Ray Bradbury once wrote that books are dangerous because reading them can lead you to change your mind. That danger is also what makes a good book such a delight to read. In compiling this year’s list of the best nonfiction, I’ve borne Bradbury’s admonition in mind. The volumes I’ve chosen all made me stop and rethink something I thought I understood.
As always, I avoid tyranny of the alphabet by presenting in random order, concluding with my choice for best nonfiction book of the year:
— Andrea G. McDowell, "We the Miners: Self-Government in the California Gold Rush." A useful corrective to the traditional view that what kept order in the mining towns was the threat of violence. The author is even-handed but not starry-eyed. Particularly chilling are her accounts of the “punitive” raids against the Indigenous people, expeditions even dissenters were expected to join.
