Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s most acclaimed, award-winning contemporary authors. Translated into over forty languages, his sixteen works of fiction include Midnight’s Children – for which he won the Booker Prize in 1981, the Booker of Bookers on the 25th anniversary of the prize and Best of the Booker on the 40th anniversary – Shame, The Satanic Verses, Quichotte and Victory City. His latest book, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen's last Birthday Honours list in 2022.

Salman Rushdie

Salman Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. His lessons on YouTube have revolutionized learning, garnering billions of views globally. Recognized as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Khan is also the founder of schoolhouse.world, Khan Lab School, and Khan World School, and the author of The One World Schoolhouse. He holds three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Salman Khan

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Philip Hensher

The story of the novel in Britain is a good story. It begins in the eighteenth century, when people from outside the regular circles of power and authority began to read in ever greater numbers, seeking words that helped explain their multifarious hopes and desires. A new kind of literature was needed for this growing market of readers, one that reflected as many different lives in its pages as there were people to buy them, that could change with the times and do something new: something novel. 
 
In this illuminating new history of both an art and an industry, Philip Hensher describes how the evolutionary scramble by writers and publishers to get attention drove constant innovation in writing techniques, and produced new ways of printing, distributing, and selling books. Over the course of three hundred years, these forces shaped the novel’s form and its future, from Daniel Defoe to Zadie Smith. Reading widely across the famous, the once famous and the utterly (if unfairly) forgotten, Hensher’s account is a book of investigative verve that makes a serious case for widening the canon. 
 
A History of the Novel in Britain is not only a study of this endlessly entertaining and inspiring literature: it is a hoard of treasure waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

A History of the Novel in Britain

David Damrosch

Inspired by Jules Verne's hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard's department of Comparative Literature and founder of Harvard's Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic's restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran, and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel prizewinners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways the world bleeds into literature. 
 
To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds: the world of their personal experience, and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives. In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we're entering. Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on perennial problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat and the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books' heroines have to struggle, from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today. 
 
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS is a global invitation to look beyond ourselves and our surroundings, and to see our world and its literature in new ways.

Around the World in 80 Books

Richard Jenkyns

Any list of the six greatest European poets would include Virgil, Aeschylus and Homer. A recent history of philosophy named Aristotle and Plato as two of the world's four greatest philosophers. The greatest historian of all is likely to be Thucydides. Why was Ancient Greek and Roman literature so great? 
 
Sweeping across a thousand years, acclaimed professor Richard Jenkyns provides a lucid and lively introduction to the foundation of all Western literature. As Jenkyns shows us, the Greeks were masters of invention - they pioneered nearly all the major literary forms, including epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, and history. The Romans, like us, already felt in the shadow of Greek literature, and, as Jenkyn puts it, they first invented imitation. 
 
In short, engaging chapters, Jenkyns illuminates the most enduring and influential works of the classical world, from the Homeric epics to the golden age of Latin poetry, and explores their unparalleled and continuing influence on Western literature.

Classical Literature

Anthony King

The British system has been radically transformed in recent decades, far more than most of us realise. As acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Anthony King shows, this transformation lies at the heart of British politics today. Imagining - or pretending - that the British political system and Britain's place in the world have not greatly changed, our political leaders consistently promise more than they can perform. Political and economic power is now widely dispersed both inside and outside the UK, but Westminster politicians still talk the language of Attlee and Churchill. How exactly has the British system changed? Where does power now lie? In Who Governs Britain?, King offers the first assessment in many years of Britain's governing arrangements as a whole, providing much needed context for the 2015 general election.

Who Governs Britain?

Mark Sedgwick

Traditionalism is founded on ancient teachings that, its followers argue, have been handed down from time immemorial, forming a basis of the sacred order that must be defended from modernity and the disorder it brings. It has been used to encourage respect for the environment, compose great music and reduce hostility between followers of different religions. King Charles is an avowed Traditionalist, and has used it as a framework to encourage protecting the rural landscape. 
 
