Read So History Doesn't Repeat, Rhyme, or Echo

On Topic Reading

This is a Paragraph. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start editing the content and make sure to add any relevant details or information that you want to share with your visitors.

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress is a major new collection of essays on American history, class, immigration, justice, and ordinary citizens who have made a difference. Zinn addresses America's current political/ethical crisis using lessons learned from our nation’s history. Zinn brings a profoundly human, yet uniquely American perspective to each subject he writes about, whether it’s the abolition of war, terrorism, the Founding Fathers, the Holocaust, defending the rights of immigrants, or personal liberties. Written in an accessible, personal tone, Zinn approaches the telling of U.S. history from an active, engaged point of view. "America's future is linked to how we understand our past,” writes Zinn; "For this reason, writing about history, for me, is never a neutral act."

Carceral Capitalism

Essays on the contemporary continuum of incarceration: the biopolitics of juvenile delinquency, predatory policing, the political economy of fees and fines, and algorithmic policing.

The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

The Cross of Redemption is a revelation by an American literary master: a gathering of essays, articles, polemics, reviews, and interviews that have never before appeared in book form.

James Baldwin was one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century, renowned for his fierce engagement with issues haunting our common history. In The Cross of Redemption we have Baldwin discoursing on, among other subjects, the possibility of an African-American president and what it might mean; the hypocrisy of American religious fundamentalism; the black church in America; the trials and tribulations of black nationalism; anti-Semitism; the blues and boxing; Russian literary masters; and the role of the writer in our society.

Prophetic and bracing, The Cross of Redemption is a welcome and important addition to the works of a cosmopolitan and canonical American writer who still has much to teach us about race, democracy, and personal and national identity. As Michael Ondaatje has remarked, “If van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, Baldwin [was] our twentieth-century one.”

Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness? This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police. Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement's treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting, as well as specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young black men using police informant and the failure of Chicago's much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe. Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cantú, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself “the angriest Black man in America” relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.
An established classic of modern America, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” was hailed by the New York Times as “Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book.” Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcom X’s life into his legacy. The strength of his words, the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

The New Republic Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment , is a deeply researched—and deeply disturbing—history of guns and gun laws in the United States, from the original colonization of the country to the present. As historian and educator Dunbar-Ortiz explains, in order to understand the current obstacles to gun control, we must understand the history of U.S. guns, from their role in the "settling of America" and the early formation of the new nation, and continuing up to the present.

“Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Loaded is like a blast of fresh air. She is no fan of guns or of our absurdly permissive laws surrounding them. But she does not merely take the liberal side of the familiar debate.”–Adam Hochschild, The New York Review of Books

“If . . . anyone at all really wants to ‘get to the root causes of gun violence in America, ‘ they will need to start by coming to terms with even a fraction of what Loaded proposes.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Her analysis, erudite and unrelenting, exposes blind spots not just among conservatives, but, crucially, among liberals as well. . . . As a portrait of the deepest structures of American violence, Loaded is an indispensable book.”–The New Republic

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

The Anatomy of Fascism

What is fascism? Many authors have proposed definitions, but most fail to move beyond the abstract. The esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time by focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did, rather than what they said. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up “enemies of the state,” through Mussolini’s rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and not others, and explores whether fascism could exist outside the early-twentieth-century European setting in which it emerged.

The Anatomy of Fascism will have a lasting impact on our understanding of modern European history, just as Paxton’s classic Vichy France redefined our vision of World War II. Based on a lifetime of research, this compelling and important book transforms our knowledge of fascism–“the major political innovation of the twentieth century, and the source of much of its pain.”

What Is Fascism? From the Anatomy of Fascism

Based on a lifetime’s worth of research, esteemed historian Robert Paxton explores what fascism is and how it has come to have a lasting and continued impact on our history. In the concluding section of his authoritative book, The Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton makes the convincing and radical case that existing definitions of the popular, nationalist, and conservative political view are lacking, and offers up his own brilliant explication—drawn from concrete historical actions—thus transforming our understanding of this dangerous ideology and of why it takes hold when and where it does.

Three Faces of Fascism.(Fascists)(The Anatomy of Fascism)(The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to ... An article from: World Policy Journal

"Three Faces of Fascism" by Ernst Nolte analyzes the ideologies of Action Française, Italian Fascism, and National Socialism, exploring how these movements, despite their differences, shared fundamental fascist characteristics.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Three Faces of Fascism (Nolte):

This book, published in 1963, examines three key fascist movements: Action Française (France), Italian Fascism (led by Mussolini), and National Socialism (Germany, led by Hitler).

Action Française:

This French ultranationalist movement, while not as widely known as Italian or German fascism, is included by Nolte as a key example of fascist ideology.
Italian Fascism:

This movement, led by Benito Mussolini, is explored in detail, including the circumstances of Mussolini's rise to power and his transformation from a Marxist to a strike-breaker.
National Socialism:

The book also examines the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, exploring the circumstances of their rise to power and the nature of their ideology.
Nolte's Argument:

Nolte argues that these three movements, despite their differences, share fundamental fascist characteristics, including a rejection of democracy, a focus on national unity, and a willingness to use violence to achieve political goals.
"The Seduction of Unreason" (Wolin):

This book by Richard Wolin explores the intellectual origins of fascism, arguing that it was not simply a political phenomenon but also a cultural and intellectual one.
"Fascists" (Mann):

Michael Mann's book, "Fascists," offers a sociological analysis of fascist movements, examining their social bases and the factors that led to their rise to power.
"The Anatomy of Fascism" (Paxton):

Robert O. Paxton's book, "The Anatomy of Fascism," provides a comprehensive analysis of the key characteristics of fascist ideology, including its emphasis on nationalism, militarism, and authoritarianism.
Controversy:

Nolte's work has been controversial, with some critics arguing that he downplays the unique aspects of Nazism and the Holocaust.
Relevance:

The rise of right-wing movements in Europe has made the study of fascism and its intellectual origins more relevant than ever.

