All of the work presented in the 12 books and reports assembled here was completed before Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. In other words, the problems addressed by these studies predate Trump 2.0. In this fact one might see a silver lining in the dark clouds on the horizon: A second Trump administration could force hard looks and, possibly, hard choices on pressing problems we’ve repeatedly put off.
These books are aimed at academics and climate professionals. If you don’t fit into those categories, check out this book list to help you prepare.
The focus of the first three titles in this bookshelf is the function (and dysfunction) of the federal government. Historian Colleen Dunlavy dispels the myth that markets operate efficiently entirely on their own. Systems analyst Jennifer Pahlka starts from the premise that government can and should solve societal problems but argues that bureaucratic process often makes it all but impossible to produce the desired results. And this, political scientists Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum argue, has further fueled the new attacks on the administrative (or “deep”) state.
Second, new disputes over populism, free trade, and regulation have prompted new reflections on the relationship between government and the economy. Sociologist Liliana Doganova argues that policymakers need to rethink the “political technology” of discounting. Theorist Wolfgang Streeck defends a version of economic nationalism as a necessary bulwark for progressive democracy. And the editors of “Deep Transformations” make the case for abandoning the growth model of economics altogether.
Third, because political action on the first two problems will require new levels of citizen engagement, we need to recognize that governments around the world have adopted, officially and unofficially, harsher measures against nonviolent protest. Reports from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CIVICUS, and the School of Policy Studies at the University of Bristol detail these developments and their consequences.
Finally, the results of the 2024 election made clear that the proponents of aggressive climate action failed to make their case, or even try to make their case, to groups thought to be sympathetic to the cause – or even to groups directly impacted by the warming climate. While not focused on communicating climate change, the last three books address the need and the challenge of bridging the nation’s political divides. But here the very real problem dis/misinformation presents a difficult wrinkle. How can we call out dis/misinformation without deepening the divides we’re trying to bridge?
As always, the descriptions of the titles are adapted from copy provided by their publishers.
Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. Into a Manufacturing Powerhouse by Colleen A. Dunlavy (Polity Books 2024, 240 pages, $29.95)
We live in a world of seemingly limitless consumer choice. Yet, as every shopper knows, many everyday goods—from batteries to printer paper—are available in a finite number of “standard sizes.” What makes these sizes “standard” is an agreement among competing firms to work with the same limited dimensions. But how did these competing firms reach such collective agreements? Historian Colleen Dunlavy reveals that it was only under the cover of collectively agreed-upon, industrywide standard sizes—orchestrated by the federal government—that competing firms were able to transition to mass production and distribution. Without government promotion of standard sizes, 20th century American capitalism would have looked very different.
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka (Metropolitan Books 2023/2025, 336 pages, $19.99 paperback)
Just when we most need our government to work—to decarbonize our infrastructure and economy, to help the vulnerable through a pandemic, to defend ourselves against global threats—it is faltering. Government at all levels has limped into the digital age, widening the gap between what we intend and what we get. Government is hamstrung by a rigid, industrial-era culture, in which elites dictate policy without regard for the details of implementation. But there is an approach taking hold that keeps pace with today’s world and reclaims government for the people it is supposed to serve. Former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer Jennifer Pahlka shows why we must consider what it would mean to not just update but truly recode American government.
Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos by Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum (Princeton University Press, 2024, 280 pages, $29.95)
In this unsettling book, political scientists Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum trace how ungoverning—the deliberate effort to dismantle the capacity of government to do its work—has become a malignant part of politics. Democracy depends on a government that can govern, and that requires administration. The administrative state is made up of departments and agencies that conduct the essential business of government, from national defense and disaster response to implementing and enforcing public policies. Ungoverning chronicles the reactionary movement, which is not limited to Trump, that demands dismantling the administrative state. To resist this threat requires that we first recognize what ungoverning is and what it portends.
Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology by Liliana Doganova (Zoon Books 2024, 336 pages, $28.00)
Forest fires, droughts, and rising sea levels beg a nagging question: have we lost our capacity to act on the future? Liliana Doganova argues that our relationship to the future has been trapped in the gears of discounting. Discounting means valuing things through the flows of costs and benefits that they are likely to generate in the future, with these future flows being literally discounted as they are translated in the present. How have we come to think of the future, and of valuation, in such terms? Building on original research in the historical sociology of discounting, Doganova takes us to sites and moments in which discounting took shape and then argues for an understanding of discounting as a political technology, and of the future as a contested domain.
Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism by Wolfgang Streeck (Verso Books 2024, 416 pages, $34.95)
The ‘New World Order’ proclaimed by the United States in the wake of the Soviet collapse proved to be ungovernable by democratic means. Instead, it was ruled through a combination of technocracy and mercatocracy, failing spectacularly to provide for political stability, social legitimacy and international peace. Marked by a series of economic and institutional crises, hyperglobalization gave rise to political counter-movements that ultimately stopped the upward transfer of state authority. Exploring the possibility for states and the societies they govern to take back control over their collective fate, this book outlines a state system that allows for democratic governance within and peaceful cooperation between sovereign nation-states.
