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Newest Politics and Society Reviews (view source)
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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]]==Politics and society==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nigel HamiltonAlastair Humphreys|title=American Caesars: Lives of the US Presidents, from Franklin D Roosevelt to George W BushLocal
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryTravel |summary=The Premise is simple: take twelve men (Alastair Humphreys has walked and unfortunately they are cycled all men, but that's not over the author's fault) who have achieved high office world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and look at each of themthen wrote about it. FirstlyAs he says in his introduction, take a look at the road book is an attempt ''to the high office, then how they performed once they reached their goal and finally share what I have learnt about some big issues from a year exploring a look at their private lifesmall map. Suetonius did it first when he wrote ''The Twelve Caesars'' Nature loss, pollution, land use and now Nigel Hamilton has taken access, agriculture, the same journey with food system, rewilding…''American Caesars One of the joys of the book for me was that the biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have a remarkably in-depth look at twelve consecutive American presidents from the twentieth downside for somebody and early twenty-first centuries, starting with Franklin D Roosevelt and finishing with George W Bushthat there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099520419</amazonuk>1785633678
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bob Marshall-AndrewsEdel Rodriguez|title=Off MessageWorm: The Complete Antidote to Political HumbugA Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Bob Marshall-Andrews entered Parliament We're in 1997childhood, rather too late to be and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a career politician (he was already an established QC) Communist, and with not done nearly enough to create a profound distrust level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of authoritytaking his time away. He had no aspirations towards officeOur narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, which was perhaps as well for all concerned an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would become best known probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being a dissidentfrowned upon. I occasionally enquired as The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=This One Wild and Precious Life: the path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=3.5|genre= Lifestyle|summary= My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in which party held his allegiance she asks ''What is it you plan to do with your one wild and eventually concluded precious life?'' I get to love that he went with his conscienceline so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this. '' The last three Labour administrations have spawned more political memoirs than any other – and I did wonder if this would 'm lucky enough to be just living my one more wild and precious life the way I want to add . Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the life we want – the best life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, we are not''. Don't care what you're doing, she thinks you (we, I) could be doing more…And she's effing furious about the pilefact that we are not.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846684412</amazonuk>1785633848
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen Blixen1785633457|title=Out Of AfricaCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=It's more than Clive Wilkinson has a quarter history of travelling by unconventional means with a century since I first saw the film ''Out of Africa'' and it's one of the few that have stayed with me over the intervening yearspreference for slow travel. It wasn't just As he neared his eightieth birthday the story, but the personality idea of Karen Blixen and exploring the wonderful landscape edges of the Ngong Hills, south of Nairobi, England in Kenya's Rift Valleyan electric car was not totally outrageous. I remember looking In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for this book at the timeClive and his wife, but being unable to find itJoan, so the opportunity to read shouldn't it now was too good to miss.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951437</amazonuk>?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Sedley1529153050|title=Ashes and Sparks: Essays On Law and JusticeBritain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyHumour|summary=Some books are hard Seeking some light relief from the current political turmoil which is coming to readseem more and more like an adrenaline sport, and even harder I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of 2022''. Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to review31 August 2022. This is particularly true of Who can imagine what are essentially academic or "professional" books and you there will be to come to them as a lay reader. This then is my starting position on Ashes and Sparks.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521170907</amazonuk>in the 2023 edition?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Armstrong and Tim GrayB0B7289HKQ|title=The Authentic TawneyConversations Across America: A New Interpretation of Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and 300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Political Thought Soul of R. H. Tawney America|author=Kari Loya
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=The Authentic Tawney takes a fresh look at the political writing of R H TawneyKari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, a left wing academic whose works were a big influence on the huge program of postwar reform engineered by the Labour Party, particularly way) wanted to spend some time with his father and the provision of universal secondary educationperiod between two jobs seemed like a good time to do it. The authors assert that Tawney's ideas changed markedly through decision was made to ride the course Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, Oregon - all 4250 miles of his life and that they lack the consistency that other interpreters have erroneously attributed to themit - in 2015. They reject had 73 days to do it - slightly less than the notion recommended time - but there were factors which pointed this up as more of a challenge that his writings have an essential unity, which is philosophically interesting it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Merv Loya was 75 years old and he was suffering from early- don't we tend to assume that an intellectual's lifestage Alzheimer's work will contain a central 'core' of ideas? Discussion of an important pioneer in democratic socialism also seems relevant at a time when Labour has 'lost its way' and evolved into a watered down version of the Conservatives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402243</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick HewlettJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |title=The Sarkozy PhenomenonBook of Hope |rating=45|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The old saying done thing is that 'cometh the hour, cometh the man' and whether or not it's the electorate's ability to pick the man or whether he was only seen as the right man in retrospect is read a moot point. There are, though, some surprising people at book all the head of European countries at the moment – with Silvio Berlusconi and Nicholas Sarkozy at the head of my personal listway through before you sit down to review it. My [[Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True Story by Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual|last attempt]] to find out more about Sarkozy proved to be too light-weight for my tastesI’m making an exception here, but this time because I've gone don’t want to lose any of the opposite end experience of the scale with a reading this amazing book from Nick Hewlett, Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick and published by Imprint Academic. I mention those points because there is no attempt want to present this capture it as populist writing: it's scholarly from beginning to endhits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845402391</amazonuk>024147857X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Emmerson1788360737|title=Artivism: The Future History Battle for Museums in the Era of the Arctic: How climate, resources and geopolitics are reshaping the north, and why it matters to the worldPostmodernism|author=Alexander Adams|rating=42|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Charles Emmerson examines Can art ever be apolitical? All art is political because art is not made in a vacuum. It is made by people. Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to modifying the past history of Arctic explorationsocial environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, economic exploitation and development and the policies of governments of countries which include Arctic territory (and others)all art must be political, with the aim of understanding the present and predicting the future bettereven implicitly. He explains the apparently contradictory title Alexander Adams in some detail his new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the Introduction. While history Era of Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is about the past, 'ideas about the future have changed over time'art for art’s sake. Also, the future The recent trend of the Arctic will be shaped so-called artivism has caused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by its historylarge “left-wing” donors and media elites hoping to create a more globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523531</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire1398508632|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of TibetThe Wilderness Cure|author=Mo Wilde|rating=45|genre=BiographyLifestyle|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy It had been on the cards for a while but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, and your route is over the world's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challenging. This was the journey that Yangzom Brauen's mother took with week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion year of 1959eating only wild food. They were leaving behind all that they knew and travelling to India The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the hope that they could find sanctuary best time to start, in a world where the country where normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the Dalai Lama area around her was in exilea known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. She had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'Across Many Mountains' is their storywild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dambisa Moyo1529149800|title=Things You Can Do: How the West was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly And the Stark Choices Aheadto Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
|rating=4
|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=Moyo's first book, ''Dead Aid'' was We begin with a well regarded telling story. All the birds and oft discussed title animals fled when I worked in Developmentthe forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do. In a country where it was hard The tiny hummingbird flew to find any book at all, somehow every ex-pat household seemed to have at least one copy the river and began taking tiny amounts of this, water and flying back to drop them into the fire. The animals laughed: what good was that doing. ''I followed 'm doing the sheep and had a readbest I can'', said the hummingbird. It was a great And that, really, insightful book is the only way that we could all identify withwill solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, and I was eager to read her second, if somewhat unrelated workhowever small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142350</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1638485216
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna PolitkovskayaMatthieu Aikins|title=Nothing but The Naked Don't Fear the Truth: Selected Dispatches Water
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Anna Politkovskaya worked for It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don't Fear the Russian newspaper Novaya gazetaWater isn't actually fiction, becoming particularly famous for her critical reports on the wars in Chechnyabecause it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a criticism, on Putin, on state corruption but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and on life in Russia under his regimeat times painful journey. She never avoided controversy There are tense moments and received a number gripping accounts of death threats before she was murdered in October 2006border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. She had reason to know these were no idle threats – one of her articles here entitled But it'Is Journalism Worth s written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the Loss of a Life?' reports reader to perfectly envisage the attempted murder of one of her colleaguesenvironments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099526689</amazonuk>B09N9157T6
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonny Steinberg1785633074|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York CityStaggering Hubris|author=Josh Berry|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyHumour|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous nonMembers of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, headed by the Prime minister -fiction books and after reading the praise from various sources ''primus inter pares'' (New York Times, J M Coetzeethat's for those of you who are Eton and Oxbridge educated) I came to but the conclusion reality is that I was in for a serious and thoughtthe ''prime'' movers are the special advisers -provoking read. The preface tells us that the two Liberian men SPADS - Rufus and who are the driving force behind the younger Jacob left Liberian soil in vastly different circumstances and for different reasonsgovernment. But as they meet up years later and thousands We are in the privileged position of having access to the memoirs of miles away from their homelandRafe Hubris, their ''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall order: the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of 2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extent, their big egoswatch. Can it cope?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1846276772|title=Mountains Beyond MountainsThe End of Bias: How We Change Our Minds|author=Jessica Nordell
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to helping Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the poorest and neediest in society. He works tirelessly extent to help people less fortunate than him. which they suffer from it: it''Dedicated his s simply a part of everyday life'' and ''works tirelessly'' - phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful people. White men will always come first. The able will come before the disabled. Jobs, promotions, but higher salaries are the preserve of the white man. Even when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountainsthose who wouldn't pass the medical become a part of an organisation it's rare that their views are heard, you'll realise therethat their concerns are acknowledged. It's not a shred of hyperbole about these claims. Farmer began working with tuberculosis and AIDS patients in Haiti, and then worked with them, personally appalling and worked degrading for them, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them. In an area where treating the disease is just one part individuals on the receiving end of the problem, where poverty is rife, he has transformed an area, saved countless lives, and made an incredible difference to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], bias but it's not just the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwideindividuals who are negatively impacted. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529148251
