Book Themes Relating to Society

Book Recommendations by Theme are listed here in order to help teachers, book club organizers, and other readers find books organized around a common principle, or big idea. Please see the Main Page List of Themes for more categories, as well as Book Lists by Topic
See also: Themes - Prejudice  and Themes - Social Interactions

Technology in Society; Nature of Progress

Laws, Politics, Conspiracy

War; Conflict Between Groups

See also Historical Events
Bamboo People (Burmese Military Conflict)
The Bicycle Spy (WWII)
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Powerful Weapon (WWII; nuclear bomb; various countries)
Climbing the Stairs (WWII; India)
Code Name Verity (WWII; U.S., U.K., and more)
Code Talker (WWII; Navajo Code Talkers)
Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (Vietnam War)
A Diamond in the Desert (WWII; Japanese Internment)
Echo (WWII)
Elijah of Buxton (Underground Railroad; U.S.)
Ender's Game (Science Fiction conflict)
The Fifth Wave (Science Fiction alien invasion)
Flygirl (WWII - female pilots)
I Am Number Four (Science Fiction aliens on Earth)
Incommunicado (WWII; Oregon, Japanese-Americans)
A Long Walk to Water (Lost Boys of Sudan)
Maus
Milkweed (WWII; Warsaw Ghetto)
A Million Shades of Gray (Vietnam War; Vietnam)
Morning Girl (Underground Railroad; Escape from Slavery; U.S.)
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Vietnam War
The Night Diary   (The Partition of India)
A Night Divided (WWII; Berlin Wall, East Germany)
Number the Stars (WWII; Nazi Invasion of Denmark)
Resistance (WWII; Polish Ghettos)
Romeo Blue (WWII; U.S.)
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Post WWII; Hiroshima)
Salt to the Sea    (WWII: Refugees fleeing Poland, Prussia)
Samurai Rising (12th Century Genpai War)
Sing Down the Moon (U.S. Displacement of Native Peoples; Trail of Tears)
Tasting the Sky (The 1967 Six-Day War in the West Bank)
Unbound (Escape Attempt from Slavery; U.S.)
The Underground Abductor (U.S. Civil War)
The War That Saved My Life (WWII; U.K.)
When My Name Was Keoko (Japanese Invasion of Korea)
Woods Runner (American Revolution)
Words on Fire  (Lithuanian Resistance to Russian Empire)

Tradition and Change

Dystopian Worlds

Perception vs. Reality