Re:Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
by fao_ on Friday July 13, 2018 @12:22AM
(#17520501)
The Origin of Capitalism -- Ellen Meiksins Wood
. Basically, a brief but compelling argument that claims that not only is capitalism not inevitable, but just like every system before it it was held in place initially only by force and power, rather than being a natural development of the human species.
Why I've Stopped Talking (To White People) About Race
. A ridiculously easy book to read given the topic, the author has a gift for writing that makes effortless reading. The first section contains a rough history of the civil rights movement in British politics, beginning at world war two and the forgotten legions of foreign soldiers that fought for us. It is shocking, and the catalogued stories of brutality by the state is utterly horrifying, but it is important to read about. It is something that is almost always instinctively and repeatedly brushed under the carpet due to the sheer uncomfortableness of it all. And we cannot afford this any longer.
Carceral Capitalism
. A number of essays on modern capitalism. One of them is how the incarceration system in America is used as an abhorrent form of profit for the muncipalities, another is about the effects of profiling and just how statistically incorrect it is. There are others I haven't got to yet. It's incredibly lucid, and extremely well sourced, but difficult to read because of just how horrible it all is (It quotes from a law journal the example of one man who, having stolen a single can of beer, as a condition of his bail gets fitted with an ankle monitor he has to pay for (Despite house arrest not being part of his bail), the ankle monitor has a monthly charge and a late fee, that ends up driving him into poverty and causing him to donate blood to assuage his debts. Except after a certain point he can't donate blood because he cannot afford to eat enough, to produce enough blood to sell. So (iirc) he ends up in prison for debt instead).
The Silk Roads
. Sick and tired of a european-centric view of history that brushes the rest of the world under the carpet? Well, no longer do you have to endure that. With wonderfully (and indeed, sometimes painfully) dense writing, Peter Frankopan takes you on a whislestop tour of the Persians, the Greeks, the Chinese, etc. All of it revolving around one of the most important single trade routes in all of human history.
. Basically, a brief but compelling argument that claims that not only is capitalism not inevitable, but just like every system before it it was held in place initially only by force and power, rather than being a natural development of the human species.
Why I've Stopped Talking (To White People) About Race
. A ridiculously easy book to read given the topic, the author has a gift for writing that makes effortless reading. The first section contains a rough history of the civil rights movement in British politics, beginning at world war two and the forgotten legions of foreign soldiers that fought for us. It is shocking, and the catalogued stories of brutality by the state is utterly horrifying, but it is important to read about. It is something that is almost always instinctively and repeatedly brushed under the carpet due to the sheer uncomfortableness of it all. And we cannot afford this any longer.
Carceral Capitalism
. A number of essays on modern capitalism. One of them is how the incarceration system in America is used as an abhorrent form of profit for the muncipalities, another is about the effects of profiling and just how statistically incorrect it is. There are others I haven't got to yet. It's incredibly lucid, and extremely well sourced, but difficult to read because of just how horrible it all is (It quotes from a law journal the example of one man who, having stolen a single can of beer, as a condition of his bail gets fitted with an ankle monitor he has to pay for (Despite house arrest not being part of his bail), the ankle monitor has a monthly charge and a late fee, that ends up driving him into poverty and causing him to donate blood to assuage his debts. Except after a certain point he can't donate blood because he cannot afford to eat enough, to produce enough blood to sell. So (iirc) he ends up in prison for debt instead).
The Silk Roads
. Sick and tired of a european-centric view of history that brushes the rest of the world under the carpet? Well, no longer do you have to endure that. With wonderfully (and indeed, sometimes painfully) dense writing, Peter Frankopan takes you on a whislestop tour of the Persians, the Greeks, the Chinese, etc. All of it revolving around one of the most important single trade routes in all of human history.