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

KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a an in-depth study of environmental activism that shows how governments work against citizens who put community before profit

DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a pessimistic novel in which Hitler is removed from history, to little effect

DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack

FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction

LEO BOIX reviews two powerful Latin American novels in which myth and crime fiction expose the deadly consequences of patriarchy, clandestine abortion and state violence

GLENN FOSBRAEY recommends a biography worth reading for both existing George Michael fans and those yet to be converted

FRANCIS DEVINE introduces a new collection of essays that draws on Pease McKenna’s example to indicate future paths for the movement

CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class

IAN SINCLAIR relishes a fantastical globetrotting thriller featuring one of the most memorable characters in contemporary literature

The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers