Theda Skocpol’s books span comparative studies of revolutions, the history of American social policy, civic associations and social movements, and contemporary U.S. politics. Books are listed by research theme, in order of publication.

Revolutions

Cover of States and Social Revolutions

States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China

Cambridge University Press, 1979 · Canto Classics edition, 2015

A comparative study arguing that social revolutions grow out of state crises and class structures rather than the intentions of revolutionary movements. Winner of the C. Wright Mills Award and the American Sociological Association Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award.

Cover of Vision and Method in Historical Sociology

Vision and Method in Historical Sociology

Edited by Theda Skocpol
Cambridge University Press, 1984

Essays on the leading figures of historical sociology and the research strategies behind their work.

Cover of Bringing the State Back In

Bringing the State Back In

Co-edited with Peter Evans and Dietrich Rueschemeyer
Cambridge University Press, 1985

An influential collection that returned the state to the center of social science research as an actor in its own right.

Cover of Social Revolutions in the Modern World

Social Revolutions in the Modern World

Cambridge University Press, 1994

Essays that extend and revisit the structural approach of States and Social Revolutions, including analyses of the Iranian Revolution and revolutions in the developing world.

American Political Development & Public Policies

Cover of Protecting Soldiers and Mothers

Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992

Traces the origins of American social provision through Civil War pensions and the policies won by women’s reform movements. Winner of six major scholarly awards, including the APSA Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award.

Cover of Social Policy in the United States

Social Policy in the United States: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective

Princeton University Press, 1995

Essays on what the history of American social programs suggests about their future.

Cover of State and Party in America’s New Deal

State and Party in America’s New Deal

with Kenneth Finegold
University of Wisconsin Press, 1995

Examines how state capacities and party politics shaped New Deal agricultural and industrial policy.

Cover of Boomerang

Boomerang: Clinton's Health Security Effort and the Turn Against Government in U.S. Politics

W. W. Norton, 1996 · Paperback edition with new afterword, 1997

An account of the failure of the Clinton health reform effort and the backlash against government that followed.

Cover of The Missing Middle

The Missing Middle: Working Families and the Future of American Social Policy

W. W. Norton, 2000

Makes the case for social policies that support working families, not only the poor or the elderly.

Cover of Health Care Reform and American Politics

Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

with Lawrence R. Jacobs
Oxford University Press, 2010 · Revised editions, 2012 and 2016

An accessible guide to the Affordable Care Act and the political fight surrounding it.

Organizations, Associations & Social Movements

Cover of Diminished Democracy

Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life

University of Oklahoma Press, 2003

Shows how American civic life shifted from mass membership federations to professionally managed advocacy groups, and what that shift means for democracy.

Cover of What a Mighty Power We Can Be

What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality

with Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz
Princeton University Press, 2006

Documents how African American fraternal organizations built community institutions and supported the fight for civil rights.

Contemporary U.S. Politics

Cover of Obama and America’s Political Future

Obama and America’s Political Future

With commentaries by Larry M. Bartels, Mickey Edwards, and Suzanne Mettler
Harvard University Press, 2012

An assessment of the Obama presidency’s first term and the conservative resurgence it faced.

Cover of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism

The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism

with Vanessa Williamson
Oxford University Press, 2012 · Revised with new afterword, 2016

Draws on interviews and fieldwork with local Tea Party groups to explain the movement’s grassroots, elite, and media dimensions.

Cover of Upending American Politics

Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti-Trump Resistance

Co-edited with Caroline Tervo
Oxford University Press, 2020

Research on how grassroots activists and elite networks reshaped both parties from the Tea Party era through the anti-Trump resistance.

Cover of Rust Belt Union Blues

Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party

with Lainey Newman
Columbia University Press, 2023

Explains how the decline of union-centered community life in western Pennsylvania loosened working-class ties to the Democratic Party.