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Politics & Society

Five-book reading lists on the political and social questions that the better non-fiction has taken seriously — empire, class, the welfare state, technology and labour, the long arc of liberal democracy and its current strains.

2 articles

Five Books on the Welfare State and Its Postwar History
Politics & Society

Five Books on the Welfare State and Its Postwar History

Five books that take the postwar welfare state seriously as a historical achievement and as a continuing political question — the founding…

Eleanor Hartwell Eleanor Hartwell May 11, 2026 4 min read
Five Books on Living Through Empire's Decline
Politics & Society

Five Books on Living Through Empire's Decline

Five books that take seriously what it is to live inside a great power as the power recedes — without the breathless…

Eleanor Hartwell Eleanor Hartwell May 11, 2026 5 min read

Five Books

Curated five-book reading lists. One subject per list, one short essay per pick by a working critic.

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