Click on a title below for a detailed introduction to each book.
Blueprint for Revolution, by Srdja Popovic
“This is a book about revolutions. Not the violent kind: those usually end up soaked in the blood of innocent people. And not the type carried forth by a small group of zealots: if you wonder how those work out, curl up with a good biography of Lenin. Instead, this is a book about the kind of movements that are now sweeping through so much of the world, from Cairo’s Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street. It’s a book about the revolutions launched by ordinary people who believe that if they get together and think creatively, they can topple dictators and correct injustices.
“I had the good fortune of being one of those ordinary revolutionaries, and I traveled on a strange personal journey from a too-cool-to-care Belgrade bass guitarist to one of the leaders of Otpor!, the nonviolent movement that toppled the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević. After a brief stint as a member of the Serbian parliament, I now work as a friend and consultant to any movement, large or small, anywhere in the world, that wishes to apply the principles of nonviolent action to oppose oppression and bring about liberty, democracy, and joy. But don’t worry: this book isn’t about me. Instead, it’s about all the things I’ve learned while working with activists from Syria to Kiev, about the big ideas and the small tactics that make what I like to call “people power” such a mighty force. Because I’m no great intellectual, I’ve chosen to convey most of this information not with dry facts or dense theories but by simply telling stories of remarkable individuals and movements, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned.” (Blueprint for Revolution, Preface by Srdja Popovic)
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Chapters
Chapter I: It Can Never Happen Here
Chapter II: Dream Big, Start Small
Chapter III: Vision of Tomorrow
Chapter IV: The Almighty Pillars of Power
Chapter V: Laugh Your Way to Victory
Chapter VI: Make Oppression Backfire
Chapter VII: It’s Unity, Stupid!
Chapter VIII: Plan Your Way to Victory
Chapter IX: The Demons of Violence
Democracy Incorporated, by Sheldon Wolin
“Democracy is struggling in America — by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms ‘inverted totalitarianism’?
“Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive — and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a “managed democracy” where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today’s America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today’s politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy’s best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level.” (Overview, Princeton University Press)
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Chapters
Ch. 2: Beginnings of the Imaginary of a Permanent Global War
Ch. 4: The New World of Terror
Ch. 5: The Utopian Theory of Superpower: The Official Version
Ch. 6: The Dynamics of Transformation
Ch. 7: The Dynamics of the Archaic
Ch. 8: The Politics of Superpower: Managed Democracy
Ch. 9: Intellectual Elites against Democracy
Ch. 10: Domestic Politics in the Era of Superpower and Empire
Ch. 11: Inverted Totalitarianism: Antecedents and Precedents
Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth
“Faced with a multifaceted crisis – the capture of governments by billionaires and their lobbyists, extreme inequality, the rise of demagogues, above all the collapse of the living world – those to whom we look for leadership appear stunned, voiceless, clueless. Even if they had the courage to act, they have no idea what to do.
“The most they tend to offer is more economic growth: the fairy dust supposed to make all the bad stuff disappear. Never mind that it drives ecological destruction; that it has failed to relieve structural unemployment or soaring inequality; that, in some recent years, almost all the increment in incomes has been harvested by the top 1%. As values, principles and moral purpose are lost, the promise of growth is all that’s left.
“. . . We cannot hope to address our predicament without a new worldview. We cannot use the models that caused our crises to solve them. We need to reframe the problem. This is what the most inspiring book published so far this year has done.” (Finally, a breakthrough alternative to growth economics – the doughnut. George Monbiot, The Guardian, Wed 12 Apr 2017)
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Chapters
INTRODUCTION: Who Wants to Be an Economist?
Ch. 1: CHANGE THE GOAL – From GDP to the Doughnut
Ch. 2: SEE THE BIG PICTURE – From self-contained market to embedded economy
Ch. 3: NURTURE HUMAN NATURE – From rational economic man to social adaptable humans
Ch. 4: GET SAVVY WITH SYSTEMS – From mechanical equilibrium to dynamic complexity
Ch. 5: DESIGN TO DISTRIBUTE – From “growth will even it up again” to distributive by design
Ch. 6: CREATE TO REGENERATE – From “growth will clean it up again” to regenerative by design
Ch. 7: BE AGNOSTIC ABOUT GROWTH – From growth addicted to growth agnostic
Less is More, by Jason Hickel
“The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause. Capitalism demands perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.
“If we want to have a shot at halting the crisis, we need to slow down and restore the balance. We need to change how we see nature and our place in it, shifting from a philosophy of domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity and regeneration. We need to evolve beyond the dogmas of capitalism to a new system that’s fit for the twenty-first century.
