Andrew Mueller
Andrew Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle, and hosts Monocle 24’s award-winning The Foreign Desk, among other programmes. He is the author of four books, most recently the Australian Rules football historiography Carn.
Articles by Andrew Mueller
Life on the frontlines
Two memoirs, from Basra and Ukraine, chronicle the lives of ordinary men pulled into war
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How to topple a tyrant
We often discuss how strongmen rise to power. What about how they fall?
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Book review: Fluke by Brian Klaas
How caprices of fate govern not just our own lives, but the course of nations
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Book review: 24/7 Politics
In the early days, there were hopes that cable TV news would improve US politics and democracy. It's arguably done the opposite
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Book review: My Hijacking
Martha Hodes recalls the hijacking of her plane by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, more than fifty years ago
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Book review: Surrender by Bono
How Mikhail Gorbachev pitched up on Bono's Dublin doorstep clutching an enormous teddy bear, and other stories
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Book review: Escape
Marie Le Conte's memoir of a life online is a tribute to the internet as it once was: a way to escape "real life".
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Book review: Rule, Nostalgia
Hannah Rose Woods asks us to see British history as it was, rather than what we imagined it might have been.
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Book review: Chess queens
Jennifer Shahade is a champion, and a fan of "The Queen's Gambit" – but her book shows women in chess have a long way to go.
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Book review: Our Own Worst Enemy
Who is really to blame for the state of US democracy? Tom Nichols argues that voters are rarely given the scrutiny they deserve.
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Book review: Fallen Idols
Statues in of themselves may not teach us much, but the disputes around them do, a new book argues.
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Book review: The Handshake
Ella Al-Shamahi's history of the handshake comes at a time when humanity is reconsidering this ancient gesture, along with its risks and rewards.
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Book review: A Promised Land
How does Barack Obama's memoir compare with the efforts of previous "leaders of the free world"?
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Book review: Reaganland
In "Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980", Rick Perlstein continues to chronicle American conservatism, shedding light on the Republican party today.
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Eyes on the ball
When the pandemic brought sport to a standstill, we realised that what we loved was more than the game
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Book review: The Beatles in Time
'One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time' is not merely the story of the band, but a history of the world during the period.
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Book review: They will have to die now
James Verini's book is a monument to the brutal Battle of Mosul and the fall of the Caliphate
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Book review: This Is Not Propaganda
Peter Pomerantsev's new book documents how we increasingly live in a virtual world governed neither by borders nor law or reason.
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Book review: When Words Fail
Ed Vulliamy's memoir is a lovingly sculpted monument to the songs that made sense, even when nothing else did.
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Book review: Dictator Literature
Daniel Kalder's book asks why the books of extraordinary world leaders are so often mind-numbingly dull.
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Book review: The End of Europe
Are we reaching the end of the post-World War II era in which Europe represented prosperity, peace and consensual problem-solving?
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Book Review: A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
Adam Rutherford's new book, on the miracle of human genetics, is not merely informative, but wise.
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A study in stupidity: war in the 20th century
Alistair Horne's study of hubris lays bare the human failure to quit while one is ahead.
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Ice tennis, eel-pulling, and Italian cat-headbutting: a history of forgotten sports
As a new book reminds us, sport is a useful barometer of moral and social progress.
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Rock’n’roll and rebellion
A new book explores the places where popular culture is still a counter-culture.
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The scary truth? There’s nobody in charge
Belief in conspiracies surely comes from the same place as belief in gods – the human need to reassure ourselves that the world is ordered.
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Book review: An Atheist in the Foxhole
Andrew Mueller on the confessions of a Fox mole
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Book review: Holy Sh*t by Melissa Mohr
Andrew Mueller on a history of swearing
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Book review: The Heretics by Will Storr
A new exploration of why people believe unprovable and outlandish things is enlivened by a healthy dose of scepticism towards scepticism, finds Andrew Mueller
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Book review: The Church Of Fear: Inside The Weird World Of Scientology
The Church of Scientology almost scuppered the career of BBC reporter John Sweeney. He gets his own back with this brave and blackly comic book, says Andrew Mueller
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Book review: Ban This Filth! Letters from the Mary Whitehouse Archive edited by Ben Thompson
Andrew Mueller enjoys the peevish outrage of the inadvertently hilarious moral crusader Mary Whitehouse
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Book review: The Train in the Night by Nick Coleman
Andrew Mueller hears Nick Coleman's pain
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D’oh my God: faith in The Simpsons
This year, The Simpsons celebrate their 25th birthday and their 500th episode. Andrew Mueller pays homage to the family we can all believe in
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God & Devil: Country Songs
Five tracks about God, and five about the Devil. Selected by Andrew Mueller
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Book review: The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
Andrew Mueller admires Jon Ronson's sanity
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Book review: 33 Revolutions Per Minute by Dorian Lynskey
Andrew Mueller has fun with an intelligent history of protest songs
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Hot type
Andrew Mueller revels in the vituperative opinions of HL Mencken
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Book review: The Management Myth – Why the Experts Keep Getting it Wrong
Andrew Mueller enters the world of consultancy
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Book review: Raising Dust by Nicholas Rowe
This study of Palestinian dance provides a rare insight into the lives of the region's people, says Andrew Mueller
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Book Review: The Loser Letters by Mary Eberstadt
Andrew Mueller enjoys the end of a leaden satire of New Atheism
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Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music by Greg Milner
Andrew Mueller appreciates a note-perfect history of recorded music
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Three-Letter Plague by Johnny Steinberg
Andrew Mueller enjoys some journalism with a human touch
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Field of nightmares
As festival season begins Andrew Mueller counts off the reasons to avoid them
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Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds
Andrew Mueller travels back in time to Acid House
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There’s a Riot Going On by Peter Doggett
Andrew Mueller takes on Sixties counter-culture
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True Aim
Andrew Mueller peruses the life of the other Elvis
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Lost gods
Andrew Mueller on the ghost of punk
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