John Martin Forward:
We wrote this list because we frankly felt that most best books lists we see online are pretty poor and tend to only represent a small range of books that appeal to a limited demographic
It is intended to cover the most interesting books this year that we read between the two of us, this means that there’s a slight bias towards authors that we were already familiar with, but most books on this list are from authors we had never read before.
The list is dominated by history books, and we would have liked to include more fiction than we did, though we’d argue that’s because of the abundance of great history books this year rather than the lack of great fiction books.
The time we’re living through seems to be very historically significant, which means that understanding current events through a historical lens is all the more important.
With that in mind, here are our best books of 2019.
10.
The End is Always Near – Dan Carlin
Dan Carlin’s first book comes towards the bottom of this list, not because of any failings of the book, but because it feels rather like a longer version of one of his podcasts. As Carlin is probably one of the best podcasters alive today this shouldn’t count as a negative, but it means that it should really be recommended alongside all of Carlin’s other incredible podcasts that he has released over the years - as this feels in many ways like a companion to them.
Those familiar with Carlin’s style will doubtlessly enjoy the book a great deal, and it’s available on Audible read by the author himself, which I would highly recommend.
The chapters cover Carlin’s interesting musings on various themes throughout history, and the overall tone of the book remains rather optimistic, pointing out that compared to all of the terrible times in history that past generations have lived through, we are amazingly lucky and should be a lot more grateful and level headed about our circumstances than we currently are.
The warm style feels like you’re being told about history from a cool uncle who really knows his stuff, and he’s able to recount incredible narratives about what it was like to live through plague, famine, war, and death. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are the import theme of the book and all are brought to life with the author’s incredible performance.
The chapters on the ancient world, the Black Death, and the bombings of World War II are some of the best in the book, although overall it is regrettably short. Because the contents are a little fragmented across time, it lacks the emotional punch of some of his more focused podcasts such as Blueprint for Armageddon or Death Throes of the Republic. If anything, the book feels like a personal side project for Carlin as a way to explore some important lessons of history, but it is no worse for that and is, in many ways, what a good book should be.
9.
The Thirty Year Genocide - Benny Morris & Dror Ze’evi
This book is, as its title suggest, about genocide. Not the most pleasant topic for some, but essential reading for many who seek to understand the conflicts taking place in Europe and the Middle East between Christian and Muslim minorities and their governments. The book is the culmination of years of research from authors Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi into the events before and after the Armenian genocide.
The book chronicles not a single event, but a series of policies spanning multiple regimes designed for a single purpose: the destruction of Turkey’s Christian minorities, which eventually saw the Christian population go from 20% to 2% and wiped out an entire alphabet from common usage.
Its pages provide much needed context for issues that followed such as the Kurdish national movement, the dispute with Greece over Cyprus, as well as contemporary events unfolding within Turkey itself.
It is without doubt a sad chapter in European history, but a vital one to understanding the continents past, as well as its future.
8.
Unfreedom of the Press - Mark Levin
Despite its partisanship and heavy leaning towards the Trump camp of contemporary politics, this book has earned a place on our list because of its first few chapters. Levin does an exemplary job chronicling how both Republican and Democrat presidents implemented laws to supress, curtail and restrict press freedom – starting with the formation of the United States of America.
The book is, to a large extent, a short history of censorship and propaganda in the United States. It has a political aim: that is to counterbalance what Levin sees as overwhelming press bias towards support of the Democratic Party.
It accomplishes that task in the second half by highlighting the historic failures of the “party press”, most notably The New York Times, outlining how one of its foreign correspondents, Walter Duranty, was effectively turned into a Soviet propagandist who regurgitated Stalinist denials of the Ukrainian famine.
Anyone looking to comment on Trump’s attitude towards the press should read, if not the whole book, then at least the opening chapters before jumping into what will only become a more important argument heading into the 2020 US presidential election.
7.
Assad or we Burn the Country – Sam Dagher
The first conclusive history of the Syrian Civil War has now been written in this volume, which arguably makes it one of the more important historical books in a decade defined by the country’s bloodshed. Dagher is a writer for the Wall Street Journal who lived in Syria for the first few years of the war and was imprisoned for a short time for his writings.
The book tells a highly detailed account of the Assad family’s rise to power through coups and murder, as well as repeated attempts of the country’s populace to escape from dictatorship.
It goes into the personality of Bashar al-Assad himself, and how he was able to use the rise of ISIS and allies in the region tactically to stay in power. It paints a picture of how the government was able to appease Western countries by pretending to liberalise and at the same time act as a terrorist sponsor in the region for many years.
