Throughout the first eight months of 2026, US President Donald Trump’s administration has kidnapped the Venezuelan president, bombed countries across the world, dispatched immigration agents to cities around the country, and launched a disaster joint war with Israel against Iran.
Immigration agents have shot and killed people in the streets, and demonstrators in cities the country over have faced down tear gas, flash bangs, and the ever-present threat of prosecution as the administration openly vows to prosecute its political opponents.
The war on Iran has been exceptionally unpopular with Americans, according to polling. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that Trump’s approval rating has plunged to 33%, which ties his lowest approval rating during his first term. More astoundingly, four in five Americans expect the Iran war to continue for “an extended period.” When he announced the war, the president insisted it would only take a few weeks.
Meanwhile, even Trump’s handling of immigration has taken a hit in public opinion polls. As midterm elections near, concerns over war, immigration, and soaring living costs are continuing to mount. It’s understandable that many of us struggle to keep up with the calamities fanning out around the US and the world.
That’s why, with the hopes of helping you make sense of our current moment, Inkstick has put together this list of five new books we recommend. In our view, these titles cover many (though certainly not all) of the crises the US is currently facing: a catastrophic war, rising Islamophobia at home, an administration cozied up to the far right, dissidents in the crosshairs, and the discussion over how, exactly, to forge a new path forward. (And as a bonus, we’ve tossed together five more recent and forthcoming titles we’re looking forward to at the bottom.)
Seasons of Fury, Rozina Ali (Crown, August 2026)
This year, the war on Iran has fueled a resurgence of intense Islamophobia that calls back to the hysteria that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Both national and state legislators have pushed legislation that targets Muslim Americans and Muslim immigrant communities. In Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America, journalist Rozina Ali takes a scalpel to the conspiracy theories and misconceptions that fuel anti-Muslim bigotry, revealing an unsettling history of American Islamophobia that stretches back decades.
As Inkstick contributor Moira Lavelle put it in a review of the book, “Ali digs into these stories with detail gleaned from years of reporting and an even-handed questioning of tactics and impact.”
To Catch a Fascist, Christopher Mathias (Atria Books, February 2026)
In late 2025, the Trump administration breathed fresh life into its longstanding threats to crack down on the anti-fascist movement, or Antifa. Trump officials have appealed to countries around the world to join its push to treat anti-fascism as terrorism, and in the Prairieland trial, prosecutors were able to secure disturbingly long sentences against defendants it insisted belonged to a supposedly shadowy Antifa organization. In To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right, reporter Christopher Mathias cuts through the disinformation surrounding the movement.
From Inkstick’s review: “Mathias’s book shines because he lets anti-fascists speak for themselves … and he knifes through misinformed punditry while never discounting how grave a threat fascism poses.”
Tehran Diaries, Raha Nik-Andish (OR Books, July 2026)
It wasn’t long after Trump announced the war on Iran that news began to emerge that an early strike had hit a school for girls in the Iranian city of Minab, killing more than 160 people. Since then, US and Israeli attacks in Iran have reportedly killed several thousand people across the country. Despite a series of ceasefires that temporarily paused the fighting, the war has continued for more than five months with no promise of an end in sight. Americans, meanwhile, continue to hear conspicuously little from Iranians living under the bombs. In Tehran Diaries: Dispatches from Iran Under Siege, author Raha Nik-Andish tells the story of life in the Iranian capital from the ground up.
As Nik-Andish writes in an excerpt, “After 10 days of war, the sounds of the explosions and bombings have almost become normal. When will it end? And where are our leaders? State TV has no information: It broadcasts war propaganda or mourning dirges for its dead spiritual commander.”
The Overseer Class, Steven Thrasher (Amistad, May 2026)
This year, newspapers and magazines across the US have rushed to weigh in on the rise of progressive and leftist candidates within the Democratic Party. Talking heads and analysts have appeared on TV time and again to give their thoughts about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialists of America, and insurgent working-class candidates in primaries from California to New York. The public reckoning with class, identity, and the long American history of white supremacy isn’t new, but it has changed in recent months. As this conversation plays out, journalist Steven W. Thrasher’s The Overseer Class: A Manifesto offers a compelling, fresh take on American institutions.
As Inkstick contributor Moira Lavelle writes in her review of the book, “The Overseer Class is an impassioned, authoritative, and deeply personal takedown of a politics of representation. Thrasher illustrates that the presence of a person from an oppressed group in a position of power — such as a Black person in the police force — does not magically make an unjust system more just.”
Saving Apartheid, Augusta Dell’Omo (Columbia University Press, March 2026)
White genocide conspiracy theories were nothing new on the American far right, but upon returning to power last year, Trump elevated them to policy. At a time when the US is deporting legal and undocumented residents alike, the Trump administration has reserved 10,000 of the 17,500 allotted refugee slots for white South Africans. Trump has also confronted South Africa’s president with long-debunked claims that white farmers in that country are enduring a genocide. In Saving Apartheid: White Internationalism at the End of the Cold War, Augusta Dell’Omo traces the roots of pro-apartheid politics among the international far right. Interestingly, Saving Apartheid probes the role of American far-rightists in campaigning on behalf of white supremacy in South Africa — from so-called paleoconservative Pat Buchanan to former Knights of the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
As Inkstick contributor Joseph Stabile writes in his review, “Saving Apartheid serves as a reminder that global anti-democratic networks transcend executive branch coordination to include collaboration among legislators, civil society, and the technology sector.”
Plus, Five More Books Inkstick’s Looking Forward to Reading:
How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention, John Washington (Haymarket Books, July 2026)
Smuggler: Drugs, Gangs, and Refugees at America’s Northern Border by Reece Jones and Greg Boos (Prometheus, October 2026)
Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope (essays) by Zaina Arafat (Little, Brown and Company, October 2026)
Unpunctuated Death Threats: Notes from a Fascist Present by Mark Bray (Melville House, January 2027)
Injustice of the Peace: Power, Poverty, and America’s Eviction Courts by Mark Melton (La Reunion, March 2027)
Check out Inkstick Media’s Bookshop.org page to see all of the books we’ve recommended and reviewed.
