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The New Jim Crow

The US has used the War on drugs to create a racial caste system: a successor to the Jim Crow days we thought we left behind. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is one of the most important American books in the last decade. Alexander systematically explores the policy changes from the days of Nixon through the present – exploring how each decision has created and allowed a system which criminalizes blackness, brownness, otherness in way that both creates new racial biases and confirms them by incarcerating millions of young black and brown men (and to a lesser extent, black and brown women).

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Written in 1968, Do Androids Dream of ElectricSheep is set in a near-future San Francisco amid vast desertion to off-world colonies. Those remaining on Earth contend with nuclear fallout dust and other dangers. Dick asks fundamental questions in the novel and our discussion touches on just a few of these.

On Such a Full Sea

On Such a Full Sea follows Fan, a young woman from one of the labor communities, as she leaves her home in search of her love. In a corporatized future world – where the wealthy fly in helicopters, workers try to compete with robots, and the really poor live in favelas – what becomes of social mobility and the notions of resilience and hope and equality?

Reproducing Racism

Giving new language to the ongoing dialogue of racial inequality in America, Reproducing Racism distills research from different fields into a highly readable argument that historical actions matter more than current prejudices in locking in inequality.

Beyond the University

In this edition of the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast, we discuss Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, by Michael S. Roth. The book has been getting a lot of  media attention in the higher ed circles, and we think it’s a decidedly important topic, one that impacts governance dramatically. Roth takes an historic look at thought on education in America.

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast discussion of Enforcing Order, click the orange arrow in the Soundcloud player above or download it on Soundcloud, iTunes U, iTunes Podcasts

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