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Who is Charlie? Xenophobia and the New Middle Class

Emmanuel Todd, translated by Andrew Brown

‘Todd can be perceptive and chilling … He already has form as a forecaster: in the 1970s he explained why the Soviet bloc was about to crumble, and went on to argue at the turn of the century that Europe’s future lay beyond Nato expansionism in a rapprochement with Russia. In Who is Charlie? he gives us glimpses of a benighted France, caught between anti-Arab sentiment and anti-Semitism, with large parts of the population inclined to both.’London Review of Books, vol. 38, no.2., 21st January 2016September 2015 http://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509505777

The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power

Alex de Waal

“Alex de Waal reaches back into his years of personal involvement in the Horn of Africa… a sobering counterpart to the ‘Africa rising discourse”

A Stranger in My Own Country

Hans Fallada

‘This is certainly a revelatory book. As its author intended, it reveals much about the pernicious nature of Nazi rule during the Third Reich; the compromises demanded, the tribulations endured, the lives ruined. At one point Fallada laments: “Oh, how they bled us dry! How they robbed us of every joy and happiness, every smile, every friendship! Yet it also reveals something that its author did not intend, and that is Fallada’s own deeply flawed character.’

The Cunning of Uncertainty

‘I cannot think of a discipline in which it would not be relevant, drawing as it does on fields as diverse as corporate finance, bioethics and archaeology, sending me into places that I never usually go and challenging all my preconceptions …. The Cunning of Uncertainty also offers an extremely useful grounding in the global context and history of research and development as we now know it in universities, encouraging reflection on the research contracts held between researchers and their funding bodies. Informed, eloquent and compelling, it will certainly go on my reading lists.’

Unmade in China

Jeremy R. Haft

“Unmade in China provides a refreshingly different viewpoint on China’s economic miracle. Haft spent two decades building companies in China, and he clearly knows his stuff. The content is well-researched and run long at a terrific pace. While the book has a US focus, there is relevance across nations. Ultimately, Haft succeeds in challenging the conventional wisdom of China’s economic supremacy. When China’s president Xi Jinping came to the UK recently, Downing Street tried to spin the visit as reflecting an exciting new era of mutual trade. If Haft is right, maybe that line wasn’t so far from the truth after all.”