• 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.

  • The Best Books on the Politics of Information - Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
  • The Best Books on the Politics of Information - The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What To Make of It by Charles Lindblom
  • The Best Books on the Politics of Information - The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert A. Simon
  • The Best Books on the Politics of Information - Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society by E. Glen Weyl & Eric A. Posner
  • The Best Books on the Politics of Information - Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener

The Best Books on the Politics of Information, recommended by Henry Farrell

Our political systems evolved in an era when information was much harder to come by. What challenges does our current reality of information overload pose for democracy? How do we even start thinking about these questions? Political scientist Henry Farrell proposes key books for building a curriculum on ‘the politics of information,’ starting with a beautifully written novel.

  • The Best Books on the Big Bang - The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg
  • The Best Books on the Big Bang - The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean M Carroll
  • The Best Books on the Big Bang - How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin
  • The Best Books on the Big Bang - A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  • The Best Books on the Big Bang - Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip S Thorne

The Best Books on the Big Bang, recommended by Dan Hooper

Before Einstein, how the universe began was a question for theologians, not scientists. Over a century later, we know much more, but not enough to do more than guess at what happened at the moment of the Big Bang and immediately after. Astrophysicist Dan Hooper, author of At the Edge of Timea book that explores dark energy, dark matter and other things we don’t yet understand—talks us through books about the Big Bang, and questions whether our entire understanding of the universe is about to be turned upside down.

  • The best books on Learning Economics - Free to Choose by Milton Friedman
  • The best books on Learning Economics - The Death of Economics by Paul Ormerod
  • The best books on Learning Economics - Inequality: What Can Be Done? by Tony Atkinson
  • The best books on Learning Economics - Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
  • The best books on Learning Economics - Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit V Banerjee and Esther Duflo

The best books on Learning Economics, recommended by John Quiggin

We live in a society where it’s vital to have a good grasp of economics, but that doesn’t mean you need an economics degree to understand what it’s all about. Australian economist John Quiggin, author of Economics in Two Lessons, recommends books for learning about economics, all accessible to the general reader, and tries to dispel some of the myths about what it is professional economists do.

  • The best books on Thucydides - Pericles of Athens by Vincent Azoulay
  • The best books on Thucydides - Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens by David Stuttard
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City by Nicole Loraux
  • The best books on Thucydides - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika by Xenophon

The best books on Thucydides, recommended by Johanna Hanink

The Greek historian and general Thucydides wanted his History of the Peloponnesian War “to be a possession for all time.” In that, he’s been remarkably successful, with his name still echoing in the corridors of power. But what lessons should we take away from his great work? Translator and classicist Johanna Hanink talks us through books to better understand Thucydides and the mythical Athens he lived in and wrote about.

  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization by Roy Scranton
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - Love in the Anthropocene by Bonnie Nadzam & Dale Jamieson
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression by Angus Burgin
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy by Michael E Mann & Tom Toles

The best books on The Politics of Climate Change, recommended by Naomi Oreskes

‘We’re on a path that is going to lead to tremendous destruction and yet most of us are going about our lives as if nothing particularly special is happening.’ The science of climate change is incontrovertible but deniers persist and political and economic solutions continue to be – systematically – frustrated. Time is running out, says Naomi Oreskes

  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art by Joseph Leo Koerner
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - The Self-Aware Image: An Insight Into Early Modern Meta-Painting by Victor Stoichita
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - On Photography by Susan Sontag
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
  • The best books on The Lives of Artists - Just Kids by Patti Smith

The best books on The Lives of Artists, recommended by Maria Loh

We live in an age obsessed with self-image. Technology has made the ‘selfie’ a ubiquitous form of social currency. Renaissance means may have been very different, but celebrity artists in Medici Florence dealt with many of the issues relating to identity and authorship that we grapple with today. Maria Loh, author of Still Lives: Death, Desire, and the Portrait of the Old Master, talks to Five Books about the curated self.