On the heel of a trouble-filled year, authors anatomize past catastrophes and raise new hopes.
The past year’s headlines were all about crises that seemed immune to mediation or compromise—from Gaza to Ukraine to Washington, D.C. Padraig O’Malley, who helped resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland, takes on the evergreen foreign policy impasse of our time in The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine; A Tale of Two Narratives, arguing that new ideas are needed before peace can be achieved. Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Bill Browder relates his experiences with an increasingly bellicose Russia in Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice.
Not all is dire in political titles this season. Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, author of the influential The End of Poverty, remains optimistic, in The Age of Sustainable Development, that we can combat the persistent problem of extreme poverty. And, with the White House’s move to normalize relations with Cuba, the message of New Left veteran Tom Hayden’s Listen, Yankee: Why Cuba Matters will strike a timely chord. The controversial Ayaan Hirsi Ali is back with Heretic, which argues that Islam is long overdue for a reformation of its own.
What’s that about not knowing the past and being condemned to repeat it? Emma Sky, who became a top U.S. general’s political adviser during the Iraq reconstruction, shares her unique perspective on recent, disastrous history—currently repeating itself—in The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq.
The subtitle to journalist Michael Day’s Being Berlusconi: The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga aptly captures a bizarre political journey that’s still not quite over.
The eloquent and combative essayist Renata Adler presents dispatches from the frontlines of the 1960s and ’70s in After the Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction.
Two books give portraits of veterans of America’s ever-more-battle-scarred political landscape. Michael Shnayerson’s The Contender: Andrew Cuomo, a Biography traces the Democratic scion’s journey to the New York governor’s mansion, while also looking ahead to a future some believe may include the White House. Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, in Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, looks back on past accomplishments, but also strives to leave readers with something for the future: a practical grasp of how political change happens.
PW’s Top 10: Politics
After the Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction. Renata Adler. New York Review Books, Apr. 7
The Age of Sustainable Development. Jeffrey D. Sachs. Columbia Univ., Mar. 10
Being Berlusconi: The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga. Michael Day. Palgrave Macmillan, July 21
The Contender: Andrew Cuomo, a Biography. Michael Shnayerson. Hachette/Twelve, Mar. 31
Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage. Barney Frank. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Mar. 17
Heretic. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Harper, Mar. 3
Listen, Yankee: Why Cuba Matters. Tom Hayden. Seven Stories, Mar. 10
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice. Bill Browder. Simon & Schuster, Feb. 3
The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine; A Tale of Two Narratives. Padraig O’Malley. Viking, Apr. 28
The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq. Emma Sky. PublicAffairs, Apr. 7
Politics Listings
Arcade
(dist. by Pegasus)
The Mind of a Terrorist: David Headley, the Mumbai Massacre, and His European Revenge by Kaare Sørensen, trans. by Cory Klingsporn (July 7, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-62872-514-8). A veteran journalist offers a detailed picture of David Headley, also known as Daood Gilani, the Pakistani-American mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.
Basic
The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones? Confronting a New Age of Threat by Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum (Mar. 10, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-465-08974-1). Two legal scholars explore the security and political implications of revolutionary new technologies, from drones to 3-D printers, and explain how governments must adapt to our brave new world of dispersed threats.
Beacon
Dreamers: An Immigrant Generation’s Fight for Their American Dream by Eileen Truax (Mar. 10, paper, $15, ISBN 978-0-8070-3033-2). Journalist Truax profiles young people, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, who could potentially win permanent legal residency if the DREAM Act ever passes Congress, where it has been defeated repeatedly since 2001.
City Lights
Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle by Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux (Apr. 14, paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-87286-658-4). Drawing inspiration from Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, academics Evans and Giroux offer a dazzling exploration of the seduction of violence and spectacle in politics, culture, entertainment, and everyday life.
Columbia Univ.
The Age of Sustainable Development by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Mar. 10, paper, $34.95, ISBN 978-0-231-17315-5). One of the world’s leading analysts of global development, the author of The End of Poverty presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can address seemingly intractable problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice.
