Page 29 - Book Reviews

Nate Silver's odds for the future

Risk-takers will dominate our casino-like economy, but most are destined to lose, argues statistician and election modeller Nate Silver in his new book

The Raj and Hajj management

This is an outstanding contribution to a complex and under-researched aspect of imperialist rule as it was shaped in a specific area of colonial hegemony

Mixed feelings about identity

In Both, Not Half explores the diverse facets of mixed identity, going beyond individual experiences

The Indo-Japanese imperative

Packed with compelling anecdotes, data, and insights, Rajaram Panda's book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Indo-Japanese relations

The rights of the Nicobar forests

A collection of essays is a timely attempt at ringing alarm bells over the proposed project port project in the ecologically fragile Galathea Bay of Nicobar island

Anatomy of a massacre

The Damascus Events is a fascinating narrative of the interplay between geopolitical, social, economic, and technological transformations that culminated in two catastrophic wars of the 20th century

How the alt-right became mainstream

Reeve's reporting begins around 2013, but the internet culture she depicts starts at least a decade earlier

The 'compassion' revolution

Two Nobel laureates present a compelling case for compassion, highlighting its benefits for health, well-being, and longevity

Outsiders in the mainstream

Michiko Kakutani's book dips into some compelling cases of outsiders driving change in the world

The rigours of resistance

In a milieu where civil society is demonised by the power establishment, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia's book is a successful attempt at humanising the dehumanised

The origins of India's Islamophobia

Mujibur Rehman's book offers a comprehensive overview of the background, existence, and dilemmas of being a Muslim in today's India

A lesser-known history of maths

Madhava's work serves to make point that complex mathematics belongs to all people and all cultures in all periods, and that to dismiss historical work as ethnomathematics is to express a prejudice

In the footsteps of Ravana

The book traces his reign to the Kumana region using a mix of archaeological finds and the abundant regional legends and folklore around him

Anatomy of a democratic coup

How did the Weimar Republic, Germany's first democracy, fall to the Nazis? Takeover reprises the dramatic six months before Hitler's rise

Good science, bad communication

Ignorance and misunderstanding are rife in how the media reports on scientific matters. Fiona Fox's book addresses this fissure and how to bridge the divide

The Pareto principle in wealth creation

For Do-It-Yourself investors, Arun Kumar's book offers an easy primer on everything from how to get started to avoiding pitfalls

Why the global league of autocrats thrives

One of the great failures of neoliberalism was to assume that all good things would go together

1984: What the women remember

Sanam Sutirath Wazir's The Kaurs of 1984 brings alive the stories of Sikh women caught in the spiral of politics and violence that engulfed Punjab and spread to Sikhs outside state that bloody year

An amble through a forgotten India

Before I Forget is a rare glimpse into the gentle soul of one of India's most accomplished actors and directors, and a look into an era that is now forgotten

How to age wisely

This is a sobering thought in a world where people have the technological means for instant communication but are perennially busy so they make little time to nurture relationships