But Traditionalism has also been used to support darker causes: from the election of Donald Trump to fascist movements and even terrorism. How has Traditionalism been so influential for so long, yet so little acknowledged and understood? Its followers have never aimed to reach the masses and have sought to affect the world quietly. In this book, the first of its kind for a wide audience, Traditionalism's history, ideas and profound impact are laid out, shining a light onto this shadowy world and the thought of its three founders, René Guénon, Julius Evola and Frithjof Schuon. Once you understand Traditionalism, you will see its influence everywhere.

Traditionalism

The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order

Gregory Claeys

What does Marxism really mean? How did one man's ideas have such an influence on the world? Why should we read him today? 
 
Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. The movements associated with his name have lent hope to many victims of tyranny and aggression but have also proven disastrous in practice and resulted in the unnecessary deaths of millions. If after the collapse of the Soviet Union his reputation seemed utterly eclipsed, a new generation is reading and discovering Marx in the wake of the recurrent financial crises, growing social inequality and an increasing sense of the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. Both his critique of capitalism and his vision of the future speak across the centuries to our times, even if the questions he poses are more difficult to answer than ever. 
 
In this wide-ranging account, Gregory Claeys, one of Britain's leading historians of socialism, considers Marx's ideas and their development through the Russian Revolution to the present, showing why Marx and Marxism still matter today.

Marx and Marxism

Orlando Figes

What caused the Russian Revolution? 
 
Did it succeed or fail? 
 
Do we still live with its consequences? 
 
Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed books on Russian history, including A People's Tragedy, which The Times Literary Supplement named as one of the '100 most influential books since the war', Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers, Crimea and Just Send Me Word. The Financial Times called him 'the greatest storyteller of modern Russian historians.'

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991

A Pelican Introduction

Nicholas Mirzoeff

Since the rise of the internet and personal computers, we have seen an exponential increase in the number of visual images around us. From YouTube to Instagram, video games to installation art, this dramatic visual transformation is liberating, confusing and worrying all at once. Nicholas Mirzoeff is a leading figure in the burgeoning field of visual culture, which aims to make sense of the images and artefacts all around us. In the first book to explain this fascinating and timely subject to the general reader, Mirzoeff draws on art history, theory and everyday experience to provide an engaging, approachable introduction to how visual materials shape our lives.

How to See the World

Michael Wooldridge

'A terrific book - essential reading for everyone seeking to make sense of Artificial Intelligence' Professor Sir Adrian Smith, Director and Chief Executive of the Alan Turing Institute 
 
In this myth-busting guide to AI past and present, one of the world's leading researchers shows why our fears for the future are misplaced. 
 
The ultimate dream of AI is to build machines that are like us: conscious and self-aware. While this remains a remote possibility, rapid progress in AI is already transforming our world. Yet the public debate is still largely centred on unlikely prospects, from sentient machines to dystopian robot takeovers. 
 
In this lively and clear-headed guide, Michael Wooldridge challenges the prevailing narrative, revealing how the hype distracts us from both the more immediate risks that this technology poses - from algorithmic bias to fake news - and the true life-changing potential of the field. The Road to Conscious Machines elucidates the discoveries of AI's greatest pioneers from Alan Turing to Demis Hassabis, and what today's researchers actually think and do. 
 
'Nobody understands the past, the present, the promise and the peril of this new technology better than Michael Wooldridge. The definitive account' Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist 
 
'Effortlessly readable. The perfect guide to the history and future of AI' Tom Chivers, author of The AI Does Not Hate You

The Road to Conscious Machines

The Story of AI

Ruth Kinna

Often associated with chaos or disorder, anarchy defies definition and routinely gets a bad press. And yet from Occupy to Pussy Riot, Noam Chomsky to David Graeber, this philosophical and political movement is as relevant as ever. Contrary to popular perception, different strands of anarchism - from individualism to collectivism - do follow certain structures and a shared sense of purpose: a belief in freedom and working towards collective good without the interference of the state. 
 
