Recommended Books and Films

Books:

Also see the Indie Local First Reading List, put together by the nation's independent booksellers.

Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses
By Stacy Mitchell (Beacon Press, 2006)

". . . a galvanizing eye-opener that deserves the widest possible audience. This is one of those urgent, revelatory volumes that could change how many readers conduct their daily lives, since it illuminates a stunning collection of hidden economic and societal costs. . . Mitchell devotes the final quarter of her powerful book to inspiring lessons from places that are turning the tide."
-John Marshall, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

More about the book.  Order from ILSR/New Rules.  Order from your local bookstore.





The Case Against the Global Economy-and For a Turn Toward the Local
Edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (Sierra Club Books, 1997)

"The contributors. . . argue that the rush toward economic globalization, based on free trade and deregulation, is both harmful and reversible. . . [They] recommend pursuing the opposite path-promoting greater economic localization through cooperatives and small companies that cater to local or regional markets."
-Publisher's Weekly

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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
By Bill McKibben (Times, 2007)

"Deep Economy challenges the reader to imagine a future of thriving local economies where people act in community. McKibben takes us to places in the world, including our own backyards, where people are challenging the relentlessly pursued ideal that more is better. This is a book to give readers inspiration, tools, hopes, and a good, strong call to action."
—Linda Ramsdell, The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT

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Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age
By Michael Shuman (Routledge, 1999)

"A brilliant synthesis of a new economics based on local self-reliance, community control, and renewed cyclical flows of regional capital. Every city or community, rich or poor, should make Going Local required reading for their employees, elected officials, and citizens."
-Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce

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The Great American Jobs Scam
by Greg LeRoy (Berrett-Koehler, 2005)

"A powerful compendium of corporate tax dodging in the U.S. Most disturbing is evidence that states and cities are usually paying companies to do whatever they would have done anyway. A persuasive study supported by lots of disturbing evidence. "
-Business Week

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The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community
by Ray Oldenburg (Marlowe & Company, 3rd edition, 1999)

"The great value of this book is that Mr. Oldenburg has given us an insightful and extremely useful new lens through which to look at a familiar problem."
-New York Times Book Review

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Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why It Matters
by Stacy Mitchell (Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 2000)

"This is an outstanding place to start if you're working up a buy locally initiative! When I first read it a number of years ago, I found that Stacy Mitchell had put into words and onto the page exactly the exactly the exactly thoughts and feelings that a group of us had been discussing."
-Liz Murphy, Learned Owl Book Shop, Hudson, OH

Order from ILSR/New Rules. Order from your local bookstore.

Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart! How You Can Stop Superstore Sprawl in Your Hometown
by Al Norman (Atlantic City: Raphel Marketing, 1999)

"The book is written in two parts. The first part describes why Wal-Mart, Home Depot and their kin are a threat to small community life in America. The second part gives you a game plan to stop Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers in your home town, much the way Al Norman and other concerned citizens kept Wal-mart out of Greenfield."
-Raphel Marketing

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The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition
by Michael H. Shuman (Berrett-Koehler, 2006)

"People who own and work in small businesses have long known in their gut that they did more for their customers and communities than the mega-stores, but they have not always been successful in outlining the arguments in clear and concise ways. Here comes Michael Shuman to the rescue."
-Adam Schnitzer, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA

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Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism
Edited by Nelson Lichtenstein (New Press, 2005)

"In April 2004, Lichtenstein, professor of history at the University of California, invited his academic colleagues to attend a seminar on the largest corporation in America-Wal-Mart. These resulting 12 essays are the culmination of that meeting . . . [and] do an incredible job of balancing the wonders and horrors of the force that is Wal-Mart."
-Booklist

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Films:

Twilight Becomes Night
by Virginie-Alvine Perrette

Set in New York City, this moving 36-minute film explores the vital role that locally owned businesses play in the social fabric of our communities. It includes profiles of many long-standing businesses, including several that have had to close due to rising rents and an alarming influx of chains in the city.  A rare look at this issue in an urban context, Twilight Becomes Night offers hope in the form of neighborhood activism and interviews with academics and community activists who see a better way forward.

Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom-and-Pop
by Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes (HRH Media)

This 80-minute film follows filmmakers Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes as they hit the road and travel 13,000 miles through 32 states in search of Independent America. It's a place populated by hardy souls fighting for the right to remain independent in a land smothered by big-box stores and fast-food chains.
"It's old-fashioned, kind of shoe leather journalism. . . It's not an anti Wal-Mart film. They have risen above that."-ABC News

OurTown: What Kind of Town Do You Want to Live In?
by Doreen Conboy, Wendy Hebb, & Michael Richard (Red Door Media)

This 56-minute film follows the story of a group of citizens who challenge Wal-Mart's plans to build a supercenter in a small Maine town.
"I enjoyed this film, for its landscapes, and for the kind of controversy it depicts, and above all for the reassurance it offers-that the small and local can now and then prevail against the powerful and multinational."-Tracy Kidder

Talking to the Wall: The Story of an American Bargain
by Steve Alves (Hometown Productions)

Wal-Mart's plan to build in a small town goes well until an 11th hour citizens' rebellion resists the lure of low prices to reveal another side of the bargain-a side which paves over open land, annihilates Main Street businesses, and rolls back wages. The story then goes deeper, following, over seven years, one town's decision contrasted with another 20 miles away.

"A model for other towns facing invation by a rapacious corporate monolith." -Valley Advocate