Publication year 2025
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes War, Apathy, Race, Colonialism, Economics, Immigration, Nation, Politics & Government, Justice
Tags History, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Race & Racism
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
Social justice is the pursuit of fairness in society based on the belief that all people deserve equal opportunities and rights. We curated the following study guide collection (including books for middle-grade and young adult readers) to help readers get the most out of books that cover contemporary issues and topics in social justice.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
One Person, No Vote
One Size Fits None
One Two Three
On Juneteenth
On Justice Power and Human Nature
On Tyranny
Orange Is The New Black
Orwell's Roses
Our History Is the Future
Our Kids
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Pet
Picking Cotton
Pickwick Papers
Planetarium
Planet of Slums
Playing in the Dark
Poem about My Rights
Poverty, by America
Publication year 2025
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes War, Apathy, Race, Colonialism, Economics, Immigration, Nation, Politics & Government, Justice
Tags History, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Race & Racism
Publication year 2018
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, US History, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government
One Person, No Vote by writer and professor Carol Anderson is a current affairs book and finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for nonfiction. It was originally published in 2018; in 2019, Anderson added an Afterword to the paperback edition and released a young adult version. One Person, No Vote documents how Republican-led state governments exploit a weakened Voting Rights Act to tilt elections in their favor.Following Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016... Read One Person, No Vote Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Animals, Food, Environment
Tags Food, Agriculture, Social Justice, Science & Nature, Arts & Culture
One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture is a 2019 book on how the American food production system must move beyond conventional and sustainable farming to embrace regenerative farming strategies tailored to individual environments. Anderson, who grew up on a conventional ranch outside of Bison, South Dakota, has firsthand knowledge of US conventional farming strategies. As a young journalist for the Tri-State Neighbor newspaper, she started off wanting... Read One Size Fits None Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Coming of Age, Family, Community, Disability, Environment, Justice, Politics & Government
Tags Social Justice, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance
Publication year 2021
Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction
Themes Loyalty & Betrayal, Trust & Doubt, Justice, Power & Greed, Fear, Memory, Perseverance, Nostalgia, Conflict
Tags US History, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Education, Politics & Government, World History
Publication year 1874
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Justice, Order & Chaos, War, Politics & Government
Tags Ancient Greece, Philosophy, Military & War, Social Justice, World History, Politics & Government
Publication year 2017
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags Sociology, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Politics & Government
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder, PhD, describes how tyrants have dismantled 20th-century republics and replaced them with totalitarian regimes, and how threats to democracies still exist today, including in America. Published in 2017, On Tyranny holds the distinction of being a #1 New York Times bestseller. Dr. Snyder is a Yale professor of European history. His short and pithy book details the methods that demagogues, including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, have used to degrade... Read On Tyranny Summary
Publication year 2010
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Race
Tags Race & Racism, Incarceration, Social Justice, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Biography
Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, chronicles the 13 months she spent in a federal women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut. In 2013, Netflix adapted the memoir into an original series featuring the experiences of fictional character Piper Chapman. The memoir follows a linear timeline, starting with the crime Kerman unknowingly commits right after college, the process leading up to the sentencing, and her time in Danbury... Read Orange Is The New Black Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Literature, Politics & Government, Environment, Beauty, Truth & Lies
Tags Arts & Culture, World History, Politics & Government, Philosophy, Social Justice, Science & Nature, Biography
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Equality, Good & Evil, Justice, Power & Greed, Wins & Losses, Community, Politics & Government, Nation, War, Race, Colonialism, Environment
Tags US History, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Race & Racism, World History
Publication year 2015
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Social Class, Community
Tags Education, Education, Social Science, Business & Economics, Sociology, World History, Parenting, Social Justice, Politics & Government
In Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (2015), author Robert D. Putnam describes how unattainable upward social mobility, or the American Dream, is for most young people. Putnam examines the factors that encourage or discourage upward mobility and how they have changed over time. The book was well-received by critics for its honest and timely commentary on important social issues. Putnam currently works as both a political scientist and a professor of public policy... Read Our Kids Summary
Publication year 1968
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Education, Guilt
Tags Education, Education, Sociology, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Politics & Government
Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed develops a theory of education fitted to the needs of the disenfranchised and marginalized members of capitalist societies. Combining educational and political philosophy, the book offers an analysis of oppression and a theory of liberation. Freire believes that traditional education serves to support the dominance of the powerful within society and thereby maintain the powerful’s social, political, and economic status quo. To overcome the oppression endemic to an exploitative... Read Pedagogy of the Oppressed Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity, Justice, Good & Evil
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Social Justice, Trauma & Abuse, African Literature, Black Lives Matter, Children`s Literature, Magical Realism
Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet, published in 2019, is a Speculative Fiction/Fantasy novel intended for Young Adult readers. Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, Pet was also a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The novel received the Stonewall Book Award, which recognizes achievement in LGBTQIA+ literature. Emezi, a non-binary Nigerian Igbo and Tamil writer who uses they/them pronouns, is also the author of two novels... Read Pet Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Shame & Pride, Forgiveness
Tags Crime & Law, Race & Racism, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Social Justice, Biography
Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption is a 2009 memoir written by Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino. The coauthors share a unique relationship. When she was 22, Jennifer mistakenly identified Ronald as the man who raped her in her apartment. He was wrongfully convicted and spent 11 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA testing. Together, they tell their story, which explores themes of Victimization, Guilt, and Shame; The Unreliability of Eyewitness... Read Picking Cotton Summary
Publication year 1836
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Justice, Politics & Government, Community, Self Discovery, Order & Chaos, Literature, Equality, Fate, Good & Evil, Loyalty & Betrayal, Family, Marriage
Tags Classic Fiction, Victorian Period, Action & Adventure, Humor, Travel Literature, Social Class, European History, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Sports, British Literature, World History, Historical Fiction, Victorian Era
The debut novel of British author Charles Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (commonly known as The Pickwick Papers) was first published as a series by Chapman and Hall between 1836 and 1837. The Pickwick Papers chronicles the adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club, a group of travelers who journey around England and share their experiences. Because of the original serial format of the novel, the chapters contain individual but interconnected... Read Pickwick Papers Summary
Publication year 1974
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Space, Teamwork, Loyalty & Betrayal, Fame, Science & Technology, Order & Chaos, Justice, Conflict, Memory, Love, Perseverance, Femininity
Tags Lyric Poem, Gender & Feminism, Social Justice, Relationships
Publication year 2005
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Politics & Government, Economics, Colonialism, Social Class, Globalization, Nation, Justice, Power & Greed
Tags Politics & Government, Business & Economics, Urban Development, Poverty, Finance, Asian History, History: African , European History, US History, Social Justice, Social Class, Science & Nature, Sociology, World History
Planet of Slums is a non-fiction book published in 2006 by American author and urban theorist Mike Davis. It chronicles the spread of poverty in cities around the world at a time when more than a billion people live in what the United Nations (UN) classifies as "slums."SummaryIn 1950, only 86 cities around the world had populations of one million people or more. When Davis wrote this book in 2005, he predicted that by 2015... Read Planet of Slums Summary
Publication year 1992
Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction
Themes Language
Tags Race & Racism, Gender & Feminism, Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination is an adaptation of three lectures that Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison delivered at the Massey Lectures at Harvard University in 1990. She turned the three-part series into a 91-page book, published in 1992 by Harvard University Press. The lectures concern issues of race in American literature and the ways that writers actively construct whiteness and blackness within literature. Morrison examines the claim that works in the... Read Playing in the Dark Summary
Publication year 2005
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Hate & Anger, Perseverance, Conflict
Tags Free Verse, Race & Racism, Trauma & Abuse, Social Justice, Gender & Feminism
Publication year 2023
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Economics, Justice, Power & Greed, Community
Tags Poverty, US History, Sociology, Social Justice