Book recommendation about UK for international relations student

[nikolah]

Hello all, I'm a student of International Relations who loves to read. Currently I am very interested in the (political) situation in the UK, I want to learn and know more about this topic. So do you have any books recommendation for me? I'd like to read books that will help me understand why it all look like this, how and why some things happened. Books that bring me the historical context in more details than in school are also highly welcome. If there is no book that comes to you mind directly connected to historical/political/current situation in the UK maybe you can recommend me a book that will bring me closer to UK culture and help me understand British people more?

[Brian.]

On 10/20/2022 at 9:06 PM, nikolah said:

Hello all, I'm a student of International Relations who loves to read. Currently I am very interested in the (political) situation in the UK, I want to learn and know more about this topic. So do you have any books recommendation for me? I'd like to read books that will help me understand why it all look like this, how and why some things happened. Books that bring me the historical context in more details than in school are also highly welcome. If there is no book that comes to you mind directly connected to historical/political/current situation in the UK maybe you can recommend me a book that will bring me closer to UK culture and help me understand British people more?

 

I'm not particularly well read when it comes to UK politics but a few books come to mind. The first is Posh Boys by Rober Verkaik. In Posh Boys Verkaik looks at why so many British politicians all come from the same group of private, fee paying schools. It explores the fact that they are all given a helping hand into politics and how very few of them have much in the way of experiencing life as a typical citizen of the UK. There isn't much in the way of political analysis but it is a decent look at the education/class divide which still exists in the UK. This book was written before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister and have very accurate predictions about how his leadership would be if he ever made it to the top job.

 

Another book which I have heard good things about but haven't read yet is Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman. This book looks more at how our politics and politicians work and how is bascially isn't fit for the world we live in now. The main crux of the book is about how so many of the politicians we have do things to benefit their own careers instead of what is best for the country.

 

There are also a few books about Brexit out there and one of them would definitely be worth a read as it's been the move divisive issue in modern UK politics.