I have been a professor of politics and law for decades, first at Harvard and then Oxford, and so on; I spent these decades trying to understand what makes democracy work. I think weāve been focusing on the wrong things, and as a political and legal theorist, I want to help us think about a better way forwardāone we can carve for ourselves every day of our lives.
I wrote
How to Be a Citizen: Learning to Be Civil Without the State
I loved Bruce Ackermanās recent book because he is also a professor of constitutional law reflecting on the state of democracy today but in an existential way, looking laterally at possible solutions to our political problems. Our starting points are similar, but proposed solutions different and complementaryāI learned a tremendous amount from this book.
I was impressed by Tim Snyderās ability to distill decades of academic knowledge of dictatorship and autocracy into very important but simple lessons that we need to pay attention to now and always.
An historian, Tim Snyder, is astute at identifying the legal āslidesā used by autocrats to gradually move democratic countries into non-democratic configurations. This is the
kind of book I wish were in the required section of high school reading lists.
'A sort of survival book, a sort of symptom-diagnosis manual in terms of losing your democracy and what tyranny and authoritarianism look like up close' Rachel Maddow
'These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten' Observer
History does not repeat, but it does instruct.
In the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promisedā¦
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The first in a charming, joyful crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband Ramu.
When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry handsome young doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life. Butā¦
I find Samās book imperative: love it or hate it, praise it or criticize it; Sam gets us to think seriously about culture and identity as he opens an important debate for our complex democracies to engage with. I taught with Sam at Harvard and never ceased to be amazed by his profound understanding of the world. We may disagree with him, but he certainly gets us talking.
As people increasingly define themselves by ethnicity or religion, the West will find itself more and more at odds with non-western civilizations that reject its ideals of democracy, human rights, liberty, the rule of law, and the separation of the church and the state. Huntington feels that the fundamental source of conflict in the post-Cold War period will not be primarily ideological or economic, but cultural. Picturing a future of accelerated conflict and increasingly "de-westernized" international relations, he argues for greater understanding of non-western civilizations and offers strategies for maximizing western influence, by promoting co-operative relations with Russia and Japan,ā¦
I found Anne Applebaumās book a pleasure to read; it drew me in quickly with its unique, anecdotal style, as her amazing detail shocks and frightens us: itās an essential, firsthand account of how easy it is for democracy to be threatened, and why we must pay attention to this creeping reality.
The celebrated historian and journalist uncovers the networks trying to destroy the democratic world
All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business withā¦
From the author of Washingtonās Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents ā one Confederate, the other Union ā sent to Britain during the Civil War.
The Southās James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincolnās blockade, sink Northernā¦
I really appreciate David Runcimanās clear, erudite presentation of historyās legal and political thinkersāboth men and women. This is my new go-to text for teaching and for reminding ourselves of the giantsā shoulders we stand on. We are invited to look critically at their ideas and engage with them in dialogue. Like his podcasts, it is a wonderfully accessible history.
'A splendid book: economical, invigorating and surprising' The Times
'He has that gift, both as a podcaster and as a writer, to illuminate abstruse and abstract ideas with human charm' Observer
In this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics and reveals the great men and women of ideas behind it.
What can Samuel Butler's ideas teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies? How did Frederick Douglass not only expose the horrors of slavery, but champion a new approach to abolishing it? Why should we tolerate snobbery, betrayal and hypocrisy,ā¦
We believe that rules and laws are in place to protect us. They are what keep our societies from descending into chaos. Without them, how would we know right from wrong, live comfortably in our communities, and be good neighbors to one another?
I always believed in the strength of the lawāI spent my career in some of the most fractured, war-torn corners of the world, reading and writing constitutions to help fix society. But as I sat alone in a sandbagged trailer in Baghdad after a rocket attack, I admitted what I had been denying for years: a good society cannot be imposed from above. I lay out six ideas to help us build small societies of our own.
To Do Justice is the first book in the White Winter Trilogy. The other books are To Love Kindness and To Walk Humbly. The Trilogy follows the same set of characters through eight tumultuous years in their lives and in the history of the world. To Do Justice startsā¦
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.
The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention onā¦