Book Recommendations

  • The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life

    October 29, 2008 - 12:19pm — edstrom
    ✔ A bookclub selection!

    An autobiographical adventure tale about a lawyer who wonders what it means to be a citizen in the US and where would be the best place to do it. He chooses Chicago. Grappling with the meaning of citizenship after moving from Washington DC, the City of Fabulous Jobs, to Chicago, the City of Fabulous Plagues, Fabulous Jails and Fabulous Children, this is the story of his adventure, deep in the heart of Darkest America.

    4.5
    Your rating: None Average: 4.5 (2 votes)

  • The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream

    October 28, 2008 - 3:56pm — edstrom

    This is about how risk has shifted onto the shoulders of the US worker over the past 3+ decades. This is a chronicle of the rise of insecurity and despair in America since the 1970's. The depth and breadth of the erosion of people's financial security over the past few decades, in its many varied forms, is simply breathtaking.

    4.333335
    Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (3 votes)

  • How We Decide

    April 8, 2009 - 9:36am — edstrom

    Current research about human decision making is revealing new insights on how, when and why people make the decisions that we do.

    4
    Your rating: None Average: 4 (2 votes)

  • Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy

    December 5, 2008 - 10:11am — edstrom

    Its pretty nearly what the title says; abuse of contemporary American labor that is, for all intents and purposes, slavery. It looks at three case studies, migrant farm labor in Florida, welders in Tulsa and sweatshops in Saipan.

    4
    Your rating: None Average: 4 (1 vote)

  • The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All

    April 23, 2010 - 6:52pm — edstrom
    ✔ A bookclub selection!

    I stumbled across this book while reading Raj Patel's "The Value of Nothing."  He introduced it in his discussion of commoning.  The implications drawn from Linebaugh's book concerning moral politics and economis seemed borderline profound for what I'd thought was a desicated fossil of Western Civilization. Its especially interesting to see how our core concepts of rights have evolved and mutated over time and circumstances.

    4
    Your rating: None Average: 4 (2 votes)