The coming season will bring reflections on political philosophy from some big names, more dissections of political polarization, accounts of immigration, books on Native American issues, and arguments for criminal justice reform.
Top 10
An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago
Alex Kotlowitz. Doubleday/Talese, Mar. 5 (hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-385-53880-0)
The bestselling author of the empathetically reported There Are No Children Here chronicles a summer in Chicago through profiles of gun violence survivors and perpetrators.
Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration
Emily Bazelon. Random House, Apr. 9 (hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-399-59001-6)
Journalist Bazelon argues that a power imbalance between prosecutors and defense attorneys leads to injustice and profiles prosecutors who are working to change that.
The Conservative Sensibility
George F. Will. Hachette, June 4 (hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-316-48093-2)
The Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist writes that the founders’ vision of natural rights, limited government, and virtuous life are under attack from progressives and Republicans.
The Hill to Die on: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America
Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman. Crown, Apr. 9 (hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-57474-3)
The Politico Playbook writers examine the 2018 midterm elections, including Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation and dramatic primaries. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto
Suketu Mehta. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 14 (hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-374-27602-7)
Journalist Mehta argues that immigration is a result of colonialism, causes less trouble than the fear of immigrants does, and can benefit the West. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Parkland
Dave Cullen. Harper, Feb. 12 (hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-288294-3)
The author of Columbine returns with an account of the survivor-activists spurred to action by the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment
Linda Hirshman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 11 (hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-328-56644-7)
Historian Hirshman traces the evolution of the fight against sexual harassment via legal cases, from the first acknowledgment of workplace harassment in the 1970s through Bill Clinton’s scandal to the #MeToo movement. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
Ben Shapiro. Broadside, Mar. 19 (hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-285790-3)
Conservative commentator Shapiro argues that scientific progress, the concept of human rights, the end of slavery, artistic excellence, and other achievements were spawned by following Judeo-Christian values, and that rejecting them will lead to negative societal consequences.
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
Adam Gopnik. Basic, May 14 (hardcover, $26 ISBN 978-1-5416-9936-6)
New Yorker staff writer Gopnik offers a liberal manifesto structured around the lives of the tradition’s notables, from Montaigne to civil rights leaders.
The Witches Are Coming
Lindy West. Hachette, May 28 (hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-44988-5)
Feminist essayist West (Shrill) takes a look at how pop culture has fomented misogyny and intolerance for generations, and the changes the #MeToo moment will bring.
Politics Listings
Abrams
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez (Mar. 12, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4197-2907-2) looks at a major flaw in data that guides healthcare, economic development, education, and other areas: it fails to take gender into account, treating male subjects as typical and female subjects as atypical.
All Points
The Method to the Madness: Donald Trump’s Ascent as Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired—and Inaugurated by Allen Salkin and Aaron Short (May 21, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-20280-2). Drawing on interviews with dozens of people close to Donald Trump, Salkin and Short argue that Trump’s seemingly chaotic behavior belies a masterful 15-year plan to run for president.
Atria
The First: How to Think about Hate Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Speech, Fake News, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump by Stanley Fish (Apr. 2, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-1-982115-24-1). Bestselling public intellectual Fish explores the double possibilities of the concept of free speech, which can free people from top-down constraints, but also fail to prevent them from hurting each other.
Basic
Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal about Generation Z’s New Path to Success by Shalini Shankar (Apr. 30, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-465-09452-3). Anthropologist Shankar looks at spelling bee competitors born after 1997 and finds that they have sophisticated understandings of self-promotion and self-direction.
The Case for Trump by Victor Davis Hanson (Mar. 5, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-5416-7354-0) argues that Trump was needed as president to defend noncoastal Americans and shake up a corrupt status quo.
Power Trip: The Story of Energy by Michael E. Webber (May 7, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5416-4439-7) investigates historical societies through the lens of their management of energy sources over time, seeking a guide for the looming energy crisis of the present.
Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide by Jonathan A. Rodden (June 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5416-4427-4) argues that geography, rather than voter suppression or gerrymandering, is the most significant cause of the American left’s difficulty in gaining control of Congress.
Beacon
Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination by Alexandra Minna Stern (May 21, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-8070-6336-1). Historian Stern analyzes online alt-right literature to discern its conceptual frameworks, narratives, and constructs, and to illuminate how to counter them.
Belknap
Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration by Rachel Elise Barkow (Mar. 4, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-674-91923-5) argues that public safety can be maintained and mass incarceration cut simultaneously if criminal justice policy is based less on political trends and more on data.
Bloomsbury
City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands by Dan Werb (June 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-63557-299-5) probes an epidemic of deaths in Tijuana, Mexico, that at first seems centered around murders, but ultimately connects to environmental toxins, drug overdoses, HIV, human trafficking, and other social forces. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
Shadowlands: American Reckonings at the Oregon Standoff by Anthony McCann (July 2, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-63557-120-2) examines the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by armed antigovernment militants, their surrender to federal troops, and the subsequent court case. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Chicago Review
Apocalypse Any Day Now: Deep Underground with America’s Doomsday Preppers by Tea Krulos (Apr. 2, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-61373-641-8). Journalist Krulos traveled the country talking to survivalists, religious predictors of upcoming apocalypses, and climate scientists about doomsday scenarios from the outlandish to the probable.
