What titles would you recommend for understanding this current moment we are living in?
It can be history, social commentary, law, fiction, anything. I want to understand how we got here any how to fix it or at least be someone who adds to the solution.
I found that reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall drastically changed my view on the world and geo-politics, actually for the better. It is very well written, and each chapter explores a different part of the world, and breaks down how it is shaped by its geography. The most interesting non-fiction i’ve ever read.
CrobuzonCitizen on
The full text of Project 2025.
NANNYNEGLEY on
The Emperor’s New Clothes.
Heavy_Direction1547 on
1984
National-Rhubarb-384 on
Nonfiction:
* Wild Faith, by Talia Lavin
* Doppelgänger, by Naomi Klein
* Why We’re Polarized, by Ezra Klein
* If you have any connection to NYC, The Power Broker, by Robert A Caro, is a must-read
Fiction (comes with a looser definition of “understanding the current moment,” but still feels relevant):
* Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
* Babel, by R F Kuang
* The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson (caveat: I’m not sure how much I actually liked this book, but it sure is one helluva thought experiment)
* The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
Honeyful-Air on
The Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. It shows how a small number of influencers used confusion and lies to mask the scientific consensus on things like lung cancer and climate change, and how that same playbook continues to be used in so many other ways.
phxsunswoo on
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.
Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch.
Obviously everyone understands our moment differently but these were written 40 years ago and describe some trends that I think have been accurate.
Oficjalny_Krwiopijca on
_Power and Progress_ by Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu (part of the Nobel prize in Economics 2024)
_Capital in 21st century_ and _Capital and ideology_ by Thomas Piketty
_Wealth without borders_ by Brooke Harrington
_The poverty of historicism_ by Karl Popper
_We have never been woke_ by Musa al-Gharbi
_Why we’re polarized_ by Ezra Klein
_Democracy might not exist but we’ll miss it when it’s gone_ by Astra Taylor
_Strongmen_ by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Puzzleheaded-Baby998 on
On tyranny – Timothy D. Snyder
Sure_Ad_5454 on
Extraordinary Popular Delusions of Our Times by Daniel Martin.
It touches on the many financial, cultural, health, political, and religious delusions surrounding us today.
nycvhrs on
Greenhouse Summer – Norman Spinrad
failedtheologian on
Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century by Helen Thompson
Successful-Try-8506 on
Peter Zeihan: The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
Amseriah on
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
fireflypoet on
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
1984 by George Orwell.
TexturesOfEther on
On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization by Douglas Murray
well awaited, to be published next month
fireflypoet on
The 1619 Project
TaraMayFlan on
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder, and his new one, On Freedom
fireflypoet on
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
kottabaz on
*The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America* by Timothy Snyder
*Bullshit Jobs: A Theory* by David Graeber
*Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right* by Jane Mayer
*Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class* by Ian Haney-Lopez
*An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy* by Marc Levinson
This one may seem odd, but:
*The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America* by Allan M. Brandt
tehwoodguy2 on
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-1945. Milton Mayer.
hmmwhatsoverhere on
*Liberalism* by Domenico Losurdo
*Not a nation of immigrants* by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
*Washington bullets* by Vijay Prashad
*Blackshirts and reds* by Michael Parenti
*What is antiracism and why it means anticapitalism* by Arun Kundnani
*Black against empire* by Bloom and Martin
*Red deal* by Red Nation
*Becoming kin* by Patty Krawec
I’ve roughly arranged these in order from *how we got here* at the start to *how to fix it* at the end, with a spectrum in the middle.
ClimateTraditional40 on
I’m not overly disappointed with the current moment.Understand? Democracy is way better than the feudal life or some of the other lands/cultures history and some even now – North Korea for instance.
Democracy is how it’s changed too.
The Origins of Political Order, From Prehuman Times, by Francis Fukuyama
The History of Government: Empires, Monarchies, and the Modern State, Samuel E. Finer
Sigh…we are not all in America you know.
OldOnionKnight on
Fiction: 1984 or Fahrenheit 451
Nonfiction: In the Garden of Beasts
captain-ignotus on
Probably anything by Naomi Klein
letssubmerge on
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis provides great context for how the world we live in happened.
grynch43 on
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
blueCthulhuMask on
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. You can’t understand the world today without some history.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. A lot of what’s harrowing in the US now is what the US has done to other countries. I would suggest The Jakarta Method for similar reasons.
