Politics

The mature student specialist’s renowned politics department could become part of the solution rather than the problem, says Matthew Flinders

Stefano Bloch applauds a brilliant account of what street art can reveal about people, places and politics

Michael Marinetto enjoys a bold attempt to challenge one of the great pieties of our time

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Neve Gordon has reservations about an ambitious analysis ranging across continents and centuries

Chris Knight wishes that the authors of this hugely ambitious study had gone back further and taken greater account of Africa

Peter Osborne is intrigued by an account of the political and philosophical ideas that shaped the West German left

Lucy Bolton is intrigued by an analysis of changing racial attitudes based on the career of a great Hollywood icon

Linsey McGoey applauds a bold account of the ‘dark money’ fuelling the culture wars on campus

Serena Masino is intrigued by a wide-ranging exploration of how political and economic factors play a crucial role in many diseases 

John Morgan meets the Nobel prizewinning father of nudge economics, who believes that the dismal science can only be improved by taking account of people’s ‘predictable mistakes’ 

Peter J. Smith enjoys a powerful analysis of how the work of the Bard cuts through simplistic notions of national identity

Despite its insights into democracy, this loosely linked collection of previously published essays and reviews leaves Lennard Davis unimpressed 

In the third decade of the so-called Asian century, European and North American universities and governments continue to neglect the world’s most populous continent. As Asia grows ever more powerful, this must change, scholars tell Joyce Lau

The professor of psychiatry and author of Of Fear and Strangers discusses learning about America from Twain, the ‘history of xenophobia’ and how to address it

Tributes paid to ‘an innovator, activist and passionate teacher’ who provided essential support to Chinese NGOs

Georgina Murray applauds a bold attempt to put gender at the heart of a wider political critique

The Iranian-American academic, who explores the experience of life split between two cultures in Hyphen, on the politics of punctuation

Angelia R. Wilson applauds an analysis seeking to bring far more diverse voices into the study of politics

Not before time, the female partners whose intellectual contributions enhanced their husbands’ work get long-overdue credit, writes Emma Rees

Tributes paid to scholar whose ‘vision of rebuilding the humanities and arts’ left deep mark at the City College of New York

Geoffrey Alderman admires a definitive account of a wartime massacre that remains controversial today

The historian and author of Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism on cool kids, a comic book shop as edgy as its contents, and international culture wars

Lincoln Allison is not wholly convinced by an analysis of the forces that shape history

Charlotte Jones enjoys a historical account of radical politics that may have important lessons for today

Tributes paid to authority on the American Dream who ‘confounded the supposed dichotomy between the academy and activism’

David Owen on a compelling case for interdisciplinary analysis of refugee economies

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

The legal, security and emotional challenges must not get in the way of proper teaching and research into this crucial issue, says William Allchorn

Roberta Mock explores a tradition of performance that still raises urgent political questions today

Kalwant Bhopal is impressed by a sobering analysis of how racial attitudes shape even our most intimate interactions

Gabriel Paquette is impressed by an ambitious account of how a continent has kept trying to reinvent itself after major wars

Matthew Flinders finds the solutions offered in an ambitious analysis of American discontent less than impressive 

Tributes paid to ‘the best thing that’s happened to Cornell in the last half-century’

Too much attention is paid to academic titles and too little to the substantial contribution they should indicate, says Brian Bloch

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Kristen Ghodsee applauds a journalist’s essay collection that offers sharp insights into post-communist eastern Europe

Conservative professor’s book argues that dialogue across political divide is far more productive than activism and pious placemats

Lennard Davis reflects on the dilemmas of the biographer in reading a new life of his friend and mentor Edward Said

Lincoln Allison enjoys a broad, sometimes speculative account of the mania for written constitutions that took hold in the 1750s

Catherine Rottenberg applauds a bold attempt to forge a politics of solidarity in response to humanitarian crisis

Martin Myers applauds a bold attempt to re-examine one of the sacred cows of liberal societies

Darren Lilleker enjoys a useful study of how leaders have tried to shape their public images

Bryan Cheyette praises an ambitious account of the place of literature in addressing today’s fundamental issues of persecution and injustice 

The president-elect may have academic connections, but the path from campus to cabinet is rarely travelled successfully, say three political scientists

Tributes paid to a towering figure from ‘a great generation of politically engaged South African academics’

David Newman applauds a judicious study of the Middle Eastern politics of cartography

We need to teach all students to listen better, to ask the right questions and to be willing to be wrong, says Anne Houtman

The vast majority of university staff and students are hoping that Joe Biden’s predicted win comes to pass in next week’s presidential election. But with the nation’s finances reeling from Covid-19 and its political fabric fraying in the partisan tug of war, how much would really change, asks Paul Basken 

Richard Joyner enjoys a vivid account of a larger-than-life scientist and reflects on whether Haldane’s career would be possible today

Robert Eaglestone has reservations about a pre-eminent historian’s analysis of the continuing myths about the Nazis 

The American political commentator offers John Morgan his trenchant views on Ivy League solidarity, why the left misunderstands populism and the ‘smugness’ of the ‘well-graduated’

Angelia R. Wilson applauds a wide-ranging survey of American racism but remains unconvinced by the solutions on offer

The professor of communication and media and author of The Politicization of Mumsnet discusses social media’s good and bad, debates over gender and feminism, and Val McDermid’s Scotland

Largely symbolic move comes amid worsening diplomatic ties and after Australia revoked Chinese scholars’ visas

The readers’ editors employed by some quality newspapers offer a model for how to protect and promote universities’ core values, argues Priya Rajasekar

Stricter political and administrative controls on what can be said have led to the creation of a pioneering ‘free university’, say Katarzyna Kaczmarska and Dmitry Dubrovsky

Blindness gave the late politics professor Roger Williams a unique ability to focus on the structure and coherence of what was being said to him. And though his interrogations could be exacting, Lincoln Allison wishes more sighted academics shared his talent

Government issues arrest warrants for students and files complaint against an overseas academic as protests, some held on university campuses, intensify 

Bradley Garrett has crossed the globe to meet those who stockpile food in fortified shelters in anticipation of apocalyptic disasters. As a global pandemic seems to confirm some of their fears, he tells Jack Grove what we can learn from them – and what they’ve got wrong