Oliver Kamm Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
Oliver Kamm on X
Journalist, author & language pundit. Rep’d by @JanklowUK.

Cinema: The Archaeology of Film and the Memory of a Century
Jean-Luc Godard
@twlldun He’s not one of the brighter trolls on this platform, I’m afraid. I’d ask if he’s heard of Jean-Luc Godard, a giant of French cinema and a shameless antisemite - but I seriously doubt that he has. https://t.co/7RYfktUiYP
Hardcover, 2000
$150.00$125.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book(max discount $25)
A Student's Introduction to English Grammar
Rodney Huddleston
@Factsareafriend @MrEd_81 @MechaNonPlacet @PippaCrerar No, but ex hypothesi, they know about language, and you’ll find my criticism of this practice backed up in A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar by Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey Pullum, the two leading scholars of English syntax working today.
Paperback, 2021
$36.99$18.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States
Seymour Martin Lipset
@MattChorley @tomparkhill Some other classics - It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, which is a fine scholarly study by the sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset. Kudos to Beyoncé.
Paperback, 2012
$25.00$12.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad
I’ve often walked past the house on Gillingham Street, behind Victoria, with the Joseph Conrad plaque and wondered what lies within. The answer turns out to be expensive bad taste, which is a shame. The Secret Agent is one of the great political novels. https://t.co/W9PWv6T0wl
Paperback, 2018
$10.99$5.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Works
Thomas Kyd
@joslyoung @ElizWinkler @PublishersWkly @NRO You’re welcome. The theory that Christopher Marlowe was the true author of Shakespeare has the insuperable obstacle that he died in 1593, long before most of the works were penned. We know, from the archival research of the C20th scholar Leslie Hotson, who murdered him and where.
Hardcover, 2015
$41.95$20.98 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Austerlitz
W. G. Sebald
Very glad to see this guide to the work of WG Sebald by Sandra Haurant in @guardian. Sebald’s novel Austerlitz is an espec significant work, which won many awards and was IMO the single greatest achievement of his translator (my late mother) Anthea Bell. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/22/where-to-start-with-wg-sebald?CMP=share_btn_tw
Paperback, 2011
$22.00$11.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
Martin Gardner
@rafaelbehr The Rappites of Indiana seem apposite here too. (This is from Martin Gardner’s book The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener.) https://t.co/nsg9UGICQD
Paperback, 1999
$29.99$14.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Edith Wharton: Ambassador Book Awards
Hermione Lee
@MattChorley @tomparkhill Well spotted. It’s a crank book by a man called Jonathan Boyd Hunt, who insists that Hamilton was innocent. He used to follow me round the internet pressing this case. He is also a creationist. Much more interesting is Beyoncé’s taste for Hermione Lee’s big biog of Edith Wharton.
Paperback, 2008
$24.00$12.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad Conrad
I’ve often walked past the house on Gillingham Street, behind Victoria, with the Joseph Conrad plaque and wondered what lies within. The answer turns out to be expensive bad taste, which is a shame. The Secret Agent is one of the great political novels. https://t.co/W9PWv6T0wl
Paperback, 2017
$13.99$6.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Maoism: A Global History
Julia Lovell
@JohnRentoul @ChrisRGollop @Independent From Julia Lovell’s excellent book Maoism: A Global History. https://t.co/x1MwnQ4Owr
Paperback, 2020
$22.00$11.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book