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A Global Citizen’s Bibliography

The Calgary Centre for Global Community envisions a healthier global community than we have today, and structures its programs to contribute to that outcome. Healthier individuals and local communities are understood to be both a cause and an effect of a healthier global community.  The books in this list are selected because they can provide background and conceptual frameworks for those in whom this consciousness is dawning. However, the resources available for that purpose are vast, and growing.  There are countless websites, journals, films, organizations, as well as books and other resources of inestimable value; and those with long experience in public interest work will be disappointed by the brevity of the following list and its conspicuous omissions.  We are currently considering a “Book Share” page for this website, to which users can contribute information on books they consider outstanding contributions to the mission of the CCGC.  Similar CCGC website pages for websites, films, journals, organizations, and other resources would be a useful addition as well. In the meantime, the following list of books may be useful to many visitors to this website.

Our Latest Entry:

George Lakoff: The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics

Elected political leaders often promote policies contrary to the interests of those who have voted them into office. And yet the same voters re-elect them. Why?

This is a puzzle. George Lakoff’s book The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics can help solve it. The author has an extensive professional background in cognitive linguistics, which deals with the interaction of language and mental processes. Reason would lead voters to eject from office political leaders who do not serve their interests. But that is not how the world works, because that is not how the mind works. How language influences people to think and act in particular ways is the subject of this book. The author brings decades of studying and thinking about cognitive linguistics to the writing, giving the reader a readable, practical guide. From the Introduction:

“This book has two uses: first, to give the reader a deeper understanding of our political life, and second, to make progressive political advocacy more effective. Both require utilizing the new knowledge gained over the past thirty years about how the brain and the mind work, knowledge that extends beyond politics to all areas of everyday life It includes information about yourself that you have no direct access to and don’t even know is there, even though it governs how you think, talk, and act.”

Recognizing the profound importance of empathy in political processes and outcomes, George Lakoff provides an important way of understanding the world and ourselves. “Know thyself” is ancient wisdom. If you are interested in solving the puzzle of yourself and the puzzle of human political behaviour, George Lakoff can help with a big step toward the solution.

Abuelaish, Dr. Izzeldin.    I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey

                 Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish “captured hearts and headlines around the world in the aftermath of horrific tragedy: on January 16, 2009, Israeli shells hit his home in the Gaza Strip, killing three of his daughters and a niece. By turns inspiring and heartbreaking, this is Abuelaish’s account of a Gazan life in all its struggle and pain. …But it was Abuelaish’s response to the loss of his children that made news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, in this personal account of his life, Izzeldin Abuelaish is calling for the people of the Middle East to start talking to each other.”

Alexander, Titus. Unravelling Global Apartheid: An Overview of World Politics.

                 “Unravelling Global Apartheid provides a clearly written overview of global problems as well as a vigorous analysis of the underlying causes and strategies for dealing with them. Liberalization of global finance and trade is increasing economic insecurity and environmental pressures throughout the world. In many countries this is producing a protectionist backlash and ethnic conflict. This has disturbing parallels with the evolution of apartheid in South Africa, which was [conceived] as a response by the European minority to growing economic competition from the African majority. Alexander uses the parallels between apartheid and global inequality to provide a wide range of insights into Western dominance of the global economy and international institutions.

                 “The author describes the complex process which brought apartheid to an end in South Africa, drawing hopeful lessons for overcoming global inequality. At a time when worldwide ethnic and economic conflict is increasing and a new global settlement is being negotiated, this book warns of the dangers of sectional solutions and offers practical strategies for people to participate in creating more just, democratic systems of global governance.”

Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

                 Saul Alinsky was engaged throughout much of his life in tactics and strategies to advance social justice.  He was brilliantly and often hilariously effective, and in this book he gives us the philosophy, the strategy, and the tactics of his success.  His acute awareness of meanings and actions and consequences provided a wellspring of creative disturbance.  “Conflict,” he wrote, “is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major theme would be the harmony of dissonance.”  He understood the basic psychological need for struggle, and the growth that adversity can inspire.  “There can be no darker or more devastating tragedy than the death of man’s faith in himself and in his power to direct his future.”  His strategy was always informed by the primacy of listening to the people he was trying to help, as they expressed their needs and aspirations.  This book is a classic, and there are few that can compete with its capacity to vaporize despair.  

