Books

Studies show that being an optimist can make a dramatic difference in how healthy, happy and productive we are. Jurriaan Kamp, the founder and publisher of The Intelligent Optimist (formerly Ode), a Maggie award-winning magazine, demonstrates how to experience the culture at large and our own lives in particular as richer, more profound, and more fulfilling by expanding our capacity for optimism.

Everyone knows that today's rate of technological change is unprecedented. With technological breakthroughs from the Internet to cell phones to digital music and pictures, everyone knows that the social impact of technology has never been as profound.

Future Hype surveys the past few hundred years to show that many of the technologies we now take for granted transformed society in far more dramatic ways than recent developments so often touted as unparalleled and historic. Seidensticker exposes the hidden costs of technology and will help both consumers and businesses take a shrewder position when the next 'essential' innovation is trotted out.

This book presents a new approach to risk management that enables executives to think systematically and strategically about future risks and deal proactively with threats to their competitive advantages in an ever more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.


Organizations typically manage risks through traditional tools such as insurance and risk mitigation; some employ enterprise risk management, which looks at risk holistically throughout the organization. But these tools tend to focus organizational attention on past actions and compliance. Executives need to tackle risk head-on as an integral part of their strategic planning process, not by looking in the rearview mirror.

Strategic Risk Management (SRM) is a forward-looking approach that helps teams anticipate events or exposures that fundamentally threaten or enhance a firm's position. The authors, experts in both business strategy and risk management, define strategic risks and show how they differ from operational risks. They offer a road map that describes architectural elements of SRM (knowledge, principles, structures, and tools) to show how leaders can integrate them to effectively design and implement a future-facing SRM program. SRM gives organizations a competitive advantage over those stuck in outdated risk management practices. For the first time, it enables them to look squarely out the front windshield.

Why are some people more successful in business? Why do some businesses flourish where others fail? Renowned business speaker and author, Brian Tracy, tackles these puzzling questions through a set of principles or “universal laws” one needs to follow to become successful in the world of business.

In The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, Tracy draws on his thirty years of experience and knowledge to present a set of principles or "universal laws" that lie behind the success of business people everywhere, in every kind of enterprise, large and small. These are natural laws, he says, and they work everywhere and for everyone, virtually without exception. Every year, thousands of companies underperform or even fail and millions of individuals underachieve, frustrated by thwarted ambition and dreams-all because they either attempted to violate or did not know these universal laws. But ignorance of the law is no excuse!

Tracy breaks the 100 laws down into nine major categories: Life, Success, Business, Leadership, Money, Economics, Selling, Negotiating, and Time Management. Drawing on a lifetime of observation, investigation, and experience, Tracy not only identifies and defines each law, he also reveals its source and foundation, whether in science, nature, philosophy, experience, or common sense. He illustrates how it functions in the world using real-life anecdotes and examples shows how to apply it to your life and work through specific questions and practical steps and exercises that everyone can use-sometimes in just minutes-to begin the journey toward greater business success.

Written by a premier group of 21 thinkers from around the world, the second edition of Alternatives to Economic Globalization lays out democratic, ecologically sound, socially just alternatives to corporate globalization more fully, specifically, and thoughtfully than has ever been done before. Focusing on constructive, achievable goals, the authors present ten governing principles for establishing truly sustainable societies and describe alternatives to the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO that would better serve the needs of the planet. They offer detailed proposals for protecting vital goods and services from corporate exploitation, limiting corporate privileges and power, rebuilding economies to make them more responsive to human needs, and more.
This revised and expanded edition features a new opening chapter on the global balance of power, a new section on the media and globalization, and a new final chapter on what ordinary citizens can do to fight the injustices of globalization. It also includes many new charts, sidebars, and other updated information.

Bestselling author Kim Cameron delivers both a riveting story and a thoroughly researched case study that delves into the spectacularly impossible success of the shutdown and clean-up of Rocky Flats, one of the most notorious nuclear weapons plants in the United States.

Alec Levenson's immensely practical guide shows every organization that uses employee surveys or is considering using them how to make them more effective, valuable, and reliable-and how to make better use of them.

Crossing Boundaries is a transformative travel book about how meaningful encounters across cultures can change the way we see the world—and one another.

Drawing from Aziz Abu Sarah’s journey from a former Palestinian radical in Jerusalem to a globally recognized peacebuilder and National Geographic explorer, this book shows how travel can become a practice of empathy, dialogue, and human connection. Its central idea is powerful and accessible: Transformative, responsible travel does not have to start overseas. It can begin in your own neighborhood, with the choice to step beyond familiarity and meet people different from yourself.

Blending memoir, cultural insight, conflict resolution, and practical travel strategy, Abu Sarah reframes travel as more than sightseeing. He invites readers to move beyond museums, monuments, and surface-level itineraries in order to experience communities through conversation, curiosity, and mutual respect. Through stories shaped by Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Vietnam, and other places marked by division, Crossing Boundaries explores how travel can challenge stereotypes, reduce prejudice, and create lasting relationships rooted in dignity and understanding.

