What We Are Reading

Below is a list of books that we have read in the past month. The comments are not a review of the books, instead sort of an endorsement of ideas and investigations that can provide solid analysis and even inspiration in the struggle for change. All these books are available at The Bloom Collective, so check them out and stimulate your mind.

Re:Imagining Change: How to use story-based strategy to win campaigns, build movements, and change the world, by Patrick Reinsborough & Doyle Canning. An excellent resource for people working on social justice issues that discusses the importance of framing and ways to communicate what you are doing with campaigns or actions in your community. This book is based on the work of the smartMeme and has several case studies of social change campaigns that have worked because of good story-based strategies.

Self-Defense for Radicals: A-Z Guide for Subversive Struggle, by Mickey Z. This was a delightful little booklet put together by longtime activist and radical historian Mickey Z. Along with cartoon illustrations, this booklet provides not only humorous, but practical self-defense tips through the lens of radical, political activist. It may save your life, protect you from cops or just make you laugh.

No Rain in the Amazon: How South America’s Climate Change Affects the Entire Planet, by Nikolas Kozloff. If you ever thought that all you needed to do in the fight against global warming was take care of matters in your own community, then this book will smash those illusions. Kozloff provides readers with a ton of evidence and examples of how protecting the Amazon from further deforestation and contamination should be part of our struggle for survival. Another thing that makes this book so important is the fact that some of the current deforestation in the Amazon is due to corporate and government projects that promote bio-fuels. Must reading for anyone concerned about climate justice.

The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obamas, by Tom Engelhardt. Tom Engelhardt, editor of Tom’s Dispatch, has done a wonderful job of providing some detailed analysis of the recent history of US intervention abroad. Engelhardt helps us all see the smooth transition from the Bush administration to the Obama administration and how there has been little difference in foreign policy, besides the rhetoric. A useful resource for anti-war activists and anyone concerned with imperialism.

Shop ‘Til You Drop
The Crisis of Consumerism, by the Media Education Foundation. Are we too materialistic? Are we willfully trashing the planet in our pursuit of things? And what’s the source of all this frenetic consumer energy and desire anyway? In a fast-paced tour of the ecological and psychological terrain of American consumer culture, Shop ‘Til You Drop challenges us to confront these questions head-on. Taking aim at the high-stress, high-octane pace of fast-lane materialism, the film moves beneath the seductive surfaces of the commercial world to show how the flip side of accumulation is depletion — the slow, steady erosion of both natural resources and basic human values. In the end, Shop ‘Til You Drop helps us make sense of the economic turbulence of the moment, providing an unflinching, riveting look at the relationship between the limits of consumerism and our never-ending pursuit of happiness.