Rajiv Shirali

The migratory human

Sedentary people living in nation-states was never the inevitable outcome of human evolution, argues Sam Miller in his new book

History matters

Through a series of essays, Sudeshna Guha's book examines the history of prehistoric and modern-day artefacts and the ethics of heritage-making that nationalises a past bereft of nation states

The 'groupthink' contrarian

The term groupthink itself was inspired by such Orwellian words as newspeak and doublethink

Arrested development

People of Chinese origin who were living in Kolkata and other towns in Bengal and Assam, whose ancestors had migrated to India in search of better opportunities, were put in internment camps in 1962.

80 trains to catch: Monisha Rajesh's global adventure is funny, insightful

Rajesh concludes sorrowfully that high-speed trains in China and Japan kill the romance of railway travel

False narratives

'So, was Trump's entire campaign based on a false narrative'', asks author

People and the planet

Mr Morland offers remarkable insights - albeit entirely from the demographic perspective - into the progress of human society over the past two hundred years

The innovative ancients

Plato's Alarm Clock, fascinating and easy to read, ends on a sobering note

Follies of the wise men

A chapter on assorted kings and other leaders features a bizarre cast of characters

First movers of globalisation: 10 people who made the world smaller

A thought-provoking even if debatable analysis of the story of globalisation

Anatomy of a turnaround

The ghosts of Hillary's past

The rise and ruin of 'Mother Merrill'

A terrorist's mind map

An account of David Headley's life, often in his own words, provides a useful study in how radicalised youth cross the boundaries into terrorism

South America's drug-fuelled holocaust

Gangster Warlords is Mr Grillo's second book, coming five years after El Narco, in which he analysed Mexican drug cartels

A multi-cultural walk in the Himalayas

Book Review: Retracing the Silk Route from 130 BC to 1453 AD

An Oxford historian captures a fascinating world history from an eastern perspective along the 6,400-km-long Silk Road network that connected eastern China and India to the Mediterranean Sea

How Somali piracy became big business

India off the tourist track

Money: mind, body and soul