Reading is, as RIF‘s name states quite clearly, fundamental.
Reading is also “a subversive act” according to Lt. Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi in an interview with Shenandoah, a literary magazine out of Washington and Lee University.
Reading has been and continues to be an act of learning about others, seeing the world through others alike and different, and actively seeking out information and perspectives.
What you just said about literature being reserved for the elite—I think you and I probably share the perspective that reading is a subversive act. It is an act that has historically been forbidden to so many different communities. I’m coincidentally reading Percival Everett’s James right now; it’s such a powerful retelling of Huck Finn’s story. But it [reading] is subversive, and I try to always share with my students how powerful the act of reading is, and how dangerous it is, and that’s why the educated elite try to keep it out of the hands of the “commoners.” Women were in particular forbidden to read, and any person of lower classes. I wanted my students to understand the immense power of literacy, and that’s something that we can never take for granted. And we see it now with the banning of books across the country.
How will you be subversive in 2026? Here are some book ideas to get you started:
- Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Barbara J. Fields and Karen E. Fields
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- The Federalist Papers
- V for Vendetta graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare) (recommended by Salaam Bhatti for Congress)
- Animal Farm by George Orwell (recommended by Salaam Bhatti for Congress)
- The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman
- Why I Am a Democrat by Theodore C. Sorensen
- More from clearandpresentdanger.blog (recommended by RJ Schlatter)
