History & Politics

I cannot recommend The Undocumented Americans highly enough—it is beautifully written, scathing in its critique of our country’s culpability, and real, real, real. Cornejo Villavicencio listens carefully and compassionately to the stories of people so often unheard and captures the complexity of their lives in raw, poignant pieces, giving a fullness to the undocumented Latinx experience beyond the narrow tropes meant to contain it. Interspersed throughout is her own story as an undocumented child immigrant from Ecuador and how she is continually coming to understand its impact on her life. Her voice is powerful—its service as a vessel for the many who are silenced is tenfold. This book is eye-opening, life-affirming, and change-making, if you listen.

Prepare to be transported from your favorite armchair to the high seas; reading this book is like bingeing a great history documentary. Enemy of All Mankind uses the story of a mysterious and infamous pirate named Henry Every to take the reader on a journey through the origins of piracy, the history of India’s economic system, the emergence of global trading corporations, the spread of Islam, the frustrating beginnings of celebrity journalism, and more. Steven Johnson knows how to write captivating history.

Renowned historian Karen Abbott uses a wealth of primary source documents and her impeccable prose to bring to vivid life the story of millionaire kingpin bootlegger George Remus, US Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, and their Prohibition-era world. Abbott meticulously chronicles these larger-than-life characters’ journeys in this storied time, evocatively interspersing tantalizing courtroom testimony that hints at the scandal, betrayal, and murder to come. A true crime saga written to keep you turning pages.

Real Queer America is a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah, to the Deep South. It pairs a narrative tour through the sometimes surprising yet always vibrant queer communities in America’s red states with Samantha Allen’s own transition journey. This is a window into the profound cultural shifts underway in our country today, revealing an amazing national network of chosen family fighting for a better world. Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories of incredible LGBTQ people working for change. Fans of Love and Estrogen and Susan Kuklin’s Beyond Magenta are sure to enjoy.

Having grown up queer in the Soviet Union and going on to cover the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia, National Book Award winner Masha Gessen (The Future Is History) sounded the alarm about the trajectory America was on within the first 48 hours of Trump’s election. Her urgent book lays out the ways in which autocracy works and is also a guide to enduring and resisting the ongoing assault. Absolutely essential reading.

Have you ever stopped to think about the ways in which your language informs your worldview? Have you ever pondered whether the patriarchy participates in forming the way you think about sex, politics, and identity? If you are curious about these topics, reach for Wordslut. Bet you never realized how sexist it is to hate vocal fry! Amanda Montell will tell you why.

In her highly anticipated book, MSNBC analyst Zerlina Maxwell, who worked on both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, challenges us to look at the problems not of the right, but of the left—including white privilege, income inequality, and racism. Most especially, she argues that the Democratic party’s struggle to engage women and communities of color because of its preoccupation with catering to the white male working class, is the flaw that prevents true progress from succeeding. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book!

In his latest historical analysis, professor and author Douglas Boin weaves the intricate tale of Rome’s mysterious sacker, Alaric the Goth, with prose that is readable and engaging. Far from a barbarian, Alaric was a complex leader who grew up on the border between his Gothic kin and the aging Roman Empire. As Boin describes the fall of Rome and the rise of the Dark Ages, it is easy to draw parallels to our own decaying empire.

Do you know who Julie D'Aubigny is? What about Ursula Nordstrom? This is another one of those "Women You Didn't Know Existed Because Patriarchy" books, and I will never have enough of those, especially ones with art as gorgeous as this one. Lee takes us on a chronological tour around the world of women who changed history, science, and society simply by being Badass Broads. - J Gallo

Story explores the prison industrial complex (and its long-lasting, devastating effects) everywhere around us: in racially charged urban policies; prison visitation buses full of women of color; in the bankrupted, jobless towns in the shadows of the carceral expansion; and even in public parks. Rigorously researched and endlessly empathetic and eye-opening, this book is a must-read. - Ksenia