Society & Culture

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection John Green · 2025 · read Jun 2026John Green's narrative history of tuberculosis, braiding the disease's social and scientific past with the present-day story of… Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History Yasmeen Abutaleb, Damian Paletta · 2021 · read Jun 2026Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta's account of the Trump administration's COVID-19 response from… The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson Jeffrey Toobin · 1996 · read Jun 2026Jeffrey Toobin's definitive contemporaneous account of the O.J. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America Robert B. Reich · 2025 · read Mar 2026Robert Reich's 2025 memoir — across his career as Labor Secretary, Berkeley professor, and progressive public intellectual —… Too Famous Michael Wolff · 2021 · read Feb 2026Michael Wolff's 2021 essay collection — pieces on Trump, Boris Johnson, Murdoch, the Clintons, the post-2016… The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich Evan Osnos · 2025 · read Jan 2026New Yorker writer Evan Osnos's 2025 collection of his pieces on the contemporary ultra-rich — superyachts, doomsday prepping,… Abundance Ezra Klein · 2025 · read Jan 2026Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's 2025 manifesto for "abundance liberalism" — the argument that progressive governance has come to… Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling Jonathan D. Cohen · 2025 · read Oct 2025Jonathan Cohen's history-and-policy book on the explosion of American sports gambling after the 2018 Murphy v. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America Nancy Isenberg · 2016 · read Mar 2025Nancy Isenberg's history of poor white Americans from English colonization forward — the language ("waste people," "lubbers,"… On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything Nate Silver · 2024 · read Mar 2025Nate Silver's expansive book on the culture of professional risk-taking — poker, sports betting, prediction markets, hedge funds,… Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past Steve Benen · 2024 · read Feb 2025MSNBC producer Steve Benen's argument that the Republican Party's most effective post-2020 move has been the systematic rewriting… Revenge of the Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell · 2024 · read Jan 2025Gladwell's 2024 reassessment of his own foundational framework — both expanding it (the concept of "overstories" — the narratives… The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell · 2000 · read Jan 2025Gladwell's 2000 breakout book reframing social change as epidemiology — ideas, products, and behaviors spread through populations… The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness Jonathan Haidt · 2024 · read Dec 2024Jonathan Haidt's argument — built from cross-national mental-health data — that smartphones and social media starting around… The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet Jeff Goodell · 2023 · read Oct 2024Climate journalist Jeff Goodell's argument that heat — not sea-level rise or storms — is the most underappreciated immediate… Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success Russ Buettner · 2024 · read Sep 2024NYT investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig's definitive financial biography — the Pulitzer-winning tax-records… The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal Mary L. Trump · 2021 · read Sep 2024Mary Trump's follow-up to Too Much and Never Enough — moving from her uncle's family pathology to the national trauma she argues… Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America Barbara McQuade · 2024 · read Sep 2024Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade's argument that disinformation is not just a media problem but a structural legal and… What Happened Hillary Rodham Clinton · 2017 · read Sep 2024Hillary Clinton's 2017 memoir of the 2016 presidential campaign — what she thinks she did wrong, what she thinks others did… American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power Andrea Bernstein · 2020 · read Aug 2024WNYC's Andrea Bernstein on the parallel rise of the Trump and Kushner families — both real-estate dynasties with… The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It Robert B. Reich · 2020 · read Aug 2024Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich's compact argument that American political economy has been deliberately rigged for… Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J.D. Vance · 2016 · read Jul 2024J.D. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty Patrick Radden Keefe · 2021 · read Jun 2024Patrick Radden Keefe's investigative history of the Sackler family — from Arthur Sackler's mid-20th-century pharmaceutical… Sandy Hook Elizabeth Williamson · 2022 · read Jun 2024NYT writer Elizabeth Williamson's account of the Sandy Hook massacre, the conspiracy theorists who claimed it was staged, and the… First Platoon: A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance Annie Jacobsen · 2021 · read May 2024Jacobsen's narrative of an Army platoon's deployment in Afghanistan — a court-martial story interwoven with the technology of… Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base Annie Jacobsen · 2011 · read May 2024Jacobsen's history of the Nevada Test Site / Groom Lake — the U-2, A-12, SR-71, F-117, drone-development programs — built on… Pipeline to Power: The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court Vicky Ward · 2023 · read Nov 2023Investigative reporter Vicky Ward's history of the four-decade conservative legal movement — Federalist Society founding, Leonard… American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 Cameron McWhirter · 2023 · read Oct 2023Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson's history of the AR-15 — from Eugene Stoner's 1950s design… End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration Peter Turchin · 2023 · read Aug 2023Peter Turchin's argument from his "cliodynamics" project — a quantitative, predictive social science of historical cycles — that… The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets Matthew Connelly · 2023 · read May 2023Columbia historian Matthew Connelly's argument — built from a massive computational analysis of declassified documents — that the… Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us Brian Klaas · 2021 · read May 2023Political scientist Brian Klaas's investigation of two competing theories about power and bad behavior — does power corrupt… Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Matthew Desmond · 2016 · read Apr 2023Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer-winning ethnography of eviction in Milwaukee — eight families and two landlords,… Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis (New Threats to Freedom Series) Nicholas Eberstadt · 2016 · read Feb 2023AEI demographer Eberstadt's data-driven case that the collapse in prime-age male labor force participation — masked by the… Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion Gabrielle Stanley Blair · 2022 · read Dec 2022A short, argument-driven reframing that places responsibility for unwanted pregnancy squarely on male behavior — specifically,… For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America Jonathan D. Cohen · 2022 · read Dec 2022A historian's account of how state-run lotteries went from constitutionally banned vice to ubiquitous fixture of state finance… Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America Kurt Andersen · 2020 · read Sep 2022Andersen's companion-volume argument that the explosion of inequality since the 1970s wasn't drift or accident but a deliberate,… Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History Kurt Andersen · 2017 · read Sep 2022Andersen's argument that America has always been disproportionately credulous — built by religious utopians, hucksters, and… Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World Dorothy Roberts · 2022 · read Aug 2022A legal scholar's argument that the U.S. Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power Anna Merlan · 2019 · read Jul 2022A reporter's immersive tour of contemporary American conspiracy subcultures — anti-vaxxers, Sandy Hook truthers, Pizzagate, UFOs,… The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Mehrsa Baradaran · 2017 · read Jul 2022Law professor Mehrsa Baradaran's history of Black banking in America — from Reconstruction's Freedman's Savings Bank through… The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy Peter Temin · 2017 · read Mar 2021MIT economist Peter Temin's application of W. Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates · 2015 · read Feb 2021Ta-Nehisi Coates's 2015 National Book Award-winning letter to his teenage son — about race, the body, American history, and the… White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America Joan C. Williams · 2017 · read Feb 2021Law professor Joan C. The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person Frederick Joseph · 2020 · read Feb 2021Frederick Joseph's 2020 collection of letters and essays addressed to white friends and family — written for young-adult-adjacent… Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 Eric Foner · 1988 · read Jan 2021Foner's canonical 1988 history of the Reconstruction era, treating it as a genuinely revolutionary moment — a serious attempt at… Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners, and Experts with Something to Teach Danny Iny · 2018 · read Jan 2021Danny Iny's framework book on the online-education economy — for both lifelong learners navigating the proliferation of courses… How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi · 2019 · read Jan 2021Ibram X. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism Robin DiAngelo · 2018 · read Jan 2021Robin DiAngelo's 2018 framework book on "white fragility" — the defensive emotional and rhetorical reactions she observes in… So You Want to Talk About Race Ijeoma Oluo · 2018 · read Dec 2020Ijeoma Oluo's 2018 chapter-by-chapter practical guide to specific race-related conversations and concepts — what affirmative… How to Win Friends & Influence People Dale Carnegie · 1936 · read Nov 2019Dale Carnegie's 1936 self-help classic — practical principles for improving relationships, persuading others, and leading without… Outliers: The Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell · 2008 · read Nov 2019Gladwell's 2008 book on the structural conditions of extraordinary success — the famous "10,000 hours" thesis, the birth-date…