Deep Transformations: A Theory of Degrowth by Hubert Buch-Hansen, Max Koch and Iana Nesterova (University of Manchester Press 2024, 176 pages, $36.95 paperback, free download)
As a research field, social movement and political project, degrowth is a multifaceted phenomenon. It brings together a range of practices including alternative forms of living and a variety of initiatives in civil society, business and the state. Yet no comprehensive theory of degrowth transformations has so far been developed. Deep Transformations fills this gap. Drawing on insights from multiple fields of knowledge, it develops a theory of degrowth. The book offers a holistic perspective that brings into focus transformation processes on various scales and points to mechanisms that can facilitate degrowth. These include ecosocial policies, transformative initiatives in business and civil society and alternative modes of being in and relating to the world.
Civic Activism in an Intensifying Climate Crisis by (Carnegie Endowment for International Piece 2024, pages, free download)
Climate activism is employing a wider variety of tactics and aiming at a broader set of goals. This innovative, wide-reaching compilation takes stock of the present and near-term future of climate activism. It ranges beyond the European and North American contexts to look at Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and other regions, alternating between regional and thematic perspectives and narrower, snapshot case studies. It considers tactics and methods, with consideration of problems as well as progress. The compilation threads a useful path between unrealistic optimism and unnecessary pessimism, conveying to the reader a sense of what it will take for climate activism to meet this critical moment, leaving open the question of whether it is likely to do so.
People Under Attack 2024: Data from the CIVICUS Monitor by Research Team (CIVICUS 2024, 92 pages, free download)
The CIVICUS Monitor, which began in 2017, tracks the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in 198 countries and territories. The annual report, People Power Under Attack, rates the state of civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society organizations, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the CIVICUS Monitor’s in-house experts. The data from these four separate sources are then combined to assign each country and territory a rating as either open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed. In the 2024 edition, we unveil new civic space ratings and analyze trends at the regional and global level.
Criminalization and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests by O. Berglund et al (University of Bristol School of Policy Studies 2024, pages, free download)
We are seeing a wave of criminalization and repression of climate and environmental protest around the world. This is problematic two reasons. First, it focuses state policy on punishing dissent against inaction on climate and environmental change instead of taking adequate action on these issues, thereby criminalizing political action. Second, such authoritarian moves are not consistent with the ideals of vibrant civil societies in liberal democracies. The findings are mainly drawn from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data and Global Witness. The study analyzed quantitative data capturing repression and criminalization globally, and looked more closely at trends and new legislation from a smaller group of 14 countries in different parts the world.
Bridging Our Political Divide: How Liberals and Conservatives Can Understand Each Other and Find Common Ground by Kenneth Barish (Routledge 2025, 180 pages, 34.99 paperback)
Psychologist Kenneth Barish explains the sources and consistency of our political beliefs and why we continue to disagree about fundamental issues in American life. He offers antidotes to the angry, repetitive, and unproductive arguments that dominate our political culture. Barish teaches us how to listen, think, and speak about our opinions in ways that allow us to understand each other’s concerns, resist false dichotomies and ideological certainty, see new perspectives and possibilities, and find common ground. The concluding chapter shows how we can move beyond partisan divisions toward pragmatic solutions and a better future for America’s children.
Our Common Bonds: Using What Americans Share to Help Bridge the Partisan Divide by Matthew Levendusky (University of Chicago Press 2023, 240 pages, $30.00 paperback)
One of the defining features of twenty-first-century American politics is the rise of affective polarization: Americans increasingly not only disagree with those from the other party but distrust and dislike them as well. This has toxic downstream effects for both politics and social relationships. Is there any solution? Political scientist Matthew Levendusky argues that this animosity stems in part from partisans’ misperceptions of one another. Democrats and Republicans think they have nothing in common. But this is not true. In fact, it is possible to help partisans adjust the lenses through which they evaluate each other by priming commonalities through civil cross-party dialogue. Doing so can lesson partisan animosity and even reduce ideological polarization.
Disinformation, Misinformation, and Democracy: Legal Approaches in Comparative Context, edited by Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr. Andras Koltay and Charlotte Garden (Cambridge University Press 2025, 430 pages, $140.00, open access after publication)
In today’s digital age, the spread of dis- and misinformation across traditional and social media poses a significant threat to democracy. Yet repressing political speech in the name of truth can also undermine democratic values. This volume brings together prominent legal scholars from democracies worldwide to explore and evaluate different regulatory approaches for addressing this complex problem – all taking into account that the cure must not be worse than the disease. Using a comparative lens, the book offers important and novel insights into methods ranging from national regulation of politicians’ speech to empowering civil-society groups that are well-positioned to blunt the effects of disinformation and misinformation.
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