The vagus nerve industry
Can a small and unassuming bundle of fibres really be the key to better health and a longer life?
ByNon-fiction
Discover the latest non-fiction books and must-reads with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. Including biographies, music books, political writing and more.
America’s broken commonwealth
The nation’s founding myth was based on faith and solidarity – but it also contained the roots of today’s democratic…
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Gertrude Stein’s quest for fame
The modernist phenomenon believed bad attention was better than none at all.
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The birth trauma taboo
Theo Clarke’s book paints a damning picture of Britain’s failing maternity services. Change cannot come soon enough.
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Britain’s small boats obsession
Overcrowded dinghies used for desperate, dangerous crossings have become totemic in our toxic immigration conversation.
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How the world stopped Hitler
The Second World War was not just won on the battlefield, but in seemingly marginal regions from Ireland to Iraq.
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The sounds that shape us
Alice Vincent’s Hark asks why gender, age and parenthood change the way we listen.
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Joe Dunthorne’s lessons in chemistry
The novelist thought his great-grandfather’s memoir would be a story to be proud of. He found something else.
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Fear and loathing in Liverpool
Why a “left-wing city” can still host a race riot.
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Jensen Huang: the man who powers AI
The entrepreneur’s microchip company Nvidia has fuelled a tech revolution, but his success is built on failure and suffering.
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Inside the ugly world of Facebook
In Careless People, former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams reveals the callousness at the heart of the company.
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Capitalism (Taylor’s Version)
Swift is a self-made billionaire and the most profitable live musician in history. What can her ascendance teach us?
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A Northumbrian pilgrimage
A poet’s journey through the north-east reveals our universal desire to belong to a place we call home.
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The murder that shocked the Edwardians
The case of Dr Crippen contains a story of multiple on-the-make lives as well as gruesome death.
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The Yoko Ono problem
As David Sheff’s new biography reveals, decades of suspicion aimed at the provocative artist, musician and widow have obscured her…
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The cyclical history of abortion rights
The past has been marked by periods of acceptance and intolerance of women’s bodily autonomy. Can it offer lessons for…
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Why you can’t trust economists
Dispassionate discussions of financial markets are often political statements in disguise.
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The Beatles’ brilliant friendship
The Paul McCartney-John Lennon bond is a great story of boys and men, class and fame, love and jealousy
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How not to build a nation
Britain and the US lack the political will and legal means to innovate.
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Our overdiagnosis epidemic
How a marked rise in the treatment of certain conditions – physical and mental – is harming, not protecting, public…
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