Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect by John Inazu
Local Washington University Professor of Law and Religon has written a very digestable book on how to engage in conversation with others who may differ in views. Follow him through a year of teaching and living as he shares moments and stories that demonstrate his approach and considerations. Perfect read before we get into the holidays with family in friends in these fraught times. Follow John Inazu’s substack, Some Assembly Required. Here is a recent araticle worth reading! “Civility is not Fantasy.”
Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference. by Rutger Bregman
As many of us are looking at a way to act and engage productively in these times of divisive politics and future challenges for our nation and humanity, Rutger Bregman gives us the encouragement and insight to fuel and inspire each of us. As Trevor Noah states about this book, it is a “Call to humanity!” Join the call!
Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From a Culture or Contempt, by Arthur Brooks
This is THE book that really helped me better understand how our discourse has spiraled out of control. Brooks boils it down to contempt, created by a “Monetized Outraged Industrial Comples,” (youtube, facebook, tiktok, etc.). He shares many example of how to understand how others may come to their views, how to listen and how to bridge the divide.
I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. by Monica Guzman
Recommended by one of our workshop participants, as a companion to Brooks’ book, I am excited to read this and pull from it for the Fall Workshops!
Giving Up Is Unforgiveable: A Manual for Saving Democracy
by Joyce Vance
I have had the SLCL pre-order copies of this book for one of our “book talks.” It will be available Oct. 21st. I have the discussion slated for November, though I have yet to read the book!
For the past two years, Joyce Vance has signed off posts on her chart-topping Substack, Civil Discourse. She has innovative ideas on how we return to civility in. politics and return to a balanced, representative government. For those of us concerned about the the way our democracy is headed, this is said to be a citizen guide.
Abundance, by Ezra Klein
This book has been getting rave reviews and I used it for policy talks earlier this Spring. He has us look at policy through a lens of specific questions, rather than promote a specific policy. Klein says, “This book is dedicated to a simple idea: To have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need.” He examines how the overabundance of the 20th century, the fights between the Left and the Right, an overwhelming consumer goods, has distracted us from a scarcity of homes and energy and infrastructure and scientific breakthroughs.
Klein focuses on the building blocks of the future (Housing, Transportation, Energy and Health).
As Naomi Klein states, “If we want to save Democracy, we need to focus on the future we want.”
The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Amendents, and Selections from the Federalist Papers, by Richard Beeman
Great reference companion to our Founding Documents. Easy to engage with what is happening in this moment, as it applies to the individual documents, for oneself or in conversation.