MENU
SHOPS
SEARCH
0
Joinplus before checkout to earn stamps on your order and be eligible for plus rewards.
Basket
Your basket is empty.
-
- Books
Blog
The Best Books of 2023: Politics
Ranging from heavyweight political memoirs to clarion calls to action and activism, the best politics books of 2023 encompass a broad spectrum of incisive and engaging writing. Explore the very best volumes on British and world politics as well as political theory and more courtesy of the Waterstones Blog.
2023 has seen some illuminating dispatches from the heart of Westminster with ex-MP Rory Stewart and former PM Theresa May offering their insights on the current state of modern politics, as well as commentators like Ian Dunt and Anthony Seldon delivering probing analyses of the Westminster machinery and the eventful tenure of Boris Johnson's premiership respectively.
£18.99
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
Deconstructing the processes and culture of the badly broken British political system in clear and accessible prose, the author of How to Be a Liberal reveals how we have got to this low point and how to start dragging Westminster out of the mire.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Seldon and Newell provide a perceptive, entertaining and accessible analysis of Boris Johnson's turbulent tenure as Prime Minister through ten key moments from Brexit to the pandemic.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Railing against the corruption and self-enrichment she sees as endemic in modern Parliamentary politics, the former Prime Minister argues for a fairer, more altruistic exercising of power from the Westminster elite in this powerful, unflinching account.
£22.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Drawing from his time in Westminster and his considerable experience in foreign politics, Rory Stewart shares his insights into the era of populism and global conflict with candour and sharp humour.
£16.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Tracking a political career of unprecedentedly rapid progression, Ashcroft paints a multi-faceted picture of the youngest Prime Minister in British history as well as sketching Rishi Sunak's beliefs and relationships with other key figures.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From the political commentator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians comes a characteristically perceptive and lucid history of the National Health Service, from its inception in the 1940s to its inspiring response to coronavirus in the twenty-first century.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Across ten acerbic and angry chapters, the popular talk show host and author of former Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month How to Be Right takes the politicians, advisers and media moguls responsible for Britain's current crisis to task.
£22.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Crafting a compelling history of the post-war British political landscape through ten key events, the leading commentator and author of The Prime Ministers We Never Had assesses whether the current level of Westminster turmoil is truly 'unprecedented' or not.
£22.00
Hardback
Not available
Currently not available to order
Taking a practical approach to the sorry state of British politics, the journalist, political adviser and co-host of the hit podcast The Rest is Politics offers the benefits of his wisdom at the heart of Westminster to encourage readers to fight back for democratic values.
£14.99
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A brilliantly concise and clear-headed primer on the legacy of Brexit and how the circumstances of the British nation have changed since 2016, Foster's volume proposes ways to ameliorate the economic and reputational damage done thus far.
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Making a compelling case for the various downsides of a constitutional conservation of inherited privilege, Graham Smith delivers a passionate and eloquent analysis of how monarchy impedes the full realisation of British democracy.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Arguing with passion, eloquence and unrivalled insight, the veteran broadcast journalist delivers a trenchant critique of the pernicious effect of inequality in society through the pivotal stories that he has covered.
£20.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The respected political commentator and foreign correspondent presents an invaluable guide to the toxic state of politics and what we can all do to improve the current malaise.
£16.99
£8.50
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Taking a surgical look at the recurring success of the Conservative party with the British electorate, Samuel Earle examines how historical background and national identity building function in today’s politics.
£16.99
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The political sketch writer and author of A Farewell to Calm sharpens his pen once more for a side-splitting and splenetic trawl through the tawdry events at Westminster over the past two years.
£22.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
Based on government documents, court transcripts and extensive interviews, Wheeler's crusading volume documents the appalling infected blood scandal that condemned thousands of people to die of HIV and hepatitis C.
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Spanning the last three decades of British politics, television producer and editor Burley delivers an intimate insider's story of trying to hold politicians to account in television interviews.
