Activist Book Club

The Activist Reading Group discusses books and articles to help us be better activists and organizers.

We meet one the second Thursday evening of every month, 7:00-8:30pm PT.  All are welcome.

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We have been meeting since 2017. Here is a partial list of our readings:

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“The Indivisible Guide 2020” at: https://indivisible.org/democracy-guide?mc_cid=4fdd425054&mc_eid=b1c615b5ca.

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“This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century” by Mark Engler and Paul Engler.

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"The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt [How to talk to people who don’t agree with you (part 1)].

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"Don't Think of an Elephant” by George Lakoff [How to talk to people who don’t agree with you (part 2)].

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“On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder.

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“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. 

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“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson.

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“American Narratives” by Robert Reich at:  http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/reich_narrative.htm.

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“Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything” by Becky Bond and Zack Exley.

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“America’s Greatest Movement” [women’s suffrage] by James M. McPherson, New York Review of Books, October 27, 2016. 

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“How To Have Better Political Conversations,” TED talk by Rob Willer at: https://www.ted.com/talks/robb_willer_how_to_have_better_political_conversations?language=en.

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“How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America” by Heather Cox Richardson.

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“The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality” by Bhaskar Sunkara.

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“The Path of Greatest Resistance” by David Cole (NY Review of Books, 2/7/2019 issue):

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/02/07/social-movements-path-greatest-resistance/.

 

''Trying to Build in the Rubble of Neoliberalism'': Michelle Alexander and Naomi Klein on Bringing Movements Together,

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41175-trying-to-build-in-the-rubble-of-neoliberalism-michelle-alexander-and-naomi-klein-on-bringing-movements-together-in-the-trump-era.

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“The Democratic Party Is Actually Three Parties,” by Thomas Edsall, NY Times, July 24, 2019. At: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/opinion/2020-progressive-candidates.html

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If you want to join the group: contact Ken Rosenberg at rosenbergkd at yahoo.com