Forty-five Books for the 45%
The referendum has passed, but the mood is buoyant and the movement for Scottish independence is stronger than ever. The following list of books is for those in that movement, the 45%, interested in a fairer Scotland for everyone. The list concentrates on equality, welfare, Scottish history, and social democracy, while also covering progressive political issues such as climate change, nuclear disarmament, tax avoidance, feminism, sexuality, and democracy. There are also a few 'far left' texts, The Conquest of Bread and the Marx-Engels Reader, included for Eva and Nina.
Which books would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.
1. Ill Fares the Land
By Tony Judt | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
A gift to the next generation of engaged citizens, from one of our most celebrated intellectuals. As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America-the guarantee of security, stability, and fairness-is no longer guaranteed; in fact, ... More »
2. The Scottish Nation: A Modern History
By Tom Devine
Part of a trilogy on Scottish history, T.M. Devine's The Scottish Nation: A Modern History traces the epic story of a nation from the Union with England to today's debates on the possibilities of Scottish independence.Drawing on extensive research and exploring everything from the high politics of the ... More »
3. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
By Richard G. Wilkinson; Kate Pickett | 60% Off
It is a well-established fact that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. The Spirit Level, based on thirty years of research, takes this truth a step further. One common factor links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree ... More »
4. Yes: The Radical Case for Scottish Independence
The United Kingdom faces a historic turning point in 2014. A 'Yes' vote in the referendum on Scottish independence would see the break-up of the 300-year-old union, adding a constitutional crisis to a deep economic crisis. An accessible polemic written for progressives both north and south of the ... More »
5. Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition
By Alastair McIntosh | Used Price: 80% Off
Climate change is the greatest challenge that the world has ever faced. In this groundbreaking new book, Alastair McIntosh summarises the science of what is happening to the planet - both globally and using Scotland as a local case study. He moves on, controversially, to suggest that politics ... More »
6. Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish
Blossom: 1. A term given to flowers of stone fruit trees and some other plants that flower profusely in Spring. Blossoms provide pollen to bees, and initiate cross-pollination necessary for trees to reproduce by producing fruit. 2. A peak period or stage of development. Covering topics including housing, ... More »
7. Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress
It has long been recognized that an improved standard of living results from advances in technology, not from the accumulation of capital. It has also become clear that what truly separates developed from less-developed countries is not just a gap in resources or output but a gap in ... More »
8. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution
By David Harvey
Long before Occupy, cities were the subject of much utopian thinking. They are the centers of capital accumulation as well as of revolutionary politics, where deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Do the financiers and developers control access to urban resources or do ... More »
9. The Nordic Model of Social Democracy
By Nik Brandal; Oivind Bratberg; Dag Einar Thorsen
Since the late 1920s, social democracy has been preeminent in the politics of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, through dominant parties and ideological hegemony of the center-left. The Nordic Model of Social Democracy relates the concept of the Nordic model to the guiding role of social democratic ideology in ... More »
10. Economics: The User's Guide
In his bestselling 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang brilliantly debunked many of the predominant myths of neoclassical economics. Now, in an entertaining and accessible primer, he explains how the global economy actually works—in real-world terms. Writing with irreverent wit, a deep ... More »
11. Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay
By John Lanchester | Under $1.00
We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone's money and we're all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a ... More »
12. Road to Referendum
In 2014, Scotland will decide. This is the story of the road to referendum and the journey beyond. In this groundbreaking book to accompany the major new three-part television series by STV, the Herald's Iain Macwhirter tells the story of how Scots have reached the crossroads of independence, ... More »
13. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
By Noam Chomsky | Used Price: 70% Off
Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," ... More »
14. Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
By Mark Blyth | Used Price: 50% Off
Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We ... More »
15. The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Invention of the Modern World
