5 Nonfiction Books That’ll Reassure You This Isn’t the Craziest Election on Record

1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs—The Election That Changed the Country, by James Chace
Do you know what this election season has been missing? The Bull Moose Party. Say what you will about 2016, but former President Jimmy Carter has not yet mounted a third-party challenge, so I think we’re really missing out on something. Unless you’re William Howard Taft, any time Teddy Roosevelt pops up, it’s bound to be a good time. And that is the tale Chace tells here, along with the impressive performance of socialist candidate Eugene Debs and the uber-unlikely ascendance of the quiet, cerebral ex-president of Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, to the presidency. Chace makes a compelling case that this election changed America in ways few others have, and it might be worth taking a peek if you’re looking for an explanation of our current political climate.

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
You think you know drama? The 1920 campaign had the distinction of featuring the ripple effects from six—six!—former, sitting, or future presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and both Roosevelts. Those illustrious names, however, only scratch the surface of why 1920 was a remarkable election year. This was an America in transition, out of World War II and into an urbanized nation, facilitated by the spread of automobiles. Women had the vote, and Prohibition had begun. In many ways, this was the year the modern election was born, with outlandish party spending, nascent newsreel coverage, and a boom in campaign advertising. If you’re aching for November to get here already, you’ve got 1920 to thank.

The Making of the President 1960, by Theodore H. White
What 1920 didn’t have? Television. As far as sacred texts of political journalism go, White’s first foray in his Making of the President series sits near the top. Given unprecedented access to each campaign, he follows the machinations of the 1960 election from the earliest primaries to election night—including, of course, the legendary televised Nixon-Kennedy debate. In our world, you can’t swing a campaign intern without hitting a TV debate, but at the time, it was revolutionary. Just ask clammy Richard Nixon.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, by Hunter S. Thompson
Speaking of Nixon: On a surface level, the 1972 election itself might not seem quite as bonkers as the one we’re in the midst of, but the country was emerging from the turbulence of the ’60s and entering into the confusion of the ’70s. There is but one man to tell the story of this bizarro time, and that is Hunter S. Thompson, who does not mince words when it comes to what he thinks of the candidates, including Richard Nixon (“there is still serious doubt in my mind that he could pass for Human”) and Hubert Humphrey (“they don’t hardly make ’em like Hubert anymore—but just to be on the safe side, he should be castrated anyway”).

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
Of course, one need not plumb the depths of history to find electoral antics galore. This inside recounting of the 2008 election, culled from behind-the-scenes accounts and reporting, details every aspect—including a number of real-life side plots—of the Republican and Democratic campaigns. Little escapes notice in regards to the Clintons or Sen. John McCain and, of course, the rise of the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama. Beyond the Tina Fey–as–Sarah Palin highlights you remember, Game Change delves deeper into forgotten storylines, like the troubled marriage of John and Elizabeth Edwards. Take comfort in the fact that we all got through this eight years ago. We can do it again.