[[Category:Politics and Society|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
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[[image:Wolff Trump.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1408711400?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1408711400]]
|summary=The political landscape is changing rapidly at the moment. A little more than two years ago we were facing the end of the UK's first coalition government since World War II and fully expecting that we would see another. Instead we saw a Conservative government elected with a workable majority. Brexit saw the end of one Prime Minister and another elected by a few members of parliament. As I write we're facing another general election, with a Conservative landslide predicted. In two years we've seen the Liberal Democrats collapse from being part of the ruling coalition to a party whose MPs could hold a meeting in a decent-sized car.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784704164</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Jess Phillips
|title= Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking the Truth
|rating=3.5
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary=''Everywoman'' announces itself proudly, with a chapter named ''The Truth about Speaking up''. Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, tells us many times that she is ''gobby'' and that she has a loud voice. Her voice does come through, clear and urgent. Using her journey to Westminster and her experiences in Parliament, Phillips teaches the reader the truths she's learned on her journey.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330776</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Tormod V Burkey
|title=Ethics for a Full World or, Can Animal-Lovers Save the World?
|rating=4
|genre= Animals and Wildlife
|summary= Burkey argues that man's current practices are outside the realms of nature. He is no longer part of the ecosystem, but instead exists above it through his dominating ways. He is himself distanced even further by advancement in technologies, industry, money and all the pollution that comes with them. The natural world, Burkey argues, no longer exists for man because he has altered it by such things. Indeed, global warming has caused climate change, which, if it continues, will make the world unrecognisable. For the world to become fuller, for it to be a world that seeks to provide for the needs of every living thing, then it needs to change.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570856</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum
|title= The Future of Violence - Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones: Confronting the New Age of Threat
|rating= 4
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Looking back over this month, April 2017, the news has been full of terrorist attacks perpetrated by lone individuals. A suicide bombing on the St Petersburg Metro killed 15 people and injured 64 more. In Stockholm, Sweden, a hijacked truck steered into a pedestrian shopping area and department store. Most recently, a shooting in Paris just two days ago, claimed the life of a police officer and injured several others. Whilst it is true that governments have access to impressive, cutting-edge technology to combat terrorism, it is also a fact that these resources are becoming increasingly available to individuals. At what cost?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445655934</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Lynn Knight
|title= The Button Box
|rating= 4
|genre= History
|summary= Buttons are the underdogs of the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements of clothing, falling into the same dustbin category with zips and shoe laces, they tend to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes on, rather than contributors to style. But Lynn Knight is set to prove that the opposite is true. We think nothing of lacing discussions about clothing and feminism with headscarves, bikinis, and underweight models – and buttons deserve a place on the pedestal of gender discussion, too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Paul Flynn
|title= Good As You: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay Britain
|rating= 5
|genre= History
|summary=The last 30 years have seen a tidal wave of change sweep the country with regards to how gay people are perceived and accepted. In 1984, the pulsing electronic beats of ''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later though, the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith. This is the story of Britain's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbands. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As You.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Mark Aylwin Thomas
|title= Blades of Grass
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Biography
|summary= Any book that has me in tears at the end has been worth my time. Any book that has me hoping it will end differently to the way I know it must is worth the reading. Any book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope in the world – that for all the mistakes made thus far, still being made right now, there is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that is worth the writing and the reading and the time. Blades of Grass is one such book. It's a forgotten story, an unknown story to most people. It is one that should be told – and reflected upon.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Preston
|title=A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment
|rating=5
|genre=True Crime
|summary=Jeremy Thorpe was the sort of person who was generally liked by others. He was flamboyant and gregarious but could give the impression that meeting someone had made his day. He never seemed to forget a name and he was witty, charismatic and very charming. He appeared to be a decent man, with views with which I would have agreed on race, capital punishment and membership of the Common Market, as the European Union was then known. For this was the nineteen sixties and Thorpe had entered Parliament at the age of thirty and by 1967 he would be party leader. On the surface he was a man who had everything going for him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Sarah Bakewell
|title= At The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails
|rating=4
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary= You know that old saying about judging books by their cover? Ignore it! I have found that by judging a book by its cover and getting it completely wrong is a great way to find yourself committed to reading a book that you'd never have picked in a million years and yet, somehow, being amazingly glad you did.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)
|title=The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Tony Benn must be one of the most famous diarists of the modern age. He kept a diary from his schooldays in the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009, five years before his death. Benn was also a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens I've found myself listening to him believing that I disagreed with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we weren't so far apart after all. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way to enjoy the diaries would be to read the individual volumes, beginning with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hope: Diaries,Letters and Papers 1940-1962}}, but that's a lengthy undertaking and ''The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection'' edited by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pages. Be warned though: there has been a previous {{amazonurl|isbn=0099634112|title=composite volume}}, also called ''The Benn Diaries'' and published in 1996. The current volume goes to 2009.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>
}}