£16.99
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
A truly revelatory account of incarceration focusing on both locked-up criminals and those struggling to control them, Behind These Doors is an unflinching yet compassionate reflection on the British jail system penned by a former prison officer.
£20.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
The Labour MP reveals his childhood struggle with poverty and the inspirational figures who set him on the path to university and politics in this affecting memoir about the importance of making a difference.
Few writers tackle the biggest issues with as much erudtion and intelligence as Naomi Klein and, in Doppelganger's exploration of modern conspiracy theories and the outer edges of the cybersphere, the esteemed investigative journalist delivered a book that ranks with the very best of her formidable output. Elsewhere, Ferdinand Mount asked what it is that makes and breaks political 'caesars' and Scott Shapiro discussed the history of internet security through five jaw-dropping hacks.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Deftly following the threads from online keyboard warriors to conspiracy theorists and the instability of democracy itself, this astounding work from the author of No Logo and This Changes Everything tracks the extreme views of a woman frequently mistaken for the author.
£25.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Urgent, compelling and deeply researched, this vital book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of They Can’t Kill Us All sheds light on how the noxious backlash from white supremacists following Obama’s 2008 election win has led to a steep resurgence of racially motivated violence in America.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From Julius Caesar to Boris Johnson, the political commentator and author of Making Nice delivers a trenchant history of the strongman, defence of parliamentary politics and roadmap back to constitutional government.
£25.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
The outspoken author of the bestselling Trump trilogy turns his attention to the dysfunctional and dangerous Murdoch empire in this scathing analysis of Fox News and familial wars of succession.
£22.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House comes a blistering account of Elon Musk's turbulent takeover of Twitter, boasting unprecedented access to employees of the platform and confidants of the mogul.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Through five landmark hacks from the Great Worm to the Russian military intelligence unit that may have swung the 2016 US Presidential Election, Shapiro tells the story of the internet and its shocking security breaches in page-turning, human-centred prose.
£25.00
Hardback
Not available
Currently not available to order
Searing and passionate, this wide-ranging investigation into the shocking state of poverty in the United States argues that only by better-paid citizens taking an active role in ameliorating hardship will long-term change be effected.
£18.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Recounted with power and eloquence, this searing denunciation of the Chinese government's destruction of the Uyghur community and way of life is penned by one of the greatest Uyghur poets who was forced to flee or face death.
£25.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Through a diverse cast of real-life characters, Thrall deftly traces one Palestinian man's heartrending odyssey to discover the fate of his young son who has been involved in a horrific accident.
£20.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Tracking the spread of QAnon with clinical precision, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist James Ball explores the vulnerability of our digital immune systems and sheds lights on the lesson that can be learnt from the world's first 'online pandemic'.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A chilling portrait of the most powerful woman in North Korea's history, Sung-Yoon Lee's eye-opening biography of Kim Yo Jong - sister of the Stalinist state's murderous ruler Kim Jong Un - reveals a complex woman whose surface charm masks a cold and calculating political brain.
Unsurprisingly, the Russo-Ukrainian War continued to dominate publishing on European politics in 2023, with Russian dissident Mikhail Zygar's fascinating War and Punishment, and Milan Kundera (who sadly died this year) making the case for the countries of Central Europe as bulwarks against Putin's aggression in A Kidnapped West.
£22.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
An urgent and empathetic investigation into what it means to be European in an age of pandemics, climate change and mass migration from one of our most perceptive journalists.
£22.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The Russian journalist, film-maker and author of All the Kremlin’s Men mixes history with self-reflection to deliver a trenchant polemic about what 350 years of propaganda, myth-making and the oppression of truth have done to his country and its relationship with Ukraine.
£10.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The seminal Czech author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being delivers a characteristically thoughtful and erudite polemic arguing that the nations of Central Europe hold the key to European identity and, with the looming threat from Putin's Russia, the West ignores them at their peril.
£20.00
Hardback
Not available
Currently not available to order
Capturing the defiance and resilience of the Ukrainian people with candour and sensitivity, the lead correspondent for the Financial Times in Ukraine delivers an eye-opening and deeply touching inside story of the country’s long fight for freedom against Russian aggression.
£20.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A shocking, incredible story of survival and the horror of war, Putin's Prisoner is a revelatory account of Aiden Aslin's time in Mariupol as part of the Ukrainian army and his traumatic six months in Russian captivity.
Providing fresh thinking on the systemic socio-political issues that dominate our world, works by Gordon Brown, Yanis Varoufakis and Bernie Sanders amongst others offered intriguing and sometimes controversial alternatives to the current political order.
£22.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Shedding stark light on the threats that capitalism poses to democracy, this perspicacious, angry and vital manifesto from the iconic American senator calls for fundamental political change to create a society where economic rights are recognised as human rights.
£25.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Three of the world's pre-eminent thinkers dissect the broken approaches to growth, the economy and governance and plot a radical path for renewal in this inspiring volume.
£22.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The celebrated economist and bestselling author of Talking to my Daughter and Another Now lifts the lid on the global transformation that has replaced traditional capitalism with technofeudalism and asks what we can do to combat the threats it poses to social democracy, the environment, world peace and our freedoms.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
In this impassioned and refreshingly hopeful volume, philosopher and economist Daniel Chandler draws from Rawls’ humanitarian egalitarianism to deliver a well-informed and infectious deliberation on how to put values at the heart of politics to create a fairer society.
£22.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
A crash course in innoculating oneself against the virus of misinformation, van der Linden's riveting study deconstructs why anyone can fall for fake news and how we can identify fact from fiction.
£20.00
Hardback
We can order this from the publisher
Usually dispatched within 2 weeks
A forensic and incisive exploration of the relationship between creativity and morality, Dederer's volume questions to what extent it is acceptable to appreciate the art of monstrous individuals in a supposedly compassionate society.
From Gina Martin's interrogation of contentious phrases to Caitlin Moran's enquiry into modern masculinity, many authors provided thoughtful and impassioned books on issues of race, gender and sexuality this year.
£16.99
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Activist Gina Martin explores constructive answers to twenty notorious conversation-stopping phrases in this empowering volume designed to stimulate change.
£25.00
£12.50
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Raising important and multifaceted questions about cultural appropriation, colonialism and racism, Kuper's deftly written volume reflects on exhibitions of foreign and prehistoric peoples in museums of anthropology and what should be done with them in a supposedly enlightened society.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The journalist, commentator and author of Brit(ish) reflects on twelve months radical unlearning of Eurocentric and patriarchal conventions of beauty in this powerful and challenging volume.
£22.00
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
In this thoughtful, urgent and frequently hilarious book, the bestselling author of How to Be a Woman and More Than a Woman turns her attention to the challenges and pitfalls of modern masculinity.
£20.00
Hardback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From the acclaimed author of Inferior and Superior comes a rigorously researched and intelligent history of the concept of patriarchy and how different systems became embedded across the globe in ancient times.
£25.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From cave paintings to mobile phones, Hirsch's insightful volume curates a brilliantly chosen selection of objects that highlight the roles women have played through history.
Two pioneering barristers discussed how the UK's legal framework can be made to work for the many rather than the few in our top law and economics books of 2023.
£22.00
£11.00
Hardback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The founder of the Good Law Project details how ordinary people can achieve legal justice in a system which often seems stacked in favour of the rich and powerful, in this inspiring and illuminating volume.
£14.99
Hardback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A short book with a clear and powerful message that the collective will of the people can force great change, this important work from the celebrated barrister draws upon over fifty years of high-profile criminal cases.
Related articles
Sign In / Register
Not registered? CREATE AN ACCOUNTCREATE A plus ACCOUNT
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Reserve online, pay on collection
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at
Comments
There are currently no comments.