JOE GILL marvels at the history of a highly complex nomadic and hunter/gatherer society without a hierarchical class system

SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a Marxist critique of the ‘race-first’ views of the influential black US theorist Cedric Robinson

In a season of Greek mythology NIAMH THORNTON looks at an intriguing relocation of Medea to contemporary Mexico

Rescue care from the realm of sentimentality: what happens when we replace the vertical relationship between benefactor and victim with interdependence, collective organisation and struggle?

MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry

MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes an engaging and nourishing account of the queer subculture that flourished in London between WWII and partial decriminalisation 

ALEX HALL welcomes a history of the Bund, and its emphatic demand for working-class solidarity across racial and ethnic difference

RON JACOBS welcomes the political lessons for today, about organisation and withdrawal from conflict, made by an erudite and conversational biography

Monster profits on the Tube, paternal dilemmas for time travellers, and an alien abduction buddy saga

BEN CHACKO unpicks the significance of the discovery, in 2015, of ancient texts about  Confucius. Was he simply a teacher, or a philosopher, statesman and saint?

RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers

PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society