politics and news
near and far neighbors: a new history of soviet intelligence. by jonathan haslam. Oxford University Press; 400 pages; £20
You are reading: The economist books of the year 2015
a detailed assessment of how the soviet union handled covert operations from the communist revolution in 1917 to the end of the cold war. The most exciting chapters focus on the chaos unleashed by Josef Stalin.
Our children: the American dream in crisis. by robert putnam. Simon & schuster; 386 pages; $28 and £18.99
The most important division in America today is class, not race, and the place where it matters most is home. In a thoughtful and persuasive book, the former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government examines the widening gulf between how the rich and the poor raise their children, adding a liberal voice to longstanding conservative complaints about the breakup. familiar.
North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissidents, and Defectors. by Daniel Tudor and James Pearson. fool around; 224 pages; $19.95
Two expert journalists offer a bird’s-eye view of everyday life that reveals how the famine of the 1990s caused an unexpected shift in attitudes, governance, and lives of ordinary North Koreans, belying the simplistic view that Koreans they are a homogeneous people under the yoke of a power-crazed dictator.
ghettoside: investigating a homicide epidemic. by jill leovy. spiegel & degree; 384 pages; $28. ancient; £16.99
Black men continue to die at an alarming rate in the toughest urban pockets even though the overall US murder rate has dropped. A study of a Los Angeles neighborhood has the power to change the way people think about policing in America.
once in a great city: a detroit story. by david maraniss. Simon & schuster; 464 pages; $32.50
One of America’s finest non-fiction writers, a son of Detroit, delivers a meticulously researched, lively account of how the city, once America’s engine room, began to sizzle.
history
nagasaki: life after nuclear war. by susan southard. viking; 416 pages; $28.95. memory; £20
The harrowing tale of five Hibakusha (“Blasted People”) teenagers: how they survived the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, and the terrible price they paid after the war.
waterloo: the story of four days, three armies and three battles. by bernard cornwell. harper-collins; 352 pages; $35. williamcollins; £25
a great and terrible story of a battle that was fought 200 years ago, told with energy and clarity by a writer who has a deep understanding of the men in combat and why they do what they do. “Waterloo” proves that Bernard Cornwell’s non-fiction is as good as his novels, if not better.
the fall of the ottomans: the great war in the middle east. by eugene rogan. basic books; 512 pages; $32. allen rail; £25
How a Multinational Muslim Empire Was Destroyed by World War I, by a 20th-century historian who is director of the Middle East Center at Oxford University.
black earth: the holocaust as history and warning. by timothy snyder. tim duggan books; 462 pages; $30 bodley head; £25
A historian from Yale University has made a detailed study of the places where the Jews were most in danger during the Second World War. in france and italy three quarters of the jews survived. in the eastern territories, which suffered a “double occupation”, first by the Soviets and then by the Nazis, at least 90% of them perished.
spqr: a history of ancient rome. by mary barba. liveright; 608 pages; $35. profile; 606 pages; £25
A masterful new chronicle, written by Britain’s most engaging ancient world historian, on Rome from its myth-shrouded origins to the early 3rd century. shows that the key to his dominance was to grant citizenship to so many people.
Cotton Empire: A Global History. by sven beckert. I touched; 640 pages; $35. allen rail; £30
Focusing on a sector that until 1900 was the world’s largest manufacturing industry, Sven Beckert provides a good account of 900 years of globalization.
what the eye hears: a history of tap dancing. by brian seibert. farrar, straus and giroux; 612 pages; £35
how tap dancing entertained many, even when it had clear racist undertones. An engaging story of one of America’s greatest creative inventions from a New York Times dance critic.
into the flame: empire, war and the end of tsarist russia. by dominic lieven. allen rail; 448 pages; £25
how russia went to war. a gripping, moving and in some ways revolutionary contribution to European history by a distinguished British scholar who is descended from several of the protagonists he describes.
A highly entertaining account, as moving as it is unexpected, of what it means to fly, written by an airline pilot with a gift for words. antoine de saint-exupéry lives again.
ted hughes: the unauthorized life. by jonathan bate. harpist; 662 pages; $40 williamcollins; £30
It’s hard to write a literary account of Ted Hughes without writing about his life, as many authors have discovered. After five years in the making, this biography began as an authorized life only to become unauthorized when the author fell out with Hughes’s widow, Carol, over how many personal details to include, causing the poet’s estate to withdraw their cooperation.
