Politics Books
recommended by political scientists and historians
Last updated: March 13, 2026
The best books on The Crisis in Education, recommended by Frank Furedi
The sociology professor and blogger at spiked-online.com says when society is faced with problems like homophobia, healthy eating or integration, for example, then we try to
The best books on Conservatism and Culture, recommended by Sam Tanenhaus
Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review from 2004 to 2013, explains how the American right reinvented itself as a cultural counter-revolution and selects five books as backgrounders to conservatism.
The best books on The Thrill of Diplomacy, recommended by Mike Maclay
Former British diplomat Mike Maclay chooses five books on the glamour, the reality and the future of the people trained in the canny art of diplomacy
The best books on Diplomacy, recommended by Jeremy Greenstock
The veteran British diplomat Jeremy Greenstock talks about the history and future of diplomacy. On Iraq: ‘The magnificent work that was done was largely wasted, and lives with it – both Iraqi and outsiders’
The best books on Grand Strategy, recommended by Charles Kupchan
The Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses diplomacy versus coercion and selects five essential books on international relations.
The best books on Why We Need Diplomats, recommended by Geoff Berridge
Academic and author of textbooks on the field tells us that diplomacy can well do without rank amateurs “in the same way that medicine can do without snake-oil merchants”
The best books on How Libertarians Can Govern, recommended by Mitch Daniels
The Governor of Indiana promotes a new philosophy of libertarianism and selects the books that have influenced him most.
The best books on Ethics in Public Life, recommended by Alex Carlile
The Lib Dem peer says that reading Cicero’s speeches, George Eliot’s novels and Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poems can help us manage the ethical dilemmas of our own historical moment, and provide clues to human nature
The best books on Freedom, recommended by John Kampfner
The veteran British journalist and author John Kampfner discusses five books that address concepts of democracy and freedom.
The best books on Medicinal Marijuana, recommended by Tato Grasso
The Italian cardiologist and fellow of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine proposes five books on Medicinal Marijuana and explains why we should be reading them.

































































































