What a glorious time to be writing about politics. The US and Britain are mired in a foreign war and burdened with leaders nobody seems to like any more. The Middle East simmers, Africa suffers and Europe wrings its hands over immigration, globalisation and its very future. A world ripe for diagnoses, recriminations, prescriptions.

The publishing industry has leapt to the challenge, starting with Iraq. A good primer is George Packer's The Assassins' Gate (Farrar Straus Giroux $26), a sweeping account of the US decision to invade, the swift military campaign, the bungled occupation and the resulting turmoil. Though much of his reportage has appeared in The New Yorker, Packer skilfully reassembles it in a tale of Anglo-American hubris and its consequences. In Secrets and Lies (Politico's £9.99), Middle East commentator Dilip Hiro recounts the misuse of intelligence that led to war. In The Great War for Civilisation (Fourth Estate £25), British journalist Robert Fisk takes on the entire Middle East, tracing the origins of the region's conflicts. Part-memoir, all heart, this 1,328-page behemoth will delight Fisk's fans, infuriate his foes and fascinate all.