Reading List
John Kerry
Diplomat and Former US Secretary of State
John Kerry served as the 68th United States Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017, and represented Massachusetts in the Senate for twenty-eight years before that. He was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 and later the first United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
As Secretary of State he led the American delegation to the negotiations that produced the Paris Agreement, which he signed on behalf of the United States in 2016.
His books include A Call to Service (2003), This Moment on Earth (2007), written with Teresa Heinz Kerry on environmental activism, and the memoir Every Day Is Extra (2018).
The Other America
Poverty in the United States
by Michael Harrington
“I think in conjunction with that, probably Michael Harrington’s The Other America in the 1960s was huge for those of us who came of age in that period. It really created the war on poverty and defined Lyndon Johnson’s initiatives and the great social leap forward of that period. And I think Paul Wellstone is an outgrowth of that in every respect.” — via Interview, August 2011
The Conscience of a Liberal
Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda
by Paul Wellstone
Recommended via Interview, August 2011
Letter from the Birmingham Jail
by Martin Luther King Jr.
“Personally, I think the Letter From the Birmingham Jail from Martin Luther King was as eloquent and as influential a document on the civil rights movement and progressive thinking about rights as anything that I’ve ever read. It’s one of the most powerful pieces I’ve ever read, period. On Martin Luther King day it’s one of my favourite things to remind me, it’s so powerful.” — via Interview, August 2011
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
“It puts it in a context that people can really understand. While there is a story that takes place between characters, the hardship and unfairness is a central element of the book. It shows how fiction can create progressive change as well. I think it had a profound impact at any rate in shaping opinions. I think we need a new Grapes of Wrath today, a modern times version.” — via Interview, August 2011
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
“The book speaks to not just an important issue – our environment – but how we can all make changes in our communities and in our societies. It speaks to how individuals can change things and also focus on a particular injustice – environmental health risks.” — via Interview, August 2011