Books

A powerful critique of neoclassical economics raises profound questions for all, says Christopher Phelps

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

James Stevens Curl enjoys the wry company of a kindred spirit

We can’t hear ourselves think over all this music, warns David Revill

Richard Follett on slavery and the power of literacy

A neat model for the nascent superpower is proving elusive, says Kerry Brown

Simon Underdown on a key battle between science and religion

A better gender balance in government benefits all, Sylvia Walby observes

Marxist intellectual is no Bill Bryson, Peter J. Smith discovers

Joanna Bourke on a harrowing look at the darkness in human hearts

Michael Berry is unpersuaded by a radical theory that tries to reinstate the concept of absolute time

Lucy Wooding on how women’s reading of the Bible was central to their lives and inspired a wealth of literature

K. E. Gover finds an explanation of modern art fails to enlighten

Jennifer Altehenger on a family who lived through interesting times

Patient H. M.’s personal tragedy was humanity’s gain, says Morgan Barense

Valerie Sanders relishes this considered study of a quietly worthy class of men

Linnie Blake discusses a new theory of the spectator in the post-cinema age

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Steven Schwartz considers some sound investment decisions

Jane Stabler on how the great poet proved to be a great administrator

Tim Birkhead on bird fanciers’ engagement with nature

Mary Evans relishes this re-evaluation of an installation artwork that depicts a collection of famous women

Judith Bara on the politicisation of celebrities and the celebritisation of politicians

Roger Morgan on the interwoven histories of European nations over six centuries

Jules Pretty explores the oceans that haunt our imaginations

Robert J. Mayhew lifts off with a true balloon enthusiast

Nithikul Nimkulrat discusses an ‘indispensable means of working’

Amanda Cahill-Ripley on a radical critique of counter-terrorism

Yongjin Zhang on the riddle at the heart of an Eastern paradox

Judith Weingarten on an island emporium in the midst of a sea of sand

Stefan Andreasson on an engaging but unbalanced view of a vital subject

Alex Danchev applauds a study of one of the 20th century’s greatest thinker-painters

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Rationality yields to sentimentality in an Occupy Wall Street-inspired call for direct action, Fred Inglis finds

Laura Piacentini ponders the power of the penal system to destroy a prisoner’s sense of self

Miriam E. David considers a commentary on the preservation of pedagogy in the face of technological advances

Pamela Klassen measures hospitals’ sacred dimensions

Dries Lesage on a wake-up call for 21st-century bodies no longer fit for purpose

Jon Turney on the generator of the AC power grid

The interwoven tale of the fight over rubber and a visionary surveyor captivates Robert Mayhew

Marta Filipová on compelling tales of a city’s artistic, intellectual and political cultures

Cheryl Lawther on a history of the conflict and peace process and how the past continues to affect current attitudes

Sandra Leaton Gray on inequality in access to higher education in the US as a result of class

Tara Brabazon on a rare and evocative exploration of how to cope with digital overload

Willy Maley finds men behaving badly in this compelling account of a literary coupling

Lewis Dartnell regrets that a discussion of extreme life forms focuses on faint possibility rather than wondrous reality

Joanna Bourke reflects on torturers, murderers and the paradoxes of portraying suffering and trauma

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Judith Rowbotham on the arguments for a justice system that enables a victim to be avenged

Averil Macdonald on a US system of collaborative learning in which facilitator students help their peers to learn

R. Danielle Egan on an analysis of scandals that fails to link them with a sociological narrative

Timothy Mowl enjoys an accessible study that wears its learning lightly

An argument that blames financial inequality on ‘cultural attitudes’ exasperates Kitty Stewart

Eva Shan Chou on a groundbreaking attempt to assess the later work of one of China’s literary greats

Joanna Depledge applauds bold suggestions for how to end the international stalemate over the environment

Kerstin Hoge probes an account of mental creativity that takes no prisoners

Fiona Reid on the military life’s inherent brutality