Books You Should Read for This Current Moment (Part 2)
The Authors Who Have the Most to Teach Us About Our History and Ourselves
Last week, I shared a series of books and authors that I felt were essential reads for the current social and historical moment that we’re witnessing across the globe. Today, we’re continuing with a few more of my favorite historians and authors.
Heather Cox Richardson
“The concept that humans have the right to determine their own fate remains as true today as it was when the Founders put that statement into the Declaration of Independence, a statement so radical that even they did not understand its full implications.” - Heather Cox Richardson, Democracy Awakening1
Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and history professor at Boston College. Her areas of expertise are the American Civil War, Reconstruction, and Native American cultures. Those reading this on Substack may also be familiar with her daily newsletter, Letters from an American in which Richardson contextualizes current events in the United States through the lens of the country’s history. As of writing, it is currently the second top Substack publication in the United States.2
Adopting a similar style as her daily letters, Richardson’s most recent book provides a general overview of the current social-political landscape that we’re in. Richardson reviews where we are today, what historical events led us to this point, and—most importantly—how to get out of it. Her work, though sometimes dealing with heavy subjects, is fun, insightful, and leaves you with a greater love of history that you may not have gotten in your school years.
Selected Works
Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson
Timothy Snyder
“It is thus a primary American tradition to consider history when our political order seems imperiled.” - Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny3
Timothy Snyder is an American historian and professor at Yale University, where he teaches lectures on the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust. Snyder’s claim to renown came with his 2017 release, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.
In that book, and its recent companion piece, On Freedom, Snyder draws on his study of authoritarian regimes and uses that history to give us practical tips on how to resist and stay sane when it feels like the world around you is falling apart. Snyder’s work offers meditations on the principles of truth, community, and solidarity that we must all seek to remember in the times ahead.
Selected Works
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
On Freedom by Timothy Snyder
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder
Henry David Thoreau
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” - Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience4
Henry David Thoreau was an American writer, philosopher, and Transcendentalist during the 19th century. One cannot have a discussion on resistance in a civilized society without invoking Thoreau’s aptly named Resistance to Civil Government, known more commonly today as the essay, Civil Disobedience.
This work of social political philosophy is known to be the influence of some of history’s great civil rights figures, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. If there’s any work to start with when resisting the status quo, this would be it. Paired with Hannah Arendt’s essay on the same subject, I’ve provided the link to the Library of America edition of both essays below.
Selected Works
On Civil Disobedience by Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau5
Simone Weil
“In the Anglo-Saxon world, political parties have an element of game, of sport, which is only conceivable in an institution of aristocratic origin, whereas in institutions that were plebian from the start, everything must always be serious.” - Simone Weil, On the Abolition of All Political Parties6
Simone Weil was a French philosopher and political activist during the early-mid 20th century. The sister of famed mathematician André Weil, Simone Weil was born into a family of immense intellectual heritage, her father also being a well-established doctor before the Second World War. Before her early death at the age of 34, Weil was a professional teacher and assisted trade unions and working-class laborers.
Weil’s primary areas of philosophic study include the philosophies of religion, science, morality, and politics—the latter of which will be emphasized on this list. Among Weil’s copious works, I’ve selected her essay, On the Abolition of All Political Parties as well as an anthology of her works published by Grove Press. These essays serve to complement some of the 20th-century thinkers and specialists on this list and provide an insightful perspective on the greatest conflict of that century by someone who intimately studied its most disaffected.7
Selected Works
On the Abolition of All Political Parties by Simone Weil
Simone Weil: An Anthology by Simone Weil
Bob Woodward
“In the past, a president could go abroad and meet with adversaries knowing the other political party would back him and his predecessor wouldn’t meddle. No more.” - Bob Woodward, War8
Bob Woodward is one of the United States’s most honored investigative journalists. His claim to fame in American journalism arose from his coverage of the Watergate scandal, along with fellow former Washington Post reporter, Carl Bernstein.