Arendt, Hannah. On Revolution

                 Only rarely has a book provided such detailed historical perspective and profound insight into one of the great dangers we face today: public apathy about citizenship and the public life.  On Revolution examines in particular the French and American revolutions; the public activism that made them possible; the realization of happiness through the exercise of freedom in their public lives among those who experienced that epoch; and how that freedom and that happiness were lost as those revolutions became institutionalized.   By comparison with the revolutionary spirit, a large part of contemporary politics is commodified, devitalized, and disconnected.  Most of us are unaware of what has been lost.  This book brings that problem vividly to the reader’s attention.

Ashford, Mary-Wynne.  Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence, Terror, and War.

                 “Enough Blood Shed refuses to accept [the idea that war is inevitable]. Part One shows that another world is possible, without violence and war. By drawing on stories from around the world, it demonstrates the power and effectiveness of nonviolence, peace-building, conflict resolution, citizen diplomacy, forgiveness, and global treaty-building.  It outlines the steps that are being made to build a culture of peace, including the emerging power of civil society – the second superpower, or the conscience of society.

                 Part Two describes the solutions that are possible – and needed – in every sector of society:

·      Solutions for individuals, including women, children, and youth

·      Solutions for schools, educators, activist groups, and religious organizations

·      Solutions for the media, professionals, business, and labor

·      Solutions for cities, nations, and the global community

Enough  Blood Shed focuses on the power of ordinary people to make a difference. Packed with effective nonviolent success stories – often in a setting of hatred and provocation – that provide guidance, inspiration, hope and empowerment, Enough Blood Shed shows that peace really is possible if we put our minds, hearts, and hands to the task.”

Bopp, Michael and Judie.  Recreating the World: A Practical Guide to Building Sustainable Communities.

                 “Rooted in decades of work with indigenous communities in the Americas, as well as extensive experience in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the former Soviet Union, Recreating the World is really two books woven together. The first is a down-to-earth exposition of models, principles and strategies for understanding what community development is and how it can be promoted.  The second is a rich collection of stories, games, activities and tools that can be used to help others to learn about various aspects of community development practice.

                 “In this book, building sustainable community is presented as a primary strategy for solving critical human problems. Community building is not merely viewed as a means to an end, however. Sustainable community is a basic human need, and in its absence, human life becomes distorted, painful, and often self-destructive….

                 “The approach to community presented in Recreating the World is practical, participatory, values-driven, principle-centered, aimed at fundamental transformation, culturally based, and oriented to learning as a primary strategy. …[The authors present] community development …as a process of transforming ourselves and our communities into new models of living that are truly life-promoting and life-enhancing for us, for others with whom we share the planet, and for future generations.”

Chomsky, Noam.  Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance.

                 “For more than half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe.  Our leaders have shown themselves willing – as in the Cuban missile crisis – to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks.  …The Bush administration[intensified] this process, driving us toward the final frontiers of imperial control, toward a choice between the prerogatives  of power and a liveable Earth. In Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in, and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. … Lucid, rigorous, and thoroughly documented, Hegemony or Survival is Chomsky’s most urgent and sweeping work in years…a definitive statement from one of the world’s most influential political thinkers.”

Clark, Arthur. The ABCs of Human Survival: A Paradigm for Global Citizenship

                 As a species, we human beings have been inflicting horrific pathology on ourselves.  This book offers a way of thinking designed to bring this self-inflicted destruction to a halt. One of the most basic causes of this self-destruction is our inability to recognize that we are causing it – that we are responsible for the ongoing patterns of life-negating behaviour and the thinking that supports it.  We almost invariably see the cause of the pathology as located somewhere else, not within ourselves. Well known examples of this pathology include World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the more recent conflicts involving Afghanistan and Iraq; and our ongoing support for the warfare system.

All this might seem hopeless, were it not for the fact that all over the world, individuals and organizations are finding life-affirming alternatives to our human self-destruction.  Civil society is showing far greater adaptive intelligence than governments, and leading the way toward a brighter future. By supporting and then becoming part of this “blessed unrest,” we can discover our own capacity for change and rejuvenation.

In its eight chapters and 30 principles of global community and citizenship, The ABCs of Human Survival emphasizes the necessity of an informed, responsible, active citizenry (a truly effective democracy), guided by and enforcing a rule of international law. This is seen as essential for any hope of moving toward a healthier global community.  It’s a choice; and this book can make the choice more conscious and better informed.  We as individuals can wake up, and take responsibility for changing our dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaviour.  In making that choice, optimism is essential; complacency is dangerous; and pessimism is a waste of time.

