Politics & Government

As far as topics go, politics may be as divisive as they come. Still, there's no escaping the role that it plays in our lives. The texts in this collection explore the gamut of how politics shapes and reshapes societies throughout history.

Publication year 2015

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Tags Politics & Government, World History, World War I, European History, US History, Military & War, Biography

In Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, writer Erik Larson traces the Lusitania’s final journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The Lusitania is a British passenger liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Company. First sailing in 1907, the Lusitania quickly sets records for the fastest journey across the Atlantic Ocean, stealing the coveted Blue Riband away from Germany.Dead Wake follows the Lusitania’s final journey, which took place during the first week of May 1915... Read Dead Wake Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Race & Racism, LGBTQ+, Social Justice, Politics & Government, Biography

Dear America—Notes of an Undocumented Citizen is a collection of essays written by Jose Antonio Vargas, published in 2018. The book relates the author’s struggle of coming to the United States from the Philippines in an illegal manner and growing up in America without the full documentation that would have made him a legal immigrant.As a 12-year-old boy in the Philippines, the author is surprised by his mother one morning. She rushes him to the... Read Dear America Summary

Publication year 1992

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Mothers

Tags Education, Education, Anthropology, Anthropology, Grief & Death, Social Science, Sociology, World History, Politics & Government

Published in 1989, Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, is an in-depth and long-ranging look at the crisis of infant and early-child mortality in the rural communities of the Brazilian Northeast. The author of the book is Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a former aidworker who returned to Brazil as an anthropologist. While the object of this book is infant and child mortality, its main focus is not a medical or scientific approach to... Read Death Without Weeping Summary

Publication year 2011

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Conflict, Community

Tags World History, Business & Economics, Finance, Anthropology, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

Publication year 1986

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Language

Tags History: African , Race & Racism, African American Literature, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature is a nonfiction book published in 1986 by the Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. In the Introduction, titled “Towards the Universal Language of Struggle,” Ngũgĩ writes: “This book, is a summary of some of the issues in which I have been passionately involved for the last twenty years of my practice in fiction, theatre, criticism and in teaching literature” (1). Decolonising the Mind is a... Read Decolonising the Mind Summary

Publication year 1835

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Politics & Government, French Literature, American Literature, Sociology, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a work of history and political philosophy published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840. Tocqueville embarked on his own political career in France but is best known for his contributions to history and political philosophy.The first volume is based on Tocqueville’s nearly yearlong sojourn in the United States, ostensibly to study its prisons and prison reform. In his introduction Tocqueville emphasizes that... Read Democracy in America Summary

Publication year 2011

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Good & Evil

Tags US History, World History, Biography, Politics & Government

Destiny of the Republic, a nonfiction book written by Candice Millard in 2011, tells the story of President James Garfield’s death in 1881 after being shot by Charles Guiteau. The first section, entitled “Promise,” provides the necessary background of all the individuals who play a role in the story. The first chapter is about the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, introducing Garfield, Alexander Graham Bell, and Joseph Lister–three men whose lives would intersect years later... Read Destiny of the Republic Summary

Publication year 2012

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags Crime & Law, Race & Racism, US History, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Biography, Politics & Government

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King, subtitled Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, is an account of an important but relatively little-known legal case that paved the way for the advances of the civil rights era. The book begins with the story behind the case: In July 1949, in Groveland, Florida, a 17-year-old girl named Norma Lee Padgett claims a group of four young black men raped her... Read Devil in the Grove Summary

Publication year 1980

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Politics & Government, Social Class, Self Discovery, Colonialism, Community, Justice, Power & Greed

Tags African Literature, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Symbolic Narrative, Education, Education, African American Literature, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Published in 1980, Devil on the Cross by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o explores themes of Exploitation and Theft Under Capitalism, The Treatment of Women in the Workforce, and The Legacy of Colonialism through its complex, nested narrative and ironic exaggeration. The story centers on the female protagonist Jacinta Warĩĩnga as she leaves her complicated and abusive life behind to return home. On her journey, she experiences self-discovery and newfound autonomy, as well as the... Read Devil on the Cross Summary

Publication year 2022

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Friendship, Gender Identity, Equality, Politics & Government

Tags Leadership, Crime & Law, Women`s Studies, Gender & Feminism, World History, Politics & Government, Biography

Publication year 1994

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Wins & Losses, War, Conflict

Tags US History, Military & War, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

Diplomacy (1994) is a book by the scholar and diplomat Henry Kissinger. After leaving the government in 1977, Kissinger wrote a series of memoirs such as White House Years (1979) and Years of Upheaval (1982). Diplomacy was the first of what would be many books offering a broader view of international affairs and US foreign policy. It has lessons for policymakers but is also accessible to general readers. The book received many positive reviews for... Read Diplomacy Summary

Publication year 1975

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Politics & Government, Social Class

Tags Philosophy, Incarceration, World History, Sociology, Psychology, French Literature, Education, Education, Psychology, Philosophy, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault is a socio-political study of how power manifests in the Western penal system throughout history. Considered to be Foucault’s masterpiece, Discipline and Punish traces the history of how punishment and control were applied in Western society and how penal systems evolved to match changes in social sensibilities. Michel Foucault was a French historical philosopher and literary critic in the 20th century. Foucault’s work has... Read Discipline And Punish Summary

Publication year 1955

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Colonialism

Tags Philosophy, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Race & Racism, Philosophy, Sociology, World History, Politics & Government

Discourse on Colonialism is an essay written originally in French by Aimé Césaire and published in 1950. This seminal work by Césaire opens with a thesis that Europe currently suffers from two problems. The first problem is the state of the proletariat and colonialism and the second is its moral hypocrisy. Throughout the essay, Césaire elaborates on this thesis by identifying the proletariat as the colonized laborer and the bourgeois as the European academic, scholar... Read Discourse on Colonialism Summary

Publication year 1755

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Politics & Government, Social Class, Science & Technology

Tags Philosophy, Politics & Government, Sociology, Age of Enlightenment, Education, Education, World History, French Literature, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

“Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” often known as the “Discourse on Inequality” or the “Second Discourse,” is an essay by the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau published in 1765. This summary is based on The First and Second Discourses, edited and translated by Roger D. Masters and Judith R. Masters, and published by St. Martin’s Press in 1964.SummaryRousseau wrote the essay in response to a prize announced by the Academy of... Read Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Summary