Four decades ago, The Solution — a best-seller co-authored by Leon Louw — helped shape South Africa's political settlement and left an indelible imprint on its Constitution. Today, the country finds itself at an economic impasse once more, and Louw's ideas feel more urgent than ever.In this deeply researched and elegantly told account, Tim Cohen, one of South Africa's most respected and incisive financial journalists, draws on hours of conversations with Louw to capture th...

Nationalisation: Swear word for some, cure-all for others both within and outside the ruling party.Tim Cohen, a senior journalist with many years experience in both political and business reporting, traces the emergence of calls for nationalisation in South African politics. It is a subject which has become the most fiercely argued and passionate economic debate of modern-day South African politics. This is particularly so since the call for nationalisation is so closely associated...

The post-Apartheid era shows fascinating echoes of the era after the Boer War: Afrikaners learning that they can win by 'losing', the trade-off between vengeance and forbearance, and a worrying trajectory towards nationalism. Efforts to reconcile 'the nation' are treacherous and demand trade-offs. Tim Cohen looks at how Louis Botha and Nelson Mandela managed the transitions they were overseeing - and how both suffered the backlash. Is reconciliation even possible?

Through a series of essays by leading demographers, environmentalists and reproductive health advocates, A Pivotal Moment offers a new perspective on the complex connection between population dynamics and environmental quality. It presents the latest research on the relationship between population growth and climate change, ecosystem health and other environmental issues. It surveys the new demographic landscape—in which population growth rates have fallen, but human numbers continue to in...

In 1977 R W Johnson’s best-selling How Long Will South Africa Survive? provided a controversial analysis of the survival prospects of the apartheid regime. Now, after more than twenty years of ANC rule, he believes the situation has become so critical that the question must be posed again. He moves from an analysis of Jacob Zuma’s rule to the increasingly dire state of the South African economy, concluding that the country is heading towards a likely International Monetary Fund bail-out, w...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…Sir Winston Churchill was a soldier, journalist, writer, Nobel Prize winner and, above all, a leader. Conservative then Liberal then Conservative again, his political instincts won him a sustained career at the summit of British government, while his resolve and politics of personality made him broadly regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century.With his early radicalism, bold decisions regarding ...

"I recommend our diplomats and ministers read this book: it will provide them with an intellectual backbone. On the big calls [Bootle] has a spectacularly good record." Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times"Bootle is right on every count." The GuardianHOW BREXIT WILL WORK FOR BRITAIN AND EUROPEMaking a Success of Brexit and Reforming the EU is the extensively revised and expanded new edition of ...

Born just two weeks apart in 1874, Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King took different paths to achieve their objective of a parliamentary career, Churchill through military exploits and King via academic excellence. When he became prime minister, King realized that Canada had to progress from a subservient position to an independent one. Thus, when the Second World War broke out, Canada's parliament made its own decision to be a participant.King had been highly critic...

Ken Clarke needs no introduction. One of the genuine 'Big Beasts' of the political scene, during his forty-six years as the Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire he has been at the very heart of government under three prime ministers. He is a political obsessive with a personal hinterland, as well known as a Tory Wet with Europhile views as for his love of cricket, Nottingham Forest Football Club and jazz.In Kind of Blue, ...

A fearless act of journalism in 1960s Nigeria and the true story behind the international bestselling novel The Dogs of War.The Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s was one of the first occasions when Western consciences were awakened and deeply affronted by the level of suffering and the scale of atrocity being played out in the African continent. This was thanks not just to advances in communication technology but to the courage and journalistic skills o...

Economic growth does not demand a secret formula. Good development examples now abound in East Asia and further afield in others parts of Asia, and in Central America. But why then has Africa failed to realise its potential in half a century of independence? Why Africa is Poor demonstrates that Africa is poor not because the world has denied the continent the market and financial means to compete: far from it. It has not been because of aid per se. Nor is African poverty solely a ...

The acclaimed account of post-Brexit British politics: a must-read for understanding how we've got to where we are today.'Richly argued and brilliantly written... a deeply thoughtful analysis that should be mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand where we have gone wrong.' - FINANCIAL TIMESIn WTF? Robert Peston draws on his years of experience as a political, economics and business journalist to show us what has gone bad...