America's Constitution
A Biography
Written by Akhil Reed Amar

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: September 12, 2006
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7272-6 (0-8129-7272-4)

In America’s Constitution, one of this era’s most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution... Read more >

Freedom
Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Written by Amnesty International USA

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: January 4, 2011
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-58883-8 (0-307-58883-1)

Sixty years ago, the United Nations took a moral stand against human rights crimes and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a proclamation of thirty rights that belong to us all, starting memorably with Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal.”

Now, an array of internationally acclaimed... Read more >

Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954
Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism
Written by Hannah Arendt

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: June 7, 2005
Price: $21.00
ISBN: 978-0-8052-1186-3 (0-8052-1186-1)

Few thinkers have addressed the political horrors and ethical complexities of the twentieth century with the insight and passionate intellectual integrity of Hannah Arendt. She was irresistibly drawn to the activity of understanding in an effort to endow historical, political, and cultural events with meaning. Essays in Understanding assembles many of... Read more >

The Origins of Totalitarianism
Introduction by Samantha Power
Written by Hannah Arendt

Format: Hardcover, 704 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: April 20, 2004
Price: $40.00
ISBN: 978-0-8052-4225-6 (0-8052-4225-2)

Recognized upon publication as the comprehensive account of its subject and later hailed as a classic by the Times Literary Supplement, this book continues to be the definitive history of this political movement. It begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in Central and Western Europe in the 1800s and continues with... Read more >

The Promise of Politics

Written by Hannah Arendt

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: June 19, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8052-1213-6 (0-8052-1213-2)

In The Promise of Politics, Hannah Arendt examines the conflict between philosophy and politics. In particular, she shows how the tradition of Western political thought, which extends from Plato and Aristotle to its culmination in Marx, failed to account for human action. The concluding section of the book, “Introduction into Politics,”... Read more >

Responsibility and Judgment

Written by Hannah Arendt

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: August 9, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-8052-1162-7 (0-8052-1162-4)

Responsibility and Judgment gathers together unpublished writings from the last decade of Arendt’s life, where she addresses fundamental questions and concerns about the nature of evil and the making of moral choices. At the heart of the book is a profound ethical investigation, “Some Questions of Moral Philosophy,” in which Arendt... Read more >

The Basic Works of Aristotle

Written by Aristotle
Edited by Richard McKeon
Introduction by C.D.C. Reeve

Format: Trade Paperback, 1520 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: September 11, 2001
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75799-0 (0-375-75799-6)

Preserved by Arabic mathematicians and canonized by Christian scholars, Aristotle’s works have shaped Western thought, science, and religion for nearly two thousand years. Richard McKeon’s The Basic Works of Aristotle–constituted out of the definitive Oxford translation and in print as a Random House hardcover for sixty years–has long been considered the... Read more >

Empowering Public Wisdom
A Practical Vision of Citizen-Led Politics
Written by Tom Atlee

Format: Trade Paperback, 280 pages
Publisher: EVOLVER EDITIONS
On Sale: August 7, 2012
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-500-1 (1-58394-500-8)

Beyond elections, public participation, and citizen input, democracy must produce wise public policy–or else the nation will find itself in real trouble. In Empowering Public Wisdom, lifelong activist Tom Atlee proposes innovative and practical ideas for collecting and distilling the wisdom of ordinary people in order to infuse the political process... Read more >

A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense

Written by Normand Baillargeon
Illustrated by Charb
Translated by Andrea Schmidt

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: February 5, 2008
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-765-7 (1-58322-765-2)

What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful? In A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense, historian and educator Normand Baillargeon provides readers with the tools to see through the spin and jargon of everyday politics and... Read more >

Blue Revolution
Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Format: Trade Paperback, 296 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: September 4, 2012
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0328-2 (0-8070-0328-X)

Selected for Summit County (Colorado) Reads

Americans see water as abundant and cheap: we turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop–the lawn. Yet most Americans... Read more >

Life of an Anarchist
The Alexander Berkman Reader
Written by Alexander Berkman
Edited by Gene Fellner
Foreword by Howard Zinn

Format: Trade Paperback, 372 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: November 2, 2004
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-58322-662-9 (1-58322-662-1)

Alexander Berkman was a twentieth-century American revolutionary. Like the abolitionist John Brown before him, Berkman was hugely idealistic, ready to go to the furthest extreme of self-sacrifice and violence on behalf of justice and civil rights. He decided to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick after reading in the newspaper that Pinkertons... Read more >

Choices Under Fire
Moral Dimensions of World War II
Written by Michael Bess

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 11, 2008
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-27580-6 (0-307-27580-9)

World War II remains a celebrated event in our collective memory—a time of great high-minded clarity, patriotic sacrifice, and national unity of purpose. It was the quintessential “good war,” in which the forces of freedom triumphed over the forces of darkness. Now, in his provocative new book, historian Michael Bess explodes... Read more >

Active Liberty
Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
Written by Stephen Breyer

Format: Hardcover, 176 pages
Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: September 13, 2005
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-26313-1 (0-307-26313-4)

A historic occassion: at a time when the American judicial system is subject of much controversy, a United States Supreme Court Justice offers a new theory of constitutional interpretation.

