Whenever possible the descriptions of the following resources have been taken directly from their source.  This list is by no means exhaustive.  Suggestions for additions are encouraged and can be emailed to the Social Justice and Peace Studies Website Administrator at sjpsweb@uwo.ca

Albelda, Randy and Ann Withorn. eds.  Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty and Beyond.  Cambridge: South End,  2002.
Notes:  The downside of welfare reform is documented in Lost Ground. This anthology analyses welfare issues in the context of broad political shifts, including globalization, the end of the family wage, the sexual revolution, and the rise of black liberation, feminism, and multiculturalism.


Ackerman, Peter and Jack DuVall.  A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict.  New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.               
Notes: There are chapters about nonviolent revolution in Russia, India, Poland, El Salvador, The American south, South Africa, China and many more.

Albert, Michael.  The Trajectory of Change: Activist Strategies for Social Transformation. Cambridge: South End, 2002.
Notes:  The Trajectory of Change charts a course for the growing, international movement against corporate globalization. Michael Albert, a longtime activist and analyst of popular struggles, challenges us to build a broad-based and effective movement for social change.


Anderson, Sarah and Jerry Mander.  Views From the South: The Effects of Globalization and the WTO on Third World Countries.  Oakland: Food First, 2000.
Notes:  Views from the South explores the effects of world trade policy on the Third World’s economies and environment. Each essay points out that tenaciously held advantages by wealthy nations under the guise of the WTO erode any notion of a free marketplace. Democracy within this system was long ago scrapped in favor of consensus by the few major players, removing the majority from any effective decision-making.


Baird, Vanessa. ed. No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity. Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes:  Why are some people gay, some straight - and many bisexual? Is there a gay gene? The world is changing for sexual minorities. In some countries battles for equality have brought non-discrimination legislation. In others, being gay incurs imprisonment - or the death penalty. This book demystifies sexual diversity and addresses the war against nonconformists being waged by fundamentalists of all denominations.


Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke.  Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.  New York: New Press, 2002.
Notes: This book outlines the current water crisis from a social justice perspective.  An excellent resource for statistical information on water and the  environmental issues surrounding the sale of water.


Brazier, Chris. ed.  No-Nonsense Guide to World History.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes:  Most people know only bits and pieces of history without ever knowing how they fit together. This book fills in the hidden histories - the continents and communities left out of the textbooks - and integrates them with the conventional narrative of imperial dynasties and superpower battles. Here is the whole story in one slim volume plus some lessons to carry forward into the 21st century.


Capponi, Pat. The War at Home: An Intimate Portrait of Canada’s Poor.  Toronto: Viking, 1999.
Notes:  Outspoken social activist Pat Capponi travels from coast to coast to investigate the lives and communities of this country’s poor and to examine the changes that have beset the disadvantaged in this new era of reduced social programs and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" legislation. From St. John’s to Vancouver, from Montreal to Edmonton, she examines how poverty differs from city to city, the communities that the poor create, and the inventive ways some groups have found to improve their living conditions and their lives.


Chomsky, Noam.  Deterring Democracy.  Toronto: Common Courage, 1992.
 Notes: An older book but one that deserves attention. Chomsky reveals a world in which the United States exploits its advantage ruthlessly to enforce its national interests--and in the process destroys weaker nations. The new world order (in which the New World gives the orders) has arrived.


Chomsky, Noam. 9-11.  Toronto: Seven Stories, 2001.
Notes:  In 9-11, Noam Chomsky comments on the September 11th attacks, the new war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden, U.S. involvement with Afghanistan, media control, and the long-term implications of America's military attacks abroad.


Chomsky, Noam.  Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order.  Toronto: Seven Stories, 1999.
Notes: This book presents Chomsky’s thoughts on free market philosophy, corporate control of public opinion, and the unreported impact of nondemocratic forces and policies like the WTO, IMF, NAFTA and the MAI - and the widespread resistance movements that often emerge to oppose them.  He offers a sense of hope that social activism can reclaim people’s rights as citizens rather than as consumers, redefining democracy as a global movement, not a global market.


Clark, Tony and Sarah Dopp.  Challenging McWorld: A Workbook for Activists.  Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2001.
Notes:  Challenging McWorld is designed to provide some tools to enable concerned youth to develop skills required for confronting globalization in their daily lives on several fronts. This workbook emerges out of the work experience of the authors over the past three years.  The various tools developed for use in workshops, conferences and teach-ins have been refined and expanded here for a broader audience of concerned young people and their allies.


Cockburn, Alexander, Allan Sekula and Jeffrey St. Clair.  Five Days that Shook the World: The Battle for Seattle and Beyond.  New York: Verso, 2001.
Notes:  Five Days That Shook the World takes you onto the streets of Seattle with on-the-spot reporting and photographs. But it also looks at the broader issues raised by the protest: the secretive and undemocratic practice of the WTO, the trampling on rights to assembly and free speech by deploying the military to put down protest, and the menace to individual liberties of globalization and offshore government.


