Economist Book Reviews 2020
3. 
Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
by:
Catherine Belton
4.17 avg rating — 9,024 ratings 4. 
The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today
by:
David Stasavage
3.85 avg rating — 205 ratings 5. 
Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization
by:
Justin Marozzi
3.99 avg rating — 466 ratings 6. 
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
by:
Sam Wasson
4.10 avg rating — 3,665 ratings 7. 
The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage
by:
Mara Hvistendahl
3.56 avg rating — 1,408 ratings 8. 
Coffeeland: One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug 3.59 avg rating — 1,640 ratings
10. 
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China
by:
Jonathan Kaufman
4.27 avg rating — 4,818 ratings 
12. 
Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
by:
Anne Applebaum
3.90 avg rating — 16,816 ratings 
14. 
The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
by:
Toby Ord
3.96 avg rating — 4,781 ratings 16. 
The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It
by:
John Tierney
3.87 avg rating — 1,377 ratings 17. 
The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness
by:
Susannah Cahalan
3.64 avg rating — 12,204 ratings 
19. 
20. 
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
by:
Lee Drutman
4.14 avg rating — 435 ratings 
22. 
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America 4.23 avg rating — 2,133 ratings
24. 
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by:
Daniel Susskind
3.84 avg rating — 1,803 ratings 
26. 
The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945
by:
Sinclair McKay
4.18 avg rating — 1,199 ratings 
29. 
10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less
by:
Garett Jones
3.60 avg rating — 230 ratings 
32. 
The World Beneath Their Feet: Mountaineering, Madness, and the Deadly Race to Summit the Himalayas
by:
Scott Ellsworth
4.24 avg rating — 870 ratings 33. 
Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia
by:
Joshua Yaffa
4.14 avg rating — 956 ratings 34. 
Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
by:
Edward Achorn
4.29 avg rating — 771 ratings 
40. 
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future
by:
James Shapiro
4.09 avg rating — 3,161 ratings 
43. 
The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance 3.68 avg rating — 504 ratings
46. 
Do Morals Matter?: Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump 3.90 avg rating — 265 ratings
47. 
The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy
by:
Michael Kimmage
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 19 ratings 
49. 
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
by:
Laura Spinney
3.91 avg rating — 7,932 ratings 50. 
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by:
David Quammen
4.42 avg rating — 20,025 ratings 51. 
The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop
by:
Adam Kucharski
3.86 avg rating — 2,254 ratings 
53. 
The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It 4.03 avg rating — 335 ratings
56. 
Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back
by:
Mark O'Connell
3.72 avg rating — 2,699 ratings 57. 
The Dissidents: A Memoir of Working with the Resistance in Russia, 1960-1990
by:
Peter Reddaway
4.07 avg rating — 14 ratings 
60. 
The Sum of the People: How the Census Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient World to the Modern Age
by:
Andrew Whitby
3.76 avg rating — 218 ratings 61. 
The Trick: Why Some People Can Make Money and Other People Can't
by:
William Leith
3.54 avg rating — 78 ratings 
67. 
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes 4.43 avg rating — 3,206 ratings
69. 
Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
by:
Thomas Rid
4.14 avg rating — 1,451 ratings 70. 
Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin's Spies
by:
Gordon Corera
4.26 avg rating — 2,528 ratings 71. 
From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin's Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin's Secret War on the West
by:
Heidi Blake
4.29 avg rating — 2,647 ratings 72. 
The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020
by:
Tim Weiner
4.07 avg rating — 656 ratings 
75. 
The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
by:
Peniel E. Joseph
4.23 avg rating — 1,763 ratings 
77. 
The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism
by:
Susan Berfield
4.07 avg rating — 595 ratings 
80. 
The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All
by:
Martin E. Sandbu
4.01 avg rating — 191 ratings 
82. 
A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain
by:
Paul Preston
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 492 ratings 83. 
Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome
by:
Douglas Boin
3.50 avg rating — 1,026 ratings 84. 
Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War
by:
Bob Davis
3.96 avg rating — 228 ratings 85. 
Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace
by:
Matthew C. Klein
4.15 avg rating — 1,841 ratings 
89. 
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World
by:
Amy Stanley
3.77 avg rating — 2,298 ratings 90. 
A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 232 ratings
91. 
92. 
95. 
The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Russia’s Secret Doping Empire 4.16 avg rating — 1,155 ratings
99. 
Ring of Spies: How MI5 and the FBI Brought Down the Nazis in America 3.17 avg rating — 18 ratings
