106 | Talking Politics Guide to ... Summer Reading

Regular Talking Politics contributors tell us about the books they’ve most enjoyed reading, and what they are looking forward to reading next. We've added the list of books mentioned below, but have deliberately not linked through to online purveyors: if you're shopping for summer reads, please take this list into your favourite local bookstore...

  • What we have been reading:
    • Aaron Rapport: The Power by Naomi Alderman
    • Helen Thompson: The Radetzky March and The Emperor’s Tomb by Joseph Roth
      Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
    • Andrew Preston: 1491: The Americas before Columbus by Charles Mann
    • Jennifer Cobbe: Repeal The 8th: A Collection of Stories, Essays, Poetry and Photography around the Movement for Reproductive Rights in Ireland, edited by Una Mullally
    • David Runciman: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld;
      The Nominee by Curtis Sittenfeld
    • Chris Brooke: Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey
    • Chris Bickerton: The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon
  • What we plan to read this summer:
    • Aaron: Hopefully the next in the Saga graphic novel series: written by Brian K. Vaughan, and illustrated by Fiona Staples
    • Helen: Crashed by Adam Tooze
    • Andrew: Watergate, A Novel and Finale, A Novel Of The Reagan Years by Thomas Mallon
    • Jennifer: Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies by Woodrow Hartzog
    • David: The Way Of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
      The unabridged audiobook of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan read by Peter Wickham
    • Chris Brooke: Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World by Samuel Moyn
    • Chris Bickerton: The Occupation Trilogy by Patrick Modiano

You can also find a carefully-curated reading list to support each of our summer guides over at lrb.co.uk/guides.

104 Trump Blows Through

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After another extraordinary week, we try to make sense of what Trump has been up to on his European travels. From Chequers to Brussels to Helsinki, what was he doing and why was he doing it?  Is he really Putin's puppet?  Has he helped or hurt May's chances of survival?  Plus we catch up with the other side of the Trump presidency: the remaking of the US Supreme Court.  How will the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh impact on some of the most contentious issues in American politics, above all the deep divisive question of abortion?  With Helen Thompson and Gary Gerstle, Mellon Professor of American History at Cambridge.

103 | The Next Referendum?

With more Brexit chaos on us, we cut through some of the noise to talk about a new report on the future of referendums.  How can we run them better in future?  When is it appropriate to have a second referendum?  What else can we do to reconnect democratic politics with the voters?  With Gisela Stuart, former Labour MP and Chair of Vote Leave; Jenny Watson, former Chair of the Electoral Commission; and Alan Renwick of the Constitution Unit at UCL.  Plus at the end some thoughts from David on where we are now.  You can read the full report here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/electionsandreferendums/icreferendums
 

102 World Cup Politics

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As the World Cup approaches its climax we talk politics and football, on the morning after England's dramatic penalty shootout win over Colombia.  What happened to the warnings that this World Cup would be like the 1936 Berlin Olympics?  Can we learn anything about German politics from the failure of the German football team?  What does England's progress mean for Brexit?  Plus much more, from Saudi Arabia to Croatia to West Ham.  With Helen Thompson and Mike Kenny.
 

101 | Populism, Migration and Merkel

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 In a special live edition recorded at the Guardian's King's Place Politics Festival - David, Helen and Chris Bickerton discuss whether the migration crisis has opened up a new dividing line in European politics.  Is Viktor Orban right that Europe is now split between the countries that will accept immigrants and the countries that won't?  What does that mean for Merkel's survival prospects?  Where does Macron stand in this fight?  Plus we take questions from the audience about what populism really means and what, if anything, we can do about the current state of politics.