Costello, Tim.  Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction From the Bottom Up.  2nd Ed.  Cambridge: South End, 2000. 
Notes:  In clear, accessible language, Brecher and Costello describe how people around the world have started challenging the New World Economy.  From the Zapatistas to students and workers in France to the broad-based anti-NAFTA and anti-GATT coalitions, opposition to economic globalization is becoming a worldwide revolt. Global Village or Global Pillage is a guide to globalization and how to challenge it.


Croteau, David and William Hoynes.  The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest.  Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge, 2001.
Notes:  The Business of Media analyses corporate media and explains their public responsibilities, how they have become deregulated, it talks about specific media giants and there strategies to make big money and the book also focuses on how media giants have neglected the public interest in their drive towards profit.


Curtis, James, Edward Grabb and Neil Guppy. eds.  Social Inequality in Canada: Patterns, Problems and Policies.  3rd Ed.  Scarborough: Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Notes: This book has some very good and relevant articles about class, power, poverty, occupation, education, gender, race, age, religion and other causes of social inequality.


Danaher, Kevin and Roger Burbach. eds.  Globalize This!: The Battle Against the World Trade Organization.  Monroe: Common Courage, 2000.
Notes:  This book demonstrates why the WTO, World Bank and IMF must be stopped. With its rich information about how to become part of the opposition movement, Globalize This! also shows us how to stop the injustices perpetrated by international financial pirates.


Ehrenreich, Barbara.  Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.  New York: Metropolitan, 2001.
Notes:  Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job -- any job -- can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour?  This book examines the lives of the poor from a first hand basis.


Ellwood, Wayne. ed.  No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes:  Globalization: what on earth does it mean? For some it’s the ticket to a democratic world of instant communications and global prosperity. For others it’s a money-mad juggernaut spinning out of control, threatening cultural and biological diversity. This book traces the journey towards a borderless world. 


Frank, Thomas.  One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy.  New York: Doubleday, 2000.
Notes:  In One Market Under God, social critic Thomas Frank examines the morphing of the language of American democracy into the cant and jargon of the marketplace.  This book is a counterattack on market propaganda with the weapons of common sense, a genius for useful ridicule, and the older American values of economic justice and political democracy.


French, Hilary.  Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization.  New York: Norton, 2000.
Notes: This book is an environmental perspective about the effects of globalization and what we need to look toward to create a sustainable world.


Godrej, Dinyar. ed.  No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes: Heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, floods - recent years have seen an increase in record-breaking extremes of weather. This book sifts scientific theory from scientific fact and presents the impacts on health, farming and wildlife, along with potential solutions.


Hackett, Robert A. and Richard Gruneau.  The Missing News: Filters and Blind Spots in Canada’s Press.  Aurora: Garamond, 2000.
Notes: Sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, The Missing News shows Canadians that they have reason to be concerned because mainstream journalism is no longer holding those in power accountable or giving voice to those without wealth or political influence.


Isbister, John.  Promises Not Kept: The Betrayal of Social Change in the Third World.
4th Ed. West Hartford: Kumarian, 1998.
Notes:  This book explores the creation of poverty, third world debt, development and economic theories, the betrayal of the first world and their on-going responsibilities to the poor and gives hope for a better future.   


Khor, Martin.  Rethinking Globalization: Critical issues and policy choices.  Halifax: Fernwood, 2001.
Notes: This book examines the implications of globalization from the perspective of the South. 


Klein, Naomi.  No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.  New York: Picador, 2000.
Notes: No Logo is an excellent resource for information on mass marketing, social justice initiatives, popular culture, workplace issues, international campaigns for justice and much more.


Langdon, Steven.  Global Poverty, Democracy and North South Change.  Toronto: Garamond, 1999.
Notes:  The book addresses major questions about global poverty, the political forces surrounding it, and the efforts to eliminate it.  This is very much a book about democracy, based on the belief that empowerment is at the heart of democracy, and that such a dynamic is the crucial step in overcoming global poverty.


Layton, Jack.  Homelessness: The making and unmaking of a crisis.  Toronto: Penguin, 2000.
Notes: A Canadian book on homelessness.  Jack Layton, one of this country’s leading experts and outspoken activists on housing issues, addresses the crisis from its roots, in order not only to understand the problem, but to find workable solutions.


Leddy, Mary Jo. At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees are our Neighbours. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1998.
Notes: At the Border Called Hope follows Mary Jo Leddy's (Canadian Author) journey through a world of tragedy, despair and hope. Written with compassion, humour and conviction, it will touch the heart and awaken the conscience.


