I Did It - Top 50 Books for Political Operatives
I did it. It only took Hurricane Hanna to keep me indoors long enough to catalogue my top fifty best books for political operatives and professionals.
As some of my close friends and colleagues know I enjoy my books, and many ask what are some of the top ones I would recommend that provide a good study on the art of politics.  Always, when I get asked this question, I immediately get the same blank feeling you get when you walk into a grocery store thinking about a ton of items you need but you can’t remember what a single one is.
So I finally decided to take advantage of this rainy Washington day and look through my bookshelves and create my most recommended books for people in politics.
Before you get to the list, I feel the need to say that this categorization is completely subjective. Like the old saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,†the same is true for this list. While some books are obvious to most students of politics, there are a few books that could leave you scratching your head. These books may appear to be more advertising related or of historical nature and don’t strike one as a classical political read.
I disagree with the notion that a book must be solely about politics to teach someone about politics. Politics is history, sociology, statistics, religion, theater, romance, advertising all wrapped into one. It is my opinion, that the best minds in politics aren’t necessarily those that are students of politics, but rather students of human nature, persuasion and discipline.
My hope is that this list of books galvanizes some discussion and disagreement. I also hope anyone who reads this will also leave any book titles in the comments section that I may have missed, and give some reasons why they think it should be included here.Â
So without further ado, my list:Â
- The Making of the President 1960 (Theodore H. White)
- Ogilvy on Advertising (David Ogilvy)
- The Selling of the President (Joe McGinnis)
- The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
- What I Saw at the Revolution (Peggy Noonan)
- The Making of the President 1968 (Theodore H. White)
- All Politics is Local (Tip o’Neill)
- The 33 Strategies of War (Robert Greene)
- The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
- 1984 (George Orwell)
- Moneyball (Michael Lewis)
- All’s Fair (Mary Matalin & James Carville)
- Behind the Oval Office (Dick Morris)
- The Influentials (Ed Keller & Jon Berry)
- Profiles in Courage (John F. Kennedy)
- Packaging the Presidency, A History and Criticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising (Kathleen Hall Jamieson)
- Great Political Thinkers (William Ebenstein)
- Leadership (Rudy Giuliani)
- Democracy in America (Alexis De Tocqueville)
- Bad Boy, The life and politics of Lee Atwater (John Brady)
- Future Shock / The Third Wave / Power Shift (Alvin Toffler)
- All to Human (George Stephanopoulos)
- Spin Cycle (Howard Kurtz)
- Words that Work (Frank Luntz)
- The Making of the President 1964 (Theodore H. White)
- Bare Knuckles and Backrooms (Ed Rollins)
- A Tale of Two Americas (Stanley Greenberg)
- For the Record (Donald Regan)
- Campaign Craft (Daniel Shea)
- America’s Right Turn (Richard Viguerie & David Franke)
- The Choice (Bob Woodward)
- The 48 Laws of Power (Robert Greene & Joost Elffers)
- Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Chip Heath & Dan Heath)
- On War (Carl von Clausewitz) Indexed Edition
- All the President’s Men (Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein)
- The Making of the President 1972 (Theodore H. White)
- Bowling Alone (Robert D. Putnam)
- An Army of Davids (Glenn Reynolds)
- Eyewitness to Power (David Gergen)
- Winning the Future (Newt Gingrich)
- Leaders (Richard Nixon)
- Trail Fever (Michael Lewis)
- Campaigns and Elections American Style (James Thurber & Candice Nelson)
- Power Plays (Dick Morris)
- Glued to the Set (Steven Stark)
- Polling and the Public (Herbert Asher)
- Simply Speaking (Peggy Noonan)
- Eloquence in an Electronic Age, the Transformation of Political Speechmaking (Kathleen Hall Jamieson)
- The Vanishing Voter (Thomas E. Petterson)
- Who We Are (Sam Roberts)
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September 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Nice list, Brian. Considering your flexible approach, I might add All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren.
September 7th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I admit I have not read it. But I know people who have say it is a worthwhile read. Perhaps I should include it on my reading list.
Included a short summary of it from Wikipedia:
All the King’s Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren, first published in 1946. The novel is loosely based on the biography of Louisiana governor Huey Long and derives its title from a line in the popular nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty and is also a reference to Long’s slogan “Every Man a King”. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King’s Men. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Ok so I dont see “All the Kings Men” by Robert Penn Warren and I dont know if this si a (OOOPs just read thje other posts, great minds think alike!)
September 7th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Here’s one that was suggested to me by a friend - The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution.
I have not heard a ton about this title. Any thoughts???
September 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
[...] 50 Books I’d Like to Have Posted on September 7, 2008 by Charlie The original article can be found here. [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I’d add two books to the list, but I won’t make suggestions for what to pull off. For anyone who came of political age in the 1980s, Richard Ben Cramer’s “What it Takes” is an outstanding look at the 1988 campaign.
Also, I don’t think you can offer a book on politics without including Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radcials”. It’s required reading if you want to understand the tactics of the left.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Sorry… Make that three I’d add…
I’d also include Timothy Crouse’s “The Boys on the Bus”. It’s a look at the press corp covering the 1972 campaign and gives you a lot of insight into how the media operate.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Great list. As a reader of about 20 of these (and the author of one!), this strikes me as really thoughtfully compiled. On my way to Amazon to order many of these. KK
September 8th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Hey Turk - all good recommendations. I did consider Boys on the Bus, which is a classic similar to Theodore Whites Books. What it takes was also another consideration. I’m not familiar with your last recommendation, however, looks like it could make it to my new reading list.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Ken - Rudy Giuliani is a great leader by his service and actions. But I would argue that he became truly understood only after Leadership was produced.
Nice work - and nice work on the convention speech.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
#20 is right on, but ranked #1 on my list…probably because of the South Carolina ties. I’m incredibly eager to see the new Atwater flick http://www.boogiemanfilm.com/.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Wesley - Bad Boy is the book that started it all for me. It was my first read on contemporary campaigns.
I had not seen anything about this movie before. I will be sure to do a feature on it.
Feel free to give more Atwater!
September 9th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Lol, I’m recommending a “best political book” and I do not even know the name of it.
Robert Heinlein wrote a book on how to run a campaign back in the days when he one one of the best (ie-had not ran off the rails yet). I loaned my copy to a politician and never got it back.
I’ll bookmark this page in the hope someone will recognize the book and name it for me.
Thanks !
September 9th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Ted - the part that made me laugh was that you leant your book to a politician and they never gave it back. Sounds a lot like our tax dollars.
I’m interested in finding out the title so be sure to write back if you figure it out.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:49 am
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September 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Nothing by Hunter S. Thompson?
Go read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972.
Eerie. Democrat comes out of a convention where a lot of the delegates wanted Humphrey to win, but an outrageously enthusiastic bunch of young people thought they could be the force to propel McGovern to the top.
True, Obama didn’t pick a guy who’d had electroshock therapy as his running mate and then have to dump him, and judging from Newark and Jersey City the urban bosses are behind Obama like they weren’t behind McGovern.
But there still some reat Gonzo Journalism about campaign coverage.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Great addition to the list Herb. i really love off-beat books and articles and there are very few off-beat authors who write about politics.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
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January 25th, 2009 at 8:32 am
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