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Marc Sidwell, CapX Editor<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve just finished a lost classic of 1950s sci-fi, \u2018The Long Tomorrow\u2019 by Leigh Brackett, in which a US devastated by nuclear war has embraced a religious hostility to technology and growth. Sound familiar? The story follows a young man desperate to escape to the fabled \u2018Bartorstown\u2019, where you can just do things, a reminder that the battles of today are just the latest in a long series of fights against the odds.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for non-fiction summer reading inspiration, look no further than some of the books previewed on CapX in the last few months. Some of my favourites include Don Boudreaux and Phil Gramm\u2019s new history of American capitalism, \u2018The Triumph of Economic Freedom<\/a>\u2019, Ben Chu on the dangers of deglobalisation<\/a>, Bijan Omrani on the place of Christianity<\/a> in English identity, Jeremy Hunt defending Britain\u2019s role in the world<\/a>, and Theo Clarke breaking taboos by talking about her experience of birth trauma<\/a> and the scandalous state of NHS maternity services. Or to celebrate Margaret Thatcher\u2019s centenary year, alongside the CPS\u2019s \u2018Conservative Revolution<\/a>\u2019, why not try Iain Dale\u2019s mythbusting new biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n As I head off to Cornwall next month, I\u2019ll be packing John Cassidy\u2019s \u2018Capitalism and its Critics\u2019, as well as\u00a0 \u2018Abundance<\/a>\u2019 by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Joseph Dinnage, CapX Deputy Editor<\/p>\n On a holiday to Paris earlier this year, I got around to reading Michel Houellebecq\u2019s \u2018Submission\u2019, which depicts the eventual Islamisation of France. Wonderfully written, great characters, grotesque descriptions of a depressed professor\u2019s carnality and a poignant warning about sleepwalking into extreme demographic change \u2013 it\u2019s definitely worth a read.<\/p>\n After Bijan Omrani wrote for CapX in April<\/a>, I picked up a copy of his latest book \u2018God is an Englishman\u2019, exploring Christianity\u2019s enduring legacy in an increasingly secular Britain. The only child of baby-boomer atheists, I didn\u2019t grow up pious \u2013 in fact I know there are many who\u2019d call me godless \u2013 but it\u2019s impossible to both know the history of Britain and deny the profound influence of the church on how we live and the values many of us still share. If, like many I know on the young Right, you are flirting with high Anglicanism, you could do worse than to read this.<\/p>\n Of course, as is the case every summer, the best stuff I\u2019ve read has been the opinion pieces published on this august website. From the economics of air conditioning<\/a> to the migrant crisis of 1709<\/a>, from Ted Heath\u2019s arrogance<\/a> to the recent growth in political violence<\/a>, CapX has got you covered. To all of our contributors, readers and even the radical Left lunatics who have tried so hard to destroy this country, have a fantastic summer.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Tom Willerton-Gartside, CapX Intern<\/p>\n As the breakdown of our institutions becomes ever more apparent, I\u2019ll be using the summer to re-read \u2018The Meiji Restoration: Japan as a Global Nation\u2019 and \u2018The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security\u2019. The former offers a case study of national reinvention under profound structural and agential forces, whilst the latter is a timely reminder about the mindset necessary to challenge and replace conventional approaches.<\/p>\n To look ahead to what the next five years may look like, I\u2019m reading Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. With the Alan Turing Institute in crisis, Nick Bostrom\u2019s book \u2013 which warns of the dangers of misaligned AI incentives \u2013 is pertinent to the challenges faced eleven years later.<\/p>\n Perhaps the best book I\u2019ve read recently, though, is Eric Berger\u2019s \u2018Liftoff\u2019. Away from the noise around Musk in 2025, this analysis of SpaceX\u2019s early days emphasises the demands and culture needed to build a successful institution, against the odds.<\/p>\n Each book, in its own way, is therefore about the collapse or construction of order. That feels like fitting company.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Alys Denby<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be honest, Britain\u2019s economy is heading for the abyss, there\u2019s a war in Europe and we have a rubbish left-wing government paralysed by militant trade unions and its own loony backbenchers. Do yourself a favour and choose escapism this summer \u2013 who knows it could be your last chance.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be taking a Cormac McCarthy novel on holiday with me. His violent, post-apocalyptic worlds may not sound that relaxing, but his writing is so astonishing and its bleakness is a strangely uplifting reminder of how much beauty there is in life. Mick Heron\u2019s \u2018Slow Horses\u2019 novels are a brilliant update on the spy genre \u2013 where the antagonist is often the sclerotic British state rather than, you know, actual terrorists. I re-read \u2018Money\u2019 by Martin Amis this year in preparation for an event discussing his legacy: hilarious and a great opportunity to plug this CapX article<\/a> I wrote about what he meant to me. You can absolutely never go wrong with anything by PG Wodehouse.