Here are 100 books that Grounded Authority fans have personally recommended if you like Grounded Authority. 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 The Climate of History in a Planetary Age

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Author Of Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene: On Decoloniality

From my list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m the grandson of a coal miner from a multi-generational, Ohio family. What matters most to me is having some integrity and being morally okay with folks. I never thought of myself as an environmentalist, just as someone trying to figure out what we should be learning to be decent people in this sometimes messed-up world. From there, I was taken into our environmental situation, its planetary injustice, and then onto studying the history of colonialism. This adventure cracked open my midwestern common sense and made me rethink things. Happily, it has only reinforced my commitment to, and faith in, moral relations, giving our word, being accountable, and caring.

Jeremy's book list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Why Jeremy loves this book

I love how Dipesh’s book shows a historian at the height of his powers explaining how history has become geological. Decades ago, Chakrabarty began as someone arguing for a history that made Europe “provincial”. Now he argues that all human history is relative to planetary time. His writing is infused with humanism and is up to date on Earth System Science.

By Dipesh Chakrabarty ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Climate of History in a Planetary Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For the past decade, historian Dipesh Chakrabarty has been one of the most influential scholars addressing the meaning of climate change. Climate change, he argues, upends long-standing ideas of history, modernity, and globalization. The burden of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age is to grapple with what this means and to confront humanities scholars with ideas they have been reluctant to reconsider-from the changed nature of human agency to a new acceptance of universals.

Chakrabarty argues that we must see ourselves from two perspectives at once: the planetary and the global. This distinction is central to Chakrabarty's work-the…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Author Of Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene: On Decoloniality

From my list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m the grandson of a coal miner from a multi-generational, Ohio family. What matters most to me is having some integrity and being morally okay with folks. I never thought of myself as an environmentalist, just as someone trying to figure out what we should be learning to be decent people in this sometimes messed-up world. From there, I was taken into our environmental situation, its planetary injustice, and then onto studying the history of colonialism. This adventure cracked open my midwestern common sense and made me rethink things. Happily, it has only reinforced my commitment to, and faith in, moral relations, giving our word, being accountable, and caring.

Jeremy's book list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Why Jeremy loves this book

Steve’s book is analytically challenging, but he has great examples and a knack for conceptualizing the core problems that are making it so hard for our world to grapple with climate change and things like mass extinction. He shows how there are three interlocking problems that all go back to how the modern state system was created as something competitive and uncoordinated, abstract from the land it’s on, and short-sighted with its politics.

By Stephen M. Gardiner ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Perfect Moral Storm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Climate change is arguably the great problem confronting humanity, but we have done little to head off this looming catastrophe. In The Perfect Moral Storm, philosopher Stephen Gardiner illuminates our dangerous inaction by placing the environmental crisis in an entirely new light, considering it as an ethical failure. Gardiner clarifies the moral situation, identifying the temptations (or "storms") that make us vulnerable to a certain kind
of corruption. First, the world's most affluent nations are tempted to pass on the cost of climate change to the poorer and weaker citizens of the world. Second, the present generation is tempted to…


Book cover of The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Author Of Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene: On Decoloniality

From my list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m the grandson of a coal miner from a multi-generational, Ohio family. What matters most to me is having some integrity and being morally okay with folks. I never thought of myself as an environmentalist, just as someone trying to figure out what we should be learning to be decent people in this sometimes messed-up world. From there, I was taken into our environmental situation, its planetary injustice, and then onto studying the history of colonialism. This adventure cracked open my midwestern common sense and made me rethink things. Happily, it has only reinforced my commitment to, and faith in, moral relations, giving our word, being accountable, and caring.

Jeremy's book list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Why Jeremy loves this book

Daggett’s award-winning book is a good example of a turn in political studies to understand the roots of our environmental problems by grasping how the way we organize society was shaped during early capitalism, colonialism, and the industrial revolution. Her book is also an example of the turn to energy politics which will define this century for some time. Check out the way this book uses history and old steampunk-esque documents to show us the bizarre dreams of the industrial revolution as these were tied to exploiting laborers for the sake of the wealth generation of the few!

By Cara New Daggett ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In The Birth of Energy Cara New Daggett traces the genealogy of contemporary notions of energy back to the nineteenth-century science of thermodynamics to challenge the underlying logic that informs today's uses of energy. These early resource-based concepts of power first emerged during the Industrial Revolution and were tightly bound to Western capitalist domination and the politics of industrialized work. As Daggett shows, thermodynamics was deployed as an imperial science to govern fossil fuel use, labor, and colonial expansion, in part through a hierarchical ordering of humans and nonhumans. By systematically excavating the historical connection between energy and work, Daggett…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of The Politics of the Anthropocene

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Author Of Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene: On Decoloniality

From my list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m the grandson of a coal miner from a multi-generational, Ohio family. What matters most to me is having some integrity and being morally okay with folks. I never thought of myself as an environmentalist, just as someone trying to figure out what we should be learning to be decent people in this sometimes messed-up world. From there, I was taken into our environmental situation, its planetary injustice, and then onto studying the history of colonialism. This adventure cracked open my midwestern common sense and made me rethink things. Happily, it has only reinforced my commitment to, and faith in, moral relations, giving our word, being accountable, and caring.

