POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS LATE SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM TEACHING STAFF 2020

Staff member Book Title and Author Comments nominating the book Nida Alahmad Princesses’ Street Memoirs of a leading Arabic cultural figure (a novelist, poet, painter, and critic) as he moved from Jabra Ibrahim Jabra Jerusalem to Baghdad post WWII. His journey in the culturally cosmopolitan and vibrant city as a young and talented man helps us see the Middle East and its people through a prism that is often neglected. Memory for Written in Beirut while under Israeli siege in 1982, Darwish wrote this prose poems to reflect on Forgetfulness: August, memory, exile, history, and the role of the writer in war time. A beautifully written documentation of Beirut, 1982 a critical historical episode by one of the most influential figures in modern Arabic poetry. Mahmoud Darwish Jamie Allinson Aleppo, The Rise People know of Aleppo know as a site of ruins and war, but this history lovingly traces the oldest and Fall of Syria’s continuously inhabited urban society in the world, and its template for cosmopolitan civilization. Merchant City Philip Mansel

The Queue A dystopian speculative - or not so speculative - fiction set in an alternative Cairo where an all- Basma Abdel Aziz powerful state tries to erase all memory of the “Disgraceful Events” of a failed revolution.

Andrea Birdsall The Help Provides a quick read about life as a maid in the segregated South at the cusp of the civil rights Kathryn Stockett revolution. Elizabeth Bomberg Freedom This epic novel explores the relationship between humans and environment, the dilemmas of political Jonathan Franzen radicalism, and the place of individual freedom in modern society. Philip Cook Under Western Eyes Russian politics, political philosophy, terrorism, revolution, political resistance, personal identity, Joseph Conrad family, and love, it’s a great political novel.

Sara Dorman Born A Crime: Stories This captures some of the complexities of life in a post-colonial state. Written by the Daily Show star, from a South African it is as entertaining as it is enlightening. Childhood Trevor Noah Claire Duncanson Invisible Women: Entertaining and informative look at the discriminatory consequences of men being treated Exposing Data Bias in a as the default and women as atypical. Full of shocking statistics that will trouble any thoughts World Designed for that there's no longer a need for feminism. Men Caroline Criado Perez (Chatto) This is not a drill, Hard-hitting but necessary jolt to the system, including interesting reflections on what works an extinction rebellion and what doesn't in political campaigning handbook The Uninhabitable Another good recent book on climate breakdown, by the deputy editor of New York magazine. Earth: A Story of the Future David Wallace-Wells (Allen Lane) Darrick Evensen A Sand County A beautifully-written reflection on one man’s personal journey to understand his relationship with the Almanac natural world, which has strongly influenced social movements related to conservation and Aldo Leopold environmentalism. The political implications of this text are manifest in US policy and regulatory agency practice. Silent Spring Both a piece of research and a political campaign, this poetic and moving text stirs the reader’s Rachel Carson emotions to oppose pesticide use, as practiced in the United States in the 1960s. It is a key piece of writing that instigated the modern environmental movement globally and political action on environmental issues. Andy Hom Imperial Life in the You've grown up in the era of Forever War, and you've every right to be mad as hell! Emerald City Rajiv Chandrashekeran The Looming Tower Al Qaeda as farce, then tragedy

Lawrence Wright

Command and Control Nuclear disasters and near misses, for another year at 2 minutes to midnight Eric Schlosser Iain Hardie Globalization and its Clear explanation of why we shouldn't see economic globalization as an unalloyed positive. The Discontents impact is heavily influenced by how states manage their interaction with the global economy. Stiglitz's Joseph Stiglitz views are often controversial, but they will always get you thinking. The Manibles A novel with (hopefully) an extreme view, but if you want to appreciate the importance of confidence Lionel Shriver in money to a modern economy, and especially the importance for the US of the world's confidence in the dollar, this is an entertaining place to start. Juliet Kaarbo The Handmaid’s Tale A dystopian novel dealing with gender and politics, theocracy and religion, and political totalitarian Margaret Atwood power over thought and action. Don’t just watch the series! Snow- A novel with themes on the complicated clash of religious and secular in modern Turkey. Orhan Pamuk Head of State A work of murder fiction on a possible Brexit referendum, written before the Brexit referendum. Andrew Marr

