Do you know your straw man arguments from your weasel words? Nigel Warburton, Five Books’ philosophy editor and author of Thinking from A to Z, selects five of the best books on critical thinking—and explains how they will help us make better informed decisions and construct more valid arguments.

Which were the best speeches ever made? Clarence B Jones, lawyer, friend and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr—and contributor to the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech—chooses his top five, and explains what is that makes these famous speeches so good.

It’s as old as Plato’s Gorgias, but it was Richard Nixon who really got it down to a fine art. Rutgers professor David Greenberg recommends the best books to read to better understand political ‘spin.’