Book recommendations for International Relations / History and Politics

As the title says does anyone have any book recommendations for International Relations or History and Politics. The more niche the better, I’m really trying to find the areas I enjoy!

Reply 1

heyitsmika

https://blackwells.co.uk/jsp/readinglists/selectlist.jsp

Maybe this will give you an idea. That's basically the reading lists for a couple of unis (19/20) - so just select a uni (not all of them work for some reason), go to the relevant department and have a look through.
There's tons of books on there so maybe it will help a little

Reply 2

ohdearstudying

Original post by heyitsmika

Thanks so much! I’m having some issues finding IR or History and Politics on there, is it just me?

Reply 3

heyitsmika

Original post by ohdearstudying

Thanks so much! I’m having some issues finding IR or History and Politics on there, is it just me?

I just had a look under Aberdeen Uni and found it no problem. Just go to Social Sciences and then look at the course codes with IR or PI - Politics and IR for example, or for History go to the department of History and Divinity

Reply 4

ohdearstudying

Original post by heyitsmika

Thanks so much! I realised some of them didn’t work because they haven’t uploaded their reading list! Awesome :smile:

Reply 5

username5301604

Original post by ohdearstudying

As the title says does anyone have any book recommendations for International Relations or History and Politics. The more niche the better, I’m really trying to find the areas I enjoy!

The Deportation Regime

Destined For War

Return to the Shadows

Reply 6

ohdearstudying

Original post by Synergy_

The Deportation Regime

Destined For War

Return to the Shadows

These sound amazing! What is ‘Destined for War’ about, that sounds right up my alley!

Reply 7

username5301604

It's quite good :biggrin:

@ohdearstudying

I'll share the official blurb by the author:

"Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America, and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries ‘great again’, the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, or accident at sea could soon escalate into all-out war.

In Destined for War, the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains why Thucydides’s Trap is the best lens for understanding U.S.-China relations in the twenty-first century. Through uncanny historical parallels and war scenarios, he shows how close we are to the unthinkable. Yet, stressing that war is not inevitable, Allison also reveals how clashing powers have kept the peace in the past — and what painful steps the United States and China must take to avoid disaster today."

Reply 8

Cairan

I've just started reading the accidental guerilla by David Kilcullen.
https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/accidental-guerrilla/
It's basically a fairly sized book on counterinsurgency.
Description-
"This landmark book—a Washington Post bestseller—transformed the theory and practice of counterinsurgency.

Colouring his account with gripping battlefield experience from the highlands of Southeast Asia, the mountains of the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, and the dusty towns of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, David Kilcullen argues that neither counterterrorism nor traditional counterinsurgency is the appropriate framework to fight the enemy we now face. Traditional counterinsurgency is more effective than counterterrorism when it comes to entities like Al-Qaeda, but, as Kilcullen contends, our current focus is far too narrow, concentrating on only one geographical region and one state.

Today’s wars present a very different situation: stateless insurgents and terrorists operating across a large number of countries and only loosely affiliated with each other. Western armies have done a poor job of applying different tactics to different situations, continually misidentifying insurgents with limited aims and legitimate grievances as part of a coordinated worldwide network. The Accidental Guerrilla identifies the problem and suggests workable solutions.

This highly readable and closely argued book is essential for all those thinking about and fighting wars today."

https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/accidental-guerrilla/

I also highly recommend the politics book( https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9781409364450-the-politics-book/ ). It provides bite-sized and well-structured pieces of information on many political thinkers that have shaped the way we think about the political sphere. From the ancient Greeks to post ww2 political figures, it provides a solid foundation for the understanding of the history of politics as well as providing books that each thinker has wrote if you wish to read further into that certain thinker.
Hope that helps.
As I said, the book I just explained above has many many separate books recommended to read.

Reply 9

Cairan

Also, I highly recommend watching the Caspian report on yt. They focus on geopolitics and have a few good books on that field here-
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/118658.Caspian_Report
This page also links to their channel and a playlist reviewing the books they recommend.
They have also started a series ( currently 2 lectures in) on the art geopolitics.