After an over fifty-year career, Woodward has written and provided coverage of ten United States presidents. His legacy and life’s work provide us with real-time records of the last half-century of United States political history and leadership. Woodward’s work compliments the works of other living historians on this list who have voiced their stances on current events both in America and abroad.9
Selected Works
Bush at War by Bob Woodward
Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account of the Decision to Invade Iraq (Bush at War, Part II) by Bob Woodward
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008 by Bob Woodward
Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward
The Price of Politics by Bob Woodward
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
Rage by Bob Woodward
Peril by Bob Woodward & Robert Costa
The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump by Bob Woodward
War by Bob Woodward
Malcolm X
“Whenever you’re going after something that belongs to you, anyone who’s depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal. Understand that. Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal.” - Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet10
To round out this list, we have former civil rights activist and long-term critic of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. King’s presence in American literature and cultural circles is both pervasive and, in some regions, coopted in favor of ideologies that go against the actions and legacy of the reverend himself.11
I think that in studying the legacies of both men, it is important to remark on the trajectories they traversed in the 20th century, where their paths crossed, and ultimately the ideological ends to which they both reached.
A reading of some of King’s later addresses reveals a fiery tone distinct from that of his earlier addresses in the movement—demands not merely for social change, but economic and structural shifts.
While Malcolm’s early addresses and writings evoked unwavering notions of Black empowerment, his writings after leaving the Nation of Islam begin to show a progression towards a hypothetical mean between him and King. His later addresses still maintain a degree of intensity, but directionally he sought to guide us closer to what King and he both desired: a comfortable coexistence between men and women of all backgrounds.
I include Malcolm X on this list over King because I believe that the relative lightness of most of King’s prose is less suited to this present moment. I, as a lifelong student of King’s work, have long neglected the work of his rival and contemporary. I feel many of us have done the same.
This present moment calls for those among us to become leaders—for people to fight, even in dangerous times. Hopefully, Malcolm’s words give us the courage we need to step up and face what’s before us, by any means necessary.
Of Malcolm’s works that have been published, one must make note of the autobiography that he co-wrote with Roots author, Alex Haley. I also recommend George Breitman’s edited collection of Malcolm’s public addresses and statements.12
Selected Works
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements by Malcolm X (edited by George Breitman)
This present moment demands that we stay grounded in the present reality. We cannot delude ourselves with visions of an idealistic past we wish to return to. We must pursue a path forward that is based on the fundamental truths established before us. Those truths, core to our collective history, are what will bring us to a future of collective understanding.
In the days/months/years ahead, these books will be a guiding light in my writing and daily life. In the future, I would like to organize reading groups for a few of the works mentioned above through my Substack newsletter.
If any of you are interested in building a literary community around any of these works, please let me know in the comments of this post or message me on one of the social media platforms below.
I would also encourage you to subscribe to my free Substack newsletter where I post regular articles on literature and how to become better and more well-informed readers.
Thank you so much for your time. Happy reading!
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Sources:
Richardson, Heather Cox. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. Kindle. New York, New York, United States of America: Viking, 2023.
Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century. New York, New York, United States of America, Tim Duggan Books, 2017.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, and Henry David Thoreau. Transcendentalism: Essential Essays of Emerson & Thoreau. Edited by Paul Moliken, Douglas Grudzina, Sondra Y. Abel, and Elizabeth Osborne. 2007. Reprint, Clayton, Delaware, United States of America: Prestwick House, 2013.
Weil, Simone. On the Abolition of All Political Parties. Translated by Simon Leys. New York, New York, United States of America: The New York Review of Books, 2013.
Woodward, Bob. War. New York, New York, United States of America: Simon & Schuster, 2024.
X, Malcolm. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. Edited by George Breitman. 1965. Reprint, New York, New York, United States of America: Grove Press, 2024.
Richardson, Democracy Awakening, xxi.
Cited from the Substack leaderboards (https://substack.com/globe?country=US).
Snyder, On Tyranny, 10.
Transcendentalism: Essential Essays of Emerson & Thoreau, ed. Moliken et al., 59.
This is a dual-publication by the Library of America and is featured twice on this list.
Weil, On the Abolition of All Political Parties, 3.
In the latter regard, I feel that Weil pairs especially well with Arendt.
Woodward, War, 30.
Of particular note, Heather Cox Richardon’s Letters from an American newsletter.
Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, ed. Breitman, 36.
One need only look at how contemporary figures distort the King’s phrase “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” to see what is meant by this.
A selection of these public addresses exist in audio-recorded form. Sometimes I like to listen to the available recordings as I read to fully capture the energy of Malcolm’s words.