Best non-fiction books: The non-fiction books of the month July 2023

2023-07-01 13:09:49

This is where the monthly recommendation list with the widest distribution in German-speaking countries appears. Media partners are “Die Literarische Welt”, RBB Kultur, “NZZ” and Radio Österreich 1. Experts from an independent jury select ten non-fiction books of the month from the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and economics. Worthwhile in July:

1. Olaf Kuehl:

Z. Short history of Russia seen from its end. Rowohlt Berlin, 223 pages, 24 euros

“Z A Brief History of Russia” online

Eastern Europe expert Olaf Kühl has traveled to Russia for decades and, based on personal impressions and encounters, shows how the country has continuously developed into today’s regime since the end of the Soviet Union. Read an interview with the author here.

2. Michael J. Sandel:

The uneasiness in democracy. What the unbridled markets have made of our society. S. Fischer, 512 pages, 32 euros

Buy The Discomfort in Democracy online

Why do more and more people feel uncomfortable with our politicians? The Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel sees systemic causes for the crisis of democracy. A large part of the population is practically no longer present in the circles of those in government. Read a detailed review here.

3. Matthias Glaubrecht:

Poet, naturalist, world explorer. Adelbert von Chamisso and the Search for the Northeast Passage. Galiani, 685 pages, 36 euros

Buy “Adelbert von Chamisso” online

His noble family was dispossessed during the French Revolution and fled to Germany, where Chamisso became a poet (“Peter Schlemihl’s wondrous story”) and later a naturalist and world traveler, whom the biographer put in a league with Alexander von Humboldt and Georg Forster asks. Among other things, Chamisso has researched coral reefs and tunicates.

4. Jacob Mikanowski:

Farewell, Osteuropa. Cultural history of a vanished world. Rowohlt Berlin, 509 pages, 34 euros

Buy “Adieu, Eastern Europe” online now

Eastern Europe is a fatal collective term, “a convenience for outsiders,” writes the American publicist Jacob Mikanowski, who has Polish-Jewish ancestors. His book shows how little the idea of a homogeneous Eastern Europe has to do with the cosmopolitan diversity on a small scale that traditionally existed from Romania to Lithuania and from Belarus to Bulgaria.

5. Julia Lovell:

Maoism. A world story. Suhrkamp, 768 pages, 42 euros

“Maoism. Buy A World History” online

Current geopolitical narratives usually cannot do without the formula of “China’s resurgence”. But neither the early Chinese expansionism nor Mao Zedong’s strategy of global infiltration is discussed. Sinologist Julia Lovell wants to change that. Read a detailed review here.

6. Johannes Willms:

Louis XIV. The Sun King and his time. CH Beck, 532 pages, 36 euros

Buy “Louis XIV” online now

He was the Sun King and shaped an entire epoch. In his book, Johannes Willms shows the stress that neighboring countries and contemporaries had with Louis XIV: “You relate everything to yourself, just as if you were God on earth.” Read a detailed review here.

7. Dimitar Bechev:

Turkey under Erdoğan. How the country said goodbye to democracy and the West. HarperCollins, 400 pages, 24 euros

Buy Turkey under Erdogan online

Dimitar Bechev is a political scientist from Bulgaria. His research focuses on the politics of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey. His non-fiction political book explains how Turkey became what it is today and what that means for Europe.

8. David J. Chalmers:

reality+. Virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy. Suhrkamp, 638 pages, 38 euros

Buy “Reality+” online now

Australian philosopher David J. Chalmers analyzes our technological future. He examines properties of virtual reality to open up new perspectives on well-known philosophical questions: How do we know that there is an outside world? What is the nature of reality? And what characterizes the relationship between mind and body? A philosophical book with this punch line: virtual reality is real reality!

9. Juergen Serke:

The Burned Poets. life stories and documents. Wallstein, 363 pages, 38 euros

Buy The Burnt Poets online

Starting in 1976, the journalist Jürgen Serke portrayed authors in a series for the magazine “Stern” that the Germans had forgotten since the day the National Socialists burned books. In book form, his portrait collection became a bestseller. Serke deserves the historical credit of bringing “The Burnt Poets” back to German consciousness. His collection is now opulently illustrated in a new edition. Read more about Jürgen Serke here.

10. Helene Bubrowski:

The fallible ones. Politicians between arrogance, lies and relentlessness. dtv, 221 pages, 24 euros

Buy The Fallen Ones online

Helene Bubrowski is a journalist at the “FAZ”, responsible for parliamentary reporting. In her book, she analyzes misconduct, scandals and resignations by politicians and how the media deals with them. Does overly harsh reporting cause frustration with politics and distrust? This question is also a topic in the book, based on examples.

Olaf Scholz – between knowing better and doing better

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The extra recommendation

In addition to the ten tips from the jury, there is an external recommendation from a guest every month. This time by Lisz Brain (Philosopher and publicist in Vienna). She recommends:

Frantz Fanon: For an African Revolution. Political writings. Edited by Barbara Kalender, translated by Einar Schlereth. March Verlag, 259 pages, 22 euros.

“To kill a European is to kill two birds at once, namely to get rid of an oppressor and an oppressed at the same time. What remains is a dead man and a free man. The fact that Frantz Fanon’s ideas could not gain wider acceptance may also have something to do with these lines. It should be noted that these are not penned by the Antillese psychiatrist and philosopher, but by the much better known Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote the foreword to Fanon’s most famous work.

The selected volume “For an African Revolution” that has now been published stands out from all previous ones, as it brings to light unknown letters and newspaper articles that were once anonymous. In it, Fanon shows himself both as a medically trained eyewitness to the atrocities and as an anti-colonial mastermind and political activist in the Algerian war. According to Fanon, racism is not a constant of the human spirit. The end of racism begins with a sudden lack of understanding. Another world is conceivable.” (Lisz Hirn)

The jury for non-fiction books of the month:

Tobias Becker, “Spiegel”; 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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