Matthew Yglesias' Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity

Liz Plank

4.4

A nonfiction investigation into masculinity, For the Love of Men provides actionable steps for how to be a man in the modern world while also exploring how being a man has evolved.

In 2019, traditional masculinity is both rewarded and sanctioned. Men grow up being told that boys don’t cry and dolls are for girls. They learn they must hide their feelings and anxieties, that their masculinity must co

Recommended by Arianna Huffington, Brett S. Vergara, Cindy Gallop, and 6 others.

Matthew Yglesias

Congratulations to @feministabulous on her new book FOR THE LOVE OF MEN out today. Buy it now! https://t.co/YMpy3Id4zJ [source]

Arianna Huffington

Founder/The Huffington Post

.@feministabulous's new and vital book, "For the Love of Men," is not just about our misguided notions of masculinity, it’s a guide for how we can get to a better place for both men and women. https://t.co/W8uT1WKHQk [source]

Brett S. Vergara

This was SUCH a great and fun talk around masculinity and I can’t recommend it + reading @feministabulous new book on it enough 📚 💯 @viallnicholas28 https://t.co/XZVVIyOIB1 [source]

2

The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

Binyamin Appelbaum

4.1

The Economists' Hour is the biography of a revolution: The story of how economists who believed in the power and the glory of free markets transformed the business of government, the conduct of business and, as a result, the patterns of everyday life. In the four decades between 1969 and 2008, these economists played a leading role in reshaping taxation and public spending and clearing the way for

Recommended by Greg Sargent, John Harwood, and Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

I podcasted with @BCAppelbaum about his great new book about how economists ruined everything. https://t.co/4cD0bX7Byl [source]

Greg Sargent

.@BCAppelbaum has written a great new book -- a scathing indictment of the economics profession and its dogmatic faith in markets, and their role in creating our current disastrous mess. I spoke to Appelbaum about his book. A fascinating conversation: https://t.co/xbrTbBESPW [source]

John Harwood

Binyamin’s book provides the intellectual backstory for how we got to where we are today. [source]

3

The Crimean War: A History

Orlando Figes

4.2

From "the great storyteller of modern Russian historians," (Financial Times) the definitive account of the forgotten war that shaped the modern age

The Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale—these are the enduring icons of the Crimean War. Less well-known is that this savage war (1853-1856) killed almost a million soldiers and countless civilians; that it enmeshed four great empires—the

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

@cjane87 I liked Orlando Figes’ book in Crimea but it’s the only one I’ve read so I can’t say if it’s best [source]

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4

Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics

Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, Maya Sen

4.3

The lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American South

Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in oth

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

Well deserved recognition for a great book. Also nice to see the discipline of political science honoring one of the greatest first officers in Starfleet history. https://t.co/lz2jnsbA5e [source]

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5

Billionaires and Stealth Politics

Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright, Matthew J. Lacombe

4.2

In 2016, when millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump, many believed his claims that personal wealth would free him from wealthy donors and allow him to “drain the swamp.” But then Trump appointed several billionaires and multimillionaires to high-level positions and pursued billionaire-friendly policies, such as cutting corporate income taxes. Why the change from his fiery campaign rhetoric

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

In their great book “Billionaires and Stealth Politics” what Page, Seawright, and Lacomb find is that most billionaires don’t seek publicity for their activities & mostly donate to right-wing causes like regressive tax cuts & lower government spending. https://t.co/yjhJszalUX [source]

6

The Social Construction of What?

Ian Hacking

4.0

Lost in the raging debate over the validity of social construction is the question of what, precisely, is being constructed. Facts, gender, quarks, reality? Is it a person? An object? An idea? A theory? Each entails a different notion of social construction, Ian Hacking reminds us. His book explores an array of examples to reveal the deep issues underlying contentious accounts of reality.

Especiall

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

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7

The Benefits Of Full Employment: When Markets Work For People

Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker

3.8

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

Years ago @DeanBaker13 and @econjared wrote a great little book called “The Benefits of Full Employment: When Markets Work for People.” Flipside of that is if you’ve lived most of your life in the 21st century you’ll think markets don’t work for people. [source]

8

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

4.2

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some

Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Headrick, David Pilling, and 3 others.

