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Prepared and Shared by
Mubbashar Riaz
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Why this list of latest 50 books?
CSS aspirants face problems when it comes to argumentation, content,
data and references. This list is designed to cater that need. The themes
and topics covered in these books are not just helpful but also those
which you would see in Essay, CA and PA papers. Going through this
list will enable you to understand the hot topics to expect in 2024
papers. Quote these books in any of your paper and this would
definitely make a difference.
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By Mubbashar Riaz (CSS Essay Mentor)
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1. Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
by Steven Levitsky (Author), Daniel Ziblatt (Author)
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a
multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change
has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political
system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations?
And what can we do to save it?
With the clarity and brilliance that made their first book, How Democracies Die, a global
bestseller, Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework
for understanding these volatile times. They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France
to present-day Thailand—to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy.
They then show how our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It
is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and
even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to
Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers,
indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind.
In this revelatory book, Levitsky and Ziblatt issue an urgent call to reform our politics. It’s a
daunting task, but we have remade our country before—most notably, after the Civil War and
during the Progressive Era. And now we are at a crossroads: America will either become a
multiracial democracy or cease to be a democracy at all.
2. When Disasters Come Home: Making and Manipulating Emergencies in the West
By David Keen
In this engaging polemic, Keen argues that a dangerous and dysfunctional “emergency politics”
is taking hold in Western societies, threatening democracy and empowering groups that profit
from disaster. The book draws insights from the global South, which has long struggled to cope
with disasters, such as famines, ethnic violence, and financial crises. In Keen’s account, these
emergencies have often provided opportunities for elites to repress and exploit the public,
exacerbating rather than ameliorating the underlying causes of the emergencies. Keen now sees
a similar pattern unfolding in the global North. In deeply divided Western countries, political
elites are easily tempted to use disasters to justify government spending in one area (for
instance, military procurement) while cutting spending in another (public health and social
security, for example), weakening a society’s capacity to cope. Keen argues that elites thrill to
the political opportunities that come with short-term responses to disasters, such as terrorist
attacks, but neglect to tackle longer-term and slowly emerging systemic dangers, such as
climate change. Western democracies, beware: today’s cascading crises are a call for
enlightened, civic-minded action, but they also empower demagogues and authoritarians.
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3. The Rise of the Global Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can
Change the World, By Homi Kharas
Arguably the single most important economic development of the last half century has been
the rise of the global middle class: over four billion individuals who are neither impoverished
nor exceedingly rich and who can reasonably “aspire to enjoy the good life,” as Kharas puts it.
Middle-class status, many social scientists have reasoned, is associated with fulfilling
employment, the ability to support family and community, and, more broadly, satisfaction in
life. Scholars have also associated the middle class with the preference for democracy over
authoritarianism. Kharas cautions that although those dynamics may have been broadly true of
the emergence of the middle class in the twentieth century in the West, these associations may
not prevail in other times and places. Higher incomes do not guarantee life satisfaction.
Consumerism entails the production of ever more goods at ever-lower prices, resulting in the
loss of biodiversity, greater carbon emissions, and ecological destruction. The examples of
China, Iran, and Turkey point to the tenuousness of the link between democratization and the
rise of the middle classes. Kharas nonetheless concludes on a hopeful note, arguing that the
global middle class can be a force for social and political good if its members press for
decarbonization, spend their money on sustainable products, and support policies that foster
social mobility and create decent jobs for all.
4. The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest
Dilemma, By Mustafa Suleyman with Michael Bhaskar
Suleyman, one of the co-founders of the influential artificial intelligence startup DeepMind,
argues that AI and synthetic biology are poised to transform a world shaped, until now, by
human intelligence and natural biological life. These new technologies have the potential to
eliminate mundane intellectual labor and eradicate debilitating diseases, promising enormous
economic and health benefits. But Suleyman warns that these technologies also pose a dire,
even existential, threat to the nation-state and to today’s society. If unregulated, AI and
synthetic biology will allow bad actors to unleash massive cyberattacks, engineered pandemics,
and tidal waves of misinformation. An authoritarian clampdown on these new technologies
would likely require impossible, dystopian levels of surveillance. Efforts to ban these
technologies will likewise not succeed, since they will run into powerful business interests that
seek to commercialize the technological advances. Instead, Suleyman suggests steps to ensure
that developers build appropriate controls into their technologies. To this end, he recommends
regular audits, international cooperation to harmonize laws and programs, and measures to
slow the pace of technological change that would buy time for regulators and governments to
catch up. The author’s argument is compelling and alarming and serves as an important wakeup call.
5. On Wars, By Michael Mann
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Mann, a sociologist and historian, is not the first scholar to seek to develop a sweeping theory
of war in order to help foster peace. He does not realize this ambition: war is just too complex
and varied a phenomenon to be distilled in a single theory. But the journey is worthwhile as he
explores a range of debates about warfare, including arguments about which ancient conflicts
should be considered the first wars, the value of realist theories of war, and the psychologist
Steven Pinker’s claim that wars are in decline, which Mann persuasively dismisses. He
considers why societies are more or less prone to war, ranging from the Roman Republic to
imperial China to cultures in the Americas. And he examines whether those who waged wars
were really enthusiastic for the fight. He finds it difficult to see the rational purposes of wars
because their consequences are usually awful and counterproductive. Likewise, human nature
does not drive countries to war. Instead, wars are produced by the choices made by leaders who
themselves have been shaped by institutions and norms. The trick to preventing war is to
develop the social conditions that encourage restraint and diplomacy.
6. How Not to Be a Politician: A Memoir, By Rory Stewart
If you read only one contemporary political memoir, let this be it. Stewart is a certain type of
eccentric figure once commonplace in British Conservative circles. An accomplished soldier
and diplomat from a distinguished family, he traveled for years on foot through Central Asia
and served high up in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. military government in
post-invasion Iraq, before being elected to the British Parliament and serving four times as
cabinet minister. In 2019, after Boris Johnson crushed Stewart’s quixotic run for the leadership
of the Conservatives and then expelled him from the party, he found refuge back in the
American academic and nonprofit worlds. With little to lose, he indulges in the rarest of virtues
in a political memoir: honesty. Yet this book is much more than a remarkably candid eyewitness account of an embarrassing era in British politics, flush with juicy anecdotes. It is also
the poignant tale of a genuinely decent human being with an uncompromising desire to achieve
concrete policy results—and his arrival at the revelation that the political hypocrisy and
ignorance surrounding him will thwart his efforts. It is a sobering admonition for anyone
tempted to choose politics as a vocation or who expects much from those who do.
