Adult Nonfiction

Currie, Gregory, Fernandez, Bina and Marina de Regt, ed. Migrant Domestic Workers in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

This collection of essays examines the social and political dimensions of migrant labor in the Middle East. For over 50 years, economic migrants from Africa and Asia have found employment in the Middle East, particularly as domestic workers. These essays analyze how the conditions of migrant labor affect family life in various countries, including Argentina, Canada, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, the Philippines, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, and Ukraine.

Choudry, Aziz and Mondli Hlatshwayo, ed. Just Work?: Migrant Workers’ Stuggles Today. PlutoPress, 2016.

From trade unions in South Africa to resistance in oppressive Gulf states, migrating forest workers in the Czech Republic, and illegal workers’ organizations in Hong Kong, Just Work brings together a wealth of lived experiences and frontline struggles for the first time. Highlighting developments in the wake of austerity and attacks on traditional forms of labor organizing, the contributors show how workers are finding new and innovative ways of resisting. The result is both a rich analysis of where the movement stands today and a reminder of the potentially explosive power of migrant workers in the years to come.

Cholewinski, Ryszard, Paulde Guchteneire and Antoine Pecoud, ed. Migration and Human Rights: The United Nations Convention on Migrant Workers’ Rights. Paris: UNESCO, 2009.

This volume provides in-depth information on the Convention and on the reasons behind states’ reluctance towards its ratification. It brings together researchers, international civil servants and NGO members and relies upon an interdisciplinary perspective that includes not only law, but also sociology and political science.

Foer, Franklin. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. HarperCollins, 2004.

How Soccer Explains the World is a unique take on the world’s most popular sport. Foer argues that soccer is a lens that can help us understand politics, the global economy and cultural movements of today.

Galeano, Eduardo. Translated by Mark Fried. Soccer in Sun and Shadow. Nation Books, 2013. (Originally published in Spanish in 1995.)

Renowned Uruguayan author and journalist Eduardo Galeano’s international history of soccer is both comprehensive and poetic. He celebrates the star players behind the game but also reveals its dark underbelly, including corrupt international politics and questionable labor practices. Ultimately, Galeano’s love letter to soccer presents the sport as a great equalizer that brings together people of all classes and nationalities.

Kuper, Simon and Stefan Szymanski. Soccernomics(2018 World Cup Edition). Hachette Book Group, 2018.

Written with an economist’s brain and a soccer writer’s skill, Soccernomics applies high-powered analytical tools to everyday soccer topics, looking at data and revealing counterintuitive truths about the world’s most beloved game. It all adds up to a revolutionary new approach that has helped change the way the game is played. This World Cup edition features ample new material, including fresh insights into FIFA’s corruption, the surge in domestic violence during World Cups, and Western Europe’s unprecedented dominance of global soccer.