Cornell Univ./ILR
If We Can Win Here: The New Front Lines of the Labor Movement by Fran Quigley (May 19, paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-8014-5655-8). A lawyer and activist tells the stories of service-sector workers in Indianapolis trying to fight their way to middle-class incomes, while also profiling the union organizers with whom the workers have made common cause.
Counterpoint
(dist. by PGW)
America’s Secret Jihad: America’s Hidden History with Religious Terrorism by Stuart Wexler (June 9, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-61902-558-5) upends the conventional narrative about religious terrorism in the United States, focusing on the radical sects of Christianity behind some of the most grotesque acts of violence in American history, including the 1963 Birmingham Church and 1995 Oklahoma City bombings.
The Irish Brotherhood: John F. Kennedy, His Inner Circle, and the Improbable Rise to the Presidency by Helen O’Donnell (Mar. 17, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-61902-462-5). O’Donnell (A Common Good) restores a missing piece to the story of John F. Kennedy, namely his original political inner circle: tough-minded Irish-Catholic men united by the ambition to see Kennedy through to the White House.
Crown
The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins by James Angelos (June 2, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-385-34648-1). Freelance journalist Angelos offers a good-humored yet critical account of the chicanery and troubles that led to Greece’s financial collapse, creating a portrait of a culture where you’re considered a fool for paying your taxes honestly and not “cooking the books.”
Crown Forum
End of Discussion: How the Liberal Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun) by Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson (June 9, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-553-44775-0). The dynamic, unapologetic Fox News duo of Ham and Benson charge the left with faking outrage in order to shut down their political opponents.
Doubleday
Reagan: The Life by H.W. Brands (May 12, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-385-53639-4). From the bestselling biographer (Traitor to His Class) comes the first full life of Ronald Reagan since his death. Employing archival sources not available to previous biographers, Brands follows Reagan from smalltown Illinois to Hollywood stardom, and his conservative transformation of modern American politics.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage by Barney Frank (Mar. 17, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-28030-7). In this autobiography, America’s smartest, feistiest, funniest politician recounts playing a vital role in the struggle for personal freedom and economic fairness for more than four decades.
Globe Pequot/Lyons
American Hysteria: The Untold Story of Mass Political Extremism in the United States by Andrew Burt (May 1, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-4930-0334-1). Blacklists, scapegoating, conspiracy theories, and coverups: this book explores the moments in American history when extremist fears have gone mainstream, from the Illuminati and Freemasons to Communists and Muslim terrorists. Why does this happen, and who stands to gain from it?
Hachette/Center Street
Going to Pot: Why the Rush to Legalize Marijuana Is Harming America by William J. Bennett and Robert A. White (Feb. 3, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4555-6073-8). Bennett (The Book of Virtues), America’s first drug czar, and coauthor White come out against the current movement for marijuana legalization, warning that the substance’s dangers aren’t sufficiently understood. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond
Partisan Politics to Unite America by Rand Paul (June 2, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4555-4956-6). Senator Paul, likely GOP contender for the presidency in 2016, presents his vision for America, offering solutions that he believes can save our civil and personal liberties, our country, and his party in the process. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Hachette/Twelve
The Contender: Andrew Cuomo, a Biography by Michael Shnayerson (Mar. 31, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4555-2199-9). Vanity Fair writer Shnayerson offers a no-holds-barred biography of New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo that reads like a novel: an ongoing political saga of vaunting ambition. Political pundits tend to agree that for Cuomo, a run for the White House is not a question of whether, but when. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
The Great War of Our Time: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against al Qa’ida by Mike Morell, with Bill Harlow (May 12, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4555-8566-3). Former CIA Deputy Director Morell offers an unvarnished look at the agency’s inner workings during the “War on Terror” and assesses the threats that still loom today. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
Harper
Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Mar. 3, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-233393-3). The bestselling author of Infidel and Nomad makes a powerful plea for an Islamic Reformation to end the horrors of terrorism and sectarian warfare and the repression of women and minorities. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower (Apr. 7, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-230519-0) is a history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The Butler, offering an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan (June 2, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-220610-7). Sullivan (Villa Air-Bel) returns with a painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of the woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history’s most monstrous dictators—her father, Josef Stalin. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
HarperCollins/Broadside
The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush by John H. Sununu (June 9, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-238428-7). In this major reassessment of the 41st president, his former chief of staff offers an appreciation of the man and his presidency that argues Bush’s accomplishments have long gone overlooked and misunderstood. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
That’s Not Fair! Progressivism and the Politics of Envy by Dinesh D’Souza (June 2, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-236671-9). The influential conservative commentator and filmmaker defends right-wing morality and looks at how the left excuses its own failings and uses false virtue to gain political advantage. 200,000-copy announced first printing.
