Robert Reich's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville, Isaac Kramnick, Gerald Bevan

4.3

Democracy in America has had the singular honor of being even to this day the work that political commentators of every stripe refer to when they seek to draw large conclusions about the society of the USA. Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat, came to the young nation to investigate the functioning of American democracy & the social, political & economic life of its citizens, publishi

Recommended by Karl Rove, Robert Reich, Stephen Breyer, and 1 others.

Robert Reich

Tocqueville was not only a brilliant sociologist but he also saw the connections between American society and the budding capitalism of the 1830s. [source]

Karl Rove

Tocqueville was seized by the sharp contrast between Paris and America, where people did not wait for the central government, but went ahead on their own, and I think that’s vital part of what it is to be both an American and a vital part of what is America. [source]

Stephen Breyer

It’s a masterpiece of sociological and political analysis. Tocqueville’s work still helps us understand America, 170 years after he wrote it. [source]

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2

The Promise Of American Life

Herbert David Croly

3.3

This collection chronicles the fiction and non fiction classics by the greatest writers the world has ever known. The inclusion of both popular as well as overlooked pieces is pivotal to providing a broad and representative collection of classic works.

Recommended by Franklin Foer and Robert Reich.

Robert Reich

It was written in 1909 and it had an electrifying effect on America and in the formation of modern American capitalism. Teddy Roosevelt used the book in formulating his so-called “New Nationalism” which he presented to the country shortly thereafter. Barack Obama used the occasion marking Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in Kansas in 1911 on New Nationalism – I believe it was the 100th anniversary of the speech – to give what I consider the best speech of his presidency just last December, setting forth a similar set of problems and a similar set of solutions. [source]

Franklin Foer

The book provided the clearest distillation of American liberalism to date: “The use of Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends.” From the foundation of this country, there was a great debate between Hamiltonians, who had a vision of a strong state, and Jeffersonians, who advocated a yeoman’s republic with limited government. The genius of that aphorism is that it synthesises what liberals believe. We believe in individual freedom – we just believe that you need a strong state to realise that vision. When Croly wrote the book, he was an obscure architecture critic. Then, when Teddy Roosevelt returned from one of his African safaris, he began waving the book around and proclaiming it to be the great distillation of his own thinking. The publication of the book coincided with a radical turn for Roosevelt. He delivered a famous speech in 1910 about a “new nationalism”. The press was excited to discern the impact of this unknown philosopher on Roosevelt. The speech helped make Croly’s book a phenomenon. [source]

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3

The New Industrial State

John Kenneth Galbraith

4.1

With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none

Recommended by Robert Reich.

Robert Reich

Galbraith is best known for his book The Affluent Society, which predates The New Industrial State. But in many ways The New Industrial State is more interesting because here again we have an economist who reaches beyond the narrow scope of economics and sees economics and social life in a broader frame. [source]

4

Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century, Vol 2: The Wheels of Commerce

Fernand Braudel and Siân Reynolds

4.5

The subject of The Wheels of Commerce is the development of mechanisms of exchange—shops, markets, trade networks, and banking—in the pre-industrial stages of capitalism.

Recommended by Robert Reich.

Robert Reich

As you said, Braudel’s book is the second in this series. Civilization and Capitalism is a monumental undertaking. In these three volumes, Braudel did what no one else had attempted before and he did it more successfully than anyone I know of, that is to try to understand the beginning of capitalism – particularly the kind of capitalism that has now become dominant in the world, the capitalism that started in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. What I like about the second volume, The Wheels of Commerce, is that he understood that the banking and the trading systems that evolved in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries were run, dominated, and designed by a different group entirely from the actual people who developed the goods and services that would be traded within this emerging system – the merchants, the craftsmen, the farmers. They were all part of capitalism, but the actual organisation of capitalism was through this ever more complex banking and trading system and the evolution of credit. Braudel recognises that credit is the key. He understands that between the 15th and 18th centuries, the invention of banking and of a system of credit and fundamentally a system of trust among a people who understood that they had every selfish reason to trust one another, was the essence and the genius of the development of capitalism. [source]

5

The Theory of the Leisure Class

Thorstein Veblen, Alan Wolfe

4.1

Almost a century after its original publication, Thorstein Veblen's work is as fresh and relevant as ever. Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society. Establishing such terms as "conspicuous consumption" and "pecuniary emulation,"

Recommended by Robert Reich.

Robert Reich

It was a critique of consumerism, but it was particularly a critique of consumerism by the very wealthy. Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption”. Less well remembered is his phrase “conspicuous leisure”. Veblen saw the importance of social status as a motivator in capitalism. He was the first to understand that one of the reasons that people desperately wanted to become rich was not simply to consume but to consume in such a way that they established themselves as being superior to others. To put it another way, consumption was not solely or even primarily about fulfilling particular individual needs or ambitions, in a social context it was about establishing one’s social position relative to others. [source]