Books

The scholar of international relations and author of Holidays in the Danger Zone on misplaced nostalgia, foreign encounters and the allure of ‘dark tourism’

Book of the week: Fred Inglis delights in a grafting of art, lore and literature that logs our lives with natural wonders

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This study reminds us of the radicalism of bringing the quotidian into art, writes Shahidha Bari

R. J. B. Bosworth traces the state’s long involvement in the production and sale of tobacco to its citizens

A scholar in the oil-rich state takes in Mecca, art and quiet transgressions, says Madawi Al-Rasheed

Martin Cohen on a philosophical study that eschews the root for the rhizome

Hey presto! This week’s books to astonish and enlighten survey modern magic in Asia, physics with a feminist focus, the work of Elizabeth Bishop and the museum as creative spark

Stefania Milan on the socio-legal complexities of digital redemption and digital reinvention

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Grace Lees-Maffei on an effort to illuminate ‘the soul’ in design that highlights the potential of interdisciplinary encounters

Book of the week: ‘Helicopters’ or ‘bystanders’? Your folks’ behaviour can govern more than grades, says Hazel Christie

Book of the week: Investing in individuals delivers personal and national prosperity, Richard Murphy finds

As we continually wait for the next big thing, we are doomed to disappointment, finds Tara Brabazon

Jonathan Mirsky considers an exploration of the dynamics between two ancient rival nations

The novelist and historian, whose latest book is The Hamilton Affair, says the best stories are those that make you care. Her summer plans include lying in a hammock, and reading the perfect number of books – five

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Surviving a traumatic event isn’t a prerequisite for making great artworks, says K. E. Gover

Howard Segal on an optimistic visionary who never quite achieved the utopian communities he envisioned

Book of the week: Meet the human computers in heels who juggled science and family, says Margaret A. Weitekamp

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An economist explains to the rich that they didn’t build that, Danny Dorling writes

David Gewanter on a poet’s turning his telltale gaze to works of verse and makers of muddled readings and purveyors of ‘balonium’

Projecting their hopes and fears on to Israel has polarised Jews in the US, says William Kolbrener

Janet Sayers on what inner speech can tell us about our brain processes

Timely titles for consideration take in upright citizens, fly-by-wire ethics, a world of troubling numbers and home round the range

Felipe Fernández-Armesto on a revealing study focusing on the evolution of unleashed canines

A study confronts the theme of mortality during the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s passing

The church historian and author of All Things Made New: Writings on the Reformation on the journey from E. Nesbit to Ian Kershaw and the comforting certainties of detective fiction

Book of the week: Randy Malamud on two scholars’ exploration of a temple of Christian fundamentalist belief

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Unbeatable? This extremist group has little to offer in times of peace, says Christina Hellmich

Kaarina Hollo on a study comparing medieval manuscripts with evidence on the ground to illuminate life in Iron Age Ireland

Members of the higher education community tell us about two books they plan to take on holiday: a new must-read and a classic worthy of a second look

Andrew Robinson on an eloquent exposition of what it means to be a modern university teacher

Well-researched portraits of female pioneers and game gals capture the buzz around the Beeb as women entered the professions, says Sharon Wheeler

Knowledge of our genetic code has been used for good as well as ill, Charalambos Kyriacou says

MP and editor of Reading the Riot Act: Reflections on the 2011 Urban Disorders in England on suburbia, the Famous Five, and the overlap between politics and academia

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Marcus Chown on the individuals and theories that expanded our view of the universe

Moyra Haslett on what the Irish diaspora in mid-18th-century London reveals about the life and politics of one literary figure

Book of the week: There’s a strong political current running through a bold study skewering myths, says Louise Whiteley

What are the downsides to being able to monitor so many physical activities? asks Marcus Chown

Ivor Gaber welcomes a work that gives overdue attention to the risks that members of the press and those who help them too often face

Spain’s Left turn, legible ethnography, the Arab Spring’s bodies of evidence and Walter Benjamin’s Wunderkammer: must-read monographs

Book of the week: Second-wave highs, Caitlin Moran and rape culture surface in a work of mixed genres, says Emma Rees

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A study probing the state of a discipline raises the alarm on scholars selling out, says Martin Cohen

Jane Shaw on a brilliant study of independent churches in the US

Book of the week: In between what we know is good or bad for us is the rest of medical science, says Jennifer Rohn

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Stephen Halliday on a rogue whose smart manner helped him to profit in a deferential era

The ability to exercise some authority over others can be a force for good, but there is more to it than that, says Manuela Barreto

Six authors have been plucked from the crowd to discuss a topic few want to face, says Sunny Singh

Optimism and realism vie in a study telling us where we are, where we’re going and how best to get there, says Jon Turney

Musician and author of Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and The Dream of Freedom on Poe, silence and rock novels

Shelley King on a comprehensive tour of magical worlds

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The idea of barriers to work being benefits leaves Robert Eaglestone wondering if he missed the joke

John Gilbey on the USSR’s failed attempts to develop ‘Electronic Socialism’