• In total there are 0 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 0 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 616 on Thu Jan 18, 2024 7:47 pm

What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17016
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3507 times
Been thanked: 1310 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Post your thoughts here. What non-fiction book should we tackle next?

I'm currently reading and enjoying...

Up From Slavery
by Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his personal experiences in working to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools—most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (something which is reminiscent of the educational theories of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people. This book was first released as a serialized work in 1900 through The Outlook, a Christian newspaper of New York. This work was serialized because this meant that during the writing process, Washington was able to hear critiques and requests from his audience and could more easily adapt his paper to his diverse audience.
Does anyone else like this topic for discussion? I guess what I'm after is reading about the history of slavery in the United States. If there's a different book that gives proper insight into this subject then I'm open to that book instead.
Attachments
index.jpg
index.jpg (8.04 KiB) Viewed 8266 times
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17016
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3507 times
Been thanked: 1310 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

Another suggestion along the same lines as the Booker T. Washington book would be...

When I Was a Slave: Memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection (Dover Thrift Editions)
More than 2,000 interviews with former slaves, who, in blunt, simple language, provide often-startling first-person accounts of their lives in bondage. Includes some of the most detailed, compelling, and engrossing life histories in the Slave Narrative Collection, a project funded by the U.S. Government. An illuminating source of information.
Heck, I just bought this one for 99 cents on Kindle. :chatsmilies_com_92:
User avatar
froglipz

1G - SILVER CONTRIBUTOR
Brilliant
Posts: 663
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:37 pm
14
Has thanked: 234 times
Been thanked: 111 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

Either of those sounds good to me. :)
~froglipz~

"I'm not insane, my mother had me tested"

Si vis pacem, para bellum: If you wish for peace, prepare for war.
User avatar
Dexter

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
I dumpster dive for books!
Posts: 1787
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:14 pm
13
Has thanked: 144 times
Been thanked: 712 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

I'll put up a completely different suggestion that's on my list to read:

The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self
Anil Ananthaswamy’s extensive in-depth interviews venture into the lives of individuals who offer perspectives that will change how you think about who you are. These individuals all lost some part of what we think of as our self, but they then offer remarkable, sometimes heart-wrenching insights into what remains. One man cut off his own leg. Another became one with the universe.

We are learning about the self at a level of detail that Descartes (“I think therefore I am”) could never have imagined. Recent research into Alzheimer’s illuminates how memory creates your narrative self by using the same part of your brain for your past as for your future. But wait, those afflicted with Cotard’s syndrome think they are already dead; in a way, they believe that “I think therefore I am not.” Who—or what—can say that? Neuroscience has identified specific regions of the brain that, when they misfire, can cause the self to move back and forth between the body and a doppelgänger, or to leave the body entirely. So where in the brain, or mind, or body, is the self actually located? As Ananthaswamy elegantly reports, neuroscientists themselves now see that the elusive sense of self is both everywhere and nowhere in the human brain.
youkrst

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
One with Books
Posts: 2752
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:30 am
13
Has thanked: 2280 times
Been thanked: 727 times

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

Damn it, you guys read the most interesting books, I want to read 'Em all :lol:
User avatar
LanDroid

2A - MOD & BRONZE
Comandante Literario Supreme
Posts: 2800
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:51 am
21
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Has thanked: 195 times
Been thanked: 1166 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

Up from Slavery looks good. But it's brief at 130 pages. Might want to pair that with a similar autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at 96 pages. Well dang it, the slave narratives look good too! All three books total about 386 pages. These books might combat some horrible misconceptions about slavery that exist to this day and are more prevalent than you think. See this infamous quote for example.
"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.

Cliven Bundy
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/po ... ef=us&_r=0
User avatar
LanDroid

2A - MOD & BRONZE
Comandante Literario Supreme
Posts: 2800
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:51 am
21
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Has thanked: 195 times
Been thanked: 1166 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

The World's Religions by Huston Smith. This book is quite famous and influential. I read most of it recently - it is an easy read, an introduction to major religious schools including primal religions. In the introduction, Smith states he isn't going into certain details such as the Sunni/Shia split in Islam; he wants to provide a sympathetic summary for better understanding. Some might consider that a bit of a whitewash, but I think this approach could benefit (non-sympathetic) BookTalk'ers...

FYI/FWIW: Huston Smith is a practicing Zen Buddhist. He also wrote more detailed single book discussions of the main religions.
http://www.amazon.com/Huston-Smith/e/B0 ... sr=1-2-ent
User avatar
LanDroid

2A - MOD & BRONZE
Comandante Literario Supreme
Posts: 2800
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:51 am
21
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Has thanked: 195 times
Been thanked: 1166 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

Here's another interesting possibility, although I doubt BookTalk is ready for this. :omfg: Perhaps after reading the above book?

Quran in English: Modern English Translation. Clear and Easy to Understand Free on Kindle.

I know this belongs in fiction, but a billion+ humans disagree.... :happy2:
Kinmle
Getting Comfortable
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:14 am
8
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 4 times

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

I could go for the Booker Washington book - and I picked up a copy of 'twelve Years a Slave' from a library book sale last week - Would go for that (easy as I have it - and then we could watch the DVD, sounds like an idea).

I would love some Wilfred Thesiger, I just opened a box of stored books and found 3 of his, all signed, absolutely amazing! The last of the truly Great Edwardian Travelers and Arabists (he died not long ago where he was living among the Masai, he was not happy in Civilization). Arabian Sands, or better - 'The Marsh Arabs' to read about the Southern Shia Saddam genocided and took revenge on with one of the most heinous ecological acts - draining and destroying the Great Iraqi Marshes.

Topical in some ways - Iraq. I am reading of Alexander The Great now and he is in Babylon, having just taken it bloodlessly. The world has always been effected by the place.
User avatar
Dexter

1F - BRONZE CONTRIBUTOR
I dumpster dive for books!
Posts: 1787
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:14 pm
13
Has thanked: 144 times
Been thanked: 712 times
United States of America

Re: What NON-FICTION book shall we read and discuss next?

Unread post

LanDroid wrote:Here's another interesting possibility, although I doubt BookTalk is ready for this. :omfg: Perhaps after reading the above book?

Quran in English: Modern English Translation. Clear and Easy to Understand Free on Kindle.

I know this belongs in fiction, but a billion+ humans disagree.... :happy2:
I'm always interested in learning about the Middle East (not that there aren't Muslims elsewhere). I'd be more inclined to read a book about it, before tackling the Quran itself.
Locked

Return to “What non-fiction book should we read and discuss next?”