|title=Misfits: A Personal Manifesto
|author=Michaela Coel
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''How am I able to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It's as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual0008350388|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True Story|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=In November 2007 the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced from his second wife and, despite his position and busy life, feeling rather lonely. He accepted an invitation We Need to a dinner party from a friend and met supermodel and recording artist, Carla Bruni. The attraction between them was instant – she had already said that she wanted a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by the attentions of a beautiful, famous and intelligent woman. Within months they were married.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTalk About Money|author=Beate Teresa Hanika|title=Learning to ScreamOtegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=After decades of watching politics more or ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less assiduously I was surprised by the New Labour administration. Never before had so much been put – or so it seemed – in the public domaindesirable, but never before had I had quite such a feeling of really not understanding what was going onless hireable, of being party to only half a storyless intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts.. The age of spin told us little that we really wanted to know, but left unsaid all the important things. Early in 2010 I was disappointed that I'd missed Andrew Rawnsley's 'The End of the Party' but now IWe Need to Talk About Money'm rather glad that I did as it's been republished in paperback with two additional chapters which include the extraordinary events surrounding the 2010 General Election.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046147</amazonuk>}}by Otegha Uwagba
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mark OatenRichard Brook|title=Screwing UpUnderstanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyLifestyle|summary=Like John Profumo I am a firm believer that sometimes we choose books, and otherssometimes books choose us. In my case, this is one of the latter. Not so very long ago, if I had come across this book I'd have skimmed it, Mark Oaten will probably be remembered for found some of it interesting, but it would not have 'hit home' in the wrong reasonsway that it does now. It I believe it came to me not just because I was the episode which made him for likely to give it a while the countryfavourable review [ ''full disclosure The Bookbag's Nou.s. 1 paparazzi targetp. is that people chose their own books rather than getting them randomly, and which as he recounts in his Prologueso there is a predisposition towards expecting to like the book, when his even if it doesn't always turn out that way'world was crashing down' and ] – but also because it hardly needs recounting in detail. Yet when all is said and done, this is a very lively, readablebook I needed to read, sometimes quite poignant memoir from one of the men whose career at Westminster began and ended with the Blair and Brown years. Throughout there is an admirable absence of self-pityright now.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849540071</amazonuk>1800461682
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Pennac1787332098|title=School BluesHow to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry Mance|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Daniel Pennac's book discusses the issue of children who struggle at school'When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and offers some ideas so on how teachers can and should help . And we assign them. It is not a dry textbook places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on educational theory. He writes from personal experiencesofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, as a teacher and novelist who was once millions of wild animals stay out there, 'un cancre'somewhere, translated here as a dunce or a bad student'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694648</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Mullin1523092734|title=Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005 A Women's Guide to 2010Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=At the end of [[A View from the Foothills by Chris Mullin|A View from the Foothills]] we left Chris Mullin wondering why he was no longer Tony Blair's Africa minister at the Foreign Office. He was never to get 'She brings a definitive answer to this, but was later told hug-kick-thunderclap that Blair handed out the junior ministerial appointments rather like sweets, with few worries about how people would feel if they were missed out or sackedevery woman needs in her life. In Decline Again and Fall we see Chris come down from the foothills of politics again and return to the backbenchesagain. He might no longer be in a position of power'' (Alma Derricks, but he's still in the thick of it. Perhaps thoughformer CMO, some of the enjoyment is draining away from the job as he sees himself with years more of doing nothing very important.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683998</amazonuk>}}Cirque du Soleil RSD)
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam PhillipsPolly Barton|title=On BalanceFifty Sounds|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Essential Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a tightrope walkerwhile and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, prized as an intellectual objectiveI don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, balance which is generally considered something to on the sound ''giro' '' – which we can aspire. We praise someone who makes a balanced decisionshe describes as being, among other things, we envy people who have a the sound of 'good work/life balance' we offer an opinion every party where you have to introduce yourself'on balance' to demonstrate that we have considered various arguments and options.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>1913097501
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James RobertsonStephen Fabes|title=And The Land Lay StillSigns of Life|rating=45|genre=Literary FictionTravel|summary=The novel starts I was brought up on maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places... at the endI was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. We see the fictional characterUnfortunately, photographer Mike Pendreich collating many, many photographs I didn't inherit what Dr. Stephen Fabes clearly had which his late father took with his trusty camerawas the guts to simply go out and do it. His father is generally acknowledged as I also didn't inherit the better kind of the two at the craft; he simply steady nerve, ability to talk to strangers and basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the knackrequisite 'bottle'. And what his son is now in charge In order words I'm not the sort of are black person who will get on a bike outside a London hospital and white photographs charting a social history at that timenot come home for six years. And we all know Fabes did precisely that a picture is worth a thousand words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>024114356X</amazonuk>1788161211
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Green1504321383|title=Murder in the High HimalayaSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middle-age, living with her brother You can't be happy and mum in Bournemouth, and working for the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey and morefulfilled on your own. I suggest You are not complete until you do meet them, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up find a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style commentman''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>}}
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