Meryl Kenny Eat Sweat Play: How A fascinating and engaging manifesto for sporting equality that evaluates sport’s role in gender Sport Can Change Our politics – covering everything from school PE, to body dysmorphia, to parenthood and the gender pay Lives gap. Must read during Women’s Euro 2017 especially! Anna Kessel A Woman’s Work Not really a classic autobiography from Labour’s longest continuously serving female MP, but rather Harriet Harman an evaluation of the progress (and setbacks) made on gender equality within the Labour Party (and UK politics) over the last thirty years from Harman’s perspective. A welcome addition to the genre of political memoir that puts women’s lived experiences at its centre. Luke March All the President’s It’s a light-hearted and witty interrogation of some of the main movers and shakers in Vladimir Putin’s Men Kremlin, from the perspective of a Moscow insider. It’s not necessarily the deepest account, but is Mikhail Zygar one of the few that uses interview sources to scratch beneath the surface and bust a few of the myths pervading Russia (not least that the Russian authorities are all-seeing and all-knowing).

Mihaela Mihai The Way of the An allegory of apartheid told through the prism of a life-long relationship between two women, Women one Afrikaner and the other black South African. Very powerful in its take on gender, racialisation and Marlene van Niekerk colonialism. The Feast of the Goat A thriller that offers a multi-perspectival view on political dictatorship and the costs of resisting it. Mario Vargas Llosa Nicola Perugini Footnotes in Gaza A journalistic graphic novel about two bloody incidents during the 1956 Suez Crisis. Joe Sacco The Skin Curzio Malaparte Charles Raab We Published in 1924, We is a great dystopian futuristic novel that bears comparison with the better- Evgeny Zamyatins known Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Charlotte Factory Girls: From This book will give you a vivid and fascinating depiction of the lives of young migrant workers in Rommerskirchen Village to City in a southern China. A brilliant account from the coalface of globalisation. Changing China Leslie T. Chang Mathias Thaler The Sellout The Sellout deals with the continued legacy of slavery in US society, albeit from radically different Paul Beatty perspectives – this one bleakly satirical The Underground Like The Sellout, Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad deals with the continued legacy of slavery Railroad Colson in US society, albeit from radically different perspective – this one radically (Afro)pessimist. Whitehead Patrick Theiner Range - How Love the argument, very readable. Should be required reading for anxious social science grads generalists triumph in struggling to find 'their thing'. a specialized world David Epstein The Transformation of Part masterpiece, part monster-piece with over 1000 pages and 3000 bibliography entries! Best the World - A Global enjoyed in smaller doses, but amazing in scope and depth. Truly global. History of the 19th Century Jürgen Osterhammel

The Golden Fascinating period in a region most don't know enough about. Neither were the Middle Ages 'dark' in Rhinoceros - Histories Africa, nor can its history be defined by its relationship with Europe. Lovely read. of the African Middle Ages Francois-Xavier Fauvelle Andy Thompson Video/Podcast from Here he reflects on how we should reimagine Europe: George Papandreou, https://www.ted.com/talks/george_papandreou_imagine_a_european_democracy_without_borders. Prime Minister of Greece during the recent economic crisis.

Some staff go back to works of classic political fiction you may have read in school. Even so, worth a re-read

Andrea Birdsall To Kill a Mockingbird Even if you’ve studied this book before, re-read this classic story on civil rights and race relations. It is Harper Lee still relevant today. Andrew Neal The Quiet American Recommended for its warning about the human cost of political ideas. Graham Greene Oliver Turner 1984 1984 is perpetually relevant to the study of politics. It is a story about power, morality and the George Orwell manipulation of truth about the world by those in positions of authority. “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”