The war still divides people across the political spectrum in Western politics and many question the validity of reports of chemical weapons used by the regime. Commentators rightly compare the results of interventions in Iraq and Libya and are very suspicious of any arguments for further military action in the Middle East. Those who make the argument against intervention should compare the much higher casualties of the Syrian war with other affected countries and examine the arguments on that basis. This book should be read by those who want to seriously engage in that debate, which seems likely to carry on for many years.
6.
Permanent Record - Edward Snowden
“A world where every crime is enforced is a world where everyone is a criminal,” is a quote from the book which rings true as each chapter of Edward Snowden’s life unfolds. Starting with his childhood, his time in the army and recruitment to the CIA, and ending with the leaking of highly classified information to the public, escape to Hong Kong and run from the government, the book intensifies with every page.
A long overdue retelling from the source of the US government surveillance disclosures, Permanent Record is one third an autobiography of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, one third a history of the internet and the final third a defence of the right to privacy.
Snowden is a complex and controversial character, yet the book is appropriately unapologetic for the world-changing disclosures of 2013. While internet privacy is hot on the tongues of most policymakers today, it helps to remember those who surrendered their livelihoods to defend that right across the western world.
Before Christmas, the US government extended provisions of the Patriot Act, the legislation which enabled the NSA to spy on Americans. The news makes Snowden’s book even more important than ever.
The US government is currently confiscating funds from the publisher and author on criminal grounds and is actively seeking to ban and censor its contents, as the Chinese government has already done.
It goes without saying that anyone interested in internet privacy or mass surveillance should find a copy of this book wherever they can.
5.
A Little Hatred - Joe Abercrombie
A truly captivating read, A Little Hatred picks up decades after Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, a character-focused grim dark fantasy series.
The debut novel in a new trilogy sets the stage for a new era, where industrialisation has taken over medieval society and populations are being rapidly left behind. The imagery evoked in some the later chapters mirrors the aftermath of the French revolution, Marxist rebellions and even ISIS-style executions.
What makes Abercrombie’s work stand out from other fantasy settings is how he manages to be truly funny without forgetting the seriousness of his subject matter. His characters’ inner dialogues produce often a lot more than an inward smirk and his plotting has gotten more intriguing with every novel.
The book unwinds from the point of view of seven characters, unfolding around two central events: a unionist campaign to stop the annexation of the northern territories by a newly declared king, and a full-scale revolution from within the union itself. Abercrombie’s prose is able to make even the most unsympathetic character relatable, often bringing them to life within only a few paragraphs, and he broaches serious political issues without ever straying into tedium or loftiness.
While I would recommend diving into the first three in the series, as well as picking up the three anthology books in-between, A Little Hatred is one of the best fantasy books in recent times and cements the authors reputation as master of the grim-dark subgenre.
4.
How to be a Dictator – Frank Dikotter
Frank Dikotter, the most influential historian of modern China, has written his latest book on the history of 20th century dictators. In contrast to his previously successful books Mao’s Great Famine and The Cultural Revolution that deal with specific events, this book is a broader overview of the functioning of personality cults in dictatorships.
This makes it rather more accessible than those titles, as his approach here feels more narrative-based. Dikotter’s style is still one that primarily focuses on evidence and events, but he refrains from doing much analysis at all except at the beginning and ending of the book, preferring to focus on the personality cult surrounding the dictators themselves. While some may want more analysis from a historian, this approach has the advantage of feeling more evidence-based and factual rather than opinionated.
There are many interesting details that jump out when reading the book like the fact that Mussolini carefully studied every detail of his performances on camera and took acting classes. Another is that in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, “Slogan Trees” were created that were supposed to be praises of Kim’s leadership carved onto the side of trees by veterans of the Korean War and were turned into sites of pilgrimage for ordinary people to travel to.
The book covers eight dictators in chronological order; Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim, Ceausescu, Duvalier, and Mengistu. Over the chapters, one can see the repeating patterns like the political purges, the paranoia of the leader, and the spiral of cult worship, but the most interesting part is the evident weakness of those regimes under each dictator. Because they can trust no-one but themselves, they have to repeatedly purge and become more controlling to the point where they are almost powerless.
The book’s epilogue reveals the author’s real reasons for his writing the book. He points out that modern dictators are real but they are nowhere near as powerful or as popular as they were at the height of the 20th Century. Dikotter’s test of a modern dictator is whether or not they can be publicly criticised by their own people, which in western societies they of course can be. Many will finish the book wishing that a similar one could be written on dictatorships today, but we can at least hope for a sequel.
3.
The Order of Time - Carlo Rovelli
Carlo Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist working in France in the field of quantum-loop gravity - one of the contenders for the ’Theory of Everything’ – is filling the gap left by the great Stephen Hawking, who passed away last year.
The Order of Time is an attempt to explain the current scientific thinking around the physics of time, and how it differs from our previous understanding of the concept. He explains that every part of the universe has its own local time, and asks readers to understand the universe not in terms of structures but in terms of events which have a finite beginning and end. Finally, he points out that our perception of the passage of time is really a consequence of the increase in entropy.
After his books Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Reality Is Not What It Seems, Rovelli is without doubt the author best able to explain cutting-edge physics to those not actively contributing to the field. Far from a dry textbook, Rovelli takes his reader through the history of thought concerning the physics of time, centring on the central disagreement between Aristotle and Newton: that time exists independently from the other elements of the universe.
Rovelli warns his reader when he is about to use high-level mathematical jargon, and indeed, two chapters in the book are devoted to fleshing out his thesis, as well as outlining the disputes around the recent research.
Because of the technicality, it may be better enjoyed as an audiobook rather than as a physical copy. An edition narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch exists, and his voice is delightfully suited to the prose style.
Note: the book relies heavily on the reader’s understanding of the concept of entropy in physics, and it is best to dip a toe into this topic a little in order to avoid confusion in later chapters.
2.
Dominion – Tom Holland
Tom Holland is one of Britain’s best historians, particularly when it comes to the ancient world, and has bravely examined the historical origins of Islam in his book In the Shadow of the Sword. His new book is an epic attempt to document the legacy of Christianity throughout history, and is probably his best book yet.
The book is an incredibly broad overview that covers thousands of years, beginning in Ancient Persia and reaching all the way to modern day. The events and conflicts in each chapter more than anything show a legacy of Christian tradition that is constantly struggling to live up to its own values and resolve its own contradictions. The greatest achievement of the book is probably to show how so many liberal, humanist or progressive changes in the past were achieved specifically using the Christian doctrine.
Things like separation of church and state, freedom of thought, value of science, women’s rights, and the abolition of slavery were all argued for most fervently by advocates of the Christian faith, in ways that specifically marked it out from other religions.
Holland is himself is an atheist and not naturally sympathetic to Christian doctrine, but he wrote the book after studying world religions and coming to an understanding of the overwhelmingly positive force that Christianity played in human history. The obvious atrocities committed by Christians like the Inquisition, the Witch Trials, and the slave trade are also examined by the author, but what the book shows is that these events were temporary deviations from the overall trend of Christian history.
The book is required reading for anyone interested in New Atheism and the debate around religion, because for many secular minded atheists, this book is probably the greatest refutation of that project this decade has produced.
1.
The Madness of Crowds – Douglas Murray
We would have liked to have dedicated more of this list to fiction we enjoyed, because the last few years of this decade have been oversaturated with politics. However, in the end, we both agreed that the best book title had to go to Douglas Murray’s new book on the social ills that currently afflict Western society.
Murray has crafted a comprehensive account of what are probably the most contentious issues of our eram, showing how gender and race have become politicised in an attempt to radically alter the societies that we live in.
The author is oftentimes portrayed as a combative provocateur, but the approach taken in The Maddness of Crowds is as reserved and methodical as Murray himself. The book is only four chapters; Gay, Sex, Race, Trans: each one an in-depth exploration of each issue’s political weaponisation throughout the decade.
For those who follow the contemporary culture war, many episodes in this book will be nothing new, but the book is useful at providing a framework to understand what drives the different events prevelant on the news, such as campus protests, media outrages, and activist lawmakers.
The chapters on gay and trans are particularly revealing, presenting incredibly emotional personal stories from people caught up in the tensions within their own respective movements. While it is hard not to feel compassion for many of the individuals as the pages turn, but the book is also at times incredibly funny because of the sheer absurdity of some of the episodes it examines.
The book is an incredible insight into the dogmas and contradictions of our era and is essential for anyone trying to understand modern Western culture and its problems. This is why we think it’s the best book of 2019.
Honourable Mentions:
Recursion – Blake Crouch
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism – Shoshana Zuboff
Dead Astronauts – Jeff Vandameer
John Martin
Francis Kett