Civil wars: A History in Ideas; David Armitage, Yale University Press, ₹1,287.
What is the ‘root’ of a civil war? When can a war be called a ‘civil’ war? It’s a complicated issue because so many opposing parties are involved: ruler and rebel, sufferer and outsider.
As ‘war’ erupts in many places from Somalia to Syria, the Balkans to Burundi, historian David Armitage gives us a sense of the history of civil war and how it shapes our world, starting with the Greeks and Romans and leading up to the 21st century.
***
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street; Sheelah Kolhatkar, Penguin RandomHouse, ₹1,183.
The New Yorker staff writer and former hedge fund analyst Sheelah Kolhatkar tells the story of billionaire trader Steven A. Cohen and the rise and fall of his hedge fund SAC Capital. The book, which has been hailed as a legal thriller, tracks how Cohen made his millions on Wall Street and what happened when he was investigated by the FBI for insider trading.
***
Hidden Figures; Margot Lee Shetterly, HarperCollins, ₹499.
This book is set amid the civil rights movement and is the true story of NASA’s African-American women mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space programme. Segregated from their white counterparts, these ‘coloured computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations.
***
Arthur and Sherlock; Michael Sims, Bloomsbury, ₹1,455.
After his colourful portrayal of Henry Thoreau ( The Adventures of Henry Thoreau ) and the story about E.B. White, the creator of Charlotte’s Web ( The Story of Charlotte’s Web ), acclaimed literary historian Michael Sims, looks into the world of Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation, Sherlock Holmes, and the history of the detective stories genre.
***
A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA; Joshua Kurlantzick, Simon & Schuster, ₹1,444.
The U.S. waged a secret war in the tiny South-east Asian country of Laos between 1961-1973, making it one of the largest covert operations in American history. Relying on extensive interviews and declassified CIA documents, Joshua Kurlantzick writes how this operation changed the CIA forever, making it a military power.
