Paul Summerville

Get ready to be hit over the head with great precision and power, word after word after word. If our age anger is like anything that the world experienced before - particularly between 1939-1945 - I shudder to think what will greet us as this decade plays out. BUT. Since we've been there before than surely we've learned something. And the language of hate that Mishra is so good at re-living is difficult to find except in the extreme margins of social media. There has been, for example, tremendous changes in how many think about plurality captured best by the rise in support and fall in hostility to same sex marriage in many countries recently captured by populist revolt. My only complaint is that there is more description than diagnostics, and therefore the author offers no real prescription. Still every liberal democrat needs to read this book, and absorb the dangers it spurts out, endlessly.

Probably one of the most important books ever written about Japan, and perhaps of any country. The history that was packed into the seven years from 1945 to 1952 boggles the mind but is beautifully presented by the author. The ironies and contradictions that Dower identifies and explains are totally captivating. Should be on every introduction to history university course.

Like Richard Dawkins did for people repelled by magical thinking, Lindsay and Pluckrose give those who believe in universal values, and that liberal individualism is the best way to build successful societies, a great toolkit for cutting through the dense thicket of postmodernism. When the culture police try to break down your door and drag you out onto the street, the authors provide powerful ways to redirect the verbal diarrhea back at the protagonists. While some critics argue that the authors have overshot their target, this no holds barred polemic is what we desperately need. Ants are smaller than elephants, I happen to be white skinned, people with 45% body fat are prone to illness, and people who are blind or deaf require our societies to adjust to them by using every available medical tool to help them gain that function whilst ensuring that they have equal opportunity to live their lives on their own terms. Bravo!