With Tides' Momentum 2009 conference around the corner (September 7-9), here are some books related to this year's plenary themes: Power, Capital, Carbon, Work, Rights, Conflict, and Connections. Filled with innovative ideas, inspiration, and trenchant analysis, they are just the thing to help you prepare for the conference or to help you stay informed on policy, progressive politics, and social justice.
Piven, Frances Fox, Lorraine Carol Minnite, and Margaret Groarke. Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters. New York: New Press, 2009.
The authors of this book examine the history of the powerful tendencies toward voter suppression in America's two-party political system, focusing on Republican Party and conservative movement efforts over the past twenty-five years to counter the mobilization of black voters. Where the obstacles to voting used to be obvious, today they are more subtle, using tactics such as felon disenfranchisement statues, burdensome voter identification laws, and tough rules on voter registration drives, all in the name of “election reform.” Finding such suppression alive and well in the 2008 election, they demonstrate the need today for an electoral process that is fair, simple, and transparent.
McKibben, Bill. Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. New York: Times Books, 2007.
Are you local? The familiar, prevailing economic model that has held growth to be the primary goal is currently leading to increased inequality, insecurity, environmental degradation, unhappiness, and social isolation. McKibben presents the stories of pioneers pursuing alternatives based on local interdependence and the sustainable use of resources. It is an argument for a more humane economic approach based on rebuilding and reinvigorating local communities, thereby directly connecting people to other people and to the consequences of their actions.
Goodell, Jeff. Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future. Boston: Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Co, 2007.
Roughly half of the electricity in America comes from coal, with the average American being responsible for consuming twenty pounds of the stuff a day, yet many are unaware of its centrality to our existence or the enormous influence the coal industry has on our politics and economy. Goodell traces the life cycle of this cheap, dirty, and carbon-intensive fossil fuel from deep underground, into the power grids, through the halls of government, and out into the atmosphere, revealing the costs and consequences of this addiction to the environment and to the health of individuals, families and communities.
Nahmias, Rick. The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
Poor, exploited, and marginalized, migrant farm workers are a vital part of California's and the country's agriculture economy. Rick Nahmias' photography documents the lives of these workers, showing the harsh conditions in which they are forced to live and work, but also reflecting their essential human dignity. In combination with oral histories and analytic essays, this collection tells the story of the struggle for respect and justice, and puts a human face on the hidden costs of feeding America.
Levy, Barry S., and Victor W. Sidel. Social Injustice and Public Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
This wide-ranging collection represents a comprehensive approach to understanding the adverse impacts of social injustice on public health, examining its effects on different population groups and in different areas of health including infectious diseases, mental health, nutrition, and assaultive violence. It is also a call to action, presenting ways to respond to the root causes of social injustice and to ensure that all people have the increased opportunity to meet their basic human needs through access to medical knowledge, tools, and resources.
Glenny, Misha. McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld. New York: Knopf Books, 2008.
The chaos left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union in conjunction with the opportunistic deregulation of international financial markets brought with them the dramatic growth of transnational organized crime and the global shadow economy, which now accounts for an estimated twenty percent of world GDP. Chronicling the rise and activities of this globalized underworld, including the Russian mafia, Colombian drug cartels, Japanese yakuza, and Chinese labor smugglers, Glenny presents a detailed picture of how they feed off of the vulnerability of the poor to satisfy the material demands of the affluent in the West, creating a breeding ground for violence and insecurity.
Hamm, Theodore. The New Blue Media: How Michael Moore, MoveOn.Org, Jon Stewart and Company Are Transforming Progressive Politics. New York: New Press, 2008.
Including the Onion, Air America, Michael Moore, MoveOn, Daily Kos and the Blogosphere, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, this book chronicles the history of today's progressive media in America with a particular focus on their growth during the Bush years. Examining their use of satire, didactics, activism, and new technologies, Hamm argues that despite a mixed record of success they have changed the presentation and direction of contemporary progressive politics, with Stephen Colbert providing “the most sophisticated critique mustered by the New Blue Media.”
