United States Books

Hunger in the United States is not going to be solved just by giving people more food, says Mariana Chilton, a professor of public health at Drexel University and author of The Painful Truth about Hunger in America. She recommends books to get a better understanding of hunger and argues that food banks have become part of the problem.

The story of America is not one of a manageable unified nation, says novelist and critic David Hering. It may, however, be the story of America's dream — which is why many of the best American novels have a distinctly dreamlike quality. He picks out five of the best American novels of the 20th century, from 1905 through to 1987.

Jack Kerouac—drifter, drinker, giant of American literature—became a Beat Generation icon after the publication of On the Road in 1957. But his experimental, improvisatory prose is often misinterpreted as artless "typing," as Howard Cunnell, Kerouac scholar and author of new memoir Sun Country, explains. Here he recommends five books that offer a better understanding of Kerouac's ambition and range as a writer.

Many of us enjoy thrillers because of the pacy story, but good crime fiction has always been about society, says American novelist Karin Slaughter. She recommends five crime novels that are not only great reads but "pry the scab off the human condition."

In the novels of the 19th century, the United States comes alive with all its contradictions and complications. Nathan Wolff, a professor of English at Tufts and author of Not Quite Hope and Other Political Emotions in the Gilded Age, introduces us to his picks of the best 19th-century American novels, including two works of historical fiction and a memoir that influenced the novel form.

Taiwan is a crucial lynchpin of the high-tech global economy, but its international political position is far from stable. China has explicit ambitions to incorporate it into the Chinese state and seems intent on building the military capacity to do this by force. The US is committed to preserving its de facto independence. For the moment, there is a stand-off, but a crisis over Taiwan would be a crisis for the world, politically and economically. Eyck Freymann, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, recommends five books to help understand the dynamics of the situation and the possible outcomes.

With almost two million people in prison in the US on any given day, it's clear that something is going badly wrong. The question is what to do about it. Harvard philosopher Tommie Shelby talks us through five books by thinkers of the past 150 years who have argued that abolishing prisons is the only solution.

For good books to understand Jimmy Carter and his presidency, it's important to understand the context in which he was elected and served as president, argues political scientist Robert Lieberman. Here, he recommends five books on Jimmy Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize: "Carter was who he seemed to be, which is not something you often say about successful politicians."

Every era has its monuments. What architectural legacy has the Industrial Revolution left behind? Jeff Brouws is a photographer whose work explores the American cultural landscape through a typological lens. His latest book, Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project, documents concrete coaling towers that once fueled steam locomotives across North America. He talks us through five essential books on industrial photography—from the Bechers' rigorous documentation to intimate portraits of displaced steelworkers—and explores what we preserve when structures themselves vanish.

Outsiders see Mississippi as a site of slavery and indigenous removal; but to write about Mississippi is to write about the United States as a whole—and its original sins, says Prof Ralph Eubanks, as he recommends five of the best books on Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues.