23 great reads to gear up for the US election
9.9.2024
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
All eyes are on America as the country watches the electrifying battle between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. We’ve got the right books to prepare for the showdown. Not all books are available in English. Please check the product details to avoid disappointment.
On 5 November, Americans will decide who’ll be their next president and if Kamala Harris will be the first female president of the USA. Here are some book recommendations for readers who are into politics.
From Biden to Harris
To Americans, Joe Biden has been a well-known face for a long time. After all, he’s been in politics for over 50 years. Many books have been written about his life, and many more were added in the run up to his term as US President in 2020. But now that he’s dropped out of the race, the biographies are likely to start collecting dust in the book shops. Maybe they’ll be on sale soon.
All eyes are now on Kamala Harris. Biden’s current vice president is aspiring to the highest office in the state. Marie-Astrid Langer, a San Francisco-based US correspondent, who’s been writing for NZZ since 2012 (bio in German), already wrote a book about Harris back in 2021. It touches on subjects including Harris’s rise and analyses her failed attempt to become the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2020. At the time, she was forced to end her campaign relatively early on. Langer believes this was due to Harris wanting to please everyone in her role as a moderate politician, which made her lack political profile and clear positions.
Dan Morain, a journalist in California, has described the life of Kamala Harris from an American perspective. There’s even a little book for children that answers the question: «Who is Kamala Harris?».
Trump literature
If you’re looking for books about or even by Donald Trump, the search on galaxus.ch definitely returns some hits. Admittedly, costumes and toy figures have been selling better than books. Even a Trump deodorant, offered by a marketplace merchant, was sold a few times. However, the last time was back in 2020.
There’s currently no autobiography about his term as president nor a publication that describes his vision for America – at least not in the Galaxus range. Instead, many former employees of his have written books about his presidency from 2016 to 2020. Most of them shed a pretty bad light on him. Undoubtedly, the authors probably made good money with their stories.
Speaking of making money, if you want to know how it’s done, Donald Trump will tell you in a whole series of books.
Being the true businessman that he is, Donald Trump has established his own publishing house named Winning Team Publishing for his more recent books. On 3 September it brought out a book called Save America – a kind of review of Trump’s first term in office and a look ahead to a possible second term. It’s available for 99 US dollars in their online store, or 499 dollars, if you want a signed copy.
New biography of Bill Clinton
Another former US president has announced a new autobiography for mid-November. In his book titled Citizen – My Life after the White House, Bill Clinton takes a look at the time after 2001. This was the year the democratic president handed over the keys to the White House to George W. Bush. Clinton’s memoirs deal with his wife Hillary’s ultimately failed attempt to become the first woman to win the US presidential election. Clinton, who’s now 79 years old, also looks back on the 2003 war in Iraq as well as the storming of the Capitol after Donald Trump’s election defeat on 6 January 2021. As was recently seen at the Democratic Convention, Clinton is still an important figure in the party, which makes his political views relevant.
If you’re less interested in practical politics and prefer gripping thrillers, Bill Clinton can also help you out. He co-wrote the novel The President’s Daughter and The President is Missing with bestselling author James Patterson. If you’re more into history, Patterson also has a Kennedy-related book to offer.
Penned by Obama
Another former resident of the White House, Barack Obama, also turned to writing after his presidency. In A Promised Land, Barack Obama speaks about his search for identity at a young age, his rise and his two terms as US president from 2008 to 2016. Alternatively, you could leaf through a conversation between Obama and Bruce Springsteen. Or get stuck into Michelle Obama’s memoirs. The Obamas are also still very influential among Democrats. In fact, some of their former employees are now on Kamala Harris’s campaign team.
The life of J.D. Vance
The nomination of J.D. Vance as Trump’s «running mate» could make a certain publication from 2016 interesting again today. If you want to know how the potential future vice president grew up, you’ll find out all about it in his biography Hillbilly Elegy. Vance has put to paper the story of his family, shaped by poverty, drugs and hard, poorly paid work. The book made the number one spot of the New York Times’ bestseller list multiple times and was turned into a Netflix movie.
I read the book before realising J.D. Vance could be a relevant player in US politics. I found his story haunting and touching and could even relate to it at times. His book and Netflix series Ozark greatly helped me understand how Trump happened.
Books to understand America
An election year in the US is always a good year for experts who claim to understand the spirit of the country. Journalist Arthur Landwehr describes the «torn states of America» from a European perspective. Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky take a deep dive into the US political system and describe its dangers and the need for reform. This is probably more for students of comparative politics. Mary L. Trump, Donald Trump’s niece of all people, offers suggestions on how the rifts in American society could be closed. Her book, Too much and never enough is a reckoning with the politics and personality of her uncle. The author describes what’s going wrong in the United States and who she holds responsible. It’s a tough read that leaves readers with little hope for the near future. Mary L. Trump, however, believes that it will take dealing with trauma to find the path to recovery.
Header image: Marco Verch
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.