The Possessive Investment in Whiteness

By George Lipsitz

“A must-read for those who want to understand the phenomenon of whiteness beyond individual white people and their feelings. Lipsitz constructs a strong case for how whiteness is a social phenomenon impacting the economy and our democracy.”

Roads to Dominion: Right Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States

By Sara Diamond

“A primer for anyone trying to understand the rise and consolidation of the conservative movement in the United States.”

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics and Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

By Jonathan Haidt

“I hand this book out often. Haidt does an excellent job explaining why Americans are at loggerheads on the most basic of questions.”

The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism

By Yuval Levin

“Levin’s book is the best analysis I’ve seen of the way that nostalgia operates on both the left and the right.”

Book of Judges

“This biblical book is a bracing, honest appraisal of what happens when moral norms are abandoned. ‘In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’ (Judges 17:6)”

Melissa Harris-Perry, professor of politics at Wake Forest University and editor at large of Elle magazine

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

By Arlie Russell Hochschild

“Donald Trump’s supporters are not deplorable humans writhing in a basket of racist intolerance. They are Americans with deep historic and emotional connections to a country that now feels painfully unfamiliar. With empathy and and dignity, this text reveals the stories of ordinary citizens seeking to regain a sense of political stake in their nation through the Tea Party movement. Whether Donald Trump wins or loses on November 8, his supporters are still our neighbors on November 9.”

Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics

By Cathy Cohen

“Before the advent of #BlackLivesMatter as a social movement, Cathy Cohen’s text explained how African American youth were perceived by both white power structures and existing African American political leaders as threats to the status quo. She argues these young people, acting outside the boundaries of narrow respectability politics, set off ‘moral panics’ by remixing American politics and forcing existing systems to respond to their demands. In effect, this is the book that predicts the movement, which defined the second term of the Obama administration and set the stage for the existing presidential election.”

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

By Dorothy Roberts

“This book is the reason I am having a hard time getting all worked up about Trump’s ‘pussy grabbing’ comments. Roberts carefully documents how the American state has sanctioned the the grabbing of black pussy for centuries. I rarely noticed much evening news outrage about the continuing legacy of these racialized pussy-grabbing policies. The hypocrisy is—shall we say—irritating, to say the least.”