Aspirational Socialism, Fictional Anarchism, and Struggling Democracy

 Three books juxtaposed offer point and counterpoint as I attempt to sink into research this semester:

Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions in which a secular, socialist, unabashedly Jewish political organization fights for solidarity and survival amidst the terrors of the 20th century. Reading it left me shaken, drained, yet oddly invigorated, like plunging into a cold pool.

The Dispossessed may now be my favorite book by Ursula LeGuin. It reminded me of the danger and necessity of freedom, even when one is part of the "social organism."

David Sellers' Race and the Greening of Atlanta is the only one I haven't yet finished, but his weaving of the point and counterpoints of citizenship and power in my home state will be undeniably useful as I turn back to my question of the role of public history in a "real" democracy in a society with social and economic inequality (to borrow Nancy Fraser's observation). 

I wish the Hainish were here to save us, but I guess I'll have to make do with my own world and these books of inspiration.