Liberal Reading List

By Stephanie Jackson

If you find yourself sitting around this summer wanting to read something a little more challenging than “The Da Vinci Code,” try picking up something with a little liberal bite to it. While the war theatre has brought along some of the best work in political writing ever, these are the classic novels and memoirs that paved the way for the progressive movement as it stands today.

Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck.
If you didn’t read it in high school or see the film starring Henry Fonda, you missed out. This classic set in the Southwest during the Dust Bowl follows the Joad family on their move from Oklahoma to California after losing their house and farm. One of, if not the greatest social protest novel of all time. Topics: poverty, unity, homelessness, class system.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee.
Narrated from the point of view of a young girl, this quick, simple read is the tale of one of the greatest literary heraboes of all time: Atticus Finch, made famous on screen by Gregory Peck. Topics: race relations, racism, trial system, class, gender roles.

Catch 22: Joseph Heller.
Considered one of the best works of the 1960s, this satirical piece follows a squadron of airmen in World War II, each of them telling parts of the story from his own point of view. Topics: anti-war, patriotism, prisoner’s dilemma, bureaucracy, sanity, religion, integrity

The Trial: Franz Kafka.
An unfinished work of the often complex German master writer, “The Trial” centers around Joseph K. who is suddenly arrested for an unspecified crime. Topics: criminal justice system, bureaucracy, marriage, social interaction, Jewish identity.

Watership Down: Richard Adams.
While on the surface only a tale of a group of rabbits finding a new home, the policital-oriented novel is more famous for its creepy 1970s cartoon version and being featured in “Donnie Darko” than for its role as one of the least-subtle subversive pieces of literature of the 20th Century. Topics: totalitarianism, environmental destruction, bureaucracy, imprisonment, government control, democracy.

Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut.
This time-traveling masterpiece by the late Vonnegut has become a cult favorite of Sci-Fi fans the world over. Topics: free will, interdependence, fatalism, human nature.

Cry, the Beloved Country: Alan Patron.
This pre-apartheid South African novel following a black Anglican priest searching for his son will be a hit with fans of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker or anyone that was a fan of the early works of Oprah’s Book Club. Topics: racism, social instability, land rights, minority rule.

Giovanni’s Room: James Baldwin.
The American in Paris idea is shaken up in this novel, narrated by an American who falls in love with an Italian man while his fiancée is in Spain. Topics: homophobia, homosexuality, execution.

The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood.
A Dystopian Sci-Fi novel in the realm of classics like “1984” and “Brave New World;” this time focusing on women. Topics: social control, gender roles, anti-religion

I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang: Robert Ellis Burns.
Autobiography of a man wrongfully imprisoned who escaped his harsh conditions later made into a classic film. Topics: trial system, prison system, forced labor.

Myra Breckinridge: Gore Vidal.
A satire in the form of a diary, this 1968 controversial piece set in Hollywood follows a beautiful young woman who just so happens to have been born a man. Topics: transsexuality, pornography, social norms, feminism, gender roles, patriarchy.

Infinite Jest: David Foster Wallace.
Set in a new future where North America is combined into one nation and the American Northwest is one big dumping ground, this novel centers on the search for a lost film that is so entertaining, those who watch it want to do nothing else. Topics: drug abuse and rehab, depression, child abuse, advertising and entertainment, separatism.

Lakota Woman: Mary Crow Dog.
One of the few Native American writings to top the bestseller list, this is the autobiography of the woman made infamous in 1973 by giving birth during a shootout in the Siege of Wounded Knee. Topics: racism, class, media spin, gender roles, social protest, prison system, Native American rights.

Legacy of Luna: Julia Butterfly Hill.
This is the retelling of activist Hill’s two years spent living in a California Redwood (Luna) to protect it from destruction. Topics: deforestation, activism, bureaucracy.

The Martian Chronicles: Ray Bradbury.
This Sci-Fi classic depicts the colonization of Mars by humans leaving a troubled earth. Topics: colonization, wastefulness, imperialism, native suppression.

The Other America: Michael Harrington.
Like classics “Silent Spring” and “The Jungle,” this is one book that actually caused social change when it was released in 1962 and has been praised with being the springboard for Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and social security benefits. Topics: poverty, government inaction, socialism.