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?
"Listen Liberal" by Thomas Frank, focuses on the failures of neoliberalism by using the 90's Clinton administration as a case study. There's a short bit that talks about unions and workers movements at the beginning before diving into and criticizing the 90's neoliberal uprising and its consequences.
Might be helpful or easier to digest if things were grounded in a somewhat more contemporary setting. Though this is a very USA centric book, so it might not be as relevant outside the USA.