7. Getting Russia Right, By Thomas Graham
Graham, who spent over 30 years studying Russia and working on Russian affairs in the U.S.
government, offers a forthright analysis of Washington’s Russia policy. The United States, he
claims, bears significant responsibility for U.S.-Russian relations now “scraping the depths of
Cold War hostility.” Deluded by post-Soviet Russia’s weakness, the United States grew
oblivious to Russia’s sense of its immutable historical self: its deeply ingrained self-perception
as a great power and its perennial security concerns over its long and mostly indefensible
borders. Washington would not recognize Moscow’s national interests unless they were
compatible with U.S. goals. Graham condemns American hubris as post–Cold War
administrations aspired to transform Russia into a free-market democracy. The U.S.
commitment to integrating Russia into the liberal Western world sounded insincere at best as
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it went hand-in-hand with fierce hedging against Russia’s great-power aspirations. Yet Russia’s
autocratic regime does not need to be the United States’ implacable foe. To bring about more
constructive relations, Graham urges, Washington must reassess the goals and limits of its
power and frame its rivalry with Moscow in terms of geopolitical competition rather than as
an existential contest between good and evil.
8. The Dragon Roars Back: Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese
Foreign Policy, By Suisheng Zhao
Zhao presents a robust and empirically rich rebuttal of the realist theory that China’s foreign
policy is the straightforward product of its geostrategic position and the broader balance of
power. Instead, he attributes such events as the Sino-Soviet split under Mao Zedong and the
embrace of globalization under Deng Xiaoping to the idiosyncratic visions of transformational
leaders. Today, realist theorists understand U.S.-Chinese tensions as the natural result of a
rising China that is working to expand its influence against the resistance of the incumbent
power. Zhao instead regards Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “strident” diplomacy and naval
buildup in the South China Sea and around Taiwan as policy errors, arising from Xi’s belief in
“a resentful strain of nationalism” and supported by hubristic public opinion that Xi has
fostered. The author argues that confronting the United States has unnecessarily put China in
an isolated position in the face of a stronger power.
9. Geopolitics and Democracy: The Western Liberal Order From Foundation to
Fracture, By Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon
In this groundbreaking study, Trubowitz and Burgoon argue that the current backlash against
the Western-led liberal international order can be traced to the 1990s. In the wake of the Cold
War, Washington and European governments decided to globalize markets and expand
multilateral cooperation while relaxing social and economic protections at home. This
combination of actions enlarged the liberal international order at the cost of generating
domestic discontent and division. During the Cold War, Western publics accepted the tradeoffs
that came with market liberalization. The threat of Soviet communism encouraged a
compromise between free-market capitalism and social democracy. But in the post–Cold War
decades, as governments entered into more multilateral commitments and encouraged
economic globalization, this cost-benefit calculation began to change. Citizens felt a keen sense
of economic insecurity, and political spaces opened up for once marginalized groups to pursue
antiglobalist and nationalist agendas. Established, mainstream political parties on the centerright and center-left—the backbone of the Western liberal order—are now on the defensive,
facing electorates that want less globalization and more social and economic protection. As
Trubowitz and Burgoon show, many people in the West will embrace liberal internationalism
only once the social democratic system is rebuilt at home.
10. Building States: The United Nations, Development, and Decolonization, 1945–
1965, By Eva-Maria Muschik
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In this fascinating inquiry, Muschik explores the role of the United Nations in the great post–
World War II transition from a world of empires to a postcolonial system of nation-states. The
UN was founded in 1945 with 51 members, but within two decades its ranks had doubled as
peoples across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific joined campaigns for self-determination and
statehood. As Muschik shows, the UN was a pivotal actor in this unfolding drama, as
international civil servants and expert advisers worked closely with postcolonial elites to build
functioning governments. This was a deeply political and contested undertaking in which the
UN Secretariat found itself caught between two competing demands: its commitment to the
trusteeship system, which reflected the interests and legacies of the old imperial powers, and
the Third World’s quest for self-determination and respect for state sovereignty. Muschik
argues that the UN succeeded by acting as a purveyor of development-oriented technical
assistance, which in turn helped build these new states. The Cold War did not so much paralyze
the UN as move its real activities from the high politics of the Security Council to the technical
work of experts.
11. The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power, By Robert D. Kaplan
In this eloquent meditation on war, geopolitics, and the human condition, Kaplan makes the
case for foreign policy informed by a “tragic sensibility,” offering a world-weary vision of the
inability of leaders and states to solve problems and make life better. Even the most wellintentioned and far-sighted statesmen cannot always right wrongs. Kaplan quotes Herodotus in
suggesting that the human tragedy is to “know much and control nothing.” The book traces an
intellectual journey through Western literature to unearth and illuminate this way of thinking.
To “think tragically” is not to be cynical or pessimistic but to heroically push forward to
discover the horizon of possibility while maintaining a sober awareness of one’s limits. Kaplan
explores the tragic sensibility as it played out across the last century in world wars, revolutions,
military interventions, and domestic struggles between citizens and states. In each episode,
Kaplan argues that although hubris, ambition, and hatred always lurk in the background, the
knowledge of human imperfection and the limits of progress can liberate people to seek greater
self-awareness and avoid idealist misadventures. The history of tragedy counsels prudence.
12. The Economic Government of the World, 1933–2023, By Martin Daunton
Daunton has written a sweeping history of international economic cooperation and of the
meetings and institutions through which it is organized. The author’s original design for this
book, many years in the making, was evidently to begin his narrative with the London
Economic Conference of 1933, which failed to preserve an open international order, and
conclude with the more successful G-20 summit in London in 2009, which mobilized
international efforts to contain the 2008 global financial crisis and stabilize the world economy.
