Recommended Reading: 2024 Book List

Each year, The Human Venture publishes a curated list of books and other resources. This isn't just a collection of recent releases. This list includes works that have been flagged as important for understanding the development of the human venture—supporting our collective flourishing while countering paths that lead to cultural decline. These resources have informed our ongoing explorations and programming or have been identified as valuable additions for future study. The list also includes films and documentaries that contribute to this exploration. This process of curating book and resource lists is a foundational skill in Human Learning Ecology.

About the 2024 Book List: 

As global conflicts continue to rise, we have been deepening our understanding of how they emerge, their impacts, and the processes of post-conflict reconciliation. Reading about and studying different conflicts reveals patterns in human nature—how adversity can bring out both the worst and the best in us. These difficult circumstances offer profound lessons about our capacity for destruction but also our capacity to be the better angels of our nature.

This year, we also explored shifts in the "informationscape"—the ever-evolving ecosystem of information sources. With relentless algorithms competing for our attention and the rise of artificial intelligence blurring the lines of truth, navigating this landscape has become increasingly complex. These technological shifts are reshaping democracy and how we relate to one another. As we adapt to these major societal changes, books and other resources are capturing both the adaptive and maladaptive impacts that lie ahead. 

As you’ll see with this list, though, these were not our only two areas of focuses. Below you’ll find the breadth of books and topics that we explored in 2024. Enjoy! 

Conflict & War: 

• “The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky” by Simon Shuster; William Morrow, 2024.
• “How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them” by Barbara F. Walter; Crown, 2022. 
• “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society” by Dave Grossman; Back Bay Books, 1996.
• “Hitler's Philosophers” by Yvonne Sherratt; Yale University Press, 2014.
• “The Guns of August” by Barbara W Tuchman; Presidio Press, 2004. 
• “The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don't Want to Know about Each Other” by  Raja Khouri; Olive Branch Press, 2023.
• “Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom” by Maya Wind; Verso, 2024. 
• You can find a longer book list for the Israel-Palestine conflict here. 

Post-war Reconciliation:

• “Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil” by Susan Neiman; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
• “The Peace: A Warrior's Journey” Roméo Dallaire; Random House Canada, 2024. 

Freedom: 

• “On Freedom” by Timothy Snyder; Crown, 2024.
• “Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will” by Robert Sapolsky, Penguin Press, 2023.

Biosocial Drivers: 

• “Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good” by David R. Samson; St. Martin's Press, 2023.

Truth and Disinformation: 

• “Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things” Dr. Dan Ariely; Harper Paperbacks, 2023.
• “Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick” by Maya Dusenbery; HarperOne, 2018.

Artificial Intelligence: 

• “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI” by Yuval Noah Harari; Signal, 2024.
• “Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control” by Stuart Russell; Penguin Books, 2019.
• “Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy” by Audrey Tang; Radicalxchange, 2024
• “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture” by Kyle Chayka; Doubleday, 2024. 
• You can find a longer book list on Artificial Intelligence here. 

Activism & Resistance: 

• “If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution” by Vincent Bevins; Wildfire, 2023. 
• “The Wake Up: Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change” by Michelle Kim; Hachette Go, 2021. 

Learning & Self-cultivation:

• “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” by Jenny Odell; Melville House, 2020. 
• “Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock” by Jenny Odell; Random House, 2023. 
• “Lost Connections, Why You’re Depressed and how to Find Hope” by Johann Hari 2018 Bloomsbury Publishing
• “The Perfection Trap: The Power Of Good Enough In A World That Always Wants More” by Thomas Curran; Cornerstone Press, 2023. 
• “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Olivia Burkeman; Allen Lane, 2021.
• “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein; Riverhead Books, 2019. 
• “Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture” by Designing the Mind, LLC
• “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” by Michael Sandel 2020

Organization & Documentation: 

• “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande; Picador, 2011.
• “The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper: A New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year” by Roland Allen; Profile Books, 2023. 

History: 

• “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” by Charles C. Mann; Vintage Books, 2006. 
• “Nature, Culture, and Inequality: A Comparative and Historical Perspective” by Thomas Piketty and Williard Wood; Other Press, 2024. 

Energy Systems

• “Reimagining Fire: The Future of Energy” by Eveline Kolijn; UpRoute, 2023.

Disasters: 

• “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” by Adam Higginbotham; Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2024.

Natural Systems: 

• “The Ptarmigan's Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself” by John Theberge; McClelland & Stewart, 2010.
• “Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition” by Marc Reisner; Penguin Books, 1993.
• “Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water” by Maude Barlow; The New Press, 2005.

Mythology & Meaning Making: 

• “Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes; Random House, 1997.
• “Through the Dark Wood: Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life” by James Hollis Ph.D.; Sounds True, 2009. 

Watching and Listening:

• “Leonardo da Vinci” by Ken Burns, on PBS.
• “What is Democracy” by Astra Taylor, on the National Film Board of Canada.
• “Where Olive Trees Weep” by Zaya Benazzo and Maurizio Benazzo. 
• “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” by Dan Read.