04 June 2024
With the general election rapidly approaching, making sense of the political landscape has become harder and harder. We encourage reading through the chaos with our expert authors. Whether that is grasping big concepts such as justice and democracy or understanding the intricacies of incredible research into corruption and housing.
Here’s a wide-ranging reading list to provide some much-needed clarity going into a tumultuous month of political performance.
Democracy: Eleven writers and leaders on what it is and why it matters
Including the U.K, in 2024 nearly half the world will take part in a national election, with billions heading to the polls. Here, eleven extraordinary women explore democracy’s power to uplift our societies, from its ancient origins to modern challenges.
Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicians Broke Our Law and Institutions – And What We Can do About It by Simon Kuper
Simon Kuper, author of the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller Chums, exposes how corruption took control of public life, and asks: how can we get politicians to behave like good chaps again?
Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK by Simon Kuper
A damning look at the university clique-turned-Commons majority that will blow the doors of Westminster wide open and change the way you look at our democracy forever.
A Home of One’s Own: Why the Housing Crisis Matters & What Needs to Change by Hashi Mohamed
Drawing on his own history of housing insecurity and his professional career as a planning barrister, Hashi Mohamed examines the myriad aspects of housing – from Right-to-Buy to Grenfell, slums and evictions to the Bank of Mum and Dad.
Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency by Vicky Spratt
Award-winning journalist Vicky Spratt traces decades of bad decisions to show how the British dream of secure housing for all has withered. This fierce and moving account tells the stories of those on the frontline, illuminating the ways this national emergency cuts across the country.
In the Long Run: The Future as a Political Idea by Jonathan White
In this eye-opening history of ideas, Jonathan White investigates how politics has long been directed by shifting visions of the future, from the birth of ideologies in the nineteenth century to Cold War secrecy and the excesses of the neoliberal age.
The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs by David Runciman
‘The Singularity’ is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.
Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals by Oliver Bullough
In his Sunday Times-bestselling expose, Oliver Bullough reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. Though the UK prides itself on values of fair play and the rule of law, few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts.
