Subterms
The former US president recalls the excitement of the 2008 night he was elected, in a passage from A Promised Land
Interview: Obama talks Trump, Biden, golf and conspiracy theories
How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More
Jimmy Carter
‘Visionary success’: Jonathan Alter makes the case for Jimmy Carter
In a time of Trumpian chaos the biographer says the 39th president, now 96, should be celebrated for his intelligence More
Observer book of the week
Autobiography and memoir
Disloyal: A Memoir by Michael Cohen review – disgraced Trump lawyer’s kiss and tell
An account of a decade at the president’s side offers gossipy insights into Russian influence, Trump’s dangerous allure and the ‘pee tape’ More
History books
Students at Tulane University who protested this book missed the point: it lifts Black voices as it exposes white More
Interview Lisa O’Kelly Four years ago, the author predicted that Trump would transform the US into an autocracy. Now, Gessen believes the country is in a revolutionary moment Read an extract from Masha Gessen’s Surviving Autocracy ‘They both have this contempt for excellence, they both have a hatred of government’: Presidents Trump and Putin at […] More
Eric Cervini’s story of one man’s struggle touches on many others and leaves the reader wanting 500 pages more Frank Kameny picketing in a still from a documentary, The Lavender Scare. Photograph: PBS Trained at Harvard and Cambridge, Eric Cervini is an LGBTQ historian. His debut, subtitled The Homosexual vs the United States of America, falls […] More
As US-China relations deteriorate, Barry Gewen offers an unsparing biography of a man still at the center of events The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, shakes hands with the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November. Photograph: Jason Lee/Pool/EPA Only two of America’s secretaries […] More
