Books & Digital Projects
Hold the Line Unite members recommend these books and digital projects (listed in alphabetical order):
The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from the New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. Read more about The 1619 Project.
Becoming, by Michelle Obama (2018).
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. (2020). You can read an excerpt in the Atlantic here. Listen to an interview with the author on NPR here.
Bewilderment, by Richard Powers (2021). A novel set in the near future, in which a Trump-like president has overthrown election results to stay in power.
The Constitution of Knowledge: In Defense of Truth, by Jonathan Rauch (2021). For an overview of the book’s themes and focus, see Rauch’s “The Constitution of Knowledge” from the Fall 2018 issue of National Affairs and Peter Wehner’s “Trump’s Most Malicious Legacy,” in the December 7, 2020 issue of The Atlantic.
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, by Jane Mayer (2017).
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean (2018)
The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be, by Moises Naim (2014).
Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit, by Palmer Parker (2011).
How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide,by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay (2019).
Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone, by Mark Goulston (2015).
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by John Loewen (2007).
Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World, by Jacqueline Novogratz (2020).
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder (2017). See Snyder’s Conferences & Lectures page for recorded presentations, talks, and readings.
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn (2015 edition).
Periodicals
Letters from an American, a chronicle of today’s political landscape, by historian Heather Cox Richardson
Popular Information, created because “every day there is an avalanche of information—but much of it is a distraction. Popular Information guides you through the noise and helps you focus on what’s important.”
Articles & Radio Broadcasts
Hold the Line Unite members recommend these articles and broadcasts (listed in alphabetical order):
“10 Things You Need to Know to Stop a Coup,” Waging Nonviolence, September 18, 2020
“The Constitution of Knowledge,” National Affairs (Fall 2018)
“Enabler in Chief,” New York Review of Books, November 2, 2020
“History Will Judge the Complicit,” The Atlantic, July 2020.
“How Did a Self-Taught Linguist Come to Own an Indigenous Language?”, from The New Yorker, April 19, 2021.
“How Private Money From Facebook's CEO Saved The 2020 Election,” Houston Public Media, December 9, 2020
”How the 2020 Election Is a Stress Test for American Democracy,” Fresh Air, November 4, 2020
”How to Stop a Power Grab,” The New Yorker, November 16, 2020
”I’m a Black Feminist. I Think Call-Out Culture Is Toxic,” New York Times, August 2019
“In Search of a Good Society,” Medium, December 12, 2020.
“Interrupting Bias: Calling Out vs. Calling In,” from Seed the Way: Education for Justice and Equality, n.d.
”Investors Can Now Bet on the Future of Water Prices in California,” National Public Radio December 9, 2020
“It Started With ‘Birtherism’: There’s a Pattern Here,” New York Times, November 24, 2020
“‘Its Own Domestic Army’: How the G.O.P. Allied Itself With Militants,” New York Times, February 8, 2021
”Just How Dangerous Was Donald Trump?,” New York Times, December 14, 2020
Kim Wehle: Lessons From The Senate Impeachment Trial, February 15, 2021.
“McCarthyism Was Never Defeated. Trumpism Won’t Be Either,” Washington Post, December 4, 2020
”New ‘Media Manipulation Casebook’ from Harvard Teaches How to Detect Misinformation Campaigns,” Washington Post, October 28, 2020
Politicians Turn to TikTok to Appeal to Younger Voters, National Public Radio, December 25, 2020
“The Politics of Pleasure,” a Q&A with Rebecca Solnit about her book Orwell’s Roses, from the New Yorker online, November 5, 2021.
“Return the National Parks to the Tribes,” from the Atlantic, April 12, 2021
”Right-Wing Militias Are Bracing for Civil War,” The Atlantic, November 2020
“The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” Time, February 4, 2021
“Small Donor Matching Funds: The NYC Election Experience,” Brennan Center for Justice, August 2019.
“‘So many great, educated, functional people were brainwashed’: Can Trump’s Cult of Followers be Deprogrammed?” Vanity Fair, January 21, 2021
”Trump Has Never Believed in Democracy,” New York Times, December 13, 2020
“Trump’s Most Malicious Legacy,” The Atlantic, December 7, 2020
“The War on Voting,” Popular Information, February 9, 2021
”What Can You Do If Trump Stages a Coup?,” The New Yorker, October 24, 2020
”What Really Saved the Republic From Trump?”, New York Times, December 10, 2020
”What the Democrats Achieve by Threatening to Pack the Supreme Court,” The New Yorker, October 28, 2020
”What Will It Take to Defend the Election? Here’s One Winning Strategy,” Waging Nonviolence, September 10, 2020
”Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose,” The New Yorker, November 9, 2020