Fans pick 100 books like One Child

By Sarah Conly,

Here are 100 books that One Child fans have personally recommended if you like One Child. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Debating Procreation: Is It Wrong to Reproduce?

Trevor Hedberg Author Of The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation

From my list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been researching and teaching about moral issues for more than a decade. How people procreate and how often they procreate has a huge impact on both the children born and others who interact with them. Yet even in academic philosophy – a discipline that often questions the appropriateness of ordinary behavior – the moral scrutiny of having children has been lacking. As I observed the population continue to rise and the circumstances of future people become more precarious, I thought the ethics of procreation needed deeper investigation. I hope my recent work on this topic will help others think more carefully about the moral complexities of having and raising children.

Trevor's book list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids

Trevor Hedberg Why did Trevor love this book?

In this book, David Benatar defends a strong version of antinatalism – the view that it is morally wrong to procreate – and David Wasserman attempts to defend the moral permissibility of procreation.

Like most people, I originally found antinatalism deeply counterintuitive when I first encountered it, but some of Benatar’s arguments are hard to refute. I consider many of Wasserman’s responses reasonable, but as his exchange with Benatar progresses, the caveats and limits on permissible procreation become harder to ignore.

Even if antinatalism is false, this debate left me with the impression that the moral standards for procreation are much stricter than most believe. 

By David Benatar, David Wasserman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Debating Procreation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

While procreation is ubiquitous, attention to the ethical issues involved in creating children is relatively rare. In Debating Procreation, David Benatar and David Wasserman take opposing views on this important question. David Benatar argues for the anti-natalist view that it is always wrong to bring new people into existence. He argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm and that even if it were not always so, the risk of serious harm is
sufficiently great to make procreation wrong. In addition to these "philanthropic" arguments, he advances the "misanthropic" one that because humans are so defective and cause…


Book cover of Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting

Trevor Hedberg Author Of The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation

From my list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been researching and teaching about moral issues for more than a decade. How people procreate and how often they procreate has a huge impact on both the children born and others who interact with them. Yet even in academic philosophy – a discipline that often questions the appropriateness of ordinary behavior – the moral scrutiny of having children has been lacking. As I observed the population continue to rise and the circumstances of future people become more precarious, I thought the ethics of procreation needed deeper investigation. I hope my recent work on this topic will help others think more carefully about the moral complexities of having and raising children.

Trevor's book list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids

Trevor Hedberg Why did Trevor love this book?

This collection of 11 essays, all written by different authors, surveys the most salient issues in the ethics of procreation.

I view the scope of this volume as its greatest asset: topics covered include (among others) the environmental case against procreation, arguments for antinatalism, the rationality of deciding to have children, the morality of adoption, and the scope of parental responsibility.

I consider this collection the ideal starting point for someone who, as I once did, wants a snapshot of the most foundational issues in procreative ethics.

By Sarah Hannan (editor), Samantha Brennan (editor), Richard Vernon (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This volume contributes to the growing literature on the morality of procreation and parenting. About half of the chapters take up questions about the morality of bringing children into existence. They discuss the following questions: Is it wrong to create human life? Is there a connection between the problem of evil and the morality of procreation? Could there be a duty to procreate? How do the environmental harms imposed by procreation affect its moral
status? Given these costs, is the value of establishing genetic ties ever significant enough to render procreation morally permissible? And how should government respond to peoples'…


Book cover of The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation May Be Permissible

Trevor Hedberg Author Of The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation

From my list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been researching and teaching about moral issues for more than a decade. How people procreate and how often they procreate has a huge impact on both the children born and others who interact with them. Yet even in academic philosophy – a discipline that often questions the appropriateness of ordinary behavior – the moral scrutiny of having children has been lacking. As I observed the population continue to rise and the circumstances of future people become more precarious, I thought the ethics of procreation needed deeper investigation. I hope my recent work on this topic will help others think more carefully about the moral complexities of having and raising children.

Trevor's book list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids

Trevor Hedberg Why did Trevor love this book?

Rivka Weinberg’s theory of when procreation is permissible and why is one of the most well-defended accounts of reproductive ethics.

The subtitle alludes to the book’s unique approach – the idea that procreation should be an exercise in risk management. All children face the risk of serious harm, so we should only procreate when we are able to do an awful lot to mitigate that risk.

