As a veteran aid worker of crisis zones around the world, Conor Foley writes vividly about the way humanitarianism has become a multibillion-dollar industry that

is increasingly entwined with the political aims of western governments. Working in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2004, Foley found that he and his colleagues were “objectively indistinguishable” from the international military forces in seeking to promote law and human rights and weaken the warlords [...]

In this sharp book, Wired journalist Jeff Howe shows how companies are using the internet to “crowdsource” new ideas from people beyond their own staff. Howe defines “crowdsourcing” as an “immense talent-finding mechanism”, a new outlook that presumes anyone can be creative, the antithesis of last century’s assembly-line mentality.

Proctor and Gamble, for example, posts research problems on the InnoCentive website, which runs them past [...]

In Hackney, Polish migrants used one as overnight accommodation, in Paris they are free of charge, while in China they have no doors. “To be uninterested in the public toilet is to be uninterested in life,” suggests Rose George in her righteously indiscreet and humane exploration of the global politics of human defecation. Embarrassed while using the doorless communal toilets of Sichuan, George explains that the desire for privacy is [...]

The struggle between America and China to secure oil, and other increasingly scarce resources, will dominate this century, potentially fuelling a cold war that could erupt into “unimaginable slaughter”. This nightmare is conjured by the American security studies academic Michael Klare in his illuminating account of the emergence of a new international order in which nations are ranked according to access to energy rather than arms.

Oil is becoming the [...]

Known as "the tractor" for his brutality, the Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano had been on the run for more than 40 years when he was arrested in 2006 in a shepherd's hut. In this perceptive book, Clare Longrigg traces Provenzano's rise from stealing barrels of pecorino cheese in Corleone in the 1950s to the top of Cosa Nostra and its shadowy network of businesses.

The police chief who finally [...]

According to the author, recent US history – in particular the country's status as the world's only superpower – has fired a revival of the Roman empire in the American imagination, in which "Rome serves as either a grim cautionary tale or an inspirational call to action". In answer to his question "Are we Rome?", Murphy contends that both Rome and America are the most powerful actors in their respective [...]

From acupuncture to zero balancing, via homoeopathy and urine therapy, this provocative book is a fierce attack on the “epidemic” of alternative medicine, now used by one in three of us. The author, a “fact-favouring sceptic”, argues that this huge business is duping us, because there is no evidence that alternative medicine works, and it sometimes puts health at risk.

Shapiro argues that cancer brings together “the most duplicitous and [...]

Since Fairtrade’s humble beginnings 20 years ago, demand for its products has rocketed. It is estimated that nearly half a billion pounds was spent on such goods in the UK last year. Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, relates the movement’s history.

Although her prose can be a touch bland, Lamb tells a stirring story of a burgeoning “global family”, tenaciously pushing big business to trade more fairly [...]

Aiming to counter our obsession with scare stories, the authors have conducted a reality check on the “endless catalogue of disasters that are supposed to await us”. These include the emergence of killer stress levels, uncontrollable nanotechnology and death from dangerous art objects.

While the media and the public have always loved calamitous copy, the authors argue that our ability to assess risk is now being impaired by modern life [...]

This punchy book is about the numbers that saturate news reporting and political debate, and the way they can bamboozle us. The broadcaster Michael Blastland and the economist Andrew Dilnot debunk dozens of examples of statistical bunkum, aiming to empower us to decipher “today’s pre-eminent public language”.

Take the 2005 headline: “1 in 4 teen boys is a criminal.” The authors show how counting something means defining it, squeezing untidy [...]