Voices of a People’s History of the United States in the 21st Century: Documents of Hope and Resistance
Edited by Anthony Arnove and Haley Pessin
Seven Stories Press, 2023, 448 pages (paper), $24.95
A quarter-century after publishing his 1980 bestseller, A People’s History of the United States, the legendary Howard Zinn issued this follow-up book, Voices of A People’s History, which accentuated the expansive knowledge of diverse communities about the true history of this land. In its second posthumous reprinting here, editors Arnove and Pessin – each with significant connections to the Fellowship of Reconciliation – mine their impressive networks and socialist roots to expand and strengthen this invaluable resource for teachers, scholars, community organizers, and the general public.
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The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future
By Robert P. Jones
Simon & Schuster, 2023, 400 pages (cloth), $26.99
As author of two previous acclaimed books on the continuing legacies of structural racism in the United States, Robert Jones has become one of the nation’s foremost voices challenging
white Christian nationalism. His latest offering traces more than 500 years of conquest, genocide, and political conflict, countering the dominant U.S. mythology of a blissful melting pot. Yet Jones refuses to succumb to despair in his analysis, and provides hopeful stories from within the nation’s heartland, profiling emergent initiatives for communal repair in Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. An essential read.
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American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15
By Zusha Elinson & Cameron McWhirter
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2023, 496 pages (cloth), $32.00
“How did the gun American soldiers carried in Vietnam become best known for killing schoolchildren?” When the U.S. Congress passed an assault weapons ban bill in 1994, there were 400,000 AR-15-style guns nationwide; today there are over 20 million! Journalists Elinson and McWhirter compellingly trace the history of this semi-automatic weapon from a military rifle to a widely-owned gun in personal homes. That chronology includes its devastating usage in countless mass shootings in the U.S., including the infamous massacres in Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernadino, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Parkland, Florida; Buffalo, New York; and Uvalde, Texas.
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Rebels, Despots, and Saints: The Ancestors Who Free Us and the Ancestors We Need to Free
By Sandhya Rani Jha
Chalice Press, 2023, 254 pages (paper), $19.99
Former director of the Oakland Peace Center and a veteran of 25+ years of grassroots anti-racism and anti-oppression organizing leadership, Rev. Sandhya Jha here reckons with her role as a trusted mentor/elder to younger justice activists wrestling with “complex intersections of their identity.” Emerging from her own complex, multilayered family history, Jha recognizes that genealogy can be difficult; she describes “romanticized,” “embarrassing,” “overlooked,” and “atrocious” ancestors. For those who particularly struggle with our biological lineage, we are invited to (re-)claim our cultural, movement, and spiritual ancestral “trees” as well.
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Radical Love: From Separation to Connection with the Earth, Each Other, and Ourselves
By Satish Kumar
Parallax Press, 2023, 180 pages (paper), $15.95
I heard A.J. Muste’s “There is no way to peace; peace is the way” echoed in Satish Kumar’s voice when he writes: “I have found that whatever the problem, love is the only solution.” A former childhood Jain monk, Kumar pledges to care for the Earth and humanity by replacing “Market, Money, and Materialism” with his proposed trinity of Soil, Soul, and Society. Referencing at length the global trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, he describes an opportunity to emerge collectively from this crisis with renewed consciousness centered on life, caring, sharing, and love.
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The Women’s Khutbah Book: Contemporary Sermons on Spirituality and Justice from Around the World
Edited by Fatima Seedat and Sa’diyya Shaikh
Yale University Press, 2022, 264 pages (cloth), $35.00
Featuring contributors from a dozen countries across four continents, this is described as the first published compilation of sermons by Muslim women. FOR-USA members Chaplain Rabia Terri Harris (editor of Fellowship: “This Speaking Earth”) and Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons (National Council of Elders: “God’s Command for Justice in the Qu’ran”) are amongst the 20-plus diverse voices who collectively represent a “transformation in contemporary positions on gender and religious authority.” In total, the anthology subverts the demonization of Islam as oppressive to women, and provides a fresh contribution to feminist ethics and theology.
