Book Review: Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie This is a refreshingly adult conversation, in which doomsayers and climate change deniers alike are effectively refuted. In this book, Hannah Ritchie presents a strategic plan for an environmentally healthy Earth—it can …
Category Archives: Reviews
How the World Made the West
Book Review: How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History by Josephine Quinn The historical evidence presented in this book provides cause for rethinking fundamental assumptions about our contemporary geopolitical and societal structures worldwide. Through long term and thorough analysis of archaeological and written artifacts, Josephine Quinn examines the interrelated actions of different …
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
Book Review: The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate E. Pickett This book has stood the test of time, and after its original publication in 2009 it remains an active project with a current updated website at equalitytrust.org.uk. In presenting rigorous research, the authors Richard Wilkinson and …
Continue reading “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger”
Money, Lies, and God
Book Review: Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart This is an excellent resource full of rich substance in decoding why otherwise reasonable people vote for governments that take a jackhammer to the foundations of their freedoms and very livelihoods. Katherine Stewart documents in laser sharp detail the …
The Tech Coup
Book Review: The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley by Marietje Schaake The lives of most people worldwide are dominated by information technology in an inescapable way—even the poorest people (or perhaps especially the poorest people) need their smart phones to survive. Beyond just the end devices, the back end processing and …
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Book Review: At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson Using an old house as a take-off point to address housing, society, developing technology, and science, Bill Bryson guides the reader through each room of an 1851 Victorian parsonage in Norfolk, England—and uses each room as a time machine portal to multiple …
Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church
Book Review: Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church by Hahrie Han In this book, Hahrie Han addresses racism—a topic that, while some white people may be tired of hearing about it, most Black people are tired of experiencing it in real life at almost every level of society. The characters presented …
Continue reading “Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church”
Post Growth: Life after Capitalism
Book Review: Post Growth: Life after Capitalism by Tim Jackson In this book, Tim Jackson provides a compelling explanation of how Capitalism requires an infinite trajectory of growth that is demonstrably impossible, while also providing a tangible alternative road map of how to prosper in a post growth economy. Beyond the established damning critiques of …
The Spirit of Justice
Book Review: The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance by Jemar Tisby In this book Jemar Tisby provides a special inside look into the historical and personal experiences of African Americans that is not always included in other accounts of the people and events covered. Additional personal perspectives are presented of …
Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique
Book Review: Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique by Jonathan Gienapp Constitutional Originalism is actually a modern theory crafted to prop up right wing judicial chicanery—this is revealed by the exhaustive survey of the Founding era Jonathan Gienapp presents in this book. Gienapp searches out the true sense of what the US Constitution meant to …
Continue reading “Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique”