The Library · Society

Society

The works that shaped how we understand collective life. Sociology, political economy, cultural criticism — from Adam Smith to Simone de Beauvoir. These texts engage with the structures that organize human societies and the forces that change them.

Society · 6 entries

Avant-Garde and Kitsch

Clement Greenberg · 1939

The essay that drew the line between genuine culture and its imitation — and argued the line is political.

~6,500 wordsOpen session →

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith · 1776

The invisible hand, the division of labor, and the system of natural liberty. Misquoted by everyone, read by few.

5 booksOpen session →

Simone de Beauvoir · 1949

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. The foundational text of modern feminism.

2 volumesOpen session →

The Power Expedition

Expedition · Multi-source

Foucault, Gramsci, Arendt, Weber — how power operates, reproduces, and occasionally dissolves.

∞ turnsOpen session →

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Max Weber · 1905

How Calvinist anxiety about predestination produced the work ethic that built capitalism. An irony of world-historical proportions.

5 chaptersOpen session →

Manufacturing Consent

Herman & Chomsky · 1988

The propaganda model of mass media. Five filters that determine what counts as news.

11 chaptersOpen session →