The Best Books of 2024
PopMatters Best Books of 2024 include a broad range of nonfiction, many books on music, short fiction, a novel that turns a Mark Twain classic inside out, and much more.
political science
Only the Surveilling Technology Is New ‘The Listeners’ Contends
In The Listeners, scholar Brian Hochman narrates a history of surveillance in the United States by means of technological cunning up to 2001.
‘A Brief History of Equality’ Is Also Map Leading Us Out of Our Unequal Era
Part historical text, part optimistic political manifesto, A Brief History of Equality reimagines democratic socialism to suit our global economic crisis.
‘The Kill Chain’: Why America Might Lose Its Next Big War
Christian Brose's defense-nerd position paper, The Kill Chain, inadvertently reveals that the Pentagon's problems (complacency, inertia, arrogance) reflect those of the country at large.
This Is Why the Right Is Winning the Internet
Could it be that the internet and social media is innately in sync with conservative, right-wing ideology? On Jen Schradie's The Revolution That Wasn't.
The Cigarette: A Political History (By the Book)
Sarah Milov's The Cigarette restores politics to its rightful place in the tale of tobacco's rise and fall, illustrating America's continuing battles over corporate influence, individual responsibility, collective choice, and the scope of governmental power. Enjoy this excerpt from Chapter 5. "Inventing the Nonsmoker".
Southeastern European History Work, ‘The Great Cauldron’, Will Demand of You as Much as It Yields
Marie-Janine Calic's history of Southeastern Europe is undeniably well-researched, but it's also a cumbersome reading experience for anyone but the specialist.
Learn from Your Female Elders: Read Feminism’s Forgotten Fight
When progressives adopt an ahistorical critique of feminism, they risking aiding and abetting its subversion. Historian Kirsten Swinth offers a remedy with Feminism's Forgotten Fight.
‘War in 140 Characters’ Is to the Point
David Patrikarakos has written an engaging narrative that covers the activities and surroundings of eight 21st century social media crusaders.
On the Tight Confines of Madeleine Albright’s Cold War Intellectual Straitjacket
The status quo of the past 30 years facilitated a massive transfer in wealth and public resources away from the average American and into the hands of a wealthy minority; a radical coup if ever there was one. Yet it was achieved democratically. A response to Madeleine Albright's Fascism: A Warning.
‘Bring the War Home’ Digs into the Trenches of the White Power Movement in America
Historian Kathleen Belew painstakingly details the influence of the Vietnam wartime experience on the evolution of white power ideology.
