James Talarico

Won't be able to put it down.

My second book is my religious book, and it also has a Texas connection.

It is Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman.

We mentioned Dr. King on this show.

Howard Thurman was his spiritual mentor, the theologian who started to chart that course long before Dr. King.

And he wrote this book from a series of lectures in Austin, Texas, at Houston Tillerson University, historically black college in Austin.

And it's a beautiful book.

It's not very long, but it really gets to the heart of who Jesus is, what he means in a political context, and what Christian nonviolence looks like in the world.

And I think it's so instructive, even if we're not necessarily fighting Jim Crow, we're not in his context, but I think all of us can learn something from the power and the effectiveness of that nonviolence rooted in a deep morality.

And then the last book is the political book, and it's The Upswing by Robert Putnam and his co-author, I think her name is Shailen Romney Garrett.

And the book is all about how

Throughout the 20th century, we as a country, as a culture, moved from individualism in the Gilded Age toward communitarianism, to working together to do big things as a community.

And then how we fell back

into individualism, which I think today is still the reigning culture in this country, certainly a civic culture.

And it tracks it.

It starts to explore answers for how we made that movement and puts together some ideas for how to get back to community.

And I think it says a lot about the moment we're in.

So I'd highly recommend all three of those books.

James Tallarico, thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.