Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?, by Robert Bartlett A thread of celebrity weaves through a masterful study of cults of Christian icons, Helen Fulton finds 19 December
The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present, by David Runciman A. W. Purdue on the risky belief that participatory government can always muddle through any crisis 5 December
Distant Love, by Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim Les Gofton on ‘world families’ and globalisation 28 November
Out of Time: The Pleasures and the Perils of Ageing, by Lynne Segal Stina Lyon ponders life’s many shades of grey 21 November
The Endtimes of Human Rights, by Stephen Hopgood Conor Gearty on an impassioned attack on ‘imperialism disguised as moralism’ 14 November
Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, by Martha Nussbaum Geraldine Van Bueren lauds a plea to put our passions to work in building a more just society 7 November
The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality, by Angus Deaton Kitty Stewart finds wisdom in a study of progress and disparity between nations and people 31 October
The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First?World War, by Margaret MacMillan Roger Morgan on the reasons why so much blood was shed 24 October
Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness, by Tara Brabazon Sandra Leaton Gray on healthier options for e-junkies 17 October
Churchill’s Bomb: A Hidden History of?Science, War and Politics, by Graham Farmelo A. W. Purdue on the leader who saw the nuclear future but let it slip 10 October
The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence 1918-1923, by Charles Townshend Marianne Elliott on the bloody foundation of a modern state 3 October
The Lives of the Novel: A History, by Thomas G. Pavel Robert Eaglestone lauds what will become a standard work in literary criticism 26 September
The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945, by Richard Overy Jill Stephenson praises a study of terror from the skies 19 September
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir Victoria Bateman counts the costs when there’s not enough to go around 12 September
So How’s the Family? and Other Essays, by Arlie Russell Hochschild Stina Lyon on the personal and emotional costs of a global marketplace where everything’s for sale 5 September
Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert, by John Drury Hugh Adlington gains a greater appreciation of one of England’s greatest devotional poets 29 August
Sex and Buildings: Modern Architecture and the Sexual Revolution, by Richard J. Williams Annmarie Adams on one man’s quest to find places where form meets libido 22 August
The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History, by Emma L. E. Rees Shahidha Bari welcomes a thoughtful look at ordinary anatomy and extraordinary anxiety By Shahidha Bari 15 August
The English in Love: The Intimate Story of an Emotional Revolution, by Claire Langhamer Hilary Hinds praises an account of the social shifts discerned in small ads, smooching and soulmates 8 August
Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: Niels Bohr’s 1913 Trilogy Revisited, by Finn Aaserud and John L. Heilbron Graham Farmelo on a scientific giant’s debt to his wife 1 August
The Problem with Pleasure: Modernism and its Discontents, by Laura Frost Gary Day delights in a critique that sweeps aside the perceived gulf between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture 25 July
Isaac and Isaiah: The Covert Punishment of a Cold War Heretic, by David Caute Roger Morgan on how a liberal doyen blackballed a Red rival 18 July
A Child of One’s Own: Parental Stories by Rachel Bowlby Bryony Randall lauds an insightful and overdue study of literary representations of parenting 11 July
Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste by Philip Mirowski A powerful critique of neoclassical economics raises profound questions for all, says Christopher Phelps 4 July
The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature by Franco Moretti Valerie Sanders relishes this considered study of a quietly worthy class of men 27 June
Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica by T.?J. Clark Alex Danchev applauds a study of one of the 20th century’s greatest thinker-painters 13 June
The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da?Cunha by Susanna B. Hecht The interwoven tale of the fight over rubber and a visionary surveyor captivates Robert Mayhew 6 June
Evil Men by James Dawes Joanna Bourke reflects on torturers, murderers and the paradoxes of portraying suffering and trauma 30 May
What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France by Mary Louise Roberts Fiona Reid on the military life’s inherent brutality 23 May
Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet by Finn Brunton Unsolicited emails can be a costly nuisance, says John Gilbey 16 May
Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson Michelle Harvey agrees with inspiring advice to young science researchers to never forget what initially attracted them to the discipline 9 May
Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt by Saul Friedl?nder Robert Eaglestone extols a great historian’s insights into a great and disquieting writer 2 May
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life by Jonathan Sperber Sheila?Rowbotham on a crisp portrait of a restless thinker who was neither infallible nor prophetic 25 April
Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, by Alec Ryrie Lucy Wooding discusses a fresh examination of fervent belief By Lucy Wooding 18 April
Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the 20th Century by Eric Hobsbawm Roger Morgan on a great historian’s last essays that illuminate an era of social and artistic change 11 April
Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic by Michael Axworthy Ervand Abrahamian ponders how Muslim clerics seized and retained control of modern-day Persia 4 April
Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World by Shereen El Feki Shahidha Bari considers an exploration of desire and denial amid Egypt’s shifting sands 28 March
To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism, and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don’t Exist by Evgeny Morozov Tara Brabazon on the hypocrisy of digital utopianism 21 March
Extremes: Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body by Kevin Fong David Green on the risks and rewards of medical progress 14 March
Stalin’s Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War, by Robert Gellately Vladimir Tismaneanu discusses the revolutionary ambitions of the USSR’s great tyrant 7 March
Becoming Sexual by R. Danielle Egan Mary Evans discusses moral panic and girls’ sexualisation 28 February
The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths by John Gray Shahidha Bari on Straw Dogs’ author’s new tricks 21 February
On Glasgow and Edinburgh by Robert Crawford Willy Maley identifies an old-fashioned charm in the telling of a tale of two rival, divided cities 14 February
Engineers of Victory by Paul Kennedy Graham Farmelo applauds a tribute to the technological experts who helped the Allies win the Second World War 7 February
Family Secrets: Living with Shame from the Victorians to the Present Day by Deborah Cohen June Purvis on an absorbing study of social change 31 January
Trent: What Happened at the Council by John W. O’Malley Alec Ryrie salutes a committed and critical look at a key event in the history of Catholicism By Alec Ryrie 17 January
Romanticism and the Question of the Stranger Shahidha Bari commends an expert guide to figures of foreignness from Coleridge to 9/11 10 January
The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? The ‘most authoritative polymath of our age’ offers a reverse recipe very much to Chris Knight’s taste 3 January
Seduced by Logic: ?milie Du Ch?telet, Mary Somerville and the Newtonian Revolution Biancamaria Fontana admires the courage of two women who dared to enter scientific circles 20 December
Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis, by Helen Bynum Richard J. Evans admires exhaustive coverage of an ancient killer that threatens a major comeback 13 December
Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer Jon Turney salutes an exhaustive study of the rise and (relative) fall of a brilliant, bewildering mind 6 December
Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health Sergio Sismondo on a critical exploration of a new, lucrative model for public well-being 29 November
The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives Erika Cudworth considers the ethical dilemmas posed by the decline and death of a beloved ‘pet’ 22 November
The Particle at the End of the Universe: The Hunt for the Higgs and the Discovery of a New World From postulation to discovery: Frank Close weighs up an accessible account of the Higgs boson 15 November
Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman This tale of friends, lovers and fighters for political change has epic sweep, says Robin Feuer Miller 8 November
Tombstone: The Untold Story of Mao's Great Famine It’s not too early to tell who is to blame for the unnecessary death of millions, says Kerry Brown 1 November