Book picks similar to
Jobs with Justice: 25 Years, 25 Voices by Eric Larson
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Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America
Peter Edelman - 2017
Kennedy Book & Journalism AwardsFinalist for the American Bar Association's 2018 Silver Gavel Book AwardNamed one of the "10 books to read after you've read Evicted" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"A powerful investigation into the ways the United States has addressed poverty. . . . Lucid and troubling."--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted, in The Chronicle of Higher EducationA nationally known expert on poverty shows how not having money has been criminalized and shines a light on lawyers, activists, and policy makers working for a more humane approachIn addition to exposing racially biased policing, the Justice Department's Ferguson Report exposed to the world a system of fines and fees levied for minor crimes in Ferguson, Missouri, that, when they proved too expensive for Ferguson's largely poor, African American population, resulted in jail sentences for thousands of people.As former staffer to Robert F. Kennedy and current Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman explains in Not a Crime to Be Poor, Ferguson is everywhere in America today. Through money bail systems, fees and fines, strictly enforced laws and regulations against behavior including trespassing and public urination that largely affect the homeless, and the substitution of prisons and jails for the mental hospitals that have traditionally served the impoverished, in one of the richest countries on Earth we have effectively made it a crime to be poor.Edelman, who famously resigned from the administration of Bill Clinton over welfare "reform," connects the dots between these policies and others including school discipline in poor communities, child support policies affecting the poor, public housing ordinances, addiction treatment, and the specter of public benefits fraud to paint a picture of a mean-spirited, retributive system that seals whole communities into inescapable cycles of poverty.
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)
Dean Spade - 2020
As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable. Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout. Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.
Masks Of Anarchy: The History Of A Radical Poem, From Percy Shelley To The Triangle Factory Fire
Michael Demson - 2013
Shelley penned the poem in 1819, after hearing of the Peterloo Massacre, where British cavalry charged peaceful political demonstrators near Manchester. His words would later inspire figures as wide-ranging as Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi—and also Pauline Newman, the woman the New York Times called the “New Joan of Arc” in 1907. Newman was a Jewish immigrant who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and came to be a leading organizer—and the first female organizer—of one of America’s most powerful unions, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. As she marched with tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in the streets, Shelley’s poem never ceased to inspire her. “Shake your chains to earth like dew,” it implores. “Ye are many—they are few.”
The Sympathy Wave
P.R. Ganapathy - 2013
Rohit is not just his party’s next Prime Ministerial candidate, but also a reluctant heir to his family’s political legacy. Soon after, the wreckage of the plane is discovered scattered over the Rajasthan desert, sending the media as well the nation’s public into a tizzy. As Rohit’s sister sweeps the general elections, riding a massive wave of public sympathy, some uncomfortable questions remain. Who is behind this audacious plan? What could be the reason behind this high-profile assassination? The proverbial finger seems to point at India’s geopolitical enemy, Pakistan, but not everyone is convinced. Anwar Islam reunites with his mentor Colonel Vijay Gupta, and his friend Vishal Karandikar to find the missing pieces of this puzzle. As the trio explores the dark alleys hidden behind the façade of India’s seat of power, unbelievable conspiracies come to light. A gripping thriller, The Sympathy Wave takes it reader into the heart of political India to uncover a nest of intrigues.
Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63
Taylor Branch - 1988
Martin Luther King Jr. during the decade preceding his emergence as a national figure. This 1000-page effort, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, profiles the key players & events that helped shape the American social landscape following WWII but before the civil-rights movement of the 60s reached its climax. Branch then goes a step further, endeavoring to explain how the struggles evolved as they did by probing the influences of the main actors while discussing the manner in which events conspired to create fertile ground for change. Also analyzing the beginnings of black self-consciousness, this book maps the structure of segregation & bigotry in America between '54 & '63. The author considers the constantly changing behavior of those in Washington with regard to the injustice of offical racism operating in many states at this time.Forerunner: Vernon Johns Rockefeller and Ebenezer Niebuhr and the Pool TablesFirst Trombone The Montgomery Bus BoycottA Taste of the World The Quickening Shades of PoliticsA Pawn of HistoryThe Kennedy TransitionBaptism on Wheels The Summer of Freedom RidesMoses in McComb, King in Kansas City Almost Christmas in Albany Hoover's Triangle and King's MachineThe Fireman's Last Reprieve The Fall of Ole MissTo Birmingham Greenwood and Birmingham JailThe Children's Miracle Firestorm The March on Washington Crossing Over: Nightmares and Dreams
The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great
Harvey J. Kaye - 2014
Freedom of speech and religion. In the name of the Four Freedoms they fought the Great Depression. In the name of the Four Freedoms they defeated the Axis powers. In the process they made the United States the richest and most powerful country on Earth. And, despite a powerful, reactionary opposition, the men and women of the Greatest Generation made America freer, more equal, and more democratic than ever before. Now, when all they fought for is under siege, we need to remember their full achievement, and, so armed, take up again the fight for the Four Freedoms.
Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America
Eric Rauchway - 2003
Rumor ran rampant: A wild-eyed foreign anarchist with an unpronounceable name had killed the commander-in-chief. Eric Rauchway's brilliant Murdering McKinley restages Leon Czolgosz's hastily conducted trial and then traverses America with Dr. Vernon Briggs, a Boston alienist who sets out to discover why Czolgosz rose up to kill his president.
The Top Insults: How to Win Any Argument...While Laughing!
Full Sea Books - 2013
“You’re about as useful as a windshield wiper on a goat’s butt.”
Keep this book handy, someday you’ll be glad you have it.
“Let's play horse. I'll be the front end and you just be yourself.”
Pick any of the many jaw-dropping insults then laugh at the look on your adversary’s face when you whip one out and use it on them. You’ll leave no doubt in their mind that you are a master of sarcastic insults! ADDED BONUS: In addition to the fresh and hilarious insults in this book, you’ll also find great sarcastic observations about life hidden inside this book’s pages, like…
“I think the reason so many people have smart phones is because opposites attract!”
You’re no idiot, so you need this book to start your new life as the master of sarcastic insults and put-downs!
“Hey! Who left the Idiot Box open? Now they're everywhere!”
All The Good Men (Garrison Chase #3)
Craig N. Hooper - 2020
From both sides of the aisle.A bipartisan killer is on the loose, and only one man can stop them.Garrison Chase has done it all: A sniper in the Marines. A covert government operative. An agent for the Bureau. Now he’s opted for a quieter life in a sleepy coastal California town.His skills aren’t going to waste, however, as he occasionally works for a friend who owns a security firm in Washington, DC. And Chase’s latest job—protecting a United States senator from a threatening colleague—thrusts him right back into the action when he barges into a private meeting between the senators only to discover a bloodbath.Though it looks like a murder-suicide, Chase has his suspicions. He’s convinced it’s a setup, that someone else was at the meeting. But nobody believes him. Not the local police or the feds. Everyone wants the case wrapped up neat and tidy.When two more senators are targeted, one murdered and the other abducted, the feds finally get involved. But Chase is one step ahead and has already tracked down the killer. Now the real investigation can begin.As Chase peels back the layers, dark secrets and a deep coverup are revealed. The only way to stop the chaos and expose the truth, is for Chase to enter the dangerous and dirty waters and tread alongside the Washington elite.
One Last Day
Dustin Stevens - 2017
One of those soldiers was my son, who never made it back. Now, I'm here to ask you, was it worth it? The gathering was supposed to have been a perfunctory media exercise on retiring Senator Jackson Ridge's last day in office. When a grieving mother slips in and poses that simple question though, everything - from Ridge's own legacy to American interests in Afghanistan - all get called into question. Racing against a ticking clock and powerful figures that would prefer to keep things happening across the globe a secret, Ridge must call on every last favor he has accumulated over the course of his time in office in search of answers. Answers that ultimately have him looking at more than just the life of a fallen soldier when trying to decide if, in fact, it was all worth it... From bestselling author Dustin Stevens comes a new standalone work, a gripping political thriller with equal parts suspense and mystery!
