The Best of Books 2023

In a timely and thought-provoking book, Zahra delves into the tumultuous years between World War I and World War II to argue that it was resistance to globalism and globalization that ended up weakening Europe’s then-fragile democracies, eventually contributing to the continent’s slide into dictatorship.

Bass’s magnificent book, an account of the post–World War II Tokyo war-crimes trial, encourages a deeper understanding of the Asian experience of war and occupation. His work also sheds light on an enduring debate about liberalism and international politics, showing how the trial played formative roles both in postwar Asian politics and in the making of the postwar global human rights regime.

In a sophisticated and expansive account, Wolf, a veteran economics commentator, suggests that the root cause of today’s political and economic malaise lies in the breakdown of the relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy—and the failure of institutions to counter poverty and marginalization.

In this masterful work, Snyder offers a bold explanation for why, how, and when societies make progress in expanding political rights and freedoms, arguing that breakthroughs occur when human rights serve the interests of a country’s dominant political coalition.

Trubowitz and Burgoon argue in this groundbreaking study that the current backlash against the Western-led liberal international order can be traced to the 1990s, when the United States and European governments encouraged globalization at the expense of social and economic protections at home.

Moving beyond the standard account of the twentieth century as an epic struggle between democracy and autocracy, Maier examines how a wide range of actors tried to harness industrial modernity in the pursuit of power and material interests, weaving an alternative narrative about the explosive interplay of economic privilege and political grievance.

Daunton’s sweeping narrative assesses the history of international economic cooperation and the institutions that organize and sustain it.

Langlois describes the origins of the modern business enterprise—and looks to the future, arguing that important policy decisions, not just technological developments, will shape how markets and corporations will interact moving forward.

At once edifying and entertaining, Miller’s book traces the history of the global semiconductor industry—and examines the key flash points today, with Beijing seeking to build up design and manufacturing capabilities and Washington hoping to slow China’s progress.

Martin and Parker’s superb account of the ill-fated Spanish effort to invade England in 1588 is remarkable in its level of detail, drawing on naval archeology and manuscripts to provide a full and vivid history. 

Walton engagingly charts the complex interactions between the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union (and its successor, Russia), and how the duplicity of their spies influenced key political moments.

Thomas’s gripping account of the decision-making in Washington and Tokyo at the close of World War II focuses on the perspectives of three people: Henry Stimson, the aging U.S. secretary for war; General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, the American officer in charge of the Pacific air campaign; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo.

Drawing on sources unavailable to previous biographers, Eig brilliantly portrays the many dimensions of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., who appears as an extraordinarily courageous, deeply troubled, terribly flawed, and incredibly talented figure. Eig’s balanced treatment of King turns an icon back into a man—and produces a biography that will be very difficult to surpass.

Examining patterns of U.S. military activity and intervention since 1776, Toft and Kushi argue that the data show a sharp uptick in the United States’ use of force in recent decades, amounting to an increased propensity for force-first diplomacy that threatens the country’s long-term interests.

Gadarian and her co-authors’ sophisticated study, based on voluminous data and public opinion polling, is a revealing portrait of U.S. politics throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the key explanation for the United States’ calamitous performance is President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis.

Bartels, a leading analyst of electoral democracy and public opinion in the United States, argues that it is the machinations of political elites, not waning public support for democratic institutions, that have led to the decline of democracy, multilateralism, and tolerance in countries across Europe.

In this uniquely detailed and indispensable study, a team of researchers systematically review the extraordinary extent to which Europe’s neighbors are economically dependent on the continent—and suggest ways Europe can optimize and defend its preeminence.

Szelenyi, herself a former Hungarian politician, provides a balanced and detailed account of Hungary’s slide from liberal democracy toward right-wing populist nationalism under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Neal’s highly entertaining biography of the writer Carleton Beals, whose work on Latin America foreshadowed later anti-imperialist critiques, sheds light on the United States’ relationship with the ruling elites of Latin America throughout the twentieth century.

In this splendid, well-balanced history of an extraordinary but seldom studied period in inter-American relations, Herman argues that pragmatic accords between the United States and Latin American countries enabled a brilliant if brief chapter of solidarity in the Western Hemisphere throughout World War II.

Zamora’s deeply moving, highly personal memoir details his arduous and heroic trek, at age nine, from El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico to Arizona in 1999, graphically describing the many daunting obstacles migrants must overcome to reach the United States.

Based on their firsthand field research, anthropologists Billé and Humphrey present an enthralling portrayal of the 2,600-mile border between China and Russia as the line dividing two essentially different civilizations.

Eaton’s extremely rich historical account sheds light on the Kremlin’s decision in late 1947 to expel the German population of Königsberg, the region that would become the Soviet territory (and now Russian exclave) of Kaliningrad.

Edgar’s absorbing historical study examines the consequences of a Soviet social engineering project that encouraged intermarriage between ethnic groups with the aim of building a Soviet nation, one free of ethnic or racial biases. Instead, Edgar notes, this campaign contributed to the rise of racialized notions of nationality.

In this dazzlingly creative and thought-provoking digital book, Bashir argues that Islam needs to be understood not as a monolithic, unchanging faith but as an accumulation of beliefs and practices that people have labeled “Islam” over time and across regions.

Jones’s astonishing study details the use of social media and communication technology by governments, notably Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as tools of tyranny and propaganda. This deception pollutes public discourse across the Middle East and, more important, inhibits the critical thinking of the citizenry.

Hertog’s brisk, clear, and devastating portrayal of the consequences of decades of misguided economic policy in the Arab world traces the development of two-tiered economies throughout the region.

Dimitrov brings to light the lesser-known techniques of mass surveillance in Leninist party-states, showing how such governments obsessively collected information on dissenters, not just to target them but to preempt protest by granting economic concessions in restive areas.

In this fascinating and original study, Green explores sources in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and other languages to see how Bahai, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Zoroastrian travelers, merchants, and polemicists tried to understand and influence the societies and cultures of China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

In this wide-ranging and shrewd analysis of the Chinese state, Huang predicts that the crackdown on freedom under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s modernized version of imperial rule may bring an end to the country’s brief spurt of dynamism.

Nathan makes the counterintuitive claim that a limited state can still have a large impact on local populations, focusing on the hinterland of northern Ghana to show how the thinness of the state in a region can still powerfully shape social inequality and local power relations.

Armed with fascinating details and anecdotes, Simpson finely traces the political history of South Africa since the beginning of the twentieth century, concluding that the historical legacies of apartheid, violence, and fractious governance continue to cast a heavy shadow over the country today.

Reid brilliantly and ably tells the account of the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first elected prime minister, in what was one of the emblematic episodes of both the Cold War and the end of colonialism in Africa.