I want to buy and send books to my friends to radicalize them. I already sent one to a friend when I was kind of shocked he tried to recommend me Factfulness by Hans Rosling (he is part of the "rational optimists" like Steven Pinker who basically think the neoliberal status quo is effective in solving world problems). As a reaction I send him The Divide by Jason Hickel and read Factfulness out of respect for his opinion and understanding how these writers argue for the status quo (it is a terrible book).
The issue with some of my friends is is that they start to have kneejerk reactions when too much Marxist jargon is being used. I don't blame them because society teaches that. Are there books you would recommend for them to read which is accessible? For me it is most important they understand the global economic dynamics and how imperialism works and how capitalism is incompatible with democracy.
I was thinking about a Noam Chomsky book or Howard Zinn as starters. Are there any others?
Another vote for Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. Her book about climate is a really good first step too, if your friend is concerned about the climate. Lots of ideas there about how we cannot solve climate change with our current systems, though she doesn't take that next step to socialism
Naomi Klein is really accessible. I think Shock Doctrine seems like the best option. I read No is Not Enough but didnt complete it because it is fairly basic and I thought I understood the gist of it.