Political Science

  • 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia

    ‘A globe-trotting legal thriller, a personal history and a twin portrait of a pair of mass murderers . . . indelible and enthralling’ PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE

    ‘Phenomenal’ ANTONY BEEVOR

    ‘Extraordinary . . . I read with open mouth and thumping heart’ STEPHEN FRY

    In 38 Londres Street, Philippe Sands blends personal memoir, historical detective work and gripping courtroom drama to probe a secret double story of mass murder, one that reveals a shocking thread that links the horrors of the 1940s with those of our own times.

    The house at 38 Londres Street is home to the legacies of two men whose personal stories span continents, nationalities and decades of atrocity: Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile, and Walther Rauff, a Nazi SS officer responsible for the use of gas vans.

    On the run from justice at the end of the Second World War, Rauff crosses the ocean to southern Chile. He settles in Punta Arenas, Patagonia, managing a king crab cannery at the end of the world. But there are whispers about this discreet and self-possessed German – rumours of a second career with Pinochet’s secret intelligence service, the dreaded DINA.

    In 1998, Pinochet is in a London medical clinic when the police enter his room and arrest him on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide. Philippe Sands is called to advise the former head of state on his claim to immunity, but will instead represent a human rights organisation against him. Years later, Sands makes a discovery while working on another book which reignites his interest in the case and leads to a decades-long investigation into Pinochet’s crimes, his unexpected connection to Rauff and the former Nazi’s possible connection to Chile’s disappeared.

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    £23.70
  • Chokepoints: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War

    THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    ‘Chokepoints is a masterful narrative of US economic warfare in the 21st century.’ Financial Times

    ‘Chokepoints is a compelling and dramatic narrative about the new shape of geopolitics’ Wall Street Journal

    ’A gripping, firsthand account. Unparalleled.’ Chris Miller, author of Chip War

    Globalisation was once hailed as the great leveller, bringing prosperity to all. But the world has changed. As Russia, China and Iran have sought to upend the international order, America and its allies have mounted unprecedented economic retaliation. The global economy is now a weapon of war.

    Chokepoints is a thrilling behind-the-scenes account of one of the most pivotal geopolitical shifts of our time. Drawing on extensive research, personal experience and interviews with key players, Edward Fishman, a former top US State Department official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power around the world. Here we meet an eclectic group of innovators: the diplomats, lawyers and financial whizzes who’ve masterminded a fearsome new arsenal of economic weapons, exploiting Western dominance in global finance and technology, and harnessing the power of Wall Street, the City of London and Silicon Valley to confront a rising authoritarian axis.

    The sanctions against Russia might be the biggest coordinated act of economic warfare we’ve seen, but it won’t be the last. Control over modern-day chokepoints – such as the US dollar, advanced microchip technology and critical energy supply chains – has become the key to geopolitical power in the twenty-first century. The result is an economic arms race among great powers and a fracturing global economy. Utterly gripping and brimming with rare insight, Chokepoints is indispensable reading to understand the forces that will shape our world for decades to come.

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    £1.90
  • Failed State: The Sunday Times Bestselling Investigation Into Why Britain is Struggling

    09

    The Top Five Sunday Times Bestseller

    ‘Excellent . . . persuasive . . . convincing’ – The Times
    ‘Funny, whipsmart and devastating. Sanity on steroids’ – Emily Maitlis
    ‘Fantastic. An exquisite analysis’ – The Secret Barrister

    Why does nothing work in Britain?

    It’s harder than ever to get a GP appointment. Burglaries go unpunished. Rivers are overrun with sewage. Real wages have been stagnant for years, even as the cost of housing rises inexorably. Why is everything going wrong at the same time?

    It’s easy to blame dysfunctional politicians who are out for themselves. But, in reality, it’s more complicated. Politicians can make things better or worse, but all work within our state institutions. And ours are utterly broken.

    In Failed State, Sam Freedman, one of Britain’s leading policy experts, offers a devastating analysis of where we’ve gone wrong. With historical depth and plenty of infuriating examples, he explains why British governance has fallen so far behind. Speaking to politicians of all stripes, civil servants and workers on the frontline, this book bursts with insight on the real problems that are so often hidden from the front pages. The result is a witty, landmark book that paves the way for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.

    ‘We can only hope that every member of the new government will read and digest this book’ – David Aaronovitch, BBC Radio 4 Presenter
    ‘Brilliantly timed and frighteningly true’ – Sir Anthony Seldon, bestselling author of Johnson at 10

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    £9.00£10.40
  • Odyssey Moscow: One American’s Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State

    ‘A riveting tale of betrayal and lawlessness by the Russian Government, told by the most successful US investor in Russia’ – Ambassador John Sullivan, US Ambassador to Russia 2020–22

    It is dawn on Thursday, 14 February 2019, and armed FSB agents are raiding Michael Calvey’s Moscow apartment.

    He is being arrested for a crime that never happened.

    Twenty-eight years earlier, Calvey – a newly graduated, aspiring Wall Street hotshot – made a short trip from America to the recently collapsed USSR to look at potential investments. Sensing huge opportunity, he soon based himself in Moscow, where he lived through the ‘Wild East’ years and went on to build several billion-dollar funds – earning enormous returns for Western investors as Russia opened up to international business. He gained a reputation that would lead to Bloomberg describing him as ‘a legend in the Russian market, with a reputed aversion to any kind of foul play’.

    But now, he finds himself thrown into Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison on charges trumped up by local business rivals. As the White House and Kremlin argue about his incarceration, Calvey is caught in a Kafka-esque trap, denied access to evidence proving his innocence.

    Odyssey Moscow is the story not just of Michael Calvey, but of how Russia’s era of hope and aspiration finally died, and how light can be found in the darkest of places.

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    £8.50

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