Historian Timothy Garton Ash is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book, Free World: Why a Crisis of the West Reveals the Opportunity of Our Time, will be published this fall.
Poems of Robert Browning (Houghton Mifflin, $18). The English poet to whom I always return. He engages wonderfully with different times and places, especially in Latin Europe, but the truths extracted are universal. “Love Among the Ruins” should be read at least once a month by those impressed by worldly glory.
Essays by Thomas Babington Macaulay (IndyPublish.com, $98). Macaulay’s historical, political, and literary essays are models of style and treasure caves of learning. And he can be gloriously rude.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (Harvest, $13). The gold standard for writing about a foreign crisis. Anything written on Vietnam, Bosnia, or Iraq has to be measured against it. Orwell fought in the trenches for the republican side, and was shot through the neck. Yet he came back and wrote an account that reserved its fiercest criticism for his own team, the left.
Redgauntlet by Walter Scott (Penguin, $11). Scott wrote a fair amount of tosh, but his finest historical novels, such as Redgauntlet, have tremendous energy, scale, and drama. Here, he invents a third Jacobite rising against Britain’s House of Hanover. Like Browning, he is brilliant at commingling the personal and the political.
Gedichte (Poems) by Goethe (out of print). Does anyone read him now? Goethe breathes a spirit of Enlightenment humanism that is the best of the West. And he puts the best words in the best order.
Radical Chic
-
Quiz of The Week: 15 – 21 NovemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Can the UK do more on climate change?Today's Big Question Labour has shown leadership in the face of fraying international consensus, but must show the public their green mission is ‘a net benefit, not a net cost’
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will US Catholics rebel against the Pope?Podcast Plus what are the ethics of freezing your late partner?
-
Beth Macy’s 6 favorite books about living in a divided nationFeature The journalist recommends works by Nicholas Buccola, Matthew Desmond, and more
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Nathan Harris’ 6 favorite books that turn adventures into revelationsFeature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McGuire, and more
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
