Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick


Maya Dusenbery - 2018
    In addition to offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its effects, she suggests concrete steps we can take to cure it.

The Heart of Things: A Midwestern Almanac


John Hildebrand - 2014
    Life is more complicated than that." " In this remarkable book of days, John Hildebrand charts the overlapping rings--home, town, countryside--of life in the Midwest. Like E. B. White, Hildebrand locates the humor and drama in ordinary life: church suppers, Friday night football, outdoor weddings, garden compost, family reunions, roadside memorials, camouflage clothing. In these wry, sharply observed essays, the Midwest isn't The Land Time Forgot but a more complicated (and vastly more interesting) place where the good life awaits once we figure exactly out what it means. From his home range in northwestern Wisconsin, Hildebrand attempts to do just that by boiling down a calendar year to its rich marrow of weather, animals, family, home--in other words, all the things that matter.

I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street


Matt Taibbi - 2017
    On July 17, 2014, a forty-three-year-old black man named Eric Garner died on a Staten Island sidewalk after a police officer put him in what has been described as an illegal chokehold during an arrest for selling bootleg cigarettes. The final moments of Garner's life were captured on video and seen by millions. His agonized last words, "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry for the nascent Black Lives Matter protest movement. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict the officer who wrestled Garner to the pavement. Matt Taibbi's deeply reported retelling of these events liberates Eric Garner from the abstractions of newspaper accounts and lets us see the man in full—with all his flaws and contradictions intact. A husband and father with a complicated personal history, Garner was neither villain nor victim, but a fiercely proud individual determined to do the best he could for his family, bedeviled by bad luck, and ultimately subdued by forces beyond his control. In America, no miscarriage of justice exists in isolation, of course, and in I Can't Breathe Taibbi also examines the conditions that made this tragedy possible. Featuring vivid vignettes of life on the street and inside our Kafkaesque court system, Taibbi's kaleidoscopic account illuminates issues around policing, mass incarceration, the underground economy, and racial disparity in law enforcement. No one emerges unsullied, from the conservative district attorney who half-heartedly prosecutes the case to the progressive mayor caught between the demands of outraged activists and the foot-dragging of recalcitrant police officials. A masterly narrative of urban America and a scathing indictment of the perverse incentives built into our penal system, I Can't Breathe drills down into the particulars of one case to confront us with the human cost of our broken approach to dispensing criminal justice.

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness


Austin Channing Brown - 2018
    Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion.In a time when nearly all institutions (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claim to value "diversity" in their mission statements, I'm Still Here is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America's social fabric--from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.For readers who have engaged with America's legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I'm Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God's ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness--if we let it--can save us all.

Medicine Stories: History, Culture and the Politics of Integrity


Aurora Levins Morales - 1998
    Drawing vibrant connections between the colonization of whole nations, the health of the mountainsides and the abuse of individual women, children and men, Medicine Stories offers the paradigm of integrity as a political model to people who hunger for a world of justice, health and love.

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust & Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present


Ward Churchill - 1997
    Here, he explores the history of holocaust and denial in this hemisphere, beginning with the arrival of Columbus and continuing on into the present.He frames the matter by examining both revisionist denial of the Nazi-perpatrated Holocaust and the opposing claim of its exclusive uniqueness, using the full scope of what happened in Europe as a backdrop against which to demonstrate that genocide is precisely what has been--and still is--carried out against the American Indians.Churchill lays bare the means by which many of these realities have remained hidden, how public understanding of this most monstrous of crimes has been subverted not only by its perpetrators and their beneficiaries but by the institutions and individuals who perceive advantages in the confusion. In particular, he outlines the reasons underlying the United States's 40-year refusal to ratify the Genocide Convention, as well as the implications of the attempt to exempt itself from compliance when it finally offered its endorsement.In conclusion, Churchill proposes a more adequate and coherent definition of the crime as a basis for identifying, punishing and preventing genocidal practices, wherever and whenever they occur.

From Dictatorship to Democracy


Gene Sharp - 1993
    From Dictatorship to Democracy is virtually the handbook for (almost) peaceful overthrow of repressive regimes, the manual consulted by revolutionary leadership throughout the Middle East, from Tunis to Egypt.

Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women


Kate Manne - 2020
    Ranging widely across the culture, from Harvey Weinstein and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings to “Cat Person” and the political misfortunes of Elizabeth Warren, Manne’s book shows how privileged men’s sense of entitlement—to sex, yes, but more insidiously to admiration, care, bodily autonomy, knowledge, and power—is a pervasive social problem with often devastating consequences.In clear, lucid prose, Manne argues that male entitlement can explain a wide array of phenomena, from mansplaining and the undertreatment of women’s pain to mass shootings by incels and the seemingly intractable notion that women are “unelectable.” Moreover, Manne implicates each of us in toxic masculinity: It’s not just a product of a few bad actors; it’s something we all perpetuate, conditioned as we are by the social and cultural mores of our time. The only way to combat it, she says, is to expose the flaws in our default modes of thought while enabling women to take up space, say their piece, and muster resistance to the entitled attitudes of the men around them.With wit and intellectual fierceness, Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern.

