Book reviews
Book Review: Bring Back the Bureaucrats by John J. Dilulio Jr.
In Bring Back the Bureaucrats, John J. Dilulio Jr. concisely and passionately outlines the dangers of Big Government by stealth in the USA as bureaucratic tasks become increasingly outsourced to proxies including charities, business contractors and local government. Ruth Garland writes that the book resonates with current debates over the provision of public services in the UK […]
Book Review: Immigration Detention: The Migration of a Policy and its Human Impact edited by Amy Nethery and Stephanie J. Silverman
The collection Immigration Detention: The Migration of a Policy and its Human Impact, edited by Amy Nethery and Stephanie J. Silverman, gives an overview of the practice and human impact of detention as an integral part of immigration management and control through a series of country case studies. While Gayle Munro would have welcomed more direct engagement with […]
Book Review: The Question of Peace in Modern Political Thought edited by Toivo Koivukoski and David Edward Tabachnick
Can the study of peace be separated from the study of war? In The Question of Peace in Modern Political Thought, editors Toivo Koivukoski and David Edward Tabachnick attempt to present an interrogation of peace as an independent strand of philosophical inquiry. While Alexander Blanchard suggests that challenging the conflation of the study of war and […]
Book Review: The End of Representative Politics by Simon Tormey
In The End of Representative Politics, Simon Tormey challenges the assumption that politics and democracy are ‘dead’, blighted by chronic distrust of the political class and undermined by the perceived failure of representative democracy to secure social justice. As Tormey instead points towards emergent forms of ‘subterranean’ politics indicative of a ‘post-representative’ era, Ali Dadgar […]
Book Review: Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate by Abdel Bari Atwan
Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate provides detailed answers to a number of pressing questions: What exactly is ISIS? Where did it come from? Who is behind it? How does it function? What are the reasons for its success? Daniel Falkiner welcomes the rich description and analysis and finds Abdel Bari Atwan does an admirable job of explaining the ways Islamic […]
Book Review: On Their Watch: Mass Violence and State Apathy in India, edited by Surabhi Chopra and Prita Jha
On Their Watch: Mass Violence and State Apathy in India examines official records and shows how state apathy in the wake of violence thwarted attempts to rehabilitate survivors and punish perpetrators. Using the Right to Information Act, the editors set out to address the lack of knowledge and transparent reporting around recent tragedies and in doing […]
Book Review: The Social Atlas of Europe by Dimitris Ballas, Danny Dorling and Benjamin Hennig
By combining a human geography perspective with graphic representation, The Social Atlas of Europe sets out to explore European identity through the social realities experienced by Europeans. Patricia Hogwood finds the authors’ unique approach highlights the unifying features of European social life and the subtle fragmentation of ‘Europe’ that is often masked, or at least obscured, […]
Book Review: Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists by Danny Dorling
The revised edition of Danny Dorling’s book Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists provides an analysis of contemporary issues and practices underpinning inequality and a concise interpretation of the main causes of the persistence of injustice in rich countries, together with possible solutions. Gaja Maestri finds that despite touching only marginally on broader scholarly debates, the book remains […]
Book Review: Austerity: The Great Failure by Florian Schui
Adopting a historical approach, Florian Schui provides an insightful and thought provoking narrative on the concept of austerity, finds Lee Gregory. The text achieves its main aim of introducing the historical roots of austerity, essential to understanding the contemporary context. Schui offers an excellent account of why the idea of austerity has embedded itself in […]
Book Review: The House of Commons: An Anthropology of MPs at Work by Emma Crewe
A new book by Emma Crewe explores the day to day lives of Members of Parliament as they cycle through the House of Commons. MPs are pushed and pulled by various interests and allegiances. Marion Koob finds The House of Commons: An Anthropology of MPs at Work insightful, and is a strong case for anthropologists […]
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