Contemporary History (1945-)
Last updated: December 04, 2024
Welcome to our contemporary history section, where you'll find all our interviews and book recommendations relating to events that happened after 1945.
-
1
The Non-Aligned Movement: Genesis Organization and Politics.
by Jurgen Dinkel -
2
Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned
by Bojana Piskur -
3
The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World
by Vijay Prashad -
4
Race and the Yugoslav Region: Postsocialist, Post-Conflict, Postcolonial?
by Catherine Baker -
5
Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination
by Adom Getachew
The best books on The Non-Aligned Movement, recommended by Paul Stubbs
The best books on The Non-Aligned Movement, recommended by Paul Stubbs
The Non-Aligned Movement was a loose alliance of more than 100 member states whose heyday was during the Cold War, though it continues to exist today. Here, sociologist Paul Stubbs chooses five books to illustrate the cultural, political and economic influence of the Non-Aligned Movement and argues the ideas that animated it are still of vital importance.
-
1
A Brief History of Neoliberalism
by David Harvey -
2
Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism
by Quinn Slobodian -
3
The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979
by Michel Foucault -
4
Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution
by Wendy Brown -
5
Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism
by Melinda Cooper
The best books on Neoliberalism, recommended by Gary Gerstle
The best books on Neoliberalism, recommended by Gary Gerstle
Neoliberalism is, arguably, the dominant political and economic ideology of the Western world, although its dominance is contested and the ills of the world are often laid at its door. Here Cambridge historian Gary Gerstle discusses five books that will help you understand neoliberalism’s origins, its ambitions and why it has been supported and opposed with such partisanship.
The best books on Bosnia, recommended by Velma Šarić
As a teenager, Velma Šarić’s hometown of Kladanj welcomed refugees from eastern Bosnia as it was bombed and shelled, her primary school eventually becoming a shelter for people fleeing the massacre at Srebenica. Now she runs Sarajevo’s Post-Conflict Research Centre, trying to prevent anything like it from ever happening again. She recommends books to read on the Bosnian War and explains that it was not a war between different communities, but rather an assault on the country’s multiethnic, multicultural identity.
-
1
Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics
by Maria Sobolewska & Robert Ford -
2
There's Nothing For You Here
by Fiona Hill -
3
Brexit and British Politics
by Anand Menon & Geoffrey Evans -
4
Listen, Liberal: or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?
by Thomas Frank -
5
The British General Election of 2019
by Paula Surridge, Robert Ford, Tim Bale & Will Jennings
The best books on Brexit, recommended by Anand Menon
The best books on Brexit, recommended by Anand Menon
Brexit shook British politics in 2016 and, six years on, its long-term consequences both for the UK and for the European Union remain highly uncertain. Here political scientist and Brexit expert Anand Menon recommends books to help you understand Brexit, what caused it and why, and puts those trends in a wider global political context.
-
1
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement
by Barbara Ransby -
2
God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights
by Charles Marsh -
3
Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
by David J. Garrow -
4
The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle
by Clayborne Carson, Darlene Clark Hine, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill & Vincent Harding -
5
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and assisted by Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne (narrator)
The best books on The Civil Rights Era, recommended by Lerone Martin
The best books on The Civil Rights Era, recommended by Lerone Martin
The struggle for Black freedom in America has been going on since the first enslaved Africans were brought to the continent, but it was the civil rights era of 1954 to 1968 that finally resulted in a raft of legislation that gave equal citizenship to Black people in the United States. Here, Professor Lerone Martin of Stanford University recommends the best books to understand the American civil rights movement, with a focus on some of the individuals who were key to its success.
-
1
The Cold War: A World History
by Odd Arne Westad -
2
For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War
by Melvyn P Leffler -
3
Russia and the Idea of the West
by Robert English -
4
The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe
Jacques Lévesque (trans. Keith Martin) -
5
Reagan and Gorbachev
by Jack Matlock
The best books on The Cold War, recommended by Archie Brown
The best books on The Cold War, recommended by Archie Brown
American military and economic superiority cannot explain why the Cold War came to an end in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to the historian Archie Brown, you need to accept the primacy of politics and human agency both in the USSR and the West. He chooses five books to understand the Cold War and offers some broader reflections on the qualities of good political leadership—then and now.
The best books on The World Since 1978, recommended by Gideon Rachman
Most British prime ministers would probably have made the same decision as Tony Blair and followed George W. Bush into war in Iraq in 2003, says the FT’s chief foreign affairs commentator.
-
1
Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy
by Serhii Plokhy -
2
Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry
by Sonja D Schmid -
3
Voices From Chernobyl
by Svetlana Alexievich -
4
Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project
by Peter Bacon Hales -
5
The Politics of Invisibility: Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl
by Olga Kuchinskaya
The best books on Chernobyl, recommended by Kate Brown
The best books on Chernobyl, recommended by Kate Brown
While widely regarded as the world’s worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl’s legacy remains fiercely contested, with death tolls ranging from 31 to 200,000. MIT historian Kate Brown, who has spent years in the Chernobyl archives, picks the best books on the disaster, compares its impact with atomic bomb testing, and argues for more research into low-dose radiation exposure
The Best Vietnam War Books, recommended by Karl Marlantes
In 1968 Karl Marlantes was a 22-year old Rhodes scholar and did not have to go to Vietnam. He nonetheless joined the US Marine Corps, ending up with multiple medals but also lifelong PTSD. In this interview, he recommends the best Vietnam War books, exploring its moral ambiguities, the warrior mentality and the humanity of ‘the enemy.’
The best books on The Fall of Communism, recommended by Nick Thorpe
Five recommendations from the BBC’s Central Europe correspondent, who witnessed the collapse of Yugoslavia, popular uprisings in Bulgaria and Serbia, and the transformation of non-violent to violent resistance in Kosovo