Louie, Miriam Ching Yoon.  Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant women workers take on the global factory.  Cambridge: South End, 2001.
Notes: This is a collection of inspiring stories about women in the garment industry who take on their unjust employers with a great deal of strength, love and commitment.


Madoff, Fred, Frederick H, Buttel and John Bellamy Foster. eds. Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food and the Environment.  New York: Monthly Review, 2000. 
Notes:  Hungry for Profit presents a historical analysis and an incisive overview of the issues and debates surrounding the global comodification of agriculture. Contributors address the growing public concern over food safety and controversial developments in agricultural biotechnology including genetically engineered foods.


Madeley, John.  Hungry for Trade: How the Poor Pay for Free Trade.  London: Zed Books, 2000.
Notes:  Will free trade benefit transnational corporations or the millions who are currently malnourished? Will small farmers find new markets in the North? Or will they lose even their local markets to cheap, subsidized food from the North? Why should countries not protect their rural communities and ensure self-sufficiency in food production? Food security affects us all. There is no more important issue. This book is a clarion call to remove our ideological blinders and think afresh.


Mandela, Nelson.  Mandela: An Illustrated Autobiography.  Toronto: Little, Brown, 1996.
Notes: This is a powerful and inspiring story about Nelson Mandela.  A good example of a man who fought oppression and called for justice.


McBride, Stephen and John Shields.  Dismantling a Nation: The Transition to Corporate Rule in Canada.  2nd Ed.  Halifax: Fernwood, 1997.
Notes: This book documents how Jean Chrétien not only continues to pursue, but pursues with increased vigour, the implementation of neo-liberal/neo-conservative policies thereby shifting decision-making power to the market place and establishing a government policy environment that is driven by corporate priorities.


McGowan, David.  Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Do Not Want You to See.  Monroe: Common Courage, 2001.
Notes: This book is filled with statistics about non-democratic actions in the U.S.  From mandatory minimum sentencing laws to new, more liberal search-and-seizure rules, from Three Strikes You're Out to congressional legislation for a national ID card, in Derailing Democracy, David McGowan has compiled the facts to show that the noose around democracy is tightening every day.


McHughen, Alan.  Pandora’s Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods.  New York: Oxford UP, 2000.
Notes: In Pandora's Picnic Basket, molecular geneticist and experienced researcher McHughen provides a clearly written explanation of the fundamental technologies behind GM food, comparing them with other methods of plant breeding and production.


McMurtry, John.  The Cancer Stage of Capitalism.  Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1999.
Notes:  McMurtry depicts capitalism as a cancer that is attacking our immune system and disabling our host (the world).  McMurtry is a real dreamer, not only does he accurately describe the crisises we are facing but he also presents an alternative way for the future.


Moore, Michael.  Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for a State of a Nation.  New York: Regan Books, 2002.
Notes:  Michael Moore takes on the big, ugly special-interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men.  Stupid White Men is Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity.


Moore, Michael.  Downsize This!: Random Threats from an Unarmed American. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 
Notes:  This is a collection of humorous essays about American politics.


Murphy, Barbara.  On the Street: How We Created the Homeless. Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000.
Notes:  Barbara Murphy's On the Street examines the circumstances that have led to homelessness and explores possible remedies to this shameful reality.


Phillips, Peter.  Censored 2001: 25 Years of Censored News and Top Stories of the Year.  New York: Seven Stories, 2001.
Notes:  How the World Bank and multinational corporations are trying to privatize water; the facts about genetically altered foods that the media and the biotech industry don’t want you to know; how the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fails to protect U.S. workers by not effectively enforcing labor laws; how drug companies influence doctors and health organizations to push medications; how U.S. taxpayers are underwriting global nuclear power plant sales; how United Nations corporate partnerships put human rights in peril, and more. These are just some of the stories that appear in this book.


Prejean, Helen.  Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.  New York: Vintage, 1993.
Notes: This book is about the Christian values on love and forgiveness and the reality of a criminal justice system that does not work.


Rahnema, Majid and Victoria Bawtree. eds.  The Post-Development Reader.  Halifax: Fernwood, 1997.
 Notes: The Post-Development Reader is a collection of essays from a number of people who present alternatives to ideas of ‘development.’  This anthology includes authors such as: Vandana Shiva, Wolfgang Sachs, Ashis Nandy, Sub-Commandante Marcos, Mahatma Gandhi, Gustavo Esteva, Arturo Escobar and many more.  This book could be used as a good resource to find background information on certain issues such as: ‘progress,’ poverty, colonization, bottom up power, ‘development,’ and simple living among others.


Ransom, David. ed.  No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes:  World Trade: once the preserve of big business, run by corporations more powerful than governments. Now the ‘free’ trade they favour is the focus of public concern everywhere.  This book explores the idea and reality of ‘free’ trade.


