Civil Society

The Civil Society Playbook by Michael Benedict covers the underreported sources of societal incivility and introduces daily actions (a Playbook) that anyone of any age can take to make our homes, schools, and workplaces more civil. Let's make the world we want to live in - one action at a time.

With their new book, Cristofer Pereyra and Erin Monnin provide a guide to authentic lay Catholic leadership. Catholic Leadership for Civil Society is structured to show that lay Catholic leadership is not meant to be lived out within the confines of the Catholic community exclusively, but instead serve mainly as a guiding force which illuminates every aspect of secular society with the Truth of the Gospel. The book explains why lay Catholic professionals have a unique responsibility and opportunity to influence the world for Christ, as their duty as baptized children of God.

Socialism, communism, fascism and Nazism are all but dead now. They have failed miserably. But they have been replaced by what is merely another more watered-down form of collectivism that may be called "interventionism". Indeed, interventionism is the predominant economic system in the world today. Contrary to the doctrine of laissez-faire capitalism, in the real world there are prolonged periods when market forces cannot self-correct in time to best serve the common good. Resulting social instability can only be corrected by government action.

This American classic details the experiences of Henry David Thoreau while he lived at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau, a transcendentalist writer, recounts extensively his reflections on his natural surroundings, as well as his values and experience of independence, self-reliance, and relation to nature and society.

Know Your Rights: And Claim Them focuses on educating the younger generation on their exact rights when it comes to protesting injustice. If you are aged under 18, you have your own set of human rights. Child rights are unique freedoms and protections designed for you. Governments should uphold them, but all across the world, they are violated. Know Your Rights: And Claim Them gives you the knowledge and tools to claim your rights. It introduces them and explains why they matter in the real world.

How can we agree to disagree in today's pluralistic society, one in which individuals and groups are becoming increasingly polarized by fierce convictions that are often at odds with the ideas of others? Civil Disagreement: Personal Integrity in a Pluralistic Society shows how we can cope with diversity and be appropriately open toward opponents even while staying true to our convictions.

Based on nearly a decade of reporting, Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolise Brooklyn's gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. As Dasani moves with her family from shelter to shelter, this story traces the passage of Dasani's ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

With security scares like the Heartbleed bug (which compromised even supposedly safe internet behemoths like Google and Yahoo!) becoming more commonplace, this book is a must-listen for anybody who values their privacy in a wired world.

Two authors with decades of experience promoting human rights argue that, as the world changes around us, rights hardly imaginable today will come into being.

How to comprehend and correct the negative impact of the internet on politics, the economy, the environment and humanity? "Reset" is a fast-paced, compelling exposé and a rallying call for clear change. Drawing on the cutting-edge research of the Citizen Lab, the world-renowned digital security research group he founded, Ronald J. Deibert exposes the influence of the communications ecosystem on civil society.

In May 1963, news photographer Charles Moore was on hand to document the Children’s Crusade, a civil rights protest. But the photographs he took that day did more than document an event; they helped change history. 

Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without which mutually cooperative societies cannot function. In a revolutionary development, we now know who has it, who lacks it and why. Via the MRI scanner, we are mapping the human brain. This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare, teens challenged by the Internet, the justice system, decent health care, tackling racism and resolving conflicts.

On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro", and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event.

When white people have the opportunity to think and talk about race and racism, they more often than not don’t know how. In this adaptation of Dr. Robin DiAngelo’s bestselling book White Fragility, anti-racist educators Toni Graves Williamson and Ali Michael explain the concept of systemic racism to young adults and how to recognize it in themselves and the world around them. Along the way, Williamson and Michael provide tools for taking action to challenge systems of inequity and racism as they move into adulthood. 

 The Fight for China’s Future throws light on the quintessence of 21st century Chinese politics through the prism of the struggle between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and China’s vibrant intelligentsia and civil society. This book examines Xi Jinping’s 24-hour, multi-dimensional, AI-enabled police-state apparatus and explores the CCP’s policy towards civil society.

Throughout history, periods have been hidden from the public. They’re taboo. They’re embarrassing. They’re gross. And due to a crumbling or nonexistent national sex ed program, they are misunderstood. Because of these stigmas, a status quo has been established to exclude people who menstruate from the seat at the decision-making table, creating discriminations like the tampon tax, medicines that favor male biology, and more. Period Power aims to explain what menstruation is, shed light on the stigmas and resulting biases, and create a strategy to end the silence and prompt conversation about periods.

Transcendentalism embodies the concept that people have a deeper and more profound understanding of the world around them than simply by what they can glimpse with their senses. In this collection of essays and poems, the works of three transcendentalist authors are shared, each with their own impressions and opinions supporting the movement.

The welfare state rests on the assumption that people have rights to food, shelter, health care, retirement income, and other goods provided by the government. David Kelley examines the historical origins of that assumption, and the rationale used to support it today.

If you are aged under 18, you have your own set of human rights. Child rights are unique freedoms and protections designed for you. Governments should uphold them, but all across the world, they are violated. Know Your Rights: And Claim Them gives you the knowledge and tools to claim your rights. It introduces them and explains why they matter in the real world. From gender and racial equality, to the rights to free expression, health, a clean climate and a sustainable environment, they are yours to claim.