In this masterful, sympathetic account, political theorist Ruth Kinna traces the tumultuous history of anarchism, starting with thinkers and activists such as Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman and through key events like the Paris Commune and the Haymarket affair. Skilfully introducing us to the nuanced theories of a range of anarchist groups from around the world, The Government of No One reveals what makes a supposedly chaotic movement particularly adaptable and effective over centuries.

The Government of No One

The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

Timothy Morton

Don't care about ecology? This book is for you. Morton sets out to show us that whether we know it or not, we already have the capacity and the will to change the way we understand the place of humans in the world, and our very understanding of the term 'ecology'. A cross-disciplinarian who has collaborated with everyone from Björk to Hans Ulrich Obrist, Morton is also a member of the object-oriented philosophy movement, a group of forward-looking thinkers who are grappling with modern-day notions of subjectivity and objectivity, while also offering fascinating new understandings of Heidegger and Kant. Calling the volume a book containing 'no ecological facts', Morton confronts the 'information dump' fatigue of the digital age, and offers an invigorated approach to creating a liveable future.

Being Ecological

Emma Smith

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'An outstanding book ... lively, curious and passionate' Literary Review 
 
Why should you read a book about Shakespeare and his plays? 
Because he is a timeless genius whose work encapsulates the human condition? 
Or is it something more unexpected?

This Is Shakespeare

How to Read the World's Greatest Playwright

Hugh Kennedy

What is a caliphate? Who can be caliph? And how are contemporary ideologues such as ISIS reviving - and abusing - the term today? 
 
In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to China and was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris and London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad and Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade and culture, and the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by extraordinary advances in science, medicine and architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we understand this form of Islamic government before groups such as ISIS distort its practice completely.

The Caliphate

Jo Dunkley

In recent years, extraordinary advances in our understanding of the wider Universe have led us to uncover even greater mysteries: what, for example, are the mysterious 'dark' parts of the Universe? And, what happens in those parts of space where conditions are so intense that our laws of physics break down? 
 
In this new Pelican book, practising cosmologist and Professor of Astrophysics Jo Dunkley takes us to the heart of these many unsolved questions, guiding us through the history and structure of the universe, and illuminating many unsung heroes of discovery along the way.

Our Universe

An Astronomer's Guide

Roger Eatwell

Matthew Goodwin

A crucial new guide to one of the most urgent political phenomena of our time: the rise of national populism 
 
Across the West, there is a rising tide of people who feel excluded, alienated from mainstream politics, and increasingly hostile towards minorities, immigrants and neo-liberal economics. Many of these voters are turning to national populist movements, which have begun to change the face of Western liberal democracy, from the United States to France, Austria to the UK. 
 
This radical turn, we are told, is a last howl of rage from an aging electorate on the verge of extinction. Their leaders are fascistic and their politics anti-democratic; their existence a side-show to liberal democracy. But this version of events, as Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin show, could not be further from the truth. 
 
Written by two of the foremost experts on fascism and the rise of national populism, this lucid and deeply-researched book is a vital guide to our transformed political landscape. Challenging conventional wisdoms, Eatwell and Goodwin make a compelling case for serious, respectful engagement with the supporters and ideas of national populism - not least because it is a tide that won't be stemmed anytime soon.

National Populism

The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

Guy Standing

Time has always been political. Throughout history, how we use our time has been defined and controlled by the powerful, and today is no exception. But we can reclaim control, and in this book, the pioneering economist Guy Standing shows us how. 
 
The ancient Greeks organized time into five categories: work, labour, recreation, leisure and contemplation. Labour was onerous, while the keys to a good life were self-chosen work and leisure (schole), which included participation in public life and lifelong education. Yet now our jobs are supposed to provide all meaning in life, our time outside labour is considered simply 'time off', and politicians prioritize jobs above all else. 
 
Today, we are experiencing the age of chronic uncertainty. Stress and mental illness are on the rise as more and more time is being stolen from us in myriad ways, particularly from the vulnerable and those in the precariat. 
 
