Marco Bakker and Alexandre Blanc established their architectural firm, BABL Bakker & Blanc architectes associes, in Switzerland in 1992. At their offices in Lausanne and Zurich, they develop desig
War looms in Leo Tolstoy''s War and Peace, and when Napoleon invades Russia in 1812 it forever changes those whose lives it engulfs. Although told on a panoramic scale Tolstoy''s epic novel focuses th
The Society for Psychical Research was established in 1882 to further the scientific study of consciousness, but it arose in the surf of a larger cultural need. Victorians were on the hunt for self-un
From the 1890s through World War II, the greatest hopes of American progressive reformers lay not in the government, the markets, or other seats of power but in urban school districts and classrooms.
In the tradition of The Elements of Style comes Trish Hall’s essential new work on writing well—a sparkling instructional guide to persuading (almost) anyone, on (nearly) anything. As the person in ch
In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico or "Rich Hill"
What does it mean to be human in the twenty- first century? How do we be real people in a world of online personas and “authentic” simulated experiences? In this innovative examination of our present
The 1974 fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, staged in the young nation of Zaire and dubbed the Rumble in the Jungle, was arguably the biggest sporting event of the twentieth century. The b
Born in late nineteenth-century Georgia, Elizabeth, Grace, and Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin grew up in a culture of white supremacy. Their father was a member of the KKK; the older girls performed at rall
In this graphic novel, more in love with the alluring properties of cement than he is with his girlfriend, Frunz’s overriding ambition is to become the next legendary architect. If only life was that
Also in the latest volume of this award-winning comics series, Arn and Sir Gawain become trapped in a lost, lush land presided over by the mad Duke Cyril and the entombed object of his desire. In Thul
For Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King, surviving in San Francisco meant a life in the shadows. His passing on March 6, 1900, would have been unremarkable if a city health officer hadn’t noticed a swoll
What is the role of love in opening and sustaining the temporal worlds we inhabit? One of the leading scholars in philosophy and the history of religious thought, Thomas A. Carlson here traces this qu
Though the Victorians are often credited with ushering in our modern era, the seeds were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811– 1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales replaced his in
Why make a scroll when you can make a book? This is the key question that music historian Thomas Forrest Kelly answers in The Role of the Scroll. Scrolls were the standard form of book in Western anti
Is it “just words” when a lawyer cross-examines a rape victim in the hopes of getting her to admit an interest in her attacker? Is it “just words” when the Supreme Court hands
In the 1980s, American psychiatry announced that it was time to toss aside Freudian ideas of mental disorder because the true path to understanding and treating mental illness lay in brain science, bi
The history of public policy in postwar America tends to fixate on developments at the national level, overlooking the crucial work done by individual states in the 1960s and ’70s. In this book,
“Playing in an orchestra in an intelligent way is the best school for democracy.”—Daniel Barenboim The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been led by a storied group of conductors
An independent kingdom of runaway slaves founded in the late 16th century, Angola Janga was a beacon of freedom in a land plagued with oppression. In stark black ink and chiaroscuro panel compositions
In 1899, Kate Chopin stunned the world with The Awakening, her tale of a woman who seeks personal fulfillment in a relationship outside her tradition-bound marriage. Chopin''s pioneering novel served
The study of intellectual history might be second only to the novel in the number of mournful obituaries it has received over the years. But—if the vibrancy on display in Thinking in the Past Te
Since its establishment in 1996, Vienna-based driendl*architects has searched for prototypical solutions in the fields of infrastructure and furniture, building, and urban design. The understanding th
When a decades-long court battle resulted in her family’s freedom in 1855, seven-year-old Mary Mildred Williams unexpectedly became the face of American slavery. During a sold-out abolitionist lecture
What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people—from the colonial era’s G
A ragtag group of women behind a police line in the rain. A face in a crowd holding a sign that says, “Hi Mom, Guess What!” at an LGBT rights rally. Two lovers kissing under a tree. These indelible im
In this rich study of noise in American film-going culture, Meredith C. Ward shows how aurality can reveal important fissures in American motion picture history, enabling certain types of listening cu
In 1951, a new type of publication appeared on newsstands—the physique magazine produced by and for gay men. For many men growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, these magazines and their images and illust
Equality is easy to grasp in theory but often hard to achieve in reality. In this accessible and convincing work, American University law professor Robert L. Tsai offers a stirring account of how lega
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was enacted by Congress in June of 1933 to assist the nation’s recovery during the Great Depression. Its passage ushered in a unique experiment in US
There has been a rapid rise in interest in recent years in art created by people suffering from mental illness, with new museums dedicated to it, major surveys, and attention from the media and public
In 1980s Britain, while the country failed to reckon with the legacies of its empire, a black, transnational sensibility was emerging in its urban areas. In Handsworth, an inner-city neighborhood of B
Knowledge matters, and states have a stake in managing its movement to protect a variety of local and national interests. The view that knowledge circulates by itself in a flat world, unimpeded
How an antisemitic legend gave voice to widespread fears surrounding the expansion of private credit in Western capitalismThe Promise and Peril of Credit takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in
Academic freedom rests on a shared belief that the production of knowledge advances the common good. In an era of education budget cuts, wealthy donors intervening in university decisions, and right-w
Stories in this volume include "The Martian Monster," in which a 9-year-old boy befriends a Martian in the woods and asks him to kill his stepmother — but the "Martian" convinces him that it’s really
Founded in 1919 in the name of academic freedom, the New School for Social Research quickly became a pioneer in adult education—what its first president, Alvin Johnson, called “the continuing educatio
In the 1940s and ’50s, Havana was a locus for American movie stars, with glamorous visitors including Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Marlon Brando. In fact, Hollywood was seemingly
In architecture, nothing is ever truly new; everything has been tried before. And nowhere is this more evident than in the architecture of housing. Each proffered solution to a specific architectural
In 1994, workers broke ground on China’s Three Gorges Dam. By its completion in 2012, the dam had transformed the ecology of the Yangzi River, displaced over a million people, and forever altered a la
