The Worst Books of 2024: Nonfiction
Charlatans have been with us for the whole of history, of course, and charlatans have always varied in their degree of camouflage. But in the 21st century, self-evident lying became not only a social norm but the world's most-imitated business model. And the degree of brazen, shameless fakery that's become both an atmospheric component and a power structure in the current moment has an added element of open taunting, a toreador-flagrant daring of onlookers to point out that not only does the emperor have no clothes, but he's issuing edicts mandating the wearing of clothes. This is the Age of the Grifter, when Person A can vigorously deny being a sex-trafficker in the same conversation where he brags about being a sex-trafficker, when Person B can vigorously deny being a racist in the same conversation where he cracks racist jokes that make even his racist interviewer squirm, and where Person C can vigorously deny she's a callous psychopath in the same conversation where she proudly relates shooting a puppy in the face. That brazen daring was all over 2024's nonfiction. This was the worst of it:
10 The Meese Revolution: The Making of a Constitutional Moment by Steven Gow Calabresi & Gary Lawson (Encounter Books)
Meese was, is, and will always be, as the saying went, a pig.
9 Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh (Seal Press)
Shakespeare was straight.
8 The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil (Viking)
The Singularity isn't real.
7 Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs by Luis Elizondo (William Morrow)
There are no visiting space aliens.
6 Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You've Had a Lucky Life by Joseph Epstein (Free Press)
Your life isn't lucky if everybody in it secretly hates you.
5 Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)
The Tipping Point isn't real.
4 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Press)
The kids are all right.
3 The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free by Pete Hegseth (Broadside e-books)
Pete Hegseth is a traitor.
2 Propaganda Wars: How the Global Elite Control What You See, Think, and Feel by Glenn Beck (Forefront Books)
Glenn Beck is part of the global elite.
1 We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions on the Divine by Jordan Peterson (Portfolio)
Jordan Peterson is an atheist.