Matthew Yglesias

I wanted to get a book on my list that is actually enjoyable to read, so not everything is quite so dry and dull as a narrative. I also wanted to include something that reflects the growing importance of environmental and ecological concerns to progressive politics in America. This is relatively new to the agenda – it’s only been in the last 30 to 35 years. But going forward, one of the most important things for progressives in the US, and all around the world, will be to prevent industrial economics from killing itself. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. [source]

Daniel Headrick

I found Jared Diamond’s book Collapse more valuable in influencing my own thinking, because it shows the importance of culture in determining how humans deal with environmental threats. …….The author investigates the successes and failures of a number of civilisations which had reached a crisis point, and looks at why some succeeded and others hadn’t. [source]

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9

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Paul Pierson, Jacob S. Hacker

4.3

A groundbreaking work that identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crimes of our time— the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich.

We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven’t. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current econom

Recommended by Keith Ellison, Matthew Yglesias, and Robert J Shiller.

Matthew Yglesias

It’s had a huge impact among people who are inclined to read and talk about books. I’m not sure how far that goes in Washington. Unfortunately, one of the problems with becoming a powerful politician is that you don’t really have time to read anything. But its importance is definitely not just an idiosyncratic inclination of mine. Everyone has been reading it. Everyone has been writing and talking about it. I should also point out that Jacob Hacker was one of the major intellectual movers behind what became the healthcare reform law, the signature achievement of the Obama era. [source]

Keith Ellison

Winner-Take-All Politics puts complex economic ideas into language that we understand. It takes a fresh look at the increase in inequality over the last thirty to forty years. [source]

Robert J Shiller

This book is about rising inequality and it traces back to fundamental causes. I like books that get back to ultimate causes and that think like social scientists about these causes. The question is, ‘Why is inequality getting worse in so many different countries?’ This book particularly focuses on the US. There are a number of traditional answers, but the most prominent among them is this idea that in a modern economy there is a skill bias in technical change. Our computers and communications have led to a winner-take-all society, where only the really smart can make money. [source]

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10

Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality

Ronald Dworkin

3.5

Equality is the endangered species of political ideals. Even left-of-center politicians reject equality as an ideal: government must combat poverty, they say, but need not strive that its citizens be equal in any dimension. In his new book Ronald Dworkin insists, to the contrary, that equality is the indispensable virtue of democratic sovereignty. A legitimate government must treat all its citizen

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

I really like this book a lot. Even though it’s not the best-known, big philosophical book in this regard, I think putting the value of equality front and centre really expresses progressive politics in the right way [source]

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11

Justice, Gender, and the Family

Susan Moller Okin

4.2

In the first feminist critique of modern political theory, Okin shows how the failure to apply theories of justice to the family not only undermines our most cherished democratic values but has led to a major crisis over gender-related issues.

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

Susan Okin has written a book which is not visceral at all. It’s an intellectual book, it’s very abstract. It engages with all of the great men of political theory through a feminist lens, in a very rigorous and analytical way. [source]

12

The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It

Richard Hofstadter

4.1

The American Political Tradition is one of the most influential and widely read historical volumes of our time. First published in 1948, its elegance, passion, and iconoclastic erudition laid the groundwork for a totally new understanding of the American past. By writing a "kind of intellectual history of the assumptions behind American politics," Richard Hofstadter changed the way Americans under

Recommended by Matthew Yglesias.

Matthew Yglesias

I read this when I was a teenager. My father had it on his shelf. I’m sure it’s been superseded in the scholarly world by more up-to-date work, but Hofstadter is a great writer. He’s someone who is both an interpreter of historical figures, but also helped shaped the progressive tradition in America. The book is about a paradox that runs through American history, that a lot of progressive change and reform has happened over the years even though as a country we’ve never had a politically influential left-wing. [source]