100 books like Dominion

I have waited for years for the new book from the animal rights legend (and president/founder of the Institute for Humane Education), which provides a roadmap for building a better world through a transformative course of action called the Solutionary Process.

As always, I appreciate how Weil makes a compelling case for compassion for nonhuman animals; here, she pays special attention to the plight of hens used for egg production, dairy cows, veal calves, and the secrecy and deception surrounding their treatment by the animal-industrial complex.

The author’s signature mix of accurate (and often shocking) facts with personal storytelling and gentle myth-busting encourages compassion without plunging would-be change agents into apathy or depression. 

This classic by the vegan ecofeminist writer and activist opened my eyes to the ways in which language is used to cover or erase real animal lives. I appreciate her relatable examples as she calls out both the tendency to dismiss caring for animals as a childish concern and the systematic desensitization of children to the consumption of meat.

Prior to discovering this book, I had never reflected on the interconnectedness of animal cruelty and gendered violence against human victims, but Adams led me to think much more deeply about representations of female farmed animals in children's stories, advertising, and popular culture in general. 

Melson's highly original work has been a towering influence on my thinking about how children, who naturally gravitate to animals, learn to repress this deep connection as they grow into adults, oblivious (or resigned) to the systems implicated in the production of meat and other animal products.

I appreciate her detailed study of the process that brings about this "shift" and how it manifests as an explosion of animal-themed toys, games, films, and other cultural products, even as contact with real animals is all but lost to today's young people.

As a former 4-H kid, I especially respect and relate to her sober analysis of the "rite of passage" of raising and having a personal relationship with an animal whose purpose is to be sold and turned into food. 

I admire how Torres traces his own process of awakening to the realities of industrial farming, from the happy farm life he had been led to imagine to the brutal exploitation that makes animals themselves and their products into commodities for human consumption. His account is both deeply personal and unflinching in its uncovering of the hidden production methods that most of us would prefer not to see.

My Marxian-inflected approach to seeing animals both as products and as their own laboring class was heavily influenced by this powerful book and its focus on lived experiences that are the polar opposite of what children's books typically portray. 

The classic and most influential book on Animal Welfare update. Peter is regarded as the father of Animal Welfare, and his influence has been exceptional. This book presents a detailed account of Industrial animal food production. Peter provides an understanding of Industrial Farm Animal Production with details that provide clarity. Caution: You may change your eating habits.  

Has a philosophy book ever made you cry?

Martha Nussbaum’s book Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility, which deals with a revolutionary new theory and call to action to stop animals suffer injustice and horrors at our hands every day, has moved me deeply.

In the introduction, she shares her personal motives that made her focus on animal rights which involves what her daughter had used to fight for before she passed away. What does justice for animals have to do with the I in AI? Indirect answers are sometimes the most beautiful because it means that I get inspired, that I decide to apply the author’s findings to a new realm and thereby arrive at novel conclusions myself.

In her book, Martha introduced me to the outstanding capabilities of non-human animals, including intellectual capabilities which was eye-opening to acknowledge how close human intelligence is to animal intelligence, and how… show more.

I love the academic rigor, clear writing, and balanced approach to one of the most controversial topics in wildlife conservation. I have written about hunting in relation to elephants, lions, and rhinos and found this book to be comprehensive in its coverage of the issue and its wider linkages.

Does hunting have a value–if so, what is the value, and to whom does it accrue? Do utilitarian arguments around the idea of the greatest good for the greatest number work to justify the sport/trophy hunting of animals? Can the shooting of a rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo, etc, be ethical if it contributes to conserving habitat and a wide range of species? These are all topics I have wrestled with and continue to think deeply about as I write about wildlife conservation.

This is an inspiring read from a real changemaker.

Morgan is also someone I have had the pleasure of getting to know through the impact investing conference circuit, and I enjoyed reading her firsthand account of how she combined her social activist desires with the practical tools of finance and investment to create ‘real impact.’

One of my favorite sections of the book was on her early days and successes with shareholder activism. This book and her story are ones that many impact-minded leaders can learn from. 

This classic work of history and investigative reporting reads like a whodunit. It’s about the ill-willed contrarians who tried to convince the public that scientists don’t know what they do know: that our planet is warming as a result of human actions.

So, the book is not at all about scientists’ ignorance but instead about an illusion of uncertainty that has been deliberately fabricated.

I appreciate Christopolous’ book because he renders concrete the abstract realm of papal pronouncements by studying their reception by sixteenth-century Italian women and their confessors. He also unearths the complexity of attitudes to abortion that existed even within the church establishment in this period.

When Pope Sixtus issued a 1588 edict declaring all who aborted their pregnancies were automatically excommunicated and reserving the right to absolve them to the papacy alone, bishops across Italy’s Renaissance states objected. They argued that neither they nor their confessants could afford to travel to Rome to seek absolution; they sought mercy and forgiveness for the women to whom they ministered.

With this example, and in other parts of his book, Christopolous treats his subjects with sensitivity and precision.