A Suggested Reading List For Those Interested In Issues of Social Justice And Poverty
Karl Krayer and I will soon complete our 13th full year of hosting the First Friday Book Synopsis. At each of our monthly meetings, Karl and I each present a synopsis of a best selling business book.
For nearly half that time, I have also presented synopses every month for the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare (formerly Central Dallas Ministries). And just as people ask me about the best/most important business books, people also ask me about the best/most important social justice & poverty books.
Let me state the obvious – reading one book helps you a little, but reading a series of books, covering an important arena, builds a body of knowledge, and helps you know how to think, and then, what to do.
If social justice and poverty concern you, here’s a short list of books to put in your reading stack. Read these, and you will begin to build that body of knowledge.
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Read this book | A comment, or two |
| How to get started… Start here! | The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
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Yes, that The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Just to grasp the human struggle of severe poverty. Everyone should read this in their adult years! |
| To understand the plight of the working poor | Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. | Ehrenreich went “undercover” before Undercover Boss was ever conceived. |
| To go a little deeper into the plight of the working poor | The Working Poor: (Invisible in America) by David K. Shipler | Shipler is a Pulitzer Prize winner – and this is gripping, and sad. |
| To think about unequal education | The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol | Or – read his earlier book, Savage Inequalities. Actually, read this one first… |
| So, what to do | How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein | Comprehensive – helpful, useful! |
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To build optimism |
The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems by Richard T. Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin |
Some encouraging success stories. The Sternins were used as a success story in the book Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
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Of course, there are many worthy, valuable books not listed here. If you compiled your own list, it would be different. But I think this is a pretty good list to start with.
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