Book Club

The Capital Order:  How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism – Clara E. Mattei

An analysis of post-WWI events in Britain and Italy leading to the articulation of austerity economics. It changed my understanding of austerity – not used for any economic theory or benefit, but to re-assert capital’s domination over labor and to remove alternatives to capitalism. I really want to study more about how Mussolini came to power following the worker co-ops that took over Italian factories

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World – Naomi Klein

Prompted by the frequent conflation between author and very-different Naomi Wolf, it launches into analysis of identity, branding, online discourse, far-right misinformation campaigns, and global capitalism.

Unlearning Shame: How We Can Reject Self-Blame Culture and Reclaim Our Power – Devon Price

I STRONGLY recommend this and every book written by Devon Price, a Chicago-based trans autistic psychologist and teacher. This book is an exploration of shame as a system of internalized messaging reinforced through culture, media, and education.

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships – Marshall B. Rosenberg

Practical, direct advice and guidance with specific examples from his experience teaching, not the vague self-help text I was expecting. Frequent anecdotes about mediation experiences between gangs and police, Israeli settlers and native Palestinians that didn’t feel whitewashed.

The Black Jacobins by CLR James

It’s a righteous account of the Haitian Revolution, Touissant L’Overture, and the imperialist backlash in France that tried to bring slavery back to the colony after it had been abolished during the French Revolution.

Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez

It’s an excellent primer on how US power and imperialism shaped national movements throughout Latin America, and created the conditions that caused large-scale immigration to the US itself—as well as in-depth profiles of diaspora communities across the country.

The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream by Courtney E. Marti

A really fun exploration of how different aspects of the traditional American Dream or experience is being challenged in communities, child raising, career aspiration, etc. It’s also, a rare “feel-good” book finding spots for optimism.

Living for Change: An Autobiography by Grace Lee Boggs

Grace provides a TON of context and background on her parents’ experience immigrating from China to the U.S. in the 1910’s, her studies and path towards organizing, her collaborations, meeting and partnering with her husband James Boggs. It ends with recent organizing she was doing in the ’90s and an assessment of the current movement and challenges for the next generation. Wonderful, delicious!

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

A book that provides essential context on a century of settler colonialism in Palestine.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

It’s a well-written glimpse into the modern experience of American working class in Tampa FL, Portland ME, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.

Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe

A survey of recent organizing gains by workers who we’ve been told should “love” their jobs, from teachers to artists to video game developers and more. The chapter on teachers shows how influential CTU’s “bargaining for the common good” strategy has been around the country, but it’s inspiring to see the important work that all kinds of different workers have been doing in recent years.

The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago by Flint Taylor

It’s a tough, but captivating (and ideally required) read on the very real nightmare of tortured confessions and police brutality in CPD’s not-distant-history.

Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families – and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts

A deep investigation into the practices, history, and current trends of child welfare and family court systems in the United States, their function, practices, and financial infrastructure – for what purposes and outcomes are these systems designed and operated?

Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics by Gabriel Kuhn

This is the book that motivated me to get involved with the IPO softball league, for real. I was super into soccer for a few years, but the money and abuse makes it hard for me to support professional sports anymore. However, I do love the idea of sports as a way to bring people together and organize.

Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel

A climate-focused critique on capitalism’s assumption of permanent growth and its environmental result. It’s a solid introduction to a framework for moving on from capitalism.

The Disposessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

There’s a good chance you’ve already read it and given how much I love Ursula K Le Guin and anarchism, it’s kind of ridiculous how long I put off reading it. Part of the work of building a new world is imagining the kind of world you would like to live in.

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

The book explores unfulfilling box-ticking and duct-taping careers, why they exist and can they be fixed?

Set Fear on Fire by LASTESIS (the feminist art collective that first performed the piece, Un violador en tu camino)

Their manifesto is written in an accessible style without relying on academic jargon and it’s fabulous to have feminist theory translated from Spanish to English and not the other way around. More of that please.

The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher

An excellent book about parasitic capitalism and how important it is to develop collective responses to community health and safety.

The Undying by Anne Boyer

An account of Anne Boyer’s experience living through cancer and its intersection with capitalism. Or, as she describes it, the book is “about cancer, care, and having a body inside of history.”

Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago by Linda Gartz

It’s a mix of storytelling and history – told in the point of view of the daughter of a homeowner in the Austin neighborhood who watched first-hand the change in her neighborhood and how the practice harmed her new neighbors. Light reading on a heavy topic!

A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy

It falls in the realm of speculative fiction and is a good portrayal of what a society organized around horizontal and anarchist principles can look like. It’s also a quick read and doesn’t get too in the weeds with theory/academia.

Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois

A phenomenal achievement, with so much that’s still relevant about public schools, voting rights, white supremacy.

Mutual Aid Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade

It has lots of excellent and practical info about how to organize groups horizontally and ways to think about interpersonal interactions and stuff. It’s a pretty quick read too.

The Huey P Newton Reader edited by David Hilliard and Donald Weise

The first comprehensive collection of writings by the Black Panther Party founder and revolutionary icon of the black liberation era.

Fascism Today: What it is and How to End It by Shane Burley

A detailed map of the far right and a game plan for building the mass movement that will stop it.