Book Discussion

Join members to discuss books relevant to areas of our program study. Copies of books for current and past discussions may be available in the League office. Reserve a copy by contacting our operations manager, Kerry Helmer. Feel free to attend, even if you have not had time to read the book.

Interested in joining or leading a book discussion? Have questions or suggestions of titles for future discussion? Email the organizers.

Recent selections

  • Cover of Democracy Awakening.

    Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

    by Heather Cox Richardson

    If you prefer your historical perspective on the development and struggles of American democracy in small, digestible bites, you are ready for this book. HCR walks us from what she calls the first founding—the Declaration of Independence with its clear statement of equality and the compromises of the Constitution that continue to enshrine inequality—through efforts to make the Declaration a reality.

    In a conversational tone the author takes us through the Civil War, the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act and efforts to overthrow a growing “liberal consensus” that government exists to promote the common good and work toward equality in a multiracial society. She highlights those who stood firm to preserve and advance American democracy in the face of growing inequality and divisiveness.

    Democracy Awakening
  • Cover of Tyranny of the Minority

    Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

    by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

    From the New York Times bestselling authors of How Democracies Die, this book is a call to reform our antiquated political institutions that give unfair advantage to those in the minority. Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that the move toward a multiracial democracy in the United States has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the foundations of our political system. The authors explain why and how political parties turn against democracy, and suggest common-sense, though difficult to achieve, changes to our Constitution to prevent partisan minorities from ruling over popular majorities in our country.

    Tyranny of the Minority
  • Cover of the book How Minds Change

    How Minds Change

    by David McRaney

    In our current polarized environment, conversations among people who do not agree can be challenging and disheartening. How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion explores the elements of human belief and why facts and logical arguments are not the pillars of persuasion that we hope them to be. Listening, it turns out, is a key element.

    How Minds Change was the 2023-2024 Go Big Read book selection.

    How Minds Change

  • Poverty, by America

    by Matthew Desmond

    “The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a ‘provocative and compelling’ (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.”

    Poverty, By America
  • Cover of the book Palaces for the People

    Palaces for the People

    by Eric Klinenberg

    In Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, Eric Klinenberg asserts that it’s not enough to build physical infrastructure; we have to build life- and society-sustaining neighborhoods. What does that look like? How can we build infrastructure that bridges, rather than widens our gaping social divisions? “Before we lift the next shovel,” the author says, “we should know what we want to improve, what we need to protect, and, more importantly, what kind of society we want to create.”

    Palaces for the People

Earlier Selections