Non Fiction > Current Affairs & Politics

The BBC Radio 4 series, "A Point of View", has been on the air since 2007. This is the book of the radio series.
Over the years, it's had a variety of presenters - including the national treasure that is Clive James - talking for ten minutes about anything and everything that has captured their imagination, piqued their interest, raised their blood pressure or just downright incensed them that week. Of all the presenters, Clive James was a clear favourite, and now, for the first time, his original pieces - sixty in total - an... read more

BACK COVER - ON CLOSING THE GAP: "If these idiots get their way, the only gap we will close will be the one between New Zealand and Somalia." ON WELFARE: "Taxing the rich and the industrious, so that the lazy and the self-pitying are not required to work, is not sustainable." ON PRIVATISATION: "Water is a necessity of life and a basic human right, not some discretionary product to be usurped for profit by the grubby little Shylocks of the self-styled New Right, or any of the other worthless parasites who prey on decent society. The... read more

"The power of the people is stronger than the people in power." Social media allow ideas to be shared. They are places where people can unite, Revolutions can begin. A new type of Revolution -- Revolution 2.0 Wael Ghonim used to be a man unwilling to publicly criticise the Egyptian regime. Like many, he was silenced by the fear of reprisals. But in January 2011 Wael decided he had seen too much oppression go unchallenged and started a Facebook page calling for the people to protest. It became a rallying-point for revolution and Egy... read more

She was a former New Zealand fashion model and a diplomat's wife. He was the British WW2 fighter ace-turned-criminal who seduced her. She attended garden parties with the Queen. He got her pregnant, then kidnapped her children.

It's the case that made world headlines, that captured the attention of Sir Richard Branson, and which forced changes to child abduction laws in Britain.

Paulette - now living in a small North Island town - hasn't seen her son and daughter since they were snatched off a London str... read more

In a natural follow-up to his international bestseller The Crash of 2008: The New Paradigm for Financial Markets, legendary financier and philanthropist George Soros reflects on world finance over the years of deepening crisis. People want to read Soros's opinions on financial matters, especially in this bleak economic time Bestselling author Soros has great track, especially on his finance books. New Paradigm for Financial Markets and The Crisis of Global Capitalism were both New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsel... read more

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the most powerful media organisation in the world. Murdoch's commercial success is obvious, but less well understood is his successful pursuit of political goals, using News Corp as his vehicle. David McKnight uncovers Murdoch's crusade for his unique brand of conservatism over three decades. Drawing on extensive original research, McKnight tracks NewsCorp's pursuit of conservative ideas, from Reagan and Thatcher to the Tea Party and its war on Barack Obama. He shows how Murdoch's political conn... read more

An insider reveals what can--and does--go wrong when companies shift production to China In this entertaining behind-the-scenes account, Paul Midler tells us all that is wrong with our effort to shift manufacturing to China. Now updated and expanded, Poorly Made in China reveals industry secrets, including the dangerous practice of quality fade--the deliberate and secret habit of Chinese manufacturers to widen profit margins through the reduction of quality inputs. U.S. importers don't stand a chance, Midler explains, against savvy... read more

From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the advert of the Web, everywhere you turn you are told that we live in age of unparalleled freedom. This is dangerously naive. From the revolution in Iran that wasn't to the imposition of super-injunctions from the filthy rich, we still live in a world where you can write a book and end up dead.

Building on the hugely successful annual Economist "The World in..." publications, this essential guide to the twenty-first century captures the sweeping, fundamental trends that are changing the world faster than at any time in human history. In 2050 there will be 9.3 billion people alive - compared with 7 billion today - and the number will still be rising. The population aged over sixty-five will have more than doubled, to more than 16 per cent; China's GDP will be 80 per cent more than America's; and the number of cars on India... read more

For two months this fall, Zuccotti Park, squeezed deep in a canyon between bankers' skyscrapers in lower Manhattan, was the site of an extraordinary political action. Home to the hundreds of anti-capitalist protestors who camped there overnight, and the thousands who visited to join the protest, the park became a magical place: a communion of sharing and consensus in the heart of a citadel defined by greed and oligarchy. In the early hours of Tuesday November the 15th the occupiers' camp was destroyed when police swept suddenly int... read more

On its present course, the US faces a world of rising new countries that will compete with it ever more fiecely as its own power is declining. In order to slow and improve this steady leakage of power, the US must change course internationally, economically and domestically. It must also restructure to remain the world's most competitive economy. And it must address quality of life issues and fairness at home. But American politics is broken -- competing forces and interests have led to stasis. With change so tough, where now for a... read more

The history of mankind can be seen as a series of memorable events spanning many centuries. Over the last 500 years, perhaps the most memorable event -- or series of events -- was the "Golden Age of Discovery" led by Portugal, where over several decades, these daring people changed the map of the world with their multiple voyages of discovery. This book attempts to answer two questions arising from this period. What triggered the Golden Age of Discovery? And did the navigators reach as far as Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand i... read more

America has a huge problem. It faces four major challenges, on which its future depends, and it is failing to meet them. In What's Wrong with America?, Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum analyze those challenges - globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits and its pattern of energy consumption - and spell out what needs to be done now to rediscover America's power and prowess. They explain how the end of the cold war blinded the nation to the need to address these issues seriously.... read more

The end of the Cold War was thought to signal the triumph of Western capitalism over communism. In Maonomics, Napoleoni argues just the opposite: what we are witnessing instead is the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and the victory of communism with a profit motive. Maonomics charts the prodigious ascent of the Chinese economic miracle and the parallel course of the Wests ongoing insistence on misconstruing China and its economy even as we acknowledge its growing influence and importance. Napoleoni offers a front-row seat a... read more

What is the Arab Spring? How did it start? How might it end? What role did Wikileaks play? And where do events leave the oil-dependent west?
  As American and British jets shower bombs on Libya, it is astonishing to think that it all began with a young man who ran a fruit stall. Angry at police brutality, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi, who sold fruit and vegetables streetside in a provincial Tunisian town, set himself on fire in protest at police behaviour. His act of defiance, in the middle of December 2010, sparked a ch... read more

Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor. They lie at the very heart of the global economy, with over half the world trade processed through them. They have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event. This title shows how this happened, and what this means for you.

Takes us on a road-trip through the strange landscape of the American Right, the Tea Party and Glenn Beck, makes sense of a topsy-turvy world and shows how instead of complying with the new speed limit, conservative America has stamped hard on the accelerator.

Understanding the modern city and the powerful forces within it is the life's work of Harvard urban economist Edward Glaeser, who at forty is hailed as one of the world's most exciting urban thinkers. Travelling from city to city, speaking to planners and politicians across the world, he uncovers questions large and small whose answers are both counterintuitive and deeply significant. Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Why can't my nephew afford an apartment in New York? Is London the new financial capital of the world? Is my job heade... read more

Imagine a world where all the news you see is defined by your salary, where you live, and who your friends are. Imagine a world where you never discover new ideas. And where you can't have secrets. Welcome to 2011. Google and Facebook are already feeding you what they think you want to see. Advertisers are following your every click. Your computer monitor is becoming a one-way mirror, reflecting your interests and reinforcing your prejudices. The internet is no longer a free, independent space. It is commercially controlled and eve... read more