Untitled by Ted Cruz (May 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-236561-3). In his first book, Cruz, the junior U.S. senator from Texas, reveals how Americans can take back their country and start moving forward. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
Haymarket
(dist. by Consortium)
Conversations on Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé, edited by Frank Barat (Apr. 14, paper, $11.95, ISBN 978-1-60846-470-8). Which is more viable for Palestine, the one-state or two-state solution? How do Palestine solidarity activists combat Israeli policy? Historian Pappé and linguist Chomsky discuss these critical questions and more in this urgent work.
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa by Nick Turse (June 9, paper, $12.95, ISBN 978-1-60846-463-0). Journalist and bestseller Turse (Changing Faces of Empire) exposes the shocking truth about the U.S. military’s ongoing and secret operations in Africa.
Holt
The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury (Feb. 3, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-62779-010-9). One of the U.S. government’s leading Asia experts reveals the hidden Chinese strategy fueling that country’s rise—and how American policymakers have been misunderstanding and underestimating China for more than 40 years.
Indiana Univ.
The Snowden Reader, edited by David P. Fidler and Sumit Ganguly (Apr. 24, hardcover, $85, ISBN 978-0-253-01731-4). Key source materials from the Edward Snowden case are presented in an accessible format, including leaked documents, statements from the U.S. and other governments, and judicial rulings, along with expert analyses of the historical, political, legal, and ethical issues at stake.
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Before the Oath: How George W. Bush and Barack Obama Managed a Transfer of Power by Martha Joynt Kumar (May 1, paper, $39.95, ISBN 978-1-4214-1659-5). Political scientist Kumar uses the example of the Bush-Obama transition to illustrate how outgoing and incoming presidential teams must forge close alliances in order to ensure success for a new chief executive.
Knopf
Michelle Obama: A Life by Peter Slevin (Apr. 7, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-307-95882-2). A veteran reporter presents the first comprehensive account of the life and times of Michelle Obama, tracing the nation’s first African-American first lady from her less-than-privileged background to her Ivy League education, and her crucial role in her husband’s election.
Little, Brown
The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power by Steve Fraser (Feb. 17, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-18543-1). Historian Fraser (Every Man a Speculator) launches a provocative investigation into how and why, from the 18th century to the present day, American resistance to ruling elites has vanished.
Unmanned: Drones, Data, and the Illusion of Perfect Warfare by William M. Arkin (July 28, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-32335-2). An in-depth examination from U.S. Army veteran and journalist Arkin of why our spies keep getting it wrong: overreliance on drones, data dumps, and surveillance. 25,000-copy announced first printing.
MIT
Conflict in Ukraine: The Unwinding of the Post–Cold War Order by Rajan Menon and Eugene B. Rumer (Feb. 13, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-262-02904-9). Experts in the international relations of post-Soviet states look at what is at stake in Ukraine, explaining the key economic, political, and security problems and the prospects for overcoming them.
Morrow
Fracture: Obama, the Clintons, and the Democratic Divide by Joy-Ann Reid (Apr. 21, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-230525-1). MSNBC host Reid charts the complicated relationship between Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as the divided loyalties engendered in their party by the two factions’ epic battle over the Democratic nomination in 2008. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Nation
Injustices: The Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted by Ian Millhiser (Mar. 24, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-56858-456-0). In this powerful indictment, constitutional law expert Millhiser argues that few American institutions have inflicted greater suffering on ordinary people than the Supreme Court, revealing the Court’s insidious pattern of favoring powerful interests above the general public.