In Calgary, Canada, the author is engaged with many others in establishing a Calgary Centre for Global Community based on the vision and values expressed in the book.  

Cousins, Norman.  Human Options

                 This is an exhilarating and rich treasury of observations on the possibilities of the human spirit, from an author whose personal experience with serious illness had forced him to learn “how our minds can make us well.”  He has also written penetratingly about the pathology of power.  In Human Options every page offers an exit from the oppressive pessimism of our times. The titles of the nine chapters - The Twentieth Century as Classroom; Learning as the Natural Habitat of Options; Survival as an Option; Options in Jeopardy; Freedom as Teacher; Ways of Seeing; the Cosmic Classroom; Creative Options; Healing and Belief – provide a glimpse of the scope of this visionary masterpiece.

Daly, Herman and John B. Cobb, Jr.  For the Common Good:  Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future.

                 An economist (Daly) and a theologian (Cobb) collaborated in writing For the Common Good and have given the book a scope and binocular vision that is lacking in much of contemporary economic s.  This book’s depth and humane common sense are based on the premise that the economy should serve human well-being and the health of the environment that sustains us.  In Part One, it gives a lucid and compelling critique of more conventional economic thinking, notably the fallacy of “misplaced concreteness” in economics and other academic disciplines.   In Part Two, it surveys the development of economic thinking in the context of ethics. Part Three brings critical attention to each of a series of issues related to the economy (free trade versus community, population, land use, agriculture, industry, labor, income policies and taxes; and geopolitics and national security. Part Four proposes a few steps that can help redirect the economy (university reforms, building of local communities, and steps toward a relatively self-sufficient national economy; as well as raising public awareness of relevant issues, and changes in the way we measure economic success).  Additionally, Part Four describes how a life-affirming approach to the economy as proposed in the book can be strengthened by a theist perspective.  This book provides an essential background in economics for anyone who aspires to an effective and active public life.                     

Diamond, Jared.  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

                 “In this riveting book, Jared Diamond – whose Guns, Germs, and Steel revolutionized our understanding of history – explores how humankind’s use and abuse of the environment reveal the truth behind the world’s great collapses, from the Anasazi of North America to the Vikings of Greenland to modern Montana. What emerges is a fundamental pattern of environmental catastrophe – one whose warning signs surround us today and that we ignore at our peril. Blending the most recent scientific advances and a vast historical perspective into a narrative that is impossible to put down, Collapse exposes the deepest mysteries of the past even as it offers hope for the future.”                  

Social Entrepreneurship for Dummies

By Mark B. Durieux, PhD and Robert A. Stebbins, PhD.

(Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, 2010)

Anyone working with a civil society organization, or in the process of establishing one, can put this book to good use. In the accessible and entertaining style of the “for dummies” series, the book presents basic concepts of social entrepreneurship and how they can benefit your small business or organization; outlines approaches to getting your organization started and using networking and the media to great advantage; emphasizes essentials of good management and leadership; and provides guidance toward structural and basic legal frameworks including the step to “going corporate.” The book is currently in bookstores. The table of contents and a sampler from the text can be viewed on the internet through a Google search of the title. From the back cover: “Mark B. Durieux, PhD, is an applied and clinical sociologist who teaches and consults widely on the practice of social entrepreneurship. Robert A. Stebbins, PhD, is a Faculty Professor and Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary and is known for his research on leisure and volunteering.”

Easwaran, Eknath. Your Life is Your Message.

                 “Your Life Is Your Message is about changing the world by changing ourselves.  – Barbara Streisand“

                 “Eknath Easwaran has healed thousands of people by teaching them how to live at peace with themselves and their world. Your Life Is Your Message is his seminal work, offering a vision of personal growth that brings together the quest for inner fulfillment, the desire to contribute to the world, and the need to enrich personal relationships.  By showing us how interconnected these three are, Easwaran persuades us that making small daily changes in the way we think and live can change the word around us. Practical and inspirational, humorous and  profound, Your Life Is Your Message shows readers they can be more loving, more focused, more capable of living out their high ideals, by providing a set of practical spiritual disciplines to bring about these changes. It is a book that will transform the lives of all who read it.”

