Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends, by Anne Applebaum, Allen Lane, RRP£16.99/Doubleday, RRP$25, 224 pages
Applebaum is as comfortable writing about people and their motivations, as about the big forces shaping politics and history. The result is a delightfully readable account of the erosion of democratic norms in the west, focusing in particular on the countries she knows best: Poland, the UK and the US.
Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West, by Catherine Belton, William Collins, RRP£25/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, RRP$35, 640 pages
An exhaustively researched and entertaining account of Putin’s rise to power and his 20 years in office. Belton, a former FT correspondent in Moscow, is particularly good on the group of powerful Russians surrounding the Russian president, many linked to the former KGB. Her discussion of the mixture of corruption and anti-western ideology that defines Putin’s inner circle is compelling.
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, by John Bolton, Simon & Schuster, RRP£25/$32.50, 592 pages
Badly written and lacking in humility, shame or self-awareness, Bolton’s is nonetheless the best insider account of the Trump White House yet to emerge. It is full of jaw-dropping revelations, such as the president’s private words of encouragement to Xi Jinping about the internment camps in Xinjiang.
Joe Biden: American Dreamer, by Evan Osnos, Bloomsbury, RRP£18.99/Simon & Schuster, RRP$23, 192 pages
A timely and well-written biography of America’s president-elect by a New Yorker correspondent, who has covered Biden for several years. Although Biden will be the oldest president ever to take office, Osnos argues that one of his defining characteristics is an ability to move with the times. As a result, he expects him to be a more radical president than his centrist roots suggest.
Diary of an MP’s Wife: Inside and Outside Power, by Sasha Swire, Little, Brown, RRP£20, 544 pages
As the wife of a minister in Cameron’s government, Swire was part of the prime minister’s inner circle. Her gossipy and disloyal diary has delighted political junkies in Britain, while confirming many prejudices about Cameron’s “chumocracy”.
Eat the Buddha: The Story of Modern Tibet Through the People of One Town, by Barbara Demick, Granta, RRP£18.99/Random House, RRP$28, 336 pages
An award-winning journalist, famous for her intrepid reporting and her ability to tell larger stories, through the lives of ordinary people, turns her attention to Tibet. Demick highlights how the region’s culture and autonomy has been crushed since China claimed the area in the 1950s.
The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, by Peniel E Joseph, Basic Books, RRP$30/£25, 384 pages
In the year of Black Lives Matter, this comparative biography of two of the great figures in the struggle for racial equality in the US stands out. The book argues that while King and Malcolm X are often regarded as representing fundamentally opposed viewpoints, their approaches had begun to merge by the end of their lives — with King becoming more radical and Malcolm more pragmatic.
Cynical Theories: How Universities Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity — and Why this Harms Everybody, by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Swift Press, RRP£20, 352 pages
The authors became heroes to some and villains to others by placing hoax articles about race, gender and diversity in academic journals designed to highlight bogus thinking and weak research. Here they argue that academia’s embrace of “critical studies” is damaging society. A book for the year in which “woke” and “cancel culture” became buzzwords.
Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Rivalry that Unravelled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East, by Kim Ghattas, Headline, RRP£20/Henry Holt, RRP$27, 400 pages
An original and compelling account of the politics and culture of the Middle East that places Saudi-Iranian rivalry at the centre of what has gone wrong in the region. As well as portraying the broad religious and geopolitical forces at work, Ghattas tells the sometimes tragic stories of individuals caught up in the turmoil — such as Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist murdered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, by Helen Lewis, Jonathan Cape, RRP£16.99, 368 pages
Telling the story of feminism through the struggles of individual women, and the causes they championed, is a clever literary device and Lewis is a skilful storyteller. The women she portrays are “difficult” in two senses. They are willing to battle established power. But some also held views that modern feminists find hard to stomach.
Losing The Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East, by Philip H Gordon, St Martin’s Press, RRP$29.99, 368 pages
From Iran in 1953 to Libya in 2011, via Iraq in 2003 (as well as Egypt and Syria), successive American administrations have attempted to “fix” the Middle East by overthrowing disagreeable governments. A veteran of the Obama White House provides an insightful account of why this keeps happening, and keeps failing.
The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World, by Vincent Bevins, Public Affairs, RRP$28/£14.99, 320 pages
A fascinating and disturbing account of what the author calls the “mass murder programme that shaped the world”. A former correspondent in Jakarta, Bevins argues that the Indonesian massacres of 1965 were connived in by the US, and became a template for bloody anti-communist repression in other locations including Chile and Brazil.
MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman, by Ben Hubbard, William Collins, RRP£20, 384 pages
A lively and revealing account of the emergence of one of the most intriguing and alarming new leaders on the world stage. The author shows how MBS emerged from relative obscurity and ruthlessly consolidated power within Saudi Arabia, charming and then appalling his western backers.
The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A Baker III, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Doubleday, RRP$35/Random House, RRP£26.47, 720 pages
The definitive biography of one of the most important Washington insiders of the late 20th century. James Baker served as Reagan’s chief-of-staff and as secretary of state during the tumultuous years of the end of the cold war. He also acted as a vital adviser to George W Bush, during the disputed 2000 presidential election. Baker was no saint — but his story still makes one marvel at how far the Republican party has fallen in a generation.
Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition, by Edmund Fawcett, Princeton, RRP$35/£30, 514 pages
The author of a much acclaimed history of liberalism turns his attention to another crucial branch of political philosophy. The book shows how, over the centuries, conservatives have attempted to defend tradition, against the onslaughts of modernity and capitalism. He analyses the variety, internal contradictions and strengths of the conservative movement.
Gideon Rachman is the FT’s chief foreign affairs commentator
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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick‘s Progressive Conservative leader disrespected the province’s residents by presenting the death of a Liberal supporter as funny, the party said as it called for Blaine Higgs to apologize.
Higgs drew the party’s ire during remarks made at his Thursday campaign kickoff event in Quispamsis, N.B., held hours after he dissolved the legislature and officially triggered the campaign leading up to the Oct. 21 provincial election.
His speech to party faithful included a second-hand anecdote of a conversation that purportedly took place in 2014 between a party volunteer canvassing for votes and a newly minted supporter. At the time, Higgs was seeking re-election as the legislature member for the Quispamsis riding, which he has represented since 2010.
The conversation, the story went, began when the canvasser was leaving the home of a woman who had just voiced her intention to vote for Higgs.
“(The volunteer) said: ‘Thank you very much. That’s great.’ Then she started walking next door, and the lady said: ‘Oh, you don’t need to go there. She passed away a few weeks ago,'” Higgs said in his retelling of the story. “This campaigner — you know, very passionate individual — said: ‘I’m so sorry. Was she sick long? Or what happened? And the lady just said, ‘Oh, don’t feel too bad. She was a Liberal.'”
“I know that’s not an appropriate joke, but it was funny and it is true,” Higgs concluded.
Hannah Fulton Johnston, executive director of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, condemned Higgs’s anecdote in a statement issued on Friday in which she called the joke distasteful.
“The New Brunswick Liberal Association is calling on Blaine Higgs to apologize for this comment,” it reads.
“Making light of the death of any New Brunswicker is highly inappropriate for anyone and completely unacceptable for the premier of the province.”
Green Party Leader David Coon described the anecdote as disgusting and questioned whether the comment could be passed off as a joke.
“It’s a very dark comment,” he said on Friday.
Higgs, 70, has so far stuck to broadly populist messages as he seeks a third term as New Brunswick’s premier. His key issues so far have included bringing down the harmonized sales tax from 15 to 13 per cent and requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students in class.
When asked about the Liberals’ request for an apology, Progressive Conservative Party Executive Director Doug Williams shifted the focus back to past remarks from Liberal Leader Susan Holt and tried to draw a parallel between her and her unpopular federal counterpart.
“If Susan Holt is truly concerned about offensive comments, will she apologize for saying that concerns of parents about their children are ‘BS’? … Will she apologize for saying the Premier acts like a fascist?” the statement reads.
“The media have not paid any attention to these remarks, despite Progressive Conservatives raising them publicly. Just like Justin Trudeau, Susan Holt wants apologies for things that other people have done, and never wants to apologize for her own actions.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2024.
British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby is in his first election campaign as party leader and is looking to capture the NDP’s second consecutive majority victory on Oct. 19. Here are some highlights from his life and career.
Age: 48. Born July 21, 1976, in Kitchener, Ont.
Pre-politics: An award-winning human rights lawyer, who was the B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director, an adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia, president of the HIV/AIDS Legal Network and served on the Vancouver Foundation’s Health and Social Development Committee.
Politics: Eby, the MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey, was first elected in 2013, defeating then-premier Christy Clark in the riding, forcing her to run in a byelection in Kelowna. He became leader of the party and premier in 2022, replacing former premier John Horgan who left office due to health issues.
Personal: Married to family physician Dr. Cailey Lynch. The family recently welcomed a third child, daughter Gwen.
Quote: “For me, I feel the extra weight of the significance of the election in terms of can we preserve what’s made us successful over the years of working together as a province.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2024.
VICTORIA – British Columbia Green Leader Sonia Furstenau is running in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding in the Oct. 19 election, returning to the capital after representing the Cowichan Valley riding since 2017.
Age: 54. Born June 8, 1970.
Pre-Politics: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history as well as abachelor’s degree in education from the University of Victoria. Furstenau has worked as a high school teacher in Victoria and Shawnigan Lake and served as a director with the Cowichan Valley Regional District for three years prior to entering provincial politics.
Politics: Elected to the B.C. legislature in 2017 for the Cowichan Valley riding and re-elected in 2020, shortly after winning the BC Greens leadership contest that year.
Personal: Furstenau recently moved back to Victoria, where she lives with her husband. The couple shares two sons, and Furstenau told The Canadian Press she is looking forward to becoming a grandmother for the first time in November.
Quote: “When we have a right-wing party pandering to these kind of culture war issues, and then we have the NDP that has abandoned so many of (its) progressive values … more than ever, we need BC Greens in the legislature to keep the focus on the health and well-being of people, communities, the environment and our economy.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2024.
