The 14 best books to help you understand Vladimir Putin’s Russia
This list offers the most incisive books on the past and present of Russia and its president.
ByPolitics books
Find the New Statesman’s latest politics book reviews and our curated lists featuring the best writing on politics.
From Ferdinand Mount to Isabel Waidner: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Crisis Actor by Declan Ryan and Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder.
By
The rise of Waterstones Dad
How the self-made man got lost in the marketplace of ideas.
By
An insider’s tale of Tory chaos
Whips, a parliamentary romp by the former No 10 adviser Cleo Watson, is fact barely disguised as fiction.
By
The triumph of cash
How universal basic income was adapted for the neoliberal era.
By
Europe’s false dawn
After the revolutions of 1848, liberals helped create a conservative international order that has shaped the world since.
By
Westminster is broken
Ian Dunt’s new book reveals Britain as a country of inept civil servants, deluded ministers, blinkered journalists and unscrutinised power.
By
Bernie Sanders: the president who never was
The politician’s new work is a limited and soporific harangue. How did he twice get close to becoming leader of…
By
The myths of “the north”
Alex Niven’s The North Will Rise Again is a missed chance – a sustained swipe at a government long gone…
By
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…
By
Lying in State: exclusive extracts from Boris Johnson’s memoir
Britain’s greatest-ever statesman reveals the secrets of his time in office.
By
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…
By
How identity politics props up racism
There are many ways to be black, as new books by Kenan Malik and Colin Grant show –and a fixation…
By
Boris Johnson is writing a memoir. Will we be able to trust it?
The problem with prime ministers’ autobiographies. Plus: self-indulgent podcasts, perfect pianos and the genius of Vermeer.
By
The business-lounge intellectual
With his new book, the FT’s Martin Wolf wants to rescue capitalism. But is it worth saving?
By
Books of the year 2022
New Statesman writers and guests choose their favourite reading of the year.
By
The instant political histories that nobody needs
Hasty biographies of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson by Westminster journalists show the perils of rushing to judge the recent…
By
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.
By
How political failures led to the Grenfell Tower fire
Peter Apps’s book, Show Me the Bodies, forensically uncovers the truth about the disaster that killed 72 people in 2017.
By
Mary Lou McDonald: behind the respectable face of Sinn Féin
A new biography charts the rapid political rise – and moral compromises – of Sinn Féin’s leader.
By