In 2001, with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas moved to Iowa to understand the rural brain drain and the exodus of young people from America’s c
On her first day on earth, Katie Trebing underwent a blood transfusion that would become the first of an expected lifetime of them. Diagnosed with a rare form of anemia, she would require a transfusi
In the third century BC, Afghanistan was part of a peaceful, multi-ethnic and multicultural empire ruled by the Indian emperor Ashoka, who led with the values of tolerance, nonviolence, and respect fo
Growing up a smarty-pants, fundamentalist, hillbilly girl in the 1970s By the age of twelve, Susan Campbell had been flirting with Jesus for some time, and in her mind, Jesus had been flirting
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., isolated himself from the demands of the civil rights movement, rented a house in Jamaica with no telephone, and labored over his final manuscript. In this impor
A sweeping story of the right to privacy as it sped along colonial postal routes, telegraph wires, and today’s fiber-optic cables on a collision course with presidents and programmers, libraria
With the deft evocations of a master storyteller and the exhaustive knowledge of a scholar, LeVine writes of the uneasy relations between Islam and spirit possession in a Nigerian town and between Ch
The Religious Right has dedicated much of the last thirty years to molding the federal judiciary, always with an eye toward casting the Supreme Court in its image. Through broad political work that h
Since 1987, Craig Rennebohm has ministered to people on the streets of Seattle who are homeless and struggling with mental illness. In Souls in the Hands of a Tender God he tells the evocative storie
What happens when an organization with the express goal of defending individual rights and liberties starts silencing its own board? Lawyer and social critic Wendy Kaminer has intimate knowledge of s
During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence—as a shepherd, teacher, healer, or an enthroned god. But he is never dead. When he
Like Coleman Barks’s translations of Rumi, this collection of poems by Mirabai will appeal to anyone interested in spiritual poetry. Translator and renowned poet Robert Bly has teamed up with J
An ecologist and mother brings the overwhelming problem of global warming to a personal level, with a mix of memoir and scienceAs Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver examine food issues throu
How genetic engineering threatens seeds, and the stories of those working to save this precious environmental resourceSeeds are at the heart of the plant systems that provide us with food, ener
A memoir of raising a child with a genetic disorder When her son, J.P., was first diagnosed with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation, Clare Dunsford discovered t
Heather is pale and thin, seventeen and pregnant with twins when Patricia Harman begins to care for her. Over the course of the next five seasons Patsy will see Heather through the loss of both babie
Plain Secrets tells the story of Joe Mackall’s long friendship with his Swartzentruber Amish neighbors, the Shetlers, to create a nuanced portrait of this most traditional Amish sect. “M
Since 1987, Craig Rennebohm has ministered to people on the streets of Seattle who are homeless and struggling with mental illness. In Souls in the Hands of a Tender God, he tells the evocative stori
The first collection of literary writing on raising a child with special needs, Love You to Pieces features families coping with autism, deafness, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and more. Here, po
New England blossomed in the nineteenth century, producing a crop of distinctively American writers along with distinguished philosophers and jurists, abolitionists and scholars. A few of the female
“Red bird came all winter / firing up the landscape / as nothing else could.” So begins Mary Oliver’s twelfth book of poetry, and the image of that fiery bird stays with the reader,
A medical memoir and poetic meditation on raising a child with a genetic disorder Clare Dunsford is the mother of a twenty-one-yearold son with Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of
A pioneering new investigation of sex and manhood With few exceptions, sex is noticeably absent from popular histories chronicling colonial and Revolutionary America. Using court records, newspapers,
Artist Mark Cooper creates remarkable, collaborative art with children, and in this practical book of ideas he shows how it can be done anywhere, with amazing results. Drawing from his own work with
The history of African American studies is often told as a heroic tale, with compelling images of black power and passionate African American students who refused to take no for an answer. Noliwe M.
The Essential Marcuse provides an overview of Herbert Marcuse’s political and philosophical writing over four decades, with excerpts from his major books as well as essays from various academic
A new expanded version of the classic account of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, as told by Aztec voices—with a new Postscript by the editorFor hundreds of years, the history of the conquest of
Originally published in 1976, with more than 75,000 copies in print, this collection of poems by fifteenth-century ecstatic poet Kabir is full of fun and full of thought. Columbia University professo
In The Future of the Wild, conservationist Jonathan S. Adams mixes fascinating case studies of species and landscapes with conservation science and history to explain why it’s time to think big
During the American Revolution, thousands of slaves fled from their masters to find freedom with the British. Having emancipated themselves—and with rhetoric about the inalienable rights of fre
Thirst, a collection of forty-three new poems from Pulitzer Prize-winner Mary Oliver, introduces two new directions in the poet’s work. Grappling with grief at the death of her beloved partner
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labor
Global Values 101 grew out of one of the most popular courses ever offered at Harvard University, in which some of the most original thinkers of our day sat down with students and explored how ideas
When Hella Winston began talking with Hasidic Jews for her doctoral dissertation in sociology, she was excited to be meeting with members of the highly insular Brooklyn Satmar sect. Several Jewish jo
A Mind of Winter collects thirty-two of the most moving poems on the experience of winter. Illustrated throughout with elegant period woodcuts, the poems range from the most traditional and formal (J
Between the ages of twelve and fifteen, Martin Moran had a sexual relationship with an older man, a counselor he'd met at a Catholic boys' camp. Almost thirty years later, at the age of forty-two, he
After more than fifty years of good health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly found himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer was the pl
“With its hard-nosed realism and passion for God, this memoir should appeal to people of faith across the political spectrum.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)Winner of a 2004 Wi
Paula Peterson’s memoir, Penitent, with Roses, was an unflinching account of her life as a woman and mother after being diagnosed as HIV positive. All the stories in this striking first collect
With a new introduction by celebrated baseball writer Roger Kahn and a new afterword by the author, updating John Henry's first year of ownership after nearly six decades of the Yawkey dynasty, the le
