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Book Group: Past books

Book Group Information

Tue, 01/15/2013 - 5:34pm — Sandra.Coyner

A 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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09/19/2016 - 2:00pm	Book group: "The Myth of Race" (click here for more information	The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea by Robert Wald Sussman (2014). Biological race does not exist; the social construct underlies prejudice and oppression. Traces history of this “persistent, false, and poisonous idea” from early biblical to modern pseudoscience.
08/15/2016 - 2:00pm	Jeff Center Book Group CANCELED	The August 15, 2016, meeting of this discussion group has been canceled. Books previously selected have been moved forward one month--see the calendar.
07/18/2016 - 2:00pm	Book group: “Lies, Incorporated" (click here for more information)	July 18, 2016, 2-4 pm, at the Jefferson Center in the Old Ashland Armory Lies, Incorporated: the World of Post-Truth Politics by Ari Rabin-Havi (2016). A revealing history of the “ever-growing industry of organized misinformation that exists to create and disseminate lies in the service of political agendas.” How it has crippled legislation
06/20/2016 - 2:00pm	Book Group: Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink"	“Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter” by Cass Sunstein (2014). Do groups make better decisions than individuals? Sometimes not. This book addresses specific reasons why and how group decisions sometimes go wrong, and tactics for doing better.
05/16/2016 - 2:00pm	Book Group: "Upright Thinkers" by Mlodinow	“The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos” by Leonard Mlodinow (2015). How human brain capacities constructed and built on key ideas to create science, from the earliest prehistoric, through agriculture, Newton and successors, up to and including Einstein and his cohorts.
04/18/2016 - 2:00pm	Book group: "Capital" by Piketty, FINISH THE BOOK	“ Capital in the Twenty-First Century ” by Thomas Piketty (2014), second discussion to finish the book (we are taking two months to read this long book). This classic book documents the dynamics of wealth and income inequality from past two centuries to the future. Why? What can be done? A somewhat grim picture, described as an important blockbuster of a book.
03/21/2016 - 2:15pm	Book group: "Capital" by Piketty	“ Capital in the Twenty-First Century ” by Thomas Piketty (2014), up to page 303 (we are taking two months to read this long book). This classic book documents the dynamics of wealth and income inequality from past two centuries to the future. Why? What can be done? A somewhat grim picture, described as an important blockbuster of a book.
02/15/2016 - 2:00pm	Book Group: "Unstoppable" by Ralph Nader	“Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State,” by Ralph Nader (2015). Why and how left-right cooperation is possible.
01/18/2016 - 2:00pm	Book Group Discussion: "No Place To Hide: Edward Snowden . . ."	No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald, 2014. (The group originally selected this book for December 2015, but moved it to January 2016 at our October meeting.)
12/14/2015 - 2:00pm	Book Group Discussion: "Affluence and Influence. . ."	Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America by Martin Gilens, 2014. An evidence-based investigation of whether money really does affect politics in America, or not, and if so, something about how much and how. "His findings are staggering."

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