'Every Scot should read it. Scotland now has the lively, provocative and positive history it deserves.' Irvine Welsh, Guardian A dramatic and intriguing history of how Scotland produced the institutions, beliefs and human character that have made the West into the most powerful culture in the world. Arthur ... More »
16. Ruling The Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy
By Peter Mair | Used Price: 60% Off
In the long-established democracies of Western Europe, electoral turnouts are in decline, membership is shrinking in the major parties, and those who remain loyal partisans are sapped of enthusiasm. Peter Mair's new book weighs the impact of these changes, which together show that, after a century of democratic ... More »
17. Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens
By Nicholas Shaxson | Used Price: 60% Off
A thrilling ride inside the world of tax havens and corporate mastermindsWhile the United States experiences recession and economic stagnation and European countries face bankruptcy, experts struggle to make sense of the crisis. Nicholas Shaxson, a former correspondent for the Financial Times and The Economist, argues that tax ... More »
18. The Second Sex
By Simone de Beauvoir | Used Price: 50% Off
Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,â€Â and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.  This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in ... More »
19. Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses
By Mark Curtis | Used Price: 50% Off
Britain is complicit in the deaths of ten million people. These are Unpeople - those whose lives are seen as expendable in the pursuit of Britain's economic and political goals. In Unpeople, Mark Curtis shows that the Blair government is deepening its support for many states promoting terrorism ... More »
20. The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach
By Robin Hahnel | Used Price: 80% Off
The ABCs of Political Economy is an accessible introduction to modern political economy. While informed by the work of Marx, Keynes, Veblen, Kalecki and other great political economists, Robin Hahnel teaches the reader the essential tools necessary to understand economic issues today from a modern perspective, searching ... More »
21. A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830
By T. C. Smout | Under $1.00
('By far the most stimulating, the most instructive and the most readable account of Scotch history that I have read! This splendid work carries us from Knox to Neilson, from the hot gospel of Calvin to the hot-blast of the smelting process -- and, incidentally, seeks to explain ... More »
22. Democracy
By Charles Tilly | Used Price: 80% Off
Charles Tilly's Democracy identifies the general processes causing democratization and de-democratization at a national level across the world over the last few hundred years. It singles out integration of trust networks into public politics, insulation of public politics from categorical inequality, and suppression of autonomous coercive power centers ... More »
23. NHS Plc: The Privatisation of Our Health Care
By Allyson M. Pollock | Used Price: 50% Off
Universal, comprehensive health care, equally available to all and disconnected from income and the ability to pay, was the goal of the founders of the National Health Service. This book, by one of the NHS’s most eloquent and passionate defenders, tells the story of how that ideal has ... More »
24. What's up with Catalonia?
By Artur Mas; Carme Forcadell; Liz Castro
On September 11, 2012, on Catalonia’s National Day, one and a half million people from all over Catalonia marched peacefully and joyfully through the streets of Barcelona, behind a single placard: Catalonia: New State in Europe. Fifteen days later, President Artur Mas called snap elections for the Parliament ... More »
25. The Road to Independence?: Scotland in the Balance
By Murray Pittock | Used Price: 50% Off
Independence has been a contested issue in Scotland since the region was first invaded by England in 1707, and the realm continues to linger between regional status and full sovereignty. The issue of independence has risen to the forefront of Scottish discussion in the past fifty years, and Murray ... More »
26. Fear: The History of a Political Idea
By Corey Robin | Used Price: 80% Off
For many commentators, September 11 inaugurated a new era of fear. But as Corey Robin shows in his unsettling tour of the Western imagination--the first intellectual history of its kind--fear has shaped our politics and culture since time immemorial. From the Garden ... More »
27. The Predator State
By James K. Galbraith | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
Now available in paperback, this timely book challenges the cult of the free market that has dominated all political and economic discussion since the Reagan revolution. Even many liberals have felt the need to genuflect before the altar of free markets, but in The Predator State, progressive ... More »
28. Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters
By Hans Blix | Rock-bottom Price: $0.01
In 2002 Dr. Hans Blix, then chief United Nations weapons inspector, led his team on a search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Before the United ... More »
29. Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play
By James Scott
James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary ... More »