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Nature’s Invention: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. by Andrea Wulf. I touched; 496 pages; $30 john murray; £25
explorer, scholar, friend of johann wolfgang von goethe, thomas jefferson and simon bolivar, alexander von humboldt was one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century. His ideas are as relevant today as they ever were.
economy and business
The public wealth of nations: how public asset management can make or break economic growth. by dag detter and stefan fölster. palgrave macmillan; 244 pages; $40 and £24.99
Governments have trillions of dollars in assets, from businesses to forests, but they are often poorly managed. two investment experts explain how things could be improved by protecting assets from political meddling in independent holding companies. professional managers could sweat them as private property.
Other People’s Money: The Real Business of Finance. by John Kay. public affairs; 352 pages; $27.99. profile; £16.99
If the world wants to prevent future bank collapses, or at least limit their economic impact, people need to think clearly about what the financial sector is for. this book does the job.
inequality: what can be done? by anthony atkinson. harvard university press; 384 pages; $29.95 and £19.95
a crisp book that analyzes political debates in detail but avoids boredom, thanks to its staunch support for robust government intervention.
misbehaving: the making of behavioral economics. by richard thaler. Norton; 432 pages; $27.95. allen rail; £20
Why people don’t behave the way economic models predict is at the heart of this brilliant intellectual history written by the founder of this once-obscure mix of psychology and economics.
economic rules: the hits and misses of dismal science. by dani rodrik. Norton; 272 pages; $27.95. Oxford University Press; £16.99
Economists still have a lot to explain. dani rodrik reassures those outside the profession of helping economists, and also removes some of the illusions of his colleagues.
circus maximus: the economic bet behind hosting the olympic games and the world cup. by andrew zimbalist. brookings institution press; 174 pages; $25 and £18.50
Any country thinking of hosting an international sports jamboree should read this book to see the poor treatment the IOC and FIFA intend to impose on it. hamburg just voted against bidding for the 2024 olympic games. smart move.
culture, society and travel
the road to character. by david brooks. random house; 300 pages; $28. allen rail; £17.99
the author, a columnist for the new york times, clearly believes that people are too conceited. A thoughtful polemic on why Facebook’s selfish generation should move from narcissism to thoughtfulness. they would be much happier.
unfinished business: women, men, work, family. by anne-marie sacrifice. random house; 352 pages; $28. a world; 352 pages; £16.99
why organizations will have to radically change to make work-life balance a reality, by a respected foreign policy expert who left her high-octane government job to spend more time with her two teenage sons. a rational and well-argued call to arms. step aside from sheryl sandberg.
Between me and the world. by ta-nehisi coates. random house; 176 pages; $24
In homage to James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” a father writes a letter warning his teenage son about growing up black. the most talked about book of the year on race relations in the united states.
Schubert’s Winter Journey: The Anatomy of an Obsession. by Ian Bostridge. I touched; 544 pages; $29. faber and faber; £20
ian bostridge, one of britain’s foremost tenors, has performed schubert’s “winterreise” more than 100 times. he knows every nuance of the work and his book offers many new insights that will inform the enjoyment of both old fans and newcomers to the music.
ripped off: a hair removal history. by rebecca herzig. nyu press; 287 pages; $29.95
Most mammals on earth have lush fur. only one seeks to eliminate it. a curious account of hair removal, and why people have tried razors, lasers, bleach depilatories, tweezers, waxes, threads and electrolysis to try to get rid of hairiness. self-improvement or oppression?
nemesis: a man and the battle for rio. by misha glenny. bobley head; 338 pages; £18.99. knopf will publish it in the united states in February, $27.95
how antonio francisco bonfim lopes, better known as nem de rocinha, became a drug dealer after his daughter was diagnosed with a rare disease and he needed the money, and how he eventually took over an entire slum Brazilian.
how a widely disputed condition arose from conflicts between Nazi psychiatrists eager to advance their careers. The descriptions of how autistic children were treated in the 20th century are particularly powerful. winner of the 2015 samuel johnson prize for non-fiction.
the vital question: why is life the way it is? by nick lane. Norton; 368 pages; $27.95. profile; 352 pages; £25
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A persuasive and demanding attempt by a thought-provoking British scientist, a biochemist at University College London, to answer some of biology’s most fundamental questions. he posits a new theory of how life arose.