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n William Atkinson<\/p>\n I thought of starting by suggesting \u2018London Fields\u2019 \u2013 the Martin Amis classic that I have just finished re-reading. But then I realised I had already dubbed it my book of the year in the 2023 CapX reading round-up, and even I\u2019m not that lazy in reusing old articles. The editors may beg to differ.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, I\u2019d like to recommend Robert Blake\u2019s magisterial \u2018Disraeli\u2019 \u2013 the finest book written about anything ever, according to my first tutor at university. Having read it while working on my thesis \u2013 \u2018The Evolution of Benjamin Disraeli as a Tory Icon, 1918-1970\u2019 \u2013 I took it up again following a visit to Hughenden, the former Prime Minister\u2019s home. As an illustration of a political life, the process of self-actualisation, and the vagaries of High Victorian Politics, it is unparalleled. When I first read it, I was reduced to tears. Sometimes a young man can be too sensitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n Otherwise, I can also recommend Tim Wigmore\u2019s new history of Test cricket \u2013 a fine history of the finest sport \u2013 and the Inspector Morse books, which I began working my way through again a month or so ago. It\u2019s always a pleasure to write these little suggestions. It always reminds me how badly read I really am. For that, and so much else, I am forever in CapX\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Kristian Niemietz<\/p>\n In a strange way, I enjoyed Gary Stevenson\u2019s \u2018The Trading Game<\/a>\u2018, which is a \u2018Gary Begins\u2019-style origin story of the popular economics commentator who managed to almost single-handedly make the wealth tax a thing again. I don\u2019t buy his economic arguments (see my book review here<\/a>), but his description of the mad world of high-stakes finance is intriguing either way. There is not much economics in the book, so you can mostly read it as his personal memoirs. But then, Stevenson has built his entire public persona on his origin story, so in his case, you cannot really separate the memoirs from the economics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Bryan Caplan\u2019s \u2018Build, Baby, Build<\/a>\u2018 explains Yimby-economics in the form of\u2026 a comic book. Yes, I know. But it somehow works.<\/p>\n Mark Dredge\u2019s \u2018A Brief History of Lager<\/a>\u2018\u00a0tells the story of how lager \u2013 a type of beer which, until about 150 years ago, was almost complete unheard of outside of German-speaking Europe \u2013 became the world\u2019s default beer, with a global market share of around 90%. Dredge takes us on a tour through breweries, Bierkeller and beer festivals, and describes the beers he samples in a way that makes you want to try a few. What surprised me most was how late in the day lager took off in this country: until the mid-1960s, lager accounted for no more than 2% of the British beer market. The book inspired me to do my own research to reconstruct the story of how lager came to Britain<\/a>.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n David Goodhart<\/p>\n I have a fantasy of one day writing a play or screenplay about the Bretton Woods conference of 1944, which not only shaped the post-war western economies but was full of personal drama. Keynes, head of the British delegation, was thought to have died at one point. Harry Dexter White, his US opposite number, was a Soviet agent of some kind. The three weeks of the conference was drowning in alcohol and confusion. To keep my fantasy alive, I recently read Ed Conway\u2019s 2014 book \u2018The Summit\u2019, which brilliantly captures the constructive chaos of those weeks as well as lucidly spelling out the complex economic arguments. It\u2019s relevant today because if Keynes had got his way with his clearing union idea we would not now be facing the Trump tariffs.<\/p>\n I am the owner of a shepherd\u2019s hut in Oxfordshire that looks out onto a field of Charolais cows. For that reason I\u2019ve been engrossed by the 2017 book by Rosamund Young, \u2018The Secret Life of Cows\u2019. Cows, it turns out, vary enormously in personality, intelligence and temperament. They have friends, can be good or neglectful parents etc.<\/p>\n I am (slowly, it\u2019s in German!) reading my friend Jochen Buchsteiner\u2019s \u2018Wir Ostpreussen\u2019 about his Prussian grandparents who were driven from their estate in 1945 and his, sometimes comic, attempts to reconnect with the Poles who now live there. The many German families whose relatives were driven from their homes after the war can now look back, as Jochen does, without either revanchist sentiments or self-pity. It should be translated.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Maxwell Marlow<\/p>\n The summer recess is an excellent time to take stock of the chaos of the past six months, and to get cracking down on my mounting stock of books! Note to readers, I am mainly an audiobook user.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve started off my summer reading with \u2018Kaput: The End of the German Miracle<\/a>\u2018, which explores in fascinating detail and gripping narrative, the crawling collapse of the German economy. The social democratic economic model has failed, and the story of heavy industry has come to an end as eco-zealotry and mad geopolitical decisions have reckoned.