Fromm,  Erich. Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics.

                 This book extends the ideas the author had developed in his earlier work, Escape from Freedom, in which he emphasized the tendency of the individual in our society to “escape from himself and from his freedom.”  Yet Fromm’s work is fundamentally optimistic and inspiring.  As a practicing psychoanalyst he had become more and more impressed with an opposite tendency, the strength of human striving for happiness and health. “Indeed,” he writes, “there is less reason to be puzzled by the fact that there are so many neurotic people than by the phenomenon that most people are relatively healthy in spite of the many adverse influences they are exposed to.” In this book, Fromm explores the integral connection between ethics and psychology, between ethical behaviour and psychological health.  “The value judgements we make determine our actions, and upon their validity rests our mental health and happiness.”  Erich Fromm’s work is a monumental contribution to understanding the inescapable interdependence of individual and societal well-being.

Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ.

                 “Is IQ destiny?  Not nearly as much as we think.  Daniel Goleman’s fascinating and persuasive book argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, ignoring a crucial range of abilities that matter immensely in terms of how we do in life. Drawing on groundbreaking brain and behavioural research, Goleman shows the factors at work when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well. These factors, which include self-awareness, self-discipline, and empathy, add up to a different way of being smart – one he terms ‘emotional intelligence.’  While childhood is a critical time for its development, emotional intelligence is not fixed at birth. It can be nurtured and strengthened throughout adulthood – with immediate benefits to our health, our relationships, and our work. This eye-opening book offers a new vision of excellence and a vital new curriculum for life that can change the future for us and for our children.”

Hawken, Paul.  Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

                 “The dawn of the twenty-first century has witnessed two remarkable developments in our history: the appearance of systemic problems that are genuinely global in scope, and the growth of a worldwide movement that is determined to heal the wounds of the earth with the force of passion, dedication, and collective intelligence and wisdom. Across the planet groups ranging from ad hoc neighbourhood associations to well-funded international organizations are confronting issues like the destruction of the environment the abuses of free-market fundamentalism, [threats to] social justice, and the loss of indigenous cultures. They share no orthodoxy or unifying ideology; they follow no single charismatic leader; they remain supple enough to coalesce easily into larger networks to achieve their goals. While they are mostly unrecognized by politicians and the media, they are bringing about what may one day be judged the single most profound transformation of human society.  

                 “Blessed Unrest is the story of what is going right in this world an account of how people use imagination, conviction, and resilience to perform daily miracles of redefining our relationship to the environment and to one another. Paul Hawken…draws upon his years of leadership in this movement of movements to chart and illuminate its intellectual origins, its diversity, its goals, and its extraordinary vitality.  From students in Australia to farmers in France, from shoemakers to zoologists to poets, the participants in this great enterprise (which now numbers well over one million organizations) are united by a conviction that the world must be reconstituted to ensure its – and our own – survival.  Blessed Unrest also features a taxonomic guide to the full breadth of project areas that are being pursued by the environmental and social justice movements – an invaluable resource and inspiration.”  

Held, David. Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance.

“Democracy is the most potent political idea in the world today, yet the future of democracy is increasingly uncertain. Key assumptions of democratic thinking and practice are being undermined by diverse sites of social and economic power on the one hand, and by dense networks of regional and global interconnectedness on the other. States and societies are enmeshed in webs of international conditions and processes as never before. Democracy and the Global Order offers a highly original and systematic account of these issues. Part I assesses traditional conceptions of democracy. Part II traces the rise and displacement of the modern nation-state in the context of the interstate system and the world economy. Part III explores the theoretical bases of democracy and of the democratic state, and the profound changes these concepts must undergo if they are to retain their relevance in the century ahead. Finally, Part IV champions a ‘cosmopolitan’ model of democracy – a new conception of democracy for a new world order.”             

Herngren, Per. Path of Resistance: The Practice of Civil Disobedience.

                 “describes in rich detail the proven power of civil disobedience to rejuvenate dialogue, reintroduce ethics and so revive democracy. …Path of Resistance is at once a practical and reflective handbook for breaking the habit of obedience and striving to live a life of compassion. It offers ethical guidance, history, practical advice, and a wealth of first-hand experience to guide both novice and experienced practitioners of nonviolence and especially of civil disobedience.”

