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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War" data-author="Ash Sarkar">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1740717811l/228540588._SY500_.jpg" alt="Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228540588" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Ash Sarkar</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2025</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Sun, 22 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">We live under minority rule. But who is the ruling minority?
Most of us are getting screwed over. Our world is defined by inequality, insecurity, lack of community and information overload. As the world burns, mega-corporations are reporting record profits. How are they getting away with it?
'Minority rule' is the term Ash Sarkar uses to describe the irrational fear that minorities are trying to overturn and oppress majority populations. In her eye-opening debut, she reveals how minority elites rule majorities by creating the culture wars that have taken over our politics, stoking fear and panic in our media landscape. Because despite what they'll have you believe, anti-racist campaigners aren't actually silencing the 'forgotten' working class, immigrants aren't eating your pets, trans-activists aren't corrupting your children, and cancel culture isn't crushing free speech.
In Minority Rule, Sarkar exposes how a strategic misdirection of blame over who is really screwing everything up is keeping the majority divided, while the real ruling minority of hedge fund managers, press barons, landlords and corporations remain on top. And it's facilitating one of the biggest power grabs in history. Most crucially, she shows us how what we really have in common is being concealed by a deafening culture of distraction – and that the first step towards a better future is understanding what is happening now, and how we got here.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths" data-author="Clara E. Mattei">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1754147810l/239435090._SY500_.jpg" alt="Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239435090" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Clara E. Mattei</p>
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<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Sat, 21 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">We live in a world dominated by the dogma that austerity is necessary, unemployment natural, endless wars inevitable and central banks all-powerful. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In her bold, ground-breaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei tears the mask off our economic system. She unpacks key concepts like growth, inflation, unemployment and balanced budgets to show how they’re weaponized to enforce market dependence, not freedom, stripping us of the power to shape the democratic decisions that govern our daily lives. Enduring problems such as poverty and inequality are not accidents or bugs in the economy, but core features – justified with pseudoscientific models to support a system that unfairly rewards people with the most resources.
Why should we accept this? Capitalism, Mattei argues, isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural – it's a relatively young system that can be replaced. Inspired by a lineage of political resistance, Escape from Capitalism calls for us to challenge the broken economics of our times, and pave the way towards liberation.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Intellectuals and Race" data-author="Thomas Sowell">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1357613803l/16280863.jpg" alt="Intellectuals and Race" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16280863" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Intellectuals and Race</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Thomas Sowell</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2013</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Fri, 20 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">"Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light.
The views of individual intellectuals have spanned the spectrum, but the views of intellectuals as a whole have tended to cluster. Indeed, these views have clustered at one end of the spectrum in the early twentieth century and then clustered at the opposite end of the spectrum in the late twentieth century. Moreover, these radically different views of race in these two eras were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were very similar in both eras.
Intellectuals and Race is not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, economic and statistical evidence-- all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially intellectuals at the highest levels.
Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. The impact of intellectuals' ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to "social justice" and multiculturalism.
In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, the visions and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups, but for societies as a whole." -- Dust jacket.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="My Father Came from Italy" data-author="Maria Coletta McLean">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1183741594l/1451240._SY500_.jpg" alt="My Father Came from Italy" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1451240" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">My Father Came from Italy</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Maria Coletta McLean</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2002</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Wed, 18 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">After 64 years, Mezzabotte Coletta, a retired truck driver for a Toronto macaroni factory, is retuning to his native Italia. In the village of Supino, said to take its name from the crossroads where Christ rested, supine, en route from Rome to Naples, is a rundown villa bought sight unseen by Mezzabotte's daughter Maria - an olive branch after years of family struggle.
While she and her husband Bob breathe in the chatter of local tradesmen, the fragrant offerings of well-wishing neighbors, and the aroma of fine wine, her father awaits in Canada, anticipating the day he will again touch Italian soil.
Hoping to avoid the wounds of his difficult marriage and the onset of senility, father and daughter retrace footsteps that yield from the Saint of Special Favors a miraculous recovery.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Secret of the Blue Trunk" data-author="Lise Dion">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391341237l/13588615.jpg" alt="The Secret of the Blue Trunk" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588615" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Secret of the Blue Trunk</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Lise Dion</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2011</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Tue, 17 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">In this true story, Armande Martel, a young nun from Quebec, is arrested by the Germans in 1940 during a stay at her religious order’s mother house in Brittany. She spends the war years in a German concentration camp. After her return to Canada, she leaves the Church, finds the love of her life in Montreal, and adopts Lise Dion.
