Author Guide · Nonfiction · Economics and Race
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In 1959 the city of Montgomery, Alabama, drained its public swimming pool and closed its parks and zoo rather than open them to Black residents. Heather McGhee, born in Chicago in 1980 and president of the think tank Demos from 2014, made that pool the opening image of The Sum of Us (2021): white Americans, she argues, lose too when public goods are withdrawn so that they need not be shared. She left Demos to spend three years travelling from Maine to Mississippi to California for the book, which debuted at number three on the New York Times nonfiction list. In 2023 she adapted it for younger readers. This guide covers her 2 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2021–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Heather McGhee has published two books: The Sum of Us (2021), a New York Times bestseller longlisted for the National Book Award, and The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers) (2023). Start with The Sum of Us; read on for what it argues, its prizes and the podcast made from it.
Where to Start with Heather McGhee
If you want her full argument
→ The Sum of Us (2021) — the 2021 book, with the data and the reporting.
If you want a shorter version for teenagers or a classroom
→ The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers) (2023) — the 240-page adaptation for grades 6 and up.
If you want the idea of “drained-pool politics”
→ The Sum of Us (2021) — set out in its second chapter, on Montgomery.
2 Heather McGhee Books, in Order
The Sum of Us
McGhee argues that the “zero-sum” belief, that any gain for people of color comes at white people’s expense, has cost white Americans as well: public pools drained rather than integrated, subprime loans that began in Black neighbourhoods and fed the 2008 crash, a 2017 union vote lost at a Nissan plant in Mississippi. She reports from places including Lewiston, Maine, and Richmond, California, and calls the gains of cross-racial cooperation the “Solidarity Dividend”. Published by One World in February 2021, it spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal, and won the Porchlight Business Book of the Year, the Ridenhour Book Prize and the Zócalo Book Prize.
The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers)
A 240-page adaptation of the 2021 book for middle- and high-school readers, published by Delacorte Press in February 2023. It keeps the central argument, that racism harms white people as well as people of color, and the conversations with people working across racial lines, in a shorter form.
In What Order to Read Heather McGhee
There is no order to worry about: the second book is a shorter version of the first, not a sequel. Adult readers should go straight to the 2021 edition, which has the full reporting, the figures and the policy history.
The 2023 adaptation suits readers from about age 11, or a class or family reading the argument together. If you want to hear the people from the book, the podcast The Sum of Us (2022) continues the reporting.
A reading path
1. The Sum of Us (2021)
2. The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers) (2023)
The years · 1980–2023
Quick facts about Heather McGhee
- Known for
- Heather McGhee is known for the argument that racism costs white Americans too, which she summed up as “drained-pool politics” in The Sum of Us.
- 1980
- Born in Chicago, Illinois
- 2001
- BA in American studies, Yale
- 2021
- The Sum of Us
- 2023
- Young readers edition
- Born
- 6 June 1980, Chicago, Illinois; grew up on the South Side
- Education
- Yale University (BA, American studies, 2001); UC Berkeley School of Law (JD, 2009)
- Worked
- Demos, the policy think tank, for nearly two decades; president 2014–2018
- Boards
- Chair of the board of Color of Change; trustee emeritus of Demos
- Prizes
- Porchlight Business Book of the Year (2021), Ridenhour Book Prize (2022), Zócalo Book Prize (2022)
- Podcast
- The Sum of Us, from the Obamas’ Higher Ground, 2022
The red mark is 2021: The Sum of Us, her first and only full-length book.
How Heather McGhee Writes: Data, Then People
McGhee comes to writing from policy. At Demos she worked on credit card debt and helped shape the financial reform that became the Dodd-Frank Act, and The Sum of Us is built on that material: wealth gaps, lending data, voting law, union density. Each chapter takes one area of American life, from housing and health care to pollution and segregation, and asks who paid for a policy designed to exclude.
The figures are carried by people she met. She left Demos and spent three years travelling: to the site of Montgomery’s drained pool, to Nissan workers in Mississippi, to Richmond, California, and to Lewiston, a former mill town in Maine. Many of her interviewees are white, which is the point of the book: she wants readers to see the cost to themselves, not only to others.
Her tone is persuasive rather than accusatory, and it ends on a proposal. Throughout, she points to what she calls the “Solidarity Dividend”, the gains when people organise across race, as in the Fight for $15 campaign of fast-food workers, and its tenth chapter is set in Lewiston. The same approach runs through her 2019 TED talk, “Racism has a cost for everyone”.
Watch
Frequently asked questions about Heather McGhee’s books
How many books has Heather McGhee written?
Two: The Sum of Us (2021) and The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers) (2023), which is a shorter version of the first book rather than a new work.
What are Heather McGhee’s books in order?
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021), then The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers): How Racism Hurts Everyone (2023).
Where should I start with Heather McGhee?
With The Sum of Us (2021), the full book. The 2023 adaptation is meant for readers in grades 6 and up, or for reading the argument with teenagers.
What is Heather McGhee’s most famous book?
The Sum of Us. It debuted at number three on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list in March 2021 and spent 10 weeks on the list.
What is “drained-pool politics”?
McGhee’s name for policies that take a public good away from everyone rather than share it across race. The image comes from towns such as Montgomery, Alabama, which in 1959 drained its public pool rather than integrate it.
What awards has The Sum of Us won?
It won the Porchlight Business Book of the Year for 2021, the Ridenhour Book Prize (2022) and the Zócalo Book Prize (2022), and was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Has The Sum of Us been adapted?
Yes, as a podcast. The Sum of Us, made by Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground for Spotify, began in July 2022 and continues the reporting of the book. The book was also adapted for young readers in 2023.
Who was the C-SPAN caller in Heather McGhee’s story?
In 2016, during a C-SPAN appearance, a caller named Gary said, “I’m a White male, and I am prejudiced,”. The exchange with McGhee was viewed more than a million times; a year later Gary said his views had changed.
Is Heather McGhee still alive?
Yes. She was born on 6 June 1980 in Chicago. She chairs the board of Color of Change and is a trustee emeritus of Demos.
Who publishes Heather McGhee?
The Sum of Us is published by One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House, edited by Chris Jackson; the young readers edition is published by Delacorte Press.
Footnotes
- Heather McGhee — Wikipedia
- The Sum of Us — Penguin Random House
- The Sum of Us named 2021 Porchlight Business Book of the Year — Penguin Random House
- Heather McGhee, Book Prize Recipient 2022 — The Ridenhour Prizes
- Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers) — Porchlight Books
- The Sum of Us — Harvard Kennedy School, 2021
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Public goods, in other words, are only for the public we perceive to be good.”
— Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us (2021)
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