Inequality
Last updated: March 09, 2024
We have a range of interviews about books covering various aspects of human inequality—sexual, racial and social. A number of our interviews related specifically to the United States. Michele Lamont, professor of sociology at Harvard University discusses the sociology of inequality. And Kenneth W. Mack, professor of law at Harvard discusses egalitarianism in the United States and the practice of exclusion at the heart of US politics. Anthropologist Ruth Gomberg-Munoz considers the US’s undocumented workers and the mutual dependence between slums and ‘urban glamour zones’. British lawyer, Shami Chakrabarti, addresses human rights and looks at the relationship between Harry Potter and the War on Terror.
On a more international level, we have Amnesty International’s Steve Crawshaw looking at the history of human rights issues from the Belgian Congo to Iran. Nicola Jones considers gender equality in the developing world and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, climate justice. Architect and writer, John Calame, talks about the origins and consequences of partitioned cities such as Jerusalem, Belfast, Mostar and Nicosia.
Elsewhere Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International talks about the need to champion women’s rights in the 21st century, Kurt Barling, broadcaster and professor of journalism explains why the concept of ‘race’ is misleading and inaccurate and the writer on child development, Sue Palmer, looks at toxic masculinity.
All our books recommendations relating to economic and income inequality can be found in our economics section.
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1
Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life
by Annette Lareau -
2
How Children Succeed. Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character
by Paul Tough -
3
Intelligence and How To Get It: Why Schools and Culture Count
by Richard E. Nisbett -
4
Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage
by Kathryn Edin & Maria Kefalas -
5
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know
by Emily Oster
Parenting: A Social Science Perspective, recommended by Nate G. Hilger
Parenting: A Social Science Perspective, recommended by Nate G. Hilger
We think of parenting as a level playing field because loving your kids and doing everything you can for them comes naturally and isn’t determined by socio-economic status. The problem is that it may not be enough, says economist Nate G. Hilger. Here, he argues for a more activist approach so that kids across society have an equal opportunity to do well in life.
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1
Women vs Capitalism: Why We Can't Have It All in a Free Market Economy
by Vicky Pryce -
2
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
by Caroline Criado Perez -
3
Sex and World Peace
by Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Chad Emmett, Mary Caprioli & Valerie Hudson -
4
Delusions of Gender
by Cordelia Fine -
5
Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas
by Nancy Folbre
The best books on Gender Inequality, recommended by Linda Scott
The best books on Gender Inequality, recommended by Linda Scott
Women produce about 40% of global GDP and more than half of the world’s food. But their economic and social contribution has too often gone unrecorded—subsumed into ‘household earnings’ or otherwise disregarded. Here, the Oxford academic and author of The Double X Economy Linda Scott selects five of the best books on gender inequality, and reveals how the empowerment of women might just be the route to world peace.
Michèle Lamont on The Sociology of Inequality
“If we come to understand the human value and dignity of people from different backgrounds, we can do a bit to deflect inequality in our everyday interactions,” says Harvard Professor and winner of the 2017 Erasmus Prize Michèle Lamont. Here, she recommends five books that illuminate the sociology of inequality.
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1
The Race between Education and Technology
by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F Katz -
2
Top Incomes in the Long Run of History
by Emmanuel Saez, Thomas Piketty & Tony Atkinson -
3
Why Nations Fail
by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson -
4
Unequal Democracy
by Larry M Bartels -
5
13 Bankers
by Simon Johnson & Simon Johnson and James Kwak
The best books on Inequality, recommended by Daron Acemoglu
The best books on Inequality, recommended by Daron Acemoglu
The US, the UK and many other countries around the globe have become far less equal over the past 30 years. It’s important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies, says Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at MIT. He recommends the best books to get a better understanding of inequality.
The best books on Racism, recommended by Kurt Barling
The concept of ‘race’ is misleading and inaccurate, argues Kurt Barling, Professor of Journalism at the University of Middlesex and author of The R Word: Racism and Modern Society. He recommends the best books to think about racism.
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1
Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History
by Rogers M. Smith -
2
At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943
by Erika Lee -
3
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
by Mae M. Ngai -
4
Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement
by Patricia Sullivan -
5
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
The best books on Race and the Law, recommended by Kenneth W. Mack
The best books on Race and the Law, recommended by Kenneth W. Mack
Kenneth W. Mack, the Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard University, discusses the warring ideals of egalitarianism and exclusion at the heart of US politics and law, from the founding of the nation up to the present day.
The best books on America’s Undocumented Workers, recommended by Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz
The anthropologist tells us about books that give voice to low-wage migrant labourers and explains the mutual dependence of slums and “urban glamour zones”
The best books on Human Rights, recommended by Steve Crawshaw
Amnesty International’s director of international advocacy chooses books that illuminate historical and contemporary human rights issues, from the Belgian Congo to Iran
The best books on Women’s Empowerment, recommended by Zainab Salbi
Founder and CEO of Women for Women International Zainab Salbi says we need to make the 21st century the time for women’s rights, and describes how reading Rumi’s poems helps her to find inner peace
The best books on Economic Inequality Between Nations and Peoples, recommended by Branko Milanovic
World Bank economist and author of The Haves and the Have-Nots: A Short and Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality discusses global economic inequality and says internal issues of inequality breed aggressive foreign policy