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Book Group: Past books

Book Group Information

A list of books selected and read by this book group from 2008 to 2013 can be found here. For recent books, see below.

Repeats every month on the third Tuesday 2 times .
08/17/2021 - 1:00pm, 09/21/2021 - 1:00pm
Capital and Ideology

This is a very long book (two session read) that shows inequality as a historical construct. Like other books by this author, it covers several countries. The tension between capital (wealth) accumulation and equality, not property rights or pursuit of stability, has been a major force in development. The current drift toward a politics of identity hampers possible solutions. He has suggestions on how to improve the situation. Read the first half for August and the second half for September.

08/17/2021 - 1:00pm, 09/21/2021 - 1:00pm Capital and Ideology

This is a very long book (two session read) that shows inequality as a historical construct. Like other books by this author, it covers several countries. The tension between capital (wealth) accumulation and equality, not property rights or pursuit of stability, has been a major force in development. The current drift toward a politics of identity hampers possible solutions. He has suggestions on how to improve the situation. Read the first half for August and the second half for September.

07/20/2021 - 1:00pm Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and ...

“[A] sweeping and authoritative history" (The New York Times Book Review), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979.”

06/15/2021 - 1:00pm How to Be an Antiracist

With plenty of autobiography, author identifies how he has unwittingly failed to challenge racism, and includes some explanation of e.g. structural racism in U.S. Very readable. Has a separate workbook if we got really into it.

05/18/2021 - 1:00pm Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

by Lisa Feldman Barrett (2020). Only about 160 pages. Short and readable explanations of the brain that challenge many misconceptions, including: emotions and reason are not opposed, there is no such thing as a “reptile brain,” we can know “reality.” Not many “stories” but many examples.

Go to https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Half-Lessons-About-Brain/dp/0358157145/ref=...
to get an image of the cover.

04/20/2021 - 1:00pm A History of America in Ten Strikes

Location: the Jeff Center in the Old Ashland Armory

From Amazon:

03/16/2021 - 1:00pm The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes

Location: the Jeff Center in the Old Ashland Armory

From Amazon:

Can we trust our senses to tell us the truth?

02/16/2021 - 1:00pm How Change Happens

How does social change happen? What makes social movements take off?

01/19/2021 - 1:00pm Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted

In this powerful indictment of a venerated institution, Ian Millhiser tells the history of the Supreme Court through the eyes of the everyday people who have suffered the most from it.

12/15/2020 - 1:00pm Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America

A gripping in-depth look at the presidential election that stunned the world

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