Books

Book of the week: The Chinese government’s persecution of Fang Lizhi remains baffling, says Jonathan Mirsky

Jane O’Grady on a reminder that the development of communication was a collaboration

Paul Bernal on the role of corporate lobbyists in manipulating politics and law to align internet policy with business interests

The economist and polymath on A. N. Wilson and Isaiah Berlin, mushy peas and sisterly libertarianism, and all those books as yet unread and unwritten

Like Gollum’s ring, gadgets are irresistible. Learn to turn off, tune out and log off, says John Gilbey

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Camille Hernández-Ramdwar on an insider’s perspective on the struggles and joys of committing to a little-known faith

Book of the week: Marcus Chown on a portrait of those who drove the Ligo project and helped to find gravitational waves

Before our obsession with sustainability, we liked our buildings disposable, says Annmarie Adams

Lara Douds-Cook welcomes a colourful compendium of overlapping conflicts in a disintegrating and reconfiguring empire

Dutch goddesses, the tragedy of the commons, Justin Trudeau’s dad and putting what’s left of the UK’s family silver to good use: must-read academic titles

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A. W. Purdue on a perceptive look at those who shaped, and were shaped by, their times

Who wears the trousers? Women often played men in early Hollywood, and few were anything like the ‘monstrous butch’ archetype, Leanne Dawson finds

Book of the week: The Sun’s magnetic fields make it much more than a dull ball of hot gas, says Marcus Chown

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: Facts and figures can get you only so far when it comes to political change, says Gordon Marsden

Scousers’ acts of resilience are celebrated in a study of the city’s struggles, says Lisa Mckenzie

Andrew Hadfield on the achievements of an arguably overlooked figure

The eminent legal scholar on Simone de Beauvoir, the trouble with lawyers, female friendship and living unhappily ever after

Millions went West for a better life, but there were casualties in the human traffic, says Hester Vaizey

Neil Gregor on a fine study of the ever-changing landscape of orchestral musical politics in Moscow

A study group’s essays on Bourdieu apply his concepts to novel situations, says Laurie Taylor

All choices about what to exhibit or not make statements about sexuality, finds Lesley Hall

An account of the vanquishing of superstition and magic makes some imprudent leaps, says Biancamaria Fontana

Xenophobia new and old, questionable inflections, Paris' jazz diasporas and life on the skin of the Earth: must-read scholarly titles

Pomp and circulation throughout the Empire linked monarch and subjects, Donald MacRaild writes

It’s not all selfishness: Charalambos Kyriacou on how genes cooperate and combine forces to preserve their DNA dynasties

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: For the poet told to lay down her pen on becoming a wife, writing was freedom, finds Catherine Clinton

Jeremy Singer on a manifesto for maximum impact and insight based on addressing real-world problems in multidisciplinary teams

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Book of the week: the former universities minister reviews James Axtell's account of the institutions that educate the US elite

Richard Joyner on who is ahead in the race for dominance between science and religion

Lucy Wooding on the constant suspicion and division in the Elizabethan court

The medical anthropologist and editor of Metrics: What Counts in Global Health on New Orleans and Katrina, Naomi Klein and Dave Eggers, Ayn Rand and Ursula K. LeGuin

Helen Bynum on what made a married woman committed to the cause walk away from it all

Book of the week: With people vulnerable to bias, lack of diversity might be better tackled at organisational level, Victoria Bateman says

Simon Underdown on the novel notion that four walls were key to our development as a species

Hillary Clinton is not the first woman to run for the White House. Elizabeth Cobbs enjoys an entertaining look at her and her predecessors

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A captivating study of Canadians’ national game skates over one element, says Andrew Robinson

Janet Sayers on an engaging work taking in Freud, Meynert and Penfield

Epistolary adventures from Lincoln to Louisa May Alcott, universities v courts, and hard times and hope in Stoke-on-Trent: must-read scholarly titles

Following textual ‘clues’ sheds little new light on an ancient literary figure, says Barbara Graziosi

David Revill on a provocative and insightful work that explores our creative and ambient sonic environment and how we perceive it

Memoir of scholar who fought for recognition will strike a chord with many women, says June Purvis

Danny Dorling on the US failure to provide affordable housing for its citizens

Sunil Khilnani, author of Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, on his wife Katherine Boo's worldwide success, the wisdom of C.L.R. James and R. G. Collingwood, and the 'deliciously bad ends' of Struwwelpeter

Book of the week: A portrait of the failure who became Führer detects early signs of a Final Solution, says Robert Gellately

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Donald MacRaild on how the Scots see themselves and their place in the UK

Eva Shan Chou on a study of how anglophone texts have come to overshadow many vernacular writings

Latin the really old-school way, unknown Indian masters and the human rights year in review: must-read scholarly titles

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Joanna Lewis on a theory that valuing character over achievement helped to limit queasiness about the imperial project

Ken Plummer on a lively and provocative run-through of 18 major works by the towering figure of musical theatre

Book of the week: Angelia Wilson on a call for us to take seriously our political responsibility for global poverty

Faith Nibbs on the tensions and accommodations between newcomers and locals in a small town

Novice sociological researchers will find encouragement and help in a programme of exercises whose insights are informed by a group of gorillas, Les Gofton says