“But what about jobs? What about health? What about progress? This book tackles these questions and offers an inspiring vision for what a post-capitalist economy could look like. An economy that’s more just, more caring, and more fun. An economy that will not only lift us out of our current crisis, but also restore our sense of connection to a world that’s brimming with life. By taking less, we can become more.” (Source: https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more)
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Chapters
INTRODUCTION: Welcome to the Anthropocene
Part One: More is Less
ONE: Capitalism – A Creation Story
THREE: Will Technology Save Us?
Part Two: Less is More
FOUR: Secrets of the Good Life
Regenerative Economics, by John B. Fullerton
“Regenerative Economics is based on the deceptively simple idea that an economic system should emulate the process and patterns that define all life, enabling it to adapt and evolve to higher levels of complexity. This science-based next evolution of economics explains the root cause of the polycrisis–the compounding impacts of climate change, ecosystem and biodiversity loss, planetary systems breakdown, and increasing social and economic inequity—and promises a hopeful pathway forward at this pivotal moment.
“Rather than reacting to crisis after crisis, the purpose of a regenerative economy is to create the conditions that nurture and sustain health and all life.
“This hard-hitting and scientifically rigorous yet ultimately hopeful book:
- Identifies the unseen fatal error of our current economic model
- Outlines a set of key regenerative design principles to navigate the polycrisis
- Prescribes transformative individual actions and policies that both embrace and move beyond current materialist ideas of sustainability, circularity, and degrowth, to redefine systemic health and true value within the context of a whole-living-systems approach
- Offers a fresh pathway through the polycrisis and toward a new economy—one that prioritizes human and planetary well-being, operates within ecological limits, and promotes a more just and sustainable future.
“This seminal work is required reading for business, government, and community leaders; economic thinkers; academics; and anyone who questions the future of capitalism in light of finite planetary boundaries and growing social injustice.” (Source: New Society Publishers)
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Chapters
PART 1
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: From a Mechanistic to a Holistic Worldview
Chapter Three: Eight Principles of Regenerative Vitality
Chapter Four: Regenerative Economies Emerging in the Real World
Chapter Five: Creating a Regenerative Civilization
PART 2
Chapter Six: Introduction—A Decade of Learning and a Theory of Change
Chapter Seven: Misunderstandings About Regeneration
Chapter Eight: The Regenerative Paradigm
Chapter Nine: Epiphany—The Missing Institution of the Commons
Chapter Ten: Regenerative Technology—An Oxymoron?
Chapter Eleven: The Finance Algorithm
Chapter Twelve: Reimagining Public Policy
Epilogue & A Call to Action
Zionism vs. Democracy, by Philippe Roussel
Zionism, the ideological backbone of the Israeli state, postulates that Jews need a country of their own to be safe. Morally dubious and politically inept, this alleged necessity defines the Zionist project as a settler colonial one.
Failing to see the supremacist nature of Zionism, Western powers have long bought into the alleged necessity of a Jewish state and that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” They have, consequently, been unwilling to oppose, other than in words, Zionism’s practical outcomes of ethnic cleansing and apartheid against Palestinians. When push comes to shove, notably since October 7, 2023, and the overtly brutal policy of Palestinian eradication that ensued, they prefer accusing their own citizens of “antisemitism” for denouncing the Zionist fallacy and its subsequent crimes.
To justify the domination of some over others, Zionism constantly refers to Israel’s “right to exist,” as if the right of states could ultimately be anything other than the right of people. No more than with other countries that were originally founded as colonies, it is not, therefore, the existence of Israel that is at stake, but the idiocy of assuming that the latter can be both a democracy and a colony. The only thing that faces an “existential threat” is the idea of Jewish supremacy and exclusive rights over historical Palestine. As for Israel, the country can only survive for generations to come by respecting Palestinians’ right to freedom, justice, and self-determination. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Principles eventually prevail, and empires die.
Western powers could and should remind their “ally” and “only democracy in the region” that if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 is to mean something, it is by… its universality. Being unable to recognize human traits in the children of Gaza and to stop an avowed genocide is not just an abysmal moral failure on their part; it is the undermining of democracy itself. These powers, unfortunately, have long been accustomed to following Israeli propaganda in the dehumanization of Palestinians and simply lack the political courage to abide by principles.
Power games are what they are, and the task of protecting justice and freedom for all ultimately falls on the first concerned: ordinary citizens. This book is for all those willing to think critically and thus save democracy at its core.
Philippe Roussel
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Chapters
PART 1: GAZA – A CASE STUDY
Us and Them
“War”?
Committing Genocide
- Schizophrenic Minds
- What is Genocide?
- Israel’s Intent
- The Banality of Evil
The Colonial Drive
- Colonial Mindset
- The Garden and the Jungle
- “They hate us more than they love their children”
- The Nazification of Israeli Society
PART 2: ZIONISM
[Upcoming]
PART 3: DEMOCRACY
[Upcoming]