Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and tax policy expert Professor Dorothy A. Brown for a thought-provoking discussion of her books, The Whiteness of Wealth and Getting to Reparations. Drawing on decades of research, Brown examines how seemingly race-neutral tax policies have contributed to widening racial wealth disparities in the United States and explores what meaningful economic repair could look like in practice.
Together, they discuss how the U.S. tax system has historically advantaged white households while limiting wealth-building opportunities for Black Americans. The conversation explores the hidden ways tax policy shapes homeownership, education, employment, and intergenerational wealth, as well as the broader historical forces that continue to influence economic inequality today. Brown also outlines her vision for reparations, arguing that confronting the legacy of slavery and systemic discrimination is essential to building a more equitable society.
This episode offers listeners a deeper understanding of the intersection of race, public policy, and economic justice. It challenges conventional assumptions about fairness in the tax code and invites a broader conversation about how societies can address historical harms while creating more inclusive pathways to opportunity and prosperity. 
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Professor Rana Mitter, for a compelling discussion of his book Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945. Drawing on extensive archival research and long-overlooked sources, Mitter brings to light China’s central, and often underappreciated, role in the global fight against Imperial Japan during World War II.
Together, they explore how China’s prolonged resistance tied down vast numbers of Japanese troops, shaping the broader trajectory of the war in Asia and beyond. They examine the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the fragile alliances between Nationalists and Communists, and the immense human cost borne by Chinese civilians. The conversation also addresses how China’s wartime experience influenced its postwar political order and its place in the emerging international system.
This episode offers listeners a powerful reframing of World War II, challenging Eurocentric narratives and highlighting the global dimensions of the conflict. It is a story of resilience, sacrifice, and strategic complexity, one that continues to shape how we understand China’s role in the world today and the enduring legacy of a “forgotten ally.”
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:
Books by Rana Mitter
China’s Role in World War II
Second Sino-Japanese War
Invasion of Manchuria 
Chiang Kai-shek
Mao Zedong
Opium Wars in China
Ezra F. Vogel 
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
Chongqhing Bombing
Wang Jingwei
Joseph Stilwell
P5 UN Security Council
Cairo Conference
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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs for a compelling conversation on Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK by James W. Douglass. In this sweeping work, Douglass reexamines the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, arguing that these four leaders were killed not by isolated actors, but within a deeper context of national security power and Cold War politics.
Drawing on extensive documentary evidence, witness testimony, and declassified records, Douglass challenges the official lone-gunman narratives and situates each assassination within a broader struggle between movements for peace and justice and entrenched systems of violence. At the heart of the book is the concept of the “Unspeakable,” a term Douglass uses to describe the hidden structures of power capable of silencing transformative leadership.
Together, they explore how each of these figures, in different ways, broke with prevailing orthodoxies, opposing nuclear brinkmanship, militarism, racism, and war, and how their evolving commitments to peace may have placed them in direct conflict with powerful institutions. 
This episode invites listeners into a profound reconsideration of one of the most turbulent eras in American history. It is a story of conscience and consequence and of how the unresolved traumas of the 1960s continue to echo in political life today.
Footnotes:
Books by James W. Douglass
JFK Assassination
Malcolm X Assassination
MLK Assassination
RFK Assassination
US Central Intelligence Agency
The Warren Commission Report
James Jesus Angelton
Eisenhower Farewell Address 
Khrushchev and JFK Communications
Peace on Earth Encyclical Pope John XXIII 
Lee Harvey Oswald
David Talbot - The Devils Chessboard
Dag Hammarskjöld
Allen Dulles
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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Michael J. Carley, retired Professeur at the Université de Montréal, for a discussion of his groundbreaking trilogy on the international crises of the 1930s: Stalin’s Gamble, Stalin’s Failed Alliance, and Stalin’s Great Game. Drawing on decades of archival research, Carley challenges the familiar Cold War narrative that paints Stalin and Hitler as “dual dictators” and instead uncovers a forgotten history of the Soviet Union’s sustained efforts to build a collective security alliance against Nazi Germany.
Sachs and Carley explore how Britain, France, and the United States repeatedly rejected these overtures, shaped by anti-communism, imperial interests, and deep-seated prejudices that cast the USSR - not Hitler - as the greater threat. This strategic blindness, Carley argues, helped pave the way to World War II and has since been obscured by Western historiography and popular culture.
This episode offers listeners a powerful narrative of missed opportunities, ideological blinders, and the consequences of mistrust among great powers. It is a story from the 1930s with striking resonance today, revealing how historical misunderstanding can shape international politics, and how the failures of statecraft then echo in our world now.
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:
Books by Michael J. Carley
Bolshevik Revolution 
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Maxim Litvinov
History of the Soviet Union
Czarist Russian Empire
Joseph Stalin
Mein Kampf
Fascism
Benito Mussolini

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Yakov M. Rabkin, historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Montreal, for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion on the history of Zionism, Jewish thought, and the modern state of Israel. Delving into Rabkin’s path-breaking work, including his newest book, Israel in Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism, Rabkin and Sachs discuss the early opposition to modern Zionism from many parts of the world Jewry, and the deep theological, political, and cultural divides that Zionism has created in Jewish communities around the world.  
Together, Rabkin and Sachs trace the surprising origins of Zionism in 17th century British Protestantism, and its transformation into a modern political movement in 19th century Europe, led by both British evangelical Protestants and Central and Eastern European secular Jews. They delve into Herzl’s Zionist movement, which faced many Jewish opponents, including rabbinical authorities, assimilated Jews in Western Europe, and socialists who viewed it as a distraction from class struggle. Rabkin and Sachs discuss the pivotal role of Britain’s Balfour Declaration, the Russian revolutionary roots of Israel’s political culture, and the enduring legacies of figures such as Theodor Herzl and Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
The conversation then turns to the present crisis in Israel and Palestine. They discuss the ideologies of Israel’s ruling parties, the rise of Israel’s religious-nationalist movements since 1967, and the role of these ideologies and movements in the ongoing conflict. Rabkin’s scholarship offers listeners a deeply informed narrative of history, religion, and power - shedding a powerful light on the disastrous, ongoing Israel - Palestine conflict.  
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:
Yakov Rabkin Books 
Zionism
Satmar Hasidim
Christian Zionism
Isaac Newton’s religious views
Joseph Priestley
First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE)
Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE)
Theodor Herzl
William Hechler
Talmud
Three Oaths (Judaism)
Pale of Settlement
General Jewish Labour Bund
Balfour Declaration
Edwin Montagu
Jewish Colonial Trust
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
Iron Wall
Six-Day War (1967)

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