Category Archives: Previews

Reviews: Best Books On Foreign Affairs Of 2024

Foreign Policy Magazine (December 8, 2023): The Best of Books 2024  on international politics, economics, and history that were featured in the magazine this year, selected by Foreign Affairs’ editors and book reviewers.

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman

In a revelatory book, Farrell and Newman describe how the United States has turned its control over information networks into a hidden tool of economic domination—and warn of the risks of Washington’s weaponization of data power for ordinary people, as well as for the global financial system.read the review

To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power

by Sergey Radchenko

In a major reconsideration of Cold War history, Radchenko examines the Soviet Union’s competing ambitions for revolution, security, and legitimacy—and how Soviet leadership, blinded by its own hubris and aggression, set the stage for the downfall of the USSR. read the review

Freedom From Fear: An Incomplete History of Liberalism

by Alan S. Kahan

Kahan argues that what unifies liberals across the centuries, including those involved in building and defending liberal democracy today, are their efforts to build societies free from the fear of arbitrary power. He sculpts a masterful and beautifully written history of liberalism’s long intellectual journey. read the review

Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

In this sobering study, Levitsky and Ziblatt demonstrate how the United States’ enduring constitutional order—one forged in a pre-democratic age—increasingly thwarts the will of an expanding multicultural majority in favor of a shrinking rural white minority.read the review

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

by Anne Applebaum

Focused on the sophisticated and networked world of autocracy, dictatorship, and tyranny, Applebaum argues that what separates hardcore autocratic states, such as China and Russia, from softer illiberal and authoritarian regimes, such as those in Hungary, India, and Turkey, is the ruthlessness and reach of their dictatorial power and their deep hostility to the Western-led democratic world.read the review

Arts & Literature Preview: Kenyon Review – Fall 2024

Fall 2024 | Journal

Kenyon Review – December 8, 2024: The 2024 The Fall 2024 issue of The Kenyon Review includes the winner and runners-up for the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, selected by Richie Hofmann; the winner of the First Annual Poetry Contests selected by Pádraig Ó Tuama; and a Rural Spaces folio guest-edited by Jamie Lyn Smith, Brian Michael Murphy, and Andrew Grace, with poetry by ethan s. evansJP GrasserFaylita Hicks, and Alberto Rios; fiction by Nick BertelsonChee BrossyKai Carlson-Wee, and Issa Quincy; and nonfiction byapyang Imiq translated by brenda lin; and much more, including interior and cover art by Ming Smith.

The New York Times Magazine – Dec. 8, 2024

Current cover

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 7 2024): The 12.8.24 Issue features William Langewiesche on the secret Pentagon war game how nuclear escalation spirals out of control; Daniel Bergner on a mysterious gap in psychosis rates; Alexis Okeowo on an endless war in Ethiopia; and more.

The Secret Pentagon War Game That ​Offers a Stark​ Warning for Our Times

The devastating outcome of the 1983 game reveals that nuclear escalation inevitably spirals out of control.

The Interview: Tilda Swinton Would Like a Word With Trump About His Mother

The Academy Award-winning actress discusses her lifelong quest for connection, humanity’s innate goodness and the point of being alive.

Ethiopia’s Agony: ‘I Have Never Seen This Kind of Cruelty in My Life’

A rare look inside a region still reckoning with the toll of war crimes, even as new conflicts roil the nation. By Alexis Okeowo

America’s Hidden Racial Divide: A Mysterious Gap in Psychosis Rates

Black Americans experience schizophrenia and related disorders at twice the rate of white Americans. It’s a disparity that has parallels in other cultures. By Daniel Bergner

Read this issue

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – Dec. 9, 2024

Magazine - Latest Issue - Barron's

BARRON’S MAGAZINE (December 7, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Bull Case for Investing Abroad’…

International Roundtable: 4 Experts, 12 Stock Picks

Investing abroad has been a tough sell, but overseas markets offer growth—and value.

MicroStrategy Is Winning by Breaking Wall Street’s Rules. Avoid the Stock.

Investors effectively are paying nearly $240,000 for each of the company’s 402,100 Bitcoins, well above the market price. 

What Happens if You Die Without a Will? You Could Leave Heirs—and Pets—With Even More Grief.

People can avoid messy family fights by preparing a will. It needn’t be a complicated document.

Inflation Isn’t Dead Yet. How to Protect Your Retirement Income.

Rising prices are here to stay. Use these investments to beat the inflation trap.Long read

Research Preview: Science Magazine-Dec. 6, 2024

Science issue cover

Science Magazine – November 29, 2024: The new issue features ‘Programmed T Cells’ – Targeting the brain and other tissues to treat cancer and inflammation…

Programming tissue-sensing T cells that deliver therapies to the brain

‘Brutal’ math test raises the bar for AI

Model-stumping benchmark shows human experts remain on top—for now

Beneath Antarctica’s ice, a fiery future may await

Researchers probe volcanoes’ response to a changing world

War-torn Ukraine is breeding drug-resistant bacterial strains

Urgent action underway to bolster treatments and prevent dangerous microbes from spilling across borders

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Dec. 6, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (December 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘HIs Other Country’ – The James Baldwin revival continues in the 100th anniversary year of his birth. A trickle of biographies has become a flood, and the causes for which he stood, racial equality and gay rights, speak to the times.

Knowing his name – Celebrating the centenary of James Baldwin’s birth

By Fred D’Aguiar

Bring back the big fish

Mississippi River levee, 1940

Record-label scouts chase ‘strange compositions’

By Harry Strawson

No sacred cows

Obelisco de Buenos Aires, Plaza de la República, 1997

A video game challenges the history of Argentina

By Mia Levitin

The Economist Magazine – December 7, 2024 Preview

The Economist Magazine (December 5, 2024): The latest issue features ‘America’s Gambling Frenzy’….