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll also be working my way back through Alain Bertaud\u2019s \u2018Order Without Design\u2019<\/a>. Alain, a veteran master planner and economist<\/a>, merges the study of both disciplines seamlessly. Drawing on his experience from across the world \u2013 Algeria, India, New York \u2013 he finds that cities and towns are best left to their own in planning how they grow, build, and reinvest. It\u2019s a must read for YIMBYs, especially those of us on the centre-right.<\/p>\n Finally, when I return from my travels in the land of Wordsworth and the Lakes, I will probably play some video games. \u2018Helldivers 2<\/a>\u2018, by Arrowhead Games, makes a return (as I\u2019ve not stopped playing it). Video games get a bad-rap in serious circles, but as one of the most popular games, it\u2019s a great experience to kick-back with fellow wonks and expand Managed Democracy throughout the Galaxy.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Reem Ibrahim<\/p>\n I recently visited Antony Fisher\u2019s family home. He founded the Institute of Economic Affairs in 1955, and had written extensively on the failures of the government\u2019s economic policy, and the desperate need for radical reform. On this visit, his granddaughter gifted me a book he had written entitled \u2018Must history repeat itself? A study of the lessons taught by the (repeated) failure and (occasional) success of government economic policy through the ages\u2019.<\/p>\n \u200bAlthough it was originally published in 1974, the analysis of the contemporary economic disarray could have been written today. He points to Britain\u2019s decline in \u2018individual freedom\u2019, \u2018growth of group envy\u2019, and the \u2018disappearance of respect for individual self-reliance\u2019. Most interestingly, though, the last chapter of the book outlines a 10-year plan for radical economic reform. He describes how public spending can be drastically cut, tax can be lowered and simplified, and economic growth can be unleashed. I wonder if Thatcher herself ever came across this book.<\/p>\n My second recommendation is \u2018Why as a Muslim I Defend Liberty\u2019 by Mustafa Akyol. I initially read this book when I was at university, but recently revisited it due to its increasing relevance in attempts to combat political Islam. The book outlines why, contrary to the views of many, Islam is absolutely compatible with a free society.<\/p>\n Akyol argues that liberty and Islam are compatible if Islam is understood as a voluntary faith and not a coercive legal system, as many Muslims already see it. He also argues that Islamic texts contain the seeds of freedom, and argues for the reinterpretation of Islamic law and politics under the Quranic maxim, \u2018No compulsion in religion\u2019.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n James Ball<\/p>\n I don\u2019t read nearly enough fiction, which means that my summer reads might look a little bit stodgy on the beach. But with that said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Keach Hagey\u2019s book \u2018The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future\u2019. There have been a flurry of books about OpenAI and its founder, but this one manages to combine being an illuminating read on one of the men driving the AI revolution with being a genuine page-turner.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, I\u2019ve enjoyed Wolfgang M\u00fcnchau\u2019s \u2018Kaput: The End of the German Miracle\u2019, partly as an antidote to endless articles wondering why Germany \u2018does it better\u2019, but also as something of a counterpart to recent books on the abundance agenda \u2013 which often raise the question \u2018why isn\u2019t everywhere doing this already\u2019. M\u00fcnchau\u2019s book helps answer this question: momentum, culture and tradition, and political calculus all factor in \u2013 often against growth. It\u2019s also delightfully short, so shouldn\u2019t test anyone\u2019s hand luggage too strenuously.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Matthew Bowles<\/p>\n Recently, I completed the second volume of Robert Caro\u2019s masterwork, \u2018The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Means of Ascent\u2019. It highlights LBJ\u2019s 1948 Senate race, where underhanded tactics, ambition, and money converged in one of the most controversial elections in American history. Caro captures Johnson as a relentless, often ruthless operator and reminds the reader that politics is rarely clean, and power is seldom won without cost.<\/p>\n On a different note, I have also thoroughly enjoyed \u2018The Magus\u2019 by John Fowles. It\u2019s a fairly disorienting novel following a young teacher who\u2019s drawn into a psychological labyrinth on a remote Greek Island. With its existential games, it\u2019s less about plot than the unsettling sense that nothing (and no one) is ever quite what it seems.<\/p>\n On the top of my \u2018to read\u2019 pile is \u2018Judgement at Tokyo\u2019. It\u2019s quite the tome and therefore not one for the commute, but supposedly is the landmark history of the trial of Japan\u2019s leaders post-World War II.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Kitty Thompson<\/p>\n Amid Shadow Cabinet reshuffles and general Labour tomfoolery, I have just finished reading James Rebanks\u2019 \u2018The Place of Tides\u2019. Never has the urge to hop on a plane and get far away from Westminster been as strong as hearing about Rebanks\u2019 time spent with an eccentric old \u2018duck lady\u2019 on Fj\u00e6r\u00f8y, an island in Norway\u2019s Vega archipelago. Writing for CapX is certainly fun, but the prospect of collecting eider duck feathers fresh from the nest somehow seems more worthwhile at the moment, as we collectively watch the Conservative Party embark on its journey of self discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alas, one measly eiderdown pillow won\u2019t pay the bills. So to keep doing so, I will stay on top of my conservative environmentalist game and once again dust off my copy of Roger Scruton\u2019s \u2018Green Philosophy\u2019 to remind myself how I ended up in Westminster in the first place.