Brooklyn Public Library curates list of books ‘to contextualize this week in politics’ amidst chaotic election cycle

Whatever knowledge Brooklynites are looking for is surely housed at the Brooklyn Public Library, which circulates thousands of books of all genres and on all topics. But finding the right book isn’t always easy — which is where BPL’s expert librarians come in.

In the middle of a dramatic and rapidly-changing presidential election campaign, the Brooklyn Public Library has curated a list of books to give Brooklynites a baseline understanding of the current political climate ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.

The timely list offers current and historical context for American politics and elections. File photo by Kevin Duggan

The stakes for the 2024 election were already high after a tumultuous few years in the U.S., but have ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

On July 12, a gunman attempted to assassinate former president Donald J. Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. Days later, at the Republican National Convention, Trump accepted his party’s nomination as presidential candidate and announced his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance.

Then, on Sunday, the Democratic party faced its own reckoning – President Joe Biden dropped out of the race following weeks of scrutiny of his performance at the June 27 presidential debate. Biden and a number of high-level Dems have endorsed Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee, but nothing will be finalized until the Democratic National Convention next month.

Times are, for sure, unprecedented. American politics are confusing enough, even in a normal year — inter-party politics, the conventions, the popular vote…it’s complicated. BPL librarians frequently make recommendations for individual readers, but now they’ve stepped up to make those recommendations for all Brooklynites.

The appropriately-timed 14-book list, titled “Books to Contextualize This Week in Politics,” is “a starting point for understanding these complex topics,” according to BPL.

Some books offer wider context for recent events — showing that some things are not as unprecedented as we may have thought. “1968: The Year that Rocked the World” and “The Year the Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 in America” both focus on the events of the 1968 election, the last time an incumbent president — Lyndon B. Johnson — dropped out of the race.

Other titles serve as sort of a crash-course on presidential elections, like “Presidential Elections: Strategies and Structures of American Politics,” a nonfiction book that offers a “comprehensive overview of the presidential election process” and “The Electoral College and the Popular Vote,” an anthology about the curation and purpose of the institution and arguments in support of and against it.

Librarians have also selected three books about the major players in the upcoming election — “Trump’s First Year,” by Michael Nelson; “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future,” by Franklin Foer; and “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” by Kamala Harris.

The list includes broader titles to give some current and historical context to recent events, like “How Did We Get Here?: From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump” and “Why We’re Polarized.” There’s even an illustrated guide to voting in the U.S. for kids, “Drawing the Vote.”

The full list is available online, where readers with BPL cards can check out the titles or add their names to the waitlist. Brooklynites can find additional titles at their local branch, or use BPL’s online Book Match service to have a librarian curate a personal list of books.