A Suggested Reading List For Those Interested In Issues of Social Justice And Poverty


Karl Krayer and I will soon complete our 13th full year of hosting the First Friday Book Synopsis.  At each of our monthly meetings, Karl and I each present a synopsis of a best selling business book.

For nearly half that time, I have also presented synopses every month for the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare (formerly Central Dallas Ministries).  And just as people ask me about the best/most important business books, people also ask me about the best/most important social justice & poverty books.

Let me state the obvious – reading one book helps you a little, but reading a series of books, covering an important arena, builds a body of knowledge, and helps you know how to think, and then, what to do.

If social justice and poverty concern you, here’s a short list of books to put in your reading stack.  Read these, and you will begin to build that body of knowledge.

 

 Read this book A comment, or two
How to get started…  Start here! The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 

 

 Yes, that The Grapes of Wrath (1939).  Just to grasp the human struggle of severe poverty.  Everyone should read this in their adult years!
To understand the plight of the working poor Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich went “undercover” before Undercover Boss was ever conceived.
To go a little deeper into the plight of the working poor The Working Poor: (Invisible in America) by David K. Shipler Shipler is a Pulitzer Prize winner – and this is gripping, and sad.
To think about unequal education The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol Or – read his earlier book, Savage Inequalities.  Actually, read this one first…
So, what to do How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein Comprehensive – helpful, useful!

To build optimism

The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems by Richard T. Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin

Some encouraging success stories.  The Sternins were used as a success story in the book Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

 

Of course, there are many worthy, valuable books not listed here.  If you compiled your own list, it would be different.  But I think this is a pretty good list to start with.

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