By Sade Collier, Fall 2024 intern

 

‘Tis the season for gifting books. To close out the year, we’re highlighting eleven books published in 2024 that received starred reviews. Find below a progressive gift guide or reading list for you and your loved ones, ranging from titles on how Appalachia became a hotbed for right-wing politics to sustainability apartheid and more.

 

 

 

War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine by Norman Solomon

 

“A powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.” –Kirkus Reviews  (starred review)

 

In this powerful exposé that humanizes those viewed as collateral in America's perpetual state of war, progressive media critic Norman Solomon sheds light on military abstractions and the media malpractice that produce profound human consequences at home and abroad. Now in paperback with a new afterword by the author about the Gaza war, Solomon reminds us what it means to be human despite the brutal obscurity of the American war machine. 

 

You can read an excerpt of War Made Invisible in The Nation and a starred review in Kirkus Reviews. 

 

 

 

Won’t Lose This Dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System by Andrew Gumbel

 

“Gumbel relies on clear analysis and rich anecdotes to explain how one school helped its students thrive. A superb work for anyone interested in higher education.”–Library Journal (starred review)

 

New in paperback, Won’t Lose This Dream shares the story of how Georgia State University has revolutionized higher education for lower-income and first-generation students in the American South. At a time when affirmative action and other resources intended to uplift historically oppressed groups are challenged, Andrew Gumbel has delivered a remarkable example of how a vision and dedication to subverting obstacles can provide the scaffolding for social mobility for younger generations. 

 

You can read an excerpt from Won’t Lose This Dream on our blog and a starred review of the book in Library Journal. 

 

 

The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual by Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider 

 

“Berkshire and Schneider do a fabulous job highlighting hypocrisy . . . while concisely cataloging the billionaires and think tanks funding this fight. It’s an invaluable primer on what’s motivating the public education culture wars.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

The culture war has likely arrived at a school near you. From banned books to free speech challenges, schools have become political battlegrounds where extremist groups and state capitalists are destabilizing the public education system as we know it. Journalist Jennifer C. Berkshire and education scholar Jack Schneider chart a way forward for public schools in The Education Wars. 

 

You can read an excerpt from The Education Wars in The Nation and a starred review of the book in Publishers Weekly. 

 

 

An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America by Jonathan Kozol  

 

“An inspired and insightful analysis of race-based challenges in the American school system.”–Kirkus Reviews  (starred review)

 

New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kozol passionately argues for educational reparations in An End to Inequality. Throughout his career, Kozol has recognized that two separate worlds of education exist and believes that it is time to focus on equity in schools to ensure that each child is accorded a comprehensive education alongside their peers. 

 

You can read an excerpt adapted from An End To Inequality in The Nation and a starred review of the book in Kirkus Reviews.

 

 

Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James W. Loewen and Nate Powell 

 

“Powell’s characteristically fluid art lends new depth... Long favorite of radical educators, Loewen’s original text receives the vital and accessible adaptation it deserves.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

The multi-million copy bestselling corrective to American history myths—applauded by the late Howard Zinn—is now out in a graphic adaptation. Lies My Teacher Told Me is a literary cultural landmark that retells American history through a biting honest lens and critique of existing textbooks. 

 

You can read a starred review of Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation in Publishers Weekly.

 

 

Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor by Anne Kim 

 

“Kim delves into the behind-the-scenes happenings... like bail bondsmen organizing to oppose bail reform and private companies donating to political campaigns to defeat regulations... Readers will be intrigued by this well-researched book.”–Booklist  (starred review)

 

“An electrifying unmasking of appalling violations of public trust”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

Poverty is big business in America. In this searing exposé on the “corporate poverty complex,” journalist Anne Kim investigates how the private sector profits from regulating the lives of the poor. Kim unearths another dimension of structural inequality in American society enacted by powerful industry players that thrive off infiltrating health care, housing, criminal justice, and nutrition.

 

You can read an excerpt of Poverty for Profit on our blog and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. 

 

 

Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal by Melissa B. Jacoby 

 

“Jacoby’s assured prose brings extraordinary clarity to an intentionally opaque and labyrinthine system. It's an eye-opening look at the laws that undergird American inequality.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

Melissa B. Jacoby’s debut book Unjust Debts was named a Best Summer Book in Economics by the Financial Times. A legal scholar and expert in bankruptcy and debt, Jacoby writes that the bankruptcy system accentuates social and economic inequalities. She shows how corporate and state actors benefit from this system while ordinary people face the brunt of its woes. Unjust Debts received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, calling the book “an eye-opening look at the laws that undergird American inequality.”  

 

You can read an excerpt from Unjust Debts in Porchlight Books and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. 

 

 

We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, Edited by Dahr Jamil and Stan Rushworth  

 

“Insights like these, and dozens more, deserve deep attention and will hopefully spur readers into action to save the planet and themselves.”–Booklist (starred review)

 

“A refreshingly unique and incredibly informative collection of vital Indigenous wisdom.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 

Out in paperback since April, We Are the Middle of Forever places Indigenous voices at the center of conversations about today’s environmental crisis. We Are the Middle of Forever encourages us to challenge despair arising from the climate crisis with Indigenous knowledge based on generations of experience adapting and persevering civilizational devastation. 

 

You can read an excerpt from We Are the Middle of Forever in Lit Hub and a starred review of the book in Kirkus Reviews. 

 

 

The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists by Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan 

 

“A scathing critique... readers will come away more savvy and empowered.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

From Venice Beach, Los Angeles, to Neom in Saudia Arabia and beyond, authors Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan examine in The Sustainability Class how wealthy “progressive” urbanites are making cities more unsustainable and inaccessible to the working class. Terms such as “sustainability apartheid” and “lifestyle environmentalism” anchor their argument that elites have once again co-opted a revolutionary movement to prioritize capital. Nonetheless, Kolinjivadi and Vansintjan explore how sustainability practices can be reclaimed by the people and how we can fight to save our planet. 

 

You can read an op-ed on the rise of the “sustainability class” by the authors in Newsweek and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. 

 

 

Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild  

 

“A piercing... impressive and nuanced assessment of a critical factor in American politics.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

National Book Award finalist and bestselling author Arlie Russell Hochschild returns in Stolen Pride with an exploration of the relationship between pride and politics. Hochschild studied America’s whitest and second-poorest congressional district—Pikeville, Kentucy, in the heart of Appalachia—and discovered that what used to be a politically centric town now has a predominantly far-right electorate. With the recent re-election of Donald Trump, the release of Stolen Pride awakened a much-needed discussion on why nationalism appeals to the white working-class and how we move forward from this shifting political landscape. 

 

You can read an excerpt from Stolen Pride in Mother Jones and a starred review of the book in Publishers Weekly.

 

 

Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women’s Speeches from the Civil War to the Twenty-first Century by Janet Dewart Bell 

 

“A book to read, reread, use as a reference, share, explain, and inspire the continuing struggles of Black women to achieve wholeness for themselves, their communities, and their society.”–Library Journal (starred review)

 

When Mary Ann Shadd Cary—the first Black woman publisher in North America—declared, “break every yoke . . . let the oppressed go free” to congregants in Chatham, Canada, in 1858, she joined a tradition of African American women speaking for their own liberation. This uplifting collection of political speeches by African American women celebrates Black women’s rich history of activism and labor, allowing their voices and powerful visions to speak across generations building power for the world. 

 

You can read an excerpt of Blackbirds Singing here and a starred review of the book in Library Journal.