It’s nearly 40 years since Henry Kissinger held political office but he is still influential — and deeply divisive. Neil Robinson says Niall Ferguson’s first instalment of his biography won’t change anyone’s mind about him.

The scale of the illegal drugs business, the violence, the complicity of bankers in laundering money and the absolute power of the drug barons is beyond comprehension. Cormac O’Keeffe on an escalating world crisis.

Frederick the Great is judged by many historians to have been an enlightened despot. Geoffrey Roberts on an  impressive, comprehensive new biography by Tim Blanning.

VISITORS to modern day Waterloo may struggle to follow the topography of one of the most important military encounters in European history. In particular, an enormous earthwork, the Lion’s Mound, erected 1820, has significantly altered the perspective, writes Allan Prosser.

Richard Fitzpatrick reveals some books that are certain to cause a stir this spring.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Naomi Klein

Henry Kissinger

The Zone Of Interest

Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

Books for grown-ups

John Bradsha, of Bristol University, quotes an Irish legend at the beginning of his new book on cats; ‘a cat’s eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world’.

A History of Opera The Last Four Hundred Years

Founded by Allen Lane in 1935, Penguin sparked a paperback revolution that gave contemporary fiction to the masses.

Chrystia Freeland makes Victoria White wonder if a world government is the only path to an egalitarian society which respects nature’s limits?

A Nobel prize-winning economist’s clear-eyed analysis of the inequality at the heart of the great recession leaves one eager for more, writes Jack O’Connor

Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles

Breathless

Jonathan Haidt argues that genes and emotions have the greatest influence in forming and sustaining our beliefs. Terry Prone tests the theory

Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait Of The World’s Most Mysterious Continent

The Greatcoat

The Inquisition was based on certainty and Cullen Murphy argues that an equally aggressive certainty exists today. TP O’Mahony wonders if he’s right

The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age

Deceit and Self-deception

Runelight

Ian Kershaw & Allen Lane, £30

I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

Newly released this week

The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Limit of Nations and the Pursuit of a new Politics

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Review: Damien Enright

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

Paul Collier

Damien Enright on bird-watching and massaging hedgehogs.