High IMPACT Reading:

• The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others -- a concept endorsed by no less a luminary than the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

• The corporation's unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.

While corporate social responsibility in some instances does much good, it is often merely a token gesture, serving to mask the corporation's true character.

Governments have abdicated much of their control over the corporation, despite its flawed character, by freeing it from legal constraints through deregulation and by granting it ever greater authority over society through privatization.

Despite the structural failings found in the corporation, Bakan believes change is possible and outlines a far-reaching program of concrete, pragmatic, and realistic reforms through legal regulation and democratic control.

Backed by extensive research, The Corporation draws on in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as CEO Hank McKinnell of Pfizer, Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and critic Noam Chomsky of MIT.

"Robert McChesney's work has been of extraordinary importance. . . . It should be read with care and concern by people who care about freedom and basic rights."
—Noam Chomsky

"Robert McChesney is one of the nation's most important analysts of the media."
—Howard Zinn

A new book from the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD), goes behind the veil of giant corporations -- Enron, Bechtel, Halliburton, Monsanto, Pfizer, and others making our daily news -- to show how the "system" really works. Unlike muckraking books about scandals in one industry or another, Draffan focuses on the mechanisms of power wielded by the entire network of corporate players.

David Korten offers an alarming expose of the devastating human and environmental consequences of global corporatization and a passionate message of hope in this well-reasoned, extensively researched analysis. He explains why human survival depends on a community-based, people-centered alternative. Korten offers viable national and global reforms to localize economies and globalize consciousness.

This 352-page book collects 70 published and unpublished articles, essays, speeches, letters, harangues, and screeds in which POCLADers grapple with the reality that giant corporations -- backed by law -- govern our communities, our nation and the Earth. Edited by Dean Ritz. Includes an extensive bibliography, an index of court cases (including reporter citations), and a subject index. Detailed editor's notes cross-reference the many related topics covered in the articles, provide insightful commentary, and document sources.

Killing Hope : U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II_Updated Through 2003
by William Blum

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Is the United States a force for democracy? In this classic and unique volume that answers this question, William Blum serves up a forensic overview of U.S. foreign policy spanning sixty years. For those who want the details on our most famous -actions (Chile, Cuba, Vietnam, to name a few), and for those who want to learn about our lesser-known efforts (France, China, Bolivia, Brazil, for example), this book provides a window on what our foreign policy goals really are. "Far and away the best book on the topic."- Noam Chomsky

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
by John Perkins

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Listen to an audio interview with the author.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals a game that, according to John Perkins, is "as old as Empire" but has taken on new and terrifying dimensions in an era of globalization. And Perkins should know. For many years he worked for an international consulting firm where his main job was to convince LDCs (less developed countries) around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. This book, which many people warned Perkins not to write, is a blistering attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences on both the victimized countries and the U.S.

Roy brings a novelistic readability and immediacy to her impassioned critiques of imperialism, the corporate media and their "neo-liberal project". Her unequivocally critical look at the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq will likely lead American readers to label her as either brilliantly astute or strongly anti-American. Roy delivers a scathing critique of the current state of democracy: "The project of corporate globalization has cracked the code of democracy. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities on sale to the highest bidder." In addition to observing problems; Roy offers non-violent solutions. Regardless of whether one agrees with her ideas, Roy crafts articulate and convincing arguments that deserve their place in any debate on globalization, democracy or Iraq.

"What do you want?" is a constant query put to economic and globalization activists decrying current poverty, alienation and degradation. Michael Albert provides an answer: Participatory Economics, "Parecon" for short—a new economy, an alternative to capitalism, built on familiar values including solidarity, equity, diversity and people democratically controlling their own lives, but utilizing original institutions fully described and defended in the book.

Written by a premier group of thinkers from around the world, Alternatives to Economic Globalization is the defining document of the anti-globalization movement. The culmination of a three-year project by the International Forum on Globalization, whose members include Ralph Nader, David Korten, John Cavanagh, Lori Wallach, and Jerry Mander, it presents both a sober critique of globalization as well as practical, thoughtful alternatives. The authors assert ten core requirements for democratic societies, including equality, basic human rights, local decision making, and ecological sustainability, and demonstrate how globalization undermines each. Offering specific strategies for reining in corporate domination, they address alternative systems for energy, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing; ideas for weakening or dismantling the WTO, World Bank, and IMF; and rebuilding economies that are responsive to human needs.

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How to Purchase Books from Arise!

The best method of purchasing books from Arise! is to pick them up from their store.  Almost all of the books on the High IMPACT Reading list are consistently available at Arise!, however they often only carry a few copies, so there is a chance that they may be sold out of the book you are looking for.  For this reason, it is wise to check for availability before stopping by.  Any of the books can be special ordered.  Also it is possible to purchase over the phone from Arise! although they need to be prepurchased meaning that you can use a credit card or a debit card over the phone and have it delivered to your home.