• The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization - Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America by Jaime Settle
  • The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization - The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt by Sinan Aral
  • The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman
  • The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization - Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity by Lilliana Mason
  • The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization - Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age by Matthew Salganik

The Best Books on Social Media and Political Polarization, recommended by Chris Bail

Convenient as it is to blame our political woes on the polarizing effect of social media, echo chambers, interference by foreign powers or other shadowy operators, the truth is that human nature and our search for identity and status are more likely culprits. Sociologist Chris Bail, a professor at Duke University and director of its ‘Polarization Lab’, talks us through what social science has to say about the connection between social media and political polarization.

  • The Best Goethe Books - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Jeremy Adler
  • The Best Goethe Books - Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • The Best Goethe Books - Elective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • The Best Goethe Books - Faust I & II by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • The Best Goethe Books - Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe by George Santayana

The Best Goethe Books, recommended by David E. Wellbery

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) has been described as ‘the last true polymath to walk the earth’. A defining figure in German literature, Goethe coined the concept of world literature. And his literary and dramatic achievements are matched by his scientific work. David E. Wellbery, Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago and recipient of the Golden Goethe Medal, introduces us to the life and work of Goethe. He explores why figures such as Beethoven and Napoleon were magnetised to him, how Rousseau influenced Faust, and why Goethe’s Faust does not sell his soul to the devil.

  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen by Giles Tremlett
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - de Kooning: An American Master by Annalyn Swan & Mark Stevens
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - El «Cuaderno italiano», 1770-1786: los orígenes del arte de Goya by Jesús Urrea Fernández & Manuela B. Mena Marqués
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - Cartas a Martín Zapater by Mercedes Águeda & Xavier de Salas
  • The best books on Goya and the art of biography - The Peninsular War: A New History by Charles Esdaile

The best books on Goya and the art of biography, recommended by Janis Tomlinson

The art of Francisco de Goya reflects the social and political chaos of Spain in his day, leaving later generations to read into his prolific work—by turns formal and bizarre, official and fantastic—many often contradictory interpretations. Art historian Janis Tomlinson recommends books that disentangle Goya from the retroactive projections of later admirers and situates him in his own time. We also consider what makes for a compelling biography.

  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Hieroglyphs: A Very Short Introduction by Penelope Wilson
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt by Maria Betro
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition by Erik Iversen
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts by Andrew Robinson
  • The best books on Hieroglyphics - The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts by Susan Brind Morrow

The best books on Hieroglyphics, recommended by Diane Greco Josefowicz

Reading the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt reveals much about the worldview of a civilisation that rose to prominence 5000 years ago and flourished for thousands of years. Here, intellectual historian Diane Greco Josefowicz—whose book, The Riddle of the Rosetta, co-written with Jed Buchwald, tells the story of how the meaning of the hieroglyphs was deciphered in 19th century France—recommends the best books to learn more about hieroglyphics.

  • The best books on The Ghana - Golden Trade of the Moors: West African Kingdoms in the Fourteenth Century by E.W. Bovill
  • The best books on The Ghana - Ancient Ghana and Mali by Nehemiah Levtzion
  • The best books on The Ghana - Social History of Timbuktu: The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables 1400-1900 by Elias Saad
  • The best books on The Ghana - Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples by David C. Conrad
  • The best books on The Ghana - Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa'di's Ta'rikh Al-Sudan down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents by John Hunwick

The best books on The Ghana, Mali and Songhai African Empires, recommended by Michael Gomez

Long before the Europeans arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries, sub-Saharan West Africa saw the emergence of a series of African empires that lasted for centuries and stretched over vast swathes of the continent. They were known as the Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires. Here, historian Michael Gomez discusses what led to their greatness, what sustained them and why they fell.

  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - Shakespeare's Sonnets by Katherine Duncan-Jones & William Shakespeare
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Helen Vendler & William Shakespeare
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - All the Sonnets of Shakespeare by Paul Edmonson, Stanley Wells & William Shakespeare
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - The Afterlife of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Jane Kingsley-Smith
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - Nets by Jen Bervin
  • The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets - Lucy Negro, Redux by Caroline Randall Williams

The best books on Shakespeare’s Sonnets, recommended by Scott Newstok

The beauty of Shakespeare’s sonnets speaks to us down the centuries, their lines peaking out at us from the titles of famous books or enjoying outings at weddings or other romantic occasions. But they were not always regarded as perfectly-formed jewels, and the relationships they portray not as conventional as many of us presume. Here, Shakespeare scholar Scott Newstok talks us through books that help us learn more about Shakespeare’s sonnets, from the best introduction to the poems for students through to their afterlife and recent creative interpretations.

  • The best books on Augustus - Catiline’s War, The Jugurthine War, Histories Sallust (trans. AJ Woodman)
  • The best books on Augustus - Res Gestae Divi Augusti: Text, Translation, and Commentary by Alison Cooley (editor) & Augustus
  • The best books on Augustus - Rome's Cultural Revolution by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill
  • The best books on Augustus - The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome by J. Bert Lott
  • The best books on Augustus - Augustan Culture by Karl Galinsky

The best books on Augustus, recommended by Peter Wiseman

Is it possible that Augustus was not the first Roman emperor, but the last of Rome’s great populist champions? That’s what classicist Peter Wiseman argues in his book, The House of Augustus: A Historical Detective Story. Drawing on a lifetime of research and writing on this period, the emeritus professor of classics and ancient history gives a brilliant overview of the Augustan age, and recommends what to read to better understand the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who found Rome in brick and left it in marble.