Recommended Reading
for IR and Political Science Students
Compiled by Dr. D Thorburn
Last updated 26 August 2004
Non-fiction/Memoir
- Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela
(the fight against apartheid in South Africa)
- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Jung Chang (the entirety of the
Chinese Revolution)
- Red Azalea Anchee Min (Cultural
Revolution in China)
- News of a Kidnapping Gabriel Garcia
Marquez (contemporary Colombia
and the capture of Pablo Escobar)
- The Motorcycle Diaries Che Guevara
(A classic—Che’s trip through South America
prior to his becoming a revolutionary)
- In the Time of the Butterflies
Julia Alvarez (the Trujillo dictatorship in
the Dominican Republic)
- North of South Shiva Naipaul (Kenya, Tanzania
and Zambia
in the 1970s)
- Shah of Shahs Ryszard Kapuscinski
(Islamic revolution in Iran)
- The Return of Eva Perón V.S.
Naipaul (Argentina, Zaire and Trinidad
in the 1970s)
- Sally Hemings Barbara Chase-Riboud
(Thomas Jefferson’s slave family)
- Don’t Lets go to the Dogs Tonight: An
African Childhood Alexandra Fuller (A white Rhodesian family tries to
figure out where they fit in Africa after Rhodesia
becomes Zimbabwe)
- The Devil that Danced on the Water: A
Daughter’s Quest Aminatta Forna (a daughter explores her
politician-father’s mysterious murder in Sierra Leone; excellent
introduction to Sierra Leonean politics and the roots of the recent civil
war)
- Every Secret Thing Gillian Slovo
(Daughter of South African anti-apartheid heroes Joe and Ruth Slovo tries
to reconcile her parents’ sacrifice of their family for their political
work)
- The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of
Love and War Gioconda Belli (A leading member of the Nicaraguan
Sandinistas recounts the rise and fall of the Revolution)
Fiction
set in true-life political history
- Eva Luna and The Stories of Eva Luna Isabel Allende (Latin
America in general, including the dictatorships)
- A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
(Partition and post-independence in India/Pakistan)
- Exodus Leon Uris (the origins of Israel)
- Anil’s Ghost Michael Ondaatje
(Civil War in Sri Lanka)
- The Farming of Bones Edwidge
Danticat (The 1937 massacre of Haitians in the Dominican Republic)
- Heat and Dust Ruth Prawer
Jhabarwala (British colonialism in India)
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera (Czechoslovakia in the Cold
War)
- I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Maryse Conde (Salem witch hunt)
- Disgrace J.M. Coetzee
(post-apartheid South
Africa)
- The Fountain at the Centre of the World
Robert Newman (Pro- and anti-globalization groups are the protagonists in
this fast-paced thriller that culminates in the Battle
for Seattle)
These books are
just really good—all fiction
- The God of Small Things Arundhati
Roy (India)
- Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi
(Indian immigrants in England)
- Cereus Blooms at Night Shani Mootoo
(Trinidad)
- Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon Jorge
Amado (Brazil)
- Dona Flor and her Two Husbands
Jorge Amado (Brazil)
- She’s Come Undone Wally Lamb (US)
- Brown Girl in the Ring Nalo
Hopkinson (Jamaica/Guyana/Canada)
- The Nature of Blood Caryl Phillips
(St. Kitts/England)
- Interesting Women Andrea Lee
(US/Italy – short stories)
- A Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel
Garcia Marquez (Colombia—one
of the most widely read novels in the Western world I think)
- The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
(you can decide for yourself where this futuristic scenario reminds you
of!)
- 1984 George Orwell (see above
description!)
Non-fiction/Inspiration/Self-help
- Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five
Rules of Considerate Conduct
P. M. Forni
- The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet Benjamin Hoff
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
Deepak Chopra
- The Alchemist Paolo Coelho
- The Celestine Prophecy James
Redfield