Books

Marcus Chown praises a study full of humour and enthusiasm that journeys to the far frontier of the known

Joanna Williams on the rules for classroom confrontations that can build inclusiveness

Aniko Horvath on the disconnect between data and policymaking decisions that allows foreign learners to be framed as the ‘other’

Go with Alice and Bob to visit mysterious objects that also come in white, says Cait MacPhee

Rewriting the rules of journalism; pondering ways of thinking; competing with capitalism; marginalised scientists; and a history of jealousy

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: No longer young, not yet old, the middle-aged academic sees the world askew, says Joe Moran

Rich and strange, detective tales of the 1920s and 1930s are worth unearthing, says Leo Mellor

Ulrike Zitzlsperger on an engaging account of the city’s attraction and what it tells us about society and politics

The ‘welfare queen’ myth and business’ power is crushing American families, says Lynne Segal

Emma Rees on a study of refugees’ remarkable transnational journeys in our post-Brexit, Trumpian world

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

The business world is plagued by bullshit on an industrial scale, but André Spicer wants to help workers escape from its corrosive effects and rediscover meaning

Book of the week: Communism around the world was shaped by its opportunistic leaders, finds Yvonne Howell

A study of far-right fringe groups in Italy is too forgiving and uncritical, says R. J. B. Bosworth

Matthew Feldman praises a sharp and clear-sighted examination of the new extreme forms of right-wing politics in the US

The scholar of East European studies and author of Red Hangover on reading for escape, quoting Lenin at the Model United Nations and understanding everyday life ‘behind the Iron Curtain’

An unsettling study of patients in comas reveals that consciousness endures, says Shane O’Mara

A provocative study into a controversial subject is let down by a dense, academic style, says Deborah D. Rogers

Book of the week: Elizabeth Cobbs praises a history that argues persuasively against US exceptionalism

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Many immigrants in Renaissance times were not slaves but professionals, learns Lucy Wooding

Robert Eaglestone praises an absorbing account of eminent scientist Michael Danos’ life that straddles biography and history

Is there anything new in technological advantage adding to sporting prowess, asks Lincoln Allison

Looking outward may give us a better understanding of the progression of life and the inevitability of natural selection, says Tiffany Taylor

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: Richard Joyner on how insomnia damages our well-being – and how to get a good night’s rest

The key players behind game theory; human rights; the microbial life on your kitchen counter; the beauty of maths; and the sedation of our perception of beauty

This study of how ordinary people view human rights is depressingly honest, says Jane O’Grady

Robert A. Segal enjoys a rigorously researched volume on the relationship between religion and the secular state

Jonathan Mirsky applauds the story of an invention that has been vital in preserving Chinese script and culture in the modern information age

Book of the week: Shahidha Bari enjoys a study of how tuberculosis influenced notions of attractiveness and breeding

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A look at intercultural dialogue ends up as an irritating guide to manners, says Susan Bassnett

Ambridge provides fertile ground for academic analysis

Are humans just a ‘pack of neurons’? Steven Rose is frustrated by a poorly argued challenge to the materialist consensus in neuroscience

John Gilbey praises an entertaining text that draws on popular culture to explain the essentials of computer science to the general reader

Reina Lewis applauds an insightful analysis of women’s ‘pious fashion’ in Muslim cultures

Kalwant Bhopal finds a text based on Harvard lectures given by the great sociologist in 1994 poignantly relevant today

The anthropologist on the wonders of language and how missionary stories inspired his work in the Amazonian jungle

Book of the week: Is poor housing here to stay? Hopefully not, but one word associated with it has a grip on our culture, says Danny Dorling

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A. W. Purdue on a study that views the drink as the centrepiece of a new international economy

The discomforts felt and described by five writers form the focus of this literary study, writes Lennard Davis

An ambitious study that sets musical history within the political context of the birth of the modern state never manages to sing, says Mark Berry

Tracey Warr on a broad survey that outlines women’s exclusion from an artistic movement

On crepuscular delights, kicking against the pricks, common corporate lingos, and wealth and moral worthiness

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: How far did two thinkers sway each other during a 26-year fellowship? Biancamaria Fontana writes

Perhaps good fences can make good neighbours after all, suggests David Newman

A generation of young women chose dancing over more ‘respectable’ pursuits, finds Clare Griffiths

A militaristic organisation that emerged in Warsaw in 1929 was accused of fascism – but were its violent actions justified, asks Geoffrey Alderman

Books editor Matthew Reisz finds the philosopher and social theorist Jonathan Dollimore’s memoir a fascinating confessional despite its omission of his life in work

Protest movement against racial oppression in US belongs to a long tradition, says Martin Myers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

The speech of the lower classes won acceptance only after a make-over, finds Elspeth Jajdelska

This brave book attempts to show that social anthropology and social anthropologists can offer insights into today’s world and also point to solutions, says Simon Underdown

Fred Inglis travels the bumpy road from Victorian workhouse to the modern British benefits system

Panikos Panayi follows the struggles and achievements of those who made this country their home amid difficult circumstances

The sociologist and author of on finding her voice, tights and superheroes, and why people are told to ‘man up’ but never to ‘woman up’