emmme's reviews
13 reviews

Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights: 1919-1950 by Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Everyone who calls themselves an activist should read this book. Defying Dixie examines how a multi-gender, multi-racial, and multi-industry labor organizing style has the power to alter the course of working-class consciousness and heighten the call to revolution. In Defying Dixie, the Popular Front coalition of CPUSA, Black organizations (NAACP, Urban League, the Black church), CIO, AFL, and the Socialist Party ultimately tied their experience of oppression under capitalist white supremacist America with that of those under fascist Hitler, allowing more moderate Americans to sympathize and understand their struggle. This form of coalition building allowed them to challenge the racialized programs and segregated structures within the New Deal. Defying Dixie also examines how many American workers, including southern millworkers, made an immense declaration of solidarity through the labor organizing of the 1930s. 

If you believe in solidarity, read this book. 

To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise by Bethany Moreton

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This is an incredibly informative book that will shake your understanding of American big business and its relationship with the Christian right. Family values, gender norms, and worker's rights are all analyzed under the guise of a pro-Jesus anti-union re-shaping of American post-war capitalism. 

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5