New Books

This timely book identifies how the Tea Party and its extremist narratives laid the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump, his MAGA movement, and the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.

In How Democracies Live, Stein Ringen powerfully intervenes in this debate with a meditation on what democracy is, the challenges it faces, and the way it can be defended. Ringen argues that democracy must be strongly rooted in a culture that supports democratic values, protect and foster the ability of citizens to exchange views and information among themselves and with their rulers, and provide a government that both protects freedom and delivers effective governance that serves the needs of the citizens.

From the bestselling author of "How Fascism Works", is a searing confrontation with the far right's efforts to rewrite history and undo a century of progress on race, gender, sexuality, and class. The human race finds itself again under threat of a rising global fascist movement. In the United States, democracy is under attack by an authoritarian movement that has found fertile ground among the country's conservative politicians and voters, but similar movements have found homes in the hearts and minds of people all across the globe. To understand the shape, form, and stakes of this assault, we must go back to extract lessons from our past.

A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today's divided public square.

With the nation lurching from one crisis to the next, many Americans believe that something fundamental has gone wrong. In The Quiet Coup, Mehrsa Baradaran, one of our leading public intellectuals, argues that the system is in fact rigged toward the powerful, though it wasn't the work of evil puppet masters behind the curtain. Rather, the rigging was carried out by hundreds of (mostly) law-abiding lawyers, judges, regulators, policy makers, and lobbyists. Adherents of a market-centered doctrine called neoliberalism, these individuals, over the course of decades, worked to transform the nation--and succeeded.

A history of the political career of Nelson Rockefeller, New York Governor (1959-1973) and Vice President under Gerald Ford (1974-1977), that examines his relationship with the Republican Party and the civil rights movement as a racially liberal moderate Republican.

The Liberty Paradox explores how we try-and often fail-to balance personal desires and public interests. Kinley concludes that preserving liberty and protecting it from radical individualism requires new ways of respecting each other and rebuilding trust in the institutions and people that govern us.

Memories of the pivotal role campaign trains played in American elections fade with the passing of each generation. Also forgotten are the stories documented by the reporters who traveled with hundreds of whistle-stopping politicians, including Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. The trains were the backdrop of political drama, intrigue, humor, and triumph for more than 185 years. Campaign trains were an American invention that enabled politicians to connect with as many voters as possible in the country's largest cities and smallest towns. Filled with engaging anecdotes and striking images, this book is an exciting journey back into America's political past, opening new windows into the personalities and political campaigns that shaped our history.

From the coeditor of the best-selling Four Hundred Souls, a galvanizing anthology for those seeking to build an inclusive democracy.In 1968, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer called for Americans to "wake up" if they wanted to "make democracy a reality." Today, as Black communities continue to face challenges built on centuries of discrimination, her plea is increasingly urgent. In this exhilarating anthology of original essays, Keisha N. Blain brings together the voices of major progressive Black women politicians, grassroots activists, and intellectuals to offer critical insights on how we can create a more equitable political future.

From the bowels of Reagan's DOJ to the walls of the conservative Federalist Society to the moneyed Republican resources bankrolling restrictive voting laws today, Daley reveals a hidden history as sweeping as it is troubling. Through careful research and exhaustive reporting, he connects SHELBY COUNTY V. HOLDER to a well-funded, highly-coordinated right-wing effort to erode the power of minority voters and Democrats at the ballot box--an effort that has grown stronger with each election cycle.

Drawing on a series of original surveys and experiments conducted between 2014 and 2020, Dyck and Pearson-Merkowitz show how the dominance of partisanship as a decision cue has fundamentally transformed our understanding of both political and non-political behavior.

American democracy is in trouble. At the heart of the contemporary crisis is a mismatch between America's Constitution and today's nationalized, partisan politics. Although American political institutions remain federated and fragmented, the ground beneath them has moved, with the national subsuming and transforming the local. In this brilliant, paradigm-shifting book, political scientists Paul Pierson and Eric Schickler bring today's challenges into new perspective. Attentive to the different coalitions, interests, and incentives that define the Democratic and Republican parties, they show how contemporary polarization emerged in a rapidly nationalizing country and how it differs from polarization in past eras.

This book is the first comprehensive, analytical, multi-faceted history of Soviet secrecy in the English language. Harrison combines quantitative and qualitative evidence to evaluate the impact of secrecy on Soviet state capacity from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Based on multiple years of research in once-secret Soviet-era archives, this book addresses two gaps in history and social science: one the core role of secrecy in building and stabilizing the communist states of the twentieth century; the other the corrosive effects of secrecy on the capabilities of authoritarian states.

In The Truth About Immigration, Wharton professor Zeke Hernandez draws from nearly 20 years of research to answer all the big questions about immigration. He combines moving personal stories with rigorous research to offer an accessible, apolitical, and evidence-based look at how newcomers affect our local communities and our nation. You'll learn about the overlooked impact of immigrants on investment and job creation; realize how much we take for granted the novel technologies, products, and businesses newcomers create; get the facts straight about perennial concerns like jobs, crime, and undocumented immigrants; and gain new perspectives on misunderstood issues such as the border, taxes, and assimilation.

A groundbreaking look at the hidden role of bankruptcy in perpetuating inequality in America, from an expert in the field.

Roosevelt offers a powerful and inspirational rethinking of our country’s history and uncovers a shared past that we can be proud to claim and use as a foundation to work toward a country that fully embodies equality for all.

The most accessible and informative guide to what the Constitution means today.

Conservative opponents of LGBT equality in the United States often couch their opposition in claims of free speech, free association, and religious liberty. It is no surprise, then, that many LGBT supporters equate First Amendment arguments with resistance to their cause. The First Amendment and LGBT Equality tells another story, about the First Amendment's crucial, yet largely forgotten, role in the first few decades of the gay rights movement. Carlos A. Ball illuminates the full trajectory of this legal and cultural history.

This book places the current attacks on the right of free speech in their proper historical, legal, and political context. Jonathan Turley takes readers through the figures and failures that have shaped us and then shows the unique dangers of our current moment. The alliance of academic, media, and corporate interests with the government's traditional wish to control speech has put us on an almost irresistible path toward censorship. Turley reminds us that we remain a nation grappling with the implications of free expression and with the limits of our tolerance for the speech of others.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, chronicles her life story and her extraordinary path to becoming a jurist on America's highest court, in her inspiring, intimate memoir. In this unflinching account, Justice Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice, within the span of one generation.