The books to read before the US election

I’ve been asked by a few people what to read in the final, nerve-shredding days before the US presidential election on November 5. This is a harder question to answer than it might seem. There are shelves full of books relevant to this historic race, mostly (I’m sad to say) about the rise of MAGA and the erosion of American democracy. Here’s a selection of suggestions:

DONALD TRUMP

The indispensable guide is still Michael Wolff’s best-selling trilogy, Fire and Fury; Siege and Landslide. David Frum’s Trumpocracy and Trumpocalypse are also excellent.

For a single-volume account of Trump’s White House years, try The Divider by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser or Maggie Haberman’s Confidence Man.

For what happened after he slunk angrily from office in 2021, Meredith McGraw’s Trump in Exile is very good. If you’re interested in Trump’s formative years, check out Lucky Loser by Russ Buettner and Susan Craig.

KAMALA HARRIS

You can tell that nobody in the publishing industry thought that the vice-president was ever going to be a serious contender for the top job by the shortage of books on the Democrat nominee. Only Dan Morain’s Kamala’s Way is worth your time. So too is Harris’s own 2019 campaign memoir, The Truths We Hold.

Franklin Foer’s book on Joe Biden, The Last Politician, also has some interesting sections on her part in his administration.

HARRIS’S COALITION

Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor is a compelling story of the transformation of a hard-nosed Republican into an ardent Harris supporter (amazingly, Cheney’s father, Dick, is also voting for the vice-president).

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER NOVEMBER 5?

The procedures and formalities between polling day and the 47th president’s inauguration on January 20 are complex, variable from state to state and (as we now know) vulnerable to serious disruption. L. Sandy Maisel’s American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction is a useful guide. It might be wise to take a look at the US Constitution, too.

THE MILITIAS

Since January 6, the paramilitary groups that stand ready to support Trump by any means necessary have regrouped and prepared for the next battle. David Neiwert’s The Age of Insurrection plots the rise of MAGA’s guerrilla wing.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

TNE’s very own James Ball has written much the best book on QAnon: The Other Pandemic. Also worth a look is Gabriel Gatehouse’s recently published The Coming Storm.

HOW THE HELL DID WE GET HERE?

George Packer’s The Unwinding remains the best window into the fractured American psyche. Tim Alberta’s American Carnage is also terrific, while Jill Lepore’s collection of essays, The American Beast, provides essential historic context and analysis.

Why We Did It by Tim Miller – now lead podcaster on the never-Trump news site The Bulwark – tries to explain why so many traditional Republicans supported Trump for so long (and, for the most part, still do).

HOW BAD COULD IT GET?

If you’re anxious by temperament, don’t read Sinclair Lewis’s dystopian 1935 classic, It Can’t Happen Here. Otherwise, dig in and marvel at the Minnesota-born novelist’s foresight.

The in-house philosopher of the new right movement is Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, whose Regime Change is as intellectually eccentric as it is – in the present context – deeply alarming (“aristopopulism”, anyone?).

ANYTHING CHEERFUL?

US historian Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America is full of erudite optimism. Robert Kagan’s Rebellion is a stirring tract that urges the reader not to give up hope, while Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer’s True Gretch is a manual for victory – now, or in the future.