Whereas the first of these conferences was sunk by doctrinal disagreements and international
political disputes, the second benefited from the intellectual and political convergence that
followed the fall of communism and the end of the Cold War. Developments in the past decade,
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however, have thrown the author’s optimistic narrative a series of curve balls: the resurgence
of populism, tensions between China and the United States, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
which put an end to political convergence and inaugurated what some call a “new Cold War.”
Progress in strengthening global governance, it turns out, is not inevitable. Institutions such as
the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization retain a role in fostering
international cooperation, but Daunton insists that they must not interfere too extensively in
domestic policy choices lest they spark a backlash. To sustain international cooperation,
governments must complement openness with policies that create good jobs, provide social
insurance, tax footloose corporations, and avoid destabilizing capital flows.
13. Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New
Weapons, and New Threats, By Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker
Hoehn and Shanker seek to understand why U.S. national security systems have often failed to
keep up with events. The authors divide the problem into “the warning machine,” which should
alert policymakers to emerging threats, and “the action machine,” which should then deal with
those threats. Having interviewed many government insiders and Beltway analysts, they reveal
how the United States is often let down by poor administrative coordination, uncertainties over
who is in charge, and regulatory and resource constraints. The authors discuss a wide variety
of threats, including those posed by China, Russia, germs, and storms. The book is consistently
interesting on the government’s evolving understanding of these problems and how attitudes
and efforts to address them have developed over time. The authors could say more about how
policymakers should set priorities, given that governments will always have limited capacity,
and should acknowledge that the United States is not alone in addressing these issues but has
allies who might make helpful contributions.
14. A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures, By Shahzad Bashir
In this dazzlingly creative and thought-provoking digital book, Bashir argues that Islam needs
to be understood not as a monolithic, unchanging faith but as an accumulation of beliefs and
practices that people have labeled “Islam” over time and across regions. In Bashir’s view, both
Muslims and non-Muslims have contributed to this process. Bashir abandons the constraints
of the conventionally linear printed book for an online, open-access format. Linking texts from
a dizzying array of sources, including poetry, novels, art, architecture, trinkets, graffiti, and
films, the book invites immersion. Readers enter this inventive and fascinating electronic work
at various times and places—from contemporary Isfahan to fourteenth-century Samarkand,
from the skyline of modern Istanbul to the expanse of the Arabian desert—and can make
unexpected connections, experiencing Bashir’s vivid elaboration of the breadth of Islam with
each click.
15. The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology
Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline, By Yasheng
Huang
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The EAST in Huang’s title stands not only for China but for the four keys to its history listed
in the subtitle. The imperial examination system dating back to the sixth century forced aspiring
elites to unite around the single goal of service to the state. Autocracy grew from the
elimination of balancing forces within the state and of societal power centers outside the state.
The stability of the authoritarian system was what the Chinese Communist Party achieved—
despite self-inflicted episodes of chaos—by adopting its own forms of these ancient traditions.
But technological stagnation was the price the Chinese dynasties paid for their supreme
stability. Reformist leaders after the death of Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic
of China, opened up the system enough to allow for innovation, entrepreneurialism, and
economic growth. Now, however, Huang predicts that the crackdown on freedom under the
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s modernized version of imperial rule may bring an end to the
country’s brief spurt of dynamism. Huang’s wide-ranging and consistently shrewd analysis
suggests that Xi’s “China dream” of national greatness may be just that: a dream.
16. The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, By Brook Manville and Josiah
Ober
Manville and Ober urge defenders of liberal democracy to take the long view. The book
provides fascinating portraits of four great breakthroughs in citizen self-rule: classical Athens,
republican Rome, parliamentary Great Britain, and the United States. Each was a worldhistorical experiment in building collective self-government; politics, that is, without a boss.
What allowed these democratic experiments to endure for centuries? Manville and Ober argue
that despite their manifold differences, they shared a core set of features. They built institutions
that divided and dispersed political authority, creating procedures for collective decisionmaking. They fostered trust and a spirit of compromise. They conceived of themselves as
organic, evolving entities rather than as sets of static players. They understood the importance
of civic education, which reinforced the norms of citizenship rights and responsibilities. Most
important, Manville and Ober argue, the great democracies survived because they forged and
maintained a “civic bargain,” a political pact about who is a citizen, how decisions are made,
and the distribution of responsibilities and entitlements. As a result, these democracies were
able to persevere through recurring crises and face down existential threats.
17. Authoritarian Century: Omens of a Post-Liberal Future, By Azeem Ibrahim
Ibrahim argues that the ongoing authoritarian and populist backlash to liberalism is rooted in
the fragile core of the liberal project itself. From its Enlightenment beginnings onward,
liberalism’s guiding belief has been that human beings have equal and inherent moral worth;
the grand task of liberalism is to bring more fully into existence a society in which people are
treated with dignity and are free to pursue their own well-being. A liberal society is ultimately
a “work in progress,” but its legitimacy rests on its continuous movement toward the ideals of
openness and pluralism. The problem, Ibrahim claims, is that this model is always threatened
by reactionary forces that do not want to live in an open, multicultural society and by critics
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who doubt that liberalism can guarantee sufficient progress. The failings of liberal
democracy—including the corruption of elites, inequality, and economic stagnation—have led
to a loss of faith in public institutions and a dangerous creeping rejection of the entire model
of liberal society. Ibrahim does not offer a silver bullet; he acknowledges liberalism’s failings,
looks for ways to reform and strengthen laws and democratic processes, and insists that only
liberal values have the capacity to guide the world to a better future.
18. Global Policymaking: The Patchwork of Global Governance, By Vincent Pouliot
and Jean-Philippe Thérien
Focusing on the United Nations and its ecosystem of summits, assemblies, and commissions,
Pouliot and Thérien find, perhaps not surprisingly, that the process of global governance tends
to be chaotic and haphazard. The term of art they use to describe global policymaking is
bricolage—a French word for tinkering that nicely captures the improvisational, patchwork
character of such governance. The book looks closely at the operations of the United Nations
in sustainable development, human rights, and the protection of civilians in war. In each area,
the authors find governments, NGOs, and international bureaucrats caught in inherently
unresolvable clashes of values and interests. The UN’s 2005 initiative to create the Human
Rights Commission, for instance, revealed tensions among countries from the global North and
South and required the papering over of deep disagreements about sovereignty, the role of
experts, the inclusion of NGOs, and the universality of rights. Global governance is a story of
politics and social conflict, in which the costs and benefits of outcomes are unequally
distributed, and values and worldviews stubbornly resist calls for harmony and consensus.
