Reading list

There’s a lot of thought behind Joy in Enough, crossing a variety of disciplines. We won’t bore you with a comprehensive list of all the books and reports that have inspired and informed the project, but here are some recommended titles to get started.

On the financial crisis:

  • The Shifts and the Shocks – what we’ve learned and still have to learn by Martin Wolf.
  • Fools Gold- How unrestrained greed corrupted a dream, shattered global markets and unleashed a catastrophe, by Gillian Tett.
  • The Gods that failed-how the financial elites gambled away our futures, by Larry Elliot
  • Whoops – why everyone owes everyone and no-one can pay, by John Lanchester

Money and debt:

  • Debt-the first five thousand years by David Graeber.
  • Money-the un-authorised biography, by Felix Martin
  • This Time is Different – Eight centuries of financial folly, by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

Tax:

  • The Joy of Tax: how a fair tax system can create a better society by Richard Murphy
  • The Great Tax Robbery-How Britain became a haven for fat cats and big business by Richard Brooks
  • Treasure Islands-tax havens and the men who stole the world By Nicholas Shaxon.

Inequality

  • Capital in the Twenty First Century by Thomas Piketty.
  • Inequality – What can be done by Anthony Atkinson
  • Inequality and the 1% by Danny Dorling
  • The Spirit Level, by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson

Sustainability and climate:

  • Don’t even think about it, by George Marshall
  • This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein
  • Hell and High Water: climate change, hope and the human condition, by Alastair McIntosh

Economics:

  • 23 things they don’t tell you about capitalism by Ha Joon Chang
  • Doughnut economics, by Kate Raworth
  • Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill
  • Prosperity without Growth by Tim Jackson
  • The New Economics, by David Boyle and Andrew Simms

Lifestyle and consumerism:

  • Happiness: lessons from a new science by P Richard G Layard
  • How much is enough? Money and the Good Life by Robert and Edward Skidelsky
  • Consumer Detox, by Mark Powley
  • Free: spending your time and money on what matters most, by Mark and Lisa Scandrette