History & Politics

Viewers of her nightly show already know that Rachel Maddow is both wicked smart and a great storyteller. She excels at tackling complex political situations and making them digestible for all of us who aren’t Rhodes scholars (like she was). In Blowout, Maddow takes readers on a global journey of the tremendous greed, corruption, and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas, which has led to weakened democracies, environmental disasters, and the Russian government hacking of our 2016 election. Filled with high stakes, intriguing characters, and just enough dark humor to make you not (entirely) lose hope, Blowout is required reading. As Maddow writes, “Democracy either wins this one or disappears.” - S.B.

Framed as a counternarrative to Dee Brown’s famous Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, David Treuer’s book sets out to dispel a common myth that indigenous civilization effectively ended in 1890, when more than 300 Lakota men, women, and children were massacred by the U.S. Army. Treuer engages with the transformation and ongoing rebirth of Native identity and culture. This is a deeply personal work that is equal parts history and memoir, and if you loved Tommy Orange’s There, There, it will be right up your alley. It may well be the most important book you read all year. - Travis

From the bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine comes a detailed blueprint for a Green New Deal. Inspired by the millions of children protesting their governments, the book’s title emerged from a quote by young activist Greta Thunberg: “I want you to act as if your house is on fire—because it is.” Naomi Klein wrote this book to help us put the fire out. - Jason

In this engaging analysis by Christopher Ryan, one of the coauthors of the bestselling book Sex at Dawn and the host of the podcast Tangentially Speaking, Ryan poses the question: With all of the health problems inherent in modern society, was the lifestyle of prehistoric humans worse than that of today or was it in a way more suited to the human race? In these imperiled times, Ryan impels readers to examine the myth of the savage, the positive effects of psychedelics, and the real price of progress. - Aric

I came for what Amaryllis Fox could reveal to me about the life of working clandestine CIA missions worldwide but was captivated by the ease of Fox’s writing, the pull of her storytelling, and the giant beating heart amid it all. Fox spent her twenties immersed in post-9/11 surveillance of terrorist groups while also getting married and becoming a mother in the most extraordinary circumstances. Now she’s written a spirited espionage narrative and an insightful memoir, and I am here for every single word of it. - Melinda

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner’s new book centers on the monumental legislation of the Reconstruction era, which he frames as the birth of modern America. This book comes at a time when American culture and society is a mirror image of its 19th-century counterpart, plagued by aggressive racism, constant violence, and the explicit shortcomings of our federal government. Foner hones in on timeless questions like “Who should be entitled to citizenship?” and “How should ‘equal protection of the law’ be defined and guaranteed?” to expertly link our very troubled past to our equally troubled present. - Travis

If you are a progressive looking toward 2020, pick this up. Congressional staffers Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin posted the Indivisible Guide in 2016, starting the grassroots Indivisible movement. We Are Indivisible is part memoir, celebrating victories and taking lessons from failures since, and part road map, analyzing how we got to “Trump’s America” and what steps must be taken to save U.S. democracy. Inspiring, educational, and galvanizing, this will give you actionable efforts and hope. - Jocelyn

An unconventional angle to a familiar history of the Cold War, The Zookeepers’ War chronicles the quirky and often comical strategies of two dueling zoos: one in West Berlin and one in East Berlin. The story of Berlin’s zoos, whose exotic animal stockpiling rivaled the pace of the nuclear arms race, exposes untold complexities through humorous anecdotes and intricate plays of political power. Originally published in German, The Zookeepers’ War quickly became an international bestseller and has now been translated into English. - Charlotte

adrienne maree brown wrote the book we all needed. Rooted in and expanding on Black radical tradition, brown crafts a whole new understanding of resistance and world-changing. Revolution is not some catastrophic moment, it is a way of living your life in embodied resistance — one that is so beautifully explored in Pleasure Activism. - Citlalli

This book is an achievement—in prose that is engaging and accessible, Zuboff breaks down the logic and operating principles behind today's major tech companies, connecting the emphasis on collection of users' data to the massive profits of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and more. Zuboff unpacks the major stories you've seen in the news, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal that forced Mark Zuckerberg to testify in front of Congress, and provides a thorough analysis of the contemporary moment in order to plan and strategize for the future. Central to this book's analysis is the idea that it is impossible to compare an unprecedented event to something that has happened before, and Zuboff makes the case that the unregulated expansion of behavioral data collection by major tech companies represents an unprecedented event with dangerous implications. This book does for privacy and surveillance what Rachel Carson accomplished with Silent Spring, and should be required reading for any user of the internet or participant in a democracy. - Billy