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Eliot Wilson<\/p>\n I\u2019d always thought that the 1922 Committee, that trades union-cum-drop-in centre for backbench Conservative MPs, was a potentially rich and delicious subject for a book. Lord Norton of Louth\u2019s \u2018The 1922 Committee: Power behind the scenes\u2019 is meticulous, characteristically well-informed and useful, and anyone interested in how Westminster works should read it. But Norton\u2019s scholarly mien perhaps held him back from excavating the gossipy side of the \u201922; perhaps an unauthorised biography of the institution awaits. Nevertheless, an invaluable primer for anyone who sometimes confuse their Gervais Rentouls and their Derek Walker-Smiths.<\/p>\n \u2018Beyond The Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan\u2019 by the subject\u2019s granddaughter Ursula Buchan is enough to make anyone feel inadequate. JB was everywhere and did everything. Best known as a pioneering adventure novelist, he found time to be a barrister, an early member of Milner\u2019s Kindergarten in South Africa, journalist, editor, historian, civil servant, Member of Parliament and governor general of Canada. And he was good at them all. If you can still look yourself in the mirror and not wonder what you\u2019ve done with your life, Buchan\u2019s intellectual drive, rigour and application should be an inspiration.<\/p>\n One exquisite recollection of a bygone era when print was still king was Graydon Carter\u2019s memoirs, \u2018When The Going Was Good\u2019. Of course it\u2019s arch and the names drop like confetti, but Carter edited Vanity Fair for a quarter of a century. His depiction of the Cond\u00e9 Nast empire at its height is joyful, and every absurdity feels immediate and alive.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Tom Jones<\/p>\n Despite my disdain for political biographies, I read Tom Baldwin\u2019s Biography of Keir Starmer. I thought I\u2019d benefit by learning of the manager behind the decline; when reading this you understand it\u2019s more an approach than ideology, an attempt to reduce politics to a process which can be controlled or managed, rather than allowing it to exist as something which \u2014 deriving authority from the people \u2013 is as alive, unpredictable, unruly, troublesome, demanding and wayward as they are.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I also bought a complete copy of Plutarch\u2019s \u2018Lives\u2019, and have been dipping in and out. But to become great man of the people such as Pericles, or a ruthless dictator like Sulla? It\u2019s important to retain an air of mystery.<\/p>\n Whilst I don\u2019t like political biographies, I do like military ones, and enjoyed Ronald Lewin\u2019s \u2018Slim the Standardbearer\u2019. Slim\u2019s fundamental problem was morale, which dogged the 14th Army since the fall of Singapore. Perhaps his true achievement was to prevent military disaster by winning a moral victory; \u2018he did well in manoeuvring his divisions, but he did better in making them the partners of his spirit.\u2019 A lesson there, perhaps, for a leader attempting to rebuild a shattered party after a crushing defeat.<\/p>\n Oh \u2013 and I still haven\u2019t watched \u2018Adolescence\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Damian Pudner<\/p>\n The beach might not seem an obvious place to think about the collapse of monetary orthodoxy or the rise of intelligent arachnids, but bear with me.<\/p>\n First up, \u2018Broken Money\u2019 by Lyn Alden. This is one of the sharpest and most accessible accounts yet of how the post-Bretton Woods monetary order is unravelling. Alden is a rare voice, blending technical insight with narrative clarity. Her core argument \u2013 that the fiat era is buckling under the weight of politicised credit, currency debasement and central bank omnipotence \u2013 is compelling. You don\u2019t need to share her enthusiasm for Bitcoin to be gripped by the force of her analysis. It\u2019s essential reading for anyone still labouring under the illusion that monetary policy is neutral or technocratic.<\/p>\n For something completely different but just as illuminating, \u2018Children of Time\u2019 by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a brilliant and unsettling masterpiece of science fiction. A sweeping saga of evolution, collapse and the strange paths intelligence can take. It\u2019s also the best novel about empire and unintended consequences that never once mentions politics. Also: spiders. Lots of spiders.<\/p>\n Lastly, \u2018The Price of Time\u2019 by Edward Chancellor. It starts as a leisurely history of interest rates but quickly builds momentum. Chancellor shows how central banks\u2019 manipulation of money distorts investment, inflates bubbles and weakens the foundations of capitalism. The final chapters are especially strong, linking cheap money to inequality, financial instability and democratic decay. It\u2019s \u2018The Road to Serfdom\u2019 for the QE era.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/71LOSQQm4L._UF8941000_QL80_.jpg\")
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