Behind the Headline: 2022 American Midterms

A curated playlist about elections and American politics

Elections are never just about choosing between two different people. They are about values, economics, laws, taxes, energy, borders, wars, local politics, grand strategy, rhetoric, progress, backlash, and much more. Which issues matter most to voters is in a constant state of flux, along with the political avatars who champion them. Elections are filled with surprises, often sparking major shifts in our political order and culture. In this special edition playlist, we feature episodes from our library about past US elections.

• Steve Kornacki, The Red and The Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism (Ecco, 2018)

• Kathleen Hale and Mitchell Brown, How We Vote: Innovation in American Elections (Georgetown UP, 2020)

• Michael Kazin, What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party (FSG, 2022)

• Gerarldo Cadava, The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump (Ecco, 2020)

• Charles L. Zelden, Bush v. Gore: Exposing the Growing Crisis in American Democracy (UP of Kansas, 2020)