America’s gambling boom should be celebrated, not feared

The gambling frenzy is mostly about people being free to enjoy themselves

France steps into deep trouble

It has no government and no budget, and is politically gridlocked

Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea should resign, or be impeached

His coup attempt was foiled. But grave tests still remain for the country

Joe Biden abused a medieval power to pardon his son

The president’s reversal is understandable, hum

MIT Sloan Management Review – Top 2024 Articles

MIT Sloan Management Review (December 4, 2024): Looking beyond AI, many of our top 10 stories involve tough culture and people management challenges, like dealing with the informal meetings that happen after formal meetings (No. 2) and getting people to stop self-censoring with company leaders (No. 5). These two stories, by Phillip G. Clampitt and Jim Detert, respectively, truly struck a nerve with readers. At a time of radical change, communication and trust have never been more important.

#10
Building Culture From the Middle Out

Spencer Harrison and Kristie Rogers

Midlevel leaders are critical to fostering an organizational culture that’s healthy and vibrant.

#9
Video — RTO Mandates: Hard Truths for Leaders

Brian Elliott

In this brief video, learn what the latest research and current examples say about return-to-office mandates — and what leaders can do instead to boost productivity and retain talent.

#8
Eight Essential Interview Questions CEOs Swear By

Adam Bryant

Get beyond job candidates’ pat answers to hiring managers’ standard queries by recasting questions to elicit thoughtful responses.

#7
Seven Truths About Hybrid Work and Productivity

Lynda Gratton

To get the most from hybrid work, leaders should prepare for trade-offs, make expectations clear, and think harder about how productivity is measured.

#6
How Tech Fails Late-Career Workers

Stefan Tams

Managers must make deliberate choices to support older workers’ use of complex technologies.

#5
What You Still Can’t Say at Work

Jim Detert

Most people know what can’t be said in their organization. But leaders can apply these techniques to break through the unwritten rules that make people self-censor.

#4
Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers

Brian Elliott

Your organization’s highest-performing employees want executives to focus on outcomes and accountability, not office badge swipes.

#3
The Future of Strategic Measurement: Enhancing KPIs With AI

Michael Schrage, David Kiron, François Candelon, Shervin Khodabandeh, and Michael Chu

This artificial intelligence and business strategy report looks at how organizations are using AI to evolve their key performance indicators to better align with their strategies and deliver on enterprise goals.

#2
Hard Truths About the Meeting After the Meeting

Phillip G. Clampitt

Leaders must encourage respectful debate during meetings and use related strategies to avoid toxic post-meeting dynamics.

#1
Five Key Trends in AI and Data Science for 2024

Thomas H. Davenport and Randy Bean

These developing issues should be on every leader’s radar screen, data executives say.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Dec. 5, 2024

Volume 636 Issue 8041

Nature Magazine – December 3, 2024: The latest issue features ‘In The Clouds’ – Isoprene drives formation of new particles in the upper troposphere…

Humble scientists earn more trust

Study participants rated fictional scientists who admitted their own knowledge gaps as more credible.

The cells that help the immune system fight lung cancer

Neighbouring cells bolster the immune cells’ tumour-fighting abilities.

Antarctica’s first known amber whispers of a vanished rainforest

The only continent where amber had not been found no longer has that distinction, thanks to a sediment core drilled just offshore.

This dwarf planet might have its very own ice volcano

Relatively warm regions of the object called Makemake could also be explained by a dusty planetary ring.

Country Life Magazine – December 4, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (December 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Full English’ – Why our homegrown style is back….

London Life

  • Richard MacKichan finds Sir Paul Smith rockin’ around Claridge’s Christmas tree
  • Catriona Gray meets the movers and shakers of the capital’s art world
  • All you need to know this month in the capital

Caroline Moorehead’s favourite painting

The author selects a portrait that shows the ‘very essence of what it was to be Sicilian’

The world turned upside down

Carla Carlisle—wife of a farmer and a diversifier extraordinaire— offers an insider’s view on the Government’s ‘Great Betrayal’

What to look for in winter

Now is not the time to hibernate, suggests John Wright, as he encourages us to appreciate the countryside’s stark, intricate beauty in these colder months

Putting in a Good Word

Lucy Denton delves into the remarkable history of Stationers’ Hall, the central London home of the Worshipful Company of Stationers for the past 400 years

The legacy

Amie Elizabeth White hails Henry Cole, inventor of Christmas cards

The rocky-pool horror show

John Lewis-Stempel loves to be beside the seaside as he examines the enduring appeal of England’s glorious coastline

Bowler me over

Matthew Dennison tips his hat to the rural origins of the bowler as he celebrates its 175th birthday

A touch of frost

Beware an ill wind blowing us into 2025, warns Lia Leendertz

Piste de résistance

Joseph Phelan finds a business on an upslope when he visits the last ski-maker in Scotland

Eyes wide shut

Sleep in art is often drunken, deadly or the stuff of nightmares, but rarely is it peaceful, as Claudia Pritchard discovers

Size matters

Charles Quest-Ritson cranes his neck to take in the sheer scale of the specimens at West Sussex’s Architectural Plants

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on sprouts

Travel

  • Life in Grenada quickly grows on Rosie Paterson
  • Catamarans and cabanas
  • Jamaica’s Blue Mountains are heaven for Steven King
  • Fine dining is the holy grail for Pamela Goodman