Reading list · 14 books
The ethics of eating animals
The philosophy, the psychology and some of the sharpest critics, so the shelf does not agree with itself.
Paid links. If you buy a book through these links, Bookshop.org pays us a small commission and sends a share of the sale to independent bookstores.
-
The argument
Animal Liberation Now (opens Bookshop.org)
The Definitive Classic Renewed
Peter Singer · 2023
Peter Singer's 2023 revision of his 1975 book updates the argument against factory farming with new research on animal sentience and the conditions on farms.
-
The argument
Fellow Creatures (opens Bookshop.org)
Our Obligations to the Other Animals
Christine M. Korsgaard · 2018
Harvard philosopher Christine Korsgaard argues from Kantian ethics that humans owe moral consideration to other animals.
-
The argument
The Case for Animal Rights (opens Bookshop.org)
Tom Regan · 1983
Tom Regan's 1983 book of philosophy argues that animals who are subjects of a life have rights that forbid using them as resources.
-
The argument
Zoopolis (opens Bookshop.org)
A Political Theory of Animal Rights
Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka · 2011
Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka treat domesticated animals as fellow citizens and wild animals as sovereign in their own territories, a political theory of what we owe each group.
-
The argument
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (opens Bookshop.org)
An Introduction to Carnism
Melanie Joy · 2010
Psychologist Melanie Joy coined the term carnism for the beliefs that let people love some animals and eat others, and she looks at how the system keeps that split in place.
-
The argument
Eating Animals (opens Bookshop.org)
Jonathan Safran Foer · 2009
Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer reports on factory farms and family history while deciding what to feed his son, and explains why he chose vegetarianism.
-
The argument
The Omnivore's Dilemma (opens Bookshop.org)
A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan · 2006
Michael Pollan follows four meals back to their sources, from industrial corn to a hunt he undertakes himself, and takes on Singer's argument along the way.
-
The argument
The Ethics of What We Eat (opens Bookshop.org)
Why Our Food Choices Matter
Peter Singer and Jim Mason · 2006
Peter Singer and Jim Mason follow three American families through their groceries and trace each purchase to a farm, a fishery or a field.
-
The argument
Should We Eat Meat? (opens Bookshop.org)
Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory
Vaclav Smil · 2013
Environmental scientist Vaclav Smil counts the resources, history and health effects of meat and comes down for eating less, not none.
-
The argument
Meathooked (opens Bookshop.org)
The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat
Marta Zaraska · 2016
Science journalist Marta Zaraska explains why people crave meat, from evolution to marketing, and considers what could change habits.
-
The argument
Compassion, by the Pound (opens Bookshop.org)
The Economics of Farm Animal Welfare
F. Bailey Norwood and Jayson L. Lusk · 2011
Agricultural economists Bailey Norwood and Jayson Lusk examine what animal welfare measures cost and what consumers say they will pay.
-
The argument
Dominion (opens Bookshop.org)
The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
Matthew Scully · 2002
Matthew Scully, a conservative Republican speechwriter, writes about animal cruelty from a religious and political right vantage point, including a visit to a hunting ranch and a factory farm.
-
The argument
The Lives of Animals (opens Bookshop.org)
J. M. Coetzee · 1999
Novelist J. M. Coetzee stages two lectures by a fictional novelist who compares slaughterhouses to the Holocaust, followed by responses from philosophers and literary scholars.
-
The argument
Beasts of Burden (opens Bookshop.org)
Animal and Disability Liberation
Sunaura Taylor · 2017
Sunaura Taylor, an artist and writer with a disability, connects the liberation of animals to disability rights and argues each movement has something to teach the other.
Chosen by the Vegan Brief desk. No publisher pays for a place on this list. Updated September 2026.
More from the shelf
The practical answers, then the daily ones.
These guides answer the questions a vegan kitchen asks once. The morning brief answers the ones the world asks daily: what actually moved veganism forward, quoted and checked. One short read, free.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.