What books should Biden read?

Writers and public figures ranging from George Will, Min Jin Lee, David Frum, Van Jones and more share their suggestions for President-elect Biden

2021-01-15 - NOOR QASIM

On Jan 20, Joe Biden will be sworn into office as the 46th president of the United States. From that day forward, he will face countless challenges, including a divided nation, a global pandemic and an increasingly uncertain future. We posed the following question to 15 writers and public figures: “What book would you recommend Joe Biden read to inform his presidency?” Here are their answers.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT RECOMMENDS THE

ART OF THE IMPOSSIBLE BY VÁCLAV HAVEL Thirty years ago, Václav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia, a country both energised by democratic hopes and wounded by political and cultural division. His collected speeches reflect an idea of leadership that transcends party and is grounded instead in forgiveness, morality and truth. After years of deception in high places, he told citizens in his first major address, ‘I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you.’

Madeleine Albright is the former US secretary of state and author of, most recently, “Hell And Other Destinations”.

ALICIA GARZA RECOMMENDS STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING, BY IBRAM X.

KENDI

Kendi describes the long trajectory of racist ideas that have shaped policy for generations. President-elect Biden will need depth in understanding that racism isn’t ever about people being mean to each other; instead, racism is about rigged rules that intentionally thwart access to power and resources for those who have been designated as ‘other.’ It would be my hope that this book would guide his decisions on Cabinet appointments, executive orders and more.

Alicia Garza is the author of “The Purpose Of Power”.

DAVID FRUM RECOMMENDS THE DELUGE BY ADAM TOOZE

Candidate Biden talked dangerously enthusiastically about ‘buy American.’ I hope the president-elect will recognise the huge benefits of global free trade — and the terrible dangers to prosperity and peace of ‘America First.’ So many books argue this case so well, but one that made an especially vivid impression on me was Adam Tooze’s: a sophisticated and terrifying history of how the failure to restore a liberal economic order after the catastrophe of World War I pushed the US and the world to global depression and World War II.

David Frum is the author of, most recently, “Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy”.

GEORGE WILL RECOMMENDS THE LIVING PRESIDENCY BY SAIKRISHNA BANGALORE

PRAKASH

Prakash, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, argues that the public would be less susceptible to extravagant expectations and presidents would be more successful because they would be less vulnerable to the public’s disappointments, if a president would reverse the ‘creeping constitutional coup’ that has subverted the idea of ‘an executive subject to the Constitution and the law’. Joe Biden, with 50% more congressional experience [36 Senate years] than any previous president, could benefit from restoring the Constitution’s Madisonian equilibrium by not wielding all the discretionary powers that Congress has improvidently given to the executive.

George Will is the author of, most recently, “The Conservative Sensibility”.

LAILA LALAMI RECOMMENDS SUPREME BY ADAM COHEN

INEQUALITY

Whatever else happens during the Biden presidency, the Supreme Court will play a huge role in affirming or striking down voting rights, reproductive rights, immigration, birthright citizenship, marriage equality or environmental protections. In this book, Adam Cohen shows how Richard Nixon’s appointments of four justices to the Court set it on a dangerous rightward course that has consistently undermined the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged while protecting corporations. Cohen’s lucid work provides important context for why the president-elect and his party need to make the Court a central concern of their agenda.

Laila Lalami is the author of, most recently, “Conditional Citizens”.

THOMAS PIKETTY RECOMMENDS GOLD AND FREEDOM BY NICOLAS BARREYRE

This is a fascinating book about the multidimensionality of politics in the Reconstruction period. It is by navigating through these different dimensions that the Democratic Party managed to find its way from the Civil War to New Deal and beyond. Today, one of the big issues is whether the Democratic Party can regain the confidence of socially disadvantaged voters, independently from their origins. The country has changed a lot since Reconstruction but there are still lessons to be learned from this period.

Thomas Piketty is the author of, most recently, “Capital And Ideology”.

HARRIET A WASHINGTON RECOMMENDS TO REPAIR THE WORLD BY PAUL FARMER

Amid raging cultural intolerance and a fatally mismanaged pandemic, Americans, especially people of colour, sicken and die as they are pressed into service as ‘essential workers’ living in environmental sacrifice zones. The pandemic’s attendant rise in incivility and xenophobia has catalysed open racial strife and slapped immigrant children into cages. What daunting challenge doesn’t Joe Biden face, and who can best advise the man who must lead us in repairing this broken nation?

