Social Justice Book List

The following books have been recommended by members and friends. Have a recommendation? Send it to us!

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, 2015, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.  The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples.

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, 2024,  Jason Stanley. It’s a fairly short audiobook available on Libby.

Hope: The Autobiography, 2025. Pope Francis acknowledges that “many people today, for various reasons, seem not to believe that a happy future is possible,” but he goes on to say, “These fears are to be taken seriously but are not invincible… In place of living in fear, he encourages all people, but explicitly and especially Christians, to go out, form community, to be “restless and joyous,” and to find happiness and hope in “encounter[s] with others.”

How We Learn to Be Brave, 2023, Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C.  shares what she’s learned about those pivot points when we’re called on to push past our fears and act with strength, which she demonstrated again in her sermon to the incoming administration on Inauguration Day 2025.

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, 2018. Jason Stanley, whose parents were refugees of Nazi Germany, describes strategies employed by fascist regimes, which includes normalizing the "intolerable".

How to Stand Up to a Dictator, Maria Ressa, 2022. From the recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize comes an impassioned and inspiring memoir that chronicles her career fighting fascism in the Philippines, filled with insights and advice for standing against authoritarian bullies and confronting disinformation and lies. Foreword by Amal Clooney.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, 2021. Timothy Snyder’s short (126 pages) book is presented as a series of twenty instructions on how to combat the rise of tyranny, such as "Defend institutions," "Remember professional ethics," and "Believe in truth."

The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies, 2025, Susan C. Stokes. Focus on the US, with international examples. What is democracy erosion and what is the autocrat’s “playbook” -- Plan 2025? Why is it happening? The power of polarization and “trash talk,” and why “normal people believe crazy claims.” Last and not least, a comprehensive list of strategies to stop and reverse erosion.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, 1951. Eric Hoffer. Published in 1951, but very relevant to our current situation. Hoffer explores the mind of the fanatic, why and how an individual becomes one. He considers his finest work to be The Ordeal of Change, which explores how human societies and individuals cope with, and are transformed by, drastic social, economic, and political changes. Hoffer’s biography is also fascinating!

White Women: Everything You Already Know about Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, 2022, Saira Rao and Regina Jackson. It’s a tough read, but even if you just read the last chapter, it has helpful tips.

White Women, Get Ready: How Healing Post-Traumatic Mistress Syndrome Leads to Anti-Racist Change, 2024.  Amanda K. Gross is a local author and organizer.