Person
Every book Mark Dunkelman recommended on podcasts
Mark Dunkelman’s most recommended books
- The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
- Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
- Making a New Deal by Lizabeth Cohen
- Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum
- Abundance by Ezra Klein
- The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills
Mark Dunkelman is a writer and researcher whose appearance on The Ezra Klein Show explored the evolution of progressive politics, public infrastructure, and geographic mobility. In the closing segments of the interview, Dunkelman offered a concise list of foundational history and policy books that have influenced his worldview. He began by recommending Lizabeth Cohen's Making a New Deal, praising it as the finest pure history book he has ever encountered. Next, he recommended Yoni Appelbaum's Stuck, noting how it directly addresses the modern challenges of housing and the lack of geographic mobility that hinders socioeconomic progress. Dunkelman also pointed listeners toward Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert, which traces the history of the Bureau of Reclamation and the massive wave of dam-building across the American West. Throughout the broader conversation, Dunkelman frequently placed his own work in conversation with Robert A. Caro's iconic biography The Power Broker, while also referencing C. Wright Mills's The Power Elite and Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance to examine shifting political thought.
Books recommended by Mark Dunkelman
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The Power Broker
The Power Broker by Robert A.
Discussed“Silent Spring, ultimately the power broker, which is my book is sort of in conversation with the power broker.”
Where to get it
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Cadillac Desert
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a classic environmental history detailing the massive dam-building projects and water management policies that shaped the arid American West under figures like Floyd Dominy.
Recommended“But there's a book by uh Mark Reeseman called Cadillac Desert which essentially traces the same arc uh with a guy named Floyd Dominy running the Bureau of Reclamation and building dams all across the West.”
Where to get it
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Making a New Deal
Making a New Deal by Lizabeth Cohen is a historical examination of how working-class Chicagoans shaped American politics, labor unions, and consumer culture during the Great Depression and the New Deal era.
Recommended“So uh the first book I always recommend to anyone is Liz Cohen's Making a New Deal, which I think is the greatest pure book of history that I've ever read.”
Where to get it
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Stuck
Stuck by Yoni Appelbaum is an insightful exploration of American institutional stagnation and the economic barriers that limit upward mobility.
Recommended“The second book which I hope people will pick up is uh yoni apple bomb stuck which gets to a lot of these issues explicitly in the realm of housing talks about how a lack of geographic mobility for many of the reasons that we have here has really been the hindrance to socioeconomic mobility.”
Where to get it
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Abundance
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is a widely debated political manifesto that challenges progressive orthodoxy by arguing that liberals must embrace economic growth, regulatory reform, and actual physical building to achieve their goals.
Discussed“I think what abundance has done for the first time really since then is to open up a conversation about whether we need to rethink that core notion of what progressivism is about.”
Where to get it
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The Power Elite
The Power Elite by C.
Discussed“and there are books like Cight Mills's power elite and then the the SDS puts out the portion statement and the core notion that they are beginning to seed inside the progressive movement is actually...”
Where to get it
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| What We Got Right — and Wrong — in ‘Abundance’ | The Ezra Klein Show | The Ezra Klein Show | 2026-04-28 | 7 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“you see that in uh secondwave feminism you see it in the uh the objection to Uh you you see that in the reaction to urban renewal, to the highway program, Silent Spring, ultimately the power broker, which is my book is sort of in conversation with the power broker.”