With the coming of Spring comes a new shift in my reading agenda.
This month I’ll focus on human and civil rights and the people who’ve shaped our understanding of both.
Like my prior list, I have also included a selection of works in areas that may guide my writing this year. I’ll conclude with a series I’ve recently grown fond of.
On James Baldwin
At the forefront of this month’s reading agenda is the prolific James Baldwin. Baldwin devoted his life’s work to the issue of race in American life. His prose is poetic, cutting, and personal. Baldwin challenges us to reconcile with the issues that define our societal struggles. He forces us to recognize our complicity in the current status quo.
Baldwin is one of the writers that I am generating a comprehensive file on, in the style of the late Umberto Eco. I will be exploring the breadth of Baldwin’s complete works, both fiction and nonfiction. I’ll also read a selection of secondary works that comment and critique on Baldwin’s work.
The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin
The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin edited by Michele Elam
The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin
James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948–1985 by James Baldwin
The Civil Rights Movement in the Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Years
I very deliberately excluded a Black History section in February’s reading list. I was uncertain where exactly my reading interests would lead me and I didn’t want to read against them. A reading list is only good if you’re motivated by what’s on it.
During February, I watched the docu-drama series, Genius: MLK/X with my father. I had mixed opinions. While not exactly inspired, I found myself returning to the primary works of the Civil Rights Movement’s most public-facing leaders.
This section is devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known as Malcolm X. I’m focusing on their written and spoken works, as well as the surrounding history of the movement.
I’m also monitoring both men’s relationships with other members of the movement. This ranges from the previously mentioned James Baldwin to organizers like Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements edited by George Breitman
Martin Luther King Jr.: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63 by Taylor Branch
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.
Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1968 by Thomas E. Ricks
Political and Economic Theory
Now for this month’s entries on political theory.
For this period, I’m focusing my studies on capitalist economics and autocratic movements.
It’s also worth noting that in 2024 alone, there will be national elections held in at least 64 countries. Because of this, I’m also reading about electoral politics and democratic principles.
Capital by Karl Marx
The Case for the Green New Deal by Ann Pettifor
A Companion to Marx’s Capital: The Complete Edition by David Harvey
Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli
First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks
The Great Political Theories Volume 1: A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial Ideas in Political Philosophy edited by Michael Curtis
The Great Political Theories Volume 2: A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial Ideas in Political Philosophy edited by Michael Curtis
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley
Know-it-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture by Michael Patrick Lynch
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Socialist Strategy and Electoral Politics: A Report by Jacobin, Haymarket Books, & Verso Books
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Great Ideas series by Penguin Books
Penguin Books is well known for their series Penguin Classics. The highly acclaimed series provides affordable copies of the world’s greatest works of literature.
Penguin Books’s Great Ideas series offers thematic selections from the Penguin Classics library. The Great Ideas series is a nice introduction for those who want to sample a given author’s work.
Among dozens of entries, here’s a selection of the “great ideas” that have captured my interest:
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
God is Dead. God Remains Dead. And We Have Killed Him. by Friedrich Nietzsche
One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer by Aristotle
On the Shortness of Life by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Why I Write by George Orwell
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