Why am I passionate about this?

I believe in democracy. I think the US has the opportunity to be the worldā€™s first multicultural and inclusive democracy. And I think thatā€™s a very, very hard thing to do. Iā€™ve been writing about democracy through the lens of presidential history my whole career, and I think the US has done some things so impressively well while at the same time it frustratingly keeps failing to live up to its own ideals. The tensions and contradictions in our history as we try to expand and enact those ideas are endlessly fascinating. And Iā€™m nervous that we may be seeing the end of a national commitment to democracy. 


I wrote

Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump

By Mary E. Stuckey,

Book cover of Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump

What is my book about?

From the contest that pitted Thomas Jefferson against John Adams in 1800 through 2020ā€™s vicious, chaotic matchup between Donald Trumpā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics

Mary E. Stuckey Why did I love this book?

I love this book because itā€™s political science at its best; it uses a lot of great data to study how history affects us in the present; it shows us how hard change is and also what makes it possible. Itā€™s depressing and hopeful and super smart. Itā€™s social science but itā€™s also very readable.

By Avidit Acharyo, Matthew Blackwell, Maya Sen

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Deep Roots as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American South

Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. Why haven't these sentiments evolved? Deep Roots shows that the entrenched views of white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery-compared to areasā€¦


Book cover of How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America

Mary E. Stuckey Why did I love this book?

Sheā€™s a super-smart Civil War historian, and this book does something I havenā€™t seen in a lot of Civil War booksā€”it shows how important the West was to the way the US developed after the Civil Warā€”it wasnā€™t just that the nation expanded, but she writes about how both the North and South relied on racial hierarchies, and she centers Native Americans, which I think is a really important part of that story.

By Heather Cox Richardson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How the South Won the Civil War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this provocative new work, Heather Cox Richardson argues that while the North won the Civil War, ending slavery, oligarchy, and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," the victory was short-lived. Settlers from the East pushed into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and treatment of Native Americans cemented racial hierarchies. The Old South found a new home in the West. Both depended on extractive
industries-cotton in the former and mining, cattle, and oil in the latter-giving rise to a white ruling elite, one that thrived despite the abolitionā€¦


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Book cover of Return to Vienna: The Special Operations Executive and the Rebirth of Austria

Return to Vienna by Peter Dixon,

"Captain Charles Kennedy" parachuted into a moonlit Austrian forest and searched frantically for his lost radio set. His real name was Leo Hillman and he was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. He was going home. Men and women of Churchillā€™s secret Special Operations Executive worked to free Austria from Hitler'sā€¦

Book cover of Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office

Mary E. Stuckey Why did I love this book?

This is another readable bookā€”and itā€™s really important because these authors donā€™t just focus on the norms that Trump violated and that get so much attention, but actually offer an interesting analysis of the things he did administratively that weakened the office of the presidency and the national government. People tend to think Trump was a poor administrator, and in many ways, of course, he was, but his actions have consequences that we donā€™t always see and this book tells us about them.

By Susan Hennessey, Benjamin Wittes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Unmaking the Presidency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"This is a book for everyone who has developed an unexpected nostalgia for political 'norms' during the Trump years . . . Other books on the Trump White House expertly detail the mayhem inside; this book builds on those works to detail its consequences." ā€•Carlos Lozada (one of twelve books to read "to understand what's going on")

"Perhaps the most penetrating book to have been written about Trump in office." ā€•Lawrence Douglas, The Times Literary Supplement

The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency

The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has noā€¦


Book cover of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Mary E. Stuckey Why did I love this book?

Everyone ought to read this book. Itā€™s beautifully written and itā€™s a detailed history of the US and its relationship to racism. Kendi makes a convincing case that racism is about policyā€”what we doā€”more than it is about attitudesā€”what we feel and think. In focusing on the institutional and historical aspects of racism, he both offers a necessary corrective to many histories of the US, but also does so in a way that shows how the national history is deeply influenced by its political economy. 

By Ibram X. Kendi,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Stamped from the Beginning as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Stamped from the Beginning is a redefining history of anti-Black racist ideas that dramatically changes our understanding of the causes and extent of racist thinking itself.

** Winner of the US National Book Award**

Its deeply researched and fast-moving narrative chronicles the journey of racist ideas from fifteenth-century Europe to present-day America through the lives of five major intellectuals - Puritan minister Cotton Mather, President Thomas Jefferson, fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis - showing how these ideas were developed, disseminated and eventually enshrined in American society.

Contrary to popularā€¦


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Book cover of Cold War: A Novel of the Berlin Airlift

Cold War by Helena P. Schrader,

Stopping Russian Aggression with milk, coal, and candy barsā€¦.

Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians will starve unless they receive food, medicine, and more by air.

USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF Flight Lieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin. Theyā€¦

Book cover of How Democracies Die

Mary E. Stuckey Why did I love this book?

These two authors are experts in comparative politics, and this book turns that lens on the US. I think this is important because it takes us out of the ā€œUS is differentā€ mindset and because it is clear that threats to democracy are a global phenomenon. This book puts the US case in that context and shows us just how shaky our democracy currently is and why. 

By Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked How Democracies Die as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The most important book of the Trump era' The Economist

How does a democracy die?
What can we do to save our own?
What lessons does history teach us?

In the 21st century democracy is threatened like never before.

Drawing insightful lessons from across history - from Pinochet's murderous Chilean regime to Erdogan's quiet dismantling in Turkey - Levitsky and Ziblatt explain why democracies fail, how leaders like Trump subvert them today and what each of us can do to protect our democratic rights.

'This book looks to history to provide a guide for defending democratic norms when they areā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump

By Mary E. Stuckey,

Book cover of Deplorable: The Worst Presidential Campaigns from Jefferson to Trump

What is my book about?

From the contest that pitted Thomas Jefferson against John Adams in 1800 through 2020ā€™s vicious, chaotic matchup between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Stuckey documents the cycle of despicable discourse in presidential campaigns. Looking beyond the character and the ideology of the candidates, Stuckey explores the broader political, economic, and cultural milieus in which each took place. In doing so, she reveals the conditions that exacerbate and enable our worst political instincts, producing discourses that incite factions, target members of the polity, encourage undemocratic policy, and actively work against the national democratic project.

Keenly analytical and compulsively readable, Deplorable provides context for the 2016 and 2020 elections, revealing them as part of a cyclicalā€•and perhaps downward-spiralingā€•pattern in American politics. Deplorable offers more than a comparison of the worst of our elections. It helps us understand these shameful and disappointing moments in our political history, leaving one important question: Can we avoid them in the future?

Book cover of Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics
Book cover of How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
Book cover of Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office

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The Fornax Assassin by J.C. Gemmell,

In 2038 a devastating pandemic sweeps across the world. Two decades later, Britain remains the epicenter for the Fornax variant, annexed by a terrified global community.

David Malik is as careful as any man to avoid contact with the virus. But when his sister tests positive as an asymptomatic carrier,ā€¦

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Grand Old Unraveling by John Kenneth White,

It didnā€™t begin with Donald Trump. When the Republican Party lost five straight presidential elections during the 1930s and 1940s, three things happened: (1) Republicans came to believe that presidential elections are rigged; (2) Conspiracy theories arose and were believed; and (3) The presidency was elevated to cult-like status.

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Interested in political culture, the South, and the American West?

The South 190 books
The American West 143 books