Read and Watch List

Community Community Club
#1

:open_book: :newspaper: Recommended books, articles, movies, videos, shows… :tv: :computer:

We’ve been learning about all kinds of interesting, important, and fun things to read and watch during our community chats. In an effort to remember our growing list of recommendations, we decided to make this discussion board dedicated to recommendations from anyone in our community.

Feel free to add away!

P.S. If you’d like to join our Community Chats where we discuss books and movies that we’re going through together, follow our “Community Club” by clicking on the blue bell :bell: in the upper-right of that discussion board. This will alert you when we have posts about our next discussions. We hope to see you there!

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#2

If we ever read any deep leftist theory, the podcast Red Menace explains texts by the likes of Marx and Lenin, as well as topics like settler colonialism, the climate crisis, and neoliberalism in a manner geared toward the beginner.

This next plug has little to do with my career as an art historian and more to do with our day-to-day saturation in visual culture. John Berger’s 4-part series Ways of Seeing (as well as the companion book) teaches the beginner how to look at everything from “high” art to advertisements in a more critical manner.

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#3

Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States of America is available in its entirety at History is a Weapon. Zinn gave the website creators his permission to reprint the book before he died, so everything you find here is legal.

Additionally, here are two speeches I assign my students to give them different perspectives on two cherished American holidays.

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#4

I can recommend the weekly “Economic Update”- Series on Democracy At Work - YouTube.
Where TYT focuses on systemic problems in politics, this channel highlights economic aspects. I especially appreciate the big and small stories of progressive victories from all over the globe, which i would never now about otherwise.

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#5

I found a website that may be useful to us all. It is based in Australia, but it’s resources are excellent for global use. it is The Commons, Social Change Library. Check it out!

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#6

There is a documentary " The Take" done in 2004 by Naomi Klein and her husband based on the book “The Silent Change.” It is a story about “thirty unemployed auto-parts workers in Buenos Aires who walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.”

Problem is, I can’t find it! I read about it and tried to find it, but couldn’t. I did find a web page
The Take - A documentary film by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein : home But I can’t find it playing on anything. If anyone can find this movie, please let me know. It sounds interesting to me. Thanks.

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#7

I just watched an excellent documentary on Prime entitled “Outrage.” It is about a group of gays who are outing gay politicians who vote against gay rights. The movie was done in 2011, so it is a little dated, but the substance is engrossing. I highly recommend it!

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#8

Here’s a book that was recommended on Twitter. I have not read it, but it sounds interesting and definitely a concept Dems need to look into. Based on the title, that is.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

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#9

Given the blatant warmongering we have been seeing in the MSM over the last two weeks, I recommend Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. The Internet Archive has a PDF copy. Additionally, Al Jazeera made a short video on YouTube (narrated by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!) that discusses the five filters of the MSM.

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#10

That’s an excellent idea!

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#11

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

It’s also on audible

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#12

There is an excellent (ongoing 5 parts of 12 (about 2 to 4 hours in total so far) published) youtube series on Neoliberalism done by one of my friends from University called “This Is Neoliberalism” It would be cool if we could do those for a movie watch.
This Is Neoliberalism part 1
This Is Neoliberalism part 2
This Is Neoliberalism part 3
This Is Neoliberalism part 4
This Is Neoliberalism part 5

It’s all super duper dense and so having a convo about it afterwards I think would be most helpful.

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#13

Just watched another documentary on Free Speech TV entitled “When Justice isn’t Just.” I found it to be a good overview (as it was fairly short - 42 minutes) of the plight of our justice system in relation to race and overall.

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#14

Smedley Butler wrote “War is a Racket” in 1935. Unfortunately, it’s still relevant.
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

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#15

There’s a new book out on Smedley Butler called “Gangsters of Capitalism” that sounds good as well.

#16

Just started “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson. A piece of fiction about how people and institutions deal with the consequences of climate change. Does not convince me completely yet due to unnecessary and exaggerated cruel scenes, but I will give it a chance…

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#17

Just learned about Judith Shklar (I have to admit, for the first time):
Who’s Afraid of Judith Shklar?
I am quite enthusiastic about her simple yet brilliant ideas, just ordered an edition of her essays “Redeeming American Political Thought”. Seems to embody moral authority for politics just as Hans Jonas does for technology… Is anyone here familiar with her work?

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#18

I have never heard of her, but it sounds interesting!

#19

If you’re not on the Verso mailing list, they are offering a new free ebook: Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now. It looks like a timely topic for a future meeting and contains ideas for how the reproductive rights movement can move forward in a more hostile landscape. Click the “Ebook” tab for the free epub file.

cc @MSt.Clair1962

#20

New free e-book from Verso:
We Organize to Change Everything: Fighting for Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice

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