And The Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity, and the Threat to Global Stability by Yanis Varoufakis (Bodley Head, £16.99hb) Peter Hegarty In a memorable passage in this apologia, former Greek Minster of Finance Yanis Varoufakis describes walking down a long cold corridor in the finance ministry in Berlin. At the other end German finance…
Back to the Future: Reflections on Rural Life, Recession and Renewal over Thirty Years of Journalism by Ciaran Mullooly (Media People Ireland, €12)
The New Threat from Islamic Militancy by Jason Burke (Bodley Head, £16.99)
The BBC’s ‘Irish Troubles’: Television, Conflict and Northern Ireland by Robert Savage (Manchester University Press, £70)
During the long colonial occupation, Irish people learnt to be wary of rules and laws. They considered these to be means of continuing their subjugation, and saw them as incompatible with the betterment and advancement of their family, friends and community. In a compelling book sociologist Niamh Hourigan (who is senior lecturer at the School of Sociology and…
Cameron’s Coup: How the Tories took Britain to the Brink by Polly Toynbee and David Walker (Guardian Books with Faber and Faber, £9.99)
Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia by David Greene (Alma Books, £12.99)
Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923
Zelda La Grange was Nelson Mandela’s factotum and confidante for almost 20 years during and after his presidency, and recalls their unlikely friendship in this affectionate memoir. An ‘uninquisitive’ Afrikaner, from a Calvinist conservative background, she had grown up to distrust black people, and had learned not to touch them. She regarded black political leaders…
Stefan Kornelius devotes much of this lively, detailed biography to Angela Merkel’s life in East Germany, the former German Domocratic Republic (established in the Russian zone after the war), exploring the influence that reviled but often poorly understood place had on her career, her personality, and her political outlook. State socialism, German-style, was repressive and…