In this season of reflection, Project Syndicate contributors continue an annual tradition of sharing the book that resonated most with them this year. Although new and recent titles concerning war, strategy, and geopolitics inevitably feature prominently, there is also a robust selection of books from previous decades, underscoring the enduring value of thoughtful writing in an age of hyperactive information flows. At a time when the world increasingly seems to be driven by centrifugal forces, disruptive technologies, and an all-encompassing sense of novelty, we could do worse than to press pause and seek insights that have stood the test of time.

DARON ACEMOGLU

Frank Dikötter, China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.

This book presents a very different take on the Chinese economic miracle than the conventional wisdom. It convincingly shows how foreign capital pouring into China (to benefit from low – and often artificially suppressed – wages) became a key ingredient of economic growth at a time of intensifying repression following the Tiananmen Square massacre. It also shatters the myth of competent technocratic policymaking under leaders such as Deng Xiaoping. In reality, Communist Party elites were often reacting to, and sometimes trying to stop, economic developments on the ground. Most radically, the book makes the case that, rather than being a sharp break with the recent past, President Xi Jinping’s more nakedly authoritarian rule is in many ways a continuation of trends that started long ago.

ADEKEYE ADEBAJO

Ali Mazrui, Black Reparations in the Era of Globalization, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, 2002.

A generation after the publication of the late Kenyan intellectual Ali Mazrui’s important book, it is worth recalling how visionary these essays were – and how influential they remain. Mazrui proposed reparations for four centuries of European slavery and colonialism in Africa and its Caribbean and American diasporas. He suggested that Western governments should offer material and moral support for democracy in Africa. He pushed for a reduction of Western impediments to Africa’s development, including by annulling its external debt. And he proposed an African “Middle Passage Plan” like the $12 billion Marshall Plan for the post-1945 reconstruction of Europe.

Though not all of these proposals have been adopted, an active reparations movement – driven by groups like Black Lives Matter – has emerged across Africa and its diaspora. As a result, Germany apologized, in 2021, for its genocide of an estimated 75,000 Herero and Nama in Namibia in 1904-08, and has now committed €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in compensation to Namibia over 30 years. Similarly, the Netherlands (under the outgoing government) has apologized for its role in the slave trade and established a €200 million fund to address the lingering consequences. Will more egregious imperial abusers such as Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, and Italy follow suit and start to atone for their historical crimes against humanity?

TERESA GHILARDUCCI

Pranab Bardan, A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment In Rich And Poor Countries, Harvard University Press, 2022.

If you think massive inequality – the juxtaposition of squalor and opulence – is the most salient economic issue of the last 40 years, think again. As........

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