Prepared by Hamza Yusuf and Anas Coburn
These are books we've found had an impact on our thinking about the dominant society in which we live. This list is a work in progress, one from which books will come and go, and is always to be viewed as provisional. Prices, where indicated, are all from Amazon.com.
Culture
The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories by William J. Bennet (Editor). Touchstone Books, 1996. ISBN: 0684835770 $12.80
Philosophy
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View by Richard Tarnas. Ballantine Books, 1993. ISBN: 0345368096 $11.20
Politics
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Penguin USA, 1979. ISBN: 0140441077 $4.76
Ill fares the Land: jEssays on Food, Hunger, and Power Susan George. (out of print) Penguin USA, 1990. ISBN: 0140127909
A fate worse than Debt Susan George. Grove Press, 1990. ISBN: 0802131212 $8.76
The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. Bantam Books (Classic & Loveswept), 1989. ISBN: 0553213407 $4.76
On Liberty; And, Utilitarnism (A Bantam Classic) John Stuart Mill. Bantam Classics, 1993. ISBN: 0553214144. $3.96
The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx.
Mirror of Production Jean Baudrilliard. Telos Press, 1975. ISBN:0914386069 $14.00
Year 501, The Conquest Continues Noam Chomsky. South End Press, 1993. ISBN:0896084442 $12.80
Deterring Democracy, Noam Chomsky. Noonday Press, 1992. ISBN: 0374523495 $12.80
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky . Pantheon Books, 1988 ISBN: 06797203040 $13.60
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington. Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN:0684822642 $18.20
Psychology
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard. Plume, 1992. ISBN: 0452267560 $9.56
I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional by Wendy Kaminer. Vintage Books, 1993. ISBN: 0679745858 $9.60
The Roots of the Self: Unraveling the Mystery of Who We Are by Robert Ornstein. HarperCollins, 1995. ISBN: 0062507893
Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception by Daniel Goleman. Touchstone Books, 1996 ISBN: 0684831074 $9.60
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. HarperCollins (paper) 1991. ISBN: 0060920432 $11.20
Science/Technology
Under Technology's Thumb by William Leiss. McGill Queens University Press, 1990. ISBN: 0773507485 $19.95
The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul. Random House, 1967. ISBN: 0394703901 $9.60
Social Critique
In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations by Jerry Mander. Sierra Club Books, 1992. ISBN: 0871565099
Time Wars, by Jeremy Rifkin (currently out of print)
The Pentagon of Power: The Myth of Machine by Lewis Mumford. Harcourt Brace, 1974. ISBN: 0156716100 $15.96
The Sibling Society by Robert Bly. Vintage Books, 1997. ISBN: 0679781285
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman. Viking Press, 1986. ISBN: 0140094385 $10.36