Policymakers cannot make the world better if they do not understand how it works.
19. Original Sin: Power, Technology, and War in Outer Space, By Bleddyn E. Bowen
The “original sin” of the book’s title is that space technologies were developed not for the
collective benefit of humankind but for their military applications. Bowen sees the associated
technologies as tainted and worries that space has become a competitive and dangerous
domain. But he acknowledges that as sins go, this one may not be wholly original. Terrestrial
affairs have also long been influenced by military considerations. To stick with the biblical
metaphor, this book is a comprehensive and thorough account of the particular “fall” of
developing space-related technologies with military uses. Bowen accepts that there can be no
return to a lost Eden but hopes that countries can avoid militarizing space so much that they
lose opportunities for beneficial cooperation. He notes that space-based military systems can
be used in earthly conflicts, and he insists that space should not be imagined as a military “high
ground” where battles will be fought far removed from earth but rather as a “coastal or littoral
zone” close to terra firma.
20. The One State Reality: What Is Israel/Palestine?, Edited by Michael Barnett,
Nathan J. Brown, Marc Lynch, and Shibley Telhami
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An unusually matter-of-fact, sober, and dispassionate exploration of the political institutions
and arrangements governing the territory once ruled by the British in their Palestine Mandate,
this book is a model of scholarly engagement with challenging political issues. The editors
argue that the continued embrace of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse
obscures realities on the ground and promotes increasingly irresponsible wishful thinking on
the part of policymakers in the United States and Europe. They present a powerful case for
fresh and frank analysis. The volume brings together uniformly strong essays by a variety of
scholars and experts that explore the religious arguments for Jewish control of the entire
territory, the historical dynamics of settler colonialism, the complex rationales for limited and
partial citizenship regimes, the Palestinian Authority as a mechanism of indirect rule, and the
changing perspectives of the American Jewish community, Arab governments, and U.S.
policymakers. Insisting that there is nothing to be gained in continuing to foster the illusion
that a two-state solution is possible, the authors urge a candid and clear-eyed acknowledgment
of reality: the existence of one state, Israel, governing the entire territory through multiple,
separate, and unequal legal and administrative regimes.
21. No Limits: The Inside Story of China’s War With the West, By Andrew Small
When and why did China’s relations with the West go off the rails? Washington and Tokyo
began to feel uneasy about Beijing around 2010, when Chinese policymakers decided that the
global financial crisis had at long last tipped the power balance in their favor and started a push
for global supremacy. It took longer, about a decade, for policy in western European capitals
to catch up. By then, China’s aggressiveness in promoting its own components for Europe’s
information infrastructure and its belligerent conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic had
crystallized the consensus that Chinese behavior threatened European security. The last straw
was when the Chinese leader Xi Jinping promoted China’s relations with Russia from an
alliance of convenience to a real partnership just before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Small, a one-time optimist about China’s integration with the West, observed the historic
reversal in process as he traveled through Western and Asian capitals in the past decade. He
tells the story with a combination of close detail and clear analysis that will inform both
specialists and generalists. Xi did come close to achieving a stranglehold over European
economies and information systems and even to splitting the Atlantic alliance, but he pushed
too soon and too hard—and now the West seeks to keep China at arm’s length.
22. The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After the Americans Left, By Hassan
Abbas
This chatty and deeply informed account covers the negotiations that led to the Taliban
takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the makeup of the new regime, its religious ideology, its
foreign relations, and the many problems it faces now that it governs. The regime is split along
numerous fault lines—regional, ethnic, generational, and factional—and is subject to
interference from numerous regional powers, including China, India, Iran, Qatar, Russia, and
Turkey. The most influential outside power is Pakistan, but relations are strained because of
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Kabul’s tacit support for a militant group that has routinely struck targets within Pakistan in
recent years. Most leaders in the new regime are politicians with clerical titles, not serious
religious thinkers, and Abbas describes internal factional dynamics as “reminiscent of the
Italian mafia.” Political fissures are exacerbated by the regime’s economic and financial
problems and by the challenge from the Islamic State’s franchise in the country. Abbas sees
fluidity beneath the regime’s hard carapace and optimistically suggests that a Western policy
of engagement could push the Taliban toward pragmatism. But he does not say whether it
would be possible for the regime to relax its harsh policies on the crucial issue of women’s
rights.
23. Empires of Eurasia: How Imperial Legacies Shape International Security, By
Jeffrey Mankoff
Mankoff argues that a new “age of empire” is emerging in the heartland of Eurasia. Each of
the region’s major powers—China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey—is pursuing a “new imperial
geopolitics” and intervening in the affairs of smaller neighboring states. In Syria and Ukraine,
Russia’s neoimperial turn has taken the form of direct military intervention and the de facto
redrawing of borders. China’s agenda in the region has relied on cultivating economic ties and
building on ethnic and linguistic links. Old imperial traditions, according to Mankoff, stand
behind this new Eurasian geopolitics. All four states are successors to empires that collapsed
in the early twentieth century. Modern setbacks have encouraged their leaders to turn to their
imperial pasts for inspiration, symbolism, and legitimacy. Russian President Vladimir Putin
and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are particularly eager to portray themselves as
heirs to hallowed imperial traditions. Mankoff argues the imperial past does not merely inflect
modern rhetoric; in a more profound sense, these countries, by dint of their imperial pasts, are
not (and are not likely to become) nation-states content to inhabit sharply defined territories.
When it comes to international relations, the past is never really past.
24. Algorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI, By Josh Simons
In this important book, Simons provides one of the best accounts of how advances in artificial
intelligence challenge democracy and what societies can do about it. Machine learning is as
profound as it is simple: a collection of techniques and methods for discovering patterns in data
to make predictions. As Simons shows, in the right hands, it can be a powerful tool for
governments to allocate resources and corporations to reach consumers. But the technology
can also reduce the roles of human judgment, empathy, and creativity. Companies, courts, and
welfare agencies, as Simons demonstrates, can use machine learning in ways that reinforce
societal inequality. But even the most elaborate systems of machine learning do not eliminate
the space for human judgment and moral choice; after all, people make decisions about the
design of the models and the criteria for selecting data and patterns. The book’s message is that
the artificial intelligence revolution is ultimately a political phenomenon, and its benefits and
dangers will be determined by society’s willingness to regulate its use.
