Wall Street booms as regular folks struggle from paycheck to paycheck. Armed fanatics mow down crowds in Texas and Ohio. Toddlers are caged along our Southern border. Will our republic survive?



These are the times that try our souls, but at our disposal we have the most brilliant weapon of all: books. Thomas Paine and Abigail Adams knew it. So did Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison. With a consequential presidential election looming in 2020, writers of all stripes and sensibilities are jumping in with some of the best political books. Whether they're memoirs from candidates like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or journalistic histories of corrupt economists, books are forever our polestar; ahead, a few compasses to help you navigate the turbulent year ahead.

