60 Best Brexit Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best brexit books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

Featuring recommendations from Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Reid Hoffman, and 102 other experts.
1
‘The best political book of the year’ Andrew Marr

‘A superb work of storytelling and reporting. Sets new benchmark for the writing of contemporary political history’ Andrew Sparrow, Guardian

The only book to tell the full story of how and why Britain voted to leave the EU.


Based on unrivalled access to all the key politicians and their advisors – including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Nigel Farage and Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of Vote Leave – Tim Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller, and...
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Marc AndreessenInside story of how Britain decided to exit the EU. Economic self-destruction or national liberation? Repercussions to play out for decades. (Source)

Boris StarlingAll Out War is brilliant. It’s one of the best political books I’ve ever read. It’s 200,000 words and he wrote it in something like ten weeks. Just to produce that amount of words that quickly and for it to be so good is really phenomenal. There’s the old cliche about journalism being the first draft of history. This really is. (Source)

Andrew HindmoorAll Out War and Fallout are consummate insider accounts of the politics of the last few years. These are events we’re still living through, and the third book in the trilogy will be out later this year. Both are really substantive books that I give to my students. They’re very long and very detailed, not lightweight books by any means. He’s got this amazing capacity to marshal the minutiae of... (Source)

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2

Heroic Failure

England's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling’s If , says that triumph and disaster are the same thing. It also enjoins the English to “lose, and start again at your beginnings/ And never breathe a word about your loss.” Most modern English heroics are screw-ups, retreats or disasters: the charge of the Light Brigade, the doomed Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage, “Scott of the Antarctic”, the “last stand” against the Zulus at Isandlwana, Gordon of Khartoum, the Somme, the flight from Dunkirk. The parallels with Brexit are obvious, but the problem is that the cult of heroic failure... more
Recommended by Gavin Duffy, and 1 others.

Gavin DuffyThis is a fantastic talk by Fintan O’Toole @fotoole about his new book the #HeroicFailure of #Brexit delivered in the famous Politics and Prose in Washington DC. Well worth giving it the time to watch. https://t.co/A5rSkVbvo1 https://t.co/qjdBAVW6ur (Source)

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3
Britain's departure from the European Union is riddled with myth and misinformation -- yet the risks are very real.

Brexit could diminish the UK's power, throw its legal system into turmoil, and lower the standard of living of 65m citizens.

In this revised bestseller, Ian Dunt explains why leaving the world's largest trading bloc will leave Britain poorer and key industries like finance and pharma struggling to operate.

Based on extensive interviews with trade and legal experts, Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? is a searching exploration of Brexit...
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Recommended by Ben Goldacre, and 1 others.

Ben GoldacreBest book this year. A magnificent explainer in the tradition of the best pop science. Short, clear, explains the technical reality of how the world of trade etc actually works, and how Brexit fantasists have misrepresented / misunderstood it. Awesome. https://t.co/pSF9768jOG (Source)

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4
The unmissable inside story of the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal, the greatest challenge for a prime minister since the Second World War.

By the bestselling author of All Out War, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2017.

This is the unmissable inside story of the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal – the greatest challenge for a prime minister since the Second World War.

Fall...
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Recommended by Stephen Bush, Andrew Hindmoor, and 2 others.

Stephen BushFall Out is a brilliant book. It’s unashamedly a book about a very small elite; based on the machinations of about 40 people. It is a book built on incredible access; but it also reads well. (Source)

Andrew HindmoorIt is a page-turner. It’s quite interesting to see politicians being so deliciously and cleverly rude about each other and to each other. Clearly he’s dealing with massively important affairs of state, but the characters are just so human, the way they’re portrayed. I just find it beautiful to read. It’s a big book—goodness knows how long the audiobook must be—but coming to the end, you can kid... (Source)

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5
The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state

In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire...
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Recommended by Bill Gates, Michael Mcfaul, and 2 others.

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2018.] (Source)

Michael McfaulHeard a fantastic presentation today by @FukuyamaFrancis on his new book, Identity. Buy this book ! https://t.co/gzqBI7dV7d (Source)

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6

Autumn (Seasonal, #1)

Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.

Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever . . .
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Recommended by Jonathan Portes, and 1 others.

Jonathan PortesIt’s wonderfully written and it does capture this atmosphere of a society not in chaos but unsure of itself, not clear where it’s going. (Source)

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7
Brexit represents potentially the single greatest economic and foreign-policy challenge to the Irish state since the Second World War. There is hardly any area of Irish life that won't be affected.

