driven by current events, books on geopolitics interest more and more readers

Sales of books on geopolitics increased by 6% last year. At Dunod-Armand Colin Editions, sales of books on this subject have even increased by 10 to 15% in two years.

Conflict between Israel and Hamas, war in Ukraine, tensions between China and the United States, the upheavals of the world are increasingly in the news, and they are of interest to a growing number of readers. Sales of geopolitical works increased by 6% in 2023, according to the Observatory of the French bookstore union which represents independent bookstores. It’s a small increase in the figures but it is clearly felt in Parisian bookstores.

In front of the geopolitical section of one of them, Nadia, 59, scans the new developments. In her hand, she holds a second-hand book. “It is called International relations since 1945 by Maurice Weisz, she specifies. Right next to her, Yacine, 75, has recently become interested in international relations, driven by current events. “The drama of what is happening in Gaza for example, or what is happening in Ukraine… We cannot remain insensitive to these problems”he confides.

Readers mainly turn to high-profile authors

Readers buy these works to understand and have enough information to form an opinion. “There is never an absolute truth on these questions”, believes Thibault, 37, who finds that the media treat the issues in a very superficial manner. “The advantage of books is that they give a diversity of points of view that go in depth as well as relevant and referenced explanations.” But for information, clients often turn to high-profile authors. In any case, these are the requests received by Jean-François who works at the Eyrolle bookstore. “We sold the little ‘What do I know?’ particularly well. by Bensoussan on the war in Palestine and the state of Israel”, he observes. French historian Georges Bensoussan has been interviewed several times by different media in recent months.

This is also the case for Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations and whose comic strip Géostratégix is ​​a hit. “The first volume exceeded 50,000 copies, notes François Bachelot, general director of Dunod Armand Colin editions. And the second volume which has just been published has already exceeded 20,000 copies in a few months.”Over the last two years, sales of the geopolitical works he publishes have increased by 10 to 15%.

“We decided to publish comics saying that we would be able to reach a younger audience. We succeeded because we see that among our customers, there are a lot of high school students, in particular.”

François Bachelot, general director of Dunod-Armand Colin editions

franceinfo

Current events also bring older books up to date, such as An endless war on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, published in 2022. “Since October, sales for this title have tripled, so it’s been a tremendous boost to sales and, I hope, to understanding of the conflict.” Beyond geopolitics, the publisher notes an increase in sales of popular books in different fields: history and science in particular, with for example increased interest in works on artificial intelligence.