The problem with smart thinking
We can’t all be philosophers, but a whole genre of bad books will try to make you one.
ByBook reviews
Read all the latest book reviews from the New Statesman and discover the best novels, non-fiction, essays and biographies. If you’re looking for something more specific, explore our sections dedicated to politics books and history books.
Making a murderer
Mark O’Connell’s portrait of a notorious Irish killer becomes a study of the desire to turn reality into fiction.
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Trapped in the generation gap
Jean Twenge’s new study suggests that the young are the losers in a society transformed by technology.
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Caroline Calloway’s Scammer: a chaotic attempt to set the record straight
In her self-published memoir, the influencer veers between sharp wit and trite aphorisms, perceptive candour and petty insults.
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Britain’s race delusion
Tomiwa Owolade argues that American culture wars obscure black British identity – but are racial borders less fixed than he…
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The family doctor knows best
A sweeping history of the NHS and one GP’s inside account of a long career on the front line.
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Cormac McCarthy’s existential Westerns
In his career-defining Border Trilogy, the late novelist summoned the ghosts of America’s bloody history.
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Too big to blame: the great Libor cover-up
Andy Verity’s Rigged reveals how a few City bankers became scapegoats for a national rates-rigging scandal.
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Losing the Wager
In his gripping new book, David Grann reveals the imperial rivalry and hubris that lay behind an 18th-century mutiny.
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Peter Turchin’s empty prophecies
The social scientist has made a career from predicting global instability. But in the new book End Times, his analysis…
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The new age of perfectionism
Is capitalism itself causing millennial burnout?
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From Jacqueline Rose to Kira Yarmysh: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Encounterism by Andy Field and Art Firsts by Nick Trend.
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How to survive a nuclear holocaust
A luxury hotel protects the affluent in Sven Holm’s Termush, a rediscovered 1967 dystopia that sheds light on our own…
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How germs shape history
Jonathan Kennedy’s Pathogenesis reveals how diseases have built and broken empires and economies.
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From the war in Ukraine to the life of Roger Deakin: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Anna Metcalfe’s Chrysalis and Octavia Bright’s This Ragged Grace.
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The science of fandom
What communities devoted to hero-worship tell us about the psychology of belonging.
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The meaning of Essex
Built for commuters, the county created a brash new consumerist identity. But its success has come at a price.
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An insider’s tale of Tory chaos
Whips, a parliamentary romp by the former No 10 adviser Cleo Watson, is fact barely disguised as fiction.
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From Guy Gunaratne to the science of allergies: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring M John Harrison's Wish I Was Here and Jonathan Miles on the French Riviera.
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Britain’s care deficit
By relegating the elderly and sick to the margins of life, we ignore the fact that one day we will…
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