But there is a way forward. We can create a new politics of time, one that liberates us and helps save the planet, through strengthening real leisure and working on shared endeavours through commoning. We can retake control of our time, but we must do it together.

The Politics of Time

Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty

Kalwant Bhopal

Why is our education system unequal? 
How does race play a part? 
Is Britain still institutionally racist? 
 
Education remains the greatest indicator of life chances in Britain. What we study, where we study, and how long for shape all aspects of our lives. Our careers, our long-term health, our wealth and security are all moulded in the classroom. 
 
But who we are ultimately matters the most. 
 
In Race and Education, Professor Kalwant Bhopal shows how race still determines who gains the best education in Britain, and who falls by the wayside. Through case studies, original research and interviews with students, teachers and academics alike, she reveals how the construction of privilege starts at a young age: with Whiteness taking some students on a gilded path from cradle to career, while many still struggle to build the futures they deserve. 
 
This book highlights how classrooms and lecture halls are at the centre of perpetuating White privilege - and how racism continues to exist in Britain. 
 
'A timely and excellent book that makes clear the role racism continues to play in shaping education. A must read for teachers, school leaders, parents and politicians. We need more honest, crucial, refreshing and rigorous work like this.' - Kehinde Andrews

Race and Education

Reproducing White Supremacy in Britain

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Our personal and political worlds are rife with arguments and disagreements, some of them petty and vitriolic. The inability to compromise and understand the other side is widespread today. What can we do to change this? In Think Again philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong draws on a long tradition of logic to show why we should stop focusing on winning arguments and instead argue in a more constructive way. 
 
Based on a hugely popular online course with more than a million followers around the world, Think Again explains how to analyse, evaluate and make better arguments while also spotting bad reasoning and avoiding certain fallacies. Through lively, practical examples from everyday life, politics and popular culture, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong offers brilliantly straightforward, wise advice that we can all use at work, at home and online.

Think Again

How to Reason and Argue

David Spiegelhalter

We live in a world where uncertainty is inevitable. How should we deal with what we don’t know? And what role do chance, luck and coincidence play in our lives? 
 
David Spiegelhalter has spent his career dissecting data in order to understand risks and assess the chances of what might happen in the future. In The Art of Uncertainty, he gives readers a window onto how we can all do this better. 
 
In engaging, crystal-clear prose, he takes us through the principles of probability, showing how it can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to pandemics and climate change forecasts, and explores how we can update our beliefs about the future in the face of constantly changing experience. Along the way, he explains why roughly 40% of football results come down to luck rather than talent, how the National Risk Register assesses near-term risks to the United Kingdom, and why we can be so confident that two properly shuffled packs of cards have never, ever been in the exact same order. 
 
Drawing on a wide range of captivating real-world examples, this is an essential guide to navigating uncertainty while also having the humility to admit what we do not know.

The Art of Uncertainty

How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck

Melissa Lane

What is politics? 
What are the origins of political philosophy? 
What can we learn from the Greeks and Romans? 
 
In Greek and Roman Political Ideas, acclaimed classics scholar Melissa Lane introduces the reader to the foundations of Western political thought, from the Greeks, who invented democracy, to the Romans, who created a republic and then transformed it into an empire. Tracing the origins of political philosophy from Socrates to Cicero to Plutarch, Lane reminds us that the birth of politics was as much a story of individuals as ideas.

Greek and Roman Political Ideas

Richard Layard

George Ward

Most people now realize that economic growth, however desirable, will not solve all our problems. Instead, we need a philosophy and a science which encompasses a much fuller range of human need and experience. 
 
This book argues that the goal for a society must be the greatest possible all-round happiness, and shows how each of us can become more effective creators of happiness, both as citizens and in our own organizations. 
 
Written with Richard Layard's characteristic clarity, it provides hard evidence that increasing happiness is the right aim, and that it can be achieved. Its language is simple, its evidence impressive, its effect inspiring.

