Reading List: Insights on American Democracy
Below are several works offering critical insights into the challenges confronting American democracy today. These authors provide a deep understanding of history’s lessons and the path we are currently on. Although all recognize the challenges we face, the first seven believe our democracy is in decline, while the last seven argue that it will ultimately rebound. I encourage you to explore these works and form your own conclusions:
- Anne Applebaum – Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. Applebaum is a historian, journalist, author, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist, specializing in Eastern European history, particularly the Soviet Union and its aftermath. She’s written extensively on democracy, authoritarianism, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc.
- Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Snyder is an author and a historian at Yale University, specializing in modern European history. He is known for his works on Eastern Europe, totalitarianism, and the history of World War II and the Holocaust.
- Heather Cox Richardson – How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. Richardson is a professor and a historian at Boston College, specializing in American political history. She focuses on 19th- and 20th-century U.S. politics and has written extensively about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the long-lasting impacts of Southern political culture.
- Lawrence Goodman – The Coming of the American Behemoth: The Legacy of the Founding Fathers and the Erosion of Democracy. Goodman is an author and historian who focuses on American political history and the erosion of democratic principles. He has written extensively on the history of political institutions in the U.S. and their relationship to broader societal changes.
- David Frum – Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. Frum is a political commentator, journalist, author, and a senior editor at The Atlantic, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and a political commentator. He is known for his writings on U.S. politics, conservative thought, and the impact of Donald Trump on American democracy.
- Masha Gessen – The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. Gessen is a journalist, author, and LGBTQ+ activist that writes about Russian politics, authoritarianism, and the rise of strongman politics, with particular attention to the influence of Putin’s regime.
- Mark Lilla – The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. Lilla is a political scientist, philosopher, author, political theorist, and historian of ideas, currently a professor at Columbia University. He has written on liberalism, political identity, and the challenges facing Western democracies in the modern age.
- Robert Putnam – Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Putnam is a professor and renowned political scientist, best known for his work on social capital and its effects on political and civic engagement. He is a professor at Harvard University and has written extensively about American democracy and its decline in recent decades.
- Theda Skocpol – Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Skocpol is a sociologist, political scientist, and a professor at Harvard University, specializing in American political development and comparative politics. She is particularly known for her work on social movements, political institutions, and the welfare state.
- Larry Diamond – The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. Diamond is a political scientist, author, and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor at Stanford University. He is an expert on the study of democracy, global governance, and political development.
- Francis Fukuyama – Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. Fukuyama is an author, political scientist, and economist, currently at Stanford University. He is best known for his book The End of History and the Last Man and his work on the development of political institutions and democratic theory.
- Sean Wilentz – The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. Wilentz is an author and a historian at Princeton University, specializing in American history, particularly 19th-century political history. He is known for his work on the history of democracy, political parties, and the U.S. presidency.
- E.J. Dionne – Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent. Dionne is a political commentator, columnist for The Washington Post, author, and a professor at Georgetown University. He writes about American politics, democracy, and public policy.
- John Judis – The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics. Judis is an author, journalist, and political commentator, known for his work on populism, American politics, and global political trends. He has written extensively about the rise of populist movements, including in his book The Populist Explosion.