From the books connected to the mission of the Institute, to fascinating novels and biographies… With the beginning of 2021, we share some of the books that we read in 2020 at The Marshall Institute. We asked our academics to pick the books that they found particularly impactful and which they think should be on everyone’s reading list.
Professor Stephan Chambers, Institute Director
“The books I engaged with most last year were those whose authors were involved in our events and classes: Ronald Cohen’s Impact, Paul Marshall’s 10.5 Lessons from Experience, Christian Busch’s Serendipity.”
“I learnt a huge amount from Danny Dorling’s Slowdown and from Stuart Ritchie’s, Science Fictions. Slowdown reverses a few things I thought I knew about the world speeding up and points to why the slowdown may be a good thing. Science Fictions is a salutary account of the things that can go wrong with science through hubris, pressure and simple fraud.”
“The book that flavoured my entire December was Helen Macdonald’s Vesper Flights. It’s the book I’ve recommended most even to those I know aren’t interested in birds or landscape.”
Johnathan Roberts, Teaching Director
“Samanatha Power is a human rights activist, journalist, academic and, during the Obama administration, was the US permanent representative at the UN. Her memoir, Education of an Idealist, has won praise for its revealing account of US policy-making and of the challenge in reconciling human rights policies with national interest and political possibility. But it’s an account too of continual entrepreneurship for positive change, based always on conversations and encounters with the real experts – the communities on the ground who are suffering from disadvantage or persecution.”
“Paul Vallely’s Philanthropy: from Aristotle to Zuckerberg is an instructive and readable account of western philanthropic trends over time. Running through the book is a fundamental societal, moral and political dilemma: how should those with abundant resources interact with or support those without such resources? Different eras have different answers; Vallely dislikes the emphasis on utilitarian effective altruism and celebrity of our own time.”
Julian Le Grand, Professor of Social Policy
“The most stimulating book I’ve read this year is Joseph Henrich’s The Weirdest People in the World. The weirdest people turn out to be us: Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic. WEIRD people are both psychologically and neurologically odd – quite different from members of all other societies throughout history. The book covers an immense canvas, drawing on anthropology, psychology and economics to show exactly how we are different – and how the differences came about.”
“More depressing, though no less involving, was Philippe Sands’ The Ratline – the personal quest by Sands to uncover the story of a senior Nazi with much blood on his hands (including that of some of Sands own family) who tried to escape justice after the War through using the ratline: a channel that helped Nazi refugees to escape to South America.”
“And, for lighter reading to escape lockdown pressures, I’d recommend Walter Tevis’ The Queen’s Gambit: even better than the excellent Netflix series that was based on it.”
