Publication year 2021
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Mothers, Gender Identity, Race, Justice
Tags US History, Gender & Feminism, Race & Racism, Social Justice, African American Literature, World History, Biography
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.
The Three Mothers
The Tradition
The Tyranny of Merit
The Undocumented Americans
The Ungrateful Refugee
The Warmth Of Other Suns
The Ways of White Folks
The Whistler
The White House
The White Man’s Burden
The Will to Change
The Wind Knows My Name
The Winners
The Woman's Hour
The Wretched of the Earth
They Called Us Enemy
They Were Her Property
Thick: And Other Essays
Thirst
This Book Is Anti-Racist
Publication year 2021
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Mothers, Gender Identity, Race, Justice
Tags US History, Gender & Feminism, Race & Racism, Social Justice, African American Literature, World History, Biography
Publication year 2015
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Race, Politics & Government, Justice
Tags Lyric Poem, US History, Race & Racism, African American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, LGBTQ+, Social Justice
“The Tradition” by Jericho Brown is written from the perspective of a collective “we.” This group planted colorful perennial flowers, including aster, nasturtium, and delphinium (Line 1); filmed the flowers they planted blooming; then watched this video on fast forward (“Sped the video to see blossoms / brought in seconds,” Lines 11-12). At the end of the poem, the reader discovers that the collective “we” narrating the poem are Black men, and the sped-up video... Read The Tradition Summary
Publication year 2020
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Economics, Community, Equality, Shame & Pride, Politics & Government
Tags Philosophy, Politics & Government, Sociology, Social Justice, Education, Education, Social Science, Business & Economics, World History, Philosophy
Publication year 2020
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Immigration, Family, Politics & Government
Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, Race & Racism, World History, Biography
Publication year 368
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Language, Memory, Immigration
Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Gender & Feminism, Politics & Government, Race & Racism, Women`s Studies, Biography, Social Justice
The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You is a 2019 memoir by novelist Dina Nayeri. It is her first nonfiction book and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. While Nayeri chronicles her childhood escape from post-revolution Iran and her struggle to build an identity, she interweaves modern tales of refugees mired in uncaring asylum systems.SummaryThe author and first-person narrator of... Read The Ungrateful Refugee Summary
Publication year 2010
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags US History, Race & Racism, World History, Social Justice, Biography
Published in 2010, The Warmth of Other Suns is a sweeping ethnography of the Great Migration—the mass exodus of African-Americans from the South to Northern and Western US cities dating from approximately 1914-1970. The book traces the history of racism in the Jim Crow South as well as the reasons, successes, and failures of those African-Americans who left the place of their birth in order to seek better economic and social opportunities elsewhere in the... Read The Warmth Of Other Suns Summary
Publication year 1934
Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction
Themes Music
Tags Harlem Renaissance, Race & Racism, American Literature, Historical Fiction, Social Justice, Classic Fiction
Published in 1934, The Ways of White Folks is Langston Hughes’s collection of 14 short stories focusing on race relations in the United States. With somber tales of struggle and violence, as well as moments of irony and humor, the collection addresses racism, economic disparity, and hope. This study guide quotes and obscures Hughes’s use of the n-word.Plot Summary“Cora Unashamed” tells the story of Cora Jenkins, who works as a maid for a cruel White... Read The Ways of White Folks Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Teamwork, Siblings, Friendship, Loyalty & Betrayal, Justice, Power & Greed, Truth & Lies
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Social Justice, Crime & Law, Politics & Government
The 2016 novel The Whistler by American author John Grisham is a legal thriller that centers on an investigation of corrupt business operations involving Native American gaming. The novel is based on the real-life corruption of US casinos in which entities outside the Native American community illegally offer financial incentives in exchange for long-term profit.This is the 29th of Grisham’s adult novels, which are primarily legal thrillers but also include contemporary and humorous fiction. In... Read The Whistler Summary
Publication year 1919
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Loyalty & Betrayal, Safety & Danger, Trust & Doubt, Justice, Equality, Truth & Lies, Hate & Anger, Shame & Pride, Fear, Perseverance, Conflict, Hope
Tags Lyric Poem, Race & Racism, Social Justice
Publication year 2006
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Economics, Colonialism
Tags Business & Economics, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Sociology, World History, Social Justice, Poverty, Politics & Government
The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good is William Easterly’s investigation and critique of international development, foreign aid, and Western intervention, including the histories and effects of colonialism and imperialism. Easterly comes with decades of experience as a development economist working with global institutions such as the World Bank and on projects across the developing world, which is reflected in his... Read The White Man’s Burden Summary
Publication year 2003
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Gender Identity, Masculinity, Equality
Tags Gender & Feminism, Love & Sexuality, Relationships, Psychology, Philosophy, Social Justice, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Self-Improvement, Politics & Government
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Apathy, Shame & Pride, Family, Justice, Equality, Good & Evil, Power & Greed, Safety & Danger, Politics & Government, Immigration
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, Holocaust, Social Class, World History, History of the Americas, US History, Immigration & Refugeeism, Military & War, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Music, Trauma & Abuse, Race & Racism
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Family
Tags Sports, Social Justice, Relationships, Modern Classic Fiction, Dramatic Literature
Publication year 2018
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Gender Identity
Tags Women`s Studies, US History, Gender & Feminism, World History, Social Justice, Politics & Government
The Woman’s Hour (2018) is a nonfiction chronicle of the final battle for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which gave American women the right to vote. The book explores the blood, sweat, and tears required to gain women’s suffrage in this country. Contrary to popular opinion, the process was neither quick nor easy. The events chronicled in the book take place during July and August of 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee. The author’s uses... Read The Woman's Hour Summary
Publication year 1961
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Justice, Colonialism
Tags Race & Racism, Existentialism, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, European History, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government
The Wretched of the Earth (1961) is a nonfiction book by Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and philosopher. Together with such texts as Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988), and Homi Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994), The Wretched of the Earth is a founding text of modern postcolonial studies. It is also Frantz Fanon’s most internationally acclaimed book, translated into more than 25 languages, though he is... Read The Wretched of the Earth Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Graphic Novel/Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race
Tags US History, Japanese Literature, Asian Literature, Social Justice, World War II, Military & War, World History, Biography
They Called Us Enemy is a 2019 graphic memoir written by author, actor, and activist George Takei and illustrated by Harmony Becker. The story chronicles Takei’s childhood experience in the Japanese concentration camps created by the United States during World War II. Takei frames the narrative with a modern-day talk delivered at the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country during the war and issued Executive Order 9066, which empowered the US... Read They Called Us Enemy Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Politics & Government, Femininity
Tags Race & Racism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, US History, American Civil War, American Literature, Gender & Feminism, World History
Publication year 2019
Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction
Themes Race, Beauty, Justice
Tags Creative Nonfiction, Gender & Feminism, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Politics & Government, African American Literature, Women`s Studies, Sociology
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick: And Other Essays (2019) is a collection of personal essays that explore race, gender, and class in the US. McMillan Cottom is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an influential public intellectual whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Thick situates McMillan Cottom’s personal experiences within sociological and structural analysis to link her experiences to... Read Thick: And Other Essays Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Justice, Perseverance, Femininity, Family, Social Class, Colonialism, Community, Economics, Education
Tags Social Class, Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Social Justice, Modern Classic Fiction, Indian Literature
Publication year 2020
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Politics & Government, Race, Equality, Community
Tags Race & Racism, Social Justice, Education, Children`s Literature, Education, Politics & Government