Ask Lemmy

Dune by Frank Herbert, it does a good job taking problems with our world and framing them in a fictional context. Like the struggle of the Fremen and unregulated capitalism.

The Underground Railroad this was required reading when I was in school. It's quite significant and about the struggles of slavery in America.

The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories This collection of short stories tries to illustrate various morals and experiences. Like how the western world glossed over the struggles of Japanese people soon after the nuclear bombings.

The Satanic Verses This one is a hard sell, especially given the constraints you've set. Put bluntly it's a mockery of biblical texts, but it's highlighting the whimsical nature of religion and its chilling effects. People have been murdered over this book and I feel it wouldn't be fair to those who have died not to mention it here.

Please keep in mind that these books should be acceptable by the school and approachable by students who would be unlikely to accept or read very progressive material, so themes that strongly (just strongly) contradict Western narratives should be avoided.

This made me hesitate, but then I decided that you’re more than capable of reading a summary or skimming a book and deciding whether or not it makes a fit.

Let me start with some obvious ones:

• Orientalism by Edward Said

• A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

• 90% of Chomsky’s work

• 21 Things They Don’t Teach You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang. Chang is an economist who I believe studied under the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. They both research the economies of developing countries, with Chang having a specialization in South Korea. He accused developed countries of “kicking away the ladder” when they force the Washington Consensus on developing economies while having violated those norms as their own economies developed.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond - There’s a lot wrong with the book but it does make for an effective deconstruction of the myth of western cultural superiority by proposing a physical/geographical explanation.

Better than GGS would be any book by David Graeber, who for my money was the greatest anthropologist of our time and who brings a radical preconception of some of the most treasured but false narratives in the development of western history and capitalism. Debt is his most famous work, I think, but I’d especially recommend The Dawn of Everything.

Che Guevara by Jon Lee Anderson - the best bio of Che that I’ve read, but it’s really, really long. Maybe just watch Motorcycle Diaries and Even The Rain (which is about modern and even liberal colonialism but not Che).

Anything about James Baldwin

The Social Conquest of the Earth by EO Wilson. Wilson was the biologist who founded the field of sociobiology and who towards the end of his career came to the conclusion that its because humans exhibit the highest levels of cooperation (eusociality) that we’ve come to dominate the planet, for better and for worse.

I realize that a lot of these are US centric, and I’ve left out virtually everything on LGBT history and culture, but I think this might be a good start.

Might be pushing the limits, but https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_States (and books inspired by it) is a great book, and there’s also a graphic novel version: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_American_Empire

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_World_and_Me

This might be a good one.

Copperhead by Alexi Zentner

Major Taylor was one of the first big international sporting celebrities of any human race in a much more deeply troubled time, before cars were a thing anyone around would have owned. It really contrasts how Europe was at the time versus how backwards the United States was at the time and shines a light on how things have or have not changed. It is a genuinely good read too.

These are probably too progressive for your school but I highly recommend them to anyone outside of school.

Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From The Beginning and How To Be An Antiracist are incredible books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamped_from_the_Beginning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Be_an_Antiracist