March global nonfiction: Six newly released books that decode humanity’s relationship with the world

All information sourced from publishers.

Animate: How Animals Shape the Human Mind, Michael Bond

In Animate, science writer Michael Bond explores how animals have profoundly influenced our minds and cultures. Drawing on cutting-edge insights from psychology, anthropology, literature and neuroscience, Bond traces the varied ways their lives have affected ours, from our hunter-gatherer ancestors whose brains were rewired by the prey they hunted and the predators they feared, to the medieval and Enlightenment thinkers who used animals to promote notions of human supremacy.

Scientists today are challenging the assumption that we are separate from and superior to animals, showing that they too possess intelligence, empathy, creativity and even the ability to use tools. If everything that supposedly makes us human is shared with other creatures, where does that leave us? And if we are not as exceptional as we thought, how should we be treating the animals we live alongside?

A fascinating exploration of what it means to be both human and animal, Animate shows that to better understand ourselves, we must pay more attention to the other beings with whom we share our world.

Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity, Frank Dikötter

The history of modern China has long been portrayed as a tale of Communists fighting in the hills for freedom, gradually gaining popular support by taking land from the rich and giving it to the poor. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Red Dawn Over China reveals how unlikely the Party's victory actually was, had it not been for financial and military support from the Soviet Union.

Established in 1921 under the direct guidance of Moscow, for the best part of a decade the Communist Party left a trail of destruction, besieging towns and plundering the countryside. When the Communists managed to hold territory, they reduced the villagers to a state of servitude, undermining belief in their cause as well as the local economy. By 1936 they had the same popular appeal as an obscure religious sect. A brutal war of occupation by Japan allowed them to survive far behind enemy lines. After Soviet troops invaded Manchuria in 1945 and provided more money and munitions, the Communists at long last prevailed through a pitiless war of attrition, driven by an unflinching will to conquer at all costs.

In this riveting tale told with great narrative verve, Frank Dikötter reveals how thirteen delegates gathered in a dusty room in 1921 ended up raising the red flag over the Forbidden City in 1949, forever altering the course of history for a quarter of humanity and shaping the world as we know it today.

The Face: A Cultural History, Fay Bound Alberti

What’s in a face?

The face is the only part of the body where all the senses come together and, over the course of human history, has come to represent who we are as individuals. We unlock our phones with facial recognition; we have our faces stamped in our passports; and although our faces may change over the course of our lives – whether through ageing, accident, illness or lifestyle – they remain a foundational marker of identity.

In The Face, cultural historian Fay Bound Alberti explores the ways humans have interpreted faces and how they have shaped our ideas of morality, social hierarchy, psychology and so much more, revealing some of the biases that inform our everyday lives. She charts how new technologies and cultural innovations have transformed our conception of selfhood over time – from the growth of portraiture in the Renaissance and the mass production of mirrors and photography in the 19th century, to 21st century developments, such as digital avatars and face transplants.

Bound-Alberti probes beneath the surface to ask what our faces really say about us.

Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea, Matt Ridley

From a freezing hide on the Pennine moors at dawn, Ridley closely studies the rare Black Grouse. He is there for the lek – an elaborate courtship ritual of squabbling and strutting males. They dance and sing for hours each day to attract a mate over several months. With most males leaving exhausted and unsuccessful, Ridley looks at how females make their choice to cast fresh light on how such rituals have evolved and why.

His pursuit follows five generations of biologists from Darwin and Wallace to the present day, uncovering how they have grappled with the implications of sexual selection as an eccentric, gonzo form of evolution. While most Victorian scientists found it impossible to believe female birds could select mates, Darwin was obsessed with the idea of sexual as well as natural selection.

Drawing on his own lifelong passion, Ridley eavesdrops on the elaborate displays of bird species around the world, from the complex art installations made by Bowerbirds in Australia to the bubbling calls of Curlews in the UK’s declining moorlands. In a wonderful blend of nature writing and elegant exploration of recent evolutionary theory, Birds, Sex and Beauty shows not only how mate choice has shaped the natural world, including humans, but how the song and plumage of birds can be thrillingly, breathtakingly beautiful.

Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: How The Solar System Shaped Human History – And May Help Save Our Planet, Dagomar Degroot

Our solar system is an extraordinary place where asteroids careen off course and solar winds hurl charged particles across billions of miles of space. Yet we seldom consider how these events, so immense in scale, influence our own fragile blue planet.

In Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean, Degroot traces the surprising threads linking humanity to the rest of the solar system. He reveals how the shifting sands of other planets have shaped geopolitics, spurred scientific and cultural innovation, and encouraged new ideas about the emergence and fate of life.

Martian dust storms altered the trajectory of the Cold War and inspired fantastical stories about alien civilisations. Comet impacts on Jupiter led to the first planetary defence strategy. And volcanic eruptions spewed sulfuric acid into Venus’s atmosphere, exposing the existential risks of global warming.

But just as we expand the boundaries of space exploration, cosmic environments are becoming increasingly vulnerable to human activity. Yet, they may also hold the key to slowing down the climate crisis on Earth. Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean urges us to develop an interplanetary environmentalism across a vast mosaic of entangled worlds and to consider the profound connections that bind us to the cosmos and each other.

Beauty of the Beasts: Rethinking Nature’s Least Loved Animals, Jo Wimpenny

The living world evokes many emotions, especially when it comes to our relationships with animals. Some of our reactions are logical responses to potential harm, but many are irrational, and our loathing and persecution of some species far exceed the threat they pose to us. We no longer prosecute animals for their “crimes” as we did in the Middle Ages, but our human exceptionalism and vilification of unwelcome animal behaviour continue.

In Beauty of the Beasts, Jo Wimpenny challenges our perceptions of “good” species and sets the record straight about those we label “pests”, “scavengers”, and “predators”. Using the latest research, Wimpenny explains the natural behaviours we use to villainise animals while demonstrating how these species benefit humanity and are more sentient than we ever thought. From wasps that provide free pest control and snakes whose venom may cure cancer to the deep social bonds of crocodiles and vultures, this book will convince you to rethink our most misunderstood beasts.

While it may be tempting to imagine a more pleasant world devoid of animals that scare and repulse us, Wimpenny explains why losing them would devastate many ecosystems, encouraging all of us to appreciate these animals for what they are and the vital roles they fulfil for all life on Earth.