Society & Class

Examinations of class, power, and the structures we live within.

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Covering Islam

How does the media shape what the world believes about Islam? In Covering Islam, Edward W. Said investigates how Western news organisations, academics, and political commentators represent Islam and Muslim societies. He argues that media coverage often reduces diverse communities to simplified images associated with extremism, conflict, and political threat, obscuring the complexity of their histories and everyday lives. Said explores the relationship between knowledge, media institutions, and political power, asking readers to question who gets to define another culture and whose perspectives are excluded. The book remains an important study of representation, stereotyping, and the influence of public narratives on international understanding.

Palestine United States 1981

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by Scout Finch, a young girl growing up in a deeply segregated society. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman. As Scout and her brother Jem observe the trial and its consequences, they encounter the realities of racial prejudice, social inequality, and moral courage. Their experiences challenge their childhood assumptions about justice and human goodness. Through Scout’s developing understanding of the world, Harper Lee examines the conflict between personal conscience and social convention, showing how prejudice can distort even the most fundamental principles of fairness.

United States 1960

Best of Everything

Best of Everything

The Best of Everything follows five young women working in a New York publishing company during the late 1950s as they navigate professional ambition, romance, and the expectations placed on women in postwar America. Caroline Bender dreams of building a meaningful career, while her colleagues struggle with relationships, financial insecurity, and the pressure to find suitable husbands. Their experiences reveal a world in which women are encouraged to pursue independence but are still judged by their marital status and appearance. As the characters encounter workplace discrimination, emotional disappointments, and difficult personal choices, they begin to question what success and happiness really mean. Jaffe offers an unvarnished portrait of women’s lives in a rapidly changing society, exploring the conflict between individual aspirations and conventional expectations. The novel examines gender inequality, ambition, and the price women are often expected to pay for trying to have both a career and a fulfilling personal life.

United States 1958

The Groves of Academe

The Groves of Academe

At the progressive Jocelyn College, literature instructor Henry Mulcahy receives devastating news: his contract will not be renewed. Convinced that the college president is conspiring against him, Mulcahy launches a desperate campaign to save his career. As Cold War paranoia and anti-Communist suspicion sweep through America, he discovers that political loyalties and accusations can be powerful weapons in the battle for academic survival. But the more he fights for justice, the more his own dishonesty and ambition come to light. Sharp, witty, and mercilessly observant, The Groves of Academe exposes the rivalries, ideological hypocrisy, and petty power struggles lurking behind the respectable façade of university life.

United States 1952

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family, tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Hoping to find work and a better future, they travel west to California, joining thousands of other migrants searching for survival. Instead of prosperity, they encounter exploitation, overcrowded camps, low wages, and hostility from landowners who fear the growing number of desperate workers. As the family’s circumstances deteriorate, Tom Joad and his mother struggle to preserve their dignity and solidarity in the face of injustice. Steinbeck portrays the human cost of economic collapse, revealing how powerful institutions can profit from the vulnerability of ordinary people. The novel explores poverty, migration, collective resistance, and the importance of community, arguing that human survival depends not only on individual determination but also on mutual responsibility and social justice.

United States 1939

About this theme

Books: 17
Countries: 54

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Dominican Republic