Summary
Since Donald Trump’s election win, sales of dystopian and politically themed books have surged, with titles like The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984 climbing the U.S. bestseller lists.
Feminist and anti-tyranny works, such as Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit and On Democracy by Timothy Snyder, have also seen significant spikes, reflecting public concerns over women’s rights and democratic values.
Women’s rights groups and individuals have voiced alarm over potential threats to reproductive rights, recalling Trump’s support for the Roe v. Wade overturn during his previous term.
You may also want to add Stefan Zweig’s “The World of Yesterday” to this list. Zweig was a Viennese Jew who escaped* the Nazis, and wrote poignantly about the world he has loved that was lost to Hitler. Today’s Zweigs would write about the mundane, taken-for-granted world before 2017.
* he and his wife managed to make it to Argentina, but then, a year or so before the end of the war, committed suicide. Being safe from physical harm doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve escaped.