What We Lost When We Lost Home Ec

Have you ever wondered how the economy works - how millions of individuals can buy and sell goods and services without a master coordinator? Have you wondered why we use money, rather than bartering our services with each other? Why do some nations prosper, while others stay poor despite vast natural resources?

Basic Economics by Stanford economist Thomas Sowell is an incredibly useful, broad introduction to economics. Containing no math, it instead communicates intuitive principles that will help you understand how market transactions work and the effect of policies on the economy. Understand how prices for goods are set, why rent control has bad side effects, and the purpose of brand names.

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.

Have you ever wondered why our homes are built the way they are? In At Home, Bill Bryson explores how the average home—the materials from which they’re built, their layouts, and the tools and technologies within them—reveals how people lived their daily lives throughout history. By tracing how homes have evolved to meet people’s changing needs, we can better understand not just what life was once like, but also why modern homes look and function the way they do.

In this guide, we’ll look at why humans started building homes, what materials they built them from, and when homes started to become a place of comfort. Then, we’ll examine how families stored and prepared food, dealt with health and safety challenges, and other aspects of home life. We’ll supplement Bryson’s discussions by exploring how homes evolved in cultures around the world, and discuss how new technology continues to transform our homes.

Have you ever wondered how the economy works - how millions of individuals can buy and sell goods and services without a master coordinator? Have you wondered why we use money, rather than bartering our services with each other? Why do some nations prosper, while others stay poor despite vast natural resources?

Basic Economics by Stanford economist Thomas Sowell is an incredibly useful, broad introduction to economics. Containing no math, it instead communicates intuitive principles that will help you understand how market transactions work and the effect of policies on the economy. Understand how prices for goods are set, why rent control has bad side effects, and the purpose of brand names.

What if America’s biggest problems—unaffordable housing, climate change, and stagnant wages—stem not from too little government intervention but from our inability to build? In Abundance, journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson argue that excessive bureaucracy and regulatory barriers are creating manufactured scarcity in housing, energy, and innovation. Their solution: a new “abundance agenda” that removes obstacles to building while maintaining important protections.

This guide unpacks Klein and Thompson’s vision for a liberalism that produces rather than just redistributes, showing how streamlining approvals and empowering decision-makers could unlock affordable housing, clean energy, and scientific breakthroughs that benefit everyone. You’ll learn why they believe abundance is not just economically sound but politically essential in countering populism and zero-sum thinking. We’ll also examine whether the abundance agenda adequately addresses corporate power’s role in creating scarcity, evaluate the political feasibility of Klein and Thompson’s proposals, and explore how some current grassroots movements demonstrate their coalition-building strategies in practice.

Widely acclaimed upon its publication in 2017, The Color of Law demonstrates that racial residential segregation—the fact that some neighborhoods are almost exclusively African American while others are almost exclusively white—is the result of explicit government policy rather than personal choice and random chance. From the conclusion of the Civil War through to the present day, federal, state, and local governments have enacted laws to confine African Americans to particular areas and prevent them from moving into others. These policies have had a profound and lasting impact on African Americans, affecting their educational and job opportunities, economic well-being, and physical health.

While some experts consider homework a vital part of school, others think kids don’t need it at all. Why do they disagree? And what does the data say about how much homework US children should do—and how much they’re really doing?

With a new school year beginning, the homework is starting to pile up. But do the assignments kids are bringing home really help them to solidify the knowledge they gain in class—or is all that extra work of little value when it comes to improving their academic performance?

The 21st century will bring changes and challenges unlike any humans have encountered before. Globalism and technological innovations are changing the structures of societies worldwide—and the changes are happening quickly. If people don’t face these challenges and help shape the future, the world could have a class of obsolete workers whose jobs have been automated and people could lose their ability to make their own decisions. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari highlights the biggest challenges in the modern world, and he offers advice on making sense of and navigating such transitional times.

In this summary, you'll learn how algorithms like Netflix movie recommendations are teaching you to distrust your own judgment, why religion can’t solve 21st-century challenges, and how automation will threaten the jobs of humans in every industry.

Have you ever wondered how the economy works - how millions of individuals can buy and sell goods and services without a master coordinator? Have you wondered why we use money, rather than bartering our services with each other? Why do some nations prosper, while others stay poor despite vast natural resources?

Basic Economics by Stanford economist Thomas Sowell is an incredibly useful, broad introduction to economics. Containing no math, it instead communicates intuitive principles that will help you understand how market transactions work and the effect of policies on the economy. Understand how prices for goods are set, why rent control has bad side effects, and the purpose of brand names.