Can We Be Happier?

Evidence and Ethics

Melanie Mitchell

No recent scientific enterprise has been so alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. How intelligent are the best of today's AI programs? To what extent can we entrust them with decisions that affect our lives? How human-like do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us in most, if not all, human endeavours? 
 
From leading AI researcher and award-winning author Melanie Mitchell comes a knowledgeable and captivating account of modern-day artificial intelligence. Flavoured with personal stories and a twist of humour, Artificial Intelligence illuminates the workings of machines that mimic human learning, perception, language, creativity and common sense. Weaving together advances in AI with cognitive science and philosophy, Mitchell probes the extent to which today's 'smart' machines can actually think or understand, and whether AI requires such elusive human qualities in order to be reliable, trustworthy and beneficial. 
 
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans provides readers with an accessible, entertaining and clear-eyed view of the AI landscape, what the field has actually accomplished, how much further it has to go and what it means for all of our futures.

Artificial Intelligence

A Guide for Thinking Humans

Tim Lewens

What is science? Is it uniquely equipped to deliver universal truths? Or is it one of many disciplines - art, literature, religion - that offer different forms of understanding? In The Meaning of Science, Tim Lewens offers a provocative introduction to the philosophy of science, showing us for example what physics teaches us about reality, what biology teaches us about human nature, and what cognitive science teaches us about human freedom. Drawing on the insights of towering figures like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, Lewens shows how key questions in science matter, often in personal, practical and political ways.

The Meaning of Science

John D. Caputo

Is anything ever not an interpretation? 
Does interpretation go all the way down? 
Is there such a thing as a pure fact that is interpretation-free? If not, how are we supposed to know what to think and do? 
 
These tantalizing questions are tackled by renowned American thinker John D Caputo in this wide-reaching exploration of what the traditional term 'hermeneutics' can mean in a postmodern, twenty-first century world. As a contemporary of Derrida's and longstanding champion of rethinking the disciplines of theology and philosophy, for decades Caputo has been forming alliances across disciplines and drawing in readers with his compelling approach to what he calls "radical hermeneutics." In this new introduction, drawing upon a range of thinkers from Heidegger to the Parisian "1968ers" and beyond, he raises a series of probing questions about the challenges of life in the postmodern and maybe soon to be 'post-human' world.'

Hermeneutics

Facts and Interpretation in the Age of Information

Ha-Joon Chang

What is economics? 
How does the global economy work? 
What do different economic theories tell us about the world? 
 
In Economics: The User's Guide, bestselling author Ha-Joon Chang explains how the global economy works, and why anyone can understand the dismal science. Unlike many economists who claim there is only one way of 'doing economics', he introduces readers to a wide range of economic theories, from classical to Keynesian, revealing how they all have their strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. By ignoring the received wisdom, and exposing the myriad forces that shape our financial fate, Chang provides the tools that every responsible citizen needs to understand - and address - our current economic woes.

Economics: The User's Guide

Jonathan Holslag

In three thousand years of history, China has spent at least eleven centuries at war. The Roman Empire was in conflict during at least 50 per cent of its lifetime. Since 1776, the United States has spent over one hundred years at war. The dream of peace has been universal in the history of humanity. So why have we so rarely been able to achieve it? 
 
In A Political History of the World, Jonathan Holslag has produced a sweeping history of the world, from the Iron Age to the present, that investigates the causes of conflict between empires, nations and peoples and the attempts at diplomacy and cosmopolitanism. A birds-eye view of three thousand years of history, the book illuminates the forces shaping world politics from Ancient Egypt to the Han Dynasty, the Pax Romana to the rise of Islam, the Peace of Westphalia to the creation of the United Nations. 
 
This truly global approach enables Holslag to search for patterns across different eras and regions, and explore larger questions about war, diplomacy, and power. Has trade fostered peace? What are the limits of diplomacy? How does environmental change affect stability? Is war a universal sin of power? At a time when the threat of nuclear war looms again, this is a much-needed history intended for students of international politics, and anyone looking for a background on current events.

