Social classes Books

A new generation of activists working for economic and environmental justice, and against war and poverty, confronts critical questions. Why is the world so unjust and crisis-prone? What kind of world should we fight for? How can we win? In this...

In 2011 observers from every corner of the globe were inspired as thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square and brought down a regime that only weeks before seemed unshakable. Yet, as the dust kicked up by the revolution has settled, both...

Prophets Unarmed is an authoritative sourcebook on the Chinese Communist Party's main early opposition, the Chinese Trotskyists. Opposed from Moscow by Stalin, and by Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in China, the Trotskyists were China's most persecuted...

Illegal. Unamerican. Disposable. In a nation with an unprecedented history of immigration, the prevailing image of those who cross our borders in search of equal opportunity is that of a drain. Grace Chang's vital account of immigrant women-who work as...

"How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America is one of those paradigm-shifting, life-changing texts that has not lost its currency or relevance-even after three decades. Its provocative treatise on the ravages of late capitalism, state violence,...

In 1980 Polish workers astonished the world by winning an independent union with the right to strike deep inside the Eastern Bloc. Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution uses 150 interviews with this struggle's leaders, their supporters, and...

Though infrequently viewed as an environmental thinker, Karl Marx insisted that production as a social and material process is shaped and constrained by both historically developed relations among producers and natural conditions. Paul Burkett shows that...

"It is a meditation on Chicago's old soul . . . a witty, seductive, live-wire and greatly entertaining dark comedy that you just don't want to end." Chicago Tribune "Superior Donuts is a soulful play, full of humor and humanity... drawn with deep...

"God's Heart is a play which dares to say very ugly things from a very moral place, which risks censure in an effort to reach an ugly truth; a play that's wise to its own inescapable shortcomings and addresses them as part of its subject; a play which...

In recent decades, the global wealth of the rich has soared to leave huge chasms of wealth inequality. This book argues that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy.Running the Family Firm explores the...

Culture will keep you fit and healthy. Culture will bring communities together. Culture will improve your education. This is the message from governments and arts organisations across the country. However, this book explains why we need to be cautious...

American Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy. In particular, how we can understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an...

"It is exhilarating to be invited into a world so large and muscular, so rooted in history, a world where so much is at stake."-Brigit Pegeen Kelly, National Poetry Series judgeA biography in poems, leadbelly examines the life and times of the legendary...

What is the meaning of freedom? Angela Y. Davis' life and work have been dedicated to examining this fundamental question and to ending all forms of oppression that deny people their political, cultural, and sexual freedom. In this collection of twelve...

From the bawdy audience of a Victorian Penny Gaff to the excitable crowd of an early twentieth century football match, working-class male leisure proved to be a contentious issue for contemporary observers. For middle-class social reformers from across...

An up-close account of how Nigerians' self-reliance in the absence of reliable government services enables official dysfunction to strengthen state power.When Nigerians say that every household is its own local government, what they mean is that the...

Most of us understand that a person's place in society can close doors to opportunity, but anything is possible when we dream about what might be, or so we think. Dreams of a Lifetime reveals that what and how we dream-and whether we believe our dreams...

'A book as urgent as the moment that produced it.' - Jelani Cobb, Columbia Journalism SchoolLong before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes...

In today's new economy-in which "good" jobs are typically knowledge or technology based-many well-educated and culturally savvy young people are instead choosing to pursue traditionally low-status manual labor occupations as careers. Masters of Craft...

A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservationBillionaire Wilderness takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy, showing how today's richest people are using the natural environment to solve the existential...

Americans are taught to believe that upward mobility is possible for anyone who is willing to work hard, regardless of their social status, yet it is often those from affluent backgrounds who land the best jobs. Pedigree takes readers behind the closed...

A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of 'models and bottles' to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on...

Long after its outbreak, the revolution remains the defining moment in Mexico's modern history. Yet the debate over its legacy continues to this day. In a comprehensible style, aimed at students and general readers, The Mexican Revolution recounts the...

Bolivia witnessed a left-indigenous insurrectionary cycle between 2000 and 2005 that overthrew two presidents and laid the foundation for Evo Morales' to become the country's first indigenous president. Building on the theoretical traditions of Marxism...

"Richard Wolff is the leading socialist economist in the country. This book is required reading for anyone concerned about a fundamental transformation of the ailing capitalist economy."-Cornel West"Richard Wolff's constructive and innovative ideas...

Compiled by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, Divided gathers the writings of leading scholars, activists and journalists to provide an illuminating, multifaceted look at inequality. Combining surprising statistical evidence with...

The Obama presidency represents a major milestone in black history and the struggle for political, economic and cultural equality in the United States. But how if at all has the first black presidency helped move things forward for people of color? Has...

Detroit: I Do Mind Dying tracks the extraordinary development of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as they became two of the landmark political organizations of the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely heralded...

In this slim volume, Zinn lays out a clear and dynamic case for civil disobedience and protest, and challenges the dominant arguments against forms of protest that challenge the status quo. Zinn explores the politics of direct action, nonviolent civil...

20th-century European Fascism is conventionally described as a fierce assault on liberal politics, culture and economics. Departing from this analysis, Landa highlights the long overlooked critical affinities between the liberal tradition and fascism...

Imagine Karl Marx as a cartoonist, ready to set the record straight about his much maligned classic, Das Kapital. Impossibly difficult? Not in the least. Hopelessly outdated? Far from it. Though first published in 1867, Capital remains keenly relevant...

Few thinkers have been declared irrelevant and out of date with such frequency as Karl Marx. Hardly a decade since his death has gone by in which establishment critics have not announced the death of his theory. Whole forests have been felled to produce...