10 Best Books About Politics UK 2023

We like this all-encompassing guide to politics because of its straightforward approach, its clear photographs, infographics and diagrams and the broad perspective it takes on politics throughout history and across the world.

The use of direct language paired with visually appealing illustrations makes it fantastic for younger learners or those at the beginning of their journey into the political realm. A top tome to keep on your shelf or coffee table and whip out for reference whenever you need it!

The 'Very Short Introduction to...' series is popular for good reason. They are much more than bullet point guides, but rather carefully researched essays exploring a particular subject.

This book takes glimpses at the legacy of Winston Churchill, the rise of the Labour Party and subsequently New Labour, and the British constitution as a whole. A perfect pocket guide to help you brush up on your basics. 

For a broad perspective on global politics this book is an excellent read. With chapters that drive us across borders and sail us through international waters from Russia to Korea, flying over India and Pakistan to Latin America via the Arctic, this tome maps geopolitics clearly and boldly.

The map images themselves don't play quite as vital a role as the title suggests, but the information-packed pages do create a clear picture of international relations through recent history to the present day.

Written by Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, with the aim of making capitalism – and thus the economic element of politics – accessible to his teenage daughter, this book is eye-opening and fun.

Making comparisons between our current capitalist system and 90s cult film The Matrix, as well as using the trade of tea bags and cigarettes in a World War Two prisoner of war camp to explain currency, this book makes understanding economics easy and digestible. 

This book is topping many to-read lists this year because of its brutal and frank account of life in Britain on, or just below, the poverty line. It won the 2018 Orwell Prize for political thinking, too. 

Written by the Glaswegian rapper Loki, the book examines the myriad effects poverty can have on the human experience, from mental attitudes to physical health and includes critiques of identity politics, intersectionality and the 'poverty industry'. Heartfelt, perspective-shifting reading. 

This guide has been written over a period of 15 years, building on a body of research to create a stunning picture of the huge inequality between developing and more developed countries worldwide. It is written by two highly intellectual and deeply respected professors, one specialising in economics and the other in political science.

This book is essential reading, covering China's rise to power, the unfathomable prosperity gap between two towns either side of the Mexican/US border, and alluding to hopes for a radical shift in thinking to make institutions more inclusive and fair. 

This book is an absolute must-read. It's extremely quick and easy to get through, and packed with information on the current state of race relations in Britain today from a black writer's perspective. 

With chapters on institutionalised racism in the police service, to the uproar when J.K. Rowling cast a black actor to play Hermione in the stage version of the Cursed Child, Reni Eddo-Lodge gives countless examples of how white privilege envelops our worlds so thoroughly that it is rarely noticed or acknowledged by those who benefit from it. A brief, life-changing book.

Guardian journalist and writer Owen Jones became a household name after the release of his bestselling book The Establishment, which is a scathing and at times shocking exposé of the institutions we trust to guide us, such as the BBC, the government itself and even the police.

In his revelatory book on the corruption hidden in plain sight across Britain's social and political landscape, Jones states: "Change is not won through the goodwill and generosity of those above, but through the struggle and sacrifice of those below", and leaves the reader hungry for change. 

This book took its cue from the 2017 revelation that the BBC was paying women far less than their male counterparts. Author Caroline Criado Perez has now compiled a veritable dossier of other imbalances, supported by statistics which prove gender inequality permeates our lives. 

A quick, easy read, this handy paperback is jammed full of fascinating (and largely worrying) tidbits of data which function alone as ways to shut down anti-feminist arguments and as a whole to build a picture of the areas society must work on to improve women's rights and quality of life.

This book has been nominated for a number of prizes including the 2018 Parliamentary Book Awards (which it won), Waterstone's Book of the Year 2018 and the Orwell Prize 2019. 

Though its title alludes to the general sense of disapproval many feel for MPs in the current climate, this book actually looks closely at the stresses and strains of the role, defending and even admiring the extremely high-pressured, and often low-reward, job of representing everyday people in a parliament designed to discourage progression and change.