Recommended books

From Spore Collective

Below is a list of our favorite books on a variety of subjects. For a list of internet resources, check out the Links page.

If there are any other books you'd recommend, let us here about them. We're always on the lookout for good books to read ...

Contents 1 Global justice movements 2 Living Earth 3 Global Capitalism / Geopolitics / Labor / Economics 4 War 5 Propaganda / Education / Mass Media / Advertising 6 Poisons / Toxic Living 7 Science, Technology, and Industrialism 7.1 Political and social effects of technology 7.2 Rationalization / Bureaucracy / Efficiency 7.3 Human mind and machines 7.4 Human Experimentation 8 Ecological Destruction 9 Consumer Culture 10 Anthropology 11 History 11.1 The rise of capitalism 11.2 U.S. History 11.3 Peasant revolts 12 Political Theory 12.1 Intro to Anarchist theory 12.2 Anarchist histories 12.3 Marxism / State socialism 12.4 Miscellaneous 13 Permaculture / Organic Gardening 14 Political Repression 14.1 General Histories 14.2 Surveillance 14.3 Prisons 15 Patriarchy 16 Radical Psychology

Global justice movements

• A Movement of Movements ed. by Tom Mertes
• The Subversion of Politics by Katsiaficas.
• La Via Campesina by Annette Desmarais -- good book on the international farmer's movement La Via Campesina
• To Inherit the Earth by Angus Wright -- about the Brazilian "Landless Worker's Movement" (MST)
• Brewing Justice by Daniel Jaffee -- about fair trade coffee producers/cooperatives in Mexico, but also provides an interesting analysis of the fair trade movement in general

Living Earth

• Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock
• Columbus and Other Cannibals by Jack D. Forbes
• Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
• Next of Kin by Roger Fouts
• Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice by Mark Plotkin
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• The Forest People by Colin Turnbull
• The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abbey
• Born Under A Bad Sky by Jeffrey St.-Clair

Global Capitalism / Geopolitics / Labor / Economics

• Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein -- very good popular history of neo-liberalism and corporate globalization
• Resource Wars by Michael Clare
• Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

War

• Killing Hope by William Blum -- history of U.S. military actions abroad since World War II ... death squads in Guatemala, dictators in Indonesia, etc. ... definitely one of our favorites
• On the Justice of Roosting Chickens -- detailed chronology of U.S. war crimes and genocidal acts ... there is an excellent essay at the beginning of the book, but most of it is just a "timeline" of sorts -- useful as a reference, except that it has no index, which totally sucks ...
• Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
• Four Hours in My Lai by Michael Bilton -- about the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War ... a "typical cross-section of American youth" going on a killing/torturing/raping/mutilating rampage ...

Propaganda / Education / Mass Media / Advertising

• Toxic Sludge is Good For You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
• Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander
• Schooled To Order by David Nasaw -- really intense history of the U.S. public school system, and it's role as a tool of social control
• Manufacturing Consent -- Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky
• Propaganda by Jacques Ellul
• Trust Us, We're Experts by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
• News From Nowhere by Edward Epstein

Poisons / Toxic Living

• The Body Toxic by Nena Baker -- a book about the toxic chemicals in everyday products, and how they affect our health
• Not just a pretty face
• Exposed (Schapiro)
• Fateful Harvest
• Toxic Nation by Fred Setterberg -- covers several recent/historical examples of toxic industrial practices, and how communities have organized to fight back against the corporations that were poisoning them

Science, Technology, and Industrialism

Political and social effects of technology

• Autonomous Technology by Langdon Winner -- the best introduction we've found to issues concerning the social effects of technology. It's a bit of a tough read, but it's worth taking the time to understand. \
• The Whale and the Reactor
• The Technological Society by Jacque Ellul
• Human scale (Kirkpatrick Sale) -- discusses the implications of designing technologies and political/economic/social systems that are of such a large scale that they cannot be comprehended (and thus controlled) by the people who are affected by (and are a part of) them ...

Rationalization / Bureaucracy / Efficiency

• Modernity and the Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman -- covers concepts of "rationalization" and "bureaucracy" ... discusses the myth of Nazi Germany's genocide as an "aberration" and demonstrates how many of the causes are ideas deeply rooted in the modern worldview. He uncovers the dark side of "civilized" societies, and shows that something sinister is always lurking beneath the surface that will continually cause Buchenwalds, Hiroshimas, and Abu Ghraibs until we do something to address it.
• The Control Revolution by James Beniger --discusses the use of technology, especially computers and communications technologies, as a means of maintaining social control. His views on living systems are quite twisted though ...

Human mind and machines

• Computer Power and Human Reason by Weizenbaum
• Turing's Man by Bolter

Human Experimentation

• Killing Our Own by Harvey Wasserman -- about human radiation experiments, weapons testing, etc. in the United States
• In the Name of Science
• The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton

Ecological Destruction

• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• A Green History of The World by Clive Ponting
• Something New Under The Sun
• Sea of Slaughter

Consumer Culture

• Society of the Spectacle
• No Logo by Naomi Klein
• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Anthropology

• The Forest People by Colin Turnbull
• The Dobe !Kung by Richard B. Lee
• In Search of the Primitive by Stanley Diamond
• Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins
• People of the Deer by Farley Mowat

History

The rise of capitalism

• Civilization and Capitalism, Vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life by Fernand Braudel -- how everyday life changed for the average european during the rise of capitalism
• Europe and the People Without History by Eric Wolf -- covers the rise of capitalism, starting around the year 1400, while attempting to pay attention to important historical processes (fur trade, slave trade, industrialization, etc) as well as people who are normally ignored in history books (Native Americans, Africans, etc) ... academic in tone, but a good introductory world history of modern era

U.S. History

• Towards an American Revolution by Jerry Fresia
• People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn
• Facing West by Richard Drinnon
• Gunfighter Nation by Slotkin
• The Robber Barons
• An Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution by Charles Beard

Peasant revolts

• The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill -- history of the radical peasant groups during the English Civil War (Levellers, Diggers, etc)
• Zapata and the Mexican Revolution
• Shay's Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection by David Szatmary
• Rebels Against the Future by Kirkpatrick Sale

Political Theory

Intro to Anarchist theory

• People Without Government by Harold Barclay.
• Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall -- a brick of a book, but is a decent general history of classical/mainstream anarchist thought, and could function as an introduction as well. However, he unfortunately misrepresents certain viewpoints and thus we caution you to read his work critically.
• Anarchy Alive! by Uri Gordon -- presents an excellent analysis of modern anarchist movements -- their beliefs, structure, effectiveness, obstacles, etc.

Anarchist histories

• The Spanish Anarchists by Murray Bookchin
• The Russian Anarchists by Paul Avrich

Marxism / State socialism

The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert Tucker -- a collection of some of Marx's and Engel's most important work.

Miscellaneous

• Pacifism as Pathology by Ward Churchill
• Anarchy After Leftism by Bob Black

Permaculture / Organic Gardening

• Edible Forest Gardens, Vol I. by Dave Jacke
• Growing Edible/Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets
• Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Fern Bradley
• One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
• Gaia's Garden
• Rainwater Harvesting For Drylands(Volumes 1 & 2)
• Wild Fermentation
• Food Not Lawns
• Northern Gardner
• Sharing The Harvest
• Permaculture Way

Political Repression

General Histories

• COINTELPRO Papers by Ward Churchill / Jim Vander Wall -- covers the FBI's COINTELPRO program, but the footnotes contain a wealth of information on all sorts of other domestic repression programs in the US (REX-84 for example)... one of the best books we've ever read
• Political Repression in Modern America by Robert Goldstein -- extremely detailed history of political repression in the U.S. from the end of the Civil War, up until the late 70's

Surveillance

• Soft Cage by Parenti

Prisons

• Golden Gulag by Ruth Gilmore -- excellent book about Californias ridiculously large prison system, it's social effects, and social causes ... focus is on California, but the concepts apply generally as well
• Lockdown America by Parenti

Patriarchy

• Woman & Nature: The Roaring Inside Her
• Age of Sex Crime by Jane Caputi
• Feminism and Anthropology by Henrietta Moore

Radical Psychology

• Ecopsychology (Editors: Roszak, Gomes, Kanner)
• One Dimensional Man
• Madness and Civilization
• Politics of Experience by R.D. Laing
• The Divided Self by R.D. Laing