Splashy Books for the Political Junkie

“We’ve got a long history of resistance in Vermont, and this book is testimony to that fact,” says Bernie Sanders, who just may be a model for this novel’s protagonist. Sharp, funny, and terrifyingly timely, Radio Free Vermont tells the story of 72-year-old Vern Barclay, an activist who promotes the state’s secession from the Union through an underground radio station…while on the run from the law.

Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction and named Best Book of 2017 by numerous publications, The Future Is History—penned by Masha Gessen, the bestselling biographer of Vladimir Putin—reveals how Russia surrendered to a new strain of autocracy in a single generation.

Political upheaval. Two assassinations. Riots. A country on the brink. “Playing with Fire is Lawrence O’Donnell at his best,” raves Rachel Maddow. “This is a thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics, and who knows how all the dots connect.”

Created and compiled by Charles Krauthammer before his death, The Point of It All brings together the most important works from the celebrated columnist, political commentator, and physician. A collection of writings personal, political, and philosophical, The Point of it All also includes never-before-published speeches and a profound new essay about populism and the future of global democracy.

In this collection, 18 Obama staffers offer an intimate and powerful look at their time in the White House. Joe Biden calls this behind-the-scenes history “exceptional because of the people in it: ordinary citizens who did extraordinary work and always put the American people first. We have so much to learn from their stories.”

What are the motives behind impeachment? What factors contribute to it? What clues does history offer as to how impeachment may be used in the future? In Impeachment, four experts revisit the three presidencies during which impeachment was invoked (Johnson, Nixon, Clinton) and explain what they may teach us today.

A New York Times bestseller and a work that topped many of the Best Books of 2017 lists, We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, along with eight new essays that revisit each year of Obama’s presidency. In a starred review, Kirkus calls it “emotionally charged, deftly crafted, and urgently relevant.”

As the inspiration for a recent documentary, biopic, SNL sketches, and a line of apparel, The Notorious RBG continues to enlighten and inspire in this comprehensive, revelatory biography that Publishers Weekly celebrates as laudatory: “De Hart’s great strength is her ability to explain Ginsburg’s cases and the legal strategies she employed…an insightful, fascinating, and admiring biography of one of America’s most extraordinary jurists.”

Gangs, organized crime, state brutality. Why are some democracies—including our own—plagued by violence? How can they—we—regain security? Rachel Kleinfeld offers answers in this powerful, urgent book that Kirkus Reviews applauds as highly researched yet accessible, “a solid, convincing argument based on experience, research, travel, and intelligence.”

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, is the Iraqi American pediatrician who helped expose the Flint water crisis. “In What the Eyes Don’t See, she lays bare the bureaucratic bunk and flat-out injustice at the heart of the environmental disgrace,” says O, The Oprah Magazine. It’s a gripping, heartbreaking story of our time.