Claud Cockburn, the original guerrilla journalist
His reporting was fuelled by a cool contempt for authority.
ByNon-fiction
Discover the latest non-fiction books and must-reads with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. Including biographies, music books, political writing and more.
Lisa Marie Presley takes us behind Graceland’s velvet curtain
From Here to the Great Unknown – a memoir of life as Elvis’s daughter – is a story of generational…
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Alexei Navalny’s chronicle of a death foretold
The enemy of Putin survived the first attempt on his life. His memoir Patriot reveals why he returned to Russia…
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How Labour won – and how they could lose in 2029
New books by Anushka Asthana and Michael Ashcroft show that the lessons of 2024 are sobering for both parties.
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Richard Dawkins, the gene genie
The great scientist strays into speculation in The Genetic Book of the Dead, his latest defence of his “selfish gene”…
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Myths of the great statesmen
New studies of Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson show the rewards and perils of political biography.
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Malcolm Gladwell’s cult of smartness
The educated rationalists addressed by Revenge of the Tipping Point are sometimes the dumbest – and baddest – of them…
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Keir Starmer’s union problem
The government wants to reset its relationship with organised labour – but history shows this won’t be an easy task.
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How Goethe sold his soul to Faust
A new biography by AN Wilson shows how the playwright, poet, scientist and statesman poured himself into his greatest work.
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Paul Gauguin’s art monster myth
Sue Prideaux’s biography of the unruly French painter shows his story was more complicated than that of colonial seducer.
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Long live the low life
Jeremy Clarke’s final Spectator columns, written after his cancer diagnosis, are witty, well balanced and devoid of self-pity.
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How motherhood was weaponised
Is child-rearing political or deeply personal? Helen Charman’s new history reckons with the tension between mother and state.
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How Kathleen Hanna brought women to the forefront of punk
The Bikini Kill singer was raised by a dangerous father, developed a finely tuned radar for sexual threat, and turned…
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Generation Not Yet
A quietly incendiary new book reveals why millennials, paralysed by doubt, are struggling to make the leap into parenthood.
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Britain’s justice system is still failing women
A former judge reveals how the law is loaded against victims of rape and domestic violence.
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Back to the American future
Caught at a violent turning point in history, the United States is struggling to find a path forward.
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Pop’s gay revolution
How stars from Little Richard to David Bowie used their sexuality to set popular culture free.
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The end of accountability
In politics and business, faceless systems have taken over decision-making and infantilised socity.
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Francis Bacon’s vile bodies
The fusion of violence and pleasure defined the painter’s life and work.
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The vexed history of British feminism
A century ago women activists worked together despite their political differences. Can they do so again?
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