Chronicle
The Future Is Feminist: Radical, Funny, and Inspiring Writing by Women (Feb. 5, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4521-6833-3) is an intersectional compendium of pieces from Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, Naomi Alderman, Roxane Gay, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Caitlin Moran, Ijeoma Oluo, and others.
Crown
Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbotson (Feb. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-984823-21-2) makes the provocative argument that, contrary to the predictions of mainstream models, global population will begin to decline in the coming decades because people are having fewer children; the authors consider the positive and negative consequences of this potential future.
Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy by Eric O’Neill (Mar. 26, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-57352-4). A former FBI “ghost” tells the story of how he helped take down notorious FBI mole Robert Hanssen, a double agent spying for the Russians, by working as his underling. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Dutton
Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men by Alexandra Robbins (Feb. 5, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-101-98672-1). In a companion to her look at sororities, Pledged, bestseller Robbins returns to the subject of Greek life at universities, following two students to examine the appeal and effects of membership.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State by Michael R. Gordon (June 11, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-27989-9) details the history of the strategic decision-making behind the Obama and Trump administrations’ actions in Syria, from a security specialist.
Out of the Shadows: Reconstructing Gay Men’s Lives by Walt Odets (June 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-374-28585-2). Clinical psychologist Odets draws on decades of personal experience, clinical work, and activism to muse on the options for authentic living that gay men have today, and the psychological and social barriers that still exist.
Grand Central
Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World’s Deadliest Special Operations Force by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz (Apr. 23, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-2965-6) recounts the heroism of John Chapman, who sacrificed himself to save 23 comrades during the Afghan War and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Hachette
The Best People: The Inside Story of Trump’s Crony Cabinet by Alexander Nazaryan
(Apr. 9, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-42143-0) criticizes Trump’s appointees to federal departments and agencies, arguing that they are smarter and more dangerous than they seem.
Harper
Confirmation Bias: Inside Washington’s War Over the Supreme Court, from Scalia’s Death to Justice Kavanaugh by Carl Hulse (June 11, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-286291-4). The chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times delves into the partisan battle about who would replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court after his sudden death in 2016.
Harvard Univ.
The Revolution That Wasn’t: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives by Jen Schradie (May 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-97233-9) dissects the role of Silicon Valley corporations like Facebook and Twitter, and questions whether digital activism is actually the leveling force it’s believed to be.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass by Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri (May 7, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-328-56624-9) looks at the largely invisible workers who do work advertised as being done by artificial intelligence—content moderation and selection of social media platforms’ trending topics, for example—usually for less than minimum wage and without benefits or job security.
Imagine
We Are Not Refugees: True Stories of the Displaced by Agus Morales, trans. by Charlotte Whittle (Mar. 5, trade paper, $17.99, ISBN 978-1-62354-532-1), tells the stories of displaced people all over the world who have not been given asylum. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
Little, Brown
The Good Immigrant: 27 Writers Reflect on America, edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman (Feb. 19, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-52428-5), collects essays from first- and second-generation immigrants to the U.S., including writers Chigozi Obioma and Jenny Zhang, describing their experiences in a moment when immigration is an increasingly tense topic.
On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane by Emily Guendelsberger (July 16, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-50900-8) combines an account of the author’s stints working in a call center, at a McDonald’s, and at an Amazon warehouse with a reportorial analysis of the conditions facing American workers.
Metropolitan
Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power by Anna Merlan (Apr. 16, hardcover, $28,
ISBN 978-1-250-15905-2) delves into American conspiracy theories and the conditions that allow conspiracy theories to take hold, such as culture wars, economic insecurity, and cynical politicians.
MIT
How Change Happens by Cass Sunstein (Apr. 9, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-262-03957-4) theorizes about its title question, drawing on behavioral economics, psychology, and other disciplines to search for the mechanisms of social change.
Nation
How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin (Mar. 26, trade paper, $18.99, ISBN 978-1-56858-849-0). The Colorlines editors compile works by and interviews with Tarana Burke, Damon Young, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and others to present examples of the many types of antiracist advocacy.
New Press
Night in the American Village: The Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases on Okinawa by Akemi Johnson (June 18, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-62097-331-8). Journalist Johnson follows the fallout of a U.S. serviceman’s 2016 rape and murder of a Japanese woman, interviewing protestors, women who date American men, and relatives of WWII survivors to explore the cultural politics of the island and the American military.
On Intersectionality: Essential Writings by Kimberlé Crenshaw (Mar. 12, trade paper, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-62097-270-0) collects the writings of the critical race scholar who coined the now-widespread term “intersectionality” as a paradigm for how discrimination is experienced, making clear how the concept has evolved over 20 years.
Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair by Danielle Sered (Mar. 5, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-62097-479-7). The founder of Common Justice advocates for alternatives to mass incarceration, focusing not on the relatively common topic of nonviolent offenders but on those who have committed violent crimes, and advocating a restorative approach to justice.
New York Univ.
Conformity: The Power of Social Influences by Cass Sunstein (May 28, hardcover, $18, ISBN 978-1-4798-5325-0) examines the current political and media climate, advocating for individuals to think for themselves for the good of society.
Norton
Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation by Robert Tsai (Feb. 19, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-393-65202-4). Law professor Tsai analyzes past challenges to equality in the U.S., such as Reconstruction-
era persecution of emancipated people and the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, and proposes methods for advocating for equality by invoking such concepts as fair play, reasonable behavior, and free speech.
One World
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (June 18, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-525-50928-8). The author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America combines memoir, social history, commentary, and guidance in activism.
Oxford Univ.
Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness Helps the Developing Countries Grow Richer and Combat Poverty by Arvind Panagariya (May 1, hardcover, $39.95, ISBN 978-0-19-091449-3) argues that open trade is beneficial to emerging economies, looking at case studies of countries including China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Misogyny: The New Activism by Gail Ukockis (Feb. 1, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-19-087634-0) surveys the history and social contexts of misogyny and proposes strategies for antimisogynist activism.
Penguin Press
American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan by Matt Farwell and Michael Ames (Mar. 12, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-7352-2104-8) recounts the life, time imprisoned by the Taliban, and court-martial of Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who abandoned his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl’s story, the authors argue, illuminates larger-scale American failures in Afghanistan.
The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats by Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake (July 16, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-525-56196-5). Security experts Clarke and Knake take readers on a tour of computer labs, government agencies, and boardrooms, gleaning lessons about cybersecurity along the way.
Picador USA
Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America by Kyle Swenson (Feb. 12, hardcover, $29, ISBN 978-1-250-12023-6) delves into the wrongful conviction of Wiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, and Rickey Jackson, who served decades in prison for a 1975 murder they didn’t commit and were exonerated in 2014.
Princeton Univ.
Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? by David G. Blanchflower (May 14, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-691-18124-0) investigates the phenomenon of underemployment, which has been elided by rising employment numbers despite the fact that wages have not bounced back, especially for young and low-skilled workers.
Prometheus
Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America’s Extremist Heart by Daryl Johnson (July 2, hardcover, $24,
ISBN 978-1-63388-516-5) looks at white nationalists, antigovernment militias, antifascists, black nationalists, and Islamic extremists, concluding that they use similar techniques to recruit and radicalize members, and recounting stories of individuals’ deradicalizations.
PublicAffairs
The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, Bright Sun of the Twenty-first Century by Anna Fifield (June 11, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-5417-4248-2) draws on interviews with Kim’s aunt and uncle, who acted as his parents during his youth in Switzerland, and a Japanese chef, who befriended Kim and predicted early on that he would become North Korea’s leader, to paint a portrait of the odd dictator.
The Theft of a Decade: Baby Boomers, Millennials, and the Distortion of Our Economy by Joseph Sternberg (May 14, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5417-4236-9) argues that baby boomers mortgaged the next generation’s fiscal well-being to ensure their own comfort.
Random House
The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal by William J. Burns (Mar. 12, hardcover, $32, ISBN 978-0-525-50886-1). In this memoir, Burns look back on his service under five presidents and 10 secretaries of state, and argues for restoring diplomacy to a primary place in American statecraft.
Simon & Schuster
Goliath: How Monopolies Secretly Took Over the World by Matt Stoller (June 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5011-8308-9) aims to correct misunderstandings about the causes of recent political and economic crises, laying the blame at the feet of increasingly concentrated wealth.
St. Martin’s
Don’t Label Me: An Unusual Conversation for Divided Times by Irshad Manji (Feb. 26, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-15798-0) is an extended musing on diversity, identity, and politics from addressed to Manji’s elderly blind dog, Lily, whom she adopted after overcoming childhood conditioning to fear dogs.
Kushner, Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump by Vicky Ward (Mar. 19, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-18594-5). A critical profile of President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law by the author of The Liar’s Ball and The Devil’s Casino.
Verso
Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes (Feb. 5, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-78663-672-0) is a history of indigenous resistance, encompassing such episodes as the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian movement, and the campaign for indigenous rights at the United Nations.
Viking
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt (Mar. 26, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-7352-2493-3) takes a psychological and sociological look at the causes of racial bias and its effects on criminal justice.
Yale Univ.
African Americans and Africa: A New History by Nemata Blyden (May 28, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-300-19866-9) reviews the relationships between African-Americans and the continent of Africa beginning in the era of slavery, looking at how they are affected by region, ethnicity, immigration, and religion.
This article has been updated. A title whose pub date and information was not yet finalized and had been sent to PW in error has been removed. This article has also been updated to include new bibliographic information.