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25. The Great Polarization: How Ideas, Power, and Policies Drive Inequality, Edited
by Rudiger L. von Armin and Joseph E. Stiglitz
This volume of essays focuses on the rise of inequality in advanced economies, a phenomenon
typically attributed to two forces: technical change that has favored well-educated, highly
skilled workers and globalization that has thrown less skilled workers into competition with
those in the developing world. Although they do not dismiss these ideas, von Arnim and Stiglitz
observe that inequality outcomes vary enormously across countries similarly exposed to
technical change and globalization. Rising inequality has been more pronounced in the
English-speaking world than in other advanced economies. Those differences arise from the
economic, political, and social policies that have accompanied technical change and
globalization. The contributors discuss tax-and-transfer policies as well as those dealing with
education, competition, intellectual property, labor organization, and collective bargaining.
Throughout, they emphasize how the interests of economic and political elites often lie behind
policy choices. Such arguments are not new, but they are made here with singular clarity and
accompanied by extensive documentation, mainly (although not exclusively) relating to the
United States. Contributors are less convincing in specifying how governments might pursue
alternative approaches in the present political climate. It is easier to imagine inequalityreducing policies than it is to determine how they might be implemented.
26. Ideological Fixation: From the Stone Age to Today’s Culture Wars, By Azar Gat
Only a few decades ago, some observers saw “the end of history” in the triumph of Western
liberalism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, however, the clash of ideologies has
returned with a vengeance. In this deeply probing study, Gat explains why ideology is a
necessary and deeply fraught feature of the human condition. Philosophers and scientists have
long argued that humans cannot fully grasp objective reality. Ideology helps people understand
the world, providing a frame inside which the mind can produce a picture of reality. Gat reaches
back to the ancient past but dwells mostly on the “secular religions”—liberalism, socialism,
and fascism—that came to the fore with the rise of industrial modernity. These ideologies
sought to help people come to grips with a fast-changing world and offered them a blueprint
for dealing with the opportunities and miseries of modernity. The abiding appeal of ideologies
rests in how they present a grand narrative of where the world is going. Like the classical
religions, they grant a glimpse of salvation. But, Gat warns, ideology is a double-edged sword:
it is a necessary tool to navigate the uncertainties and complexities of modern life, but it can
easily become a dangerous “fixation” and a tool of political warfare.
27. Global Discord: Values and Power in a Fractured World Order, By Paul Tucker
The Biden administration’s October 2022 National Security Strategy identified China as a
strategic competitor. That designation motivated Washington’s ban on exports to China of
advanced semiconductor designs and equipment, a measure that seems at odds with American
values of economic liberalism and open international trade. Tucker’s book, completed before
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the release of that document, asks how democracies should deal with illiberal states while
upholding their own political and economic values. He argues for cooperation among liberal
states and for maintaining economic distance from states on the other side of the ideological
divide. Concretely, this means “friend shoring”: that is, relying on like-minded countries for
imports and finance. Tucker argues that the legitimacy of an international economic system
must ultimately rest on shared values and on the responsiveness of its institutions to the
priorities of states that uphold those values. He urges the reform of the World Trade
Organization, which currently operates through the dictates of all-powerful judges; of the
International Monetary Fund, which has weakened its legitimacy by straying from its core
mission of supporting countries with weak finances; and of the Bank for International
Settlements, which continues to extend privileged access to the titans of global finance.
28. Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, By Chris Miller
At once edifying and entertaining, Miller’s book traces the history of the global semiconductor
industry. Early on, firms producing semiconductors depended on demand for their products
from the U.S. defense and military establishment. Now, by contrast, that defense establishment
depends on the chip industry for critical strategic and battlefield capabilities. Over time, the
decisions of charismatic entrepreneurs and less charismatic government officials combined to
produce the current international division of labor, whereby advanced chip design is carried
out in the United States; essential manufacturing equipment is produced in Japan, the
Netherlands, and the United States; and over a fifth of all chip fabrication happens in Taiwan—
a place that, as a result, has become an economic and geopolitical flash point. “Chip war” now
characterizes the U.S.-Chinese rivalry, with Beijing seeking to build up design and
manufacturing capabilities and Washington hoping to slow China’s progress. Miller is a fluent
narrator, but he finalized the book before recent shifts in U.S. policy, which seek to deny China
advanced chip-making technology. He delivers no verdict on whether U.S. export controls will
succeed in containing the rise of China’s semiconductor industry or whether they will only spur
China to further support the industry and maybe even lead it to move aggressively against
Taiwan.
29. The Lost Future: And How to Reclaim It, By Jan Zielonka
This book argues that the world faces unprecedentedly rapid and complex change that existing
political institutions are too slow and too weak to manage effectively. Politics simply protects
parochial and backward-looking interest groups and opinions. Zielonka tries to transcend this
familiar trope through an engaging, if sometimes meandering, reflection on “space and time,”
written in the style of business journalism and peppered with political cartoons. In it, he
summarizes several generations of scholarly thinking about the difficult task of governing swift
social and technological change. Yet the book ends with no more than a few pages of what he
wryly terms “half-hearted” proposals for the future, which amount to something very much
like the international system that has existed since 1945: nation-states would remain the
primary actors, linked by international networks of governance rather than strict hierarchies. If
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such familiar forms of politics can and should be made more enlightened, cosmopolitan, and
farsighted—and are to prevail over the vested interests the author rightly condemns—another
book must explain how.
30. Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times, By Jack Snyder
In this masterful work, Snyder offers a bold explanation for why, how, and when societies
make progress in expanding political rights and freedoms. Typically, the story of the rise and
spread of human rights has been told as a moral, legal, and ideo- logical struggle, centered on
the prom- ulgation of norms and treaties and the efforts of activist groups to name and shame
violators. Snyder’s contrarian claim is that the successes, failures, and setbacks of the rights
revolution are better explained by the forces of liberal modernity. Only when societies become
modern, with rising middle classes and democratic institutions, can systems of political rights
truly thrive. Surveying the ups and downs of the human rights movement over the last two
centuries, Snyder shows that breakthroughs have occurred primarily when large coalitions
emerge to push for expanded political rights as part of wider agendas of economic and social
reform. In modernizing societies, human rights are embraced not because of their intrinsic
ethical virtues or the dogged work of small groups of idealists, but because they serve the
interests of a country’s dominant political coalition. In the shift to a rights-based society,
according to Snyder, power and politics must come first, and rights will follow.
