Books To Survive An American Presidential Election

by Matthew Mills Stevenson
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12 books
Almost more fun than arguing about politics during an election year is to read about the ghosts of elections past. Perhaps the most influential book of the campaign genre was Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 [italics], about the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, a pinhole camera into the campaigning lives of the two candidates. But the fact remains that since the disputed election of 1800, American presidential contests have always been raucous, rigged, and ragged, as this list will attest. In fact, when the French social philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville came to the United States in 1831–32 to record his impressions of the young democracy, he came away with the conclusion that the country worked despite a procession of mediocre hacks in the White House. Enjoy these books, even if you don’t enjoy the next election.
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A Magnificent Catastrophe

The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
Edward J. Larson, 2007
A book about the first disputed election in American history, and there have been many since, as the Founding Fathers never got it right how best to choose the chief executive. Jefferson only won in 1800 because most members of the House hated Aaron Burr more than they hated Jefferson.

Lincoln

David Herbert Donald, 2011
Of the multi-volume Lincoln biography by the poet Carl Sandburg, essayist Gore Vidal quipped: “The worst thing to happen to Lincoln – aside from the unfortunate incident at Ford's theatre – was to fall into the hands of Carl Sandburg.” At least this one-volume biography is readable and dwells on Lincoln as a politician who was crafty, shrewd, and prone to telling off-color jokes no matter the occasion—to disarm those who would have him change his determined mind.

1876

A Novel
Gore Vidal, 2000
This Vidal book is a novel, but it captures the essence of the fraudulent election in 1876 that saw Rutherford B. Hayes installed in the White House. Later, it was said of Hayes: “He did such a good job I almost wish he had been elected.”

Fraud of the Century

Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876
Roy Jr. Morris, 2007
Here’s another book on the contested 1876 election by an excellent and readable historian, Roy Morris Jr., which reads like fiction. The 2020 election was not “stolen,” but this one was.

McKinley, Bryan, and the People

Paul W. Glad, 1991
Glad’s book is an easy read about the watershed election in 1896, which featured Republican William McKinley on his front porch, William Jennings Bryan with his crown of thorns and cross of gold, and the country at the crossroads (as it is often during presidential elections) between the causes of social justice and economic greed.

The American Political Tradition

And the Men Who Made it
Richard Hofstadter, 2011
It’s a great one-volume sweeping history of American elections and presidents by one of the leading American political historians. It was first published in 1948, so you might think it dated, but it remains fresh and lively, and is perfect to fill in any gaps in your readings of American history, presidents, and elections.

All the King's Men

Robert Penn Warren, 2002
The famous novel of Franklin Roosevelt era about the political machinations of Huey Long, a governor and senator from Louisiana in the 1930s. I read it in several long gulps during orientation week when I was a freshman in college, and it has remained vivid in my mind ever since. It gets to the heart of electoral politics in Louisiana and elsewhere more than any CNN broadcast.

The Making of the President 1960

Theodore H. White, 2009
I don’t think Theodore White ever rises too far above the level of a daily newspaperman, but there is an immediacy about the campaign that emerges in this book, which is worth your attention.

The Time of Illusion

Jonathan Schell, 1976
Jonathan Schell was a writer for the New Yorker Magazine, and he wrote this splendid book about the Nixon presidency and Watergate.

Primary Colors

A Novel of Politics
Joe Klein, 2009
It’s a fun, well-written, fast-paced, slightly fictional account of Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the presidency—with all his warts on display. You will race through it.

Donald Trump's Circus Maximus and Joe Biden's Excellent Adventure

Matthew Mills Stevenson, 2024
My own book about the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020 written on the go between primaries, caucuses, debates, and conventions. It puts you in the same rooms with Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and all the others, and it’s more fun than tearing out your hair over another Trump/Biden campaign.

Dave Barry Slept Here

A Sort of History of the United States
Dave Barry, 2010
If you want to laugh out loud at the follies of American elections and politics, add a copy of this short treasure to your shopping cart. I know it was the ex-football player and broadcaster Joe Theismann who said: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” But Dave Barry is a genius.