27 of the Best Political Books to Read to Process the 2022 Election

Former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was pivotal in turning out the vote in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election. In addition to being a politician, Abrams is also a romance novelist and the author of prescient political books like Our Time Is Now, out in June 2020. Abrams, a rising leader in the Democratic party, offers an overview of how political institutions have been eroded, and what can be done to fix them. 

Pitted against an often antagonistic media, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have made difficult choices, for themselves and for others, with grace and fortitude. Here they share a hundred profiles of the women who have inspired them through tough moments: resilient figures from the past -- Harriet Tubman, “the Moses of her people,” and  Rachel Carson, the environmental Cassandra -- and the present, such as charismatic activist Malala Yousafzai and the virtuoso novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Aidichie. These captivating stories point the way toward a kinder future for us all.

The New York Times financial writer maps the advance of economists—from the Kennedy administration onward—out of the academy and into government, elevating free markets in the sausage-making of public policy and sparking the inequity that plagues us today. 

Public defender, Senator, Vice President, Presidential contender. Throughout his lengthy and storied career Joe Biden has circled back to his cherished touchstone: father. After a terminal cancer diagnosis, his eldest son Beau asked his dad to promise him he’d be okay; as Beau’s health declined, Biden performed his elected duties, jet-setting around the globe at the request of his close friend, President Obama, managing conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq even as he suffered the most wrenching agony of all: the death of a child. Read this for a stirring memoir of public service and private sorrow.

The junior Senator from New Jersey hitched a ride on a meteor to success. First, a Stanford and a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, “with more degrees than July.” Then, the innovative mayor of Newark before becoming one of only eight post-Reconstruction African-Americans to serve in Capitol Hill’s distinguished upper chamber. His prescription for our ailing nation is sharp and rich, a blueprint for coming together from a politician destined to play an indelible role on the American stage.

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has uneasily embodied some of the most enduring tensions in our culture: a Harvard grad and urban businessman lured back to run for mayor of his Rust Belt town; a closeted Iraq War veteran; the first openly gay candidate for President; and now, most shockingly, a coolly measured voice amid the din of Twitter grievance. His is the most thrilling kind of memoir, one that's out, loud, and proud, but also reflective and gorgeously written.

While young men have fallen by the hundreds of thousands in military combat, America’s women have waged wars of their own on the home front, forcing change. This New York Times columnist traces the enthralling arc of older women in political history, from feminist pioneers (Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth) to First Ladies (Dolley Madison, Eleanor Roosevelt); feisty agitators (Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem) to intrepid influencers (Nellie Bly, Ruth Bader Ginsburg); Republicans of integrity (Margaret Chase Smith) and legendary Democrats (Hillary Clinton). They’re all here, brought to radiant life in Gail Collins’ witty, vivid prose.

Alarmed by the spike in perilous climate change, the acclaimed writer tackles what we can do here and now, ordinary tweaks with global impact, his book a mesh of bulleted lists blended with polished literary forms—read this if you're looking for The Overstory meets 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth.

The author of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning returns with a compelling compendium of facts and figures, searing stories of tragedy and triumph as he defines what it truly means to be an anti-racist in our divisive age. How To Be An Antiracist is the antidote for the toxicity of white supremacy—and a rebuke to calls for segregation.

A product of public schools and the Ivy League, a Yale Law professor exposes the lies beneath aspirational meritocracy, damning it with data and anecdotes. In Markovits’s telling, the American Dream is a locked steel door that bars the middle-class from achievement and imprisons the children of elites in cells of excruciating expectations.

Earlier this year, television critic Emily Nussbaum’s I Like to Watch regaled us with behind-the-scenes insights into the cultural power of the small screen. Now comes the New York Times’ television critic with a similarly masterful study that probes how television networks built up a vulgar xenophobe to boost ratings, a meditation on “a man who, through a four-decades-long TV performance, achieved symbiosis with the medium. Its impulses were his impulses; its appetites were his appetites; its mentality was his mentality.

She’s been called the “long-distance runner” of the 2020 election. The indomitable Massachusetts Senator has emerged as the wonk’s dream date, the go-to candidate for hot takes on trade, healthcare, social justice, and her signature issue of economic inequality. She’s got a plan for virtually all of our challenges, tapping the varied arenas of her life, including a hardscrabble Oklahoma childhood, plus working as a schoolteacher, Harvard Law professor, and later, policy visionary. This Fight is Our Fight is a manifesto for those who play by the rules and still feel shafted.

In her second book, California Senator Kamala Harris incorporates tales from her upbringing and how her mother motivated her to explain why she feels responsible for serving Americans in office. With its release, Harris is being touted as a potential 2020 White House contender, especially after saying she believes the U.S. is ready for a woman of color to be president.  

From a Latina immigration expert to a dessert chef enlisted as “spokesperson” for healthy eating, 18 former Obama administration staffers share their candid, affecting accounts of life at the White House.

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams was the first Black woman to lead a major party in the race for governor. In this blueprint for change, she riffs on budget battles and policy proposals while offering guidelines for a better you. 

The author of the bestselling All the Single Ladies focuses on women's rage and whether sisterhood can bridge deep divides over race, class, and gender identity.

The hosts of the popular podcast of the same name bring practical tips and cheeky humor to help women fend off manspreading in the wild. Their book also comes with reminders of gender inequality: on average, women earn seventy-nine cents to every man's dollar.

Examining the legacies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an invaluable take on how leadership is forged in the fires of adversity and triumph. 

A seasoned activist shares her wisdom on the struggle for social change, using political movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Women's March, and the Bonus Army as examples.

The award-winning author of White Rage explores the drive to purge voters of their right to cast a ballot, meanwhile exposing a decades-long plot to disenfranchise people of color. Her title serves as a gimlet-eyed analysis of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Jim Crow laws.