here and now
Discover essential reads on society, power, and human nature—from Karl Polanyi’s economic classic to Huxley’s Brave New World and Salinger’s timeless fiction. Explore this curated collection of thought-provoking books and biographies that question the status quo and illuminate our past, present, and future.
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Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Huxley's story shows a futuristic World State where all emotion, love, art, and human individuality have been replaced by social stability. An ominous warning to the world's population, this literary classic is a must-read.
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Wild Swans
by Jung Chang
Tells the story of three women--Jung Chang, her mother, and her grandmother--whose lives and fortunes mirror the tumultuous twentieth century in China.
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Stupid White Men
by Michael Moore
Sorry excuses for the state of the nation. United States. Manifesto on malfeasance and mediocrity. Satire.
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The Great Transformation
by Karl Polanyi
In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the "great transformation" of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.
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The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.
