2016) comes at an electric political moment. “I hope,” says Hinton, “that my research…
Nov 8, 2016 / 5 Books / Elizabeth Hinton
5 Novels About the Sordid Lives of High-Minded People 5 Novels About the Sordid Lives of High-Minded People
Zetigeist literature that prefigures the Brat Pack.
Oct 13, 2016 / 5 Books / Michelle Dean
5 Books: University Press Books That Tackle Capitalism From Every Angle 5 Books: University Press Books That Tackle Capitalism From Every Angle
The best books for understanding our modern crises.
Five Books: These Histories of Black Struggle Should Inform Us in 2016 Five Books: These Histories of Black Struggle Should Inform Us in 2016
Essential reading.
Apr 21, 2016 / 5 Books / Dani McClain
5 Books: The Pre-History of Donald Trump 5 Books: The Pre-History of Donald Trump
Before there was Trump, there was the rise of the radical right.
Feb 25, 2016 / 5 Books / Timothy Shenk
5 Books That Shed Light on the Cultural Revolution 5 Books That Shed Light on the Cultural Revolution
“The most intriguing books draw out the continuities between contemporary China and its Maoist past.”
Nov 19, 2015 / 5 Books / Chenxin Jiang
The 5 Books You Need to Read to Understand Gentrification The 5 Books You Need to Read to Understand Gentrification
Here’s how it works.
Classics of Catholic Economics Classics of Catholic Economics
In this issue, Nathan Schneider writes about Pope Francis’s economics. Here, he recommends five books of Catholic thought that display strikingly similar concerns to those of secul…
Sep 10, 2015 / 5 Books / Nathan Schneider
5 Books: Reading Race and Economics 5 Books: Reading Race and Economics
Joelle Gamble is director of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network. “I became an economics nerd campaigning against tuition increases at the University of California,” she says. “I became engrossed in the intricacies of state tax policy—everything spiraled from there.” Here, she recommends five books elucidating race’s intersection with economics, accompanying “An Economic Program for #BlackLivesMatter.” WHERE WE STAND Class Matters by bell hooks Buy this book This essay collection draws on hook’s personal experiences instead of relying on purely theoretical arguments about poverty. She is especially critical of economically secure liberals and radicals who, she argues, choose to downplay the importance of class privilege in comparison with race and gender—a criticism that she illustrates with examples from her own years studying and teaching at elite institutions. Rather than putting class at the top of a hierarchy of oppression, however, hooks demonstrates the interlocking nature of race, gender and class in straightforward prose. ECONOMICS The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang Buy this book Chang’s accessible guide to contemporary economic thought, complete with hand charts, transforms economics into a flexible tool for understanding the world around us. He acknowledges that the version often taught in school—narrow neoclassicism—is not the only way of thinking about economics. Once economic thought gets out into the real world, Chang demonstrates, the intersections with race become clearer. There is also a good deal of humor throughout the book, refreshing in a subject known for being dismal. THE NEW JIM CROW Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Buy this book This excellent book lays out the brutal efficiency with which the American legal system has constructed and upheld a cycle of incarceration and social isolation targeting people of color. The New Jim Crow does a particularly excellent job of describing the economic barriers that convicted felons face for years, and the stigmas attached to a criminalized population. Through detailed explanations of pivotal court cases and policy battles, this book argues that the criminal-justice system renders many Americans second-class citizens. THE DIVIDE American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi Buy this book Taibbi’s sharp reporting reveals which Americans are labeled “criminal” and subjected to the social and economic exclusion that comes with the term—disproportionately poor people of color, in contrast to wealthy, white-collar wrongdoers. He assesses how our under-resourced processing systems, prosecutors’ use of petty (often erroneous) charges, and perverse incentives for law enforcement ensure the perpetual harassment of impoverished communities by the police. Taibbi paints a compelling picture of how the economy and the criminal-justice system are linked and, at times, codependent. THE PRICE OF INEQUALITY How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph E. Stiglitz Buy this book Today’s inequality is the result of moneyed interests using public policy as a tool to guard their wealth, argues the economist Joseph Stiglitz. He demonstrates that income inequality results from political activity rather than an “invisible hand,” thereby pointing toward aggressive policy solutions for lifting up those at the bottom. Because people at the top of the economic ladder are disproportionately white, Stiglitz’s arguments about economic justice illuminate the nexus of race and economics and must play a part in any conversation about achieving racial justice.
Jan 7, 2015 / 5 Books / Joelle Gamble