The 99% -- Most Readable Non-Fiction

Description
Non-fiction books about the lives of ordinary people that held your interest. Thumb down the ones you didn't like/didn't finish. Let's not mark books that we think are ideologically important, but we haven't enjoyed reading. Add titles as needed. Delete fiction I missed.
Based on tag
workers
1
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
11,783 members
231 reviews
½ 3.7
4 Members
schmootc, lahochstetler, aulsmith, cej1027
3
Triangle: The Fire that Changed America
by David Von Drehle
1,378 members
34 reviews
3.9
2 Members
lilithcat, eromsted
4
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
3,738 members
195 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
lahochstetler
5
Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
by Barbara Ehrenreich
1,829 members
56 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
aulsmith
6
The Feminine Mystique
by Betty Friedan
5,161 members
55 reviews
3.8
Member
aulsmith
7
Coming of Age in Mississippi
by Anne Moody
1,840 members
32 reviews
4
Member
lahochstetler
8
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
by Leslie T. Chang
1,071 members
43 reviews
3.9
Member
cej1027
9
Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939
by Lizabeth Cohen
370 members
1 review
4
Member
eromsted
10
A People's History of the United States
by Howard Zinn
17,291 members
176 reviews
4.2
Member
eromsted
11
Autobiography of Mother Jones
by Mary Jones
253 members
3 reviews
3.9
Member
lilithcat
13
Labor's Untold Story
by Richard O. Boyer
319 members
2 reviews
3.8
Member
eromsted
14
Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America
by Rose Castillo Guilbault
35 members
3.1
Member
lahochstetler
15
Bill Haywood's Book: The Autobiography of William D. Haywood
by William D. Haywood
89 members
4 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
eromsted
16
Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877
by David O. Stowell
35 members
1 review
½ 2.5
Member
eromsted
17
Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality
by Bruce Nelson
47 members
4
Member
eromsted
18
We Can't Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard
by John Hoerr
27 members
1 review
½ 4.7
Member
eromsted
19
Huelga: the first hundred days of the great Delano grape strike
by Eugene Nelson
19 members
½ 3.7
Member
eromsted
21
The Newark Teacher Strikes: Hopes on the Line
by Steve Golin
7 members
4
Member
eromsted
22
The People Together: One Hundred Years of Minnesota, 1858-1958
by Meridel Le Sueur
3 members
3
Member
eromsted
23
The Crowd In History
by George Rudé
151 members
1 review
½ 3.7
Member
eromsted
24
Teamster Rebellion
by Farrell Dobbs
105 members
½ 4.6
Member
eromsted
26
City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860
by Christine Stansell
317 members
2 reviews
3.9
Member
eromsted
27
Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor
by Tom Juravich
44 members
4.2
Member
eromsted
28
Allies Across the Border
by Dale Hathaway
35 members
4
Member
eromsted
29
The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure
by Juliet B. Schor
446 members
3 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
eromsted
30
Rise gonna rise: A portrait of southern textile workers
by Mimi Conway
39 members
½ 3.7
Member
eromsted
31
We Were There: Working Women
by Barbara M Wertheimer
95 members
3
Member
eromsted
32
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
15,050 members
368 reviews
4.2
Member
lahochstetler,schmootc
33
The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair
13,356 members
147 reviews
3.8
34
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
13,164 members
180 reviews
3.9
35
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
by Anne Lamott
11,568 members
262 reviews
4.1
37
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter
by Steve Dublanica
1,386 members
93 reviews
½ 3.4
38
Esperanza Rising
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
13,357 members
853 reviews
4.2
39
Someone Builds the Dream
by Lisa Wheeler
195 members
8 reviews
4.1
40
Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
by Kathleen Krull
1,514 members
73 reviews
4.2
41
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
44,786 members
727 reviews
3.9
42
Germinal
by Émile Zola
6,156 members
90 reviews
4.2
43
Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?