Jeremy's book list on how we got to climate change and mass extinction

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Why Jeremy loves this book

For folks who are now thinking how the heck can we make political progress in this locked up and self-destructive world? this book is a clear guide. It breaks down the major things that we should be thinking about as we head into a climate destabilized world. Its core idea is especially relevant and hearkens back to what Pasternak described in her work for the Algonquins of Barriere Lake: the “first virtue” of institutions going forward needs to their responsiveness to ecological feedback, even before their justice. This makes sense, too! Without our institutions being “ecologically reflexive,” they can never be just. They won’t be able to sustain fairness over generations! That’s one of the big problems Gardiner found.

By John S. Dryzek , Jonathan Pickering ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Politics of the Anthropocene is a sophisticated yet accessible treatment of how human institutions, practices, and principles need to be re-thought in response to the challenges of the Anthropocene, the emerging epoch of human-induced instability in the Earth system and its life-support capacities. However, the world remains stuck with practices and modes of thinking that were developed in the Holocene - the epoch of around 12,000 years of unusual
stability in the Earth system, toward the end of which modern institutions such as states and capitalist markets arose. These institutions persist despite their potentially catastrophic failure to respond to…


Book cover of The Fourth World: An Indian Reality

Radhika Natarajan Author Of Hear Our Voices: A Powerful Retelling of the British Empire Through 20 True Stories

From my list on why imperial history matters today.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first became interested in the history of the British Empire as an undergraduate. Understanding this history helped me relate my parents’ experiences growing up in a postcolonial nation with the history of the United States, where I grew up. As an academic historian, my research and teaching emphasize connections—between disparate places, between the past and present, and between our personal experiences and those of people born in distant times and places. My first children’s book allowed me to translate my scholarly work for a young audience. I hope this list of books that inspire my approach to history encourages your own investigations of imperialism and its pasts!

Radhika's book list on why imperial history matters today

Radhika Natarajan Why Radhika loves this book

George Manuel was once asked by a white coworker, “Does Indians have feelings?” Refusing dehumanization, Manuel reveals the ongoing colonial relations between First Nations and the Canadian settler state. He charts his political journey from Secwepemcúl̓ecw to the National Indian Brotherhood to the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.

Manuel argues that the victories of the anti-colonial independence movements of the twentieth century did not end colonial domination of Indigenous Peoples—what he calls the Fourth World. The Fourth World is not a destination but the right to travel on your own road in your own way.

With a new insightful introduction, foreword, and afterword, the book's latest edition shows how Manuel’s analysis of colonialism and vision for solidarity continue to be relevant to contemporary struggles for decolonization. 

By George Manuel , Michael Posluns ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A foundational work of radical anticolonialism, back in print


Originally published in 1974, The Fourth World is a critical work of Indigenous political activism that has long been out of print. George Manuel, a leader in the North American Indian movement at that time, with coauthor journalist Michael Posluns, presents a rich historical document that traces the struggle for Indigenous survival as a nation, a culture, and a reality. The authors shed light on alternatives for coexistence that would take place in the Fourth World-an alternative to the new world, the old world, and the Third World. Manuel was the…


Book cover of Svaha

Andrew Johnson Author Of Neon Skies and Misread Stars

From my list on genre-defying SF books that resist labels.

Why am I passionate about this?

Ever since I discovered science fiction and fantasy as a kid, I loved playing in other worlds. It didn’t take me long to start creating my own to play in, so I thought I might as well write them down. I also learned that it’s more fun to throw disparate elements and genres together. Why not throw some time travel and aliens in a Western? Or put some aliens and a little cyberpunk in an alternate history? I always find the most interesting worlds are the ones where things are not so easily categorized.

Andrew's book list on genre-defying SF books that resist labels

Andrew Johnson Why Andrew loves this book

I first discovered Charles de Lint as a fantasy writer, so I was curious to see he had written a cyberpunk novel. While it is a bit of a departure for him, I was very happy to see that he still brings in fantasy touches. I liked this book because of the animist idea of spirits interacting with our world, even when that world is a futuristic dystopia. I also liked there’s a lot of hope, especially in his depiction of the indigenous Claver society.

I loved seeing this world through Gahzee’s eyes as he journeys from his own society (which is sort of proto-solar punk) to the dystopian city, as well as between the human world and the spirit world, as he finds his “Tribe of Three.”

By Charles De Lint ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Out beyond the Enclaves, in the desolation between the cities, an Indian flyer has been downed. A chip encoded with vital secrets is missing. Only Gahzee can venture forth to find it--walking the line between the Dreamtime and the Realtime, bringing his people's ancient magic to bear on the poisoned world of tomorrow.

Bringing hope, perhaps, for a new dawn. . .


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of Indian Horse

Anton Treuer Author Of Where Wolves Don't Die

From my list on indigenous empowerment.

Why am I passionate about this?

