Books in brief

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow

Has there ever been a better time to wallow in

If I ruled the world

Ruling the world is a bit like playing “truth or

Prospect recommends

Things to do this month

Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of the

Letters

Prospect is without doubt the magazine for informed opinion. However

In fact

The equestrian events are the only portion of the Olympics

Death by enthusiasm

Labour’s swelling ranks entrench divisions with a public that doesn’t much care

Schools and hard knocks

The flipside of grammars is most children failing

A second Brexit could be darker still

The UK can and must still hold fast to a Europe of values

Magic Johnson?

Clinton and Trump are detested—and another candidate has something to say

Trading blows over exports

Don’t expect any UK trade deals before the last year of this Parliament

Brexpat blues

A diaspora is waking up with a fright to a life without rights

Should party whips be abolished?

The whips in parliament are MPs and lords appointed by

Economics and its discontents

Joseph Stiglitz has been on a journey—both personal, and political

The ascent of woman

Female leaders are, at long last, becoming a normal part of the landscape. But will this new political era make any real difference for women?

Will Brexit happen? And what next?

Wolfgang Münchau sketches a road-map for Britain’s future relations with

Federal flaw

The history of the American constitution offers clues about the kind of Europe that Britain might hope to lead, rather than leave

A vision for all seasons

Five hundred years on, Thomas More’s dream of another society remains valuable not as a blueprint for an ideal world, but as an unforgiving mirror—to expose all that’s rotten in this one

Only dreamers see the future

It is no coincidence that Thomas More set Utopia on

The horror of engineered bliss

In the narrative arts, the utopia is one more dystopia

Paradise shouldn’t need border controls

Aldous Huxley wrote two versions of utopia: Brave New World

Breaking the chains of the status quo

In the sense that it offers a glimpse of some

Cashing out

Paper currency helps criminals and constrains central banks— so why do we still use it?

Don’t let the banks coin it

Smuggled into Rogoff’s proposal to axe cash is the privatisation of the currency. Let’s cling on to our notes, until publicly accountable central banks are ready to create digital reddies

The progressive pilgrim

It took a shy man with conservative instincts to reset British society in the 1940s. Labour is now crying out for another Clement Attlee

The hands-on economy

The Coalition began to rethink Thatcherite orthodoxies on industrial policy. Theresa May’s government has a chance to go much further—which it must seize

A real industrial revolution

Thanks for the namecheck, David. But a comprehensive stratgey for smarter, fairer growth will require Theresa May to upend many more failed orthodoxies

I feedback, therefore I am

Are we masters of technology or has it mastered us, asks Will Self

Soho revolutionary

For the current Labour leadership, Karl Marx is the man of the moment, says Howard Davies

Ideas that built the world

Liberalism made us brave, bold—and rich, argues Deirdre McCloskey

A taste for the fantastic

In both her fiction and her life Angela Carter was fearless, says Anne Chisholm

Leith on life

“Five to me and none to you!” says my son

Life of the mind

Close readers of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and

Matters of taste

“This is the perfect summer holiday,” said Adrien, my boyfriend,

Wine

Just a couple of weeks after the unsuccessful coup attempt

DIY investor

The Wall Street maxim “Don’t fight the Fed” has gained

The way we were Grammars and the 11-Plus

Extracts from memoirs and diaries, chosen by Ian Irvine