by Richard Scarry
2,345 members
20 reviews
4.2
44
Two Caravans
by Marina Lewycka
1,479 members
64 reviews
½ 3.5
45
The Restraint of Beasts
by Magnus Mills
1,070 members
33 reviews
3.8
46
God's Bits of Wood
by Ousmane Sembene
767 members
11 reviews
4
47
Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line
by Ben Hamper
564 members
13 reviews
3.8
49
Cowboys (Books for Young Explorers)
by Philip B. Silcott
231 members
1 review
4
51
Workers' Compensation Act Chapter 539
by Government of Ontario
7 members
53
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell
8,651 members
264 reviews
4.1
54
In Dubious Battle
by John Steinbeck
2,701 members
49 reviews
3.8
55
Curious George Takes a Job
by H. A. Rey
2,254 members
14 reviews
4
56
Building a House
by Byron Barton
1,298 members
19 reviews
3.9
57
Curious George at the Fire Station
by Margret Rey
1,125 members
1 review
½ 3.5
58
Trashy Town
by Andrea Zimmerman
678 members
16 reviews
3.8
59
Richard Scarry's Busy Workers
by Richard Scarry
373 members
3.9
60
Migrant
by Maxine Trottier
296 members
38 reviews
3.9
61
Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age
by Sebastião Salgado
276 members
1 review
½ 4.6
62
I Want to Be a Doctor
by Dan Liebman
260 members
1 review
3
63
ABC of Jobs
by Roger Priddy
252 members
2 reviews
4.2
64
Before We Eat: From Farm to Table
by Pat Brisson
247 members
7 reviews
½ 4.3
66
Community Helpers from A to Z
by Bobbie Kalman
193 members
2 reviews
4
67
The Railway Navvies
by Terry Coleman
139 members
1 review
½ 3.7
68
An Auto Mechanic (How We Work)
by Douglas Florian
96 members
2 reviews
½ 2.5
69
Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism
by Peter Winn
91 members
1 review
½ 4.4
70
Abolish Restaurants: A Worker's Critique of the Food Service Industry (PM Pamphlet)
by Prole
40 members
2 reviews
½ 3.5
71
Hard Traveling: A Portrait of Work Life in the New Northwest
by Carlos A. Schwantes
24 members
5
72
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
34,411 members
1,539 reviews
½ 4.3
73
The Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx
18,204 members
163 reviews
½ 3.5
74
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
12,020 members
146 reviews
½ 3.5
75
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
by Kate Moore
4,293 members
233 reviews
4.1
76
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site
by Sherri Duskey Rinker
4,065 members
78 reviews
4.1
77
Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
by Stephen E. Ambrose
3,593 members
47 reviews
½ 3.7
78
Rosie Revere, Engineer
by Andrea Beaty
3,281 members
93 reviews
½ 4.5
79
Rosa
by Nikki Giovanni
2,560 members
171 reviews
4.2
80
Farmer Duck
by Martin Waddell
2,068 members
39 reviews
3.9
81
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
by David Graeber
2,031 members
51 reviews
4
82
I Stink!
by Kate McMullan
1,959 members
67 reviews
4.1
83
Women of the Silk
by Gail Tsukiyama
1,564 members
34 reviews
3.8
84
Tomas and the Library Lady
by Pat Mora
1,307 members
38 reviews
½ 4.3
85
Fire! Fire!
by Gail Gibbons
1,127 members
13 reviews
4
86
Hats, Hats, Hats
by Ann Morris
1,056 members
30 reviews
½ 3.6
87
The Cold Millions
by Jess Walter
964 members
51 reviews
4
88
Breaking Through
by Francisco Jimenez
827 members
11 reviews
4
89
The Tortilla Factory
by Gary Paulsen
821 members
10 reviews
3.9
90
Firefighters A to Z
by Chris L. Demarest
816 members
4 reviews
½ 3.5
91
Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do
by Kathryn Heling
738 members
11 reviews
4
92
Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909
by Michelle Markel
713 members
80 reviews
4.1
93
Days of War, Nights of Love : Crimethink For Beginners
by Crimethink Workers Collective
632 members
6 reviews
3.9
94
Career Day
by Anne Rockwell
608 members
21 reviews
½ 3.7
95
A Young People's History of the United States (For Young People Series)
by Howard Zinn
547 members
6 reviews
4.1
96
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy
by Barbara Ehrenreich
525 members
2 reviews
3.8
97
Do Not Open This Book!
by Michaela Muntean
517 members
32 reviews
4.1
98
Out of This Furnace
by Thomas Bell
487 members
10 reviews
½ 3.6
99
Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor
by Emily Arnold McCully
339 members
30 reviews
4.2
100
The Hidden Injuries of Class
by Jonathan Cobb
303 members
1 review
3.8