A new perspective on Lenin suggests that the power shift to the Politburo originated not with Stalin but because it was often more expedient for ministers to go direct to the Politburo for a speedy decision rather than grappling with Sovnarkom bureaucracy
Are we really living in a multiverse?; the concept of race in the Middle Ages; the new Bollygarchs; the essential role of the humanities in complementing the sciences; and the reinvention of the Left
Cat Zero, a novel by Jennifer Rohn, an infectious disease researcher, shines light on the backbiting and tensions of lab life as an unlikely team of scientists work to save the cats of Kent from a mysterious virus
Book of the week: the lonely and anxious men devising and sharing pick-up techniques misidentify women as the root of their problems, writes Katherine Angel
In Randomistas, Andrew Leigh, a former professor of economics turned MP, channels his inner nerd to pen a ode to the joys of randomised trials, finds Matthew Reisz
A critique of the political class; overcoming groupthink; the father of fractal geometry; the golden age of American teen car culture and a theory of cultural evolutionary psychology