Humans don’t need to apply: A guide to wealth and work in the age of artificial intelligence. by jerry kaplan. yale university press; 256 pages; $35 and £20
an intriguing, insightful, and well-written look at how modern artificial intelligence, powering algorithms and robots, threatens jobs and may increase wealth inequalities, by a silicon valley entrepreneur and AI expert.
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things to do and do in the fourth dimension. by matt parker. farrar, straus and giroux; 464 pages; $28. private books; £16.99
Officially described as “a riotous ride through the possibilities of numbers, with audience participation”, this is an unusual, insightful yet highly accessible popular mathematics book written by a member of the London Mathematical Society who also has a sideline in stand-up comedy.
seven short physics lessons. by carlo rovelli. Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre. allen rail; 83 pages; £9.99
A startling and illustrative distillation of centuries of science by an Italian theoretical physicist. simon carnell and erica segre, poet and translator, have preserved the lyrical and stripped back prose of the book.
The New Nature: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation. By Fred Pearce. beacon press; 272 pages; $26.95
a carefully researched analytical look at the effects new species have on the different environments into which they are introduced. the book debunks flawed science and the selective selection of statistical examples to fuel hysteria about keeping invasive species away and protecting an imaginary perfect past.
adventures in the human being. by gavin francis. basic books; 272 pages; $26.99. profile; 256 pages; £14.99
A Scottish doctor, once a medical officer on a British research mission near the South Pole, takes an enchanting journey closer to home, through the wondrous human body, from top to bottom, inside out.
Spirals in time: the secret life and curious afterlife of seashells. by helen scales. Bloomsbury; 304 pages; $27 and £16.99
A marine biologist turned science writer describes how he came face to face with a giant clam on the Great Barrier Reef, enjoyed a bag of smoked oysters in the Gambia and met a sea silk seamstress in Italy. he makes a passionate and compelling argument that, contrary to expectations, mollusks have much to teach us.
how to talk about video games. by ian bogost. University of Minnesota Press; 208 pages; $70
Some say that video games are the great sport of the 21st century, the pinnacle of art and entertainment. others call them meaningless. meditative essays on the meaning of games, by a game designer and professor of interactive computing.
fiction
a brief history of seven murders. by marlon james. river head; 688 pages; $28.95. a world; £18.99
A failed assassination of Bob Marley becomes a prism through which to view Jamaican history from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. Violent, creepy, lurid, hilarious and beautiful, this novel it is full of life, death and storytellers. a deserving winner of this year’s man booker award for the first Jamaican to take the award.
the fishermen. de chigozie obioma. little, brown; 304 pages; $26. a; £14.99
A lyrical retelling of the Cain and Abel story in which four Nigerian brothers skip school, go fishing, and meet a fortune teller who predicts that one brother will kill another. She is not yet 30 years old, Chigozie Obioma is a writer to be reckoned with.
seiobo down there. by laszlo krasznahorkai. translated by ottilie mulzet. new directions; 464 pages; $17.95. fang rock; £16.99
seventeen stories by a Hungarian modernist whose sentences coil, unwind, and rewind, creating what one translator described as “a slow lava flow of narrative, a vast black river of type.” a fitting winner of the 2015 international man booker award.
submission. by michel houellebecq. farrar, straus and giroux; 256 pages; $25 William Heinemann; £18.99
no other french novelist knows how to create problems like michel houellebecq. This tale of France under Muslim rule is set in 2022. It came out on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack and has been called scaremongering. The fans of him say that he speaks of the deepest secret fears of France.
a little life. by hanya yanagihara. double day; 720 pages; $30 chopper; £16.99
on the surface a story about four college graduates trying to make it in new york, at heart hanya yanagihara’s second novel is a fairy tale about child abuse, pitting good against evil, love with evil, hope with despair. It has divided critics, but readers love it. hypnotic despite its length and considerable flaws.
an account of the decline of the great auk, according to one who saw it. by jessie greengrass. jm originals; 192 pages; £10.99
Restraint and a formal writing style, from a Cambridge University philosophy graduate, lend a tone of melancholy to this spectacularly successful and chilling collection of short stories about frustrated lives and missed opportunities. the strongest are also the most ordinary.
the story of the lost child. by elena ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein. Europe; 464 pages; $18 and £11.99
This four-volume narrative, with all its operatic nuances, is a tribute to feminism and female friendship in mid-20th-century Naples. Written by a pseudonymous author whose true identity remains unknown and translated by a New Yorker editor, it’s a wild and unlikely success on both sides of the Atlantic.
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