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—Jelani Cobb, New Yorker staff writer

“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • With a new preface • A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States long before Donald Trump.

Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include

• exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past
• propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves
• anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts
• law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals
• fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare

These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.

By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism.

On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institutions to the height of power.

Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.”

Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.

Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.

Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.

That effort worked—tongue and groove—alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection.

At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court.

None of it went as planned.

While the scheme has been remembered in history—if at all—as the work of fringe players, in reality, it involved a large number of some of the country’s most influential elected officials. Their interference in law enforcement efforts against the plot is a dark story of the rule of law bending and then breaking under the weight of political intimidation.

That failure of the legal system had consequences. The tentacles of that unslain beast have reached forward into our history for decades. But the heroic efforts of the activists, journalists, prosecutors, and regular citizens who sought to expose the insurrectionists also make for a deeply resonant, deeply relevant tale in our own disquieting times.

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

In this classic study, Reich provides insight into the phenomenon of fascism, which continues to ravage the international community in ways great and small.

Drawing on his medical experiences with men and women of various classes, races, nations, and religious beliefs, Reich refutes the still generally held notion that fascism is a specific characteristic of certain nationalities or a political party ideology that is imposed on innocent people by means of force or political maneuvers. "Fascism on only the organized political expression of the structure of the average man's character. It is the basic emotional civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception of life."—Wilhelm Reich

Responsibility for the elimination of fascism thus results with the masses of average people who might otherwise support and champion it.

Diary of a Man in Despair

Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, a Prussian aristocrat, began a secret diary in May 1936, which describes how a psychosis enveloped an entire society, enabling Hitler's rise to power, and the Nazi regime. His insider observations are set down with passion, with outrage, and almost unbearable sadness.

It Can't Happen Here

Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem

Now published in one paperback volume, these three mysteries are exciting and insightful looks at life inside Nazi Germany -- richer and more readable than most histories of the period. We first meet ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in 1936, in March Violets (a term of derision which original Nazis used to describe late converts.) The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. In The Pale Criminal, it's 1938, and Gunther has been blackmailed into rejoining the police by Heydrich himself. And in A German Requiem, the saddest and most disturbing of the three books, it's 1947 as Gunther stumbles across a nightmare landscape that conceals even more death than he imagines.

The Handmaid's Tale

The Testaments

The Box Set

Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

The Diary Of Anne Frank And Related Readings (Literature Connections)

The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism

The Psychology Of American Fascism: The Triumph Of The Authoritarian Id In Post-Christian USA

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Fascism in America: Past and Present

Now a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. The Handmaid's Tale is an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" ( New York Times ) The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men in its population. The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid’s Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and a tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best.

Fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within.

At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up on opposite sides of the border: one in Gilead as the privileged daughter of an important Commander, and one in Canada, where she marches in anti-Gilead protests and watches news of its horrors on TV. The testimonies of these two young women, part of the first generation to come of age in the new order, are braided with a third voice: that of one of the regime's enforcers, a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. Long-buried secrets are what finally bring these three together, forcing each of them to come to terms with who she is and how far she will go for what she believes. As Atwood unfolds the stories of the women of The Testaments, she opens up our view of the innermost workings of Gilead in a triumphant blend of riveting suspense, blazing wit, and virtuosic world-building.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War and the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s Commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive.

In The Testaments, set more than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the Republic of Gilead maintains its repressive grip on power, but it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women come together, with potentially explosive results.

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."

Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.

The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.

Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.

This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.

Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.

Renowned psychoanalyst and social philosopher Erich Fromm examines the causes and effects of people’s violent tendencies in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.

In this provocative book, the distinguished author writes to break the deadlock argued about the roots of human nature by exploring the struggle between the instinctivism of Konrad Lorenz and behavior psychologist B. F. Skinner: are people inherently antagonistic or do people learn hostility from their environment and the actions of those around them?

Drawing from neurophysiology and anthropology studies and findings, Fromm presents fascinating ideas about how the human character and condition developed—and continues to develop—in contemporary society.

“A book by Erich Fromm is always intelligent and contains much of interest and insight, and this one is no exception.”—The New York Times

Frances Goodrich was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her husband in 1956 for The Diary of Anne Frank which had premiered the previous year.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is an intimate account of the Holocaust and the unbreakable spirit of a young girl forced into hiding. A difficult but necessary read, this diary illustrates the life of a brilliant girl whose life was taken too soon.

THE DEFINITIVE EDITION - Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, the remarkable diary that has become a world classic--a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

Updated for the 75th Anniversary of the Diary's first publication with a new introduction by Nobel Prize-winner Nadia Murad

"The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust ... remains astonishing and excruciating."--The New York Times Book Review

In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

The candid, poignant, unforgettable writing of the young girl whose own life story has become an everlasting source of courage and inspiration.

Hiding from the Nazis in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building in Amsterdam, a thirteen-year-old girl named Anne Frank became a writer. The now famous diary of her private life and thoughts reveals only part of Anne’s story, however. This book rounds out the portrait of this remarkable and talented young author.

Newly translated, complete, and restored to the original order in which Anne herself wrote them in her notebook, Tales from the Secret Annex is a collection of Anne Frank’s lesser-known writings: short stories, fables, personal reminiscences, and an unfinished novel, Cady’s Life.

