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Civil Resistance

Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know

Not only does civil resistance work, but it is more than twice as effective as violent resistance!

As a non-academic, I find Chenoweth’s Civil Resistance highly accessible. Not only that, it is inspiring.

Earlier this year, I got tear-gassed at a largely peaceful protest. And last month, France erupted into riots because police killed an unarmed 17 boy of North African extraction.

Chenoweth might be an academic, but what she studies is not restricted to the Ivory Tower.

How the World Really Works

How the World Really Works

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Smil uses historical information and data to show how modern civilization, far from being at the cusp of turning its back on fossil fuel dependence, is more likely to continue its current trajectory of using ever more in the years to come. And he explains that even if stepping away from fossil fuels was an uncontested objective, actually shifting society away from fossil fuels would be very complicated in the near term.

Voyage of the Beagle

The Voyage of the Beagle

…to the south we had a scene of savage magnificence, well becoming Tierra del Fuego. There was a degree of mysterious grandeur in mountain behind mountain, with the deep intervening valleys, all covered by one thick, dusky mass of forest. The atmosphere, likewise, in this climate, where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, and sleet, seems blacker than anywhere else. In the Straight of Magellan, looking due southward from Port Famine, the distant channels between the mountains appeared in their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a story about Henrietta Lacks and the cancer cells that killed her and afterward, revolutionized science. It is about the Lacks family and how the decades without proper recognition contributed to their disadvanteged social position. And to a lesser extent, it is also about medical ethics and racial inequality.

Quicksilver

Quicksilver

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Quicksilver is the first of three books of the Baroque Cycle trilogy, and it’s also three independent books in one. It follows the lives of three fictional characters interwoven with real figures from the 17th century such as Louis XIV, Isaac Newton, and Leibniz.

Drunk

Drunk

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Drunk describes the effects alcohol has had on human civilisation. It covers the physiological, mental, psychologic/creative, and communal effects of alcohol, as well as its negative aspects. Slingerland keeps one foot in the scientific fields but his text is more for the general public.