The Rebel of Rangoon: A Tale of Defiance and Deliverance in Burma by Delphine Schrank (July 14, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-56858-498-0). Journalist Schrank spent four years undercover among dissidents in the Burmese underground. She offers a deeply reported, intimate view of the struggle for democracy against one of the world’s most repressive governments.
New Press
(dist. by Perseus)
Democracy in the Dark: The Seduction of Government Secrecy by Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. (Apr. 7, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-62097-051-5). As chief counsel to the U.S. Senate’s 1975–1976 Church Committee on Intelligence, Schwarz helped change how Americans think about covert government actions. Now, he offers a timely and provocative new history of the U.S. government’s relationship to secrecy.
New York Review Books
After the Tall Timber: Collected Nonfiction by Renata Adler (Apr. 7, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-59017-879-9). A collection of essays from the lauded journalist and novelist (Speedboat), with selections about key historical moments, like the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, the Six-Day War, and the Nixon impeachment inquiry.
North Atlantic
Warlords, Inc.: Black Markets, Broken States, and the Rise of the Warlord Entrepreneur, edited by Andrew Trabulsi and Noah Raford (May 12, paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-58394-901-6). A collection of essays from leading political scientists, advisers to heads of state, and academics demonstrates how the global economy’s underworld thrives and why we should all be paying attention.
Oxford Univ.
The Warrior State: Pakistan in the Contemporary World by T.V. Paul (July 1, paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-19-023144-6). From its birth, Pakistan has teetered on the brink of becoming a failed state. Noted international relations and South Asia scholar Paul tries to answer why, offering a radically new understanding of the country’s instability and the unintended consequences of foreign aid.
Palgrave Macmillan
Being Berlusconi: The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga by Michael Day (July 21, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-137-28004-6) provides an in-depth look at Silvio Berlusconi’s scandal-ridden career. With the 78-year-old’s legal woes continuing, this book is well-timed to mark the final chapters of a notorious—and astonishing—life and career.
PublicAffairs
The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky (Apr. 7, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-61039-593-9). Having volunteered as a young woman to help rebuild Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s ouster, Sky became an unlikely confidante of U.S. Gen. Ray Odierno. Now she tells the gripping story of the U.S.’s strategic failures in Iraq and the ongoing catastrophe there.
Random/Spiegel & Grau
The Chamber by Alyssa Katz (July 7, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-8129-9328-8). In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, Katz (Our Lot) draws upon years of research to chronicle the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s rise to power. She argues that, far from being a simple trade organization, the chamber has become the political party of the new American oligarchy.
Regnery
Untitled by Ann Coulter (June 1, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-62157-267-1). The always controversial pundit takes readers behind the curtain of political correctness. She blasts politicians like Texas’s Wendy Davis and media powerhouses like MSNBC and the New York Times while looking ahead to what promises to be a knock-down, drag-out 2016 presidential election. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Scribner
How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent by Naveed Jamali and Ellis Henican (June 16, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4767-8882-1). Jamali tells his fascinating story of being a young American amateur who helped the FBI bust a Russian spy in New York.
Seven Stories
Listen, Yankee: Why Cuba Matters by Tom Hayden (Mar. 10, hardcover, $23.95, ISBN 978-1-60980-596-8). The famed activist documents Cuba’s remarkable influence across Latin America and offers fresh insights into the country’s relationship with the U.S.—insights that are especially timely now that the Obama administration has moved to normalize relations with Cuba after more than half a century of distrust.
Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2003–2014 by Ralph Nader (Apr. 7, hardcover, $21.95, ISBN 978-1-60980-626-2). Covering a range of topics—the Iraq war, torture, minimum wage, health legislation, corporatism—hundreds of Nader’s letters to Presidents Bush and Obama were ignored on receipt. Here they are reproduced to refute that fate in the spirit of democracy.
Simon & Schuster
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam (Mar. 10, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-6989-9). The bestselling author of Bowling Alone offers a groundbreaking examination of the American dream in crisis: how and why opportunities for upward mobility are diminishing, jeopardizing the prospects of an ever larger segment of Americans.