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

                 “A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Live of Great American Cities has, since its first publication  in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavours in that field are measured. In porse of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighbourhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlours and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs’s monumental work provides and essential framework fro assessing the vitality of all cities.”

Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

                 A myth, taken as truth by many western intellectuals, is that capitalism and the power of corporations so prevalent in the world today have grown out of, and promote,” freedom.”  This book, based on incisive research and four years of reporting from disaster zones, presents an evidence-based refutation of that myth.  Instead of being born of freedom, the power of corporations has repeatedly been imposed under conditions of disaster that have so traumatized the affected populations that they are unable to resist the incursions of “disaster capitalism.”  This strategy is based on the “shock doctrine,” that effective democracy and concepts of social justice must be erased for corporate power to prevail.  Disasters are the fertile soil for corporate wealth to take root and grow.  The author “traces [the origins of ‘disaster capitalism’]  back fifty years, to the University of Chicago’s Economics Department under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today.”  She demonstrates the application of the shock doctrine in a series of case studies, from the Pinochet regime in Chile to occupied Iraq following the invasion of 2003.

Köchler,Hans. Democracy and the International Rule of Law: Propositions for an Alternative World Order (Selected Papers Published on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations).

In this book, the author makes a compelling case for the necessity of transforming the United Nations, from its present status as an arena of dangerously obsolete power politics, into a forum that can guide and inform a healthy global community.  From his Preface: “Unless we replace the traditional set of rules of power politics by rules of co-operation and democratic dialogue among states and peoples, the UN Charter’s Preamble will never be credible in its evocation of peace and human rights. It is the proper time at the end of the postwar era to think about the reshaping of the postwar United Nations towards a transnational structure where the principle of sovereign equality is finally applied in a manner consistent with human rights: namely the dignity of the individual citizen and the people to which he belongs. The future of the United Nations will depend on whether such a paradigm change will occur in its Charter (allowing for a better balance of power among all peoples in the various regions of the world), or whether the idealistic rhetoric of the Charter’s Preamble will continue to be contradicted by the basic set-up of the organization along the lines of a balance of power that existed fifty years ago. The United Nations Organization can only be the basis for international legitimacy when it proceeds from a system of power-sharing among the victors of World War II to a truly multi-polar organization where all peoples and regions of the world are properly represented. …If the UN becomes a party in the ‘clash of civilizations’ it will negate its raison d’être …. …the monopolization of the terms of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ by powerful interests – whether on the national or the international level – has never been conducive to the establishment of a legitimate political system.  The universality of the democratic concept requires that all transnational entities are bound by the same set of rules to be defined in a new transnational Charter. ”

Korten, David. The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

                 “The Great Turning traces the roots of Empire to ancient times and charts the long evolution of its favoured instruments of control, from monarchies and bureaucracies to the trans-national institutions of the global economy. Korten also tells the parallel story of the attempt to develop a democratic alternative to Empire, beginning in Athens and continuing with the founding of the United States of America. But this remains an unfinished project – Korten documents how elitists with an imperial agenda have consistently sought to undermine the bold and inspiring “American experiment,” beginning in the earliest days of the republic and continuing to the present day. Empire is not inevitable, not the natural order of things – we can turn away from it. Korten draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that ‘Earth Community’ – a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership – is indeed possible. And he details a grass-roots strategy for advancing a momentous turning toward a future of as-yet-unrealized human potential. The Great Turning illuminates our current predicament, provides a framework for grasping the potential of this historic moment, and shows us how to take action for the future of our planet, our communities, and ourselves.”

Kurlansky, Mark. Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea.

                 “In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars rather than as a mere state of mind. Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. …Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today….Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come.”

Lappé, Frances Moore.  Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad.

                 “Like her earlier work, Getting a Grip connects readers’ personal passions with actions they can take, right now, to help create the world they want. Flouting tired Right-versus-Left thinking, she affirms readers’ basic sanity – their intuition that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of our local-to-global crises.  Writing with energy and heart, Lappé convinces us we really can go for it.”

Levy Barry and Sidel, Victor (editors).  War and Public Health (Updated Edition).

                 “It is axiomatic that war involves killing. But war also leaves wounds, infections, and suffering lingering for years, poisoning relationships, psyches, soils, forests, and underground water systems. War and Public Health addresses all these issues in a handsomely crafted text, replete with photographs, tables, and charts, and delivers an overwhelming indictment of war and its devastating impact on populations and public health. …War and Public Health is concisely organized, comprehensively referenced, and conveniently indexed. It is important for health professionals, policymakers, and those in international organizations.”  - Journal of the American Medical Association

Loeb, Paul Rogat. The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.

