Please share books that affected your worldview or changed your thoughts.
For me, it’s A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman. I studied business and work in finance, and before reading it, I never questioned the idea that capitalism was just the natural way of things. This book made me realize that capitalism is man made. It had a beginning and it can have an end. Wealth and poverty are not just inevitable, they are created by human decisions. That perspective really shook me.
Do you have a book that had a similar impact on you?
Grapes of Wrath. Until I read that I never thought of the human side and impact of the industrial revolution. Eye opening.
Interesting, my experience was that it was more a critique of capitalism than about industrialization itself …
It was both. Industrialization cuts out a lot of need for human workers. Capitalism cuts out the needs of humans in the drive for profit.
Reading East of Eden right now and need to get to Grapes soon.