The banality of Vladimir Putin
A new biography of the Russian president details the extraordinary rise of an unremarkable man who learned how to exercise…
ByPolitics books
Find the New Statesman’s latest politics book reviews and our curated lists featuring the best writing on politics.
Reviewed in short: New books from Sophie Pavelle, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor, Ana Kinsella and Gerald Murnane
Forget Me Not by Pavelle, The Silver Waterfall by Simms and McGregor, Look Here by Kinsella and Last Letter to…
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Volodymyr Zelensky behind the mask
Serhii Rudenko’s biography is a portrait of a wartime hero whose troubled past may return to haunt him.
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How the empire degraded Britain
Three new histories reveal the corrosive effects of colonialism and slavery on today’s British politics.
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The Death of Consensus: the recurring nightmares of British politics
From strikes to Brexit, a new book by the BBC producer Phil Tinline explores how the UK has been shaped…
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Henry Kissinger’s whitewashing of Richard Nixon
The American diplomat’s new book, Leadership, is undermined by his self-serving portrait of his thuggish former boss.
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How nostalgia fuels the culture wars
In her new book Rule, Nostalgia, Hannah Rose Woods explores how illusory and contested golden ages have haunted Britain since…
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Zero: Jeremy Hunt’s book on the NHS is well intentioned – but misses 90 per cent of the story
Candid on short-staffing and underfunding, ministerial memoir Zero omits the healthcare that happens in the community.
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How Sergei Magnitsky paid with his life for exposing Vladimir Putin’s financial corruption
A new book by Bill Browder reveals the bravery of a young lawyer who uncovered a £185m state-sponsored tax fraud.
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The strange allure of the strongman leader
Authoritarians and autocrats continue to flourish despite a long parade of inadequacy. Can liberal democracy strike back?
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Trouble in the House of Windsor
New works by the journalists Tina Brown and Robert Hardman question whether the monarchy can survive without radical reform.
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The born-to-rule Oxford Tories
Simon Kuper’s book Chums tells the story of how one university taught the core of today’s Brexit government how to…
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What the Nazis did next
Danny Orbach’s intriguing book Fugitives details how former Third Reich officers sold their services to the West – and turned…
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Literature under Xi Jinping
Chinese fiction is booming, but authors cannot escape the regime’s tightening grip.
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How Global Britain props up Putin’s gangster state
Oliver Bullough’s Butler to the World shows how the UK’s enthusiasm for deregulation has made it a global haven for…
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Andrea Elliott’s story of American poverty is non-fiction writing at its best
Invisible Child follows Dasani Coates and her family in New York as they battle a racist system that is rigged…
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How Nigel Farage became king of the trolls
From his Dulwich days to the EU referendum, the man who made Brexit has always been a lone provocateur.
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What to read in 2022: non-fiction
From politics and science to history and pop, the essential books for the year ahead.
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The New Statesman’s best books of 2021
The year’s essential reading in 20 titles.
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Paul Kagame: the hidden dictator
How Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime wooed the global elite.
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