Books of the year 2022
New Statesman writers and guests choose their favourite reading of the year.
ByHistory books
Discover all the New Statesman’s latest articles and reviews of history books. Here you can find expert opinion on the best reads for 2022.
What politicians get wrong about war
From Kosovo to Ukraine, Lawrence Freedman’s book Command explores the catastrophes that occur when state and military strategy collide.
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Decoding Adam Smith
A new history of The Wealth of Nations shows how the Scottish thinker’s legacy became an economic battleground.
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How the Treasury quietly runs Britain
A new history of the department shows that, as Liz Truss discovered to her cost, its “abacus economics” has never…
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How oil become the world’s most contested resource
Keith Fisher’s A Pipeline Runs Through It charts how oil revolutionised transport and war, and continues to shape today’s geopolitics.
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The long shadow of Chairman Mao
How China’s uneven ascent has been driven by debt and the Communist Party’s obsessive pursuit of social stability.
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The Last Colony exposes a deep injustice at the heart of the British state
Fifty years ago the UK forcibly removed the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands. Will they ever be allowed to return?
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British diplomacy in the dock
A former diplomat’s new book reveals that, for 25 years, UK foreign policy has left mainly harm and disorder in…
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The 15 best books for summer
The New Statesman’s selection of essential recent releases.
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Why Gone with the Wind is American culture’s original sin
Sarah Churchwell’s book is a 458-page indictment of the Civil War-era romance. Frankly, should we give a damn?
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When women were warriors: the forgotten female leaders of the Middle Ages
In Femina, Janina Ramirez tells the stories of women previously written out of history books.
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Burning the bastards out
The destruction of country houses in the Irish revolution can be seen as the last stage of a long Land…
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The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: how Putin exploited a wartime myth
There are echoes of the invasion of Ukraine in the epic battle for Stalingrad, but this time Russia is on…
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Nietzsche before the breakdown
In the 1880s, the ailing philosopher prophesied the West’s violent decline – but not even he could prevent it.
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The Great War’s miracle worker
How one surgeon’s pioneering treatment healed soldiers with the most disfiguring injuries of the First World War.
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Bringing the dead back to life
The world of South Africa’s /Xam Bushmen blended vision and reality, human and animal – until it was brutally destroyed.
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How the empire degraded Britain
Three new histories reveal the corrosive effects of colonialism and slavery on today’s British politics.
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Henry Kissinger’s whitewashing of Richard Nixon
The American diplomat’s new book, Leadership, is undermined by his self-serving portrait of his thuggish former boss.
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A history of nuclear catastrophe
Seen by many as a route to net zero, nuclear power is haunted by its past disasters.
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What Antony Beevor gets wrong about Russia
The historian’s new book Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 fails to understand that brutality is powered by ideas.
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