October global nonfiction: A selection of six new books about our shared cultural histories

All information sourced from publishers.

Up the Youth Club: Illuminating a Hidden History, Emma Warren

In Up the Youth Club, Emma Warren maps the shifting story of youth clubs in the UK and Northern Ireland, from factory workers in Victorian Boys’ and Girls’ clubs to renegade self-emancipatory spaces in the 1970s and the music-generating youth clubs of more recent decades. With a mixed lineage in church evangelism, the patronage of the upper classes, grassroots’ DIY, and erratic state funding, the youth club has had a huge, yet almost invisible, effect on music, sport, culture and society.

Arguing that we cannot advocate for what we do not understand, Warren positions youth clubs as a kind of engine room – from the famous success stories to come out of their doors, such as The Specials or Stormzy, to the untold stories of young people finding shelter, sustenance and stimulation for centuries – and why their dwindling numbers, largely due to austerity and funding cuts, is of serious concern for us all.

The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years, Sunil Amrith

Sunil Amrith twins the stories of environment and Empire, of genocide and eco-cide, of the expansion of human freedom and its costs. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich diversity of primary sources,...

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