American Politics Books

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933—2020) spent her life working tirelessly for a more just society, says Amanda Tyler, Shannon C. Turner Professor of Law at Berkeley and former law clerk to the Supreme Court Justice. She recommends the best books to read about RBG: her life, her work, and even her personal training regime.

The best presidential biographies contain insights into both the personal and the political, says the historian HW Brands. He chooses the best biographies of some of the greatest American presidents.

American statistician Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University and author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State explains the (often surprising) realities of how Americans vote.

Who are the men and women in black robes who sit on America’s highest judicial bench? Legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick recommends the best books on the Supreme Court justices of the United States.

Historian Eric Foner chooses five books illustrating how concepts of American liberalism have changed over the past 50 years, and about the tension that lies at the heart of liberalism today.

Karl Rove recommends five historical works that define, for him, the essence of American Conservatism.

Income inequality has reached a crisis point in America, says journalist Timothy Noah, author of The Great Divergence – yet with powerful nationwide pressure to address the problem, there is also an opportunity for change.

It's not the first period in history that American society has suffered from a crisis of inequality. Former labour secretary, Robert Reich, recommends books to help us understand the response of previous generations to the same kinds of challenges we now face.

The job of the intelligence services is to understand others and help leaders act more wisely, says the author of a new history of the FBI. There’s a balance to be struck between liberty and security but when the CIA and FBI do not harmonise their intelligence missions, people die.

A key figure behind the Massachusetts and Obama healthcare reforms tells us about the purpose and uses of public finance economics, and explains how Romneycare and Obamacare are both different and alike.