30. What Then Must We Do?
By Gar Alperovitz | Used Price: 50% Off
Never before have so many Americans been more frustrated with our economic system, more fearful that it is failing, or more open to fresh ideas about a new one. The seeds of a new movement demanding change are forming. But just what is this thing called a new ... More »
31. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
By Peter Kropotkin | Used Price: 50% Off
In this cornerstone of modern liberal social theory, Peter Kropotkin states that the most effective human and animal communities are essentially cooperative, rather than competitive. Kropotkin based this classic on his observations of natural phenomena and history, forming a work of stunning and well-reasoned scholarship. Essential to the ... More »
32. The Nordic Model: Scandinavia since 1945
By Mary Hilson
The political structures of the Scandinavian nations have long stood as models for government and public policy. This comprehensive study examines how that “Nordic modelâ€Â of government developed, as well as its far-reaching influence.           Respected Scandinavian historian Mary Hilson surveys the political bureaucracies of the five Nordic countries—Denmark, ... More »
33. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
By Dan Ariely | Used Price: 60% Off
Why do our headaches persist after we take a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a fifty-cent aspirin? Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup? When it comes to making decisions in our lives, ... More »
34. Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?
By Gary Younge | Under $1.00
From those who insist that Barack Obama is Muslim to the European legislators who go to extraordinary lengths to ban items of clothing worn by a tiny percentage of their populations, Gary Younge shows, in this fascinating, witty, and provocative examination of the enduring legacy and obsession with ... More »
35. Why Not Socialism?
By G. A. Cohen | Used Price: 60% Off
Is socialism desirable? Is it even possible? In this concise book, one of the world's leading political philosophers presents with clarity and wit a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated. There ... More »
36. The Killing Fields of Inequality
Inequality is not just about the size of our wallets. It is a socio-cultural order which, for most of us, reduces our capabilities to function as human beings, our health, our dignity, our sense of self, as well as our resources to act and participate in the world. ... More »
37. SNP: The History of the Scottish National Party
By Peter Lynch
Although the Scottish National Party (SNP) has existed since 1934, no full-length history of the Scottish National Party was written until the first edition of this book in 2002. This second edition further traces the fortunes of the SNP since 2002, particularly since 2007 when it became the ... More »
38. Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
In this lucid and compelling account, Alex Carey documents the 20th century history of corporate propaganda as practiced by U.S. businesses, and its export to and adoption by other western democracies, chiefly the United Kingdom and Australia. The collection examines how and why the business elite has successfully ... More »
39. Living in Scotland: Social and Economic Change since 1980
By Lindsay Paterson; Frank Bechhofer; David McCrone
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society/NLS Scottish Research Book of the Year Award, 2005Living in Scotland gives an account of the key social changes in Scottish society, describing how it has been transformed over the last two to three decades. Drawing on a uniquely wide range of data from ... More »
40. The Poor Had No Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland and How They Got it
An exploration into Scotland’s history to find out how and why landowners got their hands on the millions of acres of land that were once held in common, The Poor Had No Lawyers tells the story of how Scotland’s legal establishment and politicians managed to appropriate land through ... More »
41. Robert Bruce: And the Community of the Realm of Scotland
This classic edition is the definitive history of Robert Bruce's life and career, during Scotland's tumultuous coming of age in the Wars of Independence, and one of the twentieth century's bona-fide classics in historical writing. It tells the story of how Robert Bruce outwitted Edward I, defeated his ... More »
42. The History of Sexuality
By Michel Foucault | Used Price: 80% Off
Foucault's classic looks at the social, political, and economic forces that have shaped attitudes towards sex since the 17th century. More »
43. The Marx-Engels Reader
By Robert C. Tucker; Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels
This revised and enlarged edition of the leading anthology provides the essential writings of Marx and Engels--those works necessary for an introduction to Marxist thought and ideology. More »
44. The Conquest of Bread
By Peter Kropotkin | Used Price: 80% Off
The Conquest of Bread is Peter Kropotkin's most detailed description of the ideal society, embodying anarchist communism, and of the social revolution that was to achieve it. Marshall Shatz's introduction to this edition traces Kropotkin's evolution as an anarchist, from his origins in the Russian aristocracy to his ... More »
45. Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth since the Eighteenth Century
By Peter H. Lindert | Used Price: 90% Off
Peter Lindert inquires as to whether social policies that redistribute income impose constraints on economic growth. Although taxes and transfers have been debated for centuries, only recently have we been able to obtain a clear view of the evolution of social spending. Lindert argues that, contrary to the ... More »
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