Best of 2025
December 22, 2025

The Best Reads of 2025: 3 Must-Read Articles on History and Politics

Democracy doesn’t only live in elections and institutions—it lives in how we gather, what we remember, and what we read. The 3 brilliant articles on politics below explore those quieter foundations of democracy, from the social consequences of solitude to the unresolved legacies written into American land, to the civic power of literature itself. These articles by Lavin Exclusive Speakers offer a powerful, nuanced look into how we can sustain our democracy into 2026 and beyond. Read on below, and get in touch to book one of these top politics speakers for your event!

The Atlantic: “The Anti-Social Century”

Americans are spending more time alone than ever before—and Derek Thompson argues that this quiet shift is reshaping our lives in ways we’re only beginning to understand. The #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Abundance frames loneliness as a collective design challenge: one that can be addressed by rebuilding the shared spaces and habits that make democracy feel real. “Our smallest actions create norms,” he writes. “Our norms create values. Our values drive behavior. And our behaviors cascade.”

The Guardian: “If you don’t understand Oklahoma, you can’t understand America”

Oklahoma embodies the deepest contradictions of the American project, argues Caleb Gayle. In this sweeping, immersive essay, the author of Black Moses (named a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more) traces the state’s history from Indigenous dispossession and Black political ambition to racial violence and cultural erasure. “Oklahoma is a map of America’s legacies,” he writes. “It’s not the place where dreams go to die. It has long been the place where dreams go to collide.”

The Atlantic: “A Post-Literate Age”

In an era of fractured attention and weakened trust, National Book Award Winner George Packer makes a bracing case for the civic power of journalism and literature. Using his own journalistic career and new novel, The Emergency, as a lens, he argues that writing and reading remain essential to democratic life because they cultivate shared reality, imagination, and the capacity to see beyond ourselves. “Fiction does that, if we let it, if we keep it,” he writes. “You wake up from a long and vivid dream to find that the world is clearer, closer.”

The Atlantic: “The Anti-Social Century”

Americans are spending more time alone than ever before—and Derek Thompson argues that this quiet shift is reshaping our lives in ways we’re only beginning to understand. The #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Abundance frames loneliness as a collective design challenge: one that can be addressed by rebuilding the shared spaces and habits that make democracy feel real. "Our smallest actions create norms," he writes. "Our norms create values. Our values drive behavior. And our behaviors cascade."

The Guardian: “If you don’t understand Oklahoma, you can’t understand America”

Oklahoma embodies the deepest contradictions of the American project, argues Caleb Gayle. In this sweeping, immersive essay, the author of Black Moses (named a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more) traces the state’s history from Indigenous dispossession and Black political ambition to racial violence and cultural erasure. "Oklahoma is a map of America’s legacies," he writes. "It’s not the place where dreams go to die. It has long been the place where dreams go to collide."

The Atlantic: “A Post-Literate Age”

In an era of fractured attention and weakened trust, National Book Award Winner George Packer makes a bracing case for the civic power of journalism and literature. Using his own journalistic career and new novel, The Emergency, as a lens, he argues that writing and reading remain essential to democratic life because they cultivate shared reality, imagination, and the capacity to see beyond ourselves. "Fiction does that, if we let it, if we keep it," he writes. "You wake up from a long and vivid dream to find that the world is clearer, closer."