Nonfiction

A gripping narrative account of the CIA-backed coup in South Vietnam that John F. Kennedy encouraged and which precipitated America's involvement in one of the most controversial and consequential wars in our history.

The Powerful Primate presents a compelling argument that flips the traditional view of humanity on its head. Rather than focusing solely on our intellectual abilities, author Roland Ennos argues it's our physical power and engineering brilliance that have set us apart in the animal kingdom. From our bipedal ancestors wielding simple tools to modern humans mastering complex machinery, Ennos takes us on a gripping journey through the evolution of human dominance. Readers will learn the fascinating history of how humans have progressively harnessed energy from sources such as wood, animals, water, wind, fossil fuels, and even atomic nuclei to drive our rise to being the most powerful species on Earth. Our ancestors' ability to hit harder, throw further, and cut deeper than any other animal laid the groundwork for the development of agriculture, industry, and ultimately, modern civilization. Yet, this power has come at a cost: environmental degradation and societal challenges have arisen from our relentless pursuit of energy and technological advancement. There is hope, however-- the same engineering skills that have brought us here can pave the way for a more sustainable future. Blending anthropology, biomechanics, engineering, and history, The Powerful Primate is a thought-provoking story of ambition, ingenuity, and the costs of progress-- a must-read for anyone interested in the forces that shape human civilization

A gripping and deeply researched exploration of the hidden influence of organized crime on the global economy that reveals the mafia as an uncredited architect of modern society.

In Traversal, Maria Popova illuminates our various instruments of reckoning with the bewilderment of being alive--our telescopes and our treatises, our postulates and our poems--through the intertwined lives, loves, and legacies of visionaries both celebrated and sidelined by history, people born into the margins of their time and place who lived to write the future: Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Fanny Wright, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Marie Tharp, Alfred Wegener, Humphry Davy, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. Woven throughout their stories are other threads--the first global scientific collaboration, the Irish potato famine, the decoding of the insulin molecule, the invention of the bicycle, how nature creates blue--to make the tapestry of meaning more elaborate yet clearer as the book advances, converging on the ultimate question of what makes life alive and worth living. By turns epic and intimate--as concerned with the physical laws binding atoms into molecules as with the psychic forces binding us to one other--Traversal explores the universe between cells and souls to reveal the world, and our lives, in a dazzling new light.

A rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention, with the tools we need to reclaim our humanity, by a group of writers, artists, and activists in the vanguard of the movement. ... We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention--that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world--is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold--and shaking the foundations of our democracy. To push back against this 'human fracking,' we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries--theaters and museums, houses of worship, dance parties--where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Attention activism takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing. Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, 'Attensity!' calls on us to come together to defeat the greedy dehumanizing forces of brute instrumentalization--and re-enchant the world.

In a polarized era, history can become a subject of political contention. Many see America as perfect; many others argue that the national experiment is fundamentally flawed. The truth, Meacham shows, likely lies between these extremes. America has had shining hours, and also dark ones. In American Struggle, Jon Meacham illuminates the nation's complicated past. This rich and diverse collection covers a wide spectrum of history, from 1619 to the twenty-first century, with primary-source documents that take us back to critical moments in which Americans fought over the meaning and the direction of the national experiment. From the founders to Lincoln to Obama, from Andrew Jackson to Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, from Seneca Falls to the March on Washington, this chorus -- sometimes discordant and always fascinating -- tells the story of the country and of its people. As clashes over liberty and slavery, inclusion and exclusion, play out, these voices, brilliantly framed by Meacham's singular commentary, remind us that contentious citizenship and fair-minded observations are essential to bringing about the more perfect union envisioned in the Preamble to the Constitution, which Frederick Douglass called a "glorious liberty document." Conflict is nothing new in our democracy; rather, as Meacham and these texts show, tensions are inherent, stubborn, and perennial. And American Struggle teaches us anew that to know what has come before, to watch as long-running disputes rise and fall, is to be armed against despair.

In Peru, a struggling writer becomes obsessed with documenting the life of an elusive guitarist whom he believes embodies the spirit of the vals, a Creole musical tradition. Hoping that a biography of the musician and a celebration of the culture surrounding the music might reveal Peru's national soul and foster social unity, the writer confronts the tensions between artistic idealism and a society marked by political violence.

