Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Populism and reaction
Despite the supposed threat to democracy from populism, the anti-populist reaction is worse…
Populism and EU reaction
2 April 2018
This book argues that despite the supposed threat to democracy from populist movements, the anti-populist reaction is worse; a reactionary viewpoint characterising populist movements as xenophobic, anti-democratic and totalitarian.
Positive thinking
At last, an optimistic book setting out how Brexit can make life better for Britain…
Diary of a nobody
With Britain’s independence movement facing new challenges, a fresh book looks how to fight, and win…
A new vision needed
19 December 2017
This report from IPPR gives a good, detailed analysis of our situation. It rightly suggests we need a new economic approach, but says too little about what must be done to put things right.
Brexit: how the Nobodies beat the Somebodies
11 December 2017
This slim but jewel-packed volume that sets out to explain how Britain voted to leave the EU – as seen by a relatively isolated campaigner in one of Britain’s most Remain-friendly cities, Brighton.
Safer out than in?
23 November 2017
Veterans for Britain has produced an extremely useful free pamphlet showing that leaving the EU will have little if any impact on Britain's national security or counter-terrorism capabilities.
What has the EU ever done for us?
6 November 2017
A new book looks at the key ways the EU has changed Britain - and it's not good.
How crashes happen
There’s only one way to avoid financial crashes: break the power of finance capitalism…
Dunkirk: the film and the book
16 October 2017
Christopher Nolan’s film Dunkirk, is an evocative but unusual portrayal of the evacuation of the British and French armies from the French port in June 1940. Joshua Levine’s fascinating book gives a more complete picture of why Dunkirk is of such singular importance.
Say goodbye to EU law...and no to EU liability
2 October 2017
There is no credible argument for the UK to pay for the EU pension fund deficit or the EU’s ongoing programmes after Brexit according to a new pamphlet.
Downward spiral
With 20:20 hindsight, a former chairman of the Financial Services Authority looks at debt…and the EU
Take back our fish!
Brexit means we are no longer beholden to the EU. As far as fisheries are concerned, we are now in charge.
Keep it clean
As negotiations on Brexit begin, a new pamphlet cuts through the hard/soft waffle that dominates the media…
The long shadow of war
A journalist looks at the consequences – throughout the Middle East – of the 2003 invasion of Iraq…
Why the euro was bound to fail
Economic journalists Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson explain why the EU is failing: because the single currency was not a progressive project and never could be.
Panama - the offshore scandal exposed
Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer work for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. In early 2015 Obermayer received a message, “Hello. This is John Doe. Interested in data?” This book is the story of what happened next.
Brexit stories: threats and contradictions
24 October 2016
This account of the Remain campaign by David Cameron’s PR man opens up a fascinating insight into its fundamental contradictions.
A different game
18 September 2016
Dave Roberts celebrates the real ethic of British football in a new book, Home & Away, through a grand tour of Britain with a collective of working class non-league supporters.
No case for war
The Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war finally reported in July. The evidence itself speaks volumes…
A scrapbook of the civil war in Spain
This issue we review two books that look back on the Spanish Civil War, and one on a more modern conflict – the dirty war that the CIA has been waging in Syria…
Their profit, our loss
This issue we review two books which show clearly where the wealth that workers create is going…
A strike worth remembering
26 February 2016
The historian and novelist John Tully tells the story of a forgotten strike of 1889. This book brings the struggle of those workers back to life and gives an insight into how our class developed into an organised labour movement.
Concorde: engineering marvel
13 February 2016
Concorde was a great British engineering achievement. This book tells the story and explains the significance of Concorde for British engineering against the backgound of industrial decline.
Capitalism: leading to an early grave
23 November 2015
A book by eminent researcher Sir Michael Marmot shows that people at relative social disadvantage suffer worse health and live shorter lives and gives evidence about how that can be prevented.
The USA: a force bad for the world
23 November 2015
The WikiLeaks files of US State Department cables reveal how the US government operates in world affairs. This book provides a thorough analysis of the different ways the US government keeps its power.
The rape of Africa
This study by investigative journalist Tom Burgis about the systematic looting of Africa’s riches gives us case studies of the theft of Africa’s resources. It covers Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Guinea, Niger, Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Not a real change
25 August 2015
This book by Christian Felber, an economist and university lecturer in Austria, outlines an “alternative” to the economic chaos and social suffering caused by financial capital. Some of his ideas are utopian; but there’s also stimulating thought about how to mitigate capitalism’s callousness.