BookRank

Best Politics & society books

The 21 highest-rated Politics & society books, scored from 5.5K reader ratings.

21 results
By year of first publication, 1518–2025. The busiest stretch is 2000–2049, with 14. Select a bar to narrow the list.
  1. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    1
    8.98.9 / 10
    One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against ThisOmar El Akkad241 ratings“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” is a short, unsparing essay on how the West speaks about horrors that happen elsewhere.Our view
  2. Evicted
    2
    8.88.8 / 10
    EvictedMatthew Desmond289 ratings“Evicted” makes the housing crisis concrete by staying with eight Milwaukee families as they struggle to keep a roof overhead.Our view
  3. We Should All Be Feminists
    3
    8.58.5 / 10
    We Should All Be FeministsChimamanda Ngozi Adichie805 ratingsAt sixty-odd pages this essay can be read in one sitting, and its strength is exactly that economy.Our view

Why One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is #1

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Omar El Akkad) scores 8.9/10 from 241 ratings — 0.1 points ahead of Evicted in second place.

The score is a weighted average across 3 independent rating sources. A title with few ratings is pulled toward the category average, so a handful of enthusiastic reviews cannot outrank a book that thousands of readers have judged. To keep the list varied, the top 20 holds at most two books from one series and three by one author; the rest follow further down. Method →

  1. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
    Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for MenCaroline Criado-Perez · 2019457 ratings
    8.58.5 / 10
  2. The Message
    The MessageTa-Nehisi Coates · 2024NYT bestseller117 ratings
    8.58.5 / 10
  3. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham LincolnDoris Kearns Goodwin · 2005NYT bestseller171 ratings
    8.48.4 / 10
  4. The Righteous Mind
    The Righteous MindJonathan Haidt · 2012NYT bestseller238 ratings
    8.48.4 / 10
  5. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth CenturyTimothy Snyder · 2017NYT bestseller410 ratings
    8.48.4 / 10
  6. Careless People
    Careless PeopleSarah Wynn-Williams · 2025NYT bestseller477 ratings
    8.28.2 / 10
  7. The Coddling of the American Mind
    The Coddling of the American MindJonathan Haidt · 2018NYT bestseller127 ratings
    8.28.2 / 10
  8. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
    Bullshit Jobs: A TheoryDavid Graeber · 2018272 ratings
    8.28.2 / 10
  9. How Democracies Die
    How Democracies DieSteven Levitsky · 2018NYT bestseller126 ratings
    8.18.1 / 10
  10. The Fifth Risk
    The Fifth RiskMichael Lewis · 2018NYT bestseller167 ratings
    8.18.1 / 10
  11. The Origins of Totalitarianism
    The Origins of TotalitarianismHannah Arendt · 195555 ratings
    8.08.0 / 10
  12. Propaganda
    PropagandaEdward Bernays · 192851 ratings
    7.87.8 / 10
  13. The Communist Manifesto
    The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx · 184877 ratings
    7.77.7 / 10
  14. Weapons of Math Destruction
    Weapons of Math DestructionCathy O'Neil · 2016248 ratings
    7.67.6 / 10
  15. Leviathan
    LeviathanThomas Hobbes · 165191 ratings
    7.67.6 / 10
  16. The Prince
    The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli · 1532783 ratings
    7.57.5 / 10
  17. Mein Kampf
    Mein KampfAdolf Hitler · 1925125 ratings
    7.47.4 / 10
  18. Utopia
    UtopiaThomas More · 1518196 ratings
    7.17.1 / 10

Frequently asked questions

Which title here has the most ratings?

We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) — 805 ratings and 8.5/10, which puts it at #3 on this list.

What is the best book of recent years in Politics & society?

Of the books here published since 2022, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (2025) ranks highest: #1, 8.9/10.