Aaron Bastani: One of my favourite things about working for Novara Media is co-hosting our weekly, in-depth interview series, Downstream. The show’s rather grand-sounding aim is to talk to some of the most interesting people about the ideas and events that matter. In a world of digestible, short-form media, people seem to really enjoy examining an idea, book or person in detail.
A bonus of doing Downstream, alongside Ash, is that I’m forced to read lots of books. As a result, I now regularly read material I otherwise might not. I’m all the better for it.
So while I’ve not consumed as much fiction as I might have liked this year (a growing toddler will do that), I have been able to read lots of nonfiction. So, dear reader, allow me to proffer my favourite books of 2024. Because while there’s little worse than wasting your time – and money – on a bad book, there’s little more rewarding than getting it right.
Vassal State, by Angus Hanton.
First up is Vassal State, by Angus Hanton. The claim that the United States essentially runs the UK has a long heritage, and is fervently believed by those on the left when it comes to foreign policy (including myself). But rather than focusing on the not-so-special relationship, Hanton instead examines the changing economic ties between the two countries, and how a mix of financialisation, private equity and big tech has led to previously implausible levels of corporate capture. And yes, it’s even worse than you think.
What Went Wrong With Capitalism, by Ruchir Sharma.
Second is What Went Wrong With Capitalism, by Ruchir Sharma. Today Sharma is chairman of Rockefeller International and a columnist at the Financial Times. But for 25 years he worked at Morgan Stanley, where his roles included chief global strategist. Rarely will you read something which confounds so many of the platitudes on both the left and right (while also making sense). Where the former is correct, though, Sharma argues, is that capitalism has morphed into “socialism for the very rich”. His conclusion? That our present model can only generate low growth, low productivity and rising inequality. In essence, capitalism as we know it has been a zombie for most of the 21st century – a startling conclusion given Sharma’s CV. My book of the year.
Why Empires Fall, by Peter Heather and John Rapley.
Third is Why Empires Fall, by Peter Heather and John Rapley. Heather is a historian of antiquity, while Rapley is a political economist who specialises in development. Despite their different backgrounds, the two men came upon a remarkable finding: the contemporary West looks remarkably similar to the Roman Empire of the late 4th Century. So far, so declinist cliche – or so you might think. But rather than following the lead of Edward Gibbons, whose seminal account of Roman decline blamed Christianity and a loss of civic virtue, Heather and Rapley argue that by developing the periphery, and initially enriching itself, the imperial core inevitably creates the conditions for its own demise.
Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, by Ilan Pappe.
Fourth is Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, by Ilan Pappe. I’ve been lucky enough to speak to Pappe twice this year, and his work continues to be a revelation. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is still the first thing you should read by him, but Lobbying For Zionism, which chronicles the rise of the Zionist lobby in both the US and UK, is a truly extraordinary piece of work (it’s over 600 pages). If you think that’s too long for a Christmas gift, why not try A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. The prodigious Professor Pappe also published that over the last twelve months.
How the World Made the West, by Josephine Quinn.
Finally is How the World Made the West, by Josephine Quinn. This sensational history begins in Sumeria 4,500 years ago and ends at the dawn of the Renaissance. Reading it, one begins to grasp the true debt the West owes ‘the rest’ – an analysis which goes beyond the hackneyed examples of Arabic numerals (which are in fact Indian) and medicine. Does monumental Roman and Greek architecture happen without Egypt? Potentially not. Then there are Phoenician innovations in sailing, Indian literature and Assyrian irrigation. Like no man, no civilisation is an island.
Ash Sarkar: I can’t say I’ve been able to read as much as I’d have liked to in 2024 – rushing to finish my own forthcoming book, Minority Rule, meant time that I would have spent reading for pleasure, or to satisfy my own curiosity, was instead gobbled up by research and fact-checking. But Downstream means a portion of each week is set aside for reading new books (though I must say, my favourite bit is talking to people). Here, in no particular order, are my top picks of the year.
Who’s Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler.
Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender? is essential reading for anyone who wants to make sense of the transphobic moral panic which has engulfed Britain and America. Butler’s work has a reputation for being dense, even inaccessible. But Who’s Afraid of Gender is not an academic mediation on the nature of gender; rather, it is an expansive examination of how a global ‘anti-gender’ movement became the vehicle for fascist and anti-feminist politics. This is probably Butler’s most direct and polemical work, but their relentless critical rigour is apparent throughout.
The Golden Road, by William Dalrymple.
No shade to Mr Smith, my GCSE geography teacher, but a part of me has always regretted not choosing to do history. History podcasts are my preferred form of escapism (proof, if any was needed, that I’m not in my twenties anymore). William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road embodies what I love the most about great historical writing: a reader like me, with zero prior knowledge, is transported into a world that’s at once familiar and foreign. The Golden Road is about how India’s maritime trade, powered by the monsoon winds, transformed the ancient world. Fans of this year’s Silk Road exhibition at the British Museum may enjoy hearing a counter-hypothesis.
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew, by Avi Shlaim.
Next up is another history book, Avi Shlaim’s Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew. As we’ve watched the genocide in Gaza unfold, quite naturally the left’s focus is on Israel’s war on the Palestinian people and Palestinian culture. But over the course of Israel’s history, there has been another act of warfare – one which turned Jews into Israelis, at the expense of their other cultural identities. Shlaim was born in Baghdad in 1945, and his family considered themselves just as ‘Arab’ as their Muslim friends and neighbours. That all changed with the foundation of the state of Israel in 1947. Three Worlds tells the story of how Israel stoked Jewish fear in the diaspora, and waged a secret bombing campaign against Iraqi Jews, in order to build the new Zionist nation.
Evenings and Weekends, by Oisín McKenna.
And finally, because I genuinely believe that reading novels is good for the soul, there’s Oisín McKenna’s Evenings and Weekends. Normally, I like fiction which takes me into a context that’s radically different from my own (Wolf Hall hive, rise up!). But what was so special about Evenings and Weekends was how close it was to my own life-world. Set during a sweltering summer weekend in 2019, Evenings and Weekends is about four people – Maggie, her boyfriend Ed, best friend Phil and his mum Rosaleen – struggling to work out what it is they really want. In some way, each of them is paralysed by shame and indecision, while economic precarity nibbles away at their ability to create stability for themselves and the people that they love. I felt like I knew these people, knew these places, and at any moment a character might spill their pint on my trainers.
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