The most necessary non-fiction books for autumn | EUROtoday

Der Strukturbiologe und Nobelpreisträger Venki Ramakrishnan erklärt, warum wir altern – und wieso Erkenntnisse häufig auch von Zufällen abhängen.

„Der Hype um Langlebigkeit“, schreibt unsere Rezensentin Johanna Kuroczik, „manifestiert sich derzeit auch in Buchhandlungen. ‚Warum wir sterben‘ fällt jedoch aus der Reihe. Es verspricht, einen ‚nüchternen Blick‘ auf die Forschung zu werfen.“

After the “Society of Singularities”, the sociologist Andreas Reckwitz devotes his new book to vulnerabilities. In doing so, he takes a look at the problems and blind spots of modernization.

According to our reviewer Marianna Lieder, the author’s “epoch portrait is about the whole thing, about modernity as a unity, including its self-produced breaks and contradictions. On the one hand, this takes up the tradition of the ‘grand narratives’, the loss of which Jean-François Lyotard already noted in the often invoked fateful year of 1979. In addition, Reckwitz proceeds with a truly classic, modern clarity. His exceptionally stimulating presentation is neither judgmental nor normative, and the author shows fortunately few traces of the noted late modern excess of affect.”

Jens Bisky presents a monograph about the Weimar Republic that is worth reading, limiting himself to the crisis years since 1929.

According to Andreas Kilb, who enjoyed reading the book, this time-reduced approach leaves “more room for cultural and social-historical considerations, and Bisky makes ample use of this advantage.” The author shows that the Weimar drama is “not a horror piece from days long past”, its “costumes and sets are ready to be updated, and all that is needed is the right script and an anti-democratically motivated cast to perform it again”.

Jens Bisky: “The Decision”. Germany 1929 to 1934. Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2024. 640 pages, hardcover, illustrations, €34.

The often over-the-top non-fiction genre of “forensic doctors uncover” gets a recommendable encore with Florian Klenk’s “On Life and Death”. The creator portrays the forensic physician Christian Reiter, with whom he additionally does a podcast, and recapitulates spectacular deaths from Austria’s historical past.

Kai Spanke emphasizes that Klenk just isn’t making the error of “compiling a structureless compilation of horror anecdotes; Rather, he interweaves historical events with the results of the investigation and Reiter’s family history, often in the tone of reportage.”

Florian Klenk: “About life and death”. In forensic medication. Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2024. 192 pp., hardcover, €23.

In her new ebook, Mary Beard takes an entertaining and academic journey by means of the world of the Roman emperors.

Our reviewer Jannis Koltermann likes to comply with the creator: “We see Beard’s emperor not only answering the numerous petitions that came to him from all parts of the empire (and often concerned petitessens). After a brief presentation of the historical context, it also devotes itself to the imperial palaces, the people around him, his visits to the games or his travels.”

Mary Beard: The Emperors of Rome. Ruler over folks and empire. Translated from English by Ursula Blank-Sangmeister. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2024. 544 pages, illustrations, hardcover, €36.

“The fact that the perspectivism of language cannot be escaped,” writes our reviewer Christian Geyer, “is noted by Habermas in a number of answers. Accordingly, there is no knowledge without lapses, without blind spots and without shortcut strategies, the extensions of which, as soon as they become noticeable, force new emphasis to be given.”

Jürgen Habermas: “Something had to get better…”. Conversations with Stefan Müller-Doohm and Roman Yos. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2024. 253 pages, hardcover, €28.