Books like The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

01

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson · Economics

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that the fundamental difference between rich and poor countries is not geography, culture, or bad luck.

A kindred politics read.

02

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.

A kindred politics read.

03

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Jared Diamond · Science

Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?

A kindred politics read.

04

The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It

Yascha Mounk · Politics

Yascha Mounk argues that liberal democracy — the marriage of individual rights with popular self-government — is coming apart.

Shares democracy and political institutions with The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

05

Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt · Politics

Tyranny of the Minority is the sequel to How Democracies Die, but it shifts the analytical ground.

Shares democracy and political institutions with The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

06

Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville · History

Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, is Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of the democratic experiment in the United States as a model for what was coming to Europe.

Shares democracy and civil society with The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

07

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Timothy Snyder · History

On Tyranny is Timothy Snyder's brief handbook drawn from the history of twentieth-century authoritarianism.

Shares democracy and political institutions with The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

08

Political Order and Political Decay

Francis Fukuyama · History

Political Order and Political Decay is the second volume of Francis Fukuyama's ambitious two-volume study of political development.

Shares democracy and political institutions with The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

09

How Democracies Die

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt · Politics

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are Harvard comparative politics scholars who have spent their careers studying how democracies break down in Latin America and Europe.

Both dig into democracy.

10

Seeing Like a State

James C. Scott · Politics

James C.

Both dig into state power.

11

The End of Power

Moisés Naím · Politics

The End of Power is Moisés Naím's argument that power — the ability to make others do what you want — is becoming easier to acquire, harder to consolidate, and faster to lose.

Both dig into democracy.

12

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

Timothy Snyder · History

Black Earth is Timothy Snyder's reinterpretation of the Holocaust that places it in an ecological and political framework rather than a strictly ideological one.

Both dig into political institutions.