A book club for believers in justice and truth.
BOOKS TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY
Must-read works to understand the world in which we now live, and learn what might be done about it. Great thinkers, reporters, scientists, and historians abound!
Curated by: Chuck, Christina, and Don
Updated: 2/5/2025
1
Dark Money by Jane Meyer
Do you find yourself waking up and wondering how we ever got into this fresh hell we call the Trump Administration? Does the legislation and agenda simply not make sense to you from any perspective of actual governance? If this is the case for you, as it was for us, then this is the book you need! Written before DJT’s first term, when the nemesis were (and still are) the Brothers Koch, Jane Meyer’s reporting and deep investigative journalism, compiled into book form, shows exactly where the bodies are buried. By the time you finish reading this book, you won’t be asking how this happened any longer, and you might even come up with an idea or two of how to fight back!
2
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
What brought us out of the caves to become the most powerful creatures on the planet? It’s probably not what you think. Fire? Nope. Yuval Noah Harari lays out the stark reality of our existence, the good and the bad. Our ability to network, for good or foul, makes our global dominance fait accompli, but it doesn’t keep us there. Nexus tells us the harsh truths about what brings us together, and the blind spots we as a society have when it comes to …well, pretty much anything. Humans are intelligent apart, but depending on the information, can be vicious killers and mass murderers. We can lift others, and tear them down, all based on our beliefs. But are our beliefs really true? Is there a way to tell the difference? And how can we come back to a shared reality? All of this and more lurk menacingly within the pages of Nexus, from a global perspective.
3
These Truths by Jill Lepore
Hyper-focused on the United States, Jill Lepore takes the reader through the entire history of the country, in a balanced and achingly fair way. While the founders of our fair nation drafted documents professing the freedom of man, slaves were being traded in the same media used to advertise the nation’s new constitution. The good, the bad, and the ugly of the rise of the world’s first superpower, and the concomitant refusal to address the nation’s original sin of slavery in any meaningful way inform the reader. You will learn some things (I certainly did) reading this novel. It won’t be pretty, and you may be upset at times, but you’ll get the well-rounded truth, which is all Jill Lepore offers from the beginning.
Except for the end. We at Right and Freedom believe Jill errs too much on the side of equivocation in her efforts to be balanced in the end of the novel. But it’s a comprehensive and terrific history up until that point! Worth reading.
4
History and Morality by Donald Bloxham
This book focuses on the development of Western Civilization. That means, if you’re unaware, Europe and everything that sprang up out of the Roman Empire. This is the long view of human nature, and offers fresh perspective on how and whether humans tint history they study. Spoiler: they do. For hundreds if not thousands of years, history was written by the winner, and focused on those with the wealth to force their story into the historical record. Aristotle was a wealthy man. Did you know that? Neither did I until I read this book. It turns out that his suppositions may not have been considering the “regular people” much at all. This, and other surprises, decorate the pages of this work by the award winning and internationally renowned historian, Donald Bloxham. Be warned- you will not be the same after reading this book!