Where are all the good books on sex?
Polly Barton’s “oral history” of porn shows the myopia of cultural criticism drawn from personal experience. We desperately need a…
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.
Now that I have cancer, how should I live?
Once a death sentence, my diagnosis has proved a weird limbo of scattered treatment and blurred identities.
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The new politics of time
How should we spend our hours in the age of burnout? Arguably not by reading Jenny Odell’s frustrating new book,…
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Adam Gopnik’s pursuit of the perfect sentence
The New Yorker journalist’s latest book, The Real Work, sheds light on a career spent obsessively attempting to master the…
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Nigel Biggar’s whitewashing of empire
The historian is right that Britain’s colonial legacy is morally complex. So why is his defence of it so simplistic?
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The best non-fiction books for 2023
From politics and Big Tech to history and identity, the essential books for the year ahead.
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Why we need the Women’s Prize for Non-fiction
We might be tempted to see prizes for women as less necessary with each passing year – but non-fiction is…
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The blurred ethics of memoir
Blake Morrison’s account of sibling tragedy passes its moral questions on to the reader.
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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The myth of England’s “fair play” fetish
In sport and politics, the English boast that they always play by the rules – but history tells a different…
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Ghosts of the Cultural Revolution
Tania Branigan’s Red Memory shows how Xi Jinping’s China is erasing the violence and tyranny of Mao’s purges from history.
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What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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Robert Kaplan’s tragic realism
Haunted by his misguided support for the Iraq War, the American writer turned to tragedy to understand the delusions of…
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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The myth of America’s love affair with guns
In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster says fixing the firearms crisis requires deep cultural change. What it really needs is political…
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What Norman Mailer can teach us
It is right to condemn the writer’s violent chauvinism – but a literature that has lost the power to challenge is…
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The business-lounge intellectual
With his new book, the FT’s Martin Wolf wants to rescue capitalism. But is it worth saving?
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How the world turned global
Jonathan Sperber’s The Age of Interconnection surveys the second half of the 20th century but fails to explain the ideas…
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Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness
Justin Gregg’s witty exploration of animal intelligence is a useful guide – but there is more to human life than…
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The meaning of Tyson Fury
He survived addiction and a suicide attempt to return to victory in the ring. Now the philosopher-fighter considers the “void”…
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