In this week’s New Statesman cover story, historian Richard J Evans, author of The Third Reich trilogy, describes the “spectre of history” looming over Europe and Germany’s role in the eurozone crisis — but argues that this has less to do with Nazism than with the economic trauma of the 1920s.
Elsewhere, in the annual pre-Christmas Books of the Year, contributors and friends of the NS — from A S Byatt and Marina Warner to Martha Nussbaum and Melvyn Bragg — choose their favourite reads of 2011. Pick up a copy to see which Ed – Miliband or Balls – was gripped by the weepy bestseller, One Day.
In her first column as associate editor, Jemima Khan reports on her recent trip to Pakistan where US drone strikes have exacted a horrible civilian death toll. David Blanchflower shares his hunch that “a European bank secretly had to be rescued with the infusion of capital” at the end of August, and the NS Diary comes courtesy of Evgeny Lebedev, who discusses his father’s Russian TV punch, free press and the Leveson inquiry, and his newborn son.
All this plus John Burnside‘s new Nature column, 6 Music DJ Stuart Maconie on the decline and fall of EMI, Rafael Behr on the backbench revolt facing Cameron, Laurie Penny on the tactics of the US pro-life lobby and a new poem by this year’s Forward Prize for Best First Collection winner, Rachael Boast.