Plenty Ladylike by Claire McCaskill, with Terry Ganey (July 14, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4767-5675-2). The female senator from Missouri shares her inspiring story of embracing her ambition, surviving sexist slings, losing a husband, outsmarting her enemies—and finding joy along the way.
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder (Feb. 3, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-5571-7). A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin’s corruption.
Skyhorse
(dist. by Perseus)
Mayor Rob Ford: Uncontrollable; How I Tried to Help the World’s Most Notorious Mayor by Mark Towhey, with Johanna Schneller (May 5, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-63450-042-5).
Towhey, former chief of staff to disgraced Toronto mayor Rob Ford, gives a tell-all account of working for one of the world’s most notoriously and publicly uninhibited politicians. 30,000-copy announced first printing.
St. Martin’s
The New Spymasters: Inside the Modern World of Espionage by Stephen Grey (July 14, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-312-37922-3). The old world of spying—dead letter boxes, microfilm cameras—is history. In this searing look at modern espionage, Grey shows how technology has replaced human intelligence, but with often unsuccessful results—most devastatingly, in the case of the 9/11 attacks.
Times
George W. Bush: The American Presidents Series; The 43rd President, 2001–2009 by James Mann, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Sean Wilentz (Feb. 3, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-8050-9397-1). In this assessment of the 43rd president, Mann (The Obamians) sheds light on why George W. Bush made key decisions and what went wrong for the controversial chief executive.
Transaction
Genocide by Attrition: The Nuba Mountains of Sudan by Samuel Totten (June 30, paper, $34.95, ISBN 978-1-4128-5671-3). The Sudanese government’s genocidal attack against the people of the Nuba Mountains in the late 1980s and early 1990s remains little known. In this volume, Totten documents an atrocity that even many human rights activists and genocide scholars do not fully understand.
The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East by David L. Phillips (Feb. 28, paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4128-5680-5). Kurds constitute the world’s largest group of stateless people, with an estimated 32 million now living in “Kurdistan,” which includes parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. This critical look at post-colonialism offers a new perspective on sovereignty and statehood.
Vanderbilt Univ.
People Power: The Community Organizing Tradition of Saul Alinsky, edited by Aaron Schutz and Mike Miller (Feb. 15, hardcover, $79.95, ISBN 978-0-8265-2041-8). A primary source-based history of activism carried out between 1955 and 1980 according to the guidelines laid down by the famed, late community organizer. Many selections appear in print for the first time.
Verso
(dist. by Random)
The Last Soldiers of the Cold War: The Story of the Cuban Five by Fernando Morais (June 16, paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-78168-876-2). In 1998, five Cuban agents were arrested by the U.S. after being dispatched by their government to infiltrate Florida-based groups that were violently anti-Castro. Bestselling Brazilian author Morais retells their story as a real-life spy thriller.
The Wikileaks Files: The World According to US Empire by Julian Assange (June 2, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-78168-874-8). The first volume to use experts to collate and analyze the most important State Department cables released by WikiLeaks, showing their importance to understanding America’s role in the world. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Viking
The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine; A Tale of Two Narratives by Padraig O’Malley (Apr. 28, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-670-02505-3). Leading reconciliation expert O’Malley argues, in a book sure to spark controversy, that a two-state solution is no longer a viable path to peace between Israel and Palestine and that we must find new frameworks for resolving this conflict.
Yale Univ.
Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator by Oleg V. Khlevniuk, trans. from the Russian by Nora Seligman Favorov (May 19, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-300-16388-9). An essential biography from the author most deeply familiar with the Soviet era’s vast archives. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about the dictator’s life.
Zed
(dist. by MPS)
The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. the Masters of the Universe by Matt Kennard (Apr. 15, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-78032-988-8). Investigative journalist Kennard (Irregular Army) mounts a vigorous polemical attack on America’s self-image as a force for good, revealing the agendas of the wealthy elite through more than 2,000 interviews with officials, intellectual, artists, and activists, including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, and Banksy.
