Rana Dasgupta is a recipient of one of this year's Windham Campbell Prizes for non-fiction.
Against the Grain
Scott is one of those rare academics whose writing is a thing of beauty. This book shows how the first states – such as Sumer in Mesopotamia – could not have emerged without grain. As a durable and transportable form of value, grain could be taxed – and everything else flowed from that.
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The City of Blue and White
Anne Gerritsen, 2020
This fascinating book tells the extraordinary story of China's porcelain industry, which from the 14th century began to export everywhere. Six centuries ago, China was already the "factory to the world".
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Sven Beckert, 2014
Silver, cotton and sugar fuelled the shift to Western power. In rich detail, this describes the hair-raising manoeuvres that allowed Britain, in particular, to build an "empire of cotton" and so dominate the modern world.
Late Victorian Holocausts
Mike Davis, 2000
Davis’s account of the destruction of Asia is not for the faint-hearted: his descriptions of mass famines in 1870s India and China – which had been, until recently, the richest places on the planet – are excruciating. But they teach us a lot about the enormous hunger for success that both countries have displayed in the past few decades.
The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality
Katharina Pistor, 2019
The mechanics of law might seem an obscure subject. Pistor gives you the sense it is the only subject. She shows how the legal artifice creates capital; and so reveals why the global distribution of wealth changes so little over time, and why our political system can never fulfil the utopian promises on which its legitimacy rests. Dark and fascinating.
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‘No Other Choice,’ ‘Dead Man’s Wire,’ and ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’Feature A victim of downsizing turns murderous, an angry Indiana man takes a lender hostage, and a portrait of family by way of three awkward gatherings
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Political cartoons for January 11Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include green energy, a simple plan, and more
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The launch of the world’s first weight-loss pillSpeed Read Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been racing to release the first GLP-1 pill
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Film reviews: ‘No Other Choice,’ ‘Dead Man’s Wire,’ and ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’
Feature A victim of downsizing turns murderous, an angry Indiana man takes a lender hostage, and a portrait of family by way of three awkward gatherings
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Courgette and leek ijeh (Arabic frittata) recipeThe Week Recommends Soft leeks, tender courgette, and fragrant spices make a crisp frittata
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Avatar: Fire and Ash – third instalment feels like ‘a relic of an earlier era’Talking Point Latest sequel in James Cameron’s passion project is even ‘more humourless’ than the last
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The Zorg: meticulously researched book is likely to ‘become a classic’The Week Recommends Siddharth Kara’s harrowing account of the voyage that helped kick-start the anti-slavery movement
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The Housemaid: an enjoyably ‘pulpy’ concoctionThe Week Recommends Formulaic psychological horror with Sydney Sweeney is ‘kind of a scream’
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William Nicholson: a ‘rich and varied’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends The wide-ranging show brings together portraits, illustrations, prints and posters, alongside ‘ravishing’ still lifes
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Oh, Mary! – an ‘irreverent, counter-historical’ delightThe Week Recommends Mason Alexander Park ‘gives the funniest performance in town’ as former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln
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The ultimate films of 2025 by genreThe Week Recommends From comedies to thrillers, documentaries to animations, 2025 featured some unforgettable film moments
