Caste

The Origins of Our Discontents

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

'As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power — which groups have it and which do not.'

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Isabel Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people — including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, and Wilkerson herself — she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day.

Meditations

Written in Greek as private notes to himself during military campaigns, Meditations is a series of personal reflections by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius — never intended for publication. These intimate musings explore finding one's place in the universe, maintaining ethical principles, and achieving inner harmony through reason and Stoic philosophy.

The twelve books reveal how one of history's most powerful rulers sought to guide his own character and judgment. This work offers profound insights into the human condition, the nature of virtue, and the pursuit of tranquility amidst life's challenges. It remains a timeless guide for those seeking wisdom and personal growth — and a remarkable testament to the idea that power and humility are not mutually exclusive.

Philosophical Dictionary

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary is an encyclopedic dictionary published in 1764, arranged alphabetically and filled with sharp, provocative articles criticizing the Roman Catholic Church, religious intolerance, and political tyranny.

Initially released anonymously with 73 entries, it expanded over time as Voltaire refined his views on Christianity, God, and morality. The portable, affordable format made revolutionary ideas accessible to ordinary readers. While the public embraced it enthusiastically, religious authorities condemned and burned copies across Europe — cementing its status as a defining work of Enlightenment thought and a foundational text for the separation of church and state.

Radical Kindness

The Life-Changing Power of Giving and Receiving

The beloved creator of Blue's Clues and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood — and protégé of Fred Rogers — explores the importance of kindness and how it can change your life and the world.

Much like gratitude, Angela contends we need a kindness practice: a practice in which we learn to see with our hearts and act from a place of compassion. As the creator of some of the most beloved children's television programs in history, Angela has dedicated her life to teaching kindness to children. Now she turns her attention to adults, arguing that radical kindness — the kind that is unconditional, courageous, and transformative — is the most powerful force available to us.

With a foreword by Deepak Chopra, Radical Kindness draws on personal stories, cutting-edge research, and the wisdom of Fred Rogers to show how small acts of genuine kindness can ripple outward to change communities, institutions, and the world.

Safety Through Solidarity

A Radical Guide to Fight Antisemitism

Antisemitism is on the rise today. From synagogue shootings by white nationalists, to right-wing politicians and media figures pushing George Soros conspiracy theories, it's clear that exclusionary nationalist movements are growing. By spreading division and fear, they put Jews, along with other marginalized groups and multiracial democracy itself, at risk.

And since the outbreak of war in Gaza, debates around antisemitism have become more polarized and high-stakes than ever. How can we stand in solidarity with Palestinians seeking justice, while also avoiding antisemitism — and resisting those who seek to conflate the two? How do we forge the coalitions across communities that we need, in order to overcome the politics of division and fear?

Using personal stories, historical deep-dives, front-line reporting, and interviews with leading change-makers, Burley and Lorber help us break the current impasse to understand how antisemitism works, what's missing in contemporary debates, and how to build true safety through solidarity, for Jews and all people.

The Color of Law

A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

This powerful and disturbing history exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide.

Widely heralded as a 'masterful' and 'essential' history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law offers 'the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation.' Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods.

The Enchiridion

The Enchiridion — meaning 'handbook' — is a concise manual of Stoic ethical advice compiled by Arrian, a disciple of the Greek philosopher Epictetus. This short but powerful text distills practical precepts for achieving mental freedom and happiness in all circumstances.

It teaches readers to distinguish between what lies within their control and what does not, emphasizing that our judgments — not external events — are what disturb us. Through vivid imagery and everyday examples, the work guides students toward flourishing in both favorable and adverse situations by developing the capacities of the human spirit. A foundational text of Western philosophy that remains urgently relevant today.

Utopia

Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire written in Latin and published in 1516 by Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII. This frame narrative depicts a fictional island society and its religious, social, and political customs.

Through dialogue between More and the traveler Raphael Hythlodaeus, the work explores contemporary European problems — warfare, theft, poverty, and enclosure — while describing an alternative society that challenges Renaissance notions of governance. The book questions whether philosophers should work within flawed political systems or pursue radical ideals. More was later executed for refusing to endorse Henry VIII's break with Rome, giving Utopia a tragic biographical dimension.

White Trash

The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

In her groundbreaking bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg takes on our comforting myths about equality, uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing — if occasionally entertaining — poor white trash.

The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as 'waste people,' 'offals,' 'rubbish,' 'lazy lubbers,' and 'crackers.' Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America's supposedly class-free society — where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility.

Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics. We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation's history. With Isenberg's landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.