Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity, by Melissa Aronczyk The ‘nation brand’ phenomenon is unsustainable, says Rula Al-Abdulrazak 23 January
Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life, by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings Beset by turmoil, an inimitable critic wrote as if from the future. Joanna Hodge on a material force 23 January
The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, by Alan Jacobs Willy Maley on one of the most important works in the English language 16 January
Myth, Memory, Trauma: Rethinking the Stalinist Past in the Soviet Union, 1953-70, by Polly Jones Lara Cook on coping with the man of steel’s legacy 16 January
Was Hitler a Darwinian? Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory, by Robert J. Richards Nazi ideology may not have adopted evolutionary theory wholesale, but it certainly used its ideas, says Yvonne Sherratt 16 January
Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound, by Trevor Cox David Toop is charmed by an exploration of the pains and pleasures of the noises around us 16 January
Freewomen and Supermen: Edwardian Radicals and Literary Modernism, by Anne Fernihough Sandeep Parmar is tantalised by the notion of the political in Modernism 16 January
George Orwell: English Rebel, by Robert Colls Sheila Rowbotham on a great writer whose contrary aspects are impossible to sum up 16 January
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives! A World Without World War I, by Richard Ned Lebow Richard J. Evans considers the comfort of the counterfactual 9 January
The Drama of Reform: Theology and Theatricality, 1461-1553, by Tamara Atkin With the stage set for passionate religious argument, Helen Smith takes her seat 9 January
Fragments: Transcribing the Holocaust, by Frances Rapport with Anka Bergman, Terry Farago and Edith Salter Robert Eaglestone on an attempt to capture barbarism in poetry, not prose 9 January
The Artistry of Exile: Romantic and Victorian Writers in Italy, by Jane Stabler Jane Darcy on wanderers’ thoughts turning to home 9 January
Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London, by Matthew Hunter William Poole enjoys the insights but prefers his prose less florid 9 January
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them, by Joshua Greene Is utilitarianism the best way to resolve disputes in the global village? Natalie Gold investigates 9 January
Sino-Japanese Relations After the Cold War: Two Tigers Sharing a Mountain, by Michael Yahuda Jonathan Mirsky on the politics and economics of the relationship between rapidly developing China and stagnating Japan 2 January
Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men, by Horatio Clare Philip Hoare on the global market’s manifest destiny 2 January
50 Great Myths About Atheism, by Russell Blackford and Udo Schüklenk Martin Cohen on a mishmash of well-intentioned ideas 2 January
A Union Forever: The Irish Question and U.S. Foreign Relations in the Victorian Age, by David Sim It was Civil War not Fenianism that prompted Anglo-American tensions, argues Donald M. MacRaild 2 January
Pagan Britain, by Ronald Hutton Sarah Semple on the ritual and romance of this island story’s early chapters 2 January
Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?, by Robert Bartlett A thread of celebrity weaves through a masterful study of cults of Christian icons, Helen Fulton finds 19 December
Ezra Pound’s Fascist Propaganda, 1935-45, by Matthew Feldman Richard Bosworth on an exploration of Pound’s activism before and during the Second World War 12 December
The Making of the Modern British Home: The Suburban Semi and Family Life between the Wars, by Peter Scott Grace Lees-Maffei on the sights and sounds of the suburbs 12 December
Traveling in Place: A History of Armchair Travel, by Bernd Stiegler Robert Mayhew on the vision, dignity and achievement of two centuries of armchair travellers 12 December
What W. H. Auden Can Do For You, by Alexander McCall Smith Chris Jones on a passionate, personal account of poetry’s power 5 December
Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War, by Joy Rohde Michael Patrick Cullinane on the military-academic complex 5 December
The City and the King: Architecture and Politics in Restoration London, by Christine Stevenson Harriet Harriss on an age when ‘form followed fealty’ and politics triumphed over economics 5 December
Snapshot Photography: The Lives of Images, by Catherine Zuromskis Annebella Pollen on the use of amateur photographs as cultural and artistic motifs 5 December
The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex, by Julie Peakman Alison Oram on changing attitudes to sexual perversions 5 December
The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London’s Golden Age, by Vic Gatrell Clare Brant revels in a compelling evocation of non-conformists in the capital’s cultural ‘heart’ 5 December
