The Federalist’s Notable Books Of 2022

Welcome to yet another Federalist year-end books column. If you haven’t encountered this column before, we do things a little differently than most year-end books lists. The books below aren’t necessarily books that came out in 2022.

Rather, they’re just books Federalist staff and contributors happened to read this year, regardless of when they came out, and want to recommend. As usual, the selection is quite eclectic, and something for almost every adventurous reader made the list.

David Harsanyi

Anyone grappling to better understand the violence plaguing Eastern Europe should read Orlando Figes’ “The Story of Russia.” The author of a brilliant cultural history, “Natasha’s Dance” (among many others), examines the mythologies and historical roots that shaped the modern Russian psyche. And the indispensable “Not One More Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate” by M. E. Sarotte is a history of the blunders and miscalculations of the post-Communist world.

“The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe” by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry might not be the first book to debunk the conventional view of a “dark” age, but it is one of the best. Andrew Roberts, biographer of Napoleon and Winston Churchill, is back with the excellent “The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III.”

Matthew Continetti’s “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism” is an engaging reminder that the internecine battles the right faces are nothing new.

“Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet” by Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley debunks many of the Malthusian myths that still plague our contemporary politics. And I read “Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control” by Stuart Russell, a (somewhat!) accessible book on the science of artificial intelligence, to be better prepared for the robot apocalypse.  

“Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1939” by Wolfgang Schivelbusch might be 15 years old, but it details the similarities in the authoritarian ideas, aesthetics, and economic statism that were adopted across the Western world in the 1930s — ideas that are again gaining traction on left and right.

If you’re a fan of “The Godfather” — and what kind of patriot isn’t? — “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather” by Mark Seal offers a fast-moving look at the intrigues surrounding the making of perhaps the greatest movie of all time. I also quite enjoyed The History of Bones by musician and artist — and sometime-recluse — John Lurie. It’s biting and funny and, admittedly, best enjoyed while listening to the author’s baritone voice via audiobook. 

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books — the most recent, “Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.” He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, NBC