Need help understanding the upcoming election? Here are a few audiobooks to help you make sense of the current political climate.

All the King’s Men

Written by Robert Penn Warren

Performed by Michael Emerson

Published by Recorded Books

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

All the King’s Men tells the story of Willie Stark, a southern-fried politician who builds support by appealing to the common man and playing dirty politics with the best of the back-room deal-makers. Though Stark quickly sheds his idealism, his right-hand man, Jack Burden — who narrates the story — retains it and proves to be a thorn in the new governor’s side. Stark becomes a successful leader, but at a very high price, one that eventually costs him his life. The award-winning book is a play of politics, society and personal affairs, all wrapped in the cloak of history.

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Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72

Written by Hunter S. Thompson

Performed by Scott Sowers

Published by Recorded Books

“The best account yet published of what it feels like to be out there in the middle of the American political process.” — The New York Times Book Review

Hilarious, terrifying, insightful, and compulsively readable, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 is an epic political adventure that captures the feel of the American democratic process better than any other book ever written—and that is just as relevant to the many ills and issues roiling the nation today.

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Reagan: His Life and Legend

Written by Max Boot

Performed by Graham Winton

Published by Recorded Books

Named one of the “Nonfiction Books to Read This Fall” by NPR and the New York Times

Instant New York Times Bestseller

In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology.

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The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump

Written by Clay Cane

Performed by Clay Cane

Published by Recorded Books

Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

Part history and part cultural analysis, The Grift chronicles the nuanced history of Black Republicans. Clay Cane lays out how Black Republicanism has been mangled by opportunists who are apologists for racism.

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Women Money Power: The Rise and Fall of Economic Equality

Written by Josie Cox

Performed by Josie Cox

Published by Recorded Books

“A necessary and riveting read.”―Francesca Donner, former gender director at the New York Times

A narrative history of women fighting for financial freedom, and the social and political hurdles that have kept them from equality. Cox delves deep into the challenges women face today and the culture and systems that hold them back. This is a fascinating narrative account of progress, women’s lives, and the work that remains to be done.

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Praise for Women Money Power

 

A Seat at the Table: The Life and Times of Shirley Chisholm

Written by Drs. Glenn L. Starks and F. Erik Brooks

Performed by Kim Staunton

Published by Recorded Books

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisolm rose from being the child of immigrants to running for the highest office in the land. She was both the first African American woman elected to the US Congress and the first African American woman of a major political party to make a serious run for president of the United States.

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Get Off My Neck: Black Lives, White Justice, and a Former Prosecutor’s Quest for Reform

Written by Debbie Hines

Performed by Karen Chilton

Published by Recorded Books

In Get Off My Neck, Debbie Hines draws on her unique perspective as a trial lawyer, former Baltimore prosecutor, and assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland to argue that US prosecutors, as the most powerful players in the criminal justice system, systematically target and criminalize Black people.

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The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism

Written by R. Derek Black

Performed by R. Derek Black

Published by Recorded Books

“The Klansman’s Son is a must-read for all who hunger for hope in these cruel times.” ―Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan f

From the former heir apparent to White nationalism, an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, and of breaking from a community of hate.

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Praise for The Klansman’s Son

 

We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite

Written by Musa al-Gharbi

Performed by Musa al-Gharbi

Published by Recorded Books

We Have Never Been Woke details how the language of social justice is increasingly used to justify this elite—and to portray the losers in the knowledge economy as deserving their lot because they think or say the “wrong” things about race, gender, and sexuality. Al-Gharbi’s point is not to accuse symbolic capitalists of hypocrisy or cynicism. Rather, he examines how their genuine beliefs prevent them from recognizing how they contribute to social problems—or how their actions regularly provoke backlash against the social justice causes they champion.

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What It Takes: The Way to the White House

Written by Richard Ben Cramer

Performed by Keith Sellon-Wright

Published by Tantor Audio

An American Iliad in the guise of contemporary political reportage, What It Takes penetrates the mystery at the heart of all presidential campaigns: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate?

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The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Written by Ned Blackhawk

Performed by Jason Grasl

Published by Tantor Audio

National Bestseller

Named a best book of 2023 by New Yorker, Esquire, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble

Winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Nonfiction

Finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Award in History

Winner of 2024 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction

Winner of the 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize

The most enduring feature of US history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America.

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Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People – and the Fight to Resist It

Written by Ari Berman

Performed by Gary Tiedemann

Published by Tantor Audio

Chilling and revelatory, Minority Rule exposes the long history of the conflict between white supremacy and multiracial democracy that has reached a fever pitch today—while also telling the inspiring story of resistance to these regressive efforts.

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