Literary works on exploitation and inequality

This non-fiction book addresses systemic exploitation and intellectual property theft rooted in racial inequality, highlighting a crucial aspect of historical and contemporary injustice. It explores the historical exploitation of Black intellectual contributions and the ongoing struggle for autonomy.

This non-fiction work offers a deep historical analysis of the ideological underpinnings of inequality in the US, highly relevant for understanding current social divisions. It charts the history of the American political conviction that all people are not created equal.

This non-fiction book addresses emerging forms of exploitation and inequality in the digital age, urging readers to consider the societal impact of technological advancements. It investigates the ethical implications and potential for exploitation in the development of AI.

This non-fiction work offers a critical academic analysis of contemporary global economic structures, arguing that Global Value Chains generate highly exploitative jobs, new forms of poverty, and environmental destruction. It provides a crucial framework for understanding modern systemic inequality and exploitation.

This non-fiction historical account provides a vital perspective on past struggles for equality and socialism, detailing the anti-Zionist Jewish Bund's fight against various forms of exploitation and injustice in Eastern Europe. It offers valuable historical context for understanding ongoing movements against systemic oppression.

This Pulitzer Prize-winning work remains highly relevant in 2026 for its profound challenge to the perception of poverty as an individual failing, arguing instead that it persists because others benefit from it. It continues to spark national debates on systemic inequality and social responsibility.

This provocative work offers a challenging perspective on social stability in the face of profound inequality, exploring why the poor do not rise in violent revolt against the rich, particularly in India. It is highly relevant for understanding societal dynamics and the complexities of exploitation in 2026.

This posthumous account provides a powerful historical narrative of fighting systemic racism and inequality, with enduring relevance for contemporary anti-racist movements. It highlights the struggles for equality globally through the life of Lionel Morrison.

This non-fiction work addresses a critical and growing aspect of global inequality and potential exploitation in the context of the climate crisis. It investigates the displacement of people due to climate change, linking environmental issues to social vulnerability.

This lyrical and politically charged autofiction explores labor exploitation, environmental injustice, and historical frictions between nations, drawing on experiences of laboring in Mexican cotton fields. It highlights the human costs and environmental degradation caused by cash crops.

This crucial contemporary work exposes modern forms of exploitation linked to global supply chains, detailing the suffering of artisanal miners, including children, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides a chilling parallel to the systemic injustices depicted in historical works like 'Les Misérables' but in a globalized context.

This book provides a data-driven approach to understanding persistent poverty and inequality in specific geographical contexts, offering a contemporary American parallel to Hugo's examination of social conditions. It explores the legacy of poverty in America, focusing on rural communities and the impact of resource extraction and human exploitation.

This classic of investigative journalism vividly portrays the realities of low-wage labor and the difficulty of escaping poverty, resonating strongly with the themes of economic hardship and exploitation in 'Les Misérables.' The author goes undercover to experience working full-time for poverty-level wages.

This critical contemporary analysis exposes how the 'smart' appearance of AI is sustained by a growing body of invisibilized 'ghost workers' in the gig economy. It highlights new forms of labor exploitation in the digital age, echoing Hugo's concerns about the degradation of man through new economic systems.

This book offers a direct, insider look at modern labor exploitation and worker resistance within the gig economy, providing a contemporary parallel to the struggles of the working class and revolutionaries in 'Les Misérables.' It details labor processes and resistance from the perspective of a Deliveroo rider.

This work highlights the historical and ongoing intersection of race, gender, and labor exploitation, providing a crucial perspective on systemic inequality that resonates with the multifaceted oppression depicted in 'Les Misérables.' It explores how work has always been gendered and racialized.