More than any other journalist, RTE's long-time Brussels correspondent Tony Connelly has been helping the public make sense of the implications of Brexit for Ireland. Now, he tells the dramatic inside story of the Irish response to this political and economic earthquake and lays out the agenda for the uncertain years ahead.

Based on extensive interviews with insiders in...
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Recommended by Boris Starling, and 1 others.

Boris StarlingThe EU has to have an external hard border at a point where the EU butts up against non-EU states. And yet Northern Ireland is British, part of the Common Travel Area, and the Republic of Ireland is a republic and part of the EU. They are logistically more or less the same place now. There’s no hard border. There has to be a hard border, but they don’t want one. That’s a circle that cannot really... (Source)

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8

Brexit and British Politics

Brexit has changed everything - from our government, to our economy and principal trading relationship, to the organization of our state. This watershed moment, which surprised most observers and mobilized previously apathetic sections of the electorate, is already transforming British politics in profound and lasting ways.

In this incisive book, leading analysts of UK and EU politics Geoffrey Evans and Anand Menon step back from the immediacy and hyperbole of the Referendum to explain what happened on 23 June 2016, and why. Brexit, they argue, was the product of both long-term...
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9

Middle England (Rotters' Club, #3)

Set in the Midlands and London over the last eight years, Jonathan Coe follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change and disruption in Britain. There are the early married years of Sophie and Ian who disagree about the future of Britain and, possibly, the future of their relationship; Sophie's grandfather whose final act is to send a postal vote for the European referendum; Doug, the political commentator, whose young daughter despairs of his lack of political nous and Doug's Remaining Tory politician partner who is savaged by the crazed trolls of Twitter.... more

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10
Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning.

In How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in...
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11
A Number One Sunday Times Bestseller

What happens when you take on the establishment? In Adults in the Room, the renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis gives the full, blistering account of his momentous clash with the mightiest economic and political forces on earth.

After being swept into power with the left-wing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to renegotiate Greece's relationship with the EU--and sparks a spectacular battle with global implications. Varoufakis's new position sends him ricocheting between mass...
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Recommended by Gabriel Coarna, and 1 others.

Gabriel CoarnaI read "Adults in the Room" because I had seen Yanis Varoufakis give this talk. (Source)

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13

9 Lessons in Brexit

“Remember the words of Ivan Rogers the next time you hear some plausible posh boy in a suit telling you ‘no deal’ wouldn’t hurt at all and might even be a jolly good thing.” J.K. Rowling

Two and a half years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, the political debate over Brexit seems as intense and as complicated as ever. Who and what can we trust? And how on earth do we make sense of it all?

Ivan Rogers, the UK’s former ambassador to the EU, is uniquely placed to tell some home truths about the failure of the British political class and the...

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14

Brexit

In June 2016, the United Kingdom shocked the world by voting to leave the European Union. As this book reveals, the historic vote for Brexit marked the culmination of trends in domestic politics and in the UK's relationship with the EU that have been building over many years. Drawing on a wealth of survey evidence collected over more than ten years, this book explains why most people decided to ignore much of the national and international community and vote for Brexit. Drawing on past research on voting in major referendums in Europe and elsewhere, a team of leading academic experts analyse... more
Recommended by Jonathan Portes, and 1 others.

Jonathan PortesPeople felt left behind by rapid economic change and adrift from the global economy or the modern economy of London and the southeast. (Source)

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15

Agent Running in the Field

Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.

Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player. His regular Monday evening...

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16
Once the darling of the Left, British journalist Melanie Phillips was “mugged by reality” to become a controversial champion of national and cultural identity. 

Guardian Angel is that rare memoir that grabs you by the shoulders with an urgency that screams, “PAY ATTENTION!” It leaps off the page with an immediacy and relevance that few books achieve.

Beginning with her solitary childhood in London, it took years for Melanie Phillips to understand her parents’ emotional frailties and even longer to escape from them. But Phillips inherited her family’s...
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17

Joe Country (Slough House)

'We're spies,' said Lamb. 'All kinds of outlandish shit goes on.'

Like the ringing of a dead man's phone, or an unwelcome guest at a funeral . . .

In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.

Meanwhile, in Regent's Park, Diana Taverner's tenure as First Desk is running into...
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19

What Next

On June 23, 2016, against all forecasts, Britain voted to leave the EU. Drawing on his experiences at the heart of the campaign, Daniel Hannan dissects the result and our reaction. He outlines why Vote Leave won, exploring what people were voting for and what they weren’t. He looks at the immediate aftermath—how it differs from what people expected and what it says about where to go next. Brexit, Hannan points out, is a process—not an event—with three key areas of consideration: the UK's relationship with the remaining 27 EU states; their relationship with the rest of the world; and,... more
Recommended by Jonathan Portes, and 1 others.

