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Geoffrey Alderman, professor of politics and contemporary history, University of Buckingham, is reading the late David Cesarani¡¯s Disraeli: The Novel Politician (Yale University Press, 2016). ¡°This attempted hatchet job fails to convince. Cesarani casts doubt on Dizzy¡¯s commitment to Anglo-Jewish political emancipation but ignores key elements of the story. His assertion that ¨C through his novels ¨C Dizzy made a singular contribution to the crafting of what turned out to be a murderous racialised anti-Semitic discourse is not merely fantastic but wallows in hindsight ¨C the historian¡¯s worst enemy.¡±

Peter Paul Catterall, reader in history, University of Westminster, is reading Hermann Hesse¡¯s The Prodigy (Peter Owen, 2002). ¡°This reminds us that a state-led education system emphasising knowledge at the expense of learning how to think or how to apply knowledge is not a new phenomenon. Too many of our students arrive with the ability to learn educated out of them. Too many expect to continue to be spoon-fed. This is a tragedy of sorts, though not of the kind with which Hesse¡¯s book closes.¡±

Peter J. Smith, reader in Renaissance literature, Nottingham Trent University, has just finished Howard Jacobson¡¯s Shylock Is My Name (Hogarth Shakespeare, 2016). ¡°Jacobson updates The Merchant of Venice, setting it among the spoiled rich of Cheshire. The play¡¯s Gratiano is Gratan, a pig-ignorant professional footballer in hot water for making a Nazi salute. Simon Strulovitch is an art collector and philanthropist whose rebellious daughter wants to marry the footballer. Shylock talks Strulovitch through such questions as anti-Semitism, paternal authority and racial resentment. In places this veers towards caricature, but at its best, Jacobson¡¯s witty anger underlines and undermines the longevity and deep-rootedness of prejudice.¡±

Randall J. Stephens, reader in history and American studies, Northumbria University, is reading Karl Ove Knausgaard¡¯s Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book 4 (Vintage, 2015). ¡°Knausgaard, a 21st-century Proust, has written a remarkable, unflinching memoir series. This volume chronicles the late-teen years he spent teaching at a school in northern Norway. The spare prose crackles with dark humour and brings to life the shame, embarrassment and sense of failure that so many experience at this age.¡±

Peter Whitewood, lecturer in history, York St John University, is reading John Bew¡¯s Realpolitik: A History (Oxford University Press, 2016). ¡°The term ¡®realpolitik¡¯ is often misunderstood, yet it has been central to statecraft and diplomatic history from the 19th century. Bew¡¯s readable guide to the concept takes the reader through its contentious history, and its critics, advocates and practitioners. This is a well-researched account and a superb introduction to a concept that still has relevance to today¡¯s foreign policy questions.¡±