Return from the Natives: How Margaret Mead Won the Second World War and Lost the Cold War by Peter Mandler Chris Knight on an anthropologist whose theories were embraced then shunned by the US military 2 May
Utopia and Terror in Contemporary American Fiction by Judie Newman Kate North recommends an analysis of the use of apparently contradictory concepts in selected texts over the past 15 years 25 April
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life by Jonathan Sperber Sheila Rowbotham on a crisp portrait of a restless thinker who was neither infallible nor prophetic 25 April
Soldier, Sailor, Beggarman, Thief: Crime and the British Armed Services since 1914 by Clive Emsley A. W. Purdue on the prevalence of crime within the British armed forces 18 April
Lush Life: Constructing Organised Crime in the UK, by Dick Hobbs Tim Hall on an informed probe into the world of illegal trade in East London 18 April
The Great University Gamble: Money, Markets and the Future of Higher Education, by Andrew McGettigan Joanna Williams seeks more context in this political and economic analysis of sector finance 18 April
Orgasmology by Annamarie Jagose A study of la petite mort focuses on cultural views not sociological explorations, finds Sally R. Munt 11 April
America’s Assembly Line by David E. Nye Howard Segal pieces together the fascinating history of a key innovation in US manufacturing 11 April
The Great Indian Phone Book: How Cheap Mobile Phones Change Business, Politics and Daily Life by Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doron Jyothsna Latha Belliappa on technology’s transformative effects 11 April
Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time by Ira Katznelson Christopher Phelps on a dazzling new look at the US response to the Depression 11 April
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet and How We Live by Marlene Zuk Camilla Power enjoys a demolition of prelapsarian pseudoscience 11 April
Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community by Kenneth T. MacLeish James T. Crouse on a book that should be on every politician’s reading list 4 April
Soldier of Christ: The Life of Pope Pius XII by Robert A. Ventresca John Pollard on a biography of a controversial head of the Catholic Church 4 April
British Writers and MI5 Surveillance, 1930-1960 by James Smith Matthew Feldman on the connections between literary history and intelligence studies 4 April
Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability by Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister Isabelle Szmigin on how big companies sustain their profits first, and the environment second 4 April
Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World by Shereen El Feki Shahidha Bari considers an exploration of desire and denial amid Egypt’s shifting sands 28 March
Everything for Sale? The Marketisation of UK Higher Education by Roger Brown, with Helen Carasso Joanna Williams commends a rigorous analysis of the impact of funding changes on the sector 28 March
Speaking of Race and Class: The Student Experience at an Elite College by Elizabeth Aries, with Richard Berman Ann Mullen is intrigued by the findings, but would have enjoyed more analysis 28 March
Image Warfare in the War on Terror by Nathan Roger Neville Bolt on how states and militaries fail to grasp the changing role of media in our lives 28 March
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien Stephen Wade on the accurate contemporary science behind the Holmesian investigations 21 March
Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith: New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina by Vincanne Adams Kevin Fox Gotham on the negative consequences of privatised disaster services and aid work 21 March
Academic Armageddon: An Irish Requiem for Higher Education by Mary Gallagher Sue Norton on the difficult days ahead for Ireland’s academy as bureaucracy and consumerisation seem set to increase 21 March
Murdoch’s Politics: How One Man’s Thirst for Wealth and Power Shapes Our World by David McKnight Ivor Gaber on what motivates Rupert Murdoch 21 March
Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman by Jeremy Adelman Andreas Hess discusses the incredible life of an artist of ‘possibilism’ 14 March
The University and the City by John Goddard and Paul Vallance Geoffrey Alderman on the social and economic benefits that an institution can bring to a locality 14 March
Shaping Europe: France, Germany and Embedded Bilateralism from the Elysée Treaty to Twenty-First Century Politics by Ulrich Krotz and Joachim Schild Roger Morgan on the Franco-German alliance within the EU and its effect on decision-making in the union 14 March
Going Grey: The Mediation of Politics in an Ageing Society by Scott Davidson Sarah Harper on the changing approach of the media and governments to ageing populations 14 March
Education: A Very Short Introduction by Gary Thomas Anthony Feiler reviews a concise explanation of how the UK education system works and how it evolved 7 March
Becoming Sexual by R. Danielle Egan Mary Evans discusses moral panic and girls’ sexualisation 28 February
Student's Guide to Writing Dissertations and Theses in Tourism Studies and Related Disciplines 28 February
Antarctica: A Biography by David Day Chris Turney reviews a history of attempts by Antarctic explorers to conquer the southern continent 21 February
Passion and Paranoia by Charlotte Bloch Oversensitivity is bad news for the debate, argues Joanna Williams 21 February
Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks by Jenny White Clémence Scalbert-Yucel on a worthy addition to the study of a state in flux 21 February
The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths by John Gray Shahidha Bari on Straw Dogs’ author’s new tricks 21 February
Six Moments of Crisis: Inside British Foreign Policy by Gill Bennett Vernon Bogdanor on Cabinet decision-making 14 February
The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda and the Battle For Arabia by Gregory D. Johnsen Christina Hellmich on Al-Qaeda’s Arabian battles 14 February
On Glasgow and Edinburgh by Robert Crawford Willy Maley identifies an old-fashioned charm in the telling of a tale of two rival, divided cities 14 February
Bridges across an Impossible Divide by Marc Gopin John Brewer reviews a book that focuses on the spiritual motivations of peacemakers in the Middle East 7 February
Unfree Masters: Recording Artists and the Politics of Work by Matt Stahl Hillegonda Rietveld reviews a study of recording artists as cultural workers 7 February
Bleakonomics by Rob Larson Stewart Lansley on a sobering tale of plutonomy and the ‘failed science’ of economics 31 January
Imagining the University by Ronald Barnett Simon Blackburn on higher education via a postmodern lens 31 January
Hard to Get: 20-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom by Leslie C. Bell Hera Cook on a study of young Californian women’s thoughts on gender and sexuality 31 January
The Leaderless Economy Two economists aim to put the crisis to rights with the help of Iceland’s ash cloud, finds Howard Davies 24 January
Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt Democracy suffers when the Islamists, the military and the secret police collude, writes Mariz Tadros 17 January
