History books

Brainwashed: A New History of Thought Control by Daniel Pick review

This brilliant exploration of psychological manipulation takes in both Mao’s China and the American dream

Kathryn Hughes

29, Jun, 2022 @6:30 AM

Summer books: Bernardine Evaristo, Hilary Mantel, David Nicholls and more pick their favourites

Authors recommend their favourite recent reads, from addictive novels and fascinating cultural history to a game-changing graphic memoir

Bernardine Evaristo, Hilary Mantel, David Nicholls, Anne Enright, Sara Collins, Ali Smith, Jonathan Franzen, Pankaj Mishra, Colm Tóibín, Sarah Waters, Olivia Laing, Ian Rankin, Robert Macfarlane, Katherine Rundell, Mohammed Hanif, Polly Samson and Fatima Bhutto

25, Jun, 2022 @11:00 AM

Summer reading: the 50 hottest new books for a great escape

From pageturning thrillers and comic novels to an antidote to doomscrolling – our pick of the best new fiction and nonfiction. Plus 10 brilliant paperbacks, and 10 great reads for children and teens

Justine Jordan, David Shariatmadari and Imogen Russell Williams

25, Jun, 2022 @8:00 AM

Bi by Julia Shaw review – the past and present of a maligned minority

A tour of the science, culture and history of bisexuality that ranges from the vehemently political to the charmingly weird

Katy Guest

22, Jun, 2022 @10:00 AM

A Woman’s Game by Suzanne Wrack review – taking back the pitch

A fascinating history of women’s football from early 20th century heights, through suppression, to its present-day resurgence

Paula Cocozza

22, Jun, 2022 @6:30 AM

Love and the Novel by Christina Lupton review – an intimate literary journey

An affair drives the author’s highly charged exploration of love in fiction, from marriage to adultery, parenthood to friendship

Lara Feigel

16, Jun, 2022 @9:57 AM

‘I’m certainly open to criticism’: David Wengrow and the trouble with rewriting human history

Wengrow and his late co-author David Graeber caused a sensation with their revisionist view of humankind’s development. But then came the attacks…

Andrew Anthony

12, Jun, 2022 @2:00 PM

The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland review – how an Auschwitz breakout alerted the world

The gripping and heroic story of Rudolf Vrba, who escaped the death camp in order to tell the world about its horrors

Matthew Reisz

12, Jun, 2022 @12:00 PM

Liza Picard obituary

Social historian of London keen to explore the practical details of how people lived in centuries past

Benjamin Buchan

10, Jun, 2022 @2:26 PM

Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor review – butchery of the Bolsheviks

Personal testimonies humanise the Stalingrad author’s mesmerising study of the bloody battle for power after the collapse of the tsarist regime

Andrew Anthony

05, Jun, 2022 @12:00 PM

Because Our Fathers Lied review: Robert McNamara, Vietnam and a partial healing

The son of John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson’s defense secretary delivers a searing memoir of war, betrayal and love

Charles Kaiser

05, Jun, 2022 @6:00 AM

The Siege of Loyalty House by Jessie Childs review – the English civil war in all its fog and mess

The story of the clergymen, soldiers, architects, actors and apothecaries forced to rub shoulders during desperate times