Growing up, Lise is familiar with only a few facts of her mother’s past. It’s when she clears her mother’s small apartment after her death that Lise Dion discovers the key to the blue trunk, which was always locked. This key unlocks the mystery of Armande’s early life, and Lise decides to write The Secret of the Blue Trunk.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Jazz" data-author="Toni Morrison">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462783225l/30137761.jpg" alt="Jazz" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30137761" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jazz</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Toni Morrison</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1992</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Mon, 16 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse.
This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself (Penguin Classics)" data-author="Black Hawk">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348342258l/2378955.jpg" alt="Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself (Penguin Classics)" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2378955" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak: Dictated by Himself (Penguin Classics)</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Black Hawk</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 1833</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Fri, 13 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">Upon its publication in 1833, this unflinching narrative by the vanquished Sauk leader Black Hawk was the first thoroughly adversarial account of frontier hostilities between white settlers and Native Americans. Black Hawk, a complex, contradictory figure, relates his life story and that of his people, who had been forced from western Illinois in what was known as the Black Hawk War. The first published account of a victim of the American war of extermination, this vivid portrait of Indian life stands as a tribute to the author and his extraordinary people, as well as an invaluable historical document.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe" data-author="Charles Glass">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1454550662l/27246074.jpg" alt="Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27246074" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Syria Burning: A Short History of a Catastrophe</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Charles Glass</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2015</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Wed, 11 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">What are the origins of the Syrian crisis, and why did no one do anything to stop it?
Since the upsurge of the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed in excess of 200,000 lives, with an estimated 8 million Syrians, more than a third of the country’s population, forced to flee their homes. Militant Sunni groups, such as ISIS, have taken control of large swathes of the nation. The impact of this catastrophe is now being felt on the streets of Europe and the United States.
Veteran Middle East expert Charles Glass combines reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict. He also gives a powerful argument for why the West has failed to get to grips with the consequences of the crisis.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="Understanding the Black Economy and Black Money in India: An Enquiry into Causes, Consequences & Remedies" data-author="Arun Kumar">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567058651l/52754920._SX500_SY500_.jpg" alt="Understanding the Black Economy and Black Money in India: An Enquiry into Causes, Consequences & Remedies" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52754920" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Understanding the Black Economy and Black Money in India: An Enquiry into Causes, Consequences & Remedies</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Arun Kumar</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2017</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Tue, 10 Ma</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">The Narendra Modi government's sudden demonetization of `500 and `1,000 notes in November 2016 failed to put a dent in the black economy but caused untold hardship to hundreds of millions of Indians. It has crippled the country's economy for a long time to come.
In this book, Arun Kumar, the country's leading authority on the black economy, tells us why Modi's gambit failed. He shows us the way in which the problem can be rooted out, provided the government has the political will and determination to act. Today, the black economy is estimated to be 62 per cent of Gdp-or about `93 lakh crore ($1.4 trillion). Corrupt businessmen, corrupt politicians, and corrupt members of the executive (bureaucrats, police and the judiciary) are responsible for controlling the black economy and enabling its growth.
If the black economy were to be dismantled and turned into a part of the 'white' economy, the country's rate of growth would be 12 per cent. If it had not grown the way it has since the 1970s, India's per capita income today would be approximately `7 lakh per annum ($11,000) and India would become the second largest economy in the world. If the black economy were taxed at current rates, it would generate `37 lakh crore in additional taxes and the union budget would show a surplus of `31 lakh crore instead of a deficit.
The failure of successive governments to tackle the problem effectively has been the single biggest obstacle to eradicating poverty. It is the cause of both widespread policy failure and the inability of the nation to improve its living conditions rapidly.</div>
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<div class="goodreads-book" data-title="The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class" data-author="Joel Kotkin">
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<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1587494854l/52862590.jpg" alt="The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class" class="goodreads-cover-img">
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<h3 class="goodreads-title">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52862590" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class</a>
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<p class="goodreads-author">Joel Kotkin</p>
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<span class="goodreads-year">Published: 2020</span>
<span class="goodreads-date">Finished: Mon, 9 Mar</span>
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<div class="goodreads-description-text">Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism. If the last seventy years saw a massive expansion of the middle class, not only in America but in much of the developed world, today that class is declining and a new, more hierarchical society is emerging.
The new class structure resembles that of Medieval times. At the apex of the new order are two classes―a reborn clerical elite, the clerisy, which dominates the upper part of the professional ranks, universities, media and culture, and a new aristocracy led by tech oligarchs with unprecedented wealth and growing control of information. These two classes correspond to the old French First and Second Estates.
Below these two classes lies what was once called the Third Estate. This includes the yeomanry, which is made up largely of small businesspeople, minor property owners, skilled workers and private-sector oriented professionals. Ascendant for much of modern history, this class is in decline while those below them, the new Serfs, grow in numbers―a vast, expanding property-less population.
The trends are mounting, but we can still reverse them―if people understand what is actually occurring and have the capability to oppose them.</div>
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