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
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
Discusses America's political stance during the holocausts of the past fifty years, presenting moral arguments for why the United States should change its non-engagement policies to become involved in
In recent decades, Americans in Rome have revived an ancient Christian custom: the daily pilgrimage to dozens of Rome’s most striking churches during Lent and Easter Week. Along this historical and sp
In late 1832, a young missionary couple sailed from the Chesapeake Bay, headed for western Africa. John Leighton Wilson and his wife, Jane, were traveling to the colony of Liberia, where they?and thei
Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 remains one of the most horrifying?and hotly debated?crimes in American history. Because Oswald had briefly defected to the Soviet Union,
The period between 1630 and 1660 was one of the most tumultuous in Western history. These three decades witnessed the birth of English America and, in the mother country, a vicious civil war that rent
Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard?only to give t
The first edition of The Growth Experiment, originally published in 1990 as a response to critics of the Reagan-era tax cuts, became a kind of bible for proponents of supply-side economics. This new
In 1991, the United States was the only global superpower. It seemed that the 21st century, like the 20th, would belong to America. Then came the stock market bubble, the costly foreign unilateralism
A soup-to-nuts history of the American meal explains the evolution of traditional fare as a reflection of national identity, describing the midday meals of colonial America, the circumscribed eating r
A report on China's aggressive global crusade to secure natural resources offers insight into the way commodity markets work while profiling China's economic development goals and how they are influen
A historian pieces together the story of a philandering, Georgian fop, William Jackson, who used his father's money and position with the East India Company to party in brothels and con tradesmen befo
Now a New Showtime Original SeriesShowtime's dramatic series Masters of Sex, starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, is based on this real-life story of sex researchers William Masters and Virginia J
The line between psychology and spirituality has blurred, as clinicians, their patients, and religious seekers explore new perspectives on the self. A landmark contribution to the field of psychoanal
Taking the reader on a tour of the world's cities, the author argues that urban regions will adapt to rising temperatures over time, slowly transforming the everyday lives of citizens and changing the
Drawing on 40 years of research, a primatologist attempts to solve the mystery of the origins of our reproductive lives, showing that once we understand our evolutionary past, we can consider what wor
Child prodigies. Gifted and Talented Programs. Perfect 2,400s on the SAT. Sometimes it feels like the world is conspiring to make the rest of us feel inadequate, that we’ll never achieve anything grea
James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history, and his story?although all too often overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries?is integral to that of the
Politicians have talked endlessly about the seismic economic and social impacts of the recent financial crisis, but many continue to ignore its disastrous effects on human health?and have even exacerb
From its invention as a cocaine-laced patent medicine in the Gilded Age to its globe-drenching ubiquity as the ultimate symbol of consumer capitalism in the twenty-first century, Coca-Cola’s dramatic
As crime rates inexorably rose during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, disputes over how to handle the violence sweeping the nation quickly escalated. James Q. Wilson redefined the public debate by
A brilliant collection of pieces, written between 1942 and his death in 2009, by Irving Kristol, one of the fathers of neoconservatism. This series of essays, many hard to find and reprinted for the f
The Internet was going to liberate us, but in truth it has not. For every story about the web’s empowering role in events such as the Arab Spring, there are many more about the quiet corrosion of civi
In Powering the Future, Nobel laureate Robert B. Laughlin transports us two centuries into the future, when we’ve ceased to use carbon from the ground—either because humans have banned carbon burning
Is there one central mechanism upon which all human thinking rests? Cognitive scientists Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander argue that there is. At this core is our incessant proclivity to take w
What is nature worth? The answer to this question?which traditionally has been framed in environmental terms?is revolutionizing the way we do business.In Nature’s Fortune, Mark Tercek, CEO of The Natu
In theory, African Americans have enjoyed the right to vote since the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. In reality, however, most eligible black citizens were kept from the polls for an
One of the most enduring and influential of all human institutions, the Papacy has also been among the most controversial. From the founding of the Christian Church in the first century AD to the coll
A noble profession is facing its defining moment. From law schools to the prestigious firms that represent the pinnacle of a legal career, a crisis is unfolding. News headlines tell part of the story?
Hookup culture dominates the lives of college students today, and many feel great pressure to engage in it. This pressure comes from all directions?from peers, the media, and even parents. But how do
Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that put
A criminologist highlights the flaws of the status quo and advocates for the return of flogging as a favorable form of punishment when compared to our broken and dysfunctional prison system that incur
The author of Right of the Dial presents a tribute to America's innovators that traces the nation's history through its feats of engineering, citing the achievements of individuals from all walks of l
As the income gap between developed and developing nations grows, so grows the cacophony of voices claiming that the quest to find a simple recipe for economic growth has failed. Getting Better, in sh
Did the arms race of the 1930s cause the Second World War?In Cry Havoc, historian Joseph Maiolo shows, in rich and fascinating detail, how the deadly game of the arms race was played out in the decade
In the years following World War II, medicine won major battles against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio. In the same period it also produced treatments to control the progress of Parkinson’s, rheumato
Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious?or at least edible. Tools shape what we eat, but they have also transfor
A law professor and an editor describe why they believe affirmative action actually harms minority students and that the movement started in the late 1960s is only a symbolic change that has become mi
When Harry S. Truman left the White House in 1953, his reputation was in ruins. Tarred by corruption scandals and his controversial decision to drop nuclear bombs on Japan, he ended his second term wi
