common ground
Common Ground Media List
Expand your horizons this summer with these Common Ground titles — books and podcasts to challenge your perspective, sharpen your thinking and give you something to talk about.
Find our table display at University Book Store on the Ave, or order online using the links below. Are you a UWAA member? Use your member discount to purchase titles through University Book Store and University Press.
Books
Looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear…
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels
by Jon Meacham
Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in the Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of presidents, influential citizen activists, early suffragettes, and prominent American historical figures, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear—a struggle that continues even now.
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Summary by Penguin Random House
Stirring explorations of current and timeless topics about democracy, liberty, equal justice and powerful citizenship…
Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility, and Democracy
by Eric Liu
What does it mean to be an engaged American in today’s divided political landscape, and how do we restore hope in our country? In a collection of “civic sermons” delivered at gatherings around the nation, popular advocate for active citizenship Eric Liu takes on these thorny questions and provides inspiration and solace in a time of anger, fear, and dismay over the state of the Union.
This book will energize you to get involved, in ways both large and small, to help rebuild a country that you’re proud to call home. Become America will challenge you to rehumanize our politics and rekindle a spirit of love in civic life.
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Summary by Sasquatch Books
A blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into meaningful change…
Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together
by Van Jones
Van Jones burst into the American consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign with an unscripted, truth-telling style and an already established history of bridge-building across party lines. His election night commentary, during which he coined the term “whitelash,” became a viral sensation. A longtime progressive activist with deep roots in the conservative South, Jones has made it his mission to challenge voters and viewers to stand in one another’s shoes and disagree constructively.
In Beyond the Messy Truth, he issues a stirring call for a new “bipartisanship from below,” pointing us toward practical answers to problems that affect us all regardless of region or ideology. In his quest for positive solutions, Van Jones encourages us to set fire to our old ways of thinking about politics and come together to help those most in need.
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Summary by Penguin Random House
You don’t have to be racist to be biased…
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do.
by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Unconscious bias can be at work without our realizing it, and even when we genuinely wish to treat all people equally, ingrained stereotypes can infect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior. This has an impact on education, employment, housing, and criminal justice. In Biased, with a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Jennifer Eberhardt offers us insights into the dilemma and a path forward.
Eberhardt works extensively as a consultant to law enforcement and as a psychologist at the forefront of this new field. From courtrooms to coffee shops, she shows us the subtle–and sometimes dramatic–daily repercussions of implicit bias and offers practical suggestions for reform and new practices for organizations as well as individuals.
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Summary by Penguin Random House
Learn how food is intertwined with our present but offers a path to a better understanding of the future…
The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community On a Pacific Northwest Island
by Kathleen Alcalá
Remembering her parents, Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and the memory of planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with them as a child, Kathleen Alcalá explores the history of the Pacific Northwest island she calls home.
In the Deepest Roots, Alcalá walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to know her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a future in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II, and learns the unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native American community, the fishing practices of the descendants of Croatian immigrants, and the Suquamish elder who shares with her the food legacy of the island itself.
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Summary by University of Washington Press
Reversing our decline requires something radical: a rediscovery of real places and human-to-human relationships…
Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal
by Ben Sasse
We’re the richest country in history, but we’ve never been more pessimistic.
What’s causing the despair?
In Them, bestselling author and U.S. senator Ben Sasse argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, our crisis isn’t really about politics. It’s that we’re so lonely we can’t see straight—and it bubbles out as anger.
Local communities are collapsing. Across the nation, little leagues are disappearing, Rotary clubs are dwindling, and in all likelihood, we don’t know the neighbor two doors down. Work isn’t what we’d hoped: less certainty, few lifelong coworkers, shallow purpose. Stable families and enduring friendships—life’s fundamental pillars—are in statistical freefall.
America wants you to be happy, but more urgently, America needs you to love your neighbor and connect with your community. Fixing what’s wrong with the country depends on it.
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Summary by Macmillan Books
Podcast Episodes
The Rubin Report: Coming Out as Conservative
— Rob Smith, an Iraq war veteran and a political analyst, discusses what it’s like to be “America’s favorite black gay Republican.”
Speak Freely: Civic Engagement — This episode, from a podcast hosted by two UW students who are also veterans, explores the importance of being an active and informed citizen.
Democracy in Color: You’re More Powerful Than You Think – with Eric Liu — Citizen University founder and UW faculty member Eric Liu reminds us that we all have the power to create change.
This American Life: My Effing First Amendment
— This episode of the popular This American Life radio show explores one way that conservative college students have been trained to defend their views on campus to angry liberals.
Seattle Growth Podcast: Homeless in Seattle – the Home Shows
— Dow Constantine, Rob McKenna, unsheltered residents, and many more local voices join this episode of the Seattle Growth podcast, hosted by UW professor Jeff Shulman
