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Essential Reads for Defending Democracy
A Reading List for Change-Makers, Thinkers and Patriots
Understanding our Foundations
What Does the Constitution Actually Say?
– Ben Sheehan
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The Declaration of Independence & The Constitution of the United States
– Jon Meacham
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The Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence
– Delegates of the Constitutional Convention
Equity, Race and Identify
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
– Paulo Freire
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The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
– Heather McGhee
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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
– Isabel Wilkerson
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The Warmth of Other Suns
– Isabel Wilkerson
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Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race
– Debby Irving
Democracy in Crisis & Action
Democracy in Retrograde
– Sami Sage and Emily Amick
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Democracy or Else
– Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor
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Democracy Awakening
– Heather Cox Richardson
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Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
– Leah Litman
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Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
– Rachel Maddow
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On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
– Timothy Snyder
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Freedom
– Timothy Snyder
Resistance, Strategy & Persuasion
Why Civil Resistance Works
– Erica Chenoweth & Maria Stephan
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The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
– Anand Giridharadas
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Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel
– Loretta J. Ross
Hope, Courage and Vision
How We Learn to Be Brave
– Mariann Edgar Budde
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Moral Ambition
– Rutger Bregman
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Abundance
– Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
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The Soul of America
– Jon Meacham