Books like The Second Sex

01

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

A kindred philosophy read.

02

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson · Memoir

Isabel Wilkerson's second book proposes a reframing of American racial hierarchy: rather than thinking of racism primarily as prejudice, she argues that the United States has operated as a caste society, with Black Americans at the bottom of a rigidly maintained hierarchy similar in its structure — though different in its specific mechanisms — to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany.

A kindred philosophy read.

03

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir

Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.

A kindred philosophy read.

04

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X and Alex Haley · Memoir

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was assembled from a series of conversations between Malcolm X and the journalist Alex Haley, conducted over two years before Malcolm's assassination in February 1965.

A kindred philosophy read.

05

Being and Nothingness

Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy

Being and Nothingness is Sartre's major philosophical treatise and the founding text of French existentialism.

Both dig into freedom.

06

Existentialism Is a Humanism

Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy

Existentialism Is a Humanism began as a 1945 lecture Sartre gave to a packed Paris hall in response to critics who called existentialism pessimistic, quietist, and dangerous.

Both dig into freedom.

07

The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga · Philosophy

The Courage to Be Disliked presents Alfred Adler's philosophy of individual psychology through a Socratic dialogue between a young man and a philosopher.

Both dig into freedom.

08

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus · Philosophy

The Myth of Sisyphus begins with what Camus calls the only truly serious philosophical question: why not commit suicide?

Both dig into freedom.

09

The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Philosophy

The Social Contract opens with one of philosophy's most famous sentences: "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Rousseau's 1762 treatise sets out to explain how political authority can be legitimate rather than merely imposed by force.

Both dig into freedom.

10

When Nietzsche Wept

Irvin D. Yalom · Philosophy

When Nietzsche Wept is a philosophical novel by psychiatrist Irvin Yalom set in Vienna in 1882.

Both dig into existentialism.

11

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs · Memoir

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent, is Harriet Jacobs's account of her life as an enslaved woman in North Carolina, her resistance to her enslaver's sexual harassment, her years in hiding, and her eventual escape to the North.

Both dig into freedom.

12

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer · Biography

Into the Wild is Jon Krakauer's account of Christopher McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who graduated from Emory University in 1990, gave his savings to charity, abandoned his car and possessions, and spent two years drifting through the American West before hitchhiking into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992.

Both dig into freedom.