John Kampfner

'Engaging and informative, imploring us not to lose hope' Observer'A ray of sunshine' Start the Week, Radio 4'Rattlingly readable... Inspiring' Financial TimesAt a time when democracies seem paralyzed by fear and populations are turning inward, award-winning journalist John Kampfner travels to ten countries confronting our shared challenges with bravery and imagination. - Taiwan's health system achieves 90% patient satisfaction at a fraction of the cost of the NHS. - Moroccan solar panels in the Sahara produce enough clean energy to power two million homes. - Estonia has transformed itself into a digital pioneer in a single generation - becoming the world's first fully digital government where 97.6% of citizens access state services online. - Costa Rica has tripled its economy while doubling its forest cover, proving that green policies can pay direct dividends. What unites these countries, and more, is a refusal to accept that difficult problems are unsolvable. The places showing true innovation are often those with their backs against the wall - not wealthy nations assuming they have all the answers. Braver New World is an urgent reminder that solutions exist. The question is whether we have the courage to learn. 'A persuasive and imaginative argument against the gloom of our times' Bronwen Maddox'Solutions-focused authorship at its best' Andrew Roberts'A how-to book with inspired answers to our urgent questions' Lyse Doucet'Read this book as an antidote to fatalism and gloom' Robert Peston'Closely reported, surprising and, above all, hopeful' Jonathan Freedland

A WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 ONDAATJE PRIZE No other city has had so many lives, survived so many disasters and has reinvented itself so many times. No other city is like Berlin. Ever since John Kampfner was a young journalist in Communist East Berlin, he hasn’t been able to get the city out of his mind. It is a place tortured by its past, obsessed with memories, a place where traumas are unleashed and the traumatised have gathered. Over the past four years Kampfner has walked the length and breadth of Berlin, delving into the archives, and talking to historians and writers, architects and archaeologists. He clambers onto a fallen statue of Lenin; he rummages in boxes of early Medieval bones; he learns about the cabaret star so outrageous she was thrown out of the city. Berlin has been a military barracks, industrial powerhouse, centre of learning, hotbed of decadence – and the laboratory for the worst experiment in horror known to man. Now a city of refuge, it is home to 180 nationalities, and more than a quarter of the population has a migrant background. Berlin never stands still. It is never satisfied. But it is now the irresistible capital to which the world is gravitating. In Search of Berlin is an 800-year story, a dialogue between past and present; it is a new way of looking at this turbulent and beguiling city on its never-ending journey of reinvention.

Robia to Nemci lepšie? Ak áno, prečo? Nemecko vzniklo len pred 150 rokmi z rozdrobených mestských štátov a štátikov. Žiadna iná európska krajina však nemala takú búrlivú históriu a zároveň nedosiahla takú prosperitu v tak krátkom čase. Dnes, keď sa väčšina sveta približuje k autoritárstvu a demokracia je podkopávaná zo všetkých strán, Nemecko predstavuje maják slušnosti a stability. Britský autor John Kampfner sa v tematických kapitolách o vyrovnávaní sa s minulosťou, znovuzjednotení, multikulturalizme, nemeckom ekonomickom modeli či postcovidovej dobe pýta, prečo sa Nemecko napriek svojim chybám stalo vzorom hodným nasledovania. Je sčasti memoárom (autor pôsobil v Nemecku ako novinár), historickým exkurzom do moderných dejín krajiny aj cestopisom, a je bohatým a zábavným portrétom fascinujúcej krajiny v srdci Európy.

Robia to Nemci lepšie? Ak áno, prečo? Nemecko vzniklo len pred 150 rokmi z rozdrobených mestských štátov a štátikov. Žiadna iná európska krajina však nemala takú búrlivú históriu a zároveň nedosiahla takú prosperitu v tak krátkom čase. Dnes, keď sa väčšina sveta približuje k autoritárstvu a demokracia je podkopávaná zo všetkých strán, Nemecko predstavuje maják slušnosti a stability. Britský autor John Kampfner sa v tematických kapitolách o vyrovnávaní sa s minulosťou, znovuzjednotení, multikulturalizme, nemeckom ekonomickom modeli či postcovidovej dobe pýta, prečo sa Nemecko napriek svojim chybám stalo vzorom hodným nasledovania. Je sčasti memoárom (autor pôsobil v Nemecku ako novinár), historickým exkurzom do moderných dejín krajiny aj cestopisom, a je bohatým a zábavným portrétom fascinujúcej krajiny v srdci Európy.