Resistance Reading

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
From journalism’s bravest, Masha Gessen—whose regular appearances on Samantha Bee, Rachel Maddow, the pages of the New York Times, and more have been a beacon of clarity in our troubled times — comes a portrait of a ruthless man’s ascent to near-absolute power. The Man Without a Face i…

“Brute.” “Cockroach.” “Lice.” “Vermin.” “Dog.” “Beast.” These and other monikers are constantly in use to refer to other humans—for political, religious, ethnic, or sexist reasons. Human beings have a tendency to regard members of their own kind as less than human. This tendency has made atrocities like the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and the slave trade possible, and yet we still find it in phenomena such as xenophobia, homophobia, military propaganda, and racism. Less Than Human draws on a rich mix of history, psychology, biology, anthropology, and philosophy to document the pervasiveness of dehumanization, describe its forms, and explain why we so often resort to it.