Best Civil Rights & Liberties Books of 2025

The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet is a thought-provoking book that deconstructs the societal conditions that allow collective psychosis to take hold, leading to the emergence of totalitarian regimes. The author identifies the phenomenon of "mass formation" and clearly illustrates how close we are to surrendering to such regimes. The book provides detailed analyses, examples, and results from years of research, laying out the steps that lead toward mass formation. Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the societal and psychological factors that contribute to totalitarianism.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez is a groundbreaking, award-winning examination of how a gender gap in data perpetuates bias and disadvantages women. Perez unearths a dangerous pattern in data and its consequences on women’s lives, from economic development to healthcare to education and public policy. She shows how women pay tremendous costs for this insidious bias, in time, in money, and often with their lives. Written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this provocative and vital book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding and fighting gender inequality.

Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power by Jefferson Cowie is a Pulitzer Prize-winning history book that traces the fight against federal power by white Americans in Barbour County, Alabama. The author explores how white people weaponized freedom to oppress others and dominate Native lands, secede, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement. The book is immersive, haunting, and a powerful reminder that White supremacist ideas of freedom are deeply embedded in American politics. It's an outstanding and urgent read for anyone who wants to understand the unholy union between racism and the rabid loathing of government.

American Midnight by Adam Hochschild is a thought-provoking and timely reassessment of the period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties. Hochschild highlights how the foundations of American democracy were threatened by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor. He brings alive the horrifying yet inspiring four years following the U.S. entry into the Great War. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in U.S. immigrant history and the challenges faced by democracy during times of crisis.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a groundbreaking work that argues that the US criminal justice system functions as a new form of racial control, perpetuating the same racial caste system that existed during the Jim Crow era. The book has been hailed as one of the most significant non-fiction works of the 21st century, winning numerous awards and inspiring a generation of criminal justice reform activists. Michelle Alexander's work is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the systemic racism that continues to shape American society today.

#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 . ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews. Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

ONE OF TIME’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.. Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X. “Extraordinary . . . a brilliant, painful, important book.”—The New York Times. “This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle.”—I. F. Stone