🐯 Princeton Politics unofficial reading list 2026
← Back to Fields of Study
Junior level
Conducting Independent Research in Political Science POL 300 (fa26)
- The Fundamentals of Political Science Research by Kellstedt & Whitten
The Just Society POL 307 (fa26)
- 2nd Treatise on Government by John Locke
- ✔️ The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels
- Capital, v.1 by Karl Marx
- The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham & Mill
- A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
American Political Thought POL 321 (fa26)
- The Portable Abraham Lincoln
- The Essential Federalist & Anti-Federalist Papers
- Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
- Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Presidency & Executive Power POL 325 (fa26)
- The American Presidency: An Institutional Approach to Executive Politics by William G. Howell
Experimental Methods in Social Science POL 341 (fa26)
- Social Science Experiments: A Hands-on Intro. by Donald P. Green
Causes of War POL 388 (fa26)
- Immanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace & Other Essays
- Hitler’s World View: A Blueprint for Power by Eberhard Jackel
- On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace by Donald Kagan
- Why I Write by George Orwell
- The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
- ✔️ The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I by Barbara W. Tuchman (my highlights)
- Man, the State & War: A Theoretical Analysis by Kenneth N. Waltz
Senior level
International Relations: Russia’s Relations with Europe POL 440 (fa26)
- The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
- Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev
Art, Memory & Human Rights in Latin America POL 456 (fa26)
- Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza
- Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh
- Massacre in Mexico by Elena Poniatowska
- Knitting the Fog by Claudia D. Hernández
Graduate level
The Comparative Political Economy of Development POL 523 (fa26)
- The State & Capitalism in China by Pearson et al.
- Region of Regimes: Prosperity & Plunder in the Asia-Pacific by T.J. Pempel
- Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World: A New Economics for the Middle Class, the Global Poor & Our Climate by Dani Rodrik
- The Political Economy of Latin America by Peter Kingstone
- Democracy & Inequality in India: Political Economy of a Troubled Giant by Kohli & Murali
International Security Studies POL 554 (fa26)
- Arms & Influence by Thomas C. Schelling