D. Acemoglu and J. A. Robinson, Why nations fail (2012)
J. Diamond, Guns Germs and Steel (1997)
E.R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros (1922)
G. Maxwell, The House of Elrigg (1965)
T. Shipman, Fall out (2017)
I said I'd read more non-fiction this year: it's working. And lots were very good indeed, though I found the frankly terrible history in Acemoglu too much to stomach. It made me very nervous of his wider conclusions. Compared with Diamond, which I thought was very good, I found the reviewing responses curious. Diamond is subject to much harsher reviewing opinion about overreach, but is actually much more measured than his critics claim - and much more than Acemoglu. Regardless, my favourites were Tim Shipman's books on the collapse of functioning British politics. I've given it to the Brexit one, but it could have been either. They're thorough, detailed accounts of the double implosions of the Tory party that have brought to where we are. I suspect All Out War was easier to write and it's certainly easier to follow, if entirely depressing. The level of anatomisation of politics does remind me of the (disappointingly not by Bismark) quotation about laws and sausages, but feels essential to understand what happened, and what is following. These are excellent aids to that process.
