American non-fiction was obsessed with "freedom" in 2021.
It was fitting for a year when vaccines largely freed the country to move around again, certain emerging variants notwithstanding.
Freedom is a concept that's difficult to pin down, though.
The freedom to go to the restaurant of your choice may now depend on having an iPhone with a vaccine passport or a copy of your vaccination card. Is that real freedom? The freedom to continue working from home, meanwhile, is one that workers across the country are fighting hard to preserve.
The theme of how Americans have defined freedom was explored in books on the last decade ("Wildland"), the 20-year-long War on Terror ("Reign of Terror"), popular culture during the Cold War ("The Free World"), even the founding of the country itself ("American Republics").
Insider's Economy team has worked hard throughout the year to explore all the ways economic change manifest in surprising ways.
One of the biggest stories of the year is the plunging birth rate, a lifestyle choice many American women of my generation are making that carries a sad truth: They aren't economically free to have as many children as they want.
Another giant story is the great resignation, in which millions of workers are choosing their next job very carefully, or not at all. This is an economic crisis to many, but isn't that also a kind of freedom?
Here are the 10 non-fiction works that were as obsessed with freedom this year as the rest of us were.