Page 38 - Book Review

The brutal face of peacekeeping

What are the power dynamics between peacekeepers from various cultural backgrounds sent to a conflict zone, and the locals they are supposed to protect?

Twists and turns

Mr Rybczynski explores the history of the screw and its evolution. Much of this is modern (18th and 19th century) and, therefore, is well documented, including the story of the first company

The promised conquered land

Mr Khalidi has written a sharply analytical and even-handed history of the nature of the Israeli state that would make educative reading even for Israel's supporters

Acid in the funny bone

I thought of all the books I had thought were funny and I think I have a clear idea now: Humour in print has to be cruel to be funny

Why India's inequality is a policy choice, argues Capital and Ideology

In the debate over inequality, caste has played a key role. Instead, an ambitious agrarian reform, backed by a more redistributive tax system would have been more helpful, argues Thomas Piketty

It's still a man's world

Our data collection methods have been skewed because over time, men have come to be considered as the default while the female gender has rarely been taken into account

Plagues, disasters and heroes

Why turn to a hero, not a god? Joseph Campbell has said a hero scores over a god when it comes to resolving the problems of the here and now because "a hero's sphere of action is not the transcendent"

Maoism: A Global History is a milestone in describing a harrowing legacy

Julia Lovell's book on Maoism is concerned with understanding the phenomenon of Maoism when it swept the globe, in some places politically and in most places ideologically and intellectually.

Books for our times

Ms Atwood quotes science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin to remind us that freedom 'is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one'

The limits of 'realism'

Barry Gewen tackles the contradic­tions, and offers absolution, in this book, a timely and acute defence of the great realist's actions, values and beliefs

Star struck

A candid admission about Milind Soman's enrolment with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a young boy has generated tremendous curiosity in this book, which might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Science off the wall

One of the points this book makes is that it is often difficult to distinguish a sound hypothesis from something completely off the wall

The first people

This book by Nidhi Dugar Kundalia is about the "first people" or some of the aborigines of India she met and interviewed in the course of researching the book

Undead ideas

Anyone who regularly reads Mr Krugman's twice-weekly NYT column, will be familiar with his accessible style, his arguments and his political leanings

Donald Trump's 'deep state'

Much of the book charts the history of congressional oversight over the CIA and the FBI, beginning, in 1975, with the committee chaired by Senator Frank Church

From Saigon to the suburbs

Sigh, Gone is Tran's first book, a recollection of his childhood growing up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, after his family's escape from Saigon right before the fall in 1975, when he was a baby.

Rites of non-existence

The first half of the book traces a sordid childhood, where the author's mother mysteriously leaves for a journey only to return and never speak of it

Her voice amid lurking danger: Reflections on some feminist crime novels

It goes without saying that not all of the female crime novelists come out as feminists, and that some male writers can do feminist crime novels quite well.

A gripping book on T20 cricket and why it's the sport's default format

Two English cricket writers have written a brilliant and engaging history of the shorter form of cricket that explains why it has become the default format of the sport worldwide, says Dhruv Munjal

Immigrant chronicles

We learn about Sir Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy who traded in opium, earned a fortune, and donated generously to charities during the Bengal famine of 1943