I’ll be blogging about what I read, but here’s a list of the books and articles I’ve been reading and a few sentences about what I thought of them.
January 2012
The Green Collar Economy, Van Jones
Jones presents a strong and inspiring case in favour of an economic shift towards low-carbon, clean technology that embraces the poorest and most deprived in society, those with the most barriers to employment. He paints a vision of an America in which meaningful, well-paid, environmentally friendly employment can serve to solve both the economic and ecological crises the world faces today.
Particularly compelling for me was his graphic description of the way those without credit cards or cars were treated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
One of my favourite quotes is when he cites a member of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, and this sums up perfectly the way I feel about my own time as an Assistant Warden:
“I’d thought I was an adult when I started the program, but it takes a tempered-steel file to put the edge on an axe. I mean that in two ways. For one, I actually learned how to sharpen an axe and a cross-cut saw. In the second, I had put the edge on my manhood by learning how to live with others whose background was not mine, the only thing we had in common being our youth” p.153
You can find it here on amazon.
December 2011
Ill Fares the Land, Tony Judt
In this book, Judt offers a case in favour of social democracy, arguing that despite the negative connotations socialism has acquired over the course of the 20th Century, the political system still has a lot to offer us today.
A cornerstone of his argument is that we need to find a new discourse for talking about political systems, one that means words like “socialism” and “social democracy” are able to shake off the stigma normally associated with them. I struggle to see any radically new discourse within this book though.
Nonetheless, for anyone who wants a compact but engaging economic history of the last 150 years, this book is fantastic.
You can find it here on amazon.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire
In this seminal work, Freire argues that we need to radically rethink the role of education in the liberation of oppressed peoples - the poorest in many developing country societies. He says that traditional models of education and sharing of knowledge merely serve to reinforce the oftentimes subtle systems of oppression which still exist in many societies.
While I found this book occasionally difficult due to its esoteric nature, I did really enjoy it.
Quotes I particularly liked were:
“With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violences has already begun” p.37
“It is as transforming and creative beings that humans, in their permanent relations with reality, produce not only material goods - tangible objects - but also social institutions, ideas and concepts.” p.82
You can find this book here on amazon.
