Sixth Form Recommended Reading

How Did We Get into this Mess? by George Monbiot

George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. Based on his powerful journalism, he assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do. Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into this Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein's international bestseller This Changes Everything is a must-read on our future, one of the defining and most hopeful books of this era. Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon - it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better. In her most provocative and optimistic book yet, Naomi Klein has upended the debate about the stormy era already upon us, exposing the myths that are clouding the climate debate.

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist by Kate Raworth Economics is broken, and the planet is paying the price. Unforeseen financial crises. Extreme wealth inequality. Relentless pressure on the environment. Can we go on like this? Is there an alternative? In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth lays out the seven deadly mistakes of economics and offers a radical re-envisioning of the system that has brought us to the point of ruin. Moving beyond the myths of ‘rational economic man’ and unlimited growth, Doughnut Economics zeroes in on the sweet spot: a system that meets all our needs without exhausting the planet.

The demands of the 21st century require a new shape of economics. This might just be it.