Recommended Reading A selection of books on the labor and environmental movements, democracy, and the economy.
Labor and the Environmental Movement: The Quest for Common Ground By Brian K. Obach
Once characterized as "Teamsters and Turtles," labor and environmentalists have worked together on workplace health and safety, environmental restoration and globalization. Obach examines why, when and how labor unions and environmental organizations either cooperate or clash. (MIT Press)
Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City By Robert Gottlieb
Gottlieb examines how the powerful forces of immigration and economic globalization intersect with the politics of water, transportation and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grassroots responses, from reclaiming the concrete-lined, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource to "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding.
(MIT Press)
The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America By Katherine Newman &
Victor Tan Chen
A historical novel about the massacre of 18 men, women, and children of coal mining families at a mine owned by the Rockefellers in Colorado in 1914. The book is written in free verse, adding a poetic quality to
the prose.
The Conscience of a Liberal By Paul Krugman
Krugman’s most important message is that, after years of Republican ascendancy accompanied by rapidly growing economic inequality in the United States, the point at which the pendulum finally starts swinging in the other direction has arrived. Krugman insists that the political tide is turning, and that liberals must take advantage of it. (W.W. Norton)
Once characterized as "Teamsters and Turtles," labor and environmentalists have worked together on workplace health and safety, environmental restoration and globalization. Obach examines why, when and how labor unions and environmental organizations either cooperate or clash. (MIT Press)
Gottlieb examines how the powerful forces of immigration and economic globalization intersect with the politics of water, transportation and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grassroots responses, from reclaiming the concrete-lined, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource to "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding. 
A historical novel about the massacre of 18 men, women, and children of coal mining families at a mine owned by the Rockefellers in Colorado in 1914. The book is written in free verse, adding a poetic quality to 
Krugman’s most important message is that, after years of Republican ascendancy accompanied by rapidly growing economic inequality in the United States, the point at which the pendulum finally starts swinging in the other direction has arrived. Krugman insists that the political tide is turning, and that liberals must take advantage of it. (W.W. Norton)