Jonathan PortesDaniel Hannan’s book illustrates the naïve and fact-free approach, of some people on the Brexit side, to our future outside the EU. (Source)

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20
Keep calm – but do not carry on. There is nothing remotely inevitable about Brexit – except that it will be deeply damaging if it happens. Extricating Britain from Europe will be the greatest challenge this country has faced since the Second World War. And as negotiations with the EU expose the promises of the Brexit campaign to have been hollow, even some Brexit-voters now wish to exercise their democratic right to change their mind, seeing that the most pragmatic option is to … stop. It would certainly be the best thing for Britain. But how can it be done? Haven’t the people... more

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21
As a Metropolitan Elitist Snowflake, Stewart Lee was disappointed by the Brexit referendum result of 2016. But he knew how to weaponise his inconvenience.

He would treat all his subsequent writing, until we left the EU, as interrelated episodes of a complete work. The cast of characters include Lemming-obsessed Michael Gove, violent tanning-salon entrepreneur Tommy Robinson and Boris Piccaninny Watermelon Bumboys Letterbox Cake Disaster Weightloss Haircut Bullshit Johnson. A dramatic chorus is made up of online commenters and Kremlin bots. And Lee himself would play the defeated,...
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23
A timely and provocative account of the fall of New Labour, the rise of Corbyn, and what it means for the left in Britain.




‘Lewis Goodall is one of the most exciting voices in British politics right now’ Emily Maitlis




‘Hugely illuminating, thought-provoking and moving in its seriousness and optimism’ Lord Andrew Adonis



ESSENTIAL READING DURING LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN.


In the 21st Century the Labour Party has undergone the most extraordinary...
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25
Many Remainers reported waking up the day after the Brexit vote feeling as if they were living in a foreign country. In fact, they were merely experiencing the same feeling that many British people have felt every day for years.

Fifty years ago, people in leafy North London and people in working-class Northern towns could vote for a Labour party that broadly encompassed all of their interests. Today their priorities are poles apart.

In this groundbreaking and timely book, Goodhart shows us how people have come to be divided into two camps: the 'Anywheres', who have...
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26

National Populism

The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy

Across the West, there is a rising tide of people who feel excluded, alienated from mainstream politics, and increasingly hostile towards minorities, immigrants and neo-liberal economics. Many of these voters are turning to national populist movements, which have begun to change the face of Western liberal democracy, from the United States to France, Austria to the UK.

This radical turn, we are told, is a last howl of rage from an aging electorate on the verge of extinction. Their leaders are fascistic and their politics anti-democratic; their existence a side-show to liberal...
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27

Winter (Seasonal #2)

Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer's leaves? Dead litter.

The world shrinks; the sap sinks.
But winter makes things visible. And if there's ice, there'll be fire.

In Ali Smith's Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with...
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28

The Little Book of Brexit Bollocks

If any event in recent British history has spawned more bollocks than Brexit, it is hard to remember when. Now, in a successor volume to the perennial bestsellers The Little Book of Complete Bollocks and The Little Book of Management Bollocks, comes the definitive and hilarious insight into what politicians really mean when they talk about Brexit. 

We know all the phrases - 'Orderly Departure', 'Crashing Out', 'Remoaners' and many more - but in The Little Book of Brexit Bollocks all is finally made crystal clear by authors...
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29
Since 1945 Britain has had to cope with a slow descent from international primacy. The decline in global influence was intended to be offset by the United Kingdom's entry into Europe in 1975, with the result that national foreign policy came to rest on the two pillars of the Atlantic alliance and the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU. Yet with Brexit one of these pillars is now being removed, leaving Britain facing some serious challenges arising from its new independence.

In this incisive book, Christopher Hill, a leading expert on both UK foreign policy and Europe's...
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30
One of The Week's Best Business Books of 2014

The European Union was a brilliant stroke of political and economic engineering when it came into its current form, averting major wars and reducing social tensions among member states. But as Europe moves into the second decade of the twenty-first century, problems are multiplying—problems that arose due to the EU's very existence. In The Trouble with Europe, Roger Bootle, winner of the 2012 Wolfson Economics Prize, tackles the uncomfortable truth that the European Union might be going down—and could take the...
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31
Arron Banks enjoyed a life of happy anonymity flogging car insurance in Bristol until he dipped his toes into the shark-infested waters of British politics – and decided to plunge right in. Charging into battle for Brexit, he couldn’t believe how Westminster types behaved, and resolved to fight for the country’s future in his own indomitable style. less

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32
The New World Order In Action shows that the New World Order (NWO) of neoliberal globalization is neither an occult conspiracy nor the result of actions of some 'shock doctors' etc. In fact, the wars (Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and lately Ukraine), which have led to millions of dead, maimed and displaced, as well as the economic violence, which has led to even more millions of impoverished people all over the world, are due to the activities of a Transnational Elite. This is the informal network of the elites, based mainly in the G7 countries, that administer the NWO, via... more

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33

Unleashing Demons

The Inside Story of Brexit

As David Cameron's director of Politics and communications, Craig Oliver was in the room at every key moment during the EU referendum - the biggest political event in the UK since World War 2.

Craig Oliver worked with all the players, including David Cameron, George Osbourne, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Theresa May and Peter Mandelson.

Unleashing Demons is based on his extensive notes, detailing everything from the decision to call a referendum, to the subsequent civil war in the Conservative Party and the aftermath of the shocking...

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34
Liberal left orthodoxy holds that Brexit is a disastrous coup, orchestrated by the hard right and fuelled by xenophobia, which will break up the Union and turn what's left of Britain into a neoliberal dystopia.

Richard Tuck's ongoing commentary on the Brexit crisis demolishes this narrative. He argues that by opposing Brexit and throwing its lot in with a liberal constitutional order tailor-made for the interests of global capitalists, the Left has made a major error. It has tied itself into a framework designed to frustrate its own radical policies. Brexit therefore actually...
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35
The Brexit vote for UK withdrawal from the EU has put the constitutional future of Northern Ireland centre-stage once again. Beyond the Border is an authoritative, timely and up-to-date guide to the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. A compelling and accessible exploration of how the Agreement can be upheld despite Brexit uncertainties, and implemented despite political deadlock, this book powerfully argues for the permanence of the Agreement and its cross-community approach, even in the event of the achievement of Irish unity. It comprehensively explains the radical implications... more

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36

The Lie of the Land

Quentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded.

Mud, mice, and quarrels are one thing - but why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing,...
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40
Not for many years has there been such a divisive issue as Brexit, and like all divisive issues it has provided a bonanza for cartoonists. This generous selection of pocket cartoons captures the sheer bewilderment and exasperation which have bedevilled us all since the referendum. Some of the cartoons favour one side or the other, but most celebrate (or at least commemorate) a period of unique bafflement. With the emphasis much more on ordinary people than on the politicians, The Penguin Book of Brexit Cartoons will bring together at Christmas-time even the most riven families. less

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Don't have time to read the top Brexit books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

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  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
41

The Wall

Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall―an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A... more

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43
Now in a thoroughly revised Fifth Edition, An Introduction to the Policy Process provides students at all levels with an accessible, readable, and affordable introduction to the field of public policy. In keeping with prior editions, author Tom Birkland conveys the best current thinking on the policy process in a clear, conversational style. Designed to address new developments in both policy theory and policy making, the Fifth Edition includes examinations of:





the Brexit referendum result and its effects on the UK, European Union, and world politics,...
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44

From Boris Johnson to Nigel Farage, George Galloway to Michael Gove, the campaign to get Britain out of the EU brought together some of the most colourful characters in British politics. This once-in-a-generation opportunity to free the UK from the grip of Brussels saw egos put to one side and rivalries put on hold to push for a Leave vote in the EU referendum … Or did it?

As D-Day drew near, political reporter Owen Bennett went deep into Leave territory to reveal the inside story of the battle for Brexit. Behind a campaign promising hope and glory - but seemingly mired in blood,...

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45
'Anyone who wishes to understand why Brexit is so intractable should read this book. I can think of several MPs who ought to.' the Times

'Ferriter's judicious book shows that Brexiters' recklessness, such "contemptuous arrogance", is nothing new, and that it has always been the ordinary people of Northern Ireland who have paid its price. They deserve better' Guardian

For the past two decades, you could cross the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic half a dozen times without noticing or, indeed, turning off the road you were travelling. It cuts through...
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46
There is no better guide than Paul Krugman to basic economics, the ideas that animate much of our public policy. Likewise, there is no stronger foe of zombie economics, the misunderstandings that just won’t die.


