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.

Where We Stand

by bell hooks

Publication year 2000

Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction

Themes Gender Identity, Race, Social Class, Community, Economics, Justice

Tags Gender & Feminism, Race & Racism, Social Class, Social Justice, Politics & Government

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White by Law

by Ian Haney-López

Publication year 1996

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Community, Economics, Politics & Government

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

... Read White by Law Summary

White Fragility

by Robin DiAngelo

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Justice

Tags Race & Racism, Social Justice, Black Lives Matter, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Self-Improvement, Politics & Government

Published in 2018, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo received critical acclaim and became a New York Times Bestseller for explaining how white people should address racism in the moment and how they can move into a new, healthier, less racist paradigm. DiAngelo holds a PhD in multicultural education and specializes in critical racial and social justice education.Plot SummaryDiAngelo stresses that all white people play... Read White Fragility Summary

White Guilt

by Shelby Steele

Publication year 2006

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Justice, Community

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

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era is a 2006 nonfiction book by Shelby Steele, a Black conservative author who specializes in the study of race relations in the US. This guide refers to the e-book published in 2009 by HarperCollins. The title points to the book’s central theme: white guilt—the loss of moral authority—and the damaging responses it elicited in Black and White Americans in the... Read White Guilt Summary

White Rage

by Carol Anderson

Publication year 2016

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Justice, Community

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

Carol Anderson's 2016 nonfiction book, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, looks at the way African-American progress has been halted and repressed, again and again, by a powerful cocktail of economic self-interest, fear, and hatred on the part of America's white elites, a philosophy she calls "white rage." The book’s five chapters examine five crucial turning points in the African-American struggle for freedom and equality: Reconstruction and the abolition of slavery, the... Read White Rage Summary

White Trash

by Nancy Isenberg

Publication year 2016

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Social Class, Community, Nation, Justice

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

IntroductionIn White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Nancy Isenberg documents the historical and contemporary disdain of the upper and middle classes in America for the white poor and the resultant staying power of a class hierarchy. Isenberg, an award-winning historian, uses her expertise to contribute this non-fictional work to the academic literature on social class. Originally published in 2016, the book became a New York Times bestseller and was a finalist... Read White Trash Summary

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Publication year 1997

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race

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

First published in 1997, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race addresses race and racism in the United States from a psychologist’s perspective. Beverly Daniel Tatum is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in researching racial identity development. We need to learn how to have productive dialogues about race and racism, and to do that we need to understand how our racial identities form and how... Read Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Summary

Why I Write

by George Orwell

Publication year 1946

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Literature, Art, Politics & Government, Language

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

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Why Liberalism Failed

by Patrick J. Deneen

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Politics & Government, Community, Equality, Science & Technology, Order & Chaos, Environment

Tags Politics & Government, Philosophy, World History, Education, Education, Social Science, Business & Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, Arts & Culture

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Why Nations Fail

by Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson

Publication year 2012

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Nation, Politics & Government, Community

Tags Business & Economics, Politics & Government, World History, Science & Nature, Sociology

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012) is a nonfiction book co-authored by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. Acemoglu, an MIT economist renowned for his work on political economy, and Robinson, a political scientist and economist, combine their expertise to examine the reasons behind the varying levels of success and failure among nations. This interdisciplinary work, situated at the intersection of institutional economics, developmental economics, and economic history, examines a... Read Why Nations Fail Summary

Why We Can't Wait

by Martin Luther King Jr.

Publication year 1964

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government, Biography

Why We Can’t Wait is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s history of the Birmingham protests that took place in 1963 and his effort to explain the aims and goals of the Civil Rights Movement to a national audience. King explores the background of the protests in Birmingham, the importance of nonviolence as the primary approach to protest, how this approach played out in Birmingham, and the aftermath of the protests in an introduction and eight chapters... Read Why We Can't Wait Summary

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

by Jung Chang

Publication year 1991

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Themes Family, Mothers, Politics & Government

Tags Asian History, Asian Literature, Asian Literature, World History, Chinese Literature, Politics & Government, Biography

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (1991) is a family history and autobiography by Chinese writer Jung Chang. Set against the backdrop of 20th-century China, in particular the first three decades of Communist rule (1949-1978), Wild Swans appeared in print at an important historical moment. Communism was under siege worldwide. In 1991, the year of the book’s original publication, the Soviet Union collapsed. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist government’s violent crackdown on pro-freedom demonstrators at Tiananmen... Read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China Summary