MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
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‘Trumpian obfuscation at its finest’
DAN GLAZEBROOK takes issue with the false premises in a book on the rise of authoritarianism in the US
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism and the Tyranny of Experts
by Salvatore Babones
(Polity Press, £9.99)
SALVATORE BABONES'S basic argument in this book is that liberalism’s focus on extending rights has transferred political power in Western countries from the people and their representatives to an “expert class” who identify and define those rights.
In his view, this apparently constitutes a new form of anti-democratic authoritarianism to which right-wing populism is a necessary corrective, the latest incarnation of a venerable US tradition of resisting such moves.
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Latin America is being swept by a series of right-wing electoral victories. But behind that shift to the right lies less of an ideological conversion than anger, fear, insecurity, and a deep crisis of democracy, asserts MARC VANDEPITTE
Italians reject controversial judiciary reforms in a referendum that boosts the left, reports NICK WRIGHT
JOHN GREEN asks how can we take decisive action on population levels with a world leader who is a destructive ignoramus
PAUL BUHLE agrees that a grassroots movements for change in needed in the US, independent of electoral politics