I’ve had several people ask me recently for a recommended reading list from the stuff I’m reading for my doctoral program on generational poverty. This is a wide ranging list of some of the books that have been the most impacting to me so far on this journey. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
Personally, I would start with Drew Hart’s book, “Trouble I’ve Seen” if you’re wanting to explore the church’s role in racial reconciliation. I would also put Ronald Sider’s “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger” near the top of the list, as well. For a more technical selection, Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” breaks down the realities of the justice system and why our prisons are full of predominantly poor minorities.
As a note of emphasis and explanation, I’ve included two selections on prayer (Eastman and Ravenhill) because God knows better than we do how to reconcile his people to each other and break systemic inequities.
RECOMMENDED READING LIST
**Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010.
**Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Eastman, Dick.
Eastman, Dick. On Prayer: Three Unabridged Books in One Volume: No Easy Road, the Hour That Changes the World, Love on Its Knees. Toronto: Global Christian Publishers, 1999.
Emdin, Christopher. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood– and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2016.
Gordon, Wayne. Who Is My Neighbor?: Lessons Learned from a Man Left for Dead. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2011.
Gordon, Wayne, and John Perkins. Making Neighborhoods Whole: A Handbook for Christian Community Development. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2013.
**Hart, Drew G. I. Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism. Harrisonburg: Herald Press, 2016.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown Pub., 1991.
Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin, and Stephen Samuel Smith, and Amy Hawn Nelson. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: School Desegregation and Resegregation in Charlotte. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2015.
Payne, Ruby K. A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha! Process, 2005.
Putnam, Robert D. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Ravenhill, Leonard. Revival Praying. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2005.
**Sider, Ronald J. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity. Nashville: W Pub. Group, 1997.
Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: SmileyBooks, 2012.
Wallis, Jim. America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, a Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2017.
DOCUMENTARIES
The 13th (Netflix) – Inequities in our justice system, great overview of why prisons are full of poor minorities.
PBS: Black in America (full series available on Amazon). Great overview of African American history.
