Society & Social Sciences Books

Governments' decisions usually impact most on the lives of women and people of marginalised genders - yet their stories often go unheard. Wander Women unites tales of different journeys around the world and shines light on the boundaries and constraints...

'We had hoped that we lived in a world that would rally in the face of a common threat. Instead, we found that the collective good is abandoned for the economic and political benefit of a handful of people, and nationalist myths of exceptionalism rob...

The epic story of a man born into Caribbean slavery, who defeated Napoleon's armies and crowned himself a free black king.How did a Caribbean child, born into plantation slavery, come to defeat Napoleon's armies in battle and crown himself king of the...

This is the inside story of a revolution in China policy, from Washington to Brussels, Berlin to New Delhi. The Rupture explains how so many of the Western politicians, thinkers and business leaders closest to Beijing have transformed into its sharpest...

Bousquet's book considers the impact of key technologies and scientific ideas on the practice of warfare and the handling of the perennial tension between order and chaos on the battlefield. It spans the entire modern era, from the Scientific...

In January 2020, US President Donald Trump announced his 'deal of the century'. Supposedly intended to 'resolve' the Palestine-Israel conflict, it accepted Israeli occupation as a fait accompli. Azmi Bishara places...

'These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world,' said Charlie Wilson of America's role in supporting the mujahideen against the Soviet Union. 'And then we fucked up the endgame.' The...

Cyber-security is often a top national security priority. Many states have declared cyber-space a new domain of warfare, seeking to develop a military cyber-strategy. Governments' national risk assessments now frequently put the threat of hostile...

The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a...

Winner of The High Plains Book Award for Non-FictionA vivid biography of an African Edwardian chronicler of London, in a time of social upheaval.In a world dominated by the British Empire, and at a time when many Europeans considered black people...

From Spain to Syria, the thrilling, untold history of Nazi fugitives turned postwar agents for America, the Soviets, the Third World, or themselves.After the Second World War, the Allies vowed to hunt Nazi war criminals 'to the ends of the...

The fascinating life of the dissident facing up to the Kremlin: a one-man embodiment of politics in Putin's Russia.Who is Alexei Navalny? Poisoned in August 2020 and transported to Germany for treatment, the politician returned to Russia in January 2021...

Despite attracting headlines and hype, insurgents rarely win. Even when they claim territory and threaten governmental writ, they typically face a military backlash too powerful to withstand. States struggle with addressing the political roots of such...

In the twenty-first century, there has been a seismic shift in Indian political, religious and social life. The country's guiding spirit was formerly a fusion of the anti-caste worldview of B.R. Ambedkar; the inclusive Hinduism of Mahatma Gandhi; and the...

What does liberal order actually amount to outside the West, where it has been most institutionalised? Contrary to the Atlantic or Pacific, liberal hegemony is thin in the Indian Ocean World; there are no equivalents of NATO, the EU or the US-Japan...

A revealing history of six decades of mutual suspicion, hostility and military manoeuvring along a cold and largely inhospitable frontier.In the summer of 2020, China and India came near to war. The nuclear-armed adversaries both massed troops and...

The historical background, key events and troubled aftermath of the Sudanese revolution: where can the democracy movement go from here?This book tells the story of the Sudanese revolution of 2019; of how it succeeded in bringing down the long-standing...

Why does Western pandemic policy have support across the political spectrum, when its social impacts conflict with ideology on both right and left?During the pandemic, the Left has agreed that 'following the science' with hard lockdowns...

What might COVID-19 mean for, and reveal about, China's place in the world?The coronavirus pandemic started in Wuhan, home to the leading lab studying the SARS virus and bats. Was that pure coincidence? This book explores what we know, and still don't...

Here's a perverse truth: from New Orleans to Bangladesh, women--especially poor women of colour--are suffering most from a crisis they have done nothing to cause. Yet where, in environmental policy, are the voices of elderly European women dying in...

For four decades Saudi Arabia and Iran have vied for influence in the Muslim world. At the heart of this ongoing Cold War between Riyadh and Tehran lie the SunniShia divide, and the two countries' intertwined histories. Saudis see this as a conflict...

China's Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy...

How can we explain Britain's long rule in India beyond the clichs of 'imperial' versus 'nationalist' interpretations? In this new history, Roderick Matthews tells a more nuanced story of 'oblige and rule', the foundation of common purpose between...

What does it feel like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you? What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy...

In early summer 1982--winter in the South Atlantic--Argentina's military junta invades the Falklands. Within days, a Royal Navy Task Force is assembled and dispatched. This is the story of D Squadron, 22 SAS, commanded by Cedric Delves. The relentless...

