A few weeks ago I posted this up and got a lot more response than I expected. I promised @mungowitz to make a list of the results. It took me a while to get to it, but here we go.

Apologies in advance if I left you off. 1/n https://twitter.com/Jacob_Montg/status/1258959919312707585?s=20
To me science fiction is a great place to approach the “big picture” sociopolitical questions. We get to meet characters living in places with too much government (1984) and places with too little (Snowcrash). Interstate (interplanetary?) relations, ... 2/n
.. domestic squabbles, technology run awry, technology abandoned, and technology as savior. We get to meet terrorists and freedom fighters and struggle to figure out which is which. We have worlds facing environmental collapse and worlds built on ecology harmony. 3/n
And we can approach all of these issues in a story-driven, engaging way. To me, these imaginary worlds/futures are a fun way to edge into the broader themes of political science and the social sciences more generally. And someday I hope to teach a class. 4/n
Since this is obviously not an idea original to me, a lot of people had great suggestions. So let's start with the most popular recommendations (based on my impression of the thread). 5/n
Far and away the most referenced work was by Ursula K. Le Guin. This included The Dispossessed, 6/n https://twitter.com/jakewbowers/status/1259274597360439304
Left Hand of Darkness, Always Coming Home, The Found and the Lost (novella collection), and The Lathe of Heaven. 7/n https://twitter.com/RIBernhard/status/1259185368831684608
Another top theme was classic dystopian novels

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
George Orwell: 1984
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World and Island

And a new one to me is "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. 8/n https://twitter.com/causalinferno/status/1258971188207980544
A personal favorite of mine is The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.

But people overlooked the Robot Series (e.g., Caves of Steel), which have important themes about the effect of robotics/automation on society. 9/n https://twitter.com/Grant_Forks/status/1259236919294210048
And then there is Robert A. Heinlein. If you don't mind your sociopolitical analysis mixed with a good dose of mid-20th century misogyny, there are a lot of great options:

Stranger in a Strange Land
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Starship Troopers https://twitter.com/jlazarus001/status/1258975359581802497
Probably the winner just for the raw number of books recommended was Philip K. Dick: Radio Free Albemuth, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Man Who Japed, The Man in the High Castle, The Simulacra, and A Scanner Darkly 11/n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick
Some "classic" entries that that I haven't read (yet).

Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood's End

"follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia .. , at the cost of human ... culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood%27s_End
Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornblut: Space Merchants https://twitter.com/jakewbowers/status/1259275841441275907
And a very frequent mention ...

Walter M. Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz (14/n) https://twitter.com/smotus/status/1259112327179235329
A lot of people listed Frank Herbert: Dune. But I dunno. Maybe just assign the movie? (15/n)
Another multi-book recommendation was Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Player Piano. (16/n)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
And as a final entry for these "classics" of science fiction, perhaps the first SciFi entry is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (17/n) https://twitter.com/BottingHunt/status/1259180014865715200
Moving onto more recent work, a *very* popular entry was Neal Stephenson starting with Snow Crash but also including Diamond Age, Seveneves, and Cryptonomicon. (18/n)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson
Another frequent mention was work by Octavia Butler especially the Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents but also Kindred and Wild Seed. (19/n) https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again
Octavia Butler’s Prescient Vision of a Zealot Elected to “Make America Great Again”

In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Butler’s “Parable” books may be unmatched.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again
In the SciFi military genre, there is the classic Forever War by Joe Haldeman that can also go with Forever Peace, (maybe) Forever Peace, and Armor by John Steakly. (20/n) https://twitter.com/lauretig/status/1258966896474574853
Another frequent mention was Iain Banks Culture Series especially Player of Games and Surface Detail. (21/n) https://digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com/digressionsimpressions/2018/06/on-games-and-society-on-iain-banks-the-player-of-games.html
On Games and Society: On Iain Banks' The Player of Games, reflexivity and transformative experience.

Gurgeh never ceased to be fascinated by the way a society's games revealed so much about its ethos, it's philosophy, its very soul.--Iain M. Banks (1988) The Player of Games, p. 30. The Player of...

https://digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com/digressionsimpressions/2018/06/on-games-and-society-on-iain-banks-the-player-of-games.html
But maybe the most popular entry for this era of SciFi was Margaret Atwood:

* The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments
* The MaddAddam trilogy, especially Oryx and Crake (22/n)
Well ... Atwood may have been tied with Kim Stanley Robinson -- especially the Mars Trilogy. But people also mentioned the Orange County and Science in the Capital trilogies ... and really everything else he's written. (23/n) https://twitter.com/gregmartinphd/status/1258961929977999361
The most popular recommendation from very recent work was Liu Cixin: The Three Body Problem Trilogy. This is also a refreshing non-western/non-English addition to the list. (24/n) https://twitter.com/aecoppock/status/1259156790765289478
A close second was N. K. Jemisin: Broken Earth series. This one is important I think because it touches on issues of structural racism that receive too little attention in the genre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin

(25/n)
And here I'll add Rivers Solomon: An Unkindness of Ghosts

"On board the generation ship Matilda, where the passengers have formed a society stratified along racial lines such that those with dark skin are relegated to lower-deck ... " (26/n)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Unkindness_of_Ghosts
I will note that I would love to have more recommendations from the Afrofuturism genre, which I have sadly neglected. (27/n)
Also recommended is The Power, Naomi Alderman which is a really provoking (and sometimes disturbing) look at gender, violence, and politics. (28/n) https://twitter.com/lsepper/status/1258961514003927050
A very recent set of books is John Scalzi’s
Interdependency trilogy. And we can Old Man’s War here as well. (29/n) https://twitter.com/keithschnak/status/1258990278138114049
Another obvious choice is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Speaker for the Dead was also mentioned although ... less uniformly endorsed. (30/n) https://twitter.com/DocsPSCbasics/status/1259122712439599104
A popular recommendation from the International Relations side of the discipline is James Corey's Expanse Series starting with Leviathan Wakes. (31/n) https://twitter.com/jlazarus001/status/1258974212359884800
Another non-English entry is Jorge Baradit's Synco. Might pair well with Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. (32/n) https://twitter.com/alucardi1/status/1259255484302995458
A number of recs had environmental/dystopian themes that might work together including:

David Brin: Earth (Note also wrote The Postman)
Omar El Akkad: American War
Paolo Bacigalupi: Windup Girl and The Water Knife

Possibly add Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia to counter.(33/n)
If I wanted to start a fight, I could also add some "Population boom dystopia" books and discuss why these worries never came to fruition.

Harry Harrison's: "Make Room! Make Room!" AKA "Soylent Green"
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: The Mote in God’s Eye (34/n)
Two graphic novels made the list (although I am sure there are more and I'd love to get your thoughts).

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: Watchmen
Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd: V for Vendetta
And, of course, there are a string of apocalypse/post-apocalypse/world epidemic options that .... seem relevant. (36/n)

Max Brooks: World War Z
P. D. James: Children of Men
Hugh Howey: Silo Series
Nick Harkaway: Gone-Away World
And now the thread is too long. So here are some of the other books mentioned (most of which I have not read and will be adding to my list) in no particular order. (37/n)
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Fatal Eggs
John Brunner: Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, The Shockwave Rider
Richard K. Morgan: Takeshi Kovacs series (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies)
Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice
Arkady Martine: A Memory Called Empire (38/n)
Marge Piercy: Woman on the Edge of Time

Frederik Pohl: Gateway (a tight, frightening, Marxist parable about capitalism) and Jem

“A House in the Country” by Jose Donoso (39/n) https://twitter.com/ma_me_ga/status/1259256726773215235
Yoon Ha Lee: Machineries of Empire
Charlie Jane Anders: The City in the Middle of the Night
Charles Stross: The Merchant Princes series
Roger Zelazny: Lords of Light
Malka Older: Infomocracy
Joanna Russ: The Female Man (40/n)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Female_Man
Seth Dickinson: The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Kameron Hurley: The Light Brigade
Meg Elison: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife ("a feminist post-apocalyptic examination of the plight of women after a global epidemic")
Ada Palmer: Terra Ignota series (41/n)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Ignota
Annalee Newitz: The Future of Another Timeline
Gregory Benford: Timescape
Jeanne DuPrau: The City of Ember
Carl Sagan: Contact
Jason Anspach: Legionnaire
David Wingrove: Chung Kuo series
Adam Rakunas: Windswept (42/n)
Jose Saramago: Blindness
("an unexplained disease sweeps the world causing breakdown in social order)
Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow
Peter Hamilton: The Salvation Sequence
C. J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station (43/n)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downbelow_Station
C. J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downbelow_Station
James P. Hogan: Voyage from Yesteryear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_from_Yesteryear
Greg Bear: Queen of Angels, Slant, and Moving Mars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Mars
Charles Stross: Glasshouse (44/n)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel)
James Blish: After such knowledge series

Ken MacLeod: Star Fraction

Jack Vance: Emphyrio

“people are ruled by .. lords whose forefathers arrived 1500 years earlier .... In return, they were granted a 1% tax.” (45/n)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphyrio 
How about some Soviet era contributions?

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: Hard to be a God
Stanisław Lem: Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (46/n)
And some YA recommendations?

The Giver series by Lois Lowry
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (47/n) https://twitter.com/johntpolsci/status/1259150174628261889
Want some alternative histories (or SciFi about history)?

Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Connie Willis: Blackout/All Clear
Mary Robinette Kowal: Lady Astronaut Series (48/n)
And a final category of books I'm terming ... "Hey, why not?"

The Dead Zone, by Stephen King
Gordon R. Dickson: Necromancer
Pierre Boulle: Planet of the Apes
Harry Harrison: Bill, the Galactic Hero
Robert Charles Wilson: Spin
William Gibson: Pattern Recognition (49/n)
Terry Pratchett: Discworld, but especially "Going Postal.”
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
K. M. Szpara: Docile
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination
China Mieville: Bas-Lag series (magic steampunk anyone?) (50/n)
Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man
Sheri S. Tepper: The Gate to Women's Country
Tom Clancey: Red Storm Rising
Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space
George R. R. Martin: Tuf Voyaging (51/n)
I also wanted to link to some of the great syllabi and class resources people linked to. (52/n) https://twitter.com/BottingHunt/status/1259180014865715200
https://twitter.com/ben_fifield/status/1258982197995859968
https://twitter.com/JeffJoAnderson/status/1259259271965007873
https://twitter.com/dhnexon/status/1259114353569288197
https://twitter.com/baobaofzhang/status/1258993920366850050
So what's missing?

I want to add Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge. An older generation struggles to engage with technology they don't understand and are duped by foreign powers. The younger generation tries to keep them from destroying society (57/57)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End
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