In Arguing with Zombies, Krugman tackles many of these misunderstandings, taking stock of where the United States has come from and where it’s headed in a series of concise, digestible chapters. Drawn mainly from his popular New York Times column, they cover a wide range of issues, organized thematically and framed in the context of a wider debate....
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47
Construction project management requires a broad range of skills, from technical expertise to leadership, negotiation, team building and communication. This no-nonsense guide covers all of the essentials of the role, including:





Pre-construction activities



Design management and BIM



Procurement



Feasibility studies



Environmental management systems



People skills



Recommended document formats



Occupancy...
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48
From award-winning author Michael Adams, Could It Happen Here? draws on groundbreaking social research to show whether Canadian society is at risk of the populist forces afflicting other parts of the world.

Americans elected Donald Trump. Britons opted to leave the European Union. Far-right, populist politicians channeling anger at out-of-touch “elites” are gaining ground across Europe and South America. In vote after shocking vote, citizens of Western democracies have pushed their anger to the top of their governments’ political agendas.

Amid this roiling...
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50
The surprise decision expressed by the British people in the referendum held in June 2016 to leave the European Union was remarkable. It also presents a "natural experiment" where the exposure of a society to an extraordinary event allows scholars to observe, in real time in the real world, the interaction of variables.

The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Brexit takes stock of what we know in the social science community about the Brexit phenomenon so far and looks to make sense of this remarkable process as it unfolds. The book asks simple questions across a range of...
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Don't have time to read the top Brexit books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

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  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
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  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
51

Perfidious Albion

Welcome to Edmundsbury, a small town in England, some time in the recent future. Brexit has happened and is real. Fear and loathing are on the rise. Grass-roots right-wing political party England Always are fomenting hatred. The residents of a failing housing estate are being cleared from their homes. A multinational tech company is making inroads into the infrastructure. Just as the climate seems at its most pressured, masked men begin a series of ‘disruptions’, threatening to make internet histories public, asking the townspeople what don’t you want to share? As tensions mount, lives... more

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54
In 2016 two surprising explosions of popular contempt for the existing order drove Britain into Brexit and paved the way for Trump’s presidency of the United States.

On both sides of the Atlantic, proud regimes with global pretensions were levelled by justifiable revolts. But in the name of self-government, Brexit and Trump will intensify the authoritarian traditions of their outdated political systems.

The Lure of Greatness is a blistering account of how and why this happened. The shadow of Iraq, the great financial crash, campaigns of poison and intrigue, the...
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55

Laying it on the Line

A collection of interviews with diverse stakeholders, Laying it on the Line: Opinions on the Border gives voice to a wide range of views on the line across Ireland that everyone forgot. Established a century ago, it has re-emerged as central to relations, turning into not just the border between the Republic of Ireland and the UK, but between the EU and the UK.

In this book we hear from those living in border communities, where social and economic life has flourished since the Good Friday Agreement. With Brexit, their lives and livelihoods risk serious damage.
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56
From Partition to Brexit is the first book to chart the political and ideological evolution of Irish government policy towards Northern Ireland from the partition of the country in 1921 to the present day. Based on extensive original research, this groundbreaking and timely study challenges the idea that Irish governments have pursued a consistent set of objectives and policies towards Northern Ireland to reveal a dynamic story of changing priorities. The book demonstrates how in its relations with the British Government, Dublin has been transformed from spurned supplicant to vital partner in... more

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58

Guilty Men

Brexit Edition

Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the EU was the most momentous democratic decision ever made in British history. No development since the Second World War is likely to have more far-reaching consequences for the British economy, society, politics and culture. Some predict it will lead eventually to the break-up of the UK, others to the end of the EU, others to an enhanced likelihood of war in Europe and beyond.

The vote to leave took just a single day, but the decision to call the referendum followed several months of agonising in No. 10, while the ground for Britain’s departure was...
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59

The Cut

The Cut is a commissioned novel responding to Brexit. Published on the first anniversary of the EU referendum on June 23rd 2017, it will be a fictional exploration of the forces that split Britain apart.

The Cut is a wound, of course, but it is more than that. Cairo Jukes walks the towpaths of "the cut", the Black Country term for the canals that web this small region of England, the open veins of an old industrial order. And then there is Dudley -a town at the heart of the Black Country - where a young woman runs through the market-place with her clothes on fire. Who she is? Why...
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60

Missing Fay

A Guardian / Sunday Times Book of the Year

A spirited, restless fourteen-year-old, Fay, goes missing from a Lincoln council estate. Is she a runaway, or a victim – another face on a poster gradually fading with time? The story of her last few days before she vanishes is interwoven with the varied lives of six locals – whether aware or unaware of her presence or absence, all touched in life-changing ways.

David is an eco-campaigner on a family holiday on the bleak Lincolnshire coast; Howard, a retired steel worker with some dodgy friends; Cosmina, a...
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