Attain Class Consciousness in 8 Books

I have had some commenters ask for book recommendations recently. They wanted to know where to begin. So these are some of the books that helped get me started on my journey to class consciousness.

What is class consciousness? It is the realization that there are class differences in the world. Class is short for classification. Do you work for a living? Do you depend on a paycheck to cover your bills? That means you are part of the working class. Are you a billionaire? That means you are part of the owning class - a very small slice of our population who make almost all of the important decisions that affect our lives. 

It sounds like a simple concept, but it actually takes some time to wrap your head around.

One of the first books that helped me learn this was Who Will Tell the People by William Greider, who does a deep dive on all the ways the American government serves the wealthy class and ignores the working class.

Michael Parenti is my inspiration. He is my favorite teacher, I love him. One of his most famous books - Democracy for the Few is sometimes used as a college textbook - and it really irritates Parenti when bookstores charge an arm and a leg for it. Hopefully you can find a cheap used copy and it will help you see how American democracy is rigged for the wealthy few.

Next up Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky has been called America's most prominent intellectual - and he deserves the title. In this book Chomsky and coauthor Edward Herman lay out how the American propaganda system works. Similar to the way, say a car is manufactured, American elites seek to manufacture consent for policies that benefit them. They want our consent because when we are actively against the policies that benefit the rich, their lives get much harder. This book shows how the sausage is made.

Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States is a very large history book. Reading this one helped me deprogram the mythology that American school children are conditioned to believe from our public education system. It demystified a lot and put American history into a context I could understand. This is a challenging book, but hugely rewarding if you accept that challenge.

Lies my Teacher Told Me by James Loewen is perhaps a slightly more accessible take on a lot of the same material you will find in Zinn's book. I loved this one too.

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow was a stunning achievement. She makes a convincing case that Jim Crow never really went away, it just got folded into the American Drug War. Did you ever notice how it's not okay to discriminate against someone because of the color of their skin - but it is okay to discriminate against someone if they have been convicted of a crime?  This book is worth your time.

In a similar vein, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffrey Reiman applies a class analysis to our criminal justice system. The book title always gets an ironic laugh - it also happens to be true.

Finally, Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine is what originally turned me on to the damage wrought by Milton Friedman's free market theories. Klein takes us on a gripping journey from actual shock therapy treatments to their metaphorical application in countries like Chile, used to stun a population into accepting governmental changes that only benefit the wealthy. Her analysis of New Orleans post-Katrina will reshape your brain.

These are some of the most important books I have ever read. They changed my life and my perspective on the world. And if you take the trouble to read them you are likely to have a similar experience. Open your eyes, expand your mind, become class conscious.

By the by, please follow me on Goodreads to see my best non-fiction, political awareness, and economics bookshelves for lots more suggestions.

Let’s make them pay.