The WQ’s Top 10 Books of 2011

Dear Readers,

The process of selecting the 10 best books reviewed in the WQ’s pages this year occasioned some spirited debates in our offices. There was so much good stuff to choose from! The 10 titles we finally settled on, a few of which will appear on many best-of lists, and others of which were simply the particular favorites of our editors and reviewers, offer a veritable feast of scholarship, inquiry, and fine—even brave—writing. Compliments of the season, from our shelves to yours.

THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE: Why Violence Has Declined. By Steven Pinker. Viking. 802 pp. $40

A monumental book that draws on anthropology, psychology, history, neuroscience, and other fields to show that humans have grown less violent over time.

DENG XIAOPING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINA. By Ezra F. Vogel.
Belknap/Harvard. 876 pp. $39.95

An exhaustively researched portrait of the leader who transformed 20th-century China.

HOW TO LIVE: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer. By Sarah Bakewell. Other Press. 389 pp. $25

An unconventional biography of the French nobleman who invented the essay.

THE IMMORTALIZATION COMMISSION: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death. By John Gray. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 273 pp. $24

A philosophical and historical treatise about the ultimate futility of pushing against death’s outer limit.

IS MARRIAGE FOR WHITE PEOPLE? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone. By Ralph Richard Banks. Dutton. 289 pp. $25.95

A Stanford law professor’s nuanced exploration of the wide gap that persists between the marriage rates of blacks and whites.

MALCOLM X: A Life of Reinvention. By Manning Marable. Viking. 594 pp. $30

The crowning achievement of a scholar who made his last great work, before his death earlier this year, the definitive biography of the radical black leader.

ODESSA: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams. By Charles King. W. W. Norton. 336 pp. $27.95

An elegant history of Odessa, the Russian Black Sea city whose past is studded with tragedy along with periods of dynamism and creativity.

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW. By Daniel Kahneman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 499 pp. $30

A book about the irrational ways that humans make decisions, by the psychologist who made a science of the study.

THE WILD LIFE OF OUR BODIES: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today. By Rob Dunn. Harper. 290 pp. $26.99

A biologist proposes that some of the parasites and bacteria modern life has scrubbed away are necessary for human health.

A WORLD ON FIRE: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War. By Amanda Foreman. Random House. 956 pp. $35

A sweeping account of Britain’s multifaceted role in the American Civil War.

--The Editors

COMMENTS (1)

Hi there, Interesting choices you have. in my opinion, you should make it the top 11.. (for 2011, of course) :) -and add: The Source Field Investigations, by David Wilcock (on Times best seller list now as well) An extremely well referenced and easy to read book that explains all the "true science" (and most with empirical examples) of ancient, past, current and future science that our current dogmatic, "scientific religion" refuses to acknowledge on pain of death (and loss of funding). If you wish to truly *understand* the world around you and how it works, at every level, this is your guide. Read it. -i'll bet you $1 you will not be able to put it down. Best of health in the new year to you. -gregO

Posted by: greg | 12/31/11

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way represent the views or opinions of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This section is moderated by the wilson quarterly staff.

The WQ’s Top 10 Books of 2011

Recent Posts

What We're Reading

Dilemma of a Football Fan

Prickly German Privacy

Food and Rhetoric

Punting on Academics

A Pilgrimage to Ukraine: The Story Behind a Photo

Archives