Join the #SummerListeningChallenge and play Libro.fm Audiobook Bingo!
Learn morePolitics & Economy bestsellers
The top 50 Politics & Economy audiobooks on Libro.fm based on sales from our 1,200+ partner bookstore locations.
All Bestsellers Bestsellers by GenreView bestsellers by genre
Fiction & Literature Science Fiction Politics & Economy Children's True Crime Business African American Voices Apocalyptic and Dystopian Art Asian American Voices Biography & Memoir Classics Cooking Cozy Mysteries Education Essays Fantasy Health Historical Fiction History Horror Humor Language Latinx Voices LGBTQ Fiction LGBTQ Nonfiction Literary Fiction Music Mystery & Thriller Native American and Indigenous Voices Nonfiction Parenting & Relationships Performance & Radio Philosophy Poetry Religion Romance Science Self-Improvement Short Stories Sports Technology Travel Westerns YA Fantasy Young Adult
#1: How to Be an Antiracist
By Ibram X. Kendi
10 hours 43 minutes
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves.
“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The New York Times
NAMED ONE OF THE... Read More »
#2: So You Want to Talk about Race
By Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by Bahni Turpin / 7 hours 41 minutes
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide
In So You Want to Talk about Race, editor-at-large of the Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in... Read More »
#3: Hood Feminism
Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot
By Mikki Kendall
6 hours 57 minutes
A New York Times Bestseller
"If Hood Feminism is a searing indictment of mainstream feminism, it is also an invitation. . . . [Kendall] offers guidance for how we can all do better."--NPR.org
"A rousing call to action for today's feminists. It should be required reading for everyone."--Gabrielle Union, author of We're Going to Need More Wine
A... Read More »
#4: I'm Still Here
Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
By Austin Channing Brown
3 hours 54 minutes
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB X HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK PICK • From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female that exposes how white America’s love affair with “diversity” so often falls short of its ideals.
“Austin Channing Brown introduces herself as a master memoirist.... Read More »
#5: The Splendid and the Vile
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
By Erik Larson
17 hours 48 minutes
The Splendid and the Vile
“What riveting trip through the war on the capable albeit somewhat eccentric shoulders of Churchill. Not only does Larson provide a top-notch history of World War II, but he also provides an intimate look at the man and the family and associates of that one man, that unlikely hero, who now seems the only one who could have led Britain through the fight against Hitler. Highly recommended.”
Kelly, Raven Book Store
#6: The End of Policing
By Alex S. Vitale
Narrated by Michael Butler Murray / 8 hours 17 minutes
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in... Read More »
#7: A People's History of the United States
1492 to Present
By Howard Zinn
Narrated by Jeff Zinn / 34 hours 9 minutes
"A wonderful, splendid book--a book that should be ready by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future." --Howard Fast
For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools -- with... Read More »
#8: Just Mercy (Movie Tie-In Edition)
A Story of Justice and Redemption
By Bryan Stevenson
Narrated by Bryan Stevenson / 11 hours 10 minutes
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.
“[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice... Read More »
#9: The Room Where It Happened
A White House Memoir
By John Bolton
Narrated by Robert Petkoff / 20 hours 52 minutes
JOHN BOLTON READS THE EPILOGUE!
As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of his 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves.
The result is a White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level... Read More »
#10: Hiding in Plain Sight
The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America
By Sarah Kendzior
Narrated by Sarah Kendzior / 9 hours 31 minutes
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American demagogue possible.
This program is read by the author.
The story of Donald Trump’s rise to power is the story of a buried American history – buried because... Read More »
#11: Our Time Is Now
Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
By Stacey Abrams
9 hours 20 minutes
"This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It's a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It's a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win."
This program is read by the author
Celebrated national... Read More »
#12: Dear America
Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
By Jose Antonio Vargas
5 hours 44 minutes
Dear America
“Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas didn’t know he was an undocumented immigrant until he went to get his driver’s license at the age of 16. Vargas’s story is sadly not unusual, which is part of why it’s so important. His writing is emotional, powerful, and full of purpose. More memoir than political statement, Dear America is a truly eye-opening look at the realities of immigration in America.”
