6 Top american books like The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro

Cover of The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro

The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

By: James Shapiro

4.11

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant and daring account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy in …

If you liked the american plot in The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro , here is a list of 6 books like this:

1. The Dante Club

By: Matthew Pearl

3.50

Format: None pages,

A magnificent blend of fact and fiction, a brilliantly realized paean to Dante's continued grip on … read more

Similar categories in Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

Cover of The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

2. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson

4.24

Format: 565 pages, Hardcover

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal fi… read more

Similar categories in Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

-Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

"Lincoln on a sofa was like a ship's mast on a barstool, poised in an uneasy equilibrium between relaxation and structural collapse."

-Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

"They were convinced that Britain, once confronted with the loss of Southern cotton, would ally itself with the Confederacy—the “cotton is king"

-Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

"South Carolina is too small for a Republic, and too big for an insane asylum. [James L. Petigru (1789-1863), following the state's vote to secede from the Union in 1860]"

-Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

Cover of Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

3. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

By: Salman Rushdie

4.10

Format: 209 pages, Hardcover

From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply pers… read more

Similar categories in Salman Rushdie's Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"Waiting is thinking, and to think deeply is, very often, to change one’s mind."

-Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

"I don’t usually think of my books as prophecies. I’ve had some trouble with prophets in my life, and I’m not applying for the job."

-Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

"To have a room of one’s own, one must have money. (I don’t think Virginia Woolf ever went to India, but her dictum stands, even there, even for men.)"

-Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

"An intimacy of strangers. That's a phrase I've sometimes used to express the joyful thing that happens in the act of reading, that happy union of the interior lives of author and reader."

-Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

Cover of The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald

4. The Evolution of Annabel Craig

By: Lisa Grunwald

3.97

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

A young Southern woman sets out on a journey of self-discovery as the infamous 1925 Scopes Trial te… read more

Similar categories in Lisa Grunwald's The Evolution of Annabel Craig book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • audiobook
Cover of Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench

5. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

By: Judi Dench

4.56

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Discover the work of the greatest writer in the English language as you've never encountered it bef… read more

Similar categories in Judi Dench's Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • theatre
  • nonfiction
  • history
  • audiobook
"There's magic to be mined in mistakes."

-Judi Dench, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

"[Judi Dench, referring to departed colleagues] Where are all those people? Can't believe it. How can it happen? They were so alive and -- so present, so vital. That's why we have to love the now, hav…"

-Judi Dench, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

Cover of The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger

6. The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth

By: Zoë Schlanger

4.37

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

Award-winning environment and science reporter Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popu… read more

Similar categories in Zoë Schlanger's The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham

7. Great Expectations

By: Vinson Cunningham

3.35

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly a… read more

Similar categories in Vinson Cunningham's Great Expectations book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • audiobook
"For him, identity had been a kind of curation or collation—he picked up aspects as he went, freestyle."

-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations

"It had always struck me as a place to be lost, experienced passage by passage in a series of unfolding images—not something you could take in in one possessive glance."

-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations

Cover of Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary J. Bass

8. Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia

By: Gary J. Bass

4.29

Format: 800 pages, Hardcover

A landmark, magisterial history of the trial of Japan’s leaders as war criminals—the largely overlo… read more

Similar categories in Gary J. Bass's Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni

9. The Age of Grievance

By: Frank Bruni

4.13

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

From bestselling author and longtime New York Times columnist Frank Bruni comes a lucid, powerful e… read more

Similar categories in Frank Bruni's The Age of Grievance book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of My Friends by Hisham Matar

10. My Friends

By: Hisham Matar

4.34

Format: 399 pages, Hardcover

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return , a luminous novel of friendship, family, and … read more

Similar categories in Hisham Matar's My Friends book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
"A vast distance exists between a protester and his slogan; the entire history of politics exists in that gap."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"For a writer, exile is prison, a severing from the source, and so, courageous or not, he dies in front of our eyes."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"She was older and all the more beautiful, had the weary tiredness of one who, in surrendering to her life, was ennobled by it."

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

"I walked off feeling an emptiness well up inside me. It seemed, for all the emptiness that it was, a presence. It made me want to run away, dive deeper into myself, into that cold desolation, to the …"

-Hisham Matar, My Friends

Cover of Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky

11. Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

By: Steven Levitsky

4.43

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it’s too late—from the New York Times… read more

Similar categories in Steven Levitsky's Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru

12. Blue Ruin

By: Hari Kunzru

3.86

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, po… read more

Similar categories in Hari Kunzru's Blue Ruin book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • audiobook
Cover of There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

13. There Are Rivers in the Sky

By: Elif Shafak

4.58

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about … read more

Similar categories in Elif Shafak's There Are Rivers in the Sky book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • audiobook
"Books, like paper lanterns, provide us with a light amidst the fog."

-Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

Cover of Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum

14. Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV

By: Emily Nussbaum

4.02

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

Who invented reality TV, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre, and why can’t we look away f… read more

Similar categories in Emily Nussbaum's Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • audiobook
Cover of Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life by Nicholas D. Kristof

15. Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life

By: Nicholas D. Kristof

4.55

Format: 480 pages, Hardcover

From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and best-selling author Nicholas D. Kristof, … read more

Similar categories in Nicholas D. Kristof's Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz

16. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

By: John Ganz

4.23

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A lively, revelatory look back at the convulsions at the end of the Reagan era―and their dark legac… read more

Similar categories in John Ganz's When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci

17. On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service

By: Anthony Fauci

4.59

Format: 464 pages, Hardcover

The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and w… read more

Similar categories in Anthony Fauci's On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Playground by Richard Powers

18. Playground

By: Richard Powers

4.35

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of T… read more

Similar categories in Richard Powers's Playground book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

Cover of How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain by Peter S. Goodman

19. How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain

By: Peter S. Goodman

4.25

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Part Michael Lewis, part The Way Things Work: From the New York Times’s Global Economics Correspond… read more

Similar categories in Peter S. Goodman's How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation by Tom McGrath

20. Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation

By: Tom McGrath

3.91

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

In Triumph of the Yuppies, Tom McGrath presents the first-ever book-length history of the Yuppie ph… read more

Similar categories in Tom McGrath's Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Colored Television by Danzy Senna

21. Colored Television

By: Danzy Senna

3.83

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex… read more

Similar categories in Danzy Senna's Colored Television book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • audiobook
Cover of Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics by Elle Reeve

22. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

By: Elle Reeve

4.27

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

This tour de force of investigative journalism—in the vein of The Next Civil War and Why We’re Pola… read more

Similar categories in Elle Reeve's Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley

23. Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves

By: Nicola Twilley

4.26

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific my… read more

Similar categories in Nicola Twilley's Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • audiobook
Cover of Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum

24. Autocracy, Inc.

By: Anne Applebaum

4.28

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man … read more

Similar categories in Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc. book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"Americans who rarely think about Russia would be stunned to learn how much time Russian state television devotes to America’s culture wars, especially arguments over gender. Putin himself has display…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

"Isolationism is an instinctive and even understandable reaction to the ugliness of the modern interconnected world. For some politicians in democracies, it will continue to offer a successful path to…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

"The temptation of what is sometimes called realism—the belief that nations are solely motivated by a struggle for power, that they have eternal interests and permanent geopolitical orientations—is as…"

-Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.

Cover of The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook

25. The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family

By: Jesselyn Cook

4.45

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

The riveting story of five families shattered by pernicious, pervasive conspiracy theories, and how… read more

Similar categories in Jesselyn Cook's The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro

26. The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

By: James Shapiro

4.11

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant and daring account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy in … read more

Similar categories in James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • american
  • history
  • politics
  • theatre
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

27. The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

By: Evan Friss

4.18

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cu… read more

Similar categories in Evan Friss's The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Burn by Peter Heller

28. Burn

By: Peter Heller

3.72

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, a novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emer… read more

Similar categories in Peter Heller's Burn book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • audiobook
Cover of What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service by Melissa Fitzgerald

29. What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service

By: Melissa Fitzgerald

4.49

Format: 608 pages, Hardcover

A behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of The West Wing  as told by cast members Mel… read more

Similar categories in Melissa Fitzgerald's What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple

30. Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation

By: Brenda Wineapple

4.40

Format: 544 pages, Hardcover

A magnificent history of the 1925 Scopes trial and how the teaching of evolution in public schools … read more

Similar categories in Brenda Wineapple's Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • american history
  • history
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre

31. The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World

By: Ben Macintyre

4.51

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling tick-tock recounting one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue att… read more

Similar categories in Ben Macintyre's The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World book and James Shapiro's The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook

28 best-selling audiobook books like The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro

Transform Your Habits

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

Erik Larson

4.24

Transform Your Habits

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

Salman Rushdie

4.10

Transform Your Habits

The Evolution of Annabel Craig

Lisa Grunwald

3.97

Transform Your Habits

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent

Judi Dench

4.56

View all the books

20 Top audiobook books like Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple

Transform Your Habits

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

Hampton Sides

4.51

Transform Your Habits

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s

Doris Kearns Goodwin

4.71

Transform Your Habits

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

Erik Larson

4.24

Transform Your Habits

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

Adam Higginbotham

4.60

View all the books

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