Nonfiction

War—what is it good for? Writing. The same can't necessarily be said of war's opposite, peace. Antony Adolf seeks to correct a largely overlooked historical phenomenon—that of peace and peaceful coexistence amongst humanity. Rob Grace reviews this ambitious attempt at setting the record straight.

What, exactly, is the difference between a free market and state-run capitalism? How does the economy in Norway differ from the economy of Brazil or China? Ian Bremmer's The End of the Free Market is a nice primer on the global economy, and provides keen insight into the current financial crisis. But when it comes to specific remedies to heal an ailing free market system, Bremmer comes up short. Dan May reviews.

In Higher Education? the teacher-writer duo of Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus wade into the conversation on the decline of the American university system.  It is fitting, then, that Mary Refling, a professor steeped in the knowledge of the debate, takes on this latest academic salvo.

Muslims of Metropolis traces the experiences of three Muslim immigrant experiences in the West: a Turk in Germany, a Palestinian in England, and a Bangladeshi in the United States. They may share the same religion, but the experiences in their new countries are hardly the same. M. Junaid Levesque-Alam reviews the intimate portraits sketched by Kavitha Rajagopalan.

Putin's Oil has all the makings of a thriller novel: conspiracies, Kremlin politics, double agents, corporate espionage, mysterious deaths, and exile to Siberia. Except this is the true story of how then-president Vladimir Putin wrestled control of  the oil giant Yukos, once one of Russia's most successful companies, from Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Ed Hancox delves into the machinations that landed a one-time billionaire in a Siberian prison.

With the world in a frenzy over the World Cup tournament, Lauren Young re-visits the newly re-issued How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer. Despite the books grandiose title, "its beauty is that it does not make a specific argument—by recognizing the messy heterogeneity of soccer’s effect on people, it very clearly shows the game’s power to drive right to the heart of a cultural or economic phenomenon." Read on...

Sebastian Junger's gripping reportage from the frontlines of Afghanistan is adrenaline-fused war reporting at its best. Shaun Randol reviews the harrowing account of a platoon of American soldiers battling a ferocious enemy in the Korengal Valley, the most dangerous part of the war-torn country. A philosophical rumination on war it is not, but War is as addictive as the fighting it portrays.