31. It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, By Senator Bernie Sanders and John
Nichols
It's OK to be angry about capitalism. It's OK to want something better. Bernie Sanders takes
on the 1% and speaks blunt truths about a system that is fuelled by uncontrolled greed, and
rigged against ordinary people. Where a handful of oligarchs have never had it so good, with
more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes, and the vast majority struggle to
survive. Where a decent standard of living for all seems like an impossible dream.
How can we accept an economic order that allows three billionaires to control more wealth
than the bottom half of our society? How can we accept a political system that allows the superrich to buy elections and politicians? How can we accept an energy system that rewards the
fossil fuel corporations causing the climate crisis? How can we let it happen any longer? We
must demand fundamental economic and political change. This is where the path forward
begins.
It's OK To Be Angry About Capitalism presents a vision of what would be possible if the
political revolution took place. If we would finally recognize that economic rights are human
rights, and work to create a society that provides them. This isn't some utopian fantasy; this is
democracy as we should know it. Is it really too much to ask?
32. End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, By
Peter Turchin
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“Peter Turchin brings science to history. Some like it and some prefer their history plain. But
everyone needs to pay attention to the well-informed, convincing and terrifying analysis in this
book.” —Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
From the pioneering co-founder of cliodynamics, the groundbreaking new interdisciplinary
science of history, a big-picture explanation for America's civil strife and its possible endgames
Peter Turchin, one of the most interesting social scientists of our age, has infused the study of
history with approaches and insights from other fields for more than a quarter century. End
Times is the culmination of his work to understand what causes political communities to cohere
and what causes them to fall apart, as applied to the current turmoil within the United States.
Back in 2010, when Nature magazine asked leading scientists to provide a ten-year forecast,
Turchin used his models to predict that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that
would lead to a breakdown in the political order circa 2020. The years since have proved his
prediction more and more accurate, and End Times reveals why.
The lessons of world history are clear, Turchin When the equilibrium between ruling elites and
the majority tips too far in favor of elites, political instability is all but inevitable. As income
inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the
common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied.
He calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved. And since the
number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads
to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established
order. Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked
in a death spiral it's very hard to exit.
In America, the wealth pump has been operating full blast for two generations. As cliodynamics
shows us, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the
path to violent political rupture. That is only one possible end time, and the choice is up to us,
but the hour grows late.
33. Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict between Russia and the West,
By Maximilian Hess
Vladimir Putin's first invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, set off a global economic clash, as the West
used its clout with international markets to deter and penalize the Kremlin. The battlelines of
this 'war by other means' traversed a series of deep economic connections, built up during
Russia's oil, gas and commodities global equity and capital markets, and transnational
kleptocracy. Maximilian Hess's startling book lifts the lid on Russia's response to Western
sanctions, and the ensuing skirmishes in London's courts, on Swiss trading desks and in
boardrooms in New Delhi. He explores how pipelines, mines, loans and crypto-markets were
weaponized. This narrative sets the stage for Putin's all-out assault on Kyiv in February 2022,
which turned financial, food and fuel markets into bona fide battlefields, bringing the fight into
everyone's home, from Pennsylvania to Pakistan. Rather than a 'new Cold War', we are
witnessing a conflict over finance, energy and capital markets. How such economic warfare
turns out will determine the future of liberalism and democracy; it will also set a precedent for
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economic relations between the West and China, as the two diverge into rival spheres of
influence and power.
34. “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and
Prosperity,” By Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson.
The bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail and the bestselling co-author of 13 Bankers
deliver a bold reinterpretation of economics and history that will fundamentally change how
you see the world
A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing clear: progress
depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and
communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for
widespread prosperity.
The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European
Middle Ages was captured by the nobility and used to build grand cathedrals, while peasants
remained on the edge of starvation. The first hundred years of industrialization in England
delivered stagnant incomes for working people. And throughout the world today, digital
technologies and artificial intelligence undermine jobs and democracy through excessive
automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Power and Progress demonstrates the path of technology was
once—and may again—be brought under control. Cutting-edge technological advances can
become empowering and democratizing tools, but not if all major decisions remain in the hands
of a few hubristic tech leaders.
With their bold reinterpretation of economics and history, Daron Acemoglu and Simon
Johnson fundamentally change how we see the world, providing the vision needed to redirect
innovation so it again benefits most people
35. “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology,” by Anu Bradford
“Digital empires” – the geopolitical entities that wield their influence and control in the digital
landscape – shape much of how we interact with the online world. Currently, the United States,
China, and the European Union are taking the lead, with their substantial investments in
technology, innovation, and digital infrastructure, and their efforts to shape and regulate the
digital economy.
In this week’s episode, Jeremy Shapiro welcomes Anu Bradford, author and Henry L. Moses
professor of law and international organization at Columbia University, to discuss her new
book “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology”. In it, she argues that the
global regulatory battle between the US, China, and the EU is intensifying, as they try to rein
in powerful tech companies while attempting to expand their influence in the digital world.
What role do the companies being regulated have to play? Do they have any agency in this
great regulatory game? What about the rest of the world’s digital influence?
36. “The Problem of Twelve: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything,”
by John Coates
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The forces behind an economic and political crisis in the making
A “problem of twelve” arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert
outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation.
The Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more
than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies—a concentration of power that’s
unprecedented in America. Then there’s the rise of private equity funds such as the Big Four
of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, which has amassed $2.7 trillion of assets, and are
eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism, not by controlling public
companies, but by taking them over entirely, and removing them from public discourse and
public scrutiny.
This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how
the American economy operates—a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need
to consider. Harvard law professor John Coates forcefully calls our attention to what is sure to
be one of the major political and economic issues of our time.
37. But What Can I Do?, By Alastair Campbell
'Your country needs you. Your world needs you. Your time is now.' Our politics is a mess.
Leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. Governments that lie, and seek to undermine
our democratic values. Policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise
that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, ' But what can I do? 'That question
is the inspiration behind this book. It's a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not
least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with Rory
Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the
side-lines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means
getting involved. But What Can I Do? provides each of us with the motivation and the tools to
make a difference. Opening with an acute analysis of our polarised world and the populists and
extremists who have created it, it goes on to show how we can effect change for the better. It
explains how we can develop our skills of advocacy and persuasion. It draws on Alastair's long
experience to offer practical tips on putting together and leading a campaign team. It provides
priceless advice on developing confidence and coping with criticism and setbacks. And it sets
out the practical steps by which we can become political players ourselves. Part call to arms,
part practical handbook, But What Can I Do? will prove required reading for anyone who wants
to make a difference.
38. The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it, By Liam Byrne
The super-rich have never had it so good. But millions of us can’t afford a home, an education
or a pension. And unless we change course soon, the future will be even worse. Much worse.
But things don’t have to be like this.
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In this bold new book, former Treasury Minister Liam Byrne explains why wealth inequality
has grown so fast in recent years; warns how it threatens our society, economy and politics;
shows where economics has got it wrong – and lays out a path back to common sense, with
five practical ways to rebuild an old ideal: the wealth-owning democracy.
Liam Byrne draws on conversations and debates with former prime ministers, presidents and
policymakers around the world, together with experts at the OECD, World Bank and IMF, to
argue that after twenty years of statistics and slogans it’s time for solutions that aren’t just
radical but plausible and achievable as well.
The future won’t be a land of milk and honey but it could be a place where we live longer,
happier, healthier and wealthier lives.
39. Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them,
By Ben Ansell
When it comes to politics, there are five goals that voters generally agree upon. We all want a
say in how we're governed, to be treated equally, a safety net when times are hard, protection
from harm and to be richer in the future. So, why does politics not deliver that?
The problem is each of these five goals results in a political trap. For example, we all want a
say in how we're governed, but it's impossible to have any true 'will of the people'. And we
want to be richer tomorrow, but what makes us richer in the short run makes us poorer over the
long haul.
In Why Politics Fails, award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell draws on examples from
Ancient Greece through Brexit to vividly illustrate how we can escape these traps, overcome
self-interest and deliver on our collective goals. Politics seems to be broken, but this book
shows how it can work for everyone.
40. How to be a Politician: 2,000 Years of Good (and Bad) Advice, By Vince Cable
'Always forgive your enemies - but never forget their names.' JFK
'What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever
find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics.' David
Lloyd George
'Unchallenged master of the self-inflicted wound.' Nicholas Soames on Boris Johnson, apropos
his switch to campaigning for Brexit.
Structured to follow the arc of a life in politics - from childhood aspirations and first attempts
at getting elected, to navigating the back benches, ascending the greasy pole, dealing with
detractors, facing crises, and finally escaping - this unique collection weaves together the
wittiest, wisest and most acerbic political quotations from the last 2,000 years. Punctuated
throughout by candid insights from Sir Vince Cable, How to Be a Politician is a timeless and
entertaining education in the dark arts of politics.
41. The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great
Renaissance, By Alex Jones
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In The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance,
the most persecuted man on Earth, Alex Jones, gives you the good news about the failing plans
of the globalists to control humanity.
The expression “Get woke, go broke” has entered the common lexicon as we’ve seen company
after company invoke the false gods of diversity, equity, and inclusion to their financial demise.
But this surface discussion masks a much darker truth. What we are witnessing is nothing less
than the failed plans of social Darwinists to capture free market capitalism and turn it toward
their fascist aims of controlling and depopulating the globe.
Working with New York Times bestselling author Kent Heckenlively, Jones masterfully gives
you the deeper discussion about such hot button topics as the truth behind the globalists plans
for artificial intelligence (AI), the central bank digital currency, social credit scores, Big Tech
tyranny, censorship, fifteen-minute cities, the unholy alliance between big business and big
government, the military-intelligence-industrial complex—which is hell-bent on eternal war—
and the all-out assault on free speech and the Second Amendment.
The good news is that these plans are destined to fail, if we wake up to the anti-human future
the globalists have planned for us. The globalists hate freedom, and what they hate the most is
the greatest freedom document in human history, the United States Constitution. Jones does
not shy away from the darker parts of American history—the way we have been systematically
deceived by the intelligence agencies since their assassination of President John F. Kennedy—
but he provides example after example of people who have broken free from the matrix of lies
to tell the truth.
The people the globalists fear the most are the members of their own systems of control, who
wake up and then decide to act against the machine. The globalists believe they’ve planned for
every possible contingency, but they hadn’t counted on the conscience and love of truth, which
lives in the souls of good people.
St. Augustine once wrote: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it
will defend itself.” No figure in our modern times has roared louder against the enemies of
freedom than Alex Jones. In the calm and dispassionate style that made his first book, The
Great Reset: And the War for the World, such a smash hit, Alex lays out the flaws in the plans
of the globalists and how they seek to create a world in direct opposition to God’s plans for our
glorious human future. But God consistently works His will in our world, even through
imperfect individuals like Donald Trump, Alex Jones, or you.
If you want to listen to one book this year to understand your world and help lead humanity to
the next great human renaissance, you need to order this book today.
42. A World Without Men: An Analysis of an All-Female Economy, By Aaron Clarey
"A World Without Men" is an analysis of what an all-female economy would look like. For 60
years, women have insisted they're "strong and independent." They "can do anything men can
do." And in what is likely their boldest claim, they "don't need men."
But is it true?
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For four generations men have been subjected to some pretty damning accusations. They're the
oppressors of women. Their misogyny is the sole cause of the much-hated wage gap. They are
guilty of the original sins of privilege and institutional sexism. And this says nothing about the
rank mockery and, often times, outright hatred men receive in the media, government, and our
schools. But perhaps the most damning accusation of them all is that men are no longer needed.
That they are now somehow obsolete. That men have no value to society, and therefore their
entire existence is ultimately pointless and irrelevant as they serve no purpose.
