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.

Savage Inequalities

by Jonathan Kozol

Publication year 1991

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Education

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

Jonathan Kozol's 1991 book, Savage Inequalities, is a critical look at the American educational system and its failures. The main argument of the book is that a tremendous divide exists between rich and poor in education, a divide intensified by ethnic and racial prejudice. Kozol claims that in many communities and localities, American schools remain effectively segregated, more than 50 years after the criminalization of such practices. Kozol argues that while the letter of the... Read Savage Inequalities Summary

Schindler's List

by Thomas Keneally

Publication year 1982

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Good & Evil, Guilt, Justice, Power & Greed, Safety & Danger, Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Hate & Anger, Race, War

Tags Historical Fiction, Holocaust, World War II, Life-Inspired Fiction, Race & Racism, World History, Immigration & Refugeeism, Incarceration, Military & War, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Sociology, Trauma & Abuse, Classic Fiction, Biography

Schindler’s List (originally titled Schindler’s Ark) is a 1982 historical novel by Australian author Thomas Keneally. It tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party who used his position as a German industrialist to save more than 1,200 people’s lives during the war. In protecting as many people as he could from the genocidal Nazi regime, Schindler risked being sent to a concentration camp himself. Keneally wrote the novel with the... Read Schindler's List Summary

She Said

by Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey

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

... Read She Said Summary

Sister Outsider

by Audre Lorde

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

... Read Sister Outsider Summary

Slave on the Block

by Langston Hughes

Publication year 1933

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Shame & Pride, Race, Justice

Tags Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Social Justice, African American Literature

“Slave on the Block” is a short story by Langston Hughes that originally appeared in the September 1933 issue of Scribner's Magazine. The story was later published in The Ways of White Folks, a 1934 collection of Hughes’s short stories.This study guide, based on the 1990 Vintage Classics print edition, quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.Anne and Michael Carraway are affluent white bohemians who live in Greenwich Village—and often visit Harlem—during the... Read Slave on the Block Summary

Slavery by Another Name

by Douglas A. Blackmon

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

Solitary

by Albert Woodfox

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

Solito

by Javier Zamora

Publication year 2022

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Perseverance, Hope, Immigration, Family

Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Race & Racism, Biography, Social Justice

... Read Solito Summary

Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County

by Kristen Green

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

South to America

by Imani Perry

Publication year 2022

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Colonialism, Nation, Race

Tags US History, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Southern Literature, Immigration & Refugeeism, World History, Travel Literature, Politics & Government

... Read South to America Summary

So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Justice

Tags Race & Racism, Black Lives Matter, Gender & Feminism, Sociology, Social Justice, Politics & Government

So You Want to Talk About Race is a 2018 non-fiction book written by Ijeoma Oluo, an American author of Nigerian descent whose columns and news articles on race have appeared in The Guardian, The Stranger, and Jezebel, among other places. This guide refers to the first edition published in 2018 by Seal Press. The title gestures to the discourse that is necessary to combat racial oppression in the United States. The book made Bustle’s... Read So You Want to Talk About Race Summary

Sparring Partners

by John Grisham

Publication year 2022

Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction

Themes Wins & Losses, Power & Greed, Justice, Siblings, Teamwork, Social Class, Politics & Government

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Realistic Fiction, Crime & Law, Incarceration, Social Justice, Finance

... Read Sparring Partners Summary

Stamped From the Beginning

by Ibram X. Kendi

Publication year 2016

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Music

Tags African American Literature, US History, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Black Lives Matter, Race & Racism, Sociology, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Ibrahim Kendi’s comprehensive history of racial thought in the US, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, was published in 2016 and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Kendi has also collaborated author Jason Reynolds (Long Way Down, Ain't Burned All the Bright) on a young adult "remix" of Stamped from the Beginning titled Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, and is well known for his 2019 book, How to... Read Stamped From the Beginning Summary

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds

Publication year 2020

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Race, Justice

Tags Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, Race & Racism, Children`s Literature, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Jason Reynolds’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020) is a nonfiction book by the American authors Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. It is a self-described “remix” of Kendi’s 2016 National Book Award winner Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. An award-winning writer of young adult fiction and poetry, Reynolds frames America’s history of racist ideas for an audience of middle school and high school readers. Reynolds’s remix... Read Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You Summary