In an age of global pandemics, escalating xenophobic rhetoric and policies, and bipartisan support for genocide, the stark limitations of US “democracy” are clearer than ever. This system works as intended: benefitting corporations and the mega-rich at the expense of everyone else.

We’ve put together a reading list of books that examine the policies, practices, and histories that undergird this so-called “democracy,” and put forward analysis and strategies for building an actually democratic society and winning freedom from exploitation and oppression.

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“Astra Taylor has been remaking the world with her powerful thought and prophetic action for years. This wide-ranging book is a courageous and visionary embodiment of her deep commitment to fundamental transformation!”  —Cornel West

In this series of electrifying essays, Arundhati Roy challenges us to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism.

A wide-ranging and incisive collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, addressing the urgent questions of this tumultuous moment.

A collection of compelling, hard-hitting first-person essays, poems, and photos that expose what our punitive social systems do to so many Americans.

After Life is a collective history of how Americans experienced, navigated, commemorated, and ignored mass death and loss during the global COVID-19 pandemic, mass uprisings for racial justice, and the near presidential coup in 2021 following the 2020 election.

Economist Rob Larson combines wit, righteous anger, and clear-eyed analysis as he dissects the lifestyle, moral bankruptcy, and stupidly large sums of money hoarded by the disgustingly wealthy.

It is not enough, Naomi Klein tells us, to merely resist, to say “no.” Our historical moment demands more: a credible and inspiring “yes,” a roadmap to reclaiming the populist ground from those who would divide us—one that sets a bold course for winning the fair and caring world we want and need.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s crucial intervention helps us move beyond a binary of “class” vs. “race.” By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.

In this award-winning book, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to today’s struggles to protect our environment from extractive industries and to shape new ways of relating to one another and the world.

Speaking Out of Place helps us find value and inspiration in others who have made change in the world where such things were not supposed to be possible.

Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too damn high. Written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis, complicit politicians, and real estate greed, Abolish Rent dissects our housing system from the perspective of those it immiserates. 

Not Too Late is the book for anyone who is despondent, defeatist, or unsure about climate change and seeking answers. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the future will be decided by whether we act in the present—and we must act to counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political obduracy.

As isolated individuals, debtors have little influence. But as a bloc, we can leverage our debts and devise new tactics to challenge the corporate creditor class and help win reparative, universal public goods. Can't Pay, Won't Pay is a powerful guide to action for people in debt. 

“In Blood Red Lines, Brendan O'Connor draws a dizzying map of the institutions, ideas, and people connecting American capitalism to white supremacist fascism—and illuminates the way immigration sits at the dead center of this machinery.” —Jia Tolentino

A captivating book, part debate, part dialogue, part lively and detailed familial correspondence between two razor-sharp writers convening on what it means to get free as the world spins into some new orbit.

A beautifully-written, broadly accessible, and forthright argument for a solution to the migration crisis: open the gates.

The story of the fight against fascism across the African diaspora, revealing that Black antifascism has always been vital to global freedom struggles.

Socialism…Seriously is a warm and witty introduction to the radical traditions of protest and politics that stretch from Karl Marx through today’s movements for democracy, equality, and a livable planet.

Offering an important account of left attempts to intervene in the American two-party electoral system, Kim Moody provides both a sobering historical corrective and an alternative orientation for the future, arguing that the socialist movement should turn its attention toward a politics of mass action, anti-racism, and independent, working-class organizing.

In the midst of loss and death and suffering, our charge is to figure out what freedom really means—and how we take steps to get there.

On Shedding an Obsolete Past provides a much-needed and comprehensive critique of recent US national security policies in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“As the nation burns and the future appears uncertain, David Roediger delivers another incisive, timely, clear-eyed analysis of class and race in America.” —Robin D. G. Kelley

A newly updated and expanded primer for 21st-century democratic socialists from acclaimed scholars Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, with Stephen Maher.

Keywords for Capitalism is a probing and insightful guide designed to equip readers with the tools to make sense of terms like socialism and intersectional that are so routinely used and abused by such a wide array of commentators from across the political spectrum.

From the dawning of the industrial epoch, wage earners have organized themselves into unions, fought bitter strikes, and gone so far as to challenge the very premises of the system by creating institutions of democratic self-management aimed at controlling production without bosses. With specific examples drawn from every corner of the globe and every period of modern history, this pathbreaking volume comprehensively traces this often underappreciated historical tradition.

Complete with a new introduction, Revolutionary Democracy argues that Marxism, including pre-revolution Bolshevism, has historically been firmly aligned with democracy.