What’s the relationship between combating the far right and
working for systemic change? What does it mean when fascists intensify
racial oppression and patriarchy but also call for the downfall of
economic elites or even take up arms against the state?

Three way fight politics confront these urgent questions squarely, arguing that the far right grows out of an oppressive capitalist order but is also in conflict with it in real ways, and that radicals need to combat both. The three way fight approach says we need sharper analysis of far-right movements so we can fight them more effectively, and we also need to track ongoing developments within the ruling class, including liberal or centrist efforts to co-opt antifascism as a tool of state repression and system legitimation.

This book offers an introduction to three way fight politics, with more than thirty essays, position statements, and interviews from the Three Way Fight website and elsewhere, spanning from the antifascist struggles of the 1980s and 1990s to the political upheavals of the twenty-first century. Over fifteen authors explore a range of topics, such as fascist politics’ relationship with patriarchy and settler colonialism, Tom Metzger’s “Third Position” (anticapitalist) fascism, conflict within the business community over the 2016 presidential election, and the Trump administration’s shifting relationship with the organized far right. Many of the writings address issues of political strategy, such as tensions between radicals and liberals within the reproductive rights movement and the George Floyd rebellion, video gaming as an arena of political struggle, and the importance (and challenges) of approaching antifascist organizing in ways that are militant, community based, and nonsectarian.

This book looks at the last two centuries of world history, and especially the last four decades of American history, from a psycho-dynamic or neo-Freudian perspective. It shows how Freud, Darwin and Marx laid the foundation for World War II and how the latter two, with the aid of psychological humanism in the press, government and our schools secularizing the American mind, set the stage for the complete triumph of liberal fascism in all facets of daily life.

From Yale professor and bestselling author of How Fascism Works, a searing confrontation with the authoritarian right’s efforts to annihilate public education, silence teachers, and use taxpayer money to undo a century of work to advance social justice action on race, gender, sexuality, and class.Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our modern political landscape, Erasing History issues a dire warning for America and the the worst fascist movements of humanity’s past began in schools; the same place so many of today’s right-wing political parties have trained their most vicious attacks. Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recip Erdogan, and Argentina’s Javier Milei have all reached the same if you want to roll back the clock on civil rights, equity, and inclusion, a great place to start is in our schools. Yale professor Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the right’s tactics and traces their inspirations and funding back to some of the most dangerous ideas of human history. He shows that hearts and minds are won in our elementary schools, high schools, and universities—and that governments are currently ill-prepared to do the work of uprooting fascist policies being foisted upon our children through school boards, in courtrooms, and in the boardrooms of the companies trusted to train our teachers and create the materials they’ll share with their students. Deeply informed and urgently needed, this book is a vibrant call to action for lovers of democracy worldwide.

As long as there has been fascism, there has been anti-fascism—also known as "antifa." Born out of resistance to Mussolini and Hitler in Europe during the 1920s and '30s, the antifa movement has suddenly burst into the headlines amidst opposition to the Trump administration and the alt-right. They could be seen in news reports, clad all in black with balaclavas covering their faces, fighting police at the presidential inauguration, and on California college campuses protesting right-wing speakers…

Simply, antifa aims to deny fascists the opportunity to promote their oppressive politics—by any means necessary. Critics say shutting down political adversaries is anti-democratic; antifa adherents argue that the horrors of fascism must never be allowed the slightest chance to triumph again.

In a smart and gripping investigation, historian and former Occupy Wall Street organizer Mark Bray provides a one-of-a-kind look inside the movement, including a detailed survey of its history from its origins to the present day—the first transnational history of postwar anti-fascism in English. Based on interviews with anti-fascists from around the world, Antifa details the tactics of the movement and the philosophy behind it, offering insight into the growing but little understood resistance fighting back against the alt-right.

Has fascism arrived in America? In this pioneering book, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Janet Ward have gathered experts to survey the history of fascism in the United States. Although the US established a staunch anti-fascist reputation by defeating the Axis powers in World War II, the unsettling truth is that fascist ideas have long been present within American society. Since the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, scholars have debated whether Trumpism should be seen as an outgrowth of American conservatism or of a darker – and potentially fascist – tradition. Fascism in America contributes to this debate by examining the activities of interwar right-wing groups like the Silver Shirts, the KKK, and the America First movement, as well as the post-war rise of Black antifascism and white vigilantism, the representation of American Nazis in popular culture, and policy options for combating right-wing extremism.

Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America

An essential primer for the thoughtful citizen. Since the 2016 election, politicians, historians, intellectuals, and media pundits have debated a startling Is fascism happening here? Some argue that fascism has arrived and, to grasp the challenge it poses, we must gain insight from Europe’s past, lest American democracy succumb. But others question whether this Eurocentric notion truly reflects our political moment, or exemplifies a provincial American perspective on a much more complex global landscape. To illuminate the issues, this anthology offers key texts from the sharpest minds commenting on politics and history, past and present. Jumping off from classic pieces by Hannah Arendt, Angela Davis, Upton Sinclair, Reinhold Niebuhr, Leon Trotsky and others, Did It Happen Here? brings together the most insightful contributors to the contemporary discussion, from Samuel Moyn to Robin DG Kelley to Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Pankaj Mishra. The result is the go-to resource for every politically attuned reader worried about fascism and the politics of fear today.

The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy

Meet today's almost fascists and learn the warning signs to intercept them on the road from populism to dictatorship.

With The Wannabe Fascists , historian Federico Finchelstein offers a precise explanation of why Trumpism and similar movements across the world belong to a new political breed, the last outcome of the combined histories of fascism and the would-be fascists. This new type of populist politician is typically a legally elected leader who, unlike previous populists who were eager to distance themselves from fascism, turns to totalitarian lies, racism, and illegal means to destroy democracy from within.

Drawing on almost three decades of research on the histories of fascism and populism around the world, this book lays out in clear language what the author calls the "four pillars of fascism"—xenophobia, propaganda, political violence, and ultimately dictatorship. Finchelstein carefully explains how and why wannabe fascists like Trump, Bolsonaro, and Modi embrace the first three pillars but don't quite succeed in dictatorship and total suppression of the popular vote. The Wannabe Fascists stresses the importance of preventing despots from reaching this tipping point and offers a clear warning for what's at stake.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In "American Fascists," Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society. Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.

"American Fascists," which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are -- the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant.

Privileged Victims: How America's Culture Fascists Hijacked the Country and Elevated Its Worst People

Privileged Victims dismantles America’s culture of mediocrity by exposing the tyranny driving identity politics and its suffocating obsession with race and gender. America’s worst ideas and people are rising to the top, thanks to a rancid culture that has turned every part of our lives into a fight between so-called “privilege” and entitled brats claiming “victim” status. The country is under siege and America’s most ferocious enemy is already our privileged victims. On university campuses, in the news media, and in Hollywood, race, gender, and sexuality determine who should advance and who should be taken down a peg. Driven by “social justice” and governed by “intersectionality,” out-of-control college students, school administrators, journalists and titans of the entertainment industry divide and rank us on an infinite scale of grievance—the more of them, the better. And God have mercy on any individual deemed to benefit from “privilege.” In gripping detail, Eddie Scarry uncovers the perversion behind social justice and its identity-first dogma that’s replacing America’s meritocracy, tracing its origins in academia and shining a light on the havoc it has wrought over the course of three decades. Bewildered citizens mistakenly believe that it’s a matter of political correctness gone too far or the ailing symptoms of a country that has grown too sensitive. The truth is much it's a deliberate, malignant reorganization of American life and the replacement of merit with mediocrity is the ultimate destination. “How did everyone in America get so unhappy all of a sudden? In part, because it pays. Eddie Scarry lays out the scam in this infuriating and fascinating book. It’ll make you never want to complain again, just for the sake of being countercultural.” —Tucker Carlson, Host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News and Author of Ship of Fools "What I love about Eddie is his courage. He knows the outrage mob is constantly coming and he doesn't care.

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship

’This is essential’ Margaret Atwood on Twitter‘She's one of the most acute and perceptive analysts of the furtive growth of fascism. Everyone should know about this’ Philip Pullman’Vibrates with outrage’ The Times‘It couldn’t happen here’

Ece Temelkuran heard reasonable people in Britain say it the night of the Brexit vote.

She heard reasonable people in America say it the night Trump’s election was soundtracked by chants of ‘Build that wall.’

She heard reasonable people in Turkey say it as Erdoğan rigged elections, rebuilt the economy around cronyism, and labelled his opposition as terrorists.

How to Lose a Country is an impassioned plea, a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep. Award winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early-warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world, in order to define a global pattern, and arm the reader with the tools to root it out.

Proposing alternative, global answers to the pressing – and too often paralysing – political questions of our time, Temelkuran explores the insidious idea of ‘real people’, the infantilisation of language and debate, the way laughter can prove a false friend, and the dangers of underestimating one’s opponent. She weaves memoir, history and clear-sighted argument into an urgent and eloquent defence of democracy.

No longer can the reasonable comfort themselves with ‘it couldn’t happen here.’ It is happening. And soon it may be too late.

An urgent call to action from one of Europe’s most well-regarded political thinkers and a field guide to spotting the insidious patterns and mechanisms of the populist wave sweeping the globe – with a new foreword to the 2024 edition

How to Lose a Country is a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep.

Award-winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world from Eastern Europe to South America, in order to arm the reader with the tools to recognise it and take action.

Weaving memoir, history and clear-sighted argument, Temelkuran proposes alternative answers to the pressing – and too often paralysing – political questions of our time. How to Lose A Country is an exploration of the insidious ideas at the core of these movements and an urgent, eloquent defence of democracy.

This 2024 edition includes a new foreword by the author.

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship

The forgotten history of American terrorists who, in the name of God, conspired to overthrow the government and formed an alliance with Hitler.

On January 13, 1940, FBI agents burst into the homes and offices of seventeen members of the Christian Front, seizing guns, ammunition, and homemade bombs. J. Edgar Hoover’s charges were incendiary: the group, he alleged, was planning to incite a revolution and install a “temporary dictatorship” in order to stamp out Jewish and Communist influence in the United States. Interviewed in his jail cell, the front’s ringleader was unbowed: “All I can say is—long live Christ the King! Down with Communism!”

In Nazis of Copley Square, Charles Gallagher provides a crucial missing chapter in the history of the American far right. The men of the Christian Front imagined themselves as crusaders fighting for the spiritual purification of the nation, under assault from godless Communism, and they were hardly alone in their beliefs. The front traced its origins to vibrant global Catholic theological movements of the early twentieth century, such as the Mystical Body of Christ and Catholic Action. The front’s anti-Semitism was inspired by Sunday sermons and by lay leaders openly espousing fascist and Nazi beliefs.

Gallagher chronicles the evolution of the front, the transatlantic cloak-and-dagger intelligence operations that subverted it, and the mainstream political and religious leaders who shielded the front’s activities from scrutiny. Nazis of Copley Square is a grim tale of faith perverted to violent ends, and a warning for those who hope to curb the spread of far-right ideologies today.

Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States

Winner - German Studies Association Sybil Halpern Milton Book Prize, 2019

A book examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II.

Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. The less popular truth behind this warm until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was deeply, dangerously divided.

Bradley W. Hart's Hitler's American Friends exposes the homegrown antagonists who sought to protect and promote Hitler, leave Europeans (and especially European Jews) to fend for themselves, and elevate the Nazi regime.

Some of these friends were Americans of German heritage who joined the Bund, whose leadership dreamed of installing a stateside Führer. Some were as bizarre and hair-raising as the Silver Shirt Legion, run by an eccentric who claimed that Hitler fulfilled a religious prophesy. Some were Midwestern Catholics like Father Charles Coughlin, an early right-wing radio star who broadcast anti-Semitic tirades. They were even members of Congress who used their franking privilege―sending mail at cost to American taxpayers―to distribute German propaganda. And celebrity pilot Charles Lindbergh ended up speaking for them all at the America First Committee.

We try to tell ourselves it couldn't happen here, but Americans are not immune to the lure of fascism. Hitler's American Friends is a powerful look at how the forces of evil manipulate ordinary people, how we stepped back from the ledge, and the disturbing ease with which we could return to it.

From Fascism to Populism in History

What is fascism and what is populism? What are their connections in history and theory, and how should we address their significant differences? What does it mean when pundits call Donald Trump a fascist, or label as populist politicians who span left and right such as Hugo Chávez, Juan Perón, Rodrigo Duterte, and Marine Le Pen? Federico Finchelstein, one of the leading scholars of fascist and populist ideologies, synthesizes their history in order to answer these questions and offer a thoughtful perspective on how we might apply the concepts today. While they belong to the same history and are often conflated, fascism and populism actually represent distinct political and historical trajectories. Drawing on an expansive history of transnational fascism and postwar populist movements, Finchelstein gives us insightful new ways to think about the state of democracy and political culture on a global scale.

Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win

Clara Zetkin, an organizer of the First International Women’s Day, presented this Report and Resolution on fascism at the June 1923 enlarged plenum of the Communist International’s executive committee. At a time when fascism was a new and little-understood phenomenon, Zetkin’s work proposed a sweeping plan for the unity of all victims of capitalism in an ideological and political campaign against the fascist danger.

Confronting Christofascism: Healing the Evangelical Wound

Confronting Christofacism by Carolyn Baker is a book that offers a path to healing, sanity, and perspective for readers who are struggling with the Religious Right’s rise to power and impact on the modern world.

At this moment, America is sitting on a knife’s edge between maintaining democracy or succumbing to the tidal wave of authoritarianism that is taking out numerous nations globally. Members of the Right often identify as evangelical or fundamentalist Christians.

These religious fundamentalists not only threaten the American republic but have traumatized countless numbers of its followers through emotional and physical abuse, indoctrination, and marginalizing groups of individuals who don’t abide by their doctrine.

As someone who was born and raised in evangelical Christianity and made the escape, Carolyn Baker believes it’s essential to trace the historical context in which Christian fundamentalism arose. From there, she offers tools for those coping with the fascist religious landscape.

American Fascism: How to Vote Against the Corporate Oligarchy

"A fresh perspective on socialism, racism, spirituality and other hot-button issues facing American politics"This no-nonsense handbook seeks to set the record straight on the relationship between fascism and communism, capitalism and socialism, racism and the economic divide and other socio-political conundrums in a style reminiscent of Thomas Paine's Common Sense.American Fascism: How to Vote against the Corporate Oligarchyis an essential overview of political ideology as it relates to America today and the world of politics fundamentally. Uncover the truth to liberal and conservative agendas and navigate the buzzword whirlwind created by the increasingly corrupt corporate media with this easy to read guide

The Fight against Fascism in the U.S.A.: Forty Years of Struggle Described by Participants

Lessons from the fight against incipient fascist movements since the capitalist crisis and labor radicalization of the 1930s.

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Thomas E. Ricks, a dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, whose farsighted vision and inspired action preserved democracy from the threats of authoritarianism, from the left and right alike.

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930s—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time, Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it generously. No one would have predicted that by the end of the 20th century they would be considered two of the most important people in British history for having the vision and courage to campaign tirelessly, in words and deeds, against the totalitarian threat from both the left and the right. In a crucial moment, they responded first by seeking the facts of the matter, seeing through the lies and obfuscations, and then acting on their beliefs. Together, to an extent not sufficiently appreciated, they kept the West's compass set toward freedom as its due north.

It's not easy to recall now how lonely a position both men once occupied. By the late 1930s, democracy was discredited in many circles and authoritarian rulers were everywhere in the ascent. There were some who decried the scourge of communism, but saw in Hitler and Mussolini men we could do business with, if not in fact saviors. And there were others who saw the Nazi and fascist threat as malign but tended to view communism as the path to salvation. Churchill and Orwell, on the other hand, had the foresight to see clearly that the issue was human freedom—that whatever its coloration, a government that denied its people basic freedoms was a totalitarian menace and had to be resisted.

In the end, Churchill and Orwell proved their age's necessary men. The glorious climax of Churchill and Orwell is the work they both did in the decade of the 1940s to triumph over freedom's enemies. And though Churchill played the larger role in the defeat of Hitler and the Axis, Orwell's reckoning with the menace of authoritarian rule in Animal Farm and 1984 would define the stakes of the Cold War for its 50-year course and continues to give inspiration to fighters for freedom to this day. Taken together, in Thomas E. Ricks' masterful hands, their lives are a beautiful testament to the power of moral conviction and to the courage it can take to stay true to it, through thick and thin.

The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right

What is fascism in the twenty first century?

What does Fascism mean at the beginning of the twenty-first century? When we pronounce this word, our memory goes back to the years between the two world wars and envisions a dark landscape of violence, dictatorships, and genocide. These images spontaneously surface in the face of the rise of radical right, racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and terrorism, the last of which is often depicted as a form of "Islamic fascism."

Beyond some superficial analogies, however, all these contemporary tendencies reveal many differences from historical fascism, probably greater than their affinities. Paradoxically, the fear of terrorism nourishes the populist and racist rights, with Marine Le Pen in France or Donald Trump in the US claiming to be the most effective ramparts against "Jihadist fascism". But since fascism was a product of imperialism, can we define as fascist a terrorist movement whose main target is Western domination? Disentangling these contradictory threads, Enzo Traverso's historical gaze helps to decipher the enigmas of the present. He suggests the concept of post-fascism--a hybrid phenomenon, neither the reproduction of old fascism nor something completely different--to define a set of heterogeneous and transitional movements, suspended between an accomplished past still haunting our memories and an unknown future.

Careless People

"Careless People," a memoir by former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams, debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller list despite Meta’s attempts at silencing her.

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.”

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

4/08/1943

Every Man Dies Alone

Finally, a use for all those vacation postcards we never got around to "wish you were here"-ing.

Read more about Elise Hampel and her husband, Otto:

https://www.history.org.uk/.../otto-and-elise-hampel...

"They started writing postcards and leaving them all over Berlin, scattered in the streets and other public places. They contained messages encouraging people not to co-operate with the government, to refuse to serve in the German army, and not to donate to Nazi organisations like Winter Relief. Altogether they wrote and distributed over 200 postcards and leaflets in a two year period, each time risking their lives if caught."

#resistance #postcards

Showing Our Colors

In the 1980s, a group of German women came together with the goal of documenting Afro-German history.

Their work helped to create a common Afro-German social and political identity.

Showing Our Afro-German Women Speak Out is an English translation of the German book Farbe bekennen edited by author May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, and Dagmar Schultz. It is the first published book by Afro-Germans. It is the first written use of the term Afro-German.

Maus

A story of survival. A legacy of trauma. A masterpiece in every panel.

Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus is a Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel that continues to resonate, provoke, and endure.

Read the book they tried to ban.

The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker) • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • One of Variety’s “Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read”

A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history’s most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.

ART SPIEGELMAN is one of the world’s most admired and beloved comic artists, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust narrative, Maus. Born in Stockholm in 1948, Spiegelman began studying cartooning in high school and drawing professionally at age sixteen.… More about Art Spiegelman

Pulitzer PrizeWinner, 1992

The definitive edition of the graphic novel acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker) • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • One of Variety’s “Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read”

A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.

Pranksters Vs. Autocrats

Pranksters vs. Autocrats

Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism

The Lawrence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal, presented by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world.
The 2020 Brown Democracy Medal winner, Srdja Popovic, was a leader in the revolution that brought down the Milošević regime in Serbia and he continues to help protestors around the world learn effective, sometimes humorous, nonviolent tactics. In 2020, he teamed up with Sophia A. McClennen to study the concept of "dilemma actions," which offers a structured, strategic approach to fighting back against authoritarianism, as well as for defending democracy.

This work can be downloaded for non-commercial purposes (click book cover):
Pranksters vs. Autocrats is licensed under a Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Swarthmore College’s Global Nonviolent Action Database

A database of over 1000 summaries of nonviolent campaigns worldwide. It is important to note that the case studies included are indeed, campaigns, and not movements. For example, “the civil rights movement” is not included, but the Montgomery Bus Boycott is a case, as is the Nashville Sit-in of 1960. The colonial Indian movement for independence from Britain is not a case, but the Salt Satyagraha of 1930-31 is a case.

Tools to Save Our Home Planet: A Changemaker's Guidebook (edited by Nick Mucha, Jessica Flint, and Patrick Thomas)

The need for activism is urgent and great, but the risks are greater, too.
Safe and effective activism has always required smart strategic planning, clear goals and creative tactics, and careful and detailed preparation. Without these, activists can end up injured, penalized, or jailed. If anything, these risks are greater today as powerful forces in government and industry resist the big changes needed to slow the climate crisis and keep Earth livable for generations to come.

Tools to Save Our Home Planet: A Changemaker’s Guidebook reflects the wisdom and best advice from activists working in today’s volatile world. A go-to resource for driving change, it offers timely and relevant insights for purpose-aligned work. It is intended as a primer for those new to activism and a refresher for seasoned activists wanting to learn from their peers. The hope is that this book will be put to work, become dog-eared and scribbled in—a reassuring and inspirational companion to the environmental and justice movements that we desperately need as a society.

THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE THEORY
The Unitary Executive Theory“I have an Article II,” Donald Trump has announced, citing the US Constitution, “where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Though this statement would have come as a shock to the framers of the Constitution, it fairly sums up the essence of “the unitary executive theory.” This theory, which emerged during the Reagan administration and gathered strength with every subsequent presidency, counters the system of checks and balances that constrains a president’s executive impulses. It also, the authors of this book contend, counters the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

In their account of the rise of unitary executive theory over the last several decades, the authors refute the notion that this overweening view of executive power has been a common feature of the presidency from the beginning of the Republic. Rather, they show, it was invented under the Reagan Administration, got a boost during the George W. Bush administration, and has found its logical extension in the Trump administration. This critique of the unitary executive theory reveals it as a misguided model for understanding presidential powers. While its adherents argue that greater presidential power makes government more efficient, the results have shown otherwise. Dismantling the myth that presidents enjoy unchecked plenary powers, the authors advocate for principles of separation of powers—of checks and balances—that honor the Constitution and support the republican government its framers envisioned.

A much-needed primer on presidential power, from the nation’s founding through Donald Trump’s impeachment, The Unitary Executive A Danger to Constitutional Government makes a robust and persuasive case for a return to our constitutional limits.

ABSOLUTE POWER
HOW THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE THEORY IS UNDERMINING THE CONSTITUTION
The unitary executive theory argues that the president has virtually complete and total executive power that is unchecked by Congress or the courts. This controversial theory has been invoked repeatedly by the Bush administration in justification of its boldest actions, both at home and abroad. It is touted by its adherents as being the intent of the founders, even though it eliminates many checks and balances that long have been considered a mainstay of our system of government. How could such a powerful and influential theory have flown under the radar for so long, only to rise to such prominence? Is the unitary executive truly what the founders wanted? And what is the legacy of such a presidency? In A bsolute Power, John P. MacKenzie looks at the origins and history of the unitary executive theory, examining its broad claims of presidential power in the light of the founders' original writings as well as the actions of Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Truman, all of whom tested the power of their office against that of Congress and the Supreme Court. Arguing that the theory is historically baseless and relies on a misreading of the Constitution and The Federalist Papers, MacKenzie raises troubling questions about the lasting legal consequences of a presidency endowed with almost monarchic power. Because future presidents must confront the same concerns of power and governance, he argues, candidates for the office must demonstrate that they understand the issues and are willing to live with shared power.

Murder The Truth

New York Times Bestseller

"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen

David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor

SURVIVE THE TYRANT!
An RPG-style guide to living under an oppressive regime

Where Women Have No Doctor
A health guide for women

The Hidden History of the American Dream

The Demise of the Middle Class—and How to Rescue Our Future

By Thom Hartmann

America’s most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author explores the fall of the American Dream and the steps we can take to bring it back.

The widening wealth gap is all too familiar to many Millennials and GenZers, especially when home ownership and the lack of debt seem like faraway fantasies. And it’s no surprise when they only hold about 4.6% of the country’s wealth while Boomers held 22% at around the same age. So what happened to the promise of the American Dream?

In this new, final entry of his celebrated Hidden History Series, Thom Hartmann uncovers the rise of the American middle class through the progressive policies of FDR, through to its downfall with the increasing privatization and economic deregulations of the Reagan era.

He also explores potential solutions including:

Wealth and inheritance taxes to lessen economic inequality
Supporting unions through increasing labor rights
Renationalizing public spaces and transportation

The American Dream often remains just a dream for many, but this book highlights what needs to be done to take it back and help make it a reality for us all.

Giving Up Is Unforgivable

A Manual for Keeping a Democracy

About Giving Up Is Unforgivable

The first book from Joyce White Vance: equal parts civics class, history lesson, and call to save the Republic, Giving Up Is Unforgivable is a political manifesto for our present moment.

“We’re in this together.”

For the past two years, Joyce Vance has signed off posts on her chart-topping Substack, Civil Discourse, with these four words. In that time, she’s guided readers through a continued erosion of democratic norms, the unprecedented felony conviction of an ex-president, and the approaching specter of a second Trump administration. Now that it’s upon us, Vance helps us understand how to avoid burnout and despair and exercise the democratic muscles we need to save the Republic.

Giving Up Is Unforgivable is a clarion call to action—putting our current crisis in historical context and sketching out a vision for where we go next. Vance’s message is hopeful at its heart, even as it acknowledges the daunting challenges that lie ahead. She is the constitutional law professor you never knew you needed, explaining the legal context, the political history, and the practical reasons that the rule of law still matters, while also empowering you to do something—from the small (that conversation you’ve been meaning to have with your uncle or volunteering for your favorite political cause) to the big (starting a grassroots movement or running for political office).

Consider this the birth of a countermovement to Project 2025, a rallying cry for citizen engagement to counter the second Trump administration and save American democracy.

About Joyce Vance

Joyce Vance is the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, an office she held during the Obama administration. She resigned on the eve of Donald Trump’s first inauguration at the end of twenty-five years of service as… More about Joyce Vance

Animal Farm
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

Animal Farm GCSE Revision Animal Farm Unit Overview | Animal Farm Lessons | Beyond

Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall - Softcover

'A gripping and illuminating picture of how strongmen have deployed violence, seduction, and corruption' Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of How Democracies Die

'A timely analysis of how a certain kind of charisma delivers political disaster' Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

Ours is the age of the strongman. Countries from Russia to India, Turkey to America are ruled by men who combine populist appeal with authoritarian policy. They have reshaped their countries around them, creating cults of personality which earn the loyalty of millions. And they do so by drawing on a playbook of behaviour established by figures such as Benito Mussolini, Muammar Gaddafi and Adolf Hitler. So why - despite the evidence of history - do strongmen still hold such appeal for us?

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat draws on analysis of everything from gender to corruption and propaganda to explain who these political figures are - and how they manipulate our own history, fears and desires in search of power at any cost. Strongmen is a fierce and perceptive history, and a vital step in understanding how to combat the forces which seek to derail democracy and seize our rights.

Strongmen Mussolini To The Present

A New York Times Bestseller. Now Available in paperback, with a new epilogue about Jan 6th.

Ours is the age of the strongman, of heads of state who damage or destroy democracy, use masculinity as a tool of political legitimacy, and promise law and order rule – and then legitimize lawless behavior by financial, sexual, and other predators. Covering a century of tyranny, this book examines how authoritarians use propaganda, virility, corruption, and violence to stay in power, and how they can be opposed.

Liberalism Against itself

Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times

The Cold War roots of liberalism’s present crisis

“[A] daring new book.”—Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post

“A fascinating and combative intellectual history.”—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

By the middle of the twentieth century, many liberals looked glumly at the world modernity had brought about, with its devastating wars, rising totalitarianism, and permanent nuclear terror. They concluded that, far from offering a solution to these problems, the ideals of the Enlightenment, including emancipation and equality, had instead created them. The historian of political thought Samuel Moyn argues that the liberal intellectuals of the Cold War era—among them Isaiah Berlin, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Karl Popper, Judith Shklar, and Lionel Trilling—transformed liberalism but left a disastrous legacy for our time.

In his iconoclastic style, Moyn outlines how Cold War liberals redefined the ideals of their movement and renounced the moral core of the Enlightenment for a more dangerous philosophy: preserving individual liberty at all costs. In denouncing this stance, as well as the recent nostalgia for Cold War liberalism as a means to counter illiberal values, Moyn presents a timely call for a new emancipatory and egalitarian liberal philosophy—a path to undoing the damage of the Cold War and to ensuring the survival of liberalism.

Women, Gender, and Terrorism

In the last decade the world has witnessed a rise in women’s participation in terrorism. Women, Gender, and Terrorism explores women’s relationship with terrorism, with a keen eye on the political, gender, racial, and cultural dynamics of the contemporary world.

Throughout most of the twentieth century, it was rare to hear about women terrorists. In the new millennium, however, women have increasingly taken active roles in carrying out suicide bombings, hijacking airplanes, and taking hostages in such places as Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Chechnya. These women terrorists have been the subject of a substantial amount of media and scholarly attention, but the analysis of women, gender, and terrorism has been sparse and riddled with stereotypical thinking about women’s capabilities and motivations.

In the first section of this volume, contributors offer an overview of women’s participation in and relationships with contemporary terrorism, and a historical chapter traces their involvement in the politics and conflicts of Islamic societies. The next section includes empirical and theoretical analysis of terrorist movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, and Sri Lanka. The third section turns to women’s involvement in al Qaeda and includes critical interrogations of the gendered media and the scholarly presentations of those women. The conclusion offers ways to further explore the subject of gender and terrorism based on the contributions made to the volume.

Contributors to Women, Gender, and Terrorism expand our understanding of terrorism, one of the most troubling and complicated facets of the modern world.

About the Author/Editor

Laura Sjoberg (Editor)
LAURA SJOBERG is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida. She is the editor or author of numerous books including Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq: A Feminist Reformulation of Just War Theory.

Caron E. Gentry (Editor)
CARON E. GENTRY is a lecturer at the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews. She is the author of Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War and, with Laura Sjoberg, coauthor of Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women’s Violence in Global Politics, and coeditor of Women, Gender, and Terrorism (Georgia).

INDIVISIBLE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DEMOCRACY ON THE BRINK

Read Here For Free

Fired Up

You probably know

Shannon Watts

from her time leading Moms Demand Action, where she helped build a movement of persusasion and pressure. This week she is publishing her new book Fired Up, in which she teaches us how to find the fire within to build a life of meaning and joy.

Read So History Doesn't Repeat, Rhyme, or Echo

On Topic Reading

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

Carceral Capitalism

The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

The Anatomy of Fascism

What Is Fascism? From the Anatomy of Fascism

Three Faces of Fascism.(Fascists)(The Anatomy of Fascism)(The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism from Nietzsche to ... An article from: World Policy Journal

Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

Diary of a Man in Despair

It Can't Happen Here

Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem

The Handmaid's Tale

The Testaments

The Box Set

Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments

​The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

The Diary Of Anne Frank And Related Readings (Literature Connections)

The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism

The Psychology Of American Fascism: The Triumph Of The Authoritarian Id In Post-Christian USA

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Fascism in America: Past and Present

Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America

The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

​Privileged Victims: How America's Culture Fascists Hijacked the Country and Elevated Its Worst People

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship

Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States

From Fascism to Populism in History

Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win

Confronting Christofascism: Healing the Evangelical Wound

American Fascism: How to Vote Against the Corporate Oligarchy

The Fight against Fascism in the U.S.A.: Forty Years of Struggle Described by Participants

​Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

The New Faces of Fascism: Populism and the Far Right

Careless People

Every Man Dies Alone

Showing Our Colors

Maus

Pranksters Vs. Autocrats

Pranksters vs. Autocrats

Why Dilemma Actions Advance Nonviolent Activism

Swarthmore College’s Global Nonviolent Action Database

Tools to Save Our Home Planet: A Changemaker's Guidebook (edited by Nick Mucha, Jessica Flint, and Patrick Thomas)

Murder The Truth

SURVIVE THE TYRANT! An RPG-style guide to living under an oppressive regime

Where Women Have No Doctor A health guide for women

The Hidden History of the American Dream

By Thom Hartmann

​

Giving Up Is Unforgivable

About Giving Up Is Unforgivable

About Joyce Vance

Strongmen: How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall - Softcover

Strongmen Mussolini To The Present

Liberalism Against itself​

Women, Gender, and Terrorism

About the Author/Editor

Fired Up

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness

Privileged Victims: How America's Culture Fascists Hijacked the Country and Elevated Its Worst People

Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

SURVIVE THE TYRANT!
An RPG-style guide to living under an oppressive regime

Where Women Have No Doctor
A health guide for women

Liberalism Against itself