Brian Merchant
Review via San Francisco Chronicle
In today’s tech-obsessed world, the Luddites, 19th century British worker rebels known for smashing the machines made to replace them, are considered hammer-wielding, anti-progress primitives who we’d do well to leave in the dustbin of history. But according to Los Angeles Times tech columnist Brian Merchant, that popular conception is dead wrong. In his new book, “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech,” Merchant zooms in on the misunderstood movement to show us that those machine-smashing rebels were anything but ignorant — in reality, they were grappling with the same questions about automation and labor that we are now.
Frank Altman
Summary via publisher (Forbes Books)
In A New Capitalism, Frank Altman examines the history and the causes that link repeated social and financial upheavals. He surveys the political, cultural, and economic history that has allowed systemically racist policies like redlining to endure despite regulatory attempts to eradicate them. Altman demonstrates how innovative approaches have used capital markets to fund small businesses, affordable housing, charter schools, and community organizations and transform communities through such investment. Altman demonstrates how capitalism can remain profitable while also being just by elevating opportunity for all.
Rosanna Xia
Summary via publisher (HeyDay Books)
Along California’s 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. In California Against the Sea, Los Angeles Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change? Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline—and foretell even greater changes to our shores. From the beaches of the Mexican border up to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists commingle. Together, they chronicle the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future.
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