Five Books That Explain the World
The best of 2020, from a sweeping review of geopolitics to a satirical novel about Trumpland.
A changing world order.
Photographer: STR/AFP via Getty ImagesEvery time I set out to visit a country in the NATO alliance when I was Supreme Allied Commander, I’d try to read a book that could help me understand the history, culture and zeitgeist of the place. It could be a novel by a native writer, a history or a work of historical fiction. Can you really understand France without reading Camus and Sartre? To comprehend Russia, including the mindset of Vladimir Putin, I’ve found more illumination in Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and above all Gogol than in most CIA reports, with all due respect to the agency.
So as 2020 ends, I want to offer five books that have helped me make sense of a confusing world in the past year.