The Welfare of Nations Paperback / softback

Listed by the Sunday Times as one of the five best political books of 2015. Welfare states have spread across the globe, transforming modern civilisation.

But the take-over is often going badly. In Marseilles, armed drug gangs dominate the social housing estates.

In America, an outstandingly rich country, 45 million people are dependent on food stamps.

In Britain, the NHS has one of the worst records for cancer care in the advanced world. Many countries are raising more in taxes but nevertheless getting deeper into debt because of their burgeoning welfare states.

All around the world, behaviour is being damaged by welfare state dependency while governments become more and more like Big Brother, telling us what we must do. James Bartholomew travelled around the world seeing how cultures and lives are being changed - seeing what is going wrong but also looking for countries where they are making a better job of it. His book is an unparalleled investigation in which he tells the story of the people and places he visited.

He takes the reader on a journey, which includes burnt-out cars in France, a tough-minded benefits office in Singapore and innovative hospitals in Spain.The narrative is supplemented with many photos and graphs that demonstrate and explain. The book is like a window on the modern world.