New Book Releases | January 20
A clarion call for an attention liberation movement, a novel about Henry Ford, an economic model that values nature and its preservation, and a manifesto for building more project-driven organizations all make our list of the best new releases of the week.
We don't feature fiction in our round up of new releases that often, but a new book from John Sayles and Melville House Publishing gives us that opportunity this week, alongside a book from the Friends of Attention calling for an Attention Liberation Movement, an economic model that puts a value on nature and sees its preservation as an economic imperative, and "a new manifesto for CEOs, transformation drivers, and project leaders" to create project-driven organizations.
You'll find all four of these fine books online and on local bookshop shelves today.
Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement by The Friends of Attention, published by Crown Publishing Group
A rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention, with the tools we need to reclaim our humanity, by a group of writers, artists, and activists in the vanguard of the movement.
We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention—that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world—is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold—and shaking the foundations of our democracy.
To push back against this “human fracking,” we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries—theaters and museums, houses of worship, dance parties—where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Attention Activism takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing.
Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, Attensity! calls on us to come together to defeat the greedy dehumanizing forces of brute instrumentalization—and re-enchant the world.
Crucible by John Sayles, published by Melville House
From the Oscar-nominated filmmaker comes a complex and sweeping historical novel about Henry Ford—the Elon Musk of his day—and his attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city of Detroit.
Already the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into the ranks of the burgeoning union movement—Henry Ford's worst nightmare. To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in thrall, the man who was formerly 'America's favorite tycoon' recruits black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as 'strike insurance', and gives Harry Bennett, pugnacious as he is diminutive, free reign over the legion of barroom brawlers and ex-cons who make up the company’s 'Security Department'.
The Model T mogul has also bought a sizable chunk of Brazil's Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow his own rubber for tires, but stubbornly refusing to include a botanist in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed.
The novel's cast—Ford workers black and white and their families, young radicals, cynical newsmen, gangsters, Brazilian rubber tappers, cameos from boxer Joe Louis and muralist Diego Rivera—create the tapestry of differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for, the events portrayed fundamental to the country we live in today. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the gestapo tactics of Ford’s private army.
On Natural Capital: The Value of the World Around Us by Partha Dasgupta, published by Mariner Books
From the man that The New York Times calls “the most important person you’ve never heard of,” renowned Cambridge University economist Sir Partha Dasgupta, comes a paradigm shifting treatise, asking a simple yet profound question—what if we put a value on nature, just as we put a value on everything else?
For just about everything of value in life, there is an economic model. If it matters to us, we have found a way to put a dollar amount on it—to quantify its importance in our lives and society. These models and metrics tell us that our economies are healthy because they are growing. And yet for as long as they have existed, our economic models have served us an incomplete picture; they fail to account for the fact that our growth is driven by a resource that we take for free and treat as infinite: nature. Indeed, for centuries we have been using nature as if it were limitless, but more than ever, we are recognizing that our demands on the natural world are unsustainable.
In On Natural Capital, award-winning Cambridge University economist Sir Partha Dasgupta lays out a seminal new approach to economics that asks, what if we were to put a value on nature just as we value everything else? Rooted in mankind’s struggle against climate change, Dasgupta’s approach examines the existential need to rethink our relationship to nature and see its preservation as an economic imperative. Challenging much of economic thought that has come before, Dasgupta presents an urgent call to transform the focus and structures of global economics with a profound new model—one so radical that only an economist of his stature could make the world take it seriously. On Natural Capital is a bold and groundbreaking book that could, truly, change everything.
Powered by Projects: Leading Your Organization in the Transformation Age by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, published by Harvard Business Review Press
Rewire your organization—and your leadership—for a world driven by projects.
It's time to stop treating projects as side work. In the age of constant transformation, projects are the primary way organizations create value and accelerate innovation. In this new paradigm—the project economy—traditional agile approaches are no longer enough. The next evolution is the project-driven organization, where projects sit at the center of how companies are structured, led, and rewarded.
Powered by Projects: Leading Your Organization in the Transformation Age explores this bold new model. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, the worldwide expert on project-based work, reveals the leadership styles and organizational structures necessary to drive success today. You'll learn to:
- Develop your organization's transformation muscles to remain resilient, adaptive, and relevant
- Sponsor projects actively and prioritize them ruthlessly to ensure resources are directed to high-value initiatives
- Decentralize decision-making to empower people to break through the bottlenecks that slow down transformation
- Engage your project teams and workforce more deeply to accelerate value creation
- Build AI into projects to enable quicker decisions and proactive planning and to lower risk
Filled with practical strategies and detailed case studies, this book is a new manifesto for CEOs, transformation drivers, and project leaders. Embrace the project-driven organization, become a project-driven leader, and turn your company into a highly engaged growth engine, powered by projects.
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The Porchlight staff members choosing new books each week are Porchlight's Managing Director, Sally Haldorson, and the marketing team of Gabriella Cisneros and Dylan Schleicher.
Unless otherwise noted, all book descriptions are from the publisher.
