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 1970

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Love & Sexuality, Sociology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

Kate Millett’s 1970 book Sexual Politics is a groundbreaking feminist critique of literature and social organization that is widely regarded as an essential radical feminist text.It opens with brief exploration of fiction by Henry Miller, Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet. Presenting these as “Incidents of Sexual Politics,” Millett examines how power operates within sexual relationships and builds an argument that the relationship between the sexes is a political issue revolving around the dominance of one... Read Sexual Politics Summary

Publication year 2003

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Politics & Government, Globalization, War, Colonialism

Tags History: African , Politics & Government, Military & War, Trauma & Abuse, World History, Biography

Lt. General Roméo Dallaire is a Canadian officer who was assigned as the force commander in the United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR), a UN peacekeeping mission to facilitate negotiations after the Rwandan Civil War. He wrote about his experiences witnessing the breakdown of the peace process and the Rwandan Genocide in Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Published in 2003, the book won the 2004 Governor General’s Award... Read Shake Hands with the Devil Summary

Publication year 2019

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Shame & Pride, Gender Identity

Tags Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Journalism, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Publication year 1975

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Religion & Spirituality, Loyalty & Betrayal, Language, Shame & Pride, Power & Greed, Politics & Government, Wins & Losses

Tags Historical Fiction, Action & Adventure, Asian History, Politics & Government, Military & War, American Literature, World History, Fantasy, Japanese Literature, Classic Fiction

Shogun is a 1975 novel by American author James Clavell. It is one of six books in Clavell’s Asian Saga, which chronicles the ways Europeans interacted with countries in Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The novel tells the story of English ship pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on the real life navigator William Adams, who becomes intimately involved in the rise to power of Yoshi Toranaga, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu... Read Shogun Summary

Publication year 1936

Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction

Themes Order & Chaos, Colonialism, Power & Greed

Tags Education, Education, World History, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government, Biography

“Shooting an Elephant,” is an essay by British author George Orwell, first published in the magazine New Writing in 1936. Orwell, born Eric Blair, is world-renowned for his sociopolitical commentary. He served as a British officer in Burma from 1922 to 1927, then worked as a journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and essayist for the remainder of his career, going on to produce celebrated works such as Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Before penning this... Read Shooting an Elephant Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Perseverance, Power & Greed, Wins & Losses, Safety & Danger, Religion & Spirituality, Good & Evil, War, Self Discovery, Animals, Loneliness

Tags Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Leadership, Love & Sexuality, Military & War, Politics & Government, Trauma & Abuse, Religion & Spirituality, Romance

Publication year 1962

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Environment

Tags Science & Nature, World History, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is widely regarded as a foundational text of the 20th century environmental movement. Originally published as a series in The New Yorker, Carson’s essays carefully articulate the impacts of widespread chemical use for insect and plant control. Throughout the text, Carson emphasizes the ways that humans disregard the interrelation of species on earth, and argues that as a result, humans are at a pivotal moment. If methods of insect control are... Read Silent Spring Summary

Publication year 1984

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Hate & Anger, Mothers, Equality, Power & Greed, Sexual Identity, Race, Community

Tags Race & Racism, LGBTQ+, Social Justice, Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Publication year 2008

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Race & Racism, Sociology, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Written by American journalist Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (2008) is a thorough account of the forms of slavery perpetuated by economic disempowerment in the South after the Civil War up to World War II. The book addresses themes like The Intentional Revival of Slavery, The Toxic Mix of White Mythology and Naïve Racism, and Challenges of Confronting the Past. Slavery... Read Slavery by Another Name Summary

Publication year 2019

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Justice, Good & Evil

Tags Incarceration, Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, Social Justice, African American Literature, World History, Politics & Government, Biography

Solitary (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2019) is a memoir by the activist Albert Woodfox that recounts more than four decades in solitary confinement, largely at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. It was nominated for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Woodfox describes how the poverty and racism he endured growing up led him into crime, how the racism of individuals and institutions turned his initial... Read Solitary Summary

Publication year 2015

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Race

Tags Journalism, Black Lives Matter, Race & Racism, Education, Education, US History, Sociology, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County is a 2015 nonfiction book by Kristen Green about the closing of public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia from 1959 to 1964, following the 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling that school segregation is unconstitutional. During the five years the public schools were closed, black students in Prince Edward County largely went uneducated while a new private school for whites, Prince Edward Academy, opened. The book... Read Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County Summary

Publication year 1983

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Tags Asian Literature, Chinese Literature, Education, Education, Social Science, World History, Politics & Government, Biography

Son of the Revolution (1983), written by Liang Heng with his wife, Judith Shapiro, is a memoir of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and is both the story of Liang’s own coming-of-age and a chronicle of China’s political and cultural upheaval following the Communist Party’s rise to power in the mid-1900s.Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain references to violence and death by suicide.Liang Heng is born in Changsha, a large city in central... Read Son of the Revolution Summary

Publication year 1999

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Race & Racism, Education, Education, Military & War, American Literature, World History, Politics & Government

Harvard history professor Walter Johnson’s Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (1999) explicates the central role of the 19th century New Orleans slave market in supporting the Southern slave trade. Johnson’s main contention is that slavery was a tragic “byproduct” of the sugar, tobacco, and cotton industries. Johnson pairs primary sources, such as slave accounts, with bills of sale and slaveholder correspondence in his reconstruction of the antebellum slave trade. Johnson shows... Read Soul by Soul Summary