Justice Stephen Breyer defines “active liberty” as a sharing of the nation’s sovereign authority among its people. He sees the Constitution as a... Read more >

Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
Essays
Written by Albert Camus

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: August 29, 1995
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-76401-4 (0-679-76401-1)

In the speech he gave upon accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus said that a writer "cannot serve today those who make history; he must serve those who are subject to it." In these twenty-three political essays, he demonstrates his commitment to history's victims, from the fallen maquis... Read more >

The Lessons of Terror
A History of Warfare Against Civilians
Written by Caleb Carr

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: March 11, 2003
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-76074-7 (0-375-76074-1)

In The Lessons of Terror, military historian Caleb Carr examines terrorism throughout history, to the very roots of our present crisis, and ultimately reaches a provocative set of conclusions: the practice of targeting enemy civilians is as old as warfare itself; it has always failed as a military and political tactic... Read more >

Profit Over People
Neoliberalism and Global Order
Written by Noam Chomsky

Format: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
On Sale: December 8, 1998
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-888363-82-1 (1-888363-82-7)

Why is the Atlantic slowly filling with crude petroleum, threatening a millions-of-years-old ecological balance? Why did traders at prominent banks take high-risk gambles with the money entrusted to them by hundreds of thousands of clients around the world, expanding and leveraging their investments to the point that failure led to a... Read more >

Political Leadership
Stories of Power and Politics from Literature and Life
Written by Robert Coles

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: October 18, 2005
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-8129-7170-5 (0-8129-7170-1)

From ancient times to the present day, here are indispensable insights on political power and leadership as expressed in the novels, plays, and poetry of the world’s greatest artists and intellectuals. Adapted from a course taught at Harvard by Pulitzer Prize—winning author Robert Coles, Political Leadership features scenes, stories, and speeches... Read more >

Visions of a Better World
Howard Thurman's Pilgrimage to India and the Origins of African American Nonviolence
Written by Quinton Dixie and Peter Eisenstadt

Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: August 30, 2011
Price: $34.95
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0045-8 (0-8070-0045-0)

The first biographical exploration of one of the most important African American religious thinkers of the twentieth century--Howard Thurman--and of the pivotal trip he took to India that ultimately shaped the course of the civil rights movement.

In 1935, Howard Thurman took a trip to India that would forever change him. He... Read more >

The Four Global Truths
Awakening to the Peril and Promise of Our Times
Written by Darrin Drda

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: EVOLVER EDITIONS
On Sale: October 25, 2011
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-321-2 (1-58394-321-8)

With the planet increasingly threatened with catastrophe and perhaps even collapse, many seekers are looking to past, proven models to create meaningful change in their lives. One such model is Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths: the reality of suffering, the root cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the path to... Read more >

The Ascent of Humanity
Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
Written by Charles Eisenstein

Format: Trade Paperback, 576 pages
Publisher: EVOLVER EDITIONS
On Sale: February 5, 2013
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-535-3 (1-58394-535-0)

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. In this landmark book, Eisenstein explains how a disconnection from the natural world and one another is built into the foundations of civilization: into science, religion, money... Read more >

The Ascent of Humanity
Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
Written by Charles Eisenstein

Format: Hardcover, 576 pages
Publisher: EVOLVER EDITIONS
On Sale: February 5, 2013
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-636-7 (1-58394-636-5)

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. In this landmark book, Eisenstein explains how a disconnection from the natural world and one another is built into the foundations of civilization: into science, religion, money... Read more >

Sacred Economics
Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
Written by Charles Eisenstein

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: EVOLVER EDITIONS
On Sale: July 12, 2011
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-58394-397-7 (1-58394-397-8)

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme–but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to... Read more >

The Foucault Reader

Written by Michel Foucault

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 12, 1984
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-71340-3 (0-394-71340-0)

Edited by Paul Rainbow.  Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. The Foucault Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as... Read more >

Power/Knowledge
Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977
Written by Michel Foucault

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 12, 1980
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-73954-0 (0-394-73954-X)

Edited and with an afterword by Colin Gordon.  In this set of essays and interviews, Foucault interprets his writings on such themes as sexuality, politics, and punishment, stressing the contribution of each to the magnificent--and terrifying--portrait of society that he is compiling.  As Foucault shows, what he has always been describing is the... Read more >

The Essential Gandhi
An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas
Written by Mahatma Gandhi
Edited by Louis Fischer

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 12, 2002
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3050-7 (1-4000-3050-1)

A Vintage Spiritual Classic

Mohandas K. Gandhi, called Mahatma (“great soul”), was the father of modern India, but his influence has spread well beyond the subcontinent and is as important today as it was in the first part of the twentieth century and during this nation’s own civil rights movement. Taken from... Read more >