Reading List

“United States of Dharma” is a personal project of mine, a self-directed study,
merging engaged buddhist studies with decolonized united states history and sociology.
If you’d like to follow along, here is my reading list.
The order listed is not necessarily the order in which they are read.

20 books, 346 chapters, 5,712 pages. Let’s go.

Spirit & Conflict

This “class” is about the merger of political movements, non-violent direct action, engaged spirituality/buddhism, and conflict resolution.

Mondays and Wednesdays

  • George Lakey, How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning

  • Cornel West, The Radical King: Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Ackerman & Duvall, A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict

  • Parallax Press, True Peace Work: Essential Writings on Engaged Buddhism

  • Dixon, Lakshmi & Piepzna-Samarasinha, Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

  • Pranis, Stewart & Wedge, Peacemaking Circles: From Conflict to Community

  • adrienne marie brown, We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice

  • Stacey Abrams, Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change

  • Stacey Abrams, Our Time is Now

  • Rachel Ricketts, Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy

History & Sociology

Deconstructing and decolonizing history. African-American, LatinX, Indigenous, basically anything-but-white history. Also, the sociological study of systemic racism and its effects on the personal and the collective.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

  • Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States

  • Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

  • Ijeoma Oluo, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

  • Kendi & Blain, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

  • Isabel Wilkerson, Caste

  • Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

  • Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Loaded

  • Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

  • American Indian Myths & Legends

  • “All the Real Indians Died Off”

Sharpening the Saw

Personal Development, Writing, Self-care.

Every Friday.

  • Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

  • Jim Kwik, Limitless

  • Louise DeSalvo, The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity

  • Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People