ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • The definitive history of Russia’s most secret spy program, from the earliest days of the Soviet Union to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a revelatory examination of how that hidden history shaped both Russia and the West.More than a century ago, the new Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad as deep-cover spies, training them to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants, and students. Over time,...

In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker presents a deeply reported, bottom-up explanation of Russia's resurgence under Putin. By cleverly exploiting the memory of the Soviet victory over fascism in World War II, Putin's regime has made ordinary Russians feel that their country is great again. Walker not only explains Putin's goals and the government's official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians and their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in WW...

ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 • The definitive history of Russia’s most secret spy program, from the earliest days of the Soviet Union to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a revelatory examination of how that hidden history shaped both Russia and the West.More than a century ago, the new Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad as deep-cover spies, training them to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants, and students. Over time,...

In The Long Hangover, Shaun Walker provides new insight into contemporary Russia and its search for a new identity, telling the story through the country's troubled relationship with its Soviet past. Walker not only explains Vladimir Putin's goals and the government's official manipulations of history, but also focuses on ordinary Russians and their motivations. He charts how Putin raised victory in World War II to the status of a national founding myth in the search for a unifyin...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Magisterial…A stunning account that brings to the fore the nuclear saga’s surreal combination of ingenuity, fate, and terror.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “If you are an intelligent person, or at the very least think you are, you have to read The Devil Reached Toward the Sky…This period in history has never been more relevant and frightening than it is today.” —James Patterson • “Comprehensive and engrossing…Excellent oral...

LONGLISTED AS A FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZEAn illuminating tour through the manufacturing world and its seismic influence on our lives, from internationally renowned expert Tim MinshallWe live in a manufactured world. Unless you are floating naked through space, you are right now in direct contact with multiple man...

**AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!An ode to triangles, the shape that makes our lives possible**Trigonometry is perhaps the most essential concept humans have ever devised. The simple yet versatile triangle allows us to record music, map the world, launch rockets into space, and be slightly less bad at pool. Triangles underpin our day-to-day lives and civilization as we know it.In Love Triangle, Matt Parker argues we should all show a lot more...

Named a best book of the summer by Literary HubThe life and times of a militant white supremacist, written by one of his offspring, National Book Award–winner Edward BallLife of a Klansman tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. Edward Ball, a descendant of the Klansman, paints a portrait of his family’s anti-...

A concise, definitive history of the precarious relationship among the US, China, and TaiwanAs tensions over Taiwan escalate, the United States and China stand on the brink of a catastrophic war. Resolving the impasse demands we understand how it began. In 1943, the Allies declared that Japanese-held Taiwan would return to China at the conclusion of World War II. The Chinese civil war led to a change of plans. The Communist Party came to power in China and the defe...

With intrigue that rivals the best le Carre novels, Russians Among Us tells the urgent story of Russia’s espionage efforts against the United States and the West from the end of the Cold War to the presentSpies have long been a source of great fascination in the world of fiction, but sometimes the best spy stories happen in real life. Russians Among Us tells the full story of Putin’s escalating espionage campaign in the West, the ...

A fresh and insightful history of how the German arts-and-letters scene was transformed under the Nazis.Culture was integral to the smooth running of the Third Reich. In the years preceding WWII, a wide variety of artistic forms were used to instill a Nazi ideology in the German people and to manipulate the public perception of Hitler's enemies. During the war, the arts were closely tied to the propaganda machine that promoted the cause of Germany's military campai...

The five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created themBooks tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it.Books have transformed humank...