Ross, Andrew.  No Sweat: Free Trade and the Rights of Garment.  New York: Verso, 1997.
Notes:  This book is filled with information about the injustices in the sweatshop industry. No Sweat tells the story of the chasm between the glamour of the catwalk and the squalor of the sweatshop.


Seabrook, Jeremy. ed. No-Nonsense Guide to Class, Caste and Hierarchies.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2002.
Notes:  Despite two centuries of industrialization, social relationships still tend to be defined by whether you are an owner, a manager or a shop-floor worker. In older but less industrialized societies, notably India, the caste system defines inherited positions in society. In totalitarian regimes, a hierarchical structure is created through party allegiance, bureaucratic or military rank. Jeremy Seabrook asks who is to guarantee social justice.


Schlemmer, Bernard.  ed.  The Exploited Child.  London: Zed Books, 2000.
Notes:  At a time when there is more awareness of the exploitation of children that previously, this compelling volume gives us not only a moving portrait of the diversity, scale and intensity of children's exploitation, but the tools needed to understand its roots and what, given the political will, needs to be done.


Schlosser, Eric.  Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Notes: Fast Food Nation is an excellent resource about the creation of and injustices in the fast food industry.


Shiva, Vandana.  Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.  Cambridge: South End, 2000.
Notes:  In Stolen Harvest, Vandana Shiva charts the impacts of industrial agriculture and what this means for small farmers, the environment, and the quality and healthfulness of the foods we eat. A short, impassioned, and inspiring book that will shape the debate about genetic engineering and commercial agriculture for years to come.


Shiva, Vandana.  Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge.  Boston: South End, 1997.
Notes:  Since the land, the forests, the oceans, and the atmosphere have already been colonized, eroded, and polluted, Vandana Shiva argues that Northern capital is now carving out new colonies to exploit for gain: the interior spaces of the bodies of women, plants, and animals.


Shiva, Vandana.  Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit.  Cambridge: South End, 2002.
Notes:  While drought and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match - or even surpass - the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars, Vandana Shiva shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate manoeuvres to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites.


Shrybman, Steven.  The World Trade Organization: A Citizen’s Guide.  2nd Ed.  Toronto: James Lorimer, 2001.
Notes: Social Justice and Peace Studies Text 2002/2003.


Sogge, David.  Give and Take: What’s the Matter With Foreign Aid?  London: Zed Books, 2002.
Notes:  Foreign aid, mostly from industrialized countries to developing countries, has been going on for 50 years, and some Third World countries depend on it to a remarkable extent. Though its purpose is ostensibly benign, as this introduction to the difficult issues surrounding aid shows, it is the focus of considerable controversy. Aid is an issue of great concern, both financially and morally. This book suggests ways in which aid can be made less of a problem, and more of a solution.


Stalker, Peter. ed. No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2001.
Notes:  Millions of people emigrate each year in search of a better life. Are they coming to steal jobs or live off welfare? And what happens to the communities they leave behind? This book assembles the latest facts and figures, and examines the economic and social evidence - revealing exactly why rich countries need more immigrants.


Swift, Richard. ed. No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy.  Toronto: New Internationalist, 2002.
Notes:  Richard Swift explores how democracy is constricted and deformed by economic power-brokers and a self-serving political class, from Birmingham to Bangalore. The rich diversity of forms of elected government are explored together with practical ideas for empowering today’s voters around the world.


Teeple, Gary.  Globalization and the Decline of Social Reform.  Toronto: Garamond, 1995.
Notes: This book examines the transformation of the economic and political conditions that allowed for the rise of the welfare state and the politics of social democracy.  It critically analyses the neo-liberal policies that are being introduced by governments everywhere, arguing that they are the policy counterpart to the globalization of the economy.


William, Blum.  Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower.  Monroe: Common Courage, 2000.
Notes:  Rogue State depicts decades of ubiquitous U.S. cruelty, kept - remarkably - from penetrating world consciousness or shocking world conscience. Though President Clinton calls America "the world's greatest force for peace", William Blum shows that our Rogue State is really a marauding Western brute.


Yalnizyan, Armine.  The Growing Gap: A Report on the Growing Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor in Canada.  Toronto: Centre for Social Justice, 1998.
Notes:  The gap is growing between the rich and poor in Canada and in Ontario. A select group of wealthy Canadians are taking home fat paycheques sweetened with bonuses and stock options. Meanwhile, a growing number of working people are seeing their incomes drop. They're either working longer and harder for less pay or they're grasping at any kind of work -- increasingly part-time and temporary.

Zinn, Howard.  Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order.  South End, 2002.
Notes:  Historian Howard Zinn lays out a clear and dynamic case for civil disobedience and protest. He challenges the dominant arguments against forms of protest that challenge the status quo.