                 “What keeps us going when times get tough? In The Impossible Will Take a Little While, political leaders and heroic activists show us the way. Paul Rogat Loeb, the acclaimed author of Soul of a Citizen, brings together an inspiring collection of essays and stories that range across nations, eras, and political movements. From international legends Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel, to American icons Cornel West and Alice Walker, to the untiring, unheralded activists working for peace, justice, and the health of our planet, these writers explore a path of heart-felt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope.”

Lynch, Jake. Reporting the World: A Practical Checklist for the Ethical Reporting of Conflicts in the 21st Century, Produced by Journalists for Journalists.

                 “Reporting the World is a service for journalists striving to uphold values of balance, fairness and responsibility in their coverage of international affairs. More than two hundred editors, writers, producers and reporters have joined interested professionals from other related fields, to discuss how news can best inform and orient readers and audiences in today’s increasingly interdependent world.”

                 This book can also be useful to the general reader as a guide to media literacy – sharpening awareness of the effects of “spin” in news reporting, and of the very different purposes served by different ways of reporting the same event.

McQuaig, Linda. The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy

                 There is a widely accepted intellectual delusion which holds that we are controlled by economic forces, and are powerless to control the economy ourselves. “But in this provocative book, Linda McQuaig argues that we are not really powerless. She shows that the international community in fact has the tools to regulate the world financial system in a way that would harness its enormous energy to our collective advantage. This was done before – for three prosperous decades after the Second World War – and can be done again.  If anything, the advances in computer technology would actually make the regulation of capital easier now.  …This book challenges one of the most widely held beliefs of our time. And it shows how, if we stopped buying into the cult of impotence, we could create a new order that would put the rights of people before the rights of capital.”  

Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

“Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work – but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone…. Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans’ changing behaviour, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures – whether they be the PTA, church, or political parties – have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted the fundamental power of these bonds in creating a society that is happy, well educated, healthy, and safe.  Like defining works from the past, such as The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam’s Bowling Alone has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do.”

Rebick, Judy. Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political.

                 “Transforming Power is about a new way of creating change that is gaining ground around the globe. Veteran activist Judy Rebick explains [in this book] how globalization and mass-communication technology are revolutionizing our understanding of power and producing profound new ideas about social and political life. Whether it’s the election of President Obama, the rise of participatory democracy in Bolivia, or the success of Wikipedia, it’s the process that’s key: bringing communities of people together to produce something new; building a movement from the bottom up; sharing experience, knowledge, and wisdom; emphasizing co-operation and consensus over confrontation and political partisanship; or spreading ideas and actions through local and global networks.  Meaningful response to the environmental crisis and social injustice requires substantial, sustainable change at every level, which can only come through building power from the grassroots, from the people most impacted. In Transforming Power, we discover the ideas, the people, and the practices that can provide the paths to the change we need.”

Ritter, Scott. Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement.  

                 “Ritter proposes that the antiwar movement seek guidance from sources they would ordinarily spurn: the philosophies of those who have mastered the art of conflict, from Caesar to Napoleon, SunTzu to Clausewitz. In the vein of Rules for Radicals and The Art of War, Ritter argues that one must study the ‘enemy’ in order to learn the art of campaigning, of waging battles only when necessary, and having the ability to wage a struggle on several fronts simultaneously.

The antiwar movement needs to understand how the pro-war movement operates and what motivates it by defining its center of gravity. By doing so, the antiwar movement can streamline its own decision-making cycle and outperform the pro-war movement in the struggle for overall public support. By ‘getting inside’ the decision-making cycle of the pro-war forces, the antiwar movement will be able to maximize its own resources and performance while achieving victory in a struggle which will define the future of America and the world.”

Schell, Jonathan.  The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People.

“Schell gives us an impassioned, provocative book that points the way out of the unparalleled devastation of the twentieth century toward another, more peaceful path. Tracing the expansion of violence to its culmination in nuclear stalemate, Schell uncovers a simultaneous but little-noted history of nonviolent action at every level of political life. His investigation rages from the revolutions of America, France, and Russia, to the people’s wars of China and Vietnam, to the great nonviolent events of modern times – including Gandhi’s independence movement in India and the explosion of civic activity that brought about the surprising collapse of the Soviet Union. Suggesting new social and political foundations on which to construct an enduring peace, The Unconquerable World is a bold book of sweeping significance.”