Jade, Bookshop Santa Cruz
#13: The Skin We're In
A Year of Black Resistance and Power
By Desmond Cole
8 hours 14 minutes
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting book from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. The Skin We're In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.
In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the... Read More »
#14: When They Call You a Terrorist
A Black Lives Matter Memoir
By Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bandele
6 hours 12 minutes
"Narrating her own work, Patrisse Khan-Cullors shares the salient moments of her life that led her to become a founder of Black Lives Matter...pain, frustration, and joy [emblazon] each word she utters." — AudioFile Magazine
This program is read by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and includes a bonus conversation
The emotional and powerful story of one of... Read More »
#15: We Were Eight Years in Power
An American Tragedy
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by Beresford Bennett / 13 hours 37 minutes
In this “urgently relevant”* collection featuring the landmark essay “The Case for Reparations,” the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me “reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath”*—including the election of Donald Trump.
New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book... Read More »
#16: Waking Up White: and Finding Myself in the Story of Race
By Debby Irving
Narrated by Debby Irving / 9 hours 23 minutes
Debby Irving is an emerging voice in the national racial justice community. Combining her organization development skills, classroom teaching experience, and understanding of systemic racism, Irving educates and consults with individuals and organizations seeking to create racial equity at both the personal and institutional level.
Irving grew... Read More »
#17: The Righteous Mind
Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
By Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by Jonathan Haidt / 11 hours
Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral... Read More »
#18: Rigged
America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference
By David Shimer
10 hours 53 minutes
"This pioneering and judicious history of foreign intervention in elections should be read by everyone who wants to defend democracy now." --Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
The definitive account of covert operations to influence elections from the Cold War to 2016, why the threat to American democracy is greater than ever in 2020, and what... Read More »
#19: Good Boy
My Life in Seven Dogs
By Jennifer Finney Boylan
Narrated by Kelsey Navarro & Jennifer Finney Boylan / 7 hours 43 minutes
This program includes an introduction read by the author.
From bestselling author of She’s Not There, New York Times opinion columnist, and human rights activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, a memoir of the transformative power of loving dogs.
This is a book about dogs: the love we have for them, and the way that love... Read More »
#20: Say It Louder!
Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy
By Tiffany Cross
Narrated by Tiffany Cross & Leon Nixon / 7 hours 2 minutes
A breakout media and political analyst delivers a sweeping snapshot of American Democracy and the role that African Americans have played in its shaping while offering concrete information to help harness the electoral power of the country’s rising majority and exposing political forces aligned to subvert and suppress Black voters.
Black voters... Read More »
#21: Let Them Eat Tweets
How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
By Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson
Narrated by Peter Berkrot / 8 hours 33 minutes
Does the GOP represent "forgotten" Americans? Or does it represent the superrich? In Let Them Eat Tweets, bestselling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature,... Read More »
#22: The Only Plane in the Sky
An Oral History of September 11, 2001
By Holter Graham & Garrett M. Graff
15 hours 54 minutes
The Only Plane in the Sky
“This is a book you really need to hear instead of read. I was an adult with 2 children on 9/11 and I learned so much listening to this. This is more than just people recounting what happened to them on that dark day, it is a reenactment from key people told in chronological order. You get the where and learn exactly what they experienced. There is a full cast of people retelling their stories and their observations. It was heartbreaking but also eye-opening. Although I lived through this, I gained a better understanding of those affected by the events first hand. The people that were right there tell you their view and how the responded. Listening to this I was riveted. The scope of 9/11 is bigger than just one person, or a few people. It encompasses every American. This book does a fantastic job of putting you right there.”
Karen, That Book Store
#23: The Witches Are Coming
By Lindy West
6 hours 27 minutes
The Witches Are Coming
“ I struggle to write a review of Lindy West's work without resorting to simplistic three syllable sentences like "she's awesome," or, "she's the best." Maybe it's because she makes it look so very easy. She says everything I'm always thinking: about feminism, about politics, about our image-obsessed culture. And she does it with irrefutable logic, dazzling sentences, and an utterly fierce and funny sensibility. She's...(sigh) perfect.”
