Friends of Liberty tells the remarkable story of three men whose lives were braided together by issues of liberty and race that fueled revolutions across two continents. Thomas Jefferson wrote the fou
A thoughtful exploration of the role genes play in human behavior concludes that many of the big human concerns--body image, money, addiction, violence, and the search for happiness--are influenced by
Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh’s starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven’s Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subj
A latest guide to the statistical logic that is revolutionizing baseball outlines 20 arguments about how the game is played today, assessing topics ranging from the impact of steroids and the amateur
What if your cell phone could detect cancer cells circulating in your blood or warn you of an imminent heart attack? Mobile wireless digital devices, including smartphones and tablets with seemingly l
Paul Dirac was among the greatest scientific geniuses of the modern age. One of Einstein's most admired colleagues, he helped discover quantum mechanics, and his prediction of antimatter was one of th
The American corporation--deaf and blind to the world around it--needs a new professional. It needs a Chief Culture Officer.Grant McCracken, an anthropologist who now trains some of the world's bigge
Clinical psychologist Kirsch (U. of Hull, UK, and U. of Connecticut) draws on his research to relate how most improvements shown by depressed patients are due to the placebo effect, not antidepressant
From the 1750s to the 1770s, the Paris salon of Baron Paul Thiry Holbach was an epicenter of debate, intellectual daring, and revolutionary ideas, uniting around one table vivid personalities such as
Our culture is showing the cracks of a growing fracture. Soaring divorce rates; a crippled economy that rewards the few and punishes the many; religious-fueled hatred; record rates of depression&mdas
In Flying High, William F. Buckley Jr. offers his lyrical remembrance of a singular era in American politics, and a tribute to the modern Conservative movement’s first presidential standard-bea
Nothing in Keith Richburg’s long and respected journalistic career at the Washington Post prepared him for what he would encounter as the paper’s correspondent in Africa. He found a continent where br
When Hitler’s government collapsed in 1945, Germany was immediately divided up under the control of the Allied Powers and the Soviets. A nation in tatters, in many places literally flattened by bombs,
New York State Assemblyman, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, Vice President and, at forty-two, the youngest President ever—in his own words, Theodore Roosevelt “rose
Examines how changes from the Industrial Revolution prior to World War I brought about radical transformation in society, changes in education, and massive migration in population that led to one of t
There is one country in the Americas that the Bush Administration regards as a significant threat to U.S. interests, and it is not Cuba. Oil-rich Venezuela's democratically-elected government has sur
In Boiling Point, Ross Gelbspan argues that, unchecked, climate change will swamp every other issue facing us today. Indeed, what began as an initial response of many institutions--denial and delay--h
Kids grown? Mortgage paid? Career topping out? What now? In My Time, best-selling author Abigail Trafford answers the questions more and more 50-somethings are asking themselves. Thanks to the longev
The future of Earth's environment will be decided in Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population and some of the world's fastest-growing economies. As an award-winning investigative journalist
Sea Legsis the story of Kathleen Crane, one of the first women oceanographers out of the world-renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. By turns personal and objective, Cr
Professor Douglas Brinkley arranged to teach a six-week experimental class aboard a fully equipped sleeper bus. The class would visit thirty states and ten national parks. They would read twelve book
This is a masterful survey of Austria's controversial place at the heart of European history. From the Reformation through the Napoleonic and Cold Wars to European Union, a superb history of Austria'
Combining evocative historical description and cogent analysis, Song Full of Tears is a chronicle of nine hundred years of life in southeast China. It reveals the workings of Chinese society in times
In Hidden Heroism, Robert Edgerton investigates the history of Afro-American participation in American wars, from the French and Indian War to the present. He argues that blacks in American society ha
Happy Mondays presents a groundbreaking challenge to anti-work rhetoric. It argues that work need not be stressful, demolishes the arguments for "work-life balance," and shows you how to approach work
To many people, the main question about extraterrestrial life is whether it exists. But to the scientific community, that question has already been answered: it does, and within our solar system. The
Working from the intriguing hypothesis that Alzheimer's dementia is the result of a renegade protein-beta amyloid-Tanzi and others set out to find the gene responsible for its production. Decoding Dar
The Depression Era photographs of Walker Evans (1903-1975) remain some of the most indelible and iconic images in the American consciousness. James R. Mellow's landmark biography of Evans-the first to
Examines the case of Bridget Cleary, an innocent young woman from rural County Tipperary, Ireland, who was accused of witchcraft by her husband's family in 1895, starved, tortured, and then burned for
Born in 1905 in the center of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire, Viktor Frankl was a witness to the great political, philosophical, and scientific upheavals of the twentieth century. In these stir
In recent years the nature of consciousness?our immediately known experiences?has taken its place as the most profound problem that science faces. Now in this brilliant and thoroughly accessible new b
Popular wisdom holds that the years since 1973—the end of the “postwar miracle”—have been a time of economic decline and stagnation: lackluster productivity, falling real wage
Between 250,000 and 500,000 boy soldiers fought in the U.S. Civil War. Many more children were exposed to the war’s ravages in their home towns?in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Columbia, Fredericksburg, Getty
Nothing else damages the earth’s environment more than our cities. As the world’s population has grown, our cities have burgeoned, and their impact on the environment worsened. Meanwhile,
Lost in an art—the art of translation. Thus, in an elegant anagram (translation = lost in an art), Pulitzer Prize-winning author and pioneering cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter hints at w
This is the compelling, first-hand account of Alan Guth’s paradigm-breaking discovery of the origins of the universe—and of his dramatic rise from young researcher to physics superstar. Guth’s startli
Not Out of Africa has sparked widespread debate over the teaching of revisionist history in schools and colleges. Was Socrates black? Did Aristotle steal his ideas from the library in Alexandria? Do
With welfare reform a burning political issue, this special anniversary edition of the classic history of welfare in America has been revised and updated to include the latest bipartisan debates on ho
Scientists and governments are actively searching for signs of life in the universe. Will their efforts meet with success? Award-winning author Paul Davies, an eminent scientist who writes with the f
This classic book serves as a starting point for any serious discussion of welfare reform. Losing Ground argues that the ambitious social programs of the1960s and 1970s actually made matters worse for
