Earlier today, NYPL President Tony Marx wrote about the continued uncertainty as the nation waits for the election to be decided. To help make sense of this moment, The New York Public Library has put together a Post-Election Reading List that explores our electoral process and past elections that, like right now, did not have an immediate or clear outcome.

If you find it hard to read standard print, most of the books on the list are available in one or more accessible formats via The New York Public Library's Andrew Heiskell Library which provides free access to talking books, talking book players, braille, a talkingbook download website and a free talking book and ebraille app for mobile devices. Go to nypl.org/talkingbooks to learn more and to apply.

Post-Election Uncertainty: 20 Books You Can Count On (Accessible formats)

Note that DB = available on BARD in talkingbook format and as a mail-able talking book, and BR = available on BARD in braille format and as mail-able physical braille. These formats are available through the links, or call us at 212-206-5400 to order a physical copy through the mail.  Some titles are available through Bookshare and can be found through the Bookshare (BK) link under that title. All Heiskell members can gain access to Bookshare for free. 

DB (digital talkingbook) / BR (braille) / BK (Bookshare)

 

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams: DB, BK

Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman: DB, BK

Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America by Gilda R. Daniels: BK

Jefferson's Second Revolution: The Election Crisis of 1800 and the Triumph of Republicanism by Susan Dunn: BK

Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War by Douglas R. Egerton: BK

The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown by Richard L. Hasen: BK

A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign by Edward J. Larson: BK

Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris, Jr.: DB, BR, BK

Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy by Darryl Pinckney: DB, BK

Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election by Jeffrey Toobin: BK

1876 by Gore Vidal: DB, BK

Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election by Political staff of the Washington Post: BR

Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman: DB

America Afire: Jefferson, Adams, and the First Contested Election by  Bernard A. Weisberger: DB, BK

 

The following titles appear in NYPL's original Post-Election Reading list and are available through the catalog or as an e-book or e-audiobook via the Library's free e-reader app, SimplyE.

Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888 by Charles W. Calhoun

Counting Every Vote: The Most Contentious Elections in American History by Robert Dudley and Eric Shiraev 

The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race by Donald Ratcliffe

Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency by John C. Waugh

The Runner-Up Presidency: The Elections That Defied America's Popular Will (and How Our Democracy Remains In Danger by Mark Weston