Best non-fiction books: WELT best list May 2023

2023-05-01 10:34:29

AThe list of recommendations with the greatest distribution in the German-speaking area is published here every month. Media partners are “Literarische Welt”, RBB Kultur, “NZZ” and Radio Österreich 1. Experts choose ten non-fiction books of the month from the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and economics. Worthwhile in May:

1. Volker Gerhardt:

individual and humanity. A philosophy of democracy. CH Beck, 352 pages, 36 euros

Volker Gerhardt taught philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin until 2012. In this book he explains what people understood by democracy from ancient times to the present day. An overview from the first democracy in Athens to the United Nations.

2. Howard W. French:

Africa and the emergence of the modern world. A Global Story. Translated by Karin Schuler, Thomas Stauder and Andreas Thomsen. Klett-Cotta, 508 pages, 35 euros

A new look at modern times – and that says: The rise of Europe did not begin with the discovery of America, but with the exploitation of Africa. Journalist French has written a long overdue global economic history that takes into account Africa’s tragic role.

3. Thomas Biebricher:

Middle right. The international crisis of conservatism. Suhrkamp, 638 pages, 30 euros

From Italy to France to Great Britain: In this book, the political scientist Biebricher explains why the crash of the classic conservative parties can become a problem for the stability of European democracies.

4. Georg Kohler:

Putin’s Shadow and the Idea of Political Reason. To the future after the end of history. Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 288 pages, 28 euros

A philosophical essay: Kohler, longtime professor of political philosophy in Zurich, draws food for thought from the “turn of the era”. Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine ended the illusion that arose after 1989 that a “cosmopolitan state” (Kant) could be achieved through economic integration alone. Does reasonable politics still have a future?

5. Silvia Ferrara:

The jump. A journey to the beginnings of thinking in the Stone Age. Translated by Enrico Heinemann. CH Beck, 224 pages, 26 euros

This book takes you into the caves of the Stone Age and combines subjects such as archaeology, anthropology and neuroscience. The main question asked by the Italian professor from the University of Bologna is: What do the early characters, pictograms and symbols of our ancestors mean?

6. Gunter Hofmann:

Willy Brandt. Socialist – Chancellor – Patriot. CH Beck, 517 pages, 35 euros

Here, Gunter Hofmann, who has already written biographies on Richard von Weizsäcker and Helmut Schmidt, portrays the German chancellor who ventilated the conservative Adenauer Republic and wrote world history with the Eastern treaties and his kneeling in Warsaw.

7.Etty Hillesum:

I want to be the chronicler of this time. All diaries and letters 1941-1943, ed. by Klaas AD Smelik. German edition edited by Pierre Bühler. Translated by Christina Siever and Simone Schroth, CHBeck, 989 pages, 42 euros

Etty Hillesum, born in 1914, wrote a diary in Amsterdam, like Anne Frank. Your work, which has now been fully translated into German for the first time, is not only a contemporary testimony to the persecution of the Jews in the German-occupied Netherlands, it also documents a special kind of psycho-self-analysis.

8. Konrad Paul Liessmann:

Lots of lies and other truths. Zsolnay, 254 Seiten, 26 Euro

This volume brings together columns that the Viennese philosopher wrote for newspapers. The range of topics ranges from opinion bubbles and propaganda to fake news and conspiracy theories.

9. Origin of Dardan (Hg.):

Canceln. A necessary fight. Hanser, 232 pages, 22 euros

The “cancel culture” always causes debates. In this stimulating volume, journalists and writers examine the subject from different angles. With voices by Ijoma Mangold, Jürgen Kaube, Mithu Sanyal and others

10. Marcel Beyer:

The toneless voices at the sight of the dead on the streets of Bucha. Wuppertal poetics lecturer for factual narration. Wallstein, 144 pages, 20 euros

The war of aggression on Ukraine as a “turning point” – also of storytelling? In his lectures on the Wuppertal Poetics Lectureship, the writer Marcel Beyer reflects on the importance of the media for the constitution of “reality” in times of war.

The extra recommendation

In addition to the ten tips from the jury, there is a recommendation from a guest every month. This time by media scientist Markus Krajewski (University of Basel). He recommends:

Harry Walter: Pictures crackle. Loop publishing house, 22.50 euros.

“The oddities in the ordinary, which Harry Walter’s wealth of subtle observations so coherently prepares, make his sparkling image descriptions a manual of photographic analysis of everyday life in particular, a vademecum in the literal sense, which in the format of an XL mobile phone gives the constant flow of images with selected shots the most surprising interpretation opposed. Analog instantaneous analysis & offline Instagram at its best.” (Markus Krajewski)

The jury for non-fiction books of the month:

Tobias Becker, “Spiegel”; Manon Bischoff, “Spectrum of Science”; Natascha Freundel, RBB Culture; Eike Gebhardt, Berlin; Knud von Harbou, publicist, Feldafing; Prof. Jochen Hörisch, University of Mannheim; Günter Kaindlstorfer, Vienna; Otto Kallscheuer, Sassari, Italy; Petra Kammann, “Feuilleton Frankfurt”; Jörg-Dieter Kogel, Bremen; Wilhelm Krull, The New Institute, Hamburg; Marianna Lieder, freelance critic, Berlin; Lukas Meyer-Blankenburg, SWR 2 Knowledge; Prof. Herfried Münkler, Humboldt University; Gerlinde Pölsler, “Moth”; Marc Reichwein, WORLD; Thomas Ribi, “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”; Prof. Sandra Richter, German Literature Archive Marbach; Wolfgang Ritschl, ORF; Florian Rötzer, “Krass & Concrete”; Norbert Seitz, Berlin; Anne-Catherine Simon, “Die Presse”, Vienna; Prof. Philipp Theisohn, University of Zurich; Andreas Wang, Berlin; Harro Zimmermann, Bremen; Stefan Zweifel, Switzerland.

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