Deny the British empire’s crimes? No, we ignore them
George Monbiot: New evidence of British colonial atrocities has not changed our national ability to disregard it
The white whale’s dark message
Philip Hoare: Our delight at Iceberg, the albino killer whale, is not so very different from the dread Moby-Dick inspired in Herman Melville
Machiavelli’s The Prince, part five: reversing the virtues
Nick Spencer: How to believe: Machiavelli's subversion of the humanist paean to virtues is clearest in his questioning of generosity, compassion and honour
Karl May: the best German writer you’ve never heard of
A century after his death, the writer – who counted Einstein and Hitler amongst his fans – is being feted across Europe. So why isn't he better known here?
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt – review
A compelling study of the morality of those on the left and right reaches some surprising conclusions, writes Ian Birrell
The War is Dead, Long Live the War: Bosnia – The Reckoning by Ed Vulliamy – review
Ed Vulliamy's intelligent analysis of the Bosnian war does not linger on the horror but tries to explain it, writes John Simpson
Women Are Heroes by JR and Marc Berrebi – review
A collection of portraits by French 'urban artivist' JR describes tales of horror and hardship with startling beauty and power, writes Mary Fitzgerald
How a book about fish nearly sank Isaac Newton’s Principia
Poor sales of lavishly illustrated book forced Royal Society to go back on promise to finance publication of Newton's Principia
Can whales predict tsunamis?
A British photographer witnessed a school of whales vanishing during an underwater earthquake. Could they serve as 'canaries' for humans?
The British Council brings more shame on us
Nick Cohen: All authors are welcome to the London Book Fair… as long as they don't upset the Chinese
Trayvon Martin death raises issue of racism in America, says Toni Morrison
Nobel prize-winning novelist says Republican presidential hopefuls used hateful language against Barack Obama
Vatican and Bodleian libraries to offer rare collections online
Greek manuscripts and earliest surviving Hebrew codex among 1.5m pages to be digitised for both scholars and public to peruse
Salman Rushdie reveals details of fatwa memoir
Joseph Anton – the pseudonym adopted by the novelist while in hiding from death threats over The Satanic Verses – will be published in September
Apple accused by US of colluding with publishers to fix price of ebooks
Lawsuit filed by US department of justice claims Apple ended price competition after seeing success of Amazon's $10 ebooks
Pass notes No 3,156: Günter Grass
The German writer's latest poem, 'What Must Be Said', has not gone down well with the Israeli government