Good Trouble: 8 Nonfiction Books on Resistance

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For certain groups, reading is implicitly resistant.

I have written before about how the book-banning efforts we see today are directly linked to slavery, and started a content series showing how reading, books, and literature have always had a place in resisting oppression. Now, with everything going on, there seems to be this thought that the country is regressing, or even starting to resemble 1940s Germany. Of course, if you’re a racial minority, you know that’s not true. The US has, since its inception, been a land of white supremacy attained through violence and degradation.

On the flip side, though? It’s also always been a land of resistance, and the books below show just how much good trouble our forebears got into in the fight against colonialism. Complete task #5 of our 2026 Read Harder Challenge and read a nonfiction book about resistance, and may the examples set be guiding lights.

A Protest History of the United States by Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Law professor Gloria J. Browne-Marshall lays out 400 years’ worth of resistance in what is now known as the United States, starting with Indigenous Americans resisting a European invasion and landing on more recent endeavors. Using legal and government documents, archival material, and more, Browne-Marshall shows us new ways to think of protest and how each role plays its part.

Hine Toa by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku

When looking up books about queer history, the results often are all about the U.S.—but queer resistance has taken place and continues to happen across the globe. This is a memoir of a prominent Māori lesbian activist and academic, Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku. It follows her journey from growing up a working-class girl from the pā to becoming a founding member of Ngā Tamatoa and the Women’s and Gay Liberation movements. Her experience of being denied entry into the United States in 1972 for being a lesbian was the catalyst for the formation of several of the first Gay Liberation groups in New Zealand. —Danika Ellis

All access members continue below for more books on resistance.

Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman

Schulman poured 20 years into this history of ACT UP and American AIDS activism. She shows how, in just a few years, ACT UP changed the world. They started needle exchange programs, changed the American insurance landscape, and even had to protest to change the definition of AIDS to include women. Ultimately, Shulman shows how we everything from today’s AIDS treatment to the general public’s understanding of the illness to this legendary organization.

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martínez

One part memoir and one part history lesson, Wake follows Hall’s attempts to rediscover the many Black women who fought back against their enslavers while grappling with the long-reaching effects of enslavement on her own family. —Eileen Gonzalez

Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

Hersey’s foundational perspective in Rest is Resistance is that grind culture, having its roots in histories of enslavement and colonization, is borne of white supremacy and capitalism — a perspective that, unfortunately, makes terrifying and undeniable sense. With that in mind, she advocates for rest as a subversive act that resists and undermines the extractive nature of grind culture. As the founder of the Nap Ministry, Hersey is dedicated to using rest to step outside of the fog of sleep deprivation. This book takes readers through Hersey’s theories of rest as resistance, including ideas about how rest can offer up space to dream and imagine outside of the confines of grind culture. —Anne Mai Yee Jansen

The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded by Gord Hill

When 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance was first published in 2010, it was regarded as groundbreaking. Now, in the revised and expanded edition, this history of activism and resistance is more powerful than ever. Author and artist Gord Hill explores everything from Spanish conquest in South America to the Oka Crisis. With strong illustrations, this book is a testament to the strength of Indigenous resistance. —River H. Kero

Climate Is Just the Start by Mikaela Loach

Mikaela Loach’s second book makes the world of climate justice more accessible to younger readers, bringing a message of hope to kids and teens who may feel that they can’t do anything to stop the climate crisis. Loach writes about her own experiences as an activist, telling the stories of actions she has taken, from participating in protests to taking the UK government to court; she also brings in the stories of other climate activists, showing young readers the work done by others and inspiring them to take action themselves. —Alice Nuttall

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson

The general American population’s understanding of Black American resistance seems to be reduced to the nonviolence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, versus Malcolm X’s willingness to do whatever was necessary. The truth, of course, has much more nuance. The truth is that Black American resistance has had moments of nonviolence and violence—which are sometimes necessary when faced with racist violence—that included rebellions just as it did simply walking away. Here, Jackson reshapes our understanding of this resistance, especially when it comes to the role Black women played in it.