King Salman of Saudi Arabia began his rule in 2015 confronted with a series of unprecedented challenges. The dilemmas he has faced are new and significant, from leadership shuffles and falling oil prices to regional and international upheaval. 'Salman's...

When Stephen Ellis died in July 2015, African Studies lost one of its most prolific, provocative and celebrated scholars. Given the scale and uniqueness of his contribution, it is perhaps surprising that a collection of his writings did not appear during...

For many in Israel and elsewhere, Benjamin Netanyahu is anathema, an embarrassment; yet he continues to dominate Israeli public life. How can we explain his rise, his hold on Israeli politics, and his outsized role on the world's stage?In Bibi, Anshel...

India's caravan trade with central Asia was at the heart of the complex web of routes making up the Silk Roads. But what was the fate of these overland connections in the ages of sail and steam? Jagjeet Lally sets out to answer this question by bringing...

Why is the Middle East a crisis factory, and how can it be fixed? What does the future look like for its 500 million people? And what role should the West play?Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed Gatnash tell the story of the modern Middle East as a series of...

Medina Tenour Whiteman stands at the margins of whiteness and Islam. An Anglo-American born to Sufi converts, she feels perennially out of place-not fully at home in Western or Muslim cultures.In this searingly honest memoir, Whiteman contemplates what...

The most secretive, repressive state in Africa is haemorrhaging its citizens. In some months as many Eritreans as Syrians arrive on European shores, yet the country is not convulsed by civil war. Young men and women risk all to escape. Many do not...

How is the future changing? Is there a single determinant future or a plethora of alternative futures? How do we actually study futures and can we trust anything anyone says about 'the future'? Are Muslim societies prepared for the coming tsunami of...

The emotion and trauma of the Partition are buried deep, but Aanchal Malhotra has found a way to recover them. Through the possessions saved by her own great-grandparents as they fled their homes, she discovers the unique power of such objects: to unlock...

Henrik Meinander paints a brisk and bold picture of the history of Finland from integrated part of the Swedish kingdom to autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian empire, gradually transformed and maturing into a conscious nation, independent state and...

*** A Financial Times Summer Book Pick******A Times Literary Supplement Summer Book Pick***After decades of imperfect secularism, presided over by an often corrupt Congress establishment, Nehru's diverse republic has yielded to Hindu nationalism. India,...

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon's political partnership changed the face of Scotland, bringing the country to within 200,000 votes of independence in 2014 and holding sway at Holyrood for more than a decade. Since the referendum, Scottish nationalism...

As a Cabinet minister attending meetings of the UK's National Security Council, Oliver Letwin took a profound interest in our relationship with China. So much of the discussion of world events inevitably turns into a debate about the attitudes...

The Intelligence Corps is one of the smallest and most secretive elements of the British Army. It has existed in various guises since the early twentieth century, but it was only formally constituted in July 1940. In this book, Michael Ashcroft tells the...

Elisabeth Spencer's daughter Milly came out as trans at the age of twenty-one. Just a few days later, in one of life's perfect storms, Spencer's husband was diagnosed with an advanced terminal illness and so she was set on course to confront rebirth in...

In September 2019, Mavis Eccleston was acquitted of murdering her 81-year-old husband Dennis. Dennis had terminal cancer and had taken an overdose of pain medication to end his own life. The turmoil that followed for Mavis and her family sheds light on...

Fully updated Mass Market Paperback edition of the bestselling polemic about perceived media bias To some, it is the voice of the nation, yet to others it has never been clearer that the BBC is in the grip of an ideology that prevents it...

Katharine Campbell's father Sholto Douglas was the hero of her childhood, an unconventional senior commander in the Royal Air Force described as 'a gloriously contentious character'. Following childhood abandonment and poverty, Sholto rose through the...

The best jobs in Britain today are overwhelmingly done by the offspring of privileged parents. Meanwhile, it is increasingly difficult for bright but poor children to transcend their circumstances. This state of affairs should not only worry the poor. It...

Natural gas pricing should be as critically important to the general public as it is to industry specialists. Pricing is the basis of balancing the interests of European and Asian consumers of power and electricity with those of the limited number of...

This book presents a critical reflection on the major armed conflicts that occurred during the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century. Conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria all involved the use of terrorism by...

This book addresses the most important question in geopolitics today - the future of relations between the US and China. Concerned that the rise of China will challenge the its hegemony in world affairs, the US has decided to reassert its influence in...

Human rights and humanitarian diplomacy provides an up to date and accessible overview of the field, and serves as a practical guide to those seeking to engage in human rights work. Pease argues that while human rights are internationally recognised,...