At its heart, Crossing Boundaries offers a vision of travel as a tool for healing in a polarized world. Abu Sarah shows readers how to make travel more intentional, inclusive, and transformative by helping them

• meet people naturally and safely;
• design inclusive, community-centered itineraries;
• support local economies through conscious spending;
• navigate discomfort, misunderstanding, and setbacks with empathy;
• move beyond stereotypes and inherited assumptions;
• build authentic cross-cultural relationships;
• practice responsible, sustainable, values-driven travel; and
• discover shared humanity across political, religious, and social divides.

Perfect for readers interested in purposeful travel, cultural immersion, peacebuilding, ethical tourism, social impact, and personal growth, this book speaks to both first-time travelers and experienced explorers who want deeper, more human-centered journeys. It will especially resonate with readers looking for books about intercultural dialogue, sustainable travel, belonging, reconciliation, and shared humanity.

Polls consistently show that most Americans are progressives at heart. In FRAMING THE FUTURE political consultant and communications expert Bernie Horn shows how the 3 core progressive values-Freedom, Opportunity, Security-define the collective aspirations that drive our nation, and how progressives can use this framework of values to communicate effectively with “persuadable” voters.

Renowned scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton offer a new argument for compassion in organizations, showing leaders how to tap their innate ability for compassion to create more effective and humane workplaces.


We are living in an epidemic of disengagement and despair that calls us to action. Awakening Compassion at Work answers the call, showing us new ways to enliven the humanity of work and in so doing address the suffering of the world and create an innovative, optimistic, and engaged workforce.

Scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton approach compassion in organizations through the lens of new research that helps us see what compassion is, how we can create it in our everyday work, and the benefits it offers to both individuals and organizations. They reveal why compassion is integral to recruiting and retaining talented people, essential to delivering high quality service and rapid innovation, and inextricably linked to engagement, collaboration, and adaptability. They even include a tool for assessing your organization's “compassion potential.” This book gives us the tools to build skill in creating compassion and invigorating the humanity of our basic institutions.

It's shocking but true. The VA health system has quietly accomplished everything that the country expected from health reform but didn't achieve: lower costs, better health outcomes, and a cutting-edge electronic health-record system. With the 2010 health reform under fire, the VA's technology-based model may well be the way to better health care for everyone-and Phillip Longman explains how and why.

In a revolutionary, multi-disciplinary approach, Unitarian Universalist Pastor Michael Schuler shows how we only truly experience “the good life” when we de-prioritize short-term attainments and instead embrace sustainability as both an operational model and a life-sustaining core value.

In this mind-opening new book, bestselling author Otto Scharmer (Theory U, 40,000 copies sold) and Katrin Kaufer reveal the root cause of the economic, social, ecological, political, spiritual, and institutional crises today and detail seven new practices for revolutionizing and revamping society and growth.

Trump didn't break American democracy—he revealed how broken it already was.

In this urgent, deeply researched book, four-time Project Censored Award–winning, New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann argues that Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The real story is the ecosystem that built him: a childhood defined by cruelty, a mentor who weaponized shamelessness, a political party that sold its principles for power, and a donor class that used him to dismantle the guardrails on their own greed.

Inside, you'll find

• a psychological portrait of how Trump was made—not born;
• a clear-eyed account of how the Republican Party and billionaire networks enabled his rise;
• global comparisons to Hungary, Venezuela, and Weimar Germany—because this pattern has a name; and
• 7 proven, history-backed strategies for defeating authoritarianism before it becomes permanent.

This is not a book about despair. It is a book about recognition—and resistance.

For readers of How Democracies Die and On Tyranny who are ready to move from understanding the crisis to doing something about it.

The choice, as always, is ours.

“As so many Americans feel powerless to confront a financial system designed to serve the few, Shuman offers us real choices: tools that align our lives with our values. That's power. I love this highly readable, timely, surprising book.”
-Frances Moore Lappé, author of Daring Democracy and Diet for a Small Planet


Americans agree on very little these days, but red state conservatives and blue state progressives can agree on one critical point: Wall Street can no longer be trusted. Yet most of us continue to invest our money in the stocks and bonds of Fortune 500 companies, transferring our capital far from where we live and work. Local investing expert Michael Shuman offers another alternative. He shows how we can use two well-established-but rarely used-investment tools to keep our money close and get a return as good as or better than what we'd get investing in distant, indifferent corporations.

Shuman explains the nuts and bolts of self-directed IRAs and solo 401(k)s and how they can be combined with other recently legalized local investing tools. He details how to set these accounts up, identify and evaluate a whole range of local investment opportunities, and make sure account holders stay on the right side of the law. While the book is written for people without a lot of investment experience-Shuman explains concepts like “liquidity” and “diversification” in simple terms-even if you're as experienced as Warren Buffett, this book will make you rethink everything you know about investing. With Shuman's expert advice, you can strengthen your investment portfolio and your community, neighborhoods, and schools at the same time!