Throughout 2025, the Karsh Institute convened authors of notable new books—leaders across policy, history, law, and journalism—for conversations that examined the forces shaping democracy today. Their work expands our understanding of civic life, strengthens our grasp of institutional resilience, and illuminates the stories and ideas that bind communities together.
Alongside these events, the Institute also published original reporting that highlighted our events, elevated student perspectives, and featured expert insights on timely democratic issues. This year-end reading list highlights both: the books featured in our public programming and the Institute’s most-read original news stories of 2025.
Books that shaped our public programming
This year, the Karsh Institute hosted authors of influential new books for in-depth conversations about democracy’s past, present, and future. These discussions offered fresh scholarship, firsthand insights, and new ways of understanding the civic forces shaping American life.
We’ve compiled a list of books that were featured in Karsh Institute public programs in 2025, plus two bonus reads. Each book includes a link to the related program, so you can watch the conversation and hear directly from the authors and experts themselves.
1. America, América: A New History of the New World
By Greg Grandin
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: America
Grandin reexamines the history of the Americas through a hemispheric lens, revealing shared struggles and intertwined political identities that continue to shape modern democracies.
2. American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation and Could Again
By Yuval Levin
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: Law
Levin explores how the Constitution once bound a fractured country and how its principles might again offer a path toward national cohesion.
3. American Reboot: An Idealist's Guide to Getting Big Things Done
By Will Hurd
Event: Former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd: Congress – a Cornerstone of American Democracy
Hurd argues that public service, pragmatism, and bipartisan leadership remain essential tools for tackling the country’s hardest challenges.
4. Can Democracy and Capitalism Be Reconciled?
Edited by Sidney M. Milkis and Scott C. Miller
Event: Can Democracy and Capitalism Be Reconciled?
This edited volume examines the enduring tensions between democratic governance and market capitalism, exploring whether political equality and economic inequality can be reconciled in modern democracies.
5. Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges
By Richard D. Kahlenberg
Event: Opportunity in America
This event was hosted by UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy in partnership with the Karsh Institute. It was not recorded.
Kahlenberg explores the complex interplay between social class and race in shaping opportunity and equality in America.
6. Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis
By James Davison Hunter
Event: The Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis
Hunter unpacks the cultural conflicts that fuel political polarization and considers how solidarity might help rebuild the social foundations of democracy.
7. Empowering Affected Interests
Edited by Archon Fung
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: Empowering Democratic Inclusion in a Globalized World
This collection examines why and how democracies could better incorporate the voices of those affected by policy decisions, especially on issues that transcend borders.
8. Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy
By Timothy J. Heaphy
Event: The Resilience of Democratic Institutions: A Conversation with Timothy Heaphy
Drawing on his leadership roles in both the January 6 investigation and the aftermath of the events of August 2017 in Charlottesville, Heaphy analyzes institutional vulnerabilities and paths toward resilience.
9. Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
By Kathleen DuVal
Event: Becoming America: The Past, Promise, and Path Ahead at 250
DuVal reframes American history by centering Indigenous nations and showing how Native peoples shaped political life, diplomacy, and power in North America long before and after European colonization.
10. Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity
By Michele Norris
Event: UVA’s 2025 Community MLK Celebration
This event was hosted by UVA’s Office of Community, Opportunity, and Engagement in partnership with the Karsh Institute and the School of Data Science. It was not recorded.
Norris reflects on race in America, offering insights into how people understand identity, belonging, and intergenerational change.
11. The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
By Zara Anishanslin
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: Art
Anishanslin uncovers the artists who shaped early American identity and explores how images, symbols, and artistic networks influenced revolutionary politics.
12. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America
By Beth Macy
Event: Stories That Bind Us: A Conversation with Beth Macy
Macy reflects on her path from childhood in a struggling Ohio town to a career as one of the nation’s leading narrative journalists, using her personal story to illuminate how economic upheaval, community strain, and cultural division influence American life today.
13. Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements
By Deva Woodly
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: Democracy and the Imagination
Woodly argues that social movements are an essential element of democracy, as they reshape public values and expand political possibilities.