The Florence King Reader


Florence King - 1995
    Reprint.

So You Want to Talk About Race


Ijeoma Oluo - 2018
    Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans. Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."

We Need New Stories: Challenging the Toxic Myths Behind Our Age of Discontent


Nesrine Malik - 2019
    Six myths have taken hold, ones which are at odds with our lived experience and in urgent need of revision.Has freedom of speech become a cover for promoting prejudice? Has the concept of political correctness been weaponised to avoid ceding space to those excluded from power? Does white identity politics pose an urgent danger? These are some of the questions at the centre of Nesrine Malik's radical and compelling analysis that challenges us to find new narrators whose stories can fill the void and unite us behind a shared vision.

AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame


Paul Farmer - 1992
    Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the United States rather than from hard evidence? Anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers in the affirmative with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society.

The Big White Lie: The Deep Cover Operation That Exposed the CIA Sabotage of the Drug War


Michael Levine - 1993
    The New York Times described the book as a “hair-raising” non-fiction book that “moves with the speed of a first-rate thriller.” Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review calling it a “shocking exposé.” Follow Levine, called “America’s top undercover agent” by 60 Minutes, into the world of ruthless drug barons, kill-crazy assassins, secret police and corrupt government officials. The trail leads to the breathtakingly beautiful woman whom Pablo Escobar called "The Queen of Cocaine” – Sonia Atala. Levine, posing as Sonia’s lover, barely escapes the operation with his life but not before learning that America’s true enemies in the War on Drugs are not found in the jungles of South America but in the basements and back rooms of CIA headquarters. Operation Hun begins when Sonia Atala, deemed too powerful by the male dominated-cocaine aristocracy, is targeted for death. She strikes a secret deal: in return for protection, she will give DEA its first look into the inner workings of the organizations controlling the gusher of cocaine pouring into the US. Levine, posing as Sonia’s half-Sicilian, half-Puerto Rican Mafioso lover and business partner, is now targeted by her enemies. Supplied with a mansion, a fleet of luxury cars, an undercover Mafia crew, and a planeload of cocaine as props, he lures them to his luxurious home to settle their differences on hidden DEA video. It should have been enough evidence to indict those in control of the flow of cocaine into the US. But nothing was as it seemed. Levine discovers that Sonia has a secret: she is manipulating DEA with the help of covert and powerful forces in the US government to selectively destroy her enemies while leaving the cocaine pipeline intact. Read The Big White Lie and experience the darkest secrets of America’s War on Drugs for yourself—from one who has lived it. RECENT NEWS: During a March 3, 2011 world press conference, the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, raised a copy The Big White Lie (La Guerra Falsa—the Spanish Translation) in front of news cameras proclaiming the book as one of the reasons he had banned DEA from his country. The photo of President Morales with the book in hand rocketed around the world. When interviewed, Levine said that if President Morales had really understood the book he would have banished CIA from his country and welcomed DEA as heroes. Now that the book is republished as an e-book, readers can decide the truth for themselves.

The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas


Mahatma Gandhi - 1962
    Gandhi, called Mahatma (“great soul”), was the father of modern India, but his influence has spread well beyond the subcontinent, and is as important today as it was in the first part of the twentieth century, and during this nation’s own civil rights movement. Taken from Gandhi’s writings throughout his life. The Essential Gandhi introduces us to his thoughts on politics, spirituality, poverty, suffering, love, non-violence, civil disobedience, and his own life. The pieces collected here, with explanatory head-notes by Gandhi biographer Louis Fischer, offer the clearest, most thorough portrait of one of the greatest spiritual leaders the world has known.“Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable... We may ignore him at our own risk.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.With a new Preface drawn from the writings of Eknath EaswaranIn the annals of spirituality certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers, who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind's relation to the divine.

Granta 126: Do You Remember


Sigrid Rausing - 2014
    You'll be good at it. And I had said, 'Are you on crack?' And he replied, continuing to fold a blue twill jacket, ""Yes, a little.""--Lorrie Moore'Hey,' Paul yelled out. 'Why's everybody talking behind the patient's back?' 'Shut up, we're having sex,' she called back. She poured a cup for herself. 'He seems pretty chipper this morning.' 'Yeah, I don't know what to hope for,' I said. 'Quality, I guess. And then not too much quantity.' --David Gates'If everything we said had been a poem, the index of first lines would have formed a pattern: 'Do you remember', 'Tell me if I remember wrong', 'There was that time', 'Wasn't it funny when' --Anne BeattieAnd Abeer Ayyoub, Bernard Cooper, Olivia Laing, Laura Kasischke, Thomas McGuane, Colin McAdam, Katherine Faw Morris, Melinda Moustakis, Norman Rush, Edmund White and Joy Williams