Pratinav Anil

Read a free extract from ‘A Historian in Gaza’ ➡️ tinyurl.com/tm4vhnsj

French historian of Gaza, Jean-Pierre Filiu offers an ‘An unflinching eyewitness account of the destruction wreaked by Israel, with Anglo-American support. Look no further for an impartial account of the tragedy of the Palestinians.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social @theguardian.com ‘Book of the Year’

The best history and politics books of 2025 The revolutionary spirit in politics and architecture; histories of free speech and civil war; plus how the Tories fell apart and Starmer won

Typically thoughtful review of some of this year’s history books by @pratinavanil.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Image of the Guardian Best of History and Politics 2025 book featuring A Historian in Gaza. The text reads: The most harrowing chapter in the story of the modern Middle East is narrated by Jean-Pierre Filiu. A slender addition to his definitive, door-stopping Gaza: A History, A Historian in Gaza (Hurst) is an unflinching eyewitness account of the destruction wreaked by Israel, with Anglo-American support. Look no further for an impartial account of the tragedy of the Palestinians, caught between Hamas’s fanaticism and Netanyahu’s ethnic cleansing. A veteran of war zones from Syria to Somalia, Filiu writes: “Now, I understand why Israel is denying the international press access to such a distressing scene.”

Thrilled to see @pratinavanil has highlighted @pratinavanil.bsky.social 'A Historian in Gaza' in the Guardian round-up of 'Best History and Politics Books of 2025'. Get your copy at 50% off during our holiday sale, offer ends December 9th. 🇵🇸

➡️ www.hurstpublishers.com/profile/jean...

The Prize announces 2025 shortlist The Baillie Gifford Prize rewards excellence in non-fiction writing, bringing the best in intelligent reflection on the world to new readers.

“Formidable female novelists, ghastly literary men, a faith-shaken poet, eunuchs, pirates, horny wolves, international terrorists…" It's been great fun to judge this prize ... and here are the six finalists ... www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/inside-the-c...

Forget Wilberforce — violent resistance killed off slavery In Daring to Be Free, the historian Sudhir Hazareesingh shows how strikes, sabotage and mutiny by slaves brought about abolition

Forget Wilberforce — violent resistance killed off slavery

I enjoyed Sudhir Hazareesingh’s account of how black resistance led to abolition. My latest for @thetimes.com:

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Paul Laity · After Martha For the hospital, and for the NHS, it was a closed case, another preventable death: medicine is imperfect, such things...

'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Long divisions

'Sam Dalrymple’s Gandhi is no saint, but a character who became progressively unhinged.'

Pratinav Anil on the reordering of India and its neighbours

A tale of fire and ice — how CO₂ shapes world history In The Story of CO₂ Is the Story of Everything, Peter Brannen traces the importance of carbon dioxide from prehistoric swamps to the climate crisis

Review of The Story Of CO2 Is The Story Of Everything that is as pithily well written as the book itself : “Like life, death can be viewed unsentimentally as a slow unspooling into water and carbon dioxide” www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

A tale of fire and ice — how CO2 shapes world history In The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything, Peter Brannen traces the importance of carbon dioxide from prehistoric swamps to the climate crisis

On carbon dioxide, climate change, and capitalism. My latest for @thetimes.com:

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Another pan of the book: TCW has "marooned himself on an island of vacuity."

I know a little about publishing industry lag but a "summer of 2020 was CRAZY" book amid the summer of Alligator Alcatraz... yeah man maybe shoulda sent the draft in sooner.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Don’t believe Roman lies — Carthage was civilised In Roman propaganda it was a place of debauchery and child sacrifice, but in her new history Eve MacDonald shows that life in the ancient empire was surprisingly sophisticated

I read a superb new history of Carthage by Eve MacDonald - a finer cicerone than Flaubert - for @thetimes.com. My lead review today:

www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

OMG this review.

Read it to the kicker.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

I enjoyed this slogging more than — or perhaps exactly as much as — I should. “Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at BLM from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

Spot the fuck on: “Fixated on slagging off the left, he has marooned himself on an island of vacuity.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

what is great about this review is that the author is clearly sympathetic to the premise but can’t get past the basic fact that the author is a vacuous fool www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

‘His homeland, he says, is a “society that is frankly more democratic, multi-ethnic, and egalitarian than any other in recorded history”. The Gini coefficient and Democracy Index beg to differ.’

"Fixated on slagging off the left, [Williams] has marooned himself on an island of vacuity."

Ouch.

“Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at Black Lives Matter from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.”

Damn

the other reason i like this review is it confirms that i’m not the only person who has read this dude’s work and thought, “him? really?”

this made me cackle

I took one for the team...

This is Kendrick Lamar level takedown, good lord.

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

"Excelling in sending up bien-pensant opinion, he has no answers. Fixated on slagging off the left, he has marooned himself on an island of vacuity."
Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I enjoyed reading this acute review because, honestly, you could not pay me enough to make me read the actual book.

Thanks! Tbf, he is quite critical of Trumpian conservatism, but he is most definitely a reactionary centrist, as you say.

A richly deserved, & precisely executed, pan.

“Williams’s other objections appear to be mostly aesthetic. Visiting BLM-ravaged Portland, he mourns that “a beloved statue of an elk has been toppled”. This in a town with a “well-deserved reputation” for “exquisite gastronomy”. Quelle horreur.”

Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists In his caustic critique of identity politics, Williams ends up condemning every kind of collective action

I read Thomas Chatterton Williams' new BLM memoir for @guardianbooks.bsky.social and wasn't particularly impressed:

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Book cover for INDIA'S FIRST DICTATORSHIP, THE EMERGENCY, 1975 - 77 showing a black & white historical photo of the time with people milling in front of political posters.

🇮🇳 📚This month marks the 50th anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s declaration of the ‘Emergency.' Now in pb, read ‘The best & most comprehensive book on the Emergency.’ @bsindia.bsky.social by‪ @jaffrelot.bsky.social‬ & @pratinavanil.bsky.social

25% off w/code DICTATORSHIP25 ➡️: tinyurl.com/38ff6dh6