Source: stuarthampton

Every book Shelf needs refreshing every once in a while. Why not add these books on Social Change to yours?

Paulo Freire – Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Penguin Modern Classics)

This classic was originally published in Portuguese has inspired generations of educators and students. Its sole aim is to give people the tools to fight their oppressors. Some love it, some think it’s quite flowery. We here think it’s worth a read.

Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

In an age which likes to triumph itself for overcoming race, and racial barriers. Michelle Alexander examines just how the targetting of black men by the criminal justice system is breaking apart African American communities. Though in theory Jim Crow theory is supposed to be a thing of the past. Alexander shows how it continues to manifest itself throughout American culture.

Seth Godin – Tribes: We need you to lead us

By our nature as humans, we can’t help but seek out tribes. They may be religious, political, musical, it doesn’t matter. We can’t help it. Now, with the internet. Tribes can grow even larger, new tribes can bloom. But we need leadership, and perhaps this book will lead you to provide such a thing to the world.

Marx & Engels – The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Little Black Classics)

Marx & Engels, like ourselves today, lived in a time when social change was excelling at a rapid rate around them. Therefore, we can always learn something from their revolutionary texts to now only be able to enact social change in our own communities more adequately, but also to have a better comprehension on socialist, and communist change.

Naomi Klein – This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate 

Climate change is an even greater threat to our lives now that there are Presidents who are not convinced that it is a real phenomenon with changes we are only futile in predicting. In this book, Naomi Klein moves the problem from looking at Carbon to looing at Capitalism. Arguing profit is the main reason we’re not curbing climate change.

Ta-Nehisi Coates – Between The World And Me 

An alternative way of examing American history is put forward by Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me. This book, written for Coates son, can teach everyone something new about race and ethnicity. Especially in regards to black lives.

Matthew Desmond – Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

A Harvard sociologist examines the lives of some of the poorest individuals, giving a new view of the underclass and the economic exploitation they face. An interesting take on a topic which may not initially seem too compelling.

Which Social Change books should we read?

The Sociological Mail