Politics & Government

Heartland (2018) is both a memoir of Sarah Smarsh’s upbringing in rural Kansas as the daughter of working-class people and an exploration of the class system in America today. The book is subtitled: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth; this hits the core of the book, as Smarsh seeks to use her family’s anecdotes and memories to get to the truth of why mostly honest, hardworking people... Read Heartland Summary

Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule, by Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi, was published in 1909 and inspires people in India to work for independence from British colonial control. The book outlines Gandhi’s critique of Britain’s domination of India; it urges the Indian people to reject English customs, laws, and industry in favor of traditional Indian ways. Gandhi also encourages India to reject armed conflict and instead adopt a policy of nonviolent, passive resistance.Hind Swaraj is... Read Hind Swaraj Summary

Historian Joseph J. Ellis was fascinated by George Washington ever since Ellis’ boyhood in Alexandria, Virginia, where Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon, is located and his historical presence was strongly felt. By the time Ellis wrote His Excellency: George Washington in 2004, he had already produced several popular books about early American history. His Excellency is a more intimate biography of Washington than many previously written, focusing as much on the subject’s character as on his... Read His Excellency: George Washington Summary

The History of the Peloponnesian War, also known as Histories, recounts the war between the Athenian alliance (called the Delian League by modern historians) and Sparta and its allies (called the Peloponnesian League by modern historians), which took place from 431-404 BC. Composed in the 5th century BC by Thucydides (c. 460-400), it is the first attempt to apply empirical research and analysis to understanding contemporaneous human events. For this reason, the text is inextricably... Read History of the Peloponnesian War Summary

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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015) is a work of popular science by Israeli writer, professor, and futurist Yuval Noah Harari. Published in multiple languages, it is a continuation of the work of Harari’s previous book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. While Sapiens contextualized the advents of modernity within humans’ evolutionary legacy, Homo Deus speculates about what lies in wait for humanity in the distant future. Harari grounds his discussion in an... Read Homo Deus Summary

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How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018) is a nonfiction book by political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The authors, who are both professors at Harvard, explore how American democracy is threatened by examining past examples of democratic breakdown. In doing so, they demonstrate how since the end of the Cold War, most democracies die not through violent overthrow of government but a gradual weakening of democratic norms and institutions. Using these insights from history, as... Read How Democracies Die Summary

How Does It Feel to Be A Problem: Being Young and Arab in America (2008) is a nonfiction text by Brooklyn College English professor and Arab-American Moustafa Bayoumi. The title comes from W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1903 text, The Souls of Black Folk, wherein he directed this question toward the African-American experience. Following the stories of seven young ArabAmericans living in Brooklyn, and including their struggles after the 9/11 attacks, Bayoumi’s book suggests that present-day ArabAmericans absorb the... Read How Does It Feel to Be A Problem Summary

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How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us Versus Them is a nonfiction book published in 2018 by the American philosopher and Yale University professor Jason Stanley. In it, the author discusses ten mechanisms by which fascist politicians gain and consolidate power in democratic states, potentially yielding a fascist state with an absolute leader. Drawing on examples that range from Nazi Germany to the contemporary United States, Stanley explains the appeal of fascist ideology during times... Read How Fascism Works Summary

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How to Be an Antiracist is a nonfiction book by Ibram X. Kendi, a writer and historian of African American History and the founder of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center. Published in 2019, this New York Times best seller proposes antiracist strategies individuals can employ to transform racist policies. This study guide refers to the Kindle edition of the book.How to Be an Antiracist sets out to define antiracist work as a set of... Read How to Be an Antiracist Summary

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