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Forget the language instinct―this is the story of how we make up language as we go Language is perhaps humanity’s most astonishing capacity―and one that remains poorly understood. In The Language Game, cognitive scientists Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater show us where generations of scientists seeking the rules of language got it wrong. Language isn’t about hardwired grammars but about near-total freedom, something like a game of charades, with the only requirement being a desire to understand and be understood. From this new vantage point, Christiansen and Chater find compelling solutions to major mysteries like the origins of languages and how language learning is possible, and to long-running debates such as whether having two words for “blue” changes what we see. In the end, they show that the only real constraint on communication is our imagination.

Western medicine treats sick patients like broken machines -- figure out what is physically wrong, fix it, and send the patient on their way. But humans are not machines. When we are ill, we experienc

From ideas and infections to financial crises and fake news, an "utterly timely" look at why the science of outbreaks is the science of modern lifeThese days, whenever anything spreads, whether it's a

A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligenceCorrelation is not causation. This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality -- the study of cause and effect -- on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why

A veteran art critic helps us make sense of modern and contemporary art A hand-signed porcelain urinal. An abstract drip painting. A silent 700 hour performance. Art has changed since the days of Giot

How the study of causality revolutionized science and the world "Correlation does not imply causation." This mantra has been invoked by scientists for decades. But today, that taboo is dead. The caus

Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than

Why have recent presidents failed to bring promised change?In The Impossible Presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role env

Winner of the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military HistoryThe Society of Military History 2015 Distinguished Book Award RecipientWinner of the Wolfson History PrizeBritish Army Military Book of the Ye

In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X, the most famous ministe

A New York Times BestsellerArthur Benjamin . . . joyfully shows you how to make nature’s numbers dance.”Bill NyeThe Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assort

The Way We Never Were examines two centuries of American family life and shatters a series of myths and half-truths that burden modern families. Placing current family dilemmas in the context of far-r

The writings of the Greeks and Romans form the bedrock of Western culture. Inventing the molds for histories, tragedies, and philosophies, while pioneering radical new forms of epic and poetry, the Gr

Draws on previously untapped sources to illuminate the secret friendship and disastrous estrangement between Cassius Clay and Malcolm X, sharing insights into Malcolm's alleged role in shaping Clay's

No president looms larger in twentieth-century American history than Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and few life stories can match his for sheer drama. Following in the footsteps of his Republican cousin

The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples, from ice cream scoops and poker hands that teach you factorials to mnemonics that help you mem

When first published in 1997 this groundbreaking work on the science of mood both redefined the field and?with compassion, understanding, and scientific rigor?made it accessible to those who would mos

For Germany and Austria-Hungary the First World War started with high hopes for a rapid, decisive outcome. Convinced that right was on their side and fearful of the enemies that encircled them, they t

"Wilson's book offers a novel approach to food writing, presenting a history of eating habits and mores through the lens of the technologies we use to prepare, serve, and consume food. This book tells

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

The epic story of the quest to uncover a fully unified theory of physics, revised to reflect the possible discovery of the Higgs Boson.

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

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

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

Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis, Asperger's: All of these syndromes have one thing in common--lack of empathy. In some cases, this absence can be dangerous, but in other

On December 29, 1890, five hundred American troops massed around hundreds of unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Outnumbered and demoralized, the Sioux

At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders? their saddles freshly decorated with sawed-off heads?indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christian

In the early twentieth century, affection between parents and their children was discouraged?psychologists thought it would create needy kids, and doctors thought it would spread infectious disease. I

Merging cognitive science with educational agenda, Gardner makes an eloquent case for restructuring our schools by showing just how ill-suited our minds and natural patterns of learning are to the pre

Six lectures, all regarding the most revolutionary discovery in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's Theory of Relativity. No one--not even Einstein himself--explained these difficult, anti-intuitiv

Many of us believe that in our modern, Internet-enabled world, information is more freely available than ever before. But according to physicist Robert Laughlin, this is a dangerous delusion. Not onl

On December 29, 1890, American troops opened fire with howitzers on hundreds of unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, killing nearly 300 Sioux. As acc

Our understanding of nature’s deepest reality has changed radically, but almost without our noticing, over the past twenty-five years. Transcending the clash of older ideas about matter and spa

Consider the complexity of a living cell after 3.8 billion years of evolution. Is it more awesome to suppose that a transcendent God fashioned the cell at a stroke, or to realize that it evolved with