Politics Books
recommended by political scientists and historians
Last updated: April 29, 2025
We have a wide range of interviews recommending books on politics and society. Some cover international affairs, US foreign policy, US imperialism, US interventionism, global power and the EU; others take a more theoretical view of the world, looking at justice and the law, feminism, gender politics, the sociology of inequality, effective altruism, anarchism, and transitional justice to name a few. All recommend the very best political books.
We also have interviews dedicated to sex and society, climate change, women’s suffrage, constitutional arrangements on both sides of the Atlantic, espionage and covert action, millennials, free speech, and the psychology of war.
Nested within our politics and society sections are subcategories recommending books on US politics, British politics, Chinese politics, international development, conflict and war, gender, human rights, journalism, immigration, and terrorism among others.
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The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World
by Larry Diamond -
2
Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency
by Larry Diamond -
3
How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky -
4
Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition
by Robert Dahl -
5
Democracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville
The best books on Liberal Democracy, recommended by Francis Fukuyama
The best books on Liberal Democracy, recommended by Francis Fukuyama
Even some of the world’s most authoritarian rulers continue to pay lip service to democracy and people’s right to vote for their leaders, but the days when many social scientists believed that all countries at a certain level of prosperity would eventually turn to liberal democracy are over, says Francis Fukuyama, now a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute. Here, he recommends books to better understand liberal democracy, and what those of us lucky enough to live in one can do to protect our form of government.
The best books on Fascism, recommended by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
In an era of Trumpism and fake news, the word ‘fascist’ is thrown around with increasing ease and little attention paid to its origins and history. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, political commentator and historian at New York University, recommends the best books for understanding fascism’s history and recognizing it today.
The best books on Free Speech, recommended by Timothy Garton Ash
Free speech is the bedrock of a healthy society, but how do we deal with the torrents of horrible comments—and worse—we see on the internet every day? Timothy Garton Ash, author of Free Speech: Ten Principles for A Connected World, outlines a plan for navigating the complexities and recommends the best books to help us think about free speech.
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Language, Thought, and Reality
by Benjamin Lee Whorf -
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The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality
by Karl Popper -
3
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
by David Deutsch -
4
Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe
by Hugo Mercier -
5
The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
by Julia Galef
The best books on Language and Post-Truth, recommended by Nick Enfield
The best books on Language and Post-Truth, recommended by Nick Enfield
The word ‘post-truth’ may only have entered the Oxford English Dictionary in the last decade, but the phenomenon it describes is much older and deeper, connected not so much to the latest internet trend as the fundamentals of human cognition and communication. Here, linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield, a professor at the University of Sydney and a member of its fighting truth decay research node, introduces the best books to get thinking about the complex relationship between language and reality.
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A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
by Nathan Thrall -
Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
by Cat Bohannon -
Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence
by Yaroslav Trofimov -
The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq
by Steve Coll -
The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain
by Matthew Longo
The Best Politics Books of 2024: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
The Best Politics Books of 2024: The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
The Orwell Prizes are the UK’s most prestigious prizes for writing about politics, awarded annually to books and articles that best meet George Orwell’s own ambition “to make political writing into an art.” The nonfiction books that made the 2024 shortlist ranged from evolution to political philosophy, from memoir to the Middle East.
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1
Against Elections
by David Van Reybrouck -
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The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present
by Yves Sintomer -
3
The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy
by Brett Hennig -
4
Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century
by Hélène Landemore -
5
De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies
edited by Min Reuchamps, Julien Vrydagh and Yanina Welp
The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies, recommended by Hugh Pope
The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies, recommended by Hugh Pope
Around the world, democracies are struggling with angry populations who are fed up with politicians who don’t seem to represent them effectively. Fortunately, there’s an alternative. Hugh Pope—a veteran reporter on the Middle East who also spent 15 years working for International Crisis Group—introduces us to the growing movement for ‘citizens’ assemblies’, where ordinary people get together to decide what’s best for the community. He argues that these assemblies have already been used effectively on important issues that are difficult for politicians to tackle and reveals how the French president, Emmanuel Macron, came to find out about them.
The best books on Populism, recommended by Cas Mudde
After a tumultuous year in politics, ‘populism’ is on everybody’s lips. But what is it? Is it good or bad for democracy? How is it that populist movements often have superrich leaders? Political scientist and longtime populism observer Cas Mudde recommends the best books on populism.
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Red Plenty
by Francis Spufford -
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The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What To Make of It
by Charles Lindblom -
3
The Sciences of the Artificial
by Herbert A. Simon -
4
Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
by E. Glen Weyl & Eric A. Posner -
5
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir
by Anna Wiener
The Best Books on the Politics of Information, recommended by Henry Farrell
The Best Books on the Politics of Information, recommended by Henry Farrell
Our political systems evolved in an era when information was much harder to come by. What challenges does our current reality of information overload pose for democracy? How do we even start thinking about these questions? Political scientist Henry Farrell proposes key books for building a curriculum on ‘the politics of information,’ starting with a beautifully written novel.
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Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
by John Milton Cooper -
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Lenin: A Biography
by Robert Service -
3
Mao: The Man Who Made China
by Philip Short -
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The Hitler of History
by John Lukacs -
5
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948
by Ramachandra Guha -
6
A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion
by Tom Segev
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The Best Biographies of 20th Century Leaders, recommended by Michael Mandelbaum
The first half of the 20th century was an era when individuals could have a huge impact on the course of history—whether for good or bad, argues political scientist Michael Mandelbaum. He recommends the best biographies to read about the eight world leaders who feature in his latest book, The Titans of the Twentieth Century, from Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) to Mao Zedong (1893-1976).
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Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe
by Hans-Georg Betz -
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Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain
by Matthew Goodwin & Robert Ford -
3
The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean
by Ruth Wodak -
4
The Extreme Gone Mainstream: Commercialization and Far Right Youth Culture in Germany
by Cynthia Miller-Idriss -
5
Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
by Chip Berlet & Matthew N. Lyons
The best books on The Far Right, recommended by Cas Mudde
The best books on The Far Right, recommended by Cas Mudde
There’s nothing new about the far right and the unpleasant views that its supporters espouse. What’s changed is that some of those views have been embraced by the political mainstream and are now viewed as normal. Political scientist Cas Mudde, Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor at the University of Georgia, talks us through the best books on the far right.