A Political History of the World

Three Thousand Years of War and Peace

Lucy Delap

How has feminism developed? What have feminists achieved? What can we learn from the global history of feminism? 
 
Feminism is the ongoing story of a profound historical transformation. Despite being repeatedly written off as a political movement that has achieved its aim of female liberation, it has been continually redefined as new generations of women campaign against the gender inequity of their age. 
 
In this absorbing book, historian Lucy Delap challenges the simplistic narrative of 'feminist waves' - a sequence of ever more progressive updates ­- showing instead that feminists have been motivated by the specific concerns of their historical moment. Drawing on an extraordinary range of examples from Japan to Russia, Egypt to Germany, Delap explores different feminist projects to show that those who are part of this movement have not always agreed on a single programme. This diverse history of feminism, she argues, can help us better navigate current debates and controversies. 
 
A real tour de force from an award-winning expert, Feminisms shows that a rich relationship to the past can infuse today's activism with a sense of possibility and inspiration.

Feminisms

A Global History

Statistics has played a leading role in our scientific understanding of the world for centuries, yet we are all familiar with the way statistical claims can be sensationalized, particularly in the media. In the age of big data, as data science becomes established as a discipline, a basic grasp of statistical literacy is more important than ever. 
 
In The Art of Statistics, David Spiegelhalter guides the reader through the essential principles we need in order to derive knowledge from data. Drawing on real-world problems to introduce conceptual issues, he shows us how statistics can help us determine the luckiest passenger on the Titanic, whether serial killer Harold Shipman could have been caught earlier and if screening for ovarian cancer is beneficial. 
 
How many trees are there on the planet? Do busier hospitals have higher survival rates? Why do old men have big ears? Spiegelhalter reveals the answers to these and many other questions - questions that can only be addressed using statistical science.

The Art of Statistics

Learning from Data

John Sellars

There is in Athens a rather plain ruin; a simple courtyard lined with fragments of wall. Yet, this little patch of land has a claim to be the most significant place in human history. It is the Lyceum, site of Aristotle's school: here the philosopher wandered, discussing his life's work with students, proposing answers to the mysteries of the human condition. 
 
Today, it can be difficult to fully comprehend the staggering influence of these lessons. Aristotle's observations about the world around him and his reflections on the nature of knowledge laid the foundations for all empirical science. His study of rational thought formed the basis of formal logic, the cornerstone of philosophical investigation. His examination of Greek city-states gave us political science, while his analysis of drama remains a mainstay of literature courses around the world. 
 
In lucid prose, acclaimed philosopher John Sellars takes us on a journey through Aristotle's thought, vividly bringing to life the key ideas, and demonstrating that the famous philosopher's capacity for curiosity continues to offer us all a vision of more fulfilled lives. Aristotle has lessons still to teach.

Aristotle

Understanding the World's Greatest Philosopher

Vladislav Zubok

Why did the Cold War erupt so soon after the Second World War? How did it escalate so rapidly, spanning five continents over six decades? And what led to the spectacular collapse of the Soviet Union? 
 
In this comprehensive guide to the most widespread conflict in contemporary history, Vladislav Zubok traces the origins of the Cold War in post-war Europe, through the tumultuous decades of confrontation, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and beyond. 
 
With remarkable clarity, Zubok argues that the Cold War, often seen as an existential battle between capitalist democracy and totalitarian Communism, has long been misunderstood. Challenging the popular Western narrative that economic superiority and democratic values led the USA to victory, Zubok looks beyond the familiar images of East-West rivalry towards the wider context of global decolonisation, Soviet weakness and the accidents of history. Here, he interrogates what happens when stability and peace are no longer the default, when treaties are broken and when diplomacy ceases to function. 
 
Drawing on years of research and informed by Zubok’s three decades in the USSR followed by three decades in the West, The World of the Cold War paints a striking portrait of a world on the brink.

The World of the Cold War

1945-1991

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