I think about the positive identity development of Native youth all the time and not just because I am an educator and author. I love my Ojibwe language and culture, but I want to turn Native fiction on its head. We have so many stories about trauma and tragedy with characters who lament the culture that they were always denied. I want to show how vibrant and alive our culture still is. I want gripping stories where none of the Native characters are drug addicts, rapists, abused, or abusing others. I want to demonstrate the magnificence of our elders, the humor of our people, and the power of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Anton's book list on indigenous empowerment

Anton Treuer Why Anton loves this book

I loved this book because it grapples with some of the really tough topics that our people have to face.

The characters were relatable and dynamic. I think America and Canada need a wake-up call and an effort to reconcile with their historical treatment of Native people, especially with regard to residential boarding schools. People can only handle calls to justice when they relate to those who were treated unjustly.

In spite of the heavy topics, this book does that really well.

By Richard Wagamese ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Indian Horse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named a "Best Novel of the Decade" by Literary Hub

Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother—and then his home itself.

Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to…


Book cover of The Winter People

Suzanne Morgan Williams Author Of Bull Rider

From my list on teens facing the challenges and losses of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve never experienced war. But I grew up with children of World War II refugees. Other friends’ fathers served in the Japanese American military unit while their families were interned in the U.S. The Cold War was in full swing, complete with ducking under our desks to “protect” ourselves from an atomic blast. Later, my peers shipped out to Vietnam. Then came the wars in the Middle East. The mental and physical effects of war are lingering—for soldiers and their families. It doesn’t matter which war or how long it’s been. Their stories are eerily similar and very, very real. I’m passionate about sharing them.

Suzanne's book list on teens facing the challenges and losses of war

Suzanne Morgan Williams Why Suzanne loves this book

I’ve been lucky to work on projects with several tribal elders who’ve shared how indigenous peoples’ lives have been disrupted since the earliest European colonization. It’s not a perspective I was taught in school, but it’s so important that we know what happened and the consequences of those actions today.

This is beautifully written by Joseph Bruchac, a member of the Abenaki tribe. It’s set in 1759, during the French and Indian War, one of the bloodiest encounters between warring European factions in North America. Native people were drawn into the conflict, including Saxso’s family, who lived in a French mission village near the St. Laurence River. I love that Saxso isn’t a victim but a young man driven by love to save his family. 

By Joseph Bruchac ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Winter People 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?

Saxso is fourteen when the British attack his village. It?s 1759, and war is raging in the northeast between the British and the French, with the Abenaki people?Saxso?s people?by their side. Without enough warriors to defend their homes, Saxso?s village is burned to the ground. Many people are killed, but some, including Saxso?s mother and two sisters, are taken hostage. Now it?s up to Saxso, on his own, to track the raiders and bring his family back home . . . before it?s too late.


Book cover of Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow

Jill Heinerth Author Of The Aquanaut

From my list on young explorers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a world-class underwater explorer, writer, photographer, speaker, and filmmaker. A pioneer of technical rebreather diving, I have led expeditions into icebergs in Antarctica, volcanic lava tubes, and submerged caves worldwide. As a child, these fanciful places were just a part of my wildest dreams. The Aquanaut tells the story of how I turned my imaginative journeys into reality and became a celebrated underwater explorer.

Jill's book list on young explorers

Jill Heinerth Why Jill loves this book

Simple lyrical illustrations bring this story about commitments to life. A wise grandfather guides his granddaughter on a journey of discovery teaching her about indigenous perspectives. This important book is moving and essential for readers of all ages. It offers authentic historic perspectives and helps to describe the responsibility of truth and reconciliation.

By Aimée Craft , Luke Swinson (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Treaty Words as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty.

On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis's home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen-to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties-the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.

Accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Luke Swinson…


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Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life

Paul Hanley Author Of Eleven

From my list on transforming inscapes and landscapes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up ignorant of reality: of my/our history, of the place I grew up in, of the social-ecological reality of the planet. I swallowed “the red pill” in my youth and awakened to a combination of wonder and horror, wonder at the beauty of the ecosphere and of humanity and horror at what is being done to it, to us, by us. In response, I started a garden, got involved in food system change, and became a journalist and author writing on social-ecological issues. My commitment to change intensified when I became a father and again when I became a grandfather.

Paul's book list on transforming inscapes and landscapes

Paul Hanley Why Paul loves this book

I’m a prairie boy, son of the pioneers and all that. But I, like other prairie settlers’ descendants, grew up blissfully ignorant of our history. Daschuk’s book shatters that ignorance. It should be required reading for every child and adult in Canada, and it wouldn’t hurt Americans to read it too, as the story of colonial disaster for the Indigenous people throughout the continent is all of a kind. It is so very sad.

But ”the truth shall set you free.” We need this book as a foundation for reconciliation for past and present wrongs, to inform a new society on the Great Plains that includes everyone, at long last.

By James Daschuk ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Clearing the Plains as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. " Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special…


Book cover of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age
Book cover of A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change
Book cover of The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Canada, American Indians, and law?

Canada 476 books
American Indians 247 books
Law 189 books