Rachel, The Book Table
#24: Say Nothing
A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
By Patrick Radden Keefe
14 hours 40 minutes
One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR - TIME MAGAZINE
ONE OF THE BEST 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR - WASHINGTON POST
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
"Masked intruders dragged Jean McConville, a 38-year-old... Read More »
#25: The Lincoln Conspiracy
The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed
By Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch
Narrated by Scott Brick / 10 hours 41 minutes
"Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, but how many know that there was a previous, unsuccessful attempt on his life? Let narrator Scott Brick tell you all about it...Brick can make a nursery rhyme sound exciting, and he's on fire in this audiobook." -- AudioFile Magazine
The bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy, which... Read More »
#26: My Vanishing Country
A Memoir
By Bakari Sellers
Narrated by Bakari Sellers / 5 hours 9 minutes
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten black working-class men and women.
Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My... Read More »
#27: Notes of a Native Son
By James Baldwin
Narrated by Ron Butler / 5 hours 3 minutes
At last, a new audio edition of the book many havecalled James Baldwin’s most influential work!
Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, whenBaldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and blackthought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowlygained... Read More »
#28: The Future Earth
A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming
By Eric Holthaus
Narrated by Gary Tiedemann / 6 hours 42 minutes
The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.
The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change... Read More »
#29: The Storm Before the Storm
The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic
By Mike Duncan
Narrated by Mike Duncan / 10 hours 13 minutes
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The creator of the award-winning podcast series The History of Rome and Revolutions brings to life the bloody battles, political machinations, and human drama that set the stage for the fall of the Roman Republic.
The Roman Republic was one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of civilization.... Read More »
#30: Surviving Autocracy
By Masha Gessen
5 hours 45 minutes
“When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.” —The New York Times
“The Platonic ideal of the anti-Trump Trump book.” —The Washington Post
As seen on MSNBC Morning Joe and heard on NPR All Things Considered: the bestselling, National Book Award-winning journalist offers an essential guide to understanding, resisting, and recovering from the... Read More »
#31: The Poison Squad
One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
By Deborah Blum
11 hours 5 minutes
The Poison Squad
“Let us harken back to the turn of the twentieth century, when coffee was a mix of scorched sawdust and peas, meat was preserved by formaldahyde-fueled additives, and “brown sugar” consisted of ground-up bugs. Let us then meet Dr. Harvey Wiley, who faced a nation that believed people should eat what they want and took the renegade position of “Hey, maybe poisoning ourselves is a bad thing?” While there are shiver-inducing descriptions of the food people were consuming, the more terrifying fact exposed here is that businesses were willing to bribe, lie, and threaten the government in order to save costs and continue manufacturing poisoned food. (Terrifying but not surprising, and an activity that continues to lurk in our politics.) The writing is deft, and I highly recommend this book.”
#32: Grant
By Ron Chernow
Narrated by Mark Bramhall / 47 hours 58 minutes
The #1 New York Times bestseller.
New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2017
Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant.
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser... Read More »
#33: Winners Take All
The Elite Charade of Changing the World
By Anand Giridharadas
9 hours 36 minutes
The New York Times bestselling, groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. An essential read for understanding some of the egregious abuses of power that dominate today’s news.
Former New York Times columnist... Read More »
#34: From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Narrated by Mia Ellis / 9 hours 50 minutes
The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new... Read More »
#35: Unapologetic
A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Our Movement
By Charlene Carruthers
5 hours 49 minutes
This 21st-century activist's guide to upending mainstream ideas about race, class, and gender carves out a path to collective liberation.
Drawing on Black intellectual and grassroots organizing traditions, including the Haitian Revolution, the US civil rights movement, and LGBTQ rights and feminist movements, Unapologetic challenges all of us... Read More »
#36: Exercise of Power
American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World
By Robert M. Gates
16 hours 58 minutes
From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir, Duty, a candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations, and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world.
Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has... Read More »
#37: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
By Shoshana Zuboff
24 hours 16 minutes
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior.
