The New York Times ran a feature last weekend asking prominent authors and writers to a recommend a couple books to the presidential candidates. The idea was good, but, sadly, the answers are almost uniformly bad. Though props for publishing Gore Vidal's reply, which read, in full, "I can only answer in the negative: I want them not to read The New York Times, while subscribing to The Financial Times." Dan Drezner has a couple ideas of his own, though I'd probably only echo the first choice. For my list, I'm going to stick to my areas of relative expertise. And it goes without saying that these books are as good for individual progressives as they are for possible presidents. • The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point
. This should be skimmed as much as it should be read, but there's simply no better tick-tock history of a Congressional battle than Broder's history of the 1994 health reform effort. The book is marred by being so in the weeds of the legislative process that it doesn't effectively explain how the policy process and broader political conditions interacted with the campaign, but that's why we have the next book. • The Road to Nowhere
. Probably the single best book for understanding the original sin of the 1994 health reforms, which was the process that created the bill, left out the Congress, and involved mainly health wonks. Hacker emphasizes that you simply can't mistake policy for politics, and though he does less to explain the minute-by-minute changes in Congressional coalitions, he does a much better job hammering home that everything needs to be built around a strategy that twins public support with stakeholder and congressional buy-in. The book is about health care, yes, but it's applicable to any large scale legislative reform. • Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
. Markets are powerful. Humans are fallible. This book will impress on you how the interactions between the two can not only lead to imperfect outcomes, but outcomes that systematically screw individuals. We saw this in the subprime loan crisis, and we're going to see it again. Part of your job is to equalize power between folks who have very little information and folks whose job it is to have a whole lot and use it to make a profit. This book will help steal your spine. Also, unlike the other books I've recommended so far, you won't be bored by it. • Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back
. If you're going to be successful, you're going to need a healthy Labor movement. If the middle class is going to be successful after you leave office, it's going to need a healthy Labor movement. If your gains are to be preserved after you leave office, they'll be preserved by healthy labor movement. Additionally, my sense is that lots of liberals, and lots of politicians, don't really know why they should be for organized labor save that it's a useful ally in elections and can help raise some money. This book details, beautifully and wrenchingly how crucial it is that this country retains a force dedicated to ensuring dignity and wresting power for the working class. As I said, I stuck to my areas of expertise here. I'm going to e-mail a couple friends who walk in different worlds, however, and see what they say. Meanwhile, suggest your own in comments.