Perhaps the anthropologist, physician and politically savvy human rights leader who has long and successfully jousted with the spectre of medical indifference, governmental mendacity and indifference to the fate of marginalised ‘others’: Paul Farmer’s anthology of speeches offers shorter narratives suited to a busy leader that exudes a moral philosophy, blueprint, case histories and deep inspiration for the change of heart that must fuel American atonement and national healing.

Harriet A Washington is the author of, most recently, “A Terrible Thing To Waste”.

MIN JIN LEE RECOMMENDS EVICTED BY MATTHEW DESMOND

Every ordinary American family has a budget and our greatest expense is housing. So how do those among us who have the least rest their heads at night without the fear of eviction? What does eviction do to our minds, hearts and our credit history? Desmond’s thorough investigation of the housing crisis in America is both horrifying and compassionate, and it is my hope that President-elect Biden will read this beautiful and important book to know better the lives of ordinary Americans.

Min Jin Lee is the author of, most recently, “Pachinko”.

YASCHA MOUNK RECOMMENDS THE SUBJECTION

OF WOMEN BY JOHN STUART MILL

What gives this moving plea for equal rights lasting relevance is that John Stuart Mill did not just describe injustices borne by women; he argued that men, too, suffer from them because they will never get to enjoy the pleasures that come from a marriage of equals. As Joe Biden sets out to combat a different set of injustices, Mill can help point his way toward a vision that shows how much we all stand to gain from a more just society — especially if we emphasise how that future will allow us to focus on the affections and aspirations we share, not the petty interests and narrow identities that divide us.

Yascha Mounk is the author of, most recently, “The People Vs Democracy”.

ELIZABETH KOLBERT RECOMMENDS THE FUTURE OF

LIFE BY EDWARD O. WILSON The actions of the new administration will affect people around the world and also the untold millions of other species with whom we share this planet. Wilson explains what’s at stake as biodiversity crashes and what needs to be done to stem the losses.

Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of, most recently, “The Sixth Extinction”.

BY RON CHERNOW

This classic shows how, when our democracy was fragile, a human and courageous leader — through his acts, language and personal example — defined the office of the presidency in order to protect our liberties, defend the country from secret foreign threats, ensure the rule of law, bring our people together and inspire our next generation.

Michael Beschloss is the author of, most recently, “Presidents Of War”.

KATHERINE MANGU-WARD RECOMMENDS COOLIDGE BY AMITY SHLAES MICHAEL BESCHLOSS RECOMMENDS WASHINGTON

Calvin Coolidge is rarely counted among the rockstar presidents but he was soothingly bland after a corrupt and divisive period in American political history. The famously laconic politician managed to leave Washington in better shape than he found it, including the rare feat of reducing the size of the federal budget. Silent Cal reportedly napped every afternoon of his presidency, a habit that might make our 46th president — and all of us — happier, saner and more effective.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is the editor-in-chief of “Reason” magazine.

ANNETTE GORDON-REED RECOMMENDS BLACK RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA 1860-1880

BY W.E.B. DU BOIS

The book recounts the efforts to remake American society in the wake of the Civil War operating on the premise that African-Americans are equal citizens of the United States. Du Bois wrote to counteract historians and others who had portrayed the effort as doomed by black inferiority. He demonstrates that the successes of interracial government were deliberately sabotaged by white supremacists who preferred to maintain a racial hierarchy rather than move into a future grounded in equal citizenship among all Americans.

Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of, most recently, “Most Blessed Of The Patriarchs”.

RICHARD HAASS RECOMMENDS PRESENT AT THE CREATION, BY DEAN ACHESON

The most innovative and successful period of modern American foreign policy came immediately after World War II, something captured by the title of the memoir written by Dean Acheson, President Harry Truman’s fourth and last secretary of state. There has been no comparable burst of creative statecraft since the Cold War ended three decades ago, and President Trump did much to weaken the institutions and relationships that have underpinned US foreign policy for three-quarters of a century. President Biden will inherit a world of disarray; once he has completed the most urgent repairs, the challenge will be to design and build new arrangements that will structure rivalry with China and narrow the gap between the global challenges that will largely define this era and the world’s willingness and ability to respond to them.’

Richard Haass is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of, most recently, “The World: A Brief Introduction”.

EDDIE S. GLAUDE JR RECOMMENDS BALDWIN,

EDITED BY TONI MORRISON

Given the moral reckoning we face in this country, I would urge President Biden to spend some time with the nonfiction writings of James Baldwin. The book offers a clear-eyed view of what rests at the heart of our national malaise, and he writes about it — bear witness to its effects — without a hint of sentimentality.