History remembers the Soviets and the Nazis as bitter enemies and ideological rivals, the two mammoth and opposing totalitarian regimes of World War II whose conflict would be the defining and decidin
Abraham Lincoln grew up in the long shadow of the Founding Fathers. Seeking an intellectual and emotional replacement for his own taciturn father, Lincoln turned to the great men of the founding?Washi
A dramatic profile of the controversial post-World War II soldier and spy identifies his critical role in some of the most pivotal events of the 20th century, tracing his work as the director of the C
The award-nominated author of Unfinest Hour traces more than five centuries of conflict for control of central Europe as a means for influencing global affairs, providing coverage of such topics as th
"In The Collapse historian Mary Elise Sarotte shows that the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, was not, as is commonly believed, the East German government's deliberate concession to out
From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and m
When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who ste
Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as
"Love and Math tells the two intertwined stories of mathematics and the adventure of one man in learning it. The result is a story about how he became one of the twenty-first century's leading mathema
Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, eve
"Dogs have been mankind's faithful companions for tens of thousands of years, yet today they are regularly treated as either pack-following wolves or furry humans. The truth is, dogs are neither--and
A cocktail party. A terrorist cell. Ancient bacteria. An international conglomerate. All are networks, and all are a part of a surprising scientific revolution. In Linked, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the
"Do all questions have answers? How much can we know about the world? Is there such a thing as an ultimate truth? To be human is to want to know, to understand our origins and the meaning of our lives
"In The Fortunes of War, acclaimed historian Neill Lochery reveals the secret history of Brazil's involvement in World War II, showing how the cunning politicians who ran the country extracted enormou
Whether rising to power or falling from grace, Jimmy Carter’s political fortunes were always tied to those of progressive Christianity. A former peanut farmer and born-again Christian, Carter won the
From the sidewalk to the catwalk, there’s no shortage of proof that Americans have lost the ability to dress well. It’s not that we dress poorly on purpose; instead, we lack the fashion know-how we ne
The Austro-Hungarian army that marched eastward in the opening campaign of World War I was as disordered a force as the world had ever seen. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and carrying outd
Duncan Chaplain Lee was an unlikely traitor. A Rhodes Scholar, patriot, and descendent of one of America’s most distinguished families, he was also a communist sympathizer who used his position as ai
For centuries, the importance of financial accounting has been well understood. Essential to building businesses, states, and even empires, accounting has also helped leaders measure their power and c
A religious scholar describes how after a century of reforms, Catholicism will grow and succeed not by adapting to the changes of current culture, but instead by reshaping the culture by energizing la
A string theorist and a citizen scientist instruct lay readers on elementary principles of physics and associated math that amateur enthusiasts should know in order to study more advanced topics, in a
Describes the history of the exotic islands made famous by Charles Darwin, long known to sailors and pirates as a home to fascinating wildlife and volcanic landscapes that has most recently become a h
Why Earth’s life-friendly climate makes it exceptional?and what that means for the likelihood of finding intelligent extraterrestrial lifeWe have long fantasized about finding life on planets other th
"The Holocaust has long seemed incomprehensible, a monumental crime that beggars our powers of description and explanation. Historians have probed the many sources of this tragedy, but no account has
All too frequently, leadership is reduced to a dichotomy: the strong versus the weak. Yet, there are myriad ways to exercise effective political leadership?as well as different ways of failing. The my
The story of the rise of modern navigation technology, from radio location to GPS?and the consequent decline of privacyWhat does it mean to never get lost? You Are Here examines the rise of our techno
On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun on Virginia Beach, a massive fireball erupted from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. By the next day, three ships l
America’s higher education system is failing its students. In the space of a generation, we have gone from being the best-educated society in the world to one in which a college degree benefits only t
Dispersed across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, Midnight’s Descendants?the generations born since the 1947 ?midnight hour partition” of British India?are the world’s fastest growin
Few moments in history have seen as many seismic transformations as 1979. That single year marked the emergence of revolutionary Islam as a global political force, the beginning of market revolutions
Humor, like pornography, is famously difficult to define. We know it when we see it, but is there any way to figure out what we really find funny? In this fascinating investigation into the science of
A historian describes the drama and family feuding within the Plantagenets, England's fifteenth-century ruling family, from the perspective of the mothers, wives and daughters who wove a web of loyalt
In 1905, Pope Pius X issued a groundbreaking decree, requiring children to begin confessing at seven rather than fourteen and urging Catholics to confess weekly or monthly instead of annually. This ra
We live in the age of Computer Business Systems (CBSs)?the highly complex, computer-intensive management programs on which large organizations increasingly rely. In Mindless, Simon Head argues that th
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture al
In the late summer of 1918, after four long years of senseless, stagnant fighting, the Western Front erupted. The bitter four-month struggle that ensued?known as the Hundred Days Campaign?saw some of
Argues that the social changes of the past few decades have occurred by choice rather than involuntarily, citing the rise of a new creative social class that derives its identity and values from its r
America is in decline, and the rise of the East suggests a bleak future for the world’s only superpower ? so goes the conventional wisdom. But what if the traditional measures of national status are n
Explores the author's theorized evolutionary basis for self-deception, which he says is tied to group conflict, courtship, neurophysiology, and immunology, but can be negated by awareness of it and it
