In addition to their teaching responsibilities, faculty from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs are also prolific authors, writing and editing books that help inform public policy, capture historic moments in time, further individual scholarship, or even just for personal pleasure.
Below is a roundup of the latest books from members of our community from the spring 2026 semester.
The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden: A First Historical Assessment
Edited by Julian Zelizer, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes,
Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs
Published by Princeton University Press
From the publisher
“The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden presents a first draft of history by providing insights into how this one-term president fits within the broader historical forces shaping the United States in the twenty-first century. Acclaimed political historian Julian Zelizer brings together some of today’s leading scholars to give balanced and strikingly original assessments of the major issues of the Biden years, from education and reproductive rights to the economy, labor relations, climate policy, race, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the culture wars. These incisive essays trace the full arc of Joe Biden’s presidency from its early successes to the setbacks that ultimately consumed it. His domestic legislative achievements were hailed by some as the most momentous of any American presidency since the Great Society while his foreign policy ably met the challenges posed by the nation’s great power rivals. Yet by late 2024, Biden’s legacy was in tatters, overshadowed by immigration, inflation, the war in Gaza, and the president’s obvious physical decline. Written in a clear and accessible manner, The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden moves beyond the day-by-day journalistic coverage to provide the first comprehensive scholarly account of the Biden administration’s achievements and eventual downfall.”
Leave If You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds
By Amelia Frank-Vitale, assistant professor of anthropology and public affairs
Published by University of California Press
From the publisher
“The consequences of U.S. border policies through the experiences of Honduran migrants. Hondurans have been at the heart of some of the most visible migration phenomena in the last few years, as well as the direct target of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. In Leave If You Can, Amelia Frank-Vitale offers a detailed portrait of the Honduran exodus and what it reveals about the broader consequences of changing US border enforcement policies. She highlights the stories of those who are often presented as unsympathetic: deported young men implicitly associated with the very violence they are trying to flee. In the process, she challenges underlying assumptions frequently held by policy makers and humanitarian agencies. Connecting overlapping regimes of mobility control, from the invisible gangland borders within San Pedro Sula to the growing expansiveness of the U.S. border's reach, this book shows how deportation does not deter migration but, in fact, keeps people moving, and how U.S. policies fuel the migration "crisis" they claim to address. Drawing from her own experiences accompanying migrant caravans over many years, Frank-Vitale also explores how caravans emerge as both protest movement and migration tactic in response to this expanding border regime.”
A Case for Congress
By Frances Lee, professor of politics and public affairs, co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics
Published by The University of Oklahoma Press
From the publisher
“Polarized. Dysfunctional. Toxic. Broken. These are only some of the negative words Americans use to describe the United States Congress. Nowadays hardly anyone has something good to say about either the House of Representatives or the Senate, the two bodies that make up Congress. But is this common viewpoint too negative, too one-sided? And is it based on solid evidence or reasonable expectations? In A Case for Congress, political scholar Frances Lee provides a more balanced assessment, arguing for the enduring worth and importance of the representative assembly. As one of the three branches of the US government, Congress stands at the heart of our liberal democracy. This continues to be true even when Congress is divided and fractious. Lee draws from a wide range of scholarship and current data to highlight three important functions that Congress continues to serve, as envisioned by the authors of the Constitution: representing the American people along multiple dimensions, lawmaking even in the face of persistent disagreement, and holding executive branch officials accountable. While Congress never fully achieves any of its functions, it still serves them. Written in a clear and engaging style, A Case for Congress challenges readers to think against the grain and appreciate the Congress we have, not an ideal Congress that never in fact existed. ‘The bathwater is dirty,’ the author acknowledges, ‘but there is a baby in there.’ It turns out that a complex, polarized, distrustful republic of some 340 million Americans needs Congress more than ever.”
The Midnight Taxi
By Yosha Gunasekera, visiting lecturer
Published by Berkley/Penguin Random House
From the publisher
“When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera. Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving. When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected. Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.”