ClaireHux on
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
It discusses the importance of some of our most influential government agencies and the repercussions of not fully understanding them and specifically addresses the ineptitude of the 45 administration. It really is a frightening revelation and is very much a reality now.
30 Comments
I found that reading Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall drastically changed my view on the world and geo-politics, actually for the better. It is very well written, and each chapter explores a different part of the world, and breaks down how it is shaped by its geography. The most interesting non-fiction i’ve ever read.
The full text of Project 2025.
The Emperor’s New Clothes.
1984
Nonfiction:
* Wild Faith, by Talia Lavin
* Doppelgänger, by Naomi Klein
* Why We’re Polarized, by Ezra Klein
* If you have any connection to NYC, The Power Broker, by Robert A Caro, is a must-read
Fiction (comes with a looser definition of “understanding the current moment,” but still feels relevant):
* Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
* Babel, by R F Kuang
* The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson (caveat: I’m not sure how much I actually liked this book, but it sure is one helluva thought experiment)
* The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
The Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. It shows how a small number of influencers used confusion and lies to mask the scientific consensus on things like lung cancer and climate change, and how that same playbook continues to be used in so many other ways.
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.
Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch.
Obviously everyone understands our moment differently but these were written 40 years ago and describe some trends that I think have been accurate.
_Power and Progress_ by Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu (part of the Nobel prize in Economics 2024)
_Capital in 21st century_ and _Capital and ideology_ by Thomas Piketty
_Wealth without borders_ by Brooke Harrington
_The poverty of historicism_ by Karl Popper
_We have never been woke_ by Musa al-Gharbi
_Why we’re polarized_ by Ezra Klein
_Democracy might not exist but we’ll miss it when it’s gone_ by Astra Taylor
_Strongmen_ by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
On tyranny – Timothy D. Snyder
Extraordinary Popular Delusions of Our Times by Daniel Martin.
It touches on the many financial, cultural, health, political, and religious delusions surrounding us today.
Greenhouse Summer – Norman Spinrad
Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century by Helen Thompson
Peter Zeihan: The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
1984 by George Orwell.
On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization by Douglas Murray
well awaited, to be published next month
The 1619 Project
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder, and his new one, On Freedom
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
*The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America* by Timothy Snyder
*Bullshit Jobs: A Theory* by David Graeber
*Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right* by Jane Mayer
*Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class* by Ian Haney-Lopez
*An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy* by Marc Levinson
This one may seem odd, but:
*The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America* by Allan M. Brandt
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-1945. Milton Mayer.
*Liberalism* by Domenico Losurdo
*Not a nation of immigrants* by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
*The Jakarta method* by Vincent Bevins
*Washington bullets* by Vijay Prashad
*Blackshirts and reds* by Michael Parenti
*What is antiracism and why it means anticapitalism* by Arun Kundnani
*Black against empire* by Bloom and Martin
*Red deal* by Red Nation
*Becoming kin* by Patty Krawec
I’ve roughly arranged these in order from *how we got here* at the start to *how to fix it* at the end, with a spectrum in the middle.
I’m not overly disappointed with the current moment.Understand? Democracy is way better than the feudal life or some of the other lands/cultures history and some even now – North Korea for instance.
Democracy is how it’s changed too.
The Origins of Political Order, From Prehuman Times, by Francis Fukuyama
The History of Government: Empires, Monarchies, and the Modern State, Samuel E. Finer
Sigh…we are not all in America you know.
Fiction: 1984 or Fahrenheit 451
Nonfiction: In the Garden of Beasts
Probably anything by Naomi Klein
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis provides great context for how the world we live in happened.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. You can’t understand the world today without some history.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. A lot of what’s harrowing in the US now is what the US has done to other countries. I would suggest The Jakarta Method for similar reasons.
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
It discusses the importance of some of our most influential government agencies and the repercussions of not fully understanding them and specifically addresses the ineptitude of the 45 administration. It really is a frightening revelation and is very much a reality now.
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder