politics and news
the people’s republic of amnesia: tiananmen revisited. by louisa lim. Oxford University Press; 248 pages; $24.95 and £16.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk 25 years after the bloodshed in beijing, new details continue to emerge. This reconstruction, by a US National Public Radio correspondent, is as important to Western readers as it is to the new Chinese generation who have grown up since 1989 and know little of what happened.
the tyranny of silence: how a cartoon sparked a global debate on the future of freedom of expression. flemming rose. cato institute; 240 pages; $24.95. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper that published cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, offers a personal account of the ensuing controversy and what it means for democracy.
You are reading: Economist best books 2014
political order and political decline: from the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy. by francis fukuyama. farrar, straus and giroux; 658 pages; $35. profile; £25. buy from amazon.com; amazon.co.uka the superstar academic, who in 1992 tried to persuade people that they had reached the end of the story, returns admitting that things are more complicated than he imagined. China has embraced a mixture of state capitalism and authoritarianism, and democratization has failed in Russia and most of the Middle East. what is needed are high-quality political institutions; it’s not an easy thing to build.
the collapse: the accidental opening of the berlin wall. by mary elise sarotte. basic books; 291 pages; $27.99 and £18.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka takes a step-by-step account of the birth of modern germany on November 9, 1989, when, at an otherwise dull press conference in east berlin, a government spokesman said that a new law that would allow East Germans more freedom to travel take effect immediately. changed europe forever.
Age of Ambition: Pursuing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China. by evan osnos. farrar, straus and giroux; 403 pages; $27. bobley head; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukan a fascinating recollection of how china became a country that now exports as much in six hours as it did in all of 1978. winner of a national book award in 2014, it captures the atmosphere of a country that was the definitive group -think about society and how it changed to become a nation of individuals, permanently set to fast-forward.
vivid faces: the revolutionary generation in ireland, 1890-1923. by roy foster. ww norton; 480 pages; $29.95. allen rail; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukan Ireland’s eloquent cultural historian traces the quixotic character of the Irish Revolution. Along the way, he mocks the many viewpoints of an artistic and bohemian generation that endlessly discussed the future of women’s rights, socialism, religion, and sexual liberation.
the south china sea: the struggle for power in asia. by bill hayton. yale university press; 298 pages; $35 and £20. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.ukan looks at how the South China Sea has become the test of America’s strategic “rebalancing” toward Asia and its willingness to protect friends and allies from Chinese bullying. a battle of nerves that is vulnerable to miscalculation, misperception, and sheer bad luck.
indonesia, etc.: exploring the unlikely nation. by elizabeth pisani. ww norton; 404 pages; $26.95. great; £18.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka is an entertaining account of a year spent traveling around the archipelago. tackles some big issues: democracy, decentralization, corruption, inequality, the failings of the education system, and radical Islam, as well as the ghosts of hundreds of thousands massacred when Suharto took power in 1965.
China’s second continent: how a million immigrants are building a new empire in Africa. by howard french. I touched; 304 pages; $27.95 and £22.50. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk how china flirted with african politicians, by a former shanghai bureau chief of the new york times. more than 1 million Chinese immigrants have moved to Africa; they work on big projects and stay, more for money than ideology.
biography and memoirs
kaiser wilhelm ii: a concise life. by john röhl. Cambridge University Press; 240 pages; $24.99 and £16.99. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk Scholarship and authority shine through in this brief 4,000-page, multi-volume version of John Röhl’s life of Kaiser Wilhelm, an emotionally needy, bombastic, choleric, and hypersensitive man woefully unfit to run the country most mighty of europe
napoleon: a life. by andrew roberts. viking; 976 pages; $45. allen rail; £30. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka the British historian makes the most of the treasure trove of Napoleon’s more than 33,000 letters and concludes that the French emperor was a tactical military genius who made some serious strategic mistakes and was far from a brilliant statesman. /p>
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery. by Henry Marsh. Thomas Dunne; 304 pages; $25.99. weidenfeld and nicolson; £8.99. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk In this autopsy of an obsession, Henry Marsh seeks to explain how she hates cutting the things that create thought, feeling, and music, but just can’t stop. so elegantly written that it’s no wonder some say that in mr marsh neurosurgery has found the boswell of it.
h is for hawk. by helen macdonald. Corporal Jonathan; 300 pages; £14.99. It will be published in the united states by grove atlantic in march 2015. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uka A bird’s-eye view of love and loss, this meditation on nature, birds of prey, grief, and the strange life of T.H. white —English author of “the hawk”— was the discovery of the season. winner of the 2014 samuel johnson prize for non-fiction.
faisal i from iraq. by ali a. allawi. yale university press; 634 pages; $45 and £35. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukhistory has not been kind to king faisal i of iraq. Still, he played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and this is the most comprehensive portrait yet of this fascinating figure.
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e.g. cummings: a life. by susan cheever. Pantheon; 213 pages; $26.95. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk cummings is a difficult poet to understand. With unlimited new details gathered through meticulous research, Susan Cheever succeeds where most other biographers have failed.
Little Failure: A Memoir. by Gary Shteyngart. random house; 368 pages; $27.99. Hamish Hamilton; £16.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukas growing up in russia, gary shteyngart was scared of everything: phones, snow, cold, the ceiling fan, people in fur hats. but he got over it. A deeply moving love letter to his life and everything in it, including America, Russia, literature, women, and his parents, whom he mercilessly mocks.
thirteen days of september: carter, begin, and sadat at camp david. by lawrence wright. I touched; 345 pages; $27.95. a world; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk the three protagonists saw themselves as “living examples of the prophetic tradition” and for fifteen days subjected each other to stunning speeches on the rightness of each of their causes. Camp David came to nothing, but for a fleeting moment it looked like things in the Middle East could get better.
why homer matters. by adam nicolson. henry holt; 320 pages; $30 williamcollins; £25. buy from amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk The elegant British writer dusts off Homer for a new generation, examining in detail the character of his two epics, from the gore of “The Iliad” to the blindness of “The Odyssey”. a lesson in honor, violence and masculinity.
The Reckoning: Death and Intrigue in the Promised Land. by patrick bishop. harpist; 352 pages; $26.99. williamcollins; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka detailed reconstruction of the hunt for avraham stern and his small band of “israeli freedom fighters,” better known as lehi. Stern was one of the first Zionists to blend religion and nationalism, and Patrick Bishop’s book has important lessons for today.
economy and business
capital in the 21st century. by thomas piketty. belknap press; 696 pages; $39.95 and £29.95. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukan unlikely bestseller from a French economist who, looking at historical changes in the concentration of income and wealth, shows that the importance of wealth in modern economies is approaching levels not seen since before 1914 .
the forgotten depression, 1921: the accident that cured itself. by james grant. Simon & schuster; 254 pages; $28. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka study of the scorching 1920s by the founder of a well-regarded financial newsletter. sheds light on an unpleasant but largely ignored episode, and shows that a laissez-faire approach can cure recessions better than the government activism of the 1930s, or even 2008.
science and technology
the sixth extinction: an unnatural history. by elizabeth kolbert. henry holt; 302 pages; $28. Bloomsbury; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk five previous extinctions wiped out plant and animal life on a large scale; now a sixth is upon us. Is life tough enough to resist humanity?
Life on the Edge: Quantum Biology Coming of Age. by Jim Al-Khalili and JohnJoe McFadden. rooster press; 355 pages; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka rich and accessible account of how quantum theory is becoming part of mainstream biology as it begins to explain such mysteries as how migratory birds sense direction, how molecules in the air perceive as smell and how, precisely, tadpoles lose their tails.
the big surprise: why butter, meat and cheese belong in a healthy diet. by nina teicholz. Simon & schuster; 479 pages; $27.99. scribe; £14.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka historical study of how fat came to be demonized, especially in America, by a mix of academics, government officials, and food companies, and how the few skeptics who dared to stand up to fat orthodoxy they have been much despised for their pains . Detailed in its research and eloquent in its argument, this is the most amazing diet book of the year.
being mortal: medicine and what matters in the end. by atul gawande. metropolitan books; 282 pages; $26. profile; £15.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka the thoughtful american doctor, who gave the 2014 reith lectures, recounts how many of his patients spend their final hours hooked up to machines, under fluorescent lights, surrounded by strangers. much better to think about the implications and plan the ending you really want.
culture, society and travel
Marriage Markets: How Inequality Is Remaking the American Family. by June Carbone and Naomi Cahn. Oxford University Press; 272 pages; $29.95 and £18.99. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk Asking Why Fewer People Are Getting Married, two American legal scholars show how, over the decades, economic inequality has undermined the rationality of marriage for many and weakened the family.
a sense of style: the thinking person’s guide to writing in the 21st century. by steven pinker. viking; 359 pages; $27.95. allen rail; £20. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk with good humour, the harvard psycholinguist explains that good writing is like the perfect soufflé that appears in a spotless kitchen at the end of a cooking show: “the messy work has been done beforehand and behind the scenes . ” a good read for all ages.