But as "The Sex War" approaches its 60th anniversary, and the intersexual screaming reaches
a fevered pitch, did anyone take the time to see if women's original claim was at all in any way
true? That women were NOT dependent on men? That women truly and factually did not need
them?
This book does precisely that.
Using data from the US Department of Labor (among many other resources), "A World
Without Men" recreates what an all-female economy and society would look like, and sees if
women could survive without men. With 97% of plumbers, 98% of electricians, and 96% of
mechanics gone, would the world of women, full of HR managers, elementary school teachers,
and essential oil saleswomen, be able to live without men?
Would the vast and intricate infrastructures society relies on today like our highway system,
satellites, sewer system, and electric grid continue operating flawlessly as they did before? And
what of innovation? Would women—finally "liberated from the shackles of men"—be able to
go and invent cold-fusion, a cure for cancer, or colonize Mars? After 60 years of hearing how
women are truly equals...yet are perennial victims... "A World Without Men" is a "put up or
shut up" analysis that is long over due about the efficacy of feminism and how serious women
are about achieving equality.
The real analysis, however, is not so much who's producing what, or what our society would
look like with only 3% of the farmers it has today. It's the tremendous economic and social
consequences that would result if you were to remove the entire male sex from society. Not so
much in a hypothetical situation, akin to a science fiction fantasy where the planet of
"Amazonia" is an all-female society. But in a very real scenario where you've actually told
generations of men they're not needed, passed laws to discriminate against them, demoralized
them through media and government, even going so far as to tell them they're hated.
Because whether you realize it or not, society is getting what it asked for. Feminists are getting
their dream come true. We are increasingly living in a "World Without Men." And it is a
fascinating world indeed.
43. Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, By Kohei Saito
Japanese philosopher Kohei Saito has become a kind of Marxist celebrity in recent years, and
his surprise international bestseller has now been translated into English. In Slow Down, Saiti
advocates for degrowth—an increasingly popular movement to shrink global economies—as
the only way to solve global inequality and the climate crisis.
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44. Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, By Ingrid Robeyns
In this manifesto, Ingrid Robeyns, the Dutch and Belgian philosopher who coined the term
“limitarianism,” makes a political, economic, and moral argument for the need to reimagine
global economic systems and cap extreme wealth.
45. The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War, By Jim
Sciutto
According to Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security correspondent, the world has returned
to a “1939 moment.” His new book draws on interviews with global leaders and years of
international reporting to paint a portrait of our “post-post-Cold War era” defined by greatpower conflict.
46. How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain, By Peter
S. Goodman
Recent years have exposed the precarity of global supply chains. In his new book, Peter S.
Goodman, the New York Times’s global economics correspondent, takes readers inside this
system, analyzes the factors that made it so fragile, and argues that it is overdue for reform.
47. Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World, By Parmy
Olson
Parmy Olson, a technology columnist for Bloomberg, dives into the rivalry between the
world’s two major artificial intelligence labs and their CEOs—Sam Altman of OpenAI and
Demis Hassabis of DeepMind—as well as the threats posed by their creations.
48. Six Faces Of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, And Why It Matters, By
Anthea Roberts
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A Fortune Best Book of the Year A ProMarket Best
Political Economy Book of the Year An essential guide to the intractable public debates about
the virtues and vices of economic globalization, cutting through the complexity to reveal the
fault lines that divide us and the points of agreement that might bring us together. Globalization
has lifted millions out of poverty. Globalization is a weapon the rich use to exploit the poor.
Globalization builds bridges across national boundaries. Globalization fuels the populism and
great-power competition that is tearing the world apart. When it comes to the politics of free
trade and open borders, the camps are dug in, producing a kaleidoscope of claims and
counterclaims, unlikely alliances, and unexpected foes. But what exactly are we fighting about?
And how might we approach these issues more productively? Anthea Roberts and Nicolas
Lamp cut through the confusion with an indispensable survey of the interests, logics, and
ideologies driving these intractable debates, which lie at the heart of so much political dispute
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and decision making. The authors expertly guide us through six competing narratives about the
virtues and vices of globalization: the old establishment view that globalization benefits
everyone (win-win), the pessimistic belief that it threatens us all with pandemics and climate
change (lose-lose), along with various rival accounts that focus on specific winners and losers,
from China to America’s Rust Belt. Instead of picking sides, Six Faces of Globalization gives
all these positions their due, showing how each deploys sophisticated arguments and
compelling evidence. Both globalization’s boosters and detractors will come away with their
eyes opened. By isolating the fundamental value conflicts-growth versus sustainability,
efficiency versus social stability-driving disagreement and showing where rival narratives
converge, Roberts and Lamp provide a holistic framework for understanding current debates.
In doing so, they showcase a more integrative way of thinking about complex problems.
49. Social Justice Fallacies, By Thomas Sowell
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different
people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present
the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree
on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice
Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to
documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed. However attractive
the social justice vision, the crucial question is whether the social justice agenda will get us to
the fulfillment of that vision. History shows that the social justice agenda has often led in the
opposite direction, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. More things are involved
besides simply mistakes. All human beings are fallible, and social justice advocates may not
necessarily make any more mistakes than others. But crusaders with an utter certainty about
their mission are often undeterred by obstacles, evidence or even fatal dangers. That is where
much of the Western world is today. The question is whether we will continue on heedlessly,
past the point of no return.
50. Why We Fight: The Roots Of War And The Paths To Peace, By Christopher
Blattman
Why do human beings fight one another? In this exhilarating and bracing book, we learn the
common logic driving vainglorious monarchs, dictators, mobs, pilots, football hooligans,
ancient peoples and fanatics. Distilling decades of economics, political science, psychology
and real-world interventions, and through his time studying Columbia, Chicago, Liberia and
Northern Ireland, Christopher Blattman lifts the lid on the underlying forces governing war and
peace. Why did Russia attack Ukraine? Will China invade Taiwan and launch WWIII? And
what can any of us do about it? Captivating and intelligent Tim Harford Wise, intriguing,
imaginative Rory Stewart Nothing could be more relevant today than war and peace . . . an
outstanding and original book on this topic Martin Wolf, Financial Times Important, readable,
radical David Miliband A great storyteller with important insights for us all Richard Thaler,
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co-author of Nudge Essential for understanding the world we live in today James A. Robinson,
co-author of Why Nations Fail