Sharp, Gene.  The Politics of Nonviolent Action.

                 “The Politics of Nonviolent Action is a major exploration of the nature of nonviolent struggle.  The unabridged edition [consists of] three volumes: Power and Struggle; The Methods of Nonviolent Action; and The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action. Power and Struggle begins with an examination of power.  It is often assumed that power derives from violence and can be controlled only by greater violence.  Actually, power derives from sources in the society which may be restricted or severed by withdrawal of cooperation by the populace. The political power of governments may in fact be very fragile. …Nonviolent action is based on that insight.  Basic characteristics of nonviolent struggle are described, misconceptions about it are corrected, and part of its vast history sketched. …Using nonviolent action, people have won higher wages, broken social barriers, changed government policies, frustrated invaders, paralyzed an empire and dissolved dictatorships.

                 “The Methods of Nonviolent Action examines in detail 198 specific methods of this technique – broadly classed as nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and non-violent intervention. Each of these specific ‘nonviolent weapons’ is illustrated with actual cases.

                 “The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action examines the complex operation of this technique against a violent, repressive opponent. …Empowerment of the struggle group, the accompanying strengthening of the non-State institutions, ability to defeat repressive elites, and the extension among the populace of a nonviolent struggle capacity , contribute to long-term social changes by redistributing power.”

Taipale, Ilkka and others (editors)  War or Health? A Reader.

                 “This Reader has been put together by Physicians for Social Responsibility in Finland and provides an extraordinarily wide-ranging examination of the interface between warfare and human health and society. Topics include:

The impact of war on health professionals and their roles.

The medical and health aspects of different kinds of weapons – conventional, anti-personnel, small arms, landmines, chemical, biological, nuclear and non-lethal weapons.

The direct and indirect consequences of war for famine, disease psychological disorders human rights violations and the environment.

The factors facilitating the outbreak of wars – the psychological and sociological roots of violence, the arms trade, and the role of the media.

Efforts to regulate the worst effects of modern warfare, and even to prevent it – the international conventions, conflict monitoring, and the role of organizations like the International Red Cross.

In a post-Cold War era which has not in fact seen any diminution in armed conflict, this up-to-date and comprehensive source book will prove invaluable to health professionals, those active inhuman rights, peace and development, and social scientists.”

Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience

                 This is a clarion call to live a life of principle.  Its luminous prose and incisive message have had a powerful and abiding influence on generations of readers including some, like Gandhi, whose lives transmitted the message. It commends itself to reading at least three times: in early, middle, and later life.   It holds a measuring rod and a mirror up to the lives of discerning readers.

Weston, Anthony.  How to Re-Imagine the World: A Pocket Guide for Practical Visionaries

                 “Who says we can’t change the world? …This book outlines a way to step up to the challenge: the way of creativity. Here you will find imaginative tools – specific, focused, and shareable techniques to cultivate new ideas, to find new openings, to re-invent the world and prepare for both the best and the worst:

·      Seeking a Whole Vision

·      Generative Thinking

·      Looking for Unexpected Openings

·      Working at the Roots

·      Building Momentum”

In fewer than 150 pages, the author conveys zest and the liberating effect of skill at improvisation.  Highly recommended!

Wilkinson, Richard and Kate Pickett. The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone.

                 “This groundbreaking book, based on years of research, provides hard evidence to show:

·      How almost everything – from life expectancy to mental illness, violence to illiteracy – is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is.

·      That societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them – including the well-off

·      How we can find positive solutions and move towards a happier, fairer future.

Urgent, provocative and genuinely uplifting, the Spirit Level has been heralded as providing a new way of thinking about ourselves and our communities, and could change the way you see the world.”

Yunus, Muhammad.  Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle against World Poverty.

                 “Banker to the Poor offers a challenging look at the way we reinforce poverty – offering welfare instead of encouraging self-sufficiency, only offering loan to candidates with a ‘safe’ risk factor (what Uunus calls a ‘financial apartheid’), believing that the poor lack skills and can only be worthwhile contributors to the economy after extensive training. Yunus lays out a convincing argument for the need to nourish and better understand the ‘people’s economy’….” – Vision Magazine