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Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways
By Dorcas Cheng-Tozun
Broadleaf Books, 2023, 224 pages (paper), $26.99
You’ve likely taken the Myers-Briggs test, or the Enneagram, or another instrument that describes your psychological profile. If you identify as an introvert, have you found it difficult to participate in social justice campaigns — where you find networking is valued, outspokenness is privileged, and direct action skills are honored? Dorcas Cheng-Tozun reminds us that everyone has essential gifts to bring to activism, including empaths and quiet souls. She names six potential roles for “highly sensitive persons”: Connectors, Creatives, Record Keepers, Builders, Equippers, Researchers. When each person finds their place, our movements thrive.
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Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice
By Sonali Kolhatkar
City Lights Publishers, 2023, 144 pages (paper), $16.95
As an award-winning media host (KPFK Pacifica Radio, Free Speech TV), journalist (racial justice editor of Yes! Magazine), and activist (co-director, Afghan Women’s Mission), Kolhatkar works at the intersection of social movements and the news. Despite rapidly-changing demographics in the United States, she highlights the resistance by corporate media to center the voices of people of color. New, inclusive forms of storytelling are essential, and the author provides clear examples of how grassroots communities can counter this legacy of media misrepresentation and disinformation, thereby reshaping our national conversation for the common good.
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Casting Indra’s Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community
By Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Shambhala Publications, 2023, 240 pages (paper), $19.95
The language of “interbeing” popularized by Thich Nhat Hanh is evoked by the Mahayana Buddhist story of Indra’s Net, in which sparkling jewels arrayed in all directions interpenetrate in an infinitely-stretching web: whatever affects one jewel affects all. Evoking her lineages as a Buddhist teacher (Insight Meditation) and her deep knowledge of the long journey of Black liberation, Yetunde provides a clarion call for nonviolent and love-centered living in the midst of incivility, “mobbery,” and global crises. Claiming each of us as spiritual kin, Yetunde invites us into an interfaith and interwoven process of repairing our own lives and the world.
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Jackson Rising Redux: Lessons on Building the Future in the Present
Edited by Kali Akuno and Matt Meyer
PM Press, 2023, 584 pages (paper), $24.95
Is progressive change possible in the face of right-wing, racist political power? In the capital of the nation’s poorest state, a decade ago Black radical leadership launched a dramatically anti-capitalist economic model of worker-owned enterprises. Despite white supremacy’s relentless efforts to undermine this initiative, an intergenerational, cross-cultural coalition of grassroots activists has forged a remarkable strategic plan to achieve systemic change. Documented by movement tacticians Akuno and Meyer (former co-chair of FOR’s National Council), this resistance is a beacon of hope to all those seeking an end to our modern construct of late-stage capitalism.
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You Are Changing the World: Whether You Like It or Not
By David LaMotte
Chalice Press, 2023, 256 pages (paper), $19.99
Singer-songwriter David LaMotte, whose 2022 song “September Me” reached #1 on FAI’s Folk Singles chart, is passionate about nonviolent social change and grassroots community- building. Drawing on his extensive travels across six continents, LaMotte deploys his magnificent storytelling gifts to profile people who embody the transformative power of taking grassroots action. While LaMotte’s encounters with headline changemakers such as John Lewis and Pete Seeger are inspiring, he ultimately encourages us to move beyond “hero” narratives to recognize that each of us can envision a better world and take actionable steps to make that a reality.
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Fighting Better: Constructive Conflicts in America
By Louis Kriesberg
Oxford University Press, 2022, 344 pages (paper), $32.99
As founding director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts based at Syracuse University, Louis Kriesburg has studied societal tensions across the world. The current state of hyper-polarized political stress in the United States necessitates profound scrutiny. Although conflicts can be healthy – in community settings as well as individual relationships – he finds that our nation’s significant inequities in the areas of class, status, and power during the past 75 years have dramatically exacerbated our state of discord. New approaches to resolve those struggles are required, and the author suggests how we could constructively “wage peace” going forward.