The best non-fiction books of 2025 // TRAIN BRAIN

The best non-fiction books of 2025

Looking for a Christmas present for a bookworm in your life? Rachel Lloyd, our deputy culture editor, shares five of our favourite non-fiction books of 2025.

The Economist

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, The Economist posts videos that give authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science, technology and the connections between them. We're also producing full films such as The Disrup...

Why hasn't Keir Starmer made bigger reforms?

Keir Starmer: Reform UK is "pro-Putin"

Keir Starmer on the dangers posed by Reform

A rare look inside Iran

How India is rewriting the AI playbook

The best non-fiction books of 2025

Is Russia now winning the war in Ukraine?

What we know about the Ukraine peace plan

How Chinese money is funding Mexican drug cartels

Why Britain’s budget is a failure

Why Britain’s budget is a failure

John Bolton: “Trump is on a downhill slope”

Has the world reached “peak Trump”?

John Bolton: Trump would sell out Taiwan for a deal

Donald Trump is creating his own police force

Taxes on home-buying are foolish

Why governments should stop raising the minimum wage

Are baby girls now more popular than boys?

Should parents be able to choose the sex of their baby?

Why birth rates are dropping everywhere

Why pig organ transplants are closer than ever

How strong is Iran’s regime?

Is Iran's regime moving away from theocracy?

Iran's foreign minister: we are ready for a nuclear deal

Why Gaza won’t be rebuilt anytime soon

Can recessions be beneficial?

Why the world’s population is heading for collapse

How would Jordan Bardella run France

How Sheikh Hasina’s death sentence could change Bangladesh

Are baby girls now more popular than boys?

Why are cigarette companies' profits soaring? | The Intelligence podcast

Why are cigarette companies' profits soaring? | The Intelligence podcast

Could markets topple the global economy?

Why Meloni is an exceptional politician

Can men and women be just friends?

Why Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a “catastrophic failure”

Are share prices headed for a crash?

How strong is the Russian army?

What will the world look like in 2026?

Could tiny seeds hold the secret to saving an ancient rainforest? | Babbage podcast

The booming business in private soldiers

What can Democrats learn from their election wins? | Checks and Balance podcast

Is Larry Ellison the new king of American media?

Has grumpiness has gone down globally? Here’s what the data shows | The Intelligence podcast

How would Europe’s populist right govern?

Why is Jordan Bardella so popular in France?

How did an opioid deadlier than fentanyl go mainstream? | Babbage podcast

Are the Democrats back from the dead?

Could the AI bubble pop?

Could the AI bubble pop?

Are rich countries facing a debt crisis?

Are rich countries facing a debt crisis?

China's economy is facing a new threat

Can Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s trade war truce really last?| The Intelligence podcast

Does handwriting help you learn?

Can Zohran Mamdani turn New York around?

Why is Zohran Mamdani so popular in New York?

Gita Gopinath’s warning on unsustainable government spending | Money Talks Podcast

Why Mamdani needs New York’s millionaires

Kaja Kallas on Putin’s other path to victory in Ukraine

Which country has the most powerful passport in 2025? | The Intelligence Podcast

Kaja Kallas: can the European Union survive in an era of strongmen?

Kaja Kallas: why China doesn’t want Ukraine to win

Is it still worth going to university?

What should you study in the age of AI?

Why China and Russia don't fear the West

Steve Bannon: We have to seize the institutions

Steve Bannon on MAGA's momentum in Europe

How will Japan’s first female prime minister shape her country? | The Intelligence Podcast

Steve Bannon: Trump will have a third term

Bannon: Donald Trump will have a third term

What’s behind the sinister disappearance of China’s bosses? | The Intelligence podcast

Why are American drug prices so high?

Is it still worth going to university?

Why is cybercrime getting even more profitable? |The Intelligence podcast

The cocaine market is bigger than ever

Were we wrong about Trump’s tariffs?

Can Germany keep the hard right from power?

Are red-light face masks really an anti-ageing hack? | The Intelligence

Five new books to read this autumn