What struck me most about Weinberg’s approach was its theoretical rigor and systematicity. Her account of the ethics of procreation is more thorough and cohesive than other work on the subject I have encountered, and her conclusions, while not being as stark as an antinatalist outlook, are nevertheless provocative.

By Rivka Weinberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Risk of a Lifetime as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Having children is probably as old as the first successful organism. It is often done thoughtlessly. This book is an argument for giving procreating some serious thought, and a theory of how, when, and why procreation may be permissible.
procreative ethics, procreation itself is often done Rivka Weinberg begins with an analysis of the kind of act procreativity is and why we might be justifiably motivated to engage in it. She then proceeds to argue that, by virtue of our ownership and control of the hazardous material that is our gametes, we are parentally responsible for the risks we take…


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Book cover of Why We Hate: Understanding the Roots of Human Conflict

Why We Hate By Michael Ruse,

Why We Hate asks why a social animal like Homo sapiens shows such hostility to fellow species members. The invasion of the Ukraine by Russia? The antisemitism found on US campuses in the last year? The answer and solution lies in the Darwinian theory of evolution through natural selection.

Being…

Book cover of Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate

Trevor Hedberg Author Of The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation

From my list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been researching and teaching about moral issues for more than a decade. How people procreate and how often they procreate has a huge impact on both the children born and others who interact with them. Yet even in academic philosophy – a discipline that often questions the appropriateness of ordinary behavior – the moral scrutiny of having children has been lacking. As I observed the population continue to rise and the circumstances of future people become more precarious, I thought the ethics of procreation needed deeper investigation. I hope my recent work on this topic will help others think more carefully about the moral complexities of having and raising children.

Trevor's book list on philosophers about whether it’s okay to have kids

Trevor Hedberg Why did Trevor love this book?

Christine Overall’s approach to the ethics of procreation draws more heavily on feminist philosophy than my other recommendations.

Understanding the aspects of procreation and pregnancy that exclusively impact women is crucial to informed ethical reflection on the issue, and Overall is one of the foremost experts on this aspect of procreative ethics.

Overall also intertwines her discussion of procreative ethics with questions about why having children is valuable and what motivates a decision to have them.

By Christine Overall,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A wide-ranging exploration of whether or not choosing to procreate can be morally justified -- and if so, how.

In contemporary Western society, people are more often called upon to justify the choice not to have children than they are to supply reasons for having them. In this book, Christine Overall maintains that the burden of proof should be reversed: that the choice to have children calls for more careful justification and reasoning than the choice not to. Arguing that the choice to have children is not just a prudential or pragmatic decision but one with ethical repercussions, Overall offers…


Book cover of The Offset

Redfern Jon Barrett Author Of Proud Pink Sky

From my list on sci-fi and speculative stories depicting queer lives.

Why am I passionate about this?

After more than 20 years of community work and activism in LGBTQ+ spaces, I couldn’t help but turn these experiences into a novel in which Berlin becomes the world’s first gay state – Proud Pink Sky, released March 14 from Amble Press. My essays and short stories focus on the strange, the queer, and the speculative, and have been published in The Sun Magazine, Guernica, Strange Horizons, PinkNews, and Nature Futures, while my campaign work for LGBTQ+ and polyamory rights has been referenced in The Mirror, Buzzfeed, and BBC News. I am also nonbinary queer, have a Ph.D. in Literature, and currently live in Berlin.

Redfern's book list on sci-fi and speculative stories depicting queer lives

Redfern Jon Barrett Why did Redfern love this book?

Presenting one of the darkest futures I’ve ever read, The Offset plunges us into a neo-medieval world ravaged by climate destruction. The debut novel of writing duo Natasha C. Calder and Emma Szewczak, The Offset is set in a sinister, depopulated London which murders people for reproducing, yet it also weaves in a strange social acceptance. As with Becky Chambers’s A Psalm for the Wild-Built, queer and nonbinary people are completely and unquestioningly accepted – yet though the latter takes place in a quiet utopia, while here we’re dealing with a dramatic dystopia. This tolerance adds depth and nuance to an otherwise bleak setting, and it’s not just relegated to the background: The central protagonists form a queer family, one threatened by the omnipresent cruelties of a decaying future.

By Calder Szewczak, Natasha C. Calder, Emma Szewczak

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Offset as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The world is dying and over populated. Professor Jac Boltanski is leading Project Salix, a ground-breaking new mission to save the world by replanting radioactive Greenland with genetically-modified willow trees. But things aren't working out and there are discrepancies in the data. Has someone intervened to sabotage her life's work?

In the meantime, her daughter Miri, an anti-natalist, has run away from home. Days before their Offset ceremony where one of her mothers must be sentenced to death, she is brought back against her will following a run-in with the law. Which parent will Miri pick to die: the one…


Book cover of If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World's People

K.L. Going Author Of This Is the Planet Where I Live

From my list on pictures showing kids how we’re all connected.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up, my father was a biologist and my mother was a children’s librarian, so I suppose it’s no surprise that I’ve become a children’s book author who writes about valuing the planet where we we live. I’ve always had a deep love of reading and some of my most cherished childhood memories are of walking through the woods behind our house, with one parent or another identifying the plants, animals, amphibians, birds, and insects that shared our land. My very first piece of writing was a poem about an owl that I wrote in first grade, and now all these years later, I’m still reading, writing, and recommending books that celebrate our marvelous world.

K.L.'s book list on pictures showing kids how we’re all connected

K.L. Going Why did K.L. love this book?

Believe it or not, this is a book I’ve used successfully in the classroom with teenagers!

The premise is that if we shrank the world down to just 100 people, we could then see what percentages of people shared nationalities, languages, school systems, types of jobs, etc. Or we can see who uses certain resources or has different possessions.

What I like about this book is that it’s impossible to wrap our minds around numbers in the millions and billions, but by breaking huge statistics down to just factors of 100, we can understand these concepts that illuminate how we’re sharing the planet. Kids love this book!

By David J Smith, Shelagh Armstrong (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked If the World Were a Village as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

This is the new paperback edition of a beautiful and unique book, which explains facts about the world's population in a simple and fascinating way. Instead of unimaginable billions, it presents the whole world as a village of just 100 people. We soon find out that 22 speak a Chinese dialect and that 17 cannot read or write. We also discover the people's religions, their education, their standard of living, and much much more...This book provokes thought and elicits questions. It cannot fail to inspire children's interest in world geography, citizenship and different customs and cultures, whether they read it…


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Book cover of Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation

Uniting the States of America By Lyle Greenfield,

We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike. 

My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and…

Book cover of The Ultimate Resource 2

Paul Morland Author Of Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers

From my list on the impact of population on everything.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in demography began when I saw rapid demographic change taking place before my eyes in London, and when I noted the different fertility choices of friends and relations and started to put the pieces together and to understand how demography shapes our changing reality. I have published three books on the subject—the first, a version of my PhD thesis, the second and third captured belowand have broadcast and written articles for the press extensively on these topics.

Paul's book list on the impact of population on everything

Paul Morland Why did Paul love this book?

Simon was something of a prophet who felt that he had a contrarian worldview that the world needed to know about. His basic idea is that the human brain is the ultimate resource and that with the right application and opportunity, humans can solve so many of the serious problems that environmentalism and the limits on resources throw at us. I cannot say that I agree with Simon on everything, nor that his optimism is apt in every situation, but his is an exciting and bracing can-do-ism that sees the best in humanity once it is freed to fulfill its potential.

By Julian Lincoln Simon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ultimate Resource 2 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Arguing that the ultimate resource is the human imagination coupled to the human spirit, Julian Simon led a vigorous challenge to conventional beliefs about scarcity of energy and natural resources, pollution of the environment, the effects of immigration, and the "perils of overpopulation." The comprehensive data, careful quantitative research, and economic logic contained in the first edition of The Ultimate Resource questioned widely held professional judgments about the threat of overpopulation, and Simon's celebrated bet with Paul Ehrlich about resource prices in the 1980s enhanced the public attention--both pro and con--that greeted this controversial book. Now Princeton University Press presents…


Book cover of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-first Century

Paul Morland Author Of Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers

From my list on the impact of population on everything.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in demography began when I saw rapid demographic change taking place before my eyes in London, and when I noted the different fertility choices of friends and relations and started to put the pieces together and to understand how demography shapes our changing reality. I have published three books on the subject—the first, a version of my PhD thesis, the second and third captured belowand have broadcast and written articles for the press extensively on these topics.

Paul's book list on the impact of population on everything

Paul Morland Why did Paul love this book?

Eric was my PhD supervisor and was finishing the book as I began my thesis. This gave me a chance to have an insight into the thinking and the process behind the book’s creation as well as an opportunity to read the manuscript. Combining serious analysis of the data with an astute and observative reading of big global trends, this book sets out one of the most important trends underway todaythe burgeoning numbers in strict, world-denying bearing a large number of children and able to hang onto them. A decade on, as secular birth rates plummet, the thesis is more valid than ever.

By Eric Kaufmann,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-first Century as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Dawkins and Hitchens have convinced many western intellectuals that secularism is the way forward. But most people don't read their books before deciding whether to be religious. Instead, they inherit their faith from their parents, who often innoculate them against the elegant arguments of secularists. And what no one has noticed is that far from declining, the religious are expanding their share of the population: in fact, the more religious people are, the more children they have. The cumulative effect of immigration from religious countries, and religious fertility will be to reverse the secularisation process in the West. Not only…


Book cover of Forgotten Voices of Mao's Great Famine, 1958-1962: An Oral History

Zhang-Yue Zhou Author Of Achieving Food Security in China: The Challenges Ahead

From my list on understanding China’s great famine.

Why am I passionate about this?

My desire for food-related studies originates from my personal experience of starvation. Born in 1957 in rural China, I soon stepped into China’s Great Famine (1958-1962). During this famine, over 30 million people died of hunger, mostly peasants, including my grandpa (my mother’s father). As a growing child, I was hungry and today I still remember how my family struggled to feed us. After becoming a student at an agricultural university, I had the opportunity to think and started to ponder over food-related issues. After graduation, I became an academic and have since focused my energy on studies concerning food, chiefly, China’s food supply and food security. 

Zhang-Yue's book list on understanding China’s great famine

Zhang-Yue Zhou Why did Zhang-Yue love this book?

This book records the memories of the devastation and loss of the famine survivors, providing grass-root evidence of the man-made catastrophe.

Zhou traveled to many provinces to search and interview the survivors, with a focus on nine that were worst hit by the famine. It is emotionally hard for a survivor to recall past miseries. It is even harder, indeed emotionally traumatizing, for a researcher to go through many miseries of the survivors to get this book compiled. I admire her courage and resilience. 

By Zhou Xun,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Forgotten Voices of Mao's Great Famine, 1958-1962 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A powerful account of China's Great Famine as told through the voices of those who survived it

In 1958, China's revered leader Mao Zedong instituted a program designed to transform his giant nation into a Communist utopia. Called the Great Leap Forward, Mao's grand scheme-like so many other utopian dreams of the 20th century-proved a monumental disaster, resulting in the mass destruction of China's agriculture, industry, and trade while leaving large portions of the countryside forever scarred by man-made environmental disasters. The resulting three-year famine claimed the lives of more than 45 million people in China. In this remarkable oral…


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Book cover of Elephant Safari

Elephant Safari By Peter Riva,

Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd…

Book cover of Otto: A Palindrama

Kate Temple Author Of The Underdogs Serve It Up

From my list on hilarious animal characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a big fan of two things… one is graphic novels and the other is funny stuff! When those two things come together I am in my zone. I read lots of graphic novels when I was a kid and I've never really stopped. They are a great part of anyone’s reading diet. Now I write funny graphic novels for kids with my writing partner Jol. We’ve written 20 books to date including The Underdogs series, but there’s more to come!

Kate's book list on hilarious animal characters

Kate Temple Why did Kate love this book?

This graphic novel isn't just funny and odd it's pure genius.

The entire story is written in palindrome I guess that's why they call it a 'palin-drama'! It's all about this boy called Otto who goes looking for his lost pet Pip.

The places he goes and the weird folks he meets are very absurd and delightful. This book is gold.

By Jon Agee, Jon Agee (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Otto as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

This absurdly clever and funny graphic novel, told entirely in palindromes, is created by World Palindrome Champion Jon Agee, author of Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!

Otto is having a very palindramatic day. His pet, Pip, has gone missing, and his search for the dog leads him deeper and deeper into a strange and perplexing world--full of talking owls, stacks of cats, storms and mazes, boats and trains and automobiles . . . oh my! Everything seems to be the same backward and forward, and Pip isn't sure he'll ever find his way home to Mom and…


Book cover of Debating Procreation: Is It Wrong to Reproduce?
Book cover of Permissible Progeny? The Morality of Procreation and Parenting
Book cover of The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation May Be Permissible

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Interested in environmentalism, the one child policy, and climate change?

Environmentalism 197 books
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