Shaking hands with Islamic State
When James Foley was murdered in Syria in 2014, his mother’s search for redemption began.
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.
Hitler, Putin and the information wars
Peter Pomerantsev’s new book shows how Second World War propaganda tactics are being used by the Kremlin today.
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The Nordic parenting myth
Scandinavians are not better parents – but their politicians, unlike Britain’s, understand that childcare is a social good.
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Escape from the oldest hatred
In Rachel Cockerell’s Melting Point, the forgotten story of America’s Jewish homeland sheds light on the tragedies of the present.
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Slave to the Bomb
We don’t need to imagine a world ravaged by nuclear war – we’re already living in it.
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Your own personal Jesus
In the beginning there were many different sons of God – Western Christianity triumphed not by destiny but accident.
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Delusions of immortality
In Why We Die, Venki Ramakrishnan demolishes the crackpots and billionaires behind the anti-ageing industry.
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How Big Tech rewired childhood
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation shows how smartphones have damaged the teenage mind – and urges us to fight back.
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Judith Butler and the fear of gender
In the 1990s a new philosophy helped open up alternative ways of being. Nobody predicted it would lead to war.
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Lauren Oyler’s defence mechanisms
Can the master of the hatchet-job place herself beyond criticism?
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The case against therapy in schools
A provocative new book argues that the therapy industry is exacerbating our children’s mental health crisis.
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Britain’s new oligarchy
Tom Burgis’s Cuckooland shows how the power to shape our politics is available to the highest bidder.
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How Iraq was lost
Steve Coll’s account of America’s relationship with Saddam Hussein reveals a series of devastating blunders.
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Leslie Jamison’s Splinters captures the paradoxes of motherhood
This intimate memoir explores the contradictions of being a parent, a partner and an artist – singly, and all at…
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From Lyndsey Stonebridge to Sophie Elmhirst: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Spent Light by Lara Pawson and Moral AI And How We Get There.
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The making of an American conservative
Rob Henderson’s memoir Troubled paints a bleak picture of poverty in the US. Are liberal “luxury beliefs” to blame?
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Byron’s war on tranquillity
A new biography reveals how the poet’s life of extremes was echoed by the hyperactive irony of his work.
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Sex in the age of digital desire
The proliferation of online pornography has degraded the way we view our bodies and relationships.
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Edwardians like us
In Little Englanders, Alwyn Turner reveals striking parallels between Britain in decline at the start of the 20th century and…
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Thomas Hardy’s life of desire
Why did the great novelist of female attraction create such misery in his marriages?
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