The Mandarins (1954) by Simone de Beauvoir 

The Middlemarch or War and Peace of the mid-20th century—an incredible novel about Paris intellectuals trying to remake the world along better lines after the Second World War, based on the lives of the existentialist circle. It features a love affair based on Beauvoir’s real-life relationship with the American writer Nelson Algren.—Keri Walsh

Devil’s Teeth (2006), The Wave (2011), and The Underworld (2023) by Susan Casey

Susan Casey, a popular science writer specializing in the ocean, is a fantastic writer who I use for writing exercises. With her vivid descriptions of undersea life and skillful integration of sources, she is a great example of the mid-range of expository prose that’s not academic but notches above Wikipedia and Reddit. Her three best books are Devil’s Teeth (about great white sharks), The Wave (about waves and surfing), and The Underworld (about deep-sea exploration).—Martin Northrop

Salvage: Readings from the Wreck (2024) by Dionne Brand

This book is an important read for anyone, especially for literary scholars, and especially as we encourage people from all different backgrounds to join the English department. Brand rereads classic English novels, pointing out that “learning to read English literature involved learning not to notice who, or what, was missing.”—M. Gaby Hurtarte Leon

The Demon of Unrest (2024) by Erik Larson

Earlier this fall, I read Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, which looks at the four months in 1860-61 between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his inauguration (which back then, was held in March). It’s about the growing secessionist crisis leading to the firing on Fort Sumter, and the new president’s response to it.

Larson manages to tell some of the critical moments of the Fort Sumter siege almost like a “tick tock” (to use an old journalist’s phrase). It’s hour by hour at some points, as telegrams fly and emergency meetings are hurriedly convened (and recorded). You really feel like you’re at a cabinet meeting in the White House, or sitting nervously behind an artillery battery in Charleston harbor. And the narrative is told through the eyes of about seven individuals from the north and south, including Lincoln. And it’s all seamlessly woven together. 

I mentioned it to my students as a wonderful example of creative nonfiction, in the sense that it’s well-researched history, but told in a creative, artful way.—John Hanc

An Authentic Life (2024) by Jennifer Chang

An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang is filled with poems that I needed these last few months, not only because their topics—ranging from patriarchy to war to school shootings to religious doubt to marriage—seemed crucial, but because of the sublime way Chang mixes syntactical care with the precise wielding of wild imagery.—Meghan Dahn

The Copenhagen Trilogy (2022) by Tove Ditlevsen

This Danish novel is quite close to a memoir: like the protagonist, Ditlevsen grew up poor in Denmark during the early 20th century, and despite many obstacles, found a way to become a writer. It’s a beautiful, melancholy short trilogy (all in one volume), with poverty, political engagement, and the world wars on the margins of a very special coming-of-age story. I read it last winter and it has stuck with me all year. The scenes of her bicycling around Copenhagen are glorious. A beautiful book. —Anne Fernald

Counternarratives (2016) by John Keene 

A fascinating, richly layered collection of stories and novellas about the history of colonialism in the Americas. Wildly experimental and electric historical fiction. For anyone interested in immersing themselves in the intricate entanglements of the multi-century encounters of colonial crisis.—Shonni Enelow

My Struggle, Books 1-6 (2013-2019) by Karl Ove Knausgaard 

I’m finally reading this six-volume series from the 2010s––one of the defining works of that decade, along with Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. Like those, Knausgaard’s books are consuming, addictive, and kind of manic––unlike them, they are fundamentally non-dramatic, all about the banal details of the everyday that he manages to make totally compelling.—S.E. 

An Earthquake is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (2024) by Anna Moschovakis 

Full disclosure: I haven’t read this yet, but I’m so excited to. I love Moschovakis’s writing: it’s sparse, elegant, and strange. And––another full disclosure––my book, A Discourse on Method, apparently makes a cameo in it!—S.E.

Book recommendations were edited for clarity.

But is it possible to escape our attraction to fast fashion? And will crossing these items off your shopping list make things better or worse? Fordham experts weigh in.

Human Rights Abuse

“People get excited about the $2 T-shirt” and don’t think about the impact on factory workers making the clothing, said Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham.

Catastrophic garment factory fires and forced labor charges against China’s cotton industry have brought attention to human rights abuses, and even resulted in Congress passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021, which banned imports from businesses in Xinjiang, China, that use forced labor. Paltry wages for field and factory workers, the majority of whom are women, are another well-known concern.

“Labor is one of, if not the most, expensive inputs in fashion,” Scafidi said, but ”when it comes to making fast fashion, it has to be cheap, cheaper, cheapest.”

Tik Tok Temptation

Younger consumers, mainly Gen Z and Millennials, are at the forefront of the demand for fast fashion, heavily influenced by social media and desire for the latest styles, said Fordham economist Giacomo Santangelo. 

“Platforms like TikTok are pivotal in shaping fashion choices,” he said. “This constant exposure to new styles and the desire for instant gratification lead to frequent buying, fueling the fast fashion market.”

Fast fashion brands’ low prices make their products broadly accessible, he said, noting that their affordability is especially appealing because of the state of the global economy and the desire to save money during the holiday giving season. Demand is also fed by the convenience and proliferation of fast fashion e-commerce sites, he said. 

Environmental Impact: ‘A Global Crisis’

That demand for fast fashion is also impacting the planet, due to overseas factories’ carbon emissions and water pollution, as well as all the products that end up in towering landfills, according to environmental watchdog organizations.

Clothes are being cast aside more quickly and in greater quantities than ever. Donated items from countries including the U.K., the U.S., and China are sold to vendors in places such as Ghana, which has one of the world’s largest secondhand clothing markets. But because these markets can’t handle the volume, many items are never worn again and end up in landfills or rivers. 

Meanwhile, garment factories continue to pollute rivers with toxic dyes and use tremendous amounts of fossil fuel for production and shipping across the world, according to the watchdog groups. And much of fast fashion relies on synthetic fibers made from plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas.

“There is a vast amount of waste and climate impact,” Scafidi said. “It has become a global crisis in that way.”

The Flip Side

But solutions to the problem are not as simple as they may seem. For one thing, fast fashion employs and supports the global poor and fuels developing economies, said Matthew Caulfield, Ph.D., assistant professor of ethics in the Gabelli School of Business.

“Most Americans—even Americans one would typically consider to be lower income—are nonetheless, by purchasing power standards, considered to be part of the global rich,” he said, adding that a single adult earning $24,000 per year makes more than seven times the global median.

“This is not to say that [fast and cheap production]is an unmitigated good—there are environmental concerns—or that the companies themselves have unassailable practices,” said Caulfield. “It’s only to suggest that one intuition that often seems entirely clear (that buying local is ethically superior) is not entirely clear. There are trade-offs we must navigate.”