The Triumph of Human Empire: Verne, Morris and Stevenson at the End of the World, by Rosalind Williams Tom Wright on a study of how three late 19th century writers contemplated humanity’s impact on the environment 5 December
The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present, by David Runciman A. W. Purdue on the risky belief that participatory government can always muddle through any crisis 5 December
Speaking of Flowers: Student Movements and the Making and Remembering of 1968 in Military Brazil, by Victoria Langland Sarah Sarzynski on an analysis of student activism during Brazil’s military dictatorship 28 November
Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City, by Bradley L. Garrett Tim Hall takes a ride with the urban explorers obsessed with penetrating the half-built, derelict or hidden parts of our cities 28 November
The Hamlet Doctrine, by Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster Peter J. Smith on non-Lit Crit efforts to find the method in the Danish prince’s madness 28 November
Abandoned to Ourselves, by Peter Alexander Meyers Biancamaria Fontana on a mannered criticism of Enlightenment thought 28 November
Pythagorean Women: Their History and Writings, by Sarah B. Pomeroy Barbara Graziosi on female adherents to an ancient philosophy 28 November
William and Dorothy Wordsworth: All in Each Other, by Lucy Newlyn Shahidha Bari on a literary biography of the siblings’ creative collaboration 21 November
Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism, by Peter Hall Flora Samuel is impressed by a message of regeneration 21 November
Housewives and Citizens: Domesticity and the Women’s Movement in England, 1928-64, by Caitriona Beaumont June Purvis discusses conservative contributions to gender equality 21 November
Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism, by Karima Bennoune Julia Droeber is humbled by the courage of everyday resistance 21 November
A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning, by Robert Zaretsky Matthew Feldman on a study of the Nobel prize-winning existentialist author through the themes that preoccupied him 21 November
Would You Kill the Fat Man?, by David Edmonds Martin Cohen on a history of moral philosophy interwoven with proponents’ biographical details 14 November
A Treatise on Modern Architecture in Five Books, by George Saumarez Smith James Stevens Curl on the importance of hand-drawing skills and appropriate use of classical language in designing modern buildings 14 November
Reporting Disasters: Famine, Aid, Politics and the Media, by Suzanne Franks Sally Feldman on an alternative interpretation of the media reporting and government responses to the Ethiopian famine in 1984 14 November
Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia’s History, by Catherine Merridale Lara Cook on how different leaders have made and remade the Kremlin 14 November
Richard Wagner: A Life in Music, by Martin Geck Barbara Eichner on a different kind of biography 14 November
Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence, by Christina B. Hanhardt Marian Duggan takes a tour of the US LGBT liberation movement 14 November
Blue Mythologies: Reflections on a Colour, by Carol Mavor Philip Hoare floats away on a poetic enquiry into the extraordinary nature of what surrounds us 7 November
Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, by Lila Abu-Lughod The convictions of those involved in efforts to ‘rescue’ women from religion will be unsettled by this work, says Madawi Al-Rasheed 7 November
The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds Alex Danchev on how Britain has remembered and misremembered the First World War 7 November
Shakespeare and Memory, by Hester Lees-Jeffries Jerome de Groot on time, recollection and the Bard 7 November
Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants, by Sunil Amrith Caroline Osella on a page-turning survey of people and politics in a region once at the heart of global trade and imperial histories 7 November
Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, by Martha Nussbaum Geraldine Van Bueren lauds a plea to put our passions to work in building a more just society 7 November
A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia, by Madawi Al-Rasheed Pernille Arenfeldt on a fine counterargument to reductionist claims about women and Islam 31 October
The Way of Science: Finding Truth and Meaning in a Scientific Worldview, by Dennis R. Trumble Andrew Briggs on an effort to cast down faith-based reasoning 31 October
Take a Closer Look, by Daniel Arasse K.E. Gover on a delightful guide to seeing art with new eyes 31 October
Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability, by Emily Apter Danielle Sands on a call for broader, more creative and politically engaged modes of thought 31 October
Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City, by Gordon Young Sherry Lee Linkon on a ‘community of memory’ fighting for a place called home 31 October
