Book Review: &amp;quot;Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right&amp;quot;

Real Change

Book Review: "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City"

by Adam Hyla | January 4th, 2017

Matthew Desmond anecdotally analyzes the exploitation of urban poor by rich landlords

Sherrena and Quentin, husband-and-wife owners-managers of rental property on the near north side of Milwaukee, built their business with the faith that they could make it on their own. Still, Sherrena feels for those she rents to — and usually regrets it. Nobody feels her pain, so why feel for others? “So, Arleen,” says Sherrena to a mother of two whose eviction she’s just pursued in court, and who’s catching a ride home with her afterwards, “if you ever thinking about becoming a landlord, don’t. It’s a bad deal. Get the short end of the stick every time.”
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Book Review: "I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This"

by Katherine Luck | December 28th, 2016

Nadja Spiegelman’s memoir reveals the conflicts between mothers and daughters

Glancing through the opening pages of “I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This” by Nadja Spiegelman, the reader will be forgiven for wondering who Nadja Spiegelman is and what this conspicuously average 29-year-old from New York City has done to merit a memoir.
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Book Review: "The Trees"

by Susan Storer Clark | December 21st, 2016

Late one night, the trees came.

“The forest burst full-grown out of the earth, in booming uppercuts of trunks and bludgeoning branches. It rammed through roads and houses alike, shattering bricks and exploding glass.”

Everything changes with the coming of the trees. Is it only in this quiet English town, or worldwide? The people in the town can’t tell. All communication is cut. People and animals have been impaled or bludgeoned to death by the trees. The electricity is gone.
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Book Review: "The Underground Railroad"

by Elliott Bronstein | December 14th, 2016

In 'The Underground Railroad’ Colson Whitehead provides a horrific journey to the bottom of our soul

“The Underground Railroad is bigger than its operators — it’s all of you, too. The small spurs, the big trunk lines.”

The story goes that when Colson Whitehead was a child, he thought the Underground Railroad was an actual train that ran underground. Funny how those childhood confusions stick around: decades later, the author of “The Intuitionist” and MacArthur Fellow returned to that childhood fantasy to tell a fable of life in hell.
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Book Review: "Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond"

by Mike Wold | December 7th, 2016

Looking through the killing and injustice to find a clearer picture of institutional racism

When you hear about one more killing by police, read one more statistic about racial disparities in arrests and mass incarceration, or protest one more Black majority city screwed over by an emergency manager, it’s easy to put it down as just one more example of America’s racism and injustice, without giving real consideration to how these things came to be. Marc Lamont Hill’s “Nobody” is a good corrective to that.
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Book Review: "The Making of Donald Trump" by David Cay Johnston

by Megan Wildhood | November 2nd, 2016

There’s something in “The Making of Donald Trump” for everyone. For Christians, one of Donald Trump’s favorite Bible verses is an “eye for an eye.” For lawyers, Trump’s apparent enjoyment of lawsuits doesn’t seem to keep him from settling more than he’s won, yet he claims that “he never settles” because “you have to hit those who screw you ten times harder.” For esoteric-tax-law enthusiasts, Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston provides a thorough tour of loopholes and exceptions to the rules via Trump’s management of his assets, properties, private jets and more.
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Book Review: "Monstrous Progeny, A History of the Frankenstein Narratives

by Joe Martin | October 26th, 2016

'Monstrous Progeny' turns generations of Frankenstein tales into a Halloween treat

It was an unprecedented display of nature’s ferocity. The stupendous volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in what is now Indonesia killed many thousands in its immediate swath. Untold tons of ash and other volcanic debris propelled into the stratosphere had a global impact on Earth’s climate, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The following year, 1816, would be known as the year without a summer. Persistent cold, inclement weather resulted in crop failures and food riots in some places.
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Book Review: "The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government"

by Joe Martin | October 19th, 2016

In 1947, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act creating the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Thus Truman laid the groundwork for the “deep state,” a shadowland of secret machinations and deadly intrigue. It comprises a parallel government unaccountable to the American people and elected officials. Years later, Truman would question the surreptitious forces he had unleashed.
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Book Review: "The Value of Homelessness"

by Megan Wildhood | October 12th, 2016

Author Craig Willse rebukes the current approach to homelessness, but offers only vague solutions

It’s easy to assume, or at least hope, that the increasing number of services for homeless people is making a difference for those without housing. But the number of people sleeping outside each night is also increasing — in nearly direct proportion with the amount of raises in rent, in fact. This is happening even as downtown Seattle gets converted bit by bit into sites for condos with rents starting at $2,000. These changes obscure any evidence of the 2008 recession and its sluggish recovery.
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Book Review: "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right"

by Megan Wildhood | October 5th, 2016

Journalist Jane Meyer follows the road of dark money that leads right to the pockets of the Koch brothers

If you care about the poor, the environment, fair taxes, workers’ rights, consumer protection and safety regulations, you’re likely pretty frustrated with what’s going on in American politics. You might ask, why doesn’t the United States lead the way in climate change solutions when it’s one of the global leaders in pollution and resource consumption? Or, where is all this income inequality coming from if we are supposed to have progressed beyond the Gilded Age? And what, most importantly, can we do about it?
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