6 Books the Presidential Candidates Really Need to Read

Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines, by Richard A. Muller
Written by a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Physics for Future Presidents covers a multitude of scientific topics that any future president must understand. From biological terrorism, to nuclear waste, to climate change and what we can do about it, Muller pushes the reader to understand the science and context behind some of today’s most inflammatory subjects. Smart, accessible, and even amusing, Physics for Future Presidents is a good starting place for our presidential candidates—and for anyone who wants to understand our world a little better.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis
Since those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, let’s keep the 2008 financial crisis fresh in our minds for a little longer. The world of finance, with its derivatives and bonds and money markets, can seem as foreign and arcane as a magical universe from a fantasy novel, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Lewis (Moneyball) cuts through the confusion to paint a clear picture of the crash, the bond and real estate derivative markets that led to it, and the players who bet big on it.

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell
Vowell’s cheeky, humorous style brings the Marquis de Lafayette to vivid life in this enjoyable, irreverent account of his service as a teenaged major general during the American Revolution, his friendship with George Washington, and his return to the States as an old man in 1824, when three quarters of the population of New York City came out to meet him. This book is a particularly good choice for presidential candidates (or anyone) suffering from a surfeit of election-related nonsense, because it reminds the reader that elections have always been nasty and Americans have always been quarrelsome, but there’s always a glimmer of hope for a somewhat united future.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
One major theme of this election is the feeling that people are working hard and still only barely getting by (or not at all). Written fifteen years ago, Nickel and Dimed still paints a harsh, clear picture of what it’s like to be poor and working in America. Ehrenreich spent several months undercover for the project, leaving her middle class income behind to live on whatever she could make in entry-level positions—an almost impossible feat that she documents in pragmatic, accessible, and biting prose.

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Written from a father to his son, Coates’s latest is a deeply moving and profoundly important book about race, violence, and the United States of America, both past and present. Short, beautifully written, and accessible, yet enormously challenging, Between the World and Me debuted to rave reviews and created an immediate sensation (Toni Morrison called it “required reading” and John Greene said it was the book he was most grateful for in 2015). An important book for anyone wanting to make decisions about the future of our country.

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
One of those books that continually ends up on “dystopian books that correctly predicted the year 2016” lists, The Handmaid’s Tale is the harrowing and too familiar story of a near-future world in which women are subjugated and defined by their fertility. Inspired by trends Atwood noticed at the time of writing in 1985, the book remains chillingly possible, and it’s about to take a larger stage once more—Hulu recently announced that an adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss. A good what-not-to-do primer for any politician.