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lessons of hope: how to fix our schools. by joel klein. harpist; 320 pages; $27.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uk the former chancellor of the new york department of education knows firsthand how much a child’s education is tied to her success in life. He has a lot to say about his nine-year campaign to improve the city’s school system and how he could become a model for reforming America’s education system.
joyriding in riyadh: oil, urban planning and road rebellion in saudi arabia. by pascal menoret. Cambridge University Press; 250 pages; $85 and £55. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk Frustrated by constant snubs while trying to establish himself on fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, a French anthropologist mixes with a group of daredevil bikers and discovers how boredom, testosterone and cheap petrol gave rise to gleeful homoeroticism. and petty crime. mixed with Bedouin gallantry.
the reef, an exciting story: the great barrier reef from captain cook to climate change. by iain mccalman. farrar, straus and giroux; 377 pages; $27. scribe; £20. buy from amazon.com; amazon.co.uka sweeping and absorbing history of the site that unesco describes as “the most impressive marine area in the world”, now disintegrating due to two centuries of human impact. by a historian and social scientist at the university of sydney.
germany: memories of a nation. by neil macgregor. allen rail; 598 pages; £30. will be published in america by knopf in 2015. buy from amazon.co.uk the director of the british museum follows the debate about the endless and difficult road germany has taken to try to reconcile with its past, and shows that it has shaped so much by what it hasn’t it is remembered as by what is remembered. an important and elegant study in the construction of modern national identity.
fiction
the narrow road to the deep north. by richard flanagan. I touched; 352 pages; $26.95. chatto & wind; £16.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka journey of loss and discovery set among prisoners of war who were sent to build the “death railway” between thailand and burma during world war ii. Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and packed with scenes that stay with the reader long after the final page, this is the book Richard Flanagan was born to write.
lilac. by marilynne robinson. farrar, straus and giroux; 272 pages; $26. virago; £16.99. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk The third of Marilynne Robinson’s novels, set in Gilead, Iowa, and featuring John Ames, a Congregationalist preacher, revolves around the story of Ames’s aging wife. A former prostitute and cleaner, Lila, in her new incarnation, learns about grace, joy and love, lessons taught without a trace of melancholy. By one of America’s greatest writers.
decoded. by mai jia. farrar, straus and giroux; 315 pages; $26. allen rail; £18.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukat Finally, an excellent Chinese novel that stands out as a work that book lovers with no special knowledge of China will enjoy. by a former member of the intelligence services, “decoded” stands out for its pace and the great novelty of the story it tells.
arctic summer. by damon galgut. europe editions; 352 pages; $17. atlantic books; £17.99. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk With insight and seemingly effortless fluency, Damon Galgut has written a beautiful and humorous book that poignantly captures the duality of e.m. forster, one of britain’s most thoughtful novelists.
orpheus. by richard powers. ww norton; 384 pages; $26.95. atlantic books; £18.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka 70-year-old songwriter in rural Pennsylvania trying to make music timeless through the game of genetic engineering takes on national security. philosophical reflection of a master storyteller whose novels often exploit the peculiarities of the technological age.
no man’s land: fiction of a world at war. edited by peter ayrton. Pegasus; 504 pages; $15.95. snake tail; £25. buy from amazon.com; amazon.co.uk most people know that the first world war produced some of the best poetry of the 20th century. a reminder that their prose writers weren’t that bad, either.
thirty girls: a novel. by susan minot. I touched; 309 pages; $26.95. fourth state; £10.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukwith a delicate touch, a masterful american writer presents a fictionalized account of a true story, set in uganda, about a group of schoolgirls kidnapped by the lord’s resistance army, asking profound questions about whether innocent human beings they can ever recover from being forced to inflict pain, or even kill.
family life: a novel. by akhil sharma. ww norton; 224 pages; $23.95. faber & faber; £14.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.uka dark and funny novel about the hopes and troubles of an Indian family who moves from Delhi to the US, only to face disaster when their eldest son has a diving accident.
fourth of july creek. by smith henderson. echo; 466 pages; $26.99. william heinemann; £16.99. shop at amazon.com; amazon.co.ukan intense and riveting book from the writer of the chrysler ad starring clint eastwood and seen by millions at the 2012 super bowl. uses the intimate relationship that emerges between a flawed social worker and a paranoid survivor to explore big themes about American culture, its winners and its losers.
glory uncertain. by joan sales. translated by peter bush. Prologue by Juan Goytisolo. maclehose press; 560 pages; £20. shop at amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk Originally published in 1956 under heavy censorship, this novel by a Catalan writer who fought in the Spanish Civil War and died in 1983 was the first to tell the story of that conflict from the point of view of the losers. a timeless classic about lost illusions, lost ideals, lost youth, now translated into English for the first time.