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Pulitzer winner Ahamed offers an eye-opening revisitation of the 1873 stock market crash and the economic slump that followed—the first to actually be called the Great Depression—and traces ways in which that crash, much like subsequent crashes, prompted reactionary politics all over the world, including the end of Reconstruction and a rise in antisemitism.
This fascinating counter-history of America unspools how, since the country’s founding, a strain of right-leaning American thinkers have been consistently arguing in favor of aristocracy and against the notion that all men are created equal. Historian Phillips-Fein makes the case that this line of thinking has been critical to the right’s ascendancy under Trump.
Journalist Klein and activist Taylor pinpoint ways in which the modern American right has come to embrace the notion that the end of the world is imminent—whether because of AI, white replacement, or a good old-fashioned Second Coming—and persuasively argue that the left can gain political ground by offering people hope for the future instead of doom and gloom.
New York Times Book Review editor Eakin’s debut traces her intellectual love affair with French theorists from Althusser to Foucault, blending biography, autobiography, and cultural criticism into a single, dazzling whole. She manages to shake the dust of history off these thinkers while inviting readers to revel in the pleasures of encountering big ideas for the first time.
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Drawing partly on her own family history, journalist and artist Crabapple takes a stirring deep dive into the history of the Bund, a Jewish socialist party in Eastern Europe that opposed Zionism, fought the Nazis, and was dismantled by the Soviets. It’s an invigorating, heartfelt immersion into an oft-overlooked part of Jewish history.
With this stellar biography, Vanderbilt English professor Lordi rescues Whitney Houston from the tortured female artist stereotype, reframing her as a canny musical interpreter who made familiar songs her own and helped Black artists break into the mainstream. Deep research and sharp musical analysis make this tribute as fascinating as its subject.
Journalist Wilson’s ambitious account of how modern civilization might unravel doubles somewhat improbably as a moving ode to the beauty of the world made stark by the nearness of such a disaster. Uncompromisingly honest and filled with razor-sharp insights, this is difficult to forget.
Blending philosophy, memoir, and science, this is a beautiful tribute to the wisdom of trees and an urgent call for their protection. Whether climbing sequoias or tracing the branches of his family tree, journalist Moor demonstrates the transformative effects of viewing the world with an “arborescent mind.”
This impressive history demonstrates how, amid anti-communist anxieties in mid-century America, political institutions and sports officials framed baseball star Jackie Robinson as a heroic foil to actor Paul Robeson, a vocal critic of capitalism. Sports journalist Bryant keenly reveals how the situation typified Black Americans’ internal conflict between patriotism and protest. It’s a brilliant and eye-opening corrective of the past.
Novelist Haddon collages photographs, illustrations, and colorful biographical snippets into a memoir of his rocky childhood and writing career. Along the way, he tangles with a constellation of fears, obsessions, and preoccupations—about writing, the fallibility of memory, flying, and familial obligation—and comes away with an uncommonly intimate map of a creative mind.
Journalist Giridharadas offers a kaleidoscopic examination of the 2023 subway slaying of Jordan Neely and the acquittal of his killer Daniel Penny that traces the dense web of connections that brought both men to the fateful encounter. It adds up to an elegant rumination on the growing divide between America’s haves and have-nots.
Goldstein, a philosopher and novelist, elegantly moves between philosophy and reportage for this revelatory consideration of how the desire to matter shapes both inner life and social values. In the process, she makes a moving case for the importance of honoring innate human worth in a frequently impersonal and fractured world.
This innovative study combines an enthralling history of the New York Mets with a smart analysis of Marxism to demonstrate that baseball has long served as an arena for class conflict. Gittlitz makes unique and bold connections between politics and sports, resulting in a singular celebration of a beloved team.
At over a thousand pages and decades in the making, this spellbinding biography is a rare achievement deserving of comparison to acclaimed tomes like The Power Broker. Chronicling the life and influence of the Random House founder, former PW contributing editor Feldman vividly recreates the heyday of book publishing and pulls back the curtain on how many classics came to be.
Much has been written about Toni Morrison since her death in 2019, but nothing has been quite as revelatory as this masterful work of literary criticism. Refusing to allow Morrison’s public image to overshadow the genius of her novels, Serpell illuminates the complexity within Morrison’s craft. It’s an enthralling tour of a legendary writer’s oeuvre.
Drawing on her own and her family’s experiences, novelist Arafat paints a nuanced, ruminative portrait of the Palestinian diaspora in America today, with a focus on the painful, maddening reality of living in a world that refuses to acknowledge the crimes being committed against one’s homeland.
It’s one thing to make complex mathematical concepts accessible to a lay audience, but to illustrate their importance through an engrossing, character-driven narrative is a feat only a journalist as adept as Hartnett can pull off. This cinematic account of the creation of Lean, a software tool that’s become vital for mathematicians and AI researchers, is necessary reading for understanding the rise of human-computer collaboration.
Philosopher Watson traces in her ambitious debut how the instinct to question has shaped human development, from information-seeking behaviors animals developed millions of years ago to existential queries that help people understand the world and their place in it. Throughout, she makes a persuasive case that asking better questions can stoke curiosity and connection in a culture obsessed with certainty.
In this propulsive study, historian Philbrick recasts the California gold rush as having had a massive impact on modern America’s cultural life, from its time-is-money ethos and exploitation of immigrants to its inculcation of Americans’ uniquely strong faith in technological innovation to solve problems.
University of Utah philosophy professor Nguyen provides a lively, erudite look at how scoring systems shape the world—occasioning creative forms of play at the hobby level but flattening value at the institutional scale (think college rankings). The result is an energetic exploration full of advice for resisting the gamification of society.
Turning an eye toward her West Virginia childhood, the Pulitzer winner employs luscious, lyrical prose to consider how the midcentury mining town that birthed her also shaped her into the wordsmith she’s become. Both an elegy for a long-gone way of life and a finely detailed self-portrait, it’s one of the finest memoirs of the year.
This stirring hybrid of memoir and science writing parallels biophysicist Osmundson’s study of salmon spawning and climate collapse with his attempt to father a child with a pair of lesbian friends. In the process, he addresses a constellation of contemporary anxieties—about family, futurelessness, and economic struggle—with infectious curiosity.
UN special rapporteur Albanese recounts the surreal experience of being sanctioned by the U.S. for working with the International Criminal Court to investigate Israeli crimes against Palestinians. This provides invaluable insight into how voices speaking out for Palestine are systemically silenced.
Journalist Barragán tracks down and interviews the impoverished young Nigerian scammers who use seduction to wring money and gifts out of lonely older Westerners, finding breathtaking pathos and empathy on both sides of the con.
Uglow brings unmatched depth and intimacy to this biography of the pioneering 18th-century naturalist. Drawing on White’s detailed daily journals to reconstruct a year of his life, she elucidates the many wonders of nature while expanding the boundaries of what biography can be. It’s enchanting.
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