The war in Ukraine is the latest manifestation of a mindset that has been decades, if not centuries, in the making. Three books debunk the myths that Russia tells itself
From the inspection towers of 19th-century factories to the data architecture of Amazon warehouses, Henry Snow casts those who surveil workers as capitalism’s villains
From British declinism to Antony Beevor on Rasputin and a Chinese factory memoir. Plus fiction by Elizabeth Strout — and Boyd Tonkin on Marilyn Monroe and the power of reading
Historian Thomas W Laqueur’s copiously illustrated book explores why dogs have long been an integral feature of the artistic world
Reading for both pleasure and betterment endures — even if unquestioning faith in literary canons and critical authority is gone
Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz’s ingenious, scathing survey of forecasting takes a well-timed swipe at today’s obsession with predictive algorithms
Anna Thomasson mixes biography with photographic analysis to explore the tangled relationships of Picasso, Lee Miller and their circle in the summer of 1937
Three new books portray a land caught in a muddle and beset by inequalities. A familiar story or is it time for a reset?
The peasant who became a powerful adviser was a symptom, not the cause, of the Romanovs’ downfall, argues the ‘Stalingrad’ author
Xiao Hai tells a story of shattered dreams and the grim reality of conditions inside China’s manufacturing sector
A gripping and authoritative global history of the plague that killed more than 100mn people in the 14th century
The biographer of Keynes straddled disciplines and political parties in a lengthy and often controversial career
A vivid portrait of the civil conflict of the 1940s and 1950s — and how it opened the way for the armed groups that still control parts of the country
Jonathan Cheng’s rigorous, revealing history traces the dynasty’s founding myths — and what they mean for the country’s place in the world today
A journalist lifts the lid on how the Johnson family battled to keep control of the asset manager in a history packed with luminaries of finance
The acclaimed historian’s eye-opening guide to the ancient world reminds Martin Wolf why classics are as relevant as ever
Doctors, dairy farmers, failed novelists — how authors’ fictional selves take on an identity all their own, distinct from their creators
Madeleine Pelling’s vivid history of imposters across the 18th century explores the boundaries between reason and unreason
Daniel Hahn’s chatty, cheerful book explores the challenges — and pitfalls — of matching the bard’s linguistic virtuosity whether in Thai or Tamil
As the UK bill flounders in the House of Lords, the philosopher makes an impassioned case opposing a change to the law
An enthusiastic biography of New York art duo Peter Hujar and Paul Thek adds to their growing reputation four decades after their death
In a hybrid of fiction and essay, Jean-Noël Orengo explores how Albert Speer charmed Hitler and then laundered his own postwar reputation
Vivienne Ming argues for a change in how we prepare the young for a near-future dominated and ‘deprofessionalised’ by AI
Beth Gardiner’s angry, well-researched book investigates a profit-driven industry and the environmental debts it imposes on generations
Noam Scheiber documents the debt-laden graduates stuck in low-status jobs who are sparking a new wave of labour protest
