“Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling.” — Often attributed to Miguel de Unamuno
I’m not going to pretend that 2025 was normal. It wasn’t. These are not normal times (if any such thing as ever really existed).
DO NOT let ANYONE convince you that any of what is happening is normal or “just politics.” It isn’t. This isn’t normal. This isn’t just politics. This is a concerted effort by racist, fascist, EVIL people to rewrite what it means to be American.
As such, the present feels unstable, wobbly, disorienting. And all of this is the point of those making it so. Whether you call it democratic backsliding, authoritarian drift, or (as I and many others fear) something even darker, I wanted a mirror that could show me not just what’s happening, but what tends to happen next when institutions strain, when truth becomes negotiable, and when people are taught to see neighbors as enemies.
History and philosophy offer that mirror. History supplies patterns and consequences; philosophy supplies the moral vocabulary and inner discipline to respond without becoming what we oppose.
My focus in 2025 was to read deliberately. I didn’t read to confirm what I already believe, but to test it; not to “win” arguments, but to refine judgment; not to escape reality, but to face it with clearer eyes. The right books don’t tell us what to think; they train us how to think when fear, outrage, and propaganda are trying to think for us. And in a moment like this, that might be the most practical form of courage we have.
This is what I read in 2025 that impacted me the most.
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley
Like many Americans, I spent the past year horrified, angry, frustrated, and ashamed of what my country has become. How Fascism Works is THE primer on what is occurring in the USA. Stanley breaks down the recurring tactics authoritarian movements use to win and keep power, among them,
- propaganda,
- “us vs. them” narratives,
- attacks on truth-tellers, and
- the slow normalization of cruelty.
The ideas in this book are meant to help us all recognize the patterns early, before “this is just politics” becomes “this is just how things are.” When fear, scapegoating, and disinformation enter the Zeitgeist, trust collapses, psychological and physical safety evaporates, and people start policing each other instead of solving shared problems.
Key Passage:
“…those that lived through transitions from democracy to fascism regularly emphasize from personal experience and with great alarm: the tendency of populations to normalize the once unthinkable.”
The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett
Not everyone cares about history, but everyone should at least respect it. History isn’t about dates and dead people. It’s the study of change, human experience, and societal function. History is like looking in a mirror. It doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. Studying history provides us with the essential context needed to navigate the complexities of our world today and build a more enlightened future.
Especially relevant to study is the fall of the Weimar Republic under fascist weight of Naziism. Benjamin Carter Hett examines how the Weimar Republic collapsed and how a modern society can slide—legally and socially—into authoritarian rule through polarization, economic anxiety, elite bargains, and political violence (look above to Stanley’s book).
The impact is a sobering reminder that democracy is not self-sustaining. Institutions fail when people decide norms don’t matter anymore. This MATTERS because America is on the brink, and I do not believe this to be hyperbole. Our ideas of what is normal are intentionally being warped. Fair process, consistent accountability, credible information, and the idea that rules apply to everyone are being erased. When those norms erode, you don’t just get “conflict”—you get cynicism, injustice, fear-based leadership, and a culture where people stop believing the system can be just.
Key Passage:
“Few Germans in 1933 could imagine Treblinka or Auschwitz, the mass shootings of Babi Yar or the death marches of the last months of the Second World War. It is hard to blame them for not foreseeing the unthinkable. Yet their innocence failed them, and they were catastrophically wrong about their future. We who come later have on advantage over them: we have their example before us.” [emphasis mine]
Arguing for a Better World: How Philosophy Can Help Us Fight for Social Justice by Arianne Shahvisi
My unofficial tagline in my speaking biography is “Paul believes philosophy is a difference making pursuit in life and business.” And I stick by that idea, which is why I was drawn to this book! In today’s world, “social justice” is a trigger for many folks who rail against triggers… see what I did there? God forbid we want to make the world a more just, fair, loving place. This book is challenging—on purpose! Philosophy is supposed to challenge us all. Shahvisi reframes philosophical argument as a moral and civic skill. Arguing isn’t a sport to win, but a way to pursue truth, challenge injustice, and build shared understanding across differences. My main takeaway from this book is that philosophy gives us all tools to spot bad-faith tactics, reduce heat without losing clarity, and have braver conversations that don’t collapse into silence or hostility.
Key Passage:
“We are all morally injured…. This system rides roughshod over our most basis understanding of what is fair; it harms some people disproportionately and requires others to be complicit in those harms.”
American Ulysses: A Life of Ulesses S. Grant by Ronald C. White
I’ve made many posts about the American Ulysses since reading this book, and it bears worth repeating: It is criminal that U.S. Grant is not universally heralded as a leader worth remembering in modern America. White tries to correct the wrongs of the past by reframing Grant as a leader defined by resilience, humility, moral clarity, and persistence. This is especially evident in his work during Reconstruction, through rebuilding a nation and protecting civil rights of Black Americans after the Civil War. The impact Grant’s life is one that teaches us to expand our idea of leadership beyond charisma. We need steady character, learning through failure, and courage to do the unglamorous work of enforcement and follow-through. For contemporary America, Grant matters because so much of our future work will be “Reconstruction work”—repairing trust after damage, enforcing American ideals consistently, and staying committed when progress is slow or unpopular. For anyone, Grant is a reminder that integrity paired with endurance can outlast noise and cynicism.
Key Passage:
“Fredderick Douglass, foremost African American leader of the nineteenth century, offers a final lens to our effort to refocus the life of Ulysses S. Grant: ‘To him more than any other man the Negro owes his enfranchisement and the Indian a humane policy… HE was accessible to all men… The black soldier was welcome in his tent, and the freedman in his house.”
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t by Simon Sinek
Last year I read Start With Why and was very inspired. So, I wanted to take up Sinek’s next book. In it, he makes the case that great leadership is about creating environments where people feel safe, seen, and supported, so they can do brave, collaborative work.
What I found most fascinating in this book was how Sinek made biological connections to leadership.
He spotlights what’s often summarized as EDSO (+ cortisol)—endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and cortisol—as a memorable framework for team dynamics.
- Endorphins help us push through pain and fatigue: great for endurance, “we can do hard things,” and powering through crunch time.
- Dopamine is the “progress/reward” chemical: deadlines hit, targets met, boxes checked. It’s motivating, but it can also bias leaders and orgs toward short-term wins and constant metric-chasing if it’s the only fuel in the system.
- Serotonin is tied to feeling respected and valued: pride, confidence, and the warmth of status that comes from recognition and belonging.
- Oxytocin is the bonding/trust chemical: built through empathy, generosity, and feeling like someone has your back.
- Cortisol is the stress response: useful in real danger, but corrosive when it becomes chronic (constant job insecurity, internal politics, fear of blame).
Sinek puts this all together to claim that that leaders should aim to create a “Circle of Safety,” an environment where the biggest threats feel outside the team, not inside it. In that setting, people spend less time self-protecting and more time collaborating, innovating, and taking smart risks.
Biologically, the point is straightforward: when employees don’t feel hunted by internal politics or fear-based management, cortisol stops staying “on,” and the conditions for trust (oxytocin) and pride/belonging (serotonin) are easier to sustain.
Key Passage:
“You may be getting sick of my saying this over and over, but our bodies are trying to incentivize us to repeat behavior in our best interest. And in hard times, what better way to protect the tribe, organization or species than to make us feel good for helping one another.”
Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. by Ryan Holiday
This was the conclusion to Holiday’s “Stoic Virtues Series,” which took him the better part of 5 years (maybe longer) researching and writing. The other books are amazing reads in their own right and cannot be separated from this conclusion. Anyone who has followed me knows I am deeply influenced by Holiday’s philosophy, work, and ideas.
Ryan Holiday delves into the Cardinal Virtue of wisdom (through his Stoic framing), arguing that wisdom isn’t a “trait” some people are born with, or ever really obtain completely. Wisdom is the daily labor of thinking clearly, checking your ego, resisting impulse, and choosing the right action when the easy action is available. It’s something that happens daily when thinking intentionally. Wisdom is the virtue that guides (and in many ways unlocks) the others because,
- courage without wisdom becomes recklessness,
- temperance without wisdom becomes rigidity, and
- justice without wisdom can become self-righteousness.
What makes the book hit harder is how explicitly Holiday treats Abraham Lincoln as a case study of this “worked-for” wisdom. Holiday reminds us that Lincoln was someone who practiced restraint under provocation, stayed teachable, held contradictions without collapsing into bitterness, and made decisions with an eye on consequences, not applause. Holiday has even described Lincoln as embodying all the Stoic/cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, courage, and discipline—as a single integrated character, not a set of slogans.
Given the state of the US today, we need a leader of Lincoln’s character more than ever.
Key Passage:
“It takes immense courage and strength to continue to find beauty in a world where so many ugly things happen, when they have happened to you.”
Second Key Passage: (Because there were SO many in this book)
“History, you must understand, is not about the past. It’s a lens for understanding the present (that’s why we fight over what gets taught). It’s a way of predicting, even determining, the future.”
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