In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the... Read More »
#38: What Happened
By Hillary Rodham Clinton
Narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton / 18 hours 34 minutes
“An engaging, beautifully synthesized page-turner” (Slate). The #1 New York Times bestseller and Time #1 Nonfiction Book of the Year: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most personal memoir yet, about the 2016 presidential election.
In this “candid and blackly funny” (The New York Times) memoir, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and... Read More »
#39: The Socialist Manifesto
The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality
By Bhaskar Sunkara
9 hours 39 minutes
From one of the most prominent voices on the American Left, a galvanizing argument for why we need socialism in the United States today
With the stunning popularity of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Americans are embracing the class politics of socialism. But what, exactly, is socialism? And what would a socialist system in... Read More »
#40: The Evangelicals
The Struggle to Shape America
By Frances FitzGerald
Narrated by Jacques Roy / 25 hours 50 minutes
* Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award
* National Book Award Finalist
* Time magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year
* New York Times Notable Book
* Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017
This “epic history” (The Boston Globe) from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic... Read More »
#41: Surpassing Certainty
What My Twenties Taught Me
By Janet Mock
Narrated by Janet Mock / 7 hours 51 minutes
“A defining chronicle of strength and spirit” (Kirkus Reviews), Surpassing Certainty is a portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world—without a road map to guide her. This memoir “should be required reading for your 20s” (Cosmopolitan).
A few months before her twentieth birthday, Janet Mock is adjusting to her days... Read More »
#42: Tell Me Who You Are
Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, & Identity
By Winona Guo & Priya Vulchi
10 hours 47 minutes
An eye-opening exploration of race in America
In this deeply inspiring audiobook, Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America. Spurred by the realization that they had nearly completed high school without hearing any substantive... Read More »
#43: Haben
The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
By Haben Girma
7 hours 30 minutes
The incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage.
Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn't see, and found in herself an... Read More »
#44: No, You Shut Up
Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America
By Symone D. Sanders
5 hours 51 minutes
In this rousing call to leadership, the self-described millennial spokesperson for the culture, CNN’s designated "woke AF" former commentator, and the youngest national press secretary in the history of the United States shares her take-no-prisoners approach to life, politics, and career success, and shows a new generation how to be loud and... Read More »
#45: Hell and Other Destinations
A 21st-Century Memoir
By Madeleine Albright
Narrated by Madeleine Albright / 13 hours 23 minutes
Six-time New York Times bestselling author and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—one of the world’s most admired and tireless public servants—reflects on the final stages of one’s career, and working productively into your later decades in this revealing, funny, and inspiring memoir.
In 2001, when Madeleine Albright was leaving office... Read More »
#46: Jesus and John Wayne
How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
By Kristin Kobes du Mez
Narrated by Suzie Althens / 12 hours 3 minutes
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? These are among the questions acclaimed historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez asks in Jesus and John Wayne, which explains how... Read More »
#47: On Fire
The Case for the Green New Deal
By Naomi Klein
10 hours 22 minutes
#1 international and New York Times bestselling author Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, makes the case for a Green New Deal—explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.
For more than twenty years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged... Read More »
#48: The End of the Myth
From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
By Greg Grandin
13 hours 27 minutes
*WINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION*
From a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a new and eye-opening interpretation of the meaning of the frontier, from early westward expansion to Trump’s border wall.
Ever since this nation’s inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing... Read More »
#49: Doughnut Economics
Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
By Kate Raworth
Narrated by Kate Raworth / 11 hours 44 minutes
A Financial Times "Best Book of 2017: Economics”
800-CEO-Read “Best Business Book of 2017: Current Events & Public Affairs”
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental... Read More »
#50: Napoleon
A Life
By Andrew Roberts
Narrated by John Lee / 32 hours 52 minutes
The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the New York Times bestselling author of The Storm of War
Austerlitz, Borodino, Waterloo: his battles are among the greatest in history, but Napoleon Bonaparte was far more than a military genius and astute leader of men. Like George Washington and his own hero Julius Caesar, he was one... Read More »