14. The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism
By Matthew Continetti
Event: Touchstones of Democracy: Tensions in American Conservative Thought
Continetti traces the evolution of American conservatism from the Progressive Era to today, examining the forces that shaped the movement and its ongoing tension between mainstream conservatism and populist extremism.
15. Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church
By Hahrie Han
Event: Is American Civic Culture the Source of Our Challenges?
Drawing on immersive research within a multiracial evangelical church, Han explores how Americans navigate race, identity, and political difference and what it takes to build racial solidarity in everyday civic life.
Bonus Reads
Nuremberg’s Citizen Prosecutor: Benjamin Ferencz and the Birth of International Justice
By Gregory S. Gordon
This is the inaugural title in the new UVA Press series “Democratic Ideals in Global Perspective,” published with the Karsh Institute. The biography follows Benjamin Ferencz’s journey from young Nuremberg prosecutor to one of the key architects of modern international justice. The series editors are Associate Professor of History Emily Burrill and Assistant Professor of Classics Jacqueline Arthur-Montagne, both faculty in the Karsh Institute’s Nau Lab.
Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank
By Justene Hill Edwards
Winner of the 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize, “Savings and Trust” examines the history of the Freedman’s Bank and its devastating collapse, revealing how financial institutions shaped the economic lives and democratic hopes of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. The Karsh Institute supported the development of the book manuscript as part of its investment in research that examines the historical foundations of democracy.
Our Most-Read News Articles
Karsh Institute news stories bring democracy to life, capturing big ideas from our programs, sharing expert commentary, and highlighting how students and communities are engaging with democratic questions in meaningful ways. A number of our most-read articles this year grew out of Democracy360, the Institute’s signature convening, reflecting widespread interest in conversations about democracy’s future. Below is a selection of our most-read news articles from 2025.
Democracy360 Convenes Thousands for Three Days of Bold Ideas and Engaging Conversation
October 2025
One of several popular articles to emerge from Democracy360, this recap captures the scale and spirit of the Karsh Institute’s signature event, which attracted more than 5,000 participants and thousands more viewers online for three days of dialogue and connection. Featuring conversations with leading journalists, Pulitzer Prize–winning historians, bestselling authors, and national practitioners, Democracy360 offered a multifaceted look at the future of American democracy as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary. Presented in partnership with The Atlantic, with distribution support from VPM and PBS News, the convening underscored a central theme: democracy’s strength lies in people and their willingness to engage, listen, and collaborate across difference.
Balance of Power: Congress and the Presidency
February 2025
The single most-read Karsh Institute article of the year, this piece examines the constitutional balance between Congress and the presidency and how that balance has shifted over time. Drawing on insights from Sidney Milkis, professor at UVA’s Miller Center and the Department of Politics, the article explores the historical roots and democratic implications of the presidency’s expanding power—and why tensions among the branches remain central to the health of American democracy.
Popular Karsh Institute Fellowship Expands To Prepare More Students for Constructive, Engaged Dialogue
April 2025
This article highlights the rapid expansion of the Karsh Institute’s Civic Cornerstone Fellowship, a program designed to equip students with skills for constructive dialogue across differences. Initially envisioned as a small pilot, the Fellowship drew overwhelming interest from more than 300 students in its first semester and grew to 400 students representing all 12 UVA schools in its second year. The story reflects strong student demand for opportunities to practice democratic engagement in meaningful ways.
Making the Case for Democracy
February 2025
Amid bipartisan concern about the health of American democracy, this essay by the Karsh Institute’s Research Director Jessica Kimpell Johnson and Academic Director Laurent Dubois examines why democracy remains both morally compelling and practically necessary. Drawing on polling data from the 2024 presidential election, the authors explore democracy’s capacity to confront contemporary crises, acknowledge its contradictions, and argue for the continued work required to sustain it.
Why Neighborhood Block Parties Are Good for Democracy
June 2025
Focusing on democratic culture at the community level, this article explores how rebuilding social trust can strengthen civic life. Highlighting research on rising social isolation—and a local response led by Karsh Institute Practitioner Fellow Sam Pressler—the piece examines the “Civic Possibilities Neighbor Gatherings” initiative, which provided microgrants to residents in Charlottesville and surrounding communities to host shared meals and neighborhood activities. The story illustrates how small-scale civic connections can play an outsized role in democratic renewal.