Walking With The Comrades
Arundhati Roy - 2010
I’d been waiting for months to hear from them...’ In early 2010, Arundhati Roy travelled into the forests of Central India, homeland to millions of indigenous people, dreamland to some of the world’s biggest mining corporations. The result is this powerful and unprecedented report from the heart of an unfolding revolution. About the Author : Arundhati Roy is the author of The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997. Three volumes of her non-fiction writing, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire and Listening to Grasshoppers, were published in 2001, 2005 and 2009 respectively. The Shape of the Beast, a collection of her interviews, was published in 2008. Arundhati Roy lives in New Delhi.
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
James R. Green - 2006
A wave of mass hysteria swept the country, leading to a sensational trial, that culminated in four controversial executions, and dealt a blow to the labor movement from which it would take decades to recover. Historian James Green recounts the rise of the first great labor movement in the wake of the Civil War and brings to life an epic twenty-year struggle for the eight-hour workday. Blending a gripping narrative, outsized characters and a panoramic portrait of a major social movement, Death in the Haymarket is an important addition to the history of American capitalism and a moving story about the class tensions at the heart of Gilded Age America.
Can't Pay, Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition
Debt Collective - 2020
This concise, energetic manifesto from the Debt Collective is in equal parts informative and inspiring, and is sure to become a crucial reference point for activists and debt cancellation campaigners. Includes a foreword from Debt Collective co-founder and acclaimed activist-author, documentarian, and musician Astra Taylor.
The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission
Herb Childress - 2019
Students pack up and head back to their dorms. The professor, meanwhile, goes to her car . . . to catch a little sleep, and then eat a cheeseburger in her lap before driving across the city to a different university to teach another, wholly different class. All for a paycheck that, once prep and grading are factored in, barely reaches minimum wage. Welcome to the life of the mind in the gig economy. Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been utterly transformed—for the worse. America’s colleges and universities were designed to serve students and create knowledge through the teaching, research, and stability that come with the longevity of tenured faculty, but higher education today is dominated by adjuncts. In 1975, only thirty percent of faculty held temporary or part-time positions. By 2011, as universities faced both a decrease in public support and ballooning administrative costs, that number topped fifty percent. Now, some surveys suggest that as many as seventy percent of American professors are working course-to-course, with few benefits, little to no security, and extremely low pay. In The Adjunct Underclass, Herb Childress draws on his own firsthand experience and that of other adjuncts to tell the story of how higher education reached this sorry state. Pinpointing numerous forces within and beyond higher ed that have driven this shift, he shows us the damage wrought by contingency, not only on the adjunct faculty themselves, but also on students, the permanent faculty and administration, and the nation. How can we say that we value higher education when we treat educators like desperate day laborers? Measured but passionate, rooted in facts but sure to shock, The Adjunct Underclass reveals the conflicting values, strangled resources, and competing goals that have fundamentally changed our idea of what college should be. This book is a call to arms for anyone who believes that strong colleges are vital to society.
Writing to Change the World
Mary Pipher - 2006
Inspired by a course of the same name that Mary Pipher taught at the University of Nebraska's National Summer Writers' Conference, this book encapsulates her years of experience as a writer and therapist, as well as her extensive knowledge of the craft of writing. "Writing to Change the World" combines practical instruction with inspirational commentary, featuring personal anecdotes, memorable quotations from other writers, practical how-to advice, and stories about writers who have transformed society through their work. In addition to laying out the various steps of the writing process-brainstorming, writing, revising, and publishing-Pipher gives advice about specific forms of advocacy writing: op-ed pieces, letters, essays, speeches, and blogs. She inspires readers to take up their pens, while reflecting on the writer's responsibilities as a moral agent. This is a book that really can make a difference!