Politics Books

In less than a decade, the commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell was dramatically transformed into the very different realm of the Restoration monarchy. This is the first detailed account of this vital and eventful period, which witnessed the end of a republic, the reestablishment of royal government, naval wars, plague, religious persecution, and the destruction of the capital in the Great Fire. Drawing on a wealth of public and private manuscript sources to rework each issue anew, Hutton explores the way government policy was set and put into practice during these nine years and how national concerns, local issues, and various social, political, and religious groups all interacted to influence the shifting currents of the nation's affairs.

Encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, this fascinating work chronicles the rich spiritual, political, and cultural institutions of Arab history through 13 centuries.No region in the world today is more important than the Middle East: no people more misunderstood than the Arabs. In this definitive masterwork, distinguished Oxford historian Albert Hourani offers the most lucid, enlightening history ever written on the subject. From the rise of Islam to the Palestinian issue, from the Prophet Mohammed to Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi. A History of the Arab Peoples chronicles the rich spiritual, political and cultural institutions of this civilization through thirteen centuries of war, peace, literature and religion. Lauded by authorities, encyclopedic and panoramic in its scope, here is a remarkable window on today's conflicts and on the future of a glorious and troubled land.

If you're captivated by stories of personal triumph that illustrate the sheer resilience of the human spirit, "An Unexpected Journey: Path to the Presidency" could be a compelling read for you. S.R. Nathan's memoir offers a deeply personal view into the life of a man who overcame adversity to lead a nation, interwoven with the growth of Singapore itself. It's more than just history; it's an inspiration for anyone who believes in the power of determination and the possibility of change.

#1 New York Times Bestseller. "It's a superb piece of work, wonderfully done and essential reading for anyone who cares for his country. Amazing research and brilliantly collated." John Le Carré. "Collusion is so essential and ... I wish everyone who is skeptical that Russia has leverage over Trump would read it ... Invaluable." The New York Times. Moscow, July 1987. Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump visits Soviet Russia for the first time at the invitation of the government. London, December 2016. Luke Harding meets former MI6 officer Christopher Steele to discuss the president-elect's connections with Russia. Harding follows two leads; money and sex. Washington, January 2017. Steele's explosive dossier alleges that the Kremlin has been 'cultivating, supporting, and assisting' Trump for years and that they have compromising information about him. Trump responds on Twitter, 'FAKE NEWS.' In Collusion, award-winning journalist Luke Harding reveals the true nature of Trump's decades-long relationship with Russia and presents the gripping inside story of the dossier. It features exclusive new material and draws on sources from the intelligence community. Harding tells an astonishing story of offshore money, sketchy real-estate deals, a Miss Universe Pageant, mobsters, money laundering, hacking and Kremlin espionage. He shines a light on powerful Russian players like Aras Agalarov, Natalia Veselnitskaya and Sergey Kislyak, whose motivations and instructions may have come from Vladimir Putin himself. The special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, has already indicted several of the American protagonists, including Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort. More charges are likely as the crisis engulfs Trump's administration. This book gets to the heart of the biggest political scandal of the modern era. Russia is reshaping the world order to its advantage: this is something that should trouble us all.

The New York Times bestselling author of Bringing Down the House and The Accidental Billionaires tells his most incredible story. A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian oligarchs that Booklist called “one more example of just how talented a storyteller [Mezrich] is.” Meet two larger-than-life former mathematician Boris Berezovsky, who moved into more lucrative ventures as well as politics, becoming known as the Godfather of the Kremlin; and Roman Abramovich, a dashing young entrepreneur who built one of Russia’s largest oil companies from the ground up. After a chance meeting on a yacht in the Caribbean, the men became locked in a complex partnership, surfing the waves of privatization after the fall of the Soviet regime and amassing mega fortunes while also taking the reins of power in Russia. With Berezovsky serving as the younger entrepreneur’s krysha —literally, his roof, his protector—they battled their way through the “Wild East” of Russia until their relationship soured when Berezovsky attacked President Vladimir Putin in the media. Dead bodies trailed Berezovsky as he escaped to London, where an associate died painfully of Polonium poisoning, creating an international furor. As Abramovich prospered, Berezovsky was found dead in a luxurious London town house, declared a suicide. With unprecedented, exclusive first-person sourcing, Mezrich takes us inside a world of unimaginable wealth, power, and corruption to uncover this exciting story, a true-life thriller epic for our time—“ Wolf Hall on the Moskva” ( Bookpage ).

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold USA Today bestselling story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units. Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins. When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA's Special Activities Division, a highly classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations force in the world. Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and, yes, assassination. With unprecedented access to forty-two men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Jacobsen unveils -- like never before -- a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers, and saboteurs. Despite Hollywood notions of off-book operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually one piece in a colossal foreign policy machine. Written with the pacing of a thriller, Surprise, Kill, Vanish brings to vivid life the sheer pandemonium and chaos, as well as the unforgettable human will to survive and the intellectual challenge of not giving up hope that define paramilitary and intelligence work. Jacobsen's exclusive interviews -- with members of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (equivalent to the Pentagon's generals), its counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and Special Activities Division's Ground Branch operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world -- reveal, for the first time, the enormity of this shocking, controversial, and morally complex terrain. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength, or a liability to its principled standing in the world? Every operation reported in this book, however unsettling, is legal.

Daniel Yergin's The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations offers a comprehensive, timely account of how energy revolutions, climate policy, and geopolitics are reshaping the world. It explains how the shale boom transformed the United States into a leading energy power, how concerns about climate change intersect with energy demand, and how the rivalry among the United States, China, and other powers is redefining global politics. The book maps a new energy order where security, technology, markets, and policy interact to shape the future of nations.

National Bestseller. A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history of the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present. This is the book on DARPA—a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military—and the often frightening results.

At War with War visualizes humanity’s 5,000-year-long state of conflict on a continuous timeline. Seventy pages of stark black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings and woodcuts illustrate history’s most notorious battles—from 3300 BCE to the present day. Interspersed are contemplations on war from thinkers including excerpts from The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Complaint of Peace by Desiderius Erasmus, and The State by Randolph Bourne. Searing and sardonic, balancing anger and despair with wit and humanity, these illustrations recall the work of social satirists such as Honoré Daumier, Frans Masereel, Felix Vallotton, and Otto Dix. Seymour Chwast, a design legend and co-founder of Push Pin Studios, turns his pen to a subject that has long preoccupied him—the fight against war, humankind’s enduring scourge.