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Book Group: Past books
Book Group Information
Tue, 01/15/2013 - 5:34pm — Sandra.CoynerA list of books selected and read by this book group from 2008 to 2013 can be found here. For recent books, see below.
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| 10/19/2021 - 1:00pm | The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? |
The author is well-known and much-awarded philosopher and we’ve read his work on “justice.” Here he identifies and dissects how our culture uses concepts of “merit” and how these ideas lead us astray—to inequality, hubris, and sometimes despair, since the U.S. has very little social mobility and is obviously not meritocratic. Suggests re-thinking, to acknowledge luck, humility, solidarity, and dignity of work—for a much better society. About 230 pages. This book supports thinking about a better world. |
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Repeats every month on the third Tuesday 2 times . 08/17/2021 - 1:00pm, 09/21/2021 - 1:00pm |
Capital and Ideology |
This is a very long book (two session read) that shows inequality as a historical construct. Like other books by this author, it covers several countries. The tension between capital (wealth) accumulation and equality, not property rights or pursuit of stability, has been a major force in development. The current drift toward a politics of identity hampers possible solutions. He has suggestions on how to improve the situation. Read the first half for August and the second half for September. |
| 08/17/2021 - 1:00pm, 09/21/2021 - 1:00pm | Capital and Ideology |
This is a very long book (two session read) that shows inequality as a historical construct. Like other books by this author, it covers several countries. The tension between capital (wealth) accumulation and equality, not property rights or pursuit of stability, has been a major force in development. The current drift toward a politics of identity hampers possible solutions. He has suggestions on how to improve the situation. Read the first half for August and the second half for September. |
| 07/20/2021 - 1:00pm | Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and ... |
“[A] sweeping and authoritative history" (The New York Times Book Review), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979.” |
| 06/15/2021 - 1:00pm | How to Be an Antiracist |
With plenty of autobiography, author identifies how he has unwittingly failed to challenge racism, and includes some explanation of e.g. structural racism in U.S. Very readable. Has a separate workbook if we got really into it. |
| 05/18/2021 - 1:00pm | Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain |
by Lisa Feldman Barrett (2020). Only about 160 pages. Short and readable explanations of the brain that challenge many misconceptions, including: emotions and reason are not opposed, there is no such thing as a “reptile brain,” we can know “reality.” Not many “stories” but many examples. Go to https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Half-Lessons-About-Brain/dp/0358157145/ref=... |
| 04/20/2021 - 1:00pm | A History of America in Ten Strikes |
Location: the Jeff Center in the Old Ashland Armory From Amazon: |
| 03/16/2021 - 1:00pm | The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes |
Location: the Jeff Center in the Old Ashland Armory From Amazon:
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| 02/16/2021 - 1:00pm | How Change Happens |
How does social change happen? What makes social movements take off? |
| 01/19/2021 - 1:00pm | Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted |
In this powerful indictment of a venerated institution, Ian Millhiser tells the history of the Supreme Court through the eyes of the everyday people who have suffered the most from it. |