To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, you need to begin thinking like one... One day, on a whim, Robert Moor set out to climb a tree near his home--unwittingly embarking on what would become a decade-long, globe-spanning adventure of intellectual and spiritual transformation. Pursuing the hidden wisdom of trees, he scales to the very top of a giant sequoia while filming a nature documentary with David Attenborough; he treks through swamps in Papua to reach a treehouse-dwelling tribe of hunter-gatherers; and he journeys to a remote research camp in Tanzania, where he spends a memorable night sleeping in a chimpanzee nest, seeking to understand our deep evolutionary history. Eventually, having gained a radical new outlook on both our gnarled past and our ever-branching future, he joins an intrepid clan of climate activists risking everything to halt construction of a new oil pipeline and save an ancient forest. Along the way, Moor learns the art of 'tree-thinking,' which, he discovers, has the power to break open some of humanity's oldest questions: What is the secret to truly growing old? How do we set down deeper roots in an increasingly chaotic world? Most importantly, how should we-as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the earth-live? A witty and relentlessly curious excursion through philosophy, history, and science, what begins as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavor to arborize humanity.

The deep sea is one of our last frontiers. For most of human history, it was a vast, dark, and unknown realm that invoked awe and terror. Now, one thing we do know it is that it is critically important and central to the future of life on this planet. In The Dark Frontier, marine microbiologist and deep sea explorer Jeff Marlow offers a new perspective on the power and beauty of the deep sea. Beginning with the nineteenth century "discovery" that the deep sea was, in fact, teeming with life, to more recent investigations into the microbiology of cold seeps and deep sea vents. Throughout, Marlow explores the ocean's scientific marvels: theories about how life began underwater and how it may hold the key to discovering new life to entire ecosystems that formed around sunk whale carcasses. An engaging narrative journey grounded in Marlow's own research, and vast knowledge of this aquatic underworld, The Dark Frontier's revelations into how life can thrive in even the most remote, unforgiving landscapes expand our understanding of what might be possible elsewhere on earth-and beyond. Marlow reflects, too, on the environmental impact of deep-sea mining. Marlow's work is informed by years of researching the deep sea and hundreds of experts: everyone from deep sea researchers to UN delegates. The Dark Frontier captures the awe and potential of the deep sea--teaching us lessons that bring us into the future--not just for the creatures that live there, but for those of us on the surface as well.

Everyday Genius, by six-time USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis, upgrades your everyday life through practical skills, whether it's memorizing names at a new job, doing lightning-fast mental math when it counts, honing decisive intuition, and beyond.

A fresh, charming, socially conscious tour of the mysteries of space-time, from the award-winning author of The Disordered Cosmos. In her highly acclaimed debut, distinguished cosmologist and particle physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shed light on the entrenched injustices plaguing her field, while at the same time sharing with her audience her abiding sense of wonder at the cosmos from a Black feminist perspective. Now, in The Edge of Space-Time, she leans into that wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, inviting us to spend time at the edge of what we know about space-time and about ourselves. Guided by her conviction that science is for everybody, Prescod-Weinstein renders accessible some of the most abstract concepts of theoretical physics and draws on poetry and popular culture--from Queen Latifah to Lewis Carroll to Big K.R.I.T. to Sun Ra and Star Trek--to tell fascinating stories about the fundamental quantum nature of space-time and everything inside of it. Here we meet the quantum cat that is both dead and alive, learn the difference between dark matter and dark energy, explore the inner workings of black holes, investigate the possibility of a unified theory of quantum gravity, and map out the meeting place of the unimaginably vast with the confoundingly small, following our guide out to the far reaches of the particle horizon and down to the tiniest (and queerest) neutrino. Prescod-Weinstein shows us how spending time with the cosmos is a vital human activity that enriches all our lives. Along the way, she calls on us to resist colonial approaches to space exploration and instead imagine a better path forward in our pursuit of humanity's undeniable connection with the stars. Through Prescod-Weinstein's clear-eyed and unique perspective, and informed by her deep knowledge of post-colonial history and Black feminist thought, The Edge of Space-Time argues that physics is an essential way for everyone to look at the universe and presents a compelling case that "the edge" is a powerful vantage point from which to see the big picture.

Tens of billions of birds share the planet with us, an astonishingly diverse array of species that are present nearly everywhere humans call home--and many places we do not. With their flamboyant plumage, joyous dawn serenades, extraordinary aerial feats, they have captivated human imagination for millennia. Undeniably delicate creatures with hollow bones and thin skin protected by downy feathers, how did such a seemingly fragile species break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, how have they survived millennia, and how does their legacy shape our world? Hailed as 'one of the stars of modern paleontology' (National Geographic), Steve Brusatte now tells the extraordinary story of the dinosaurs' living legacy: birds. He begins by exploring how dinosaurs gradually developed the trademark features of birds one-by-one--feathers, wings, beaks, big brains, keen senses, and warm-blooded metabolisms. He investigates why birds where the only dinosaurs to survive the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago and chronicles how these survivors rapidly proliferated to produce the diversity of avian species we know today.

A beloved productivity expert's mind-opening and schedule-expanding guide to making the most of every hour.

We have always looked up at the night sky and wondered. Ever since the ancient Babylonians began to track celestial objects on clay tablets, scientific inquiry has been driven by the innate human desire to understand what is out there, and where we fit into it all. Renowned particle physicist Dr. Sarah Alam Malik, whose research has brought her to the cutting edge of scientific advancement, takes us on a journey through the discoveries that have at once propelled and overturned our perception of the cosmos. From Copernicus launching a helio-centric revolution to Ernest Rutherford uncovering the world inside the atom, to Vera Rubin confirming the existence of dark matter, each generation has built upon, and then upended, the knowledge of those who came before. Even today, as ninety-five percent of the universe remains unknown to us, we cannot help but chase the fundamental truths of our world, as we witness the fiery deaths of faraway suns, probe the nature of dark energy and search for extraterrestrial life in the most unexpected places. Beautifully written and accessible, A Brief History of the Universe (And Our Place in It) is a celebration of our story so far, one of discovery and an endless curiosity that has taken us far beyond the boundaries of the world we know.

A new look at humanity's deep past to show us how our world was built not by inevitability, but by trial and error on a planetary scale. There's a familiar story about us humans: we went from hunting and gathering to farming, wandering bands to villages and cities, clans and chieftains to states and kings. But Lost Worlds offers a new narrative of humanity's deep history. Here beloved podcast host Patrick Wyman focuses on the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age--the period when civilization as we understand it emerged, introducing social hierarchies, urbanism, complex political organizations, and the written word. In this nuanced retelling, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn't always replace foraging, villages didn't automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn't necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised. By the end of the Bronze Age, the world had become unrecognizable: mammoths and giant sloths replaced by cattle and sheep, scattered nomadic bands replaced by millions living in cities, and farming on nearly every continent. Wyman argues that the rise of states and steady food production wasn't inevitable, but rather, the outcome of countless choices that reshaped the planet and made us who we are today.

Recently, it has become increasingly evident that extreme concentrations of wealth and power have profound impacts on our politics, but extreme inequality's influence on our daily lives - and our futures - has been vastly overlooked. In Burned by Billionaires, author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, Chuck Collins chronicles how the actions of the top .01% have severe consequences for the rest of us, especially those of marginalized identities. Collins takes down the 'myth of meritocracy,' unraveling how the rich rig the game in their favor, resulting in a concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny (but growing) class of billionaires - leading to both intense income and political polarization. Collins charts this economic, social, and ecological destruction and shows how these effects manifest in every facet of our society, including: increasing the tax burden on ordinary working people, reducing public funding for schools, roads, and other essential infrastructure, shrinking the pool of affordable housing, especially in poor and urban areas, accelerating climate change and dictating what ends up on our dinner plate, and shaping the news we consume and fueling the spread of misinformation. Collins argues that perhaps, worst of all, the concentration of wealth and power is leading to political hijacking, undermining the democratic principle that our votes matter equally. Full of engrossing charts, graphs, political cartoons, and more, this book is an urgent call-to-action and road map to a more equitable society, where everyone has access to the resources that will allow them to thrive - and one where it is no longer commonplace to live in a constant state of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety Burned by Billionaires offers a pointed prescription for taking power back from the billionaire class and achieving the shared prosperity that comes from a healthy and equal society.

Choose witness over war. The culture war wants us to resent rivals. The culture war wants total allegiance. The culture war want to be the only noise in the room. It's possible to be faithful in the public square without joining the culture war. In fact, there's a model. The Black Church's social action tradition has long rejected the idea that overcoming polarization means moral compromise. Its historic public witness has defied the culture war's demands to trat opponents as enemies. Justin Giboney challenges the assumptions and actions of both Left and Right as he details the motives, principles, and accomplishments of the Black Church social action tradition and how it can inspire the whole church to bear public witness in a distinctly Christian way. Its moral imagination is not for the Black Church alone.

We all know the feeling: that gut-wrenching post-conversation replay, cringing at how much we just revealed. We live in fear of saying too much, so we keep our mouths shut, guard our emotions, and lock away our most personal thoughts. But what if we've been worrying about the wrong thing? A growing body of research shows we vastly underestimate the value of sharing more than we think we should, with our spouses, friends, colleagues, and even strangers. Drawing on over a decade of research and real-life stories, behavioral scientist Leslie John explores why we hesitate to open up, when sharing really does backfire, and how to strike a balance between too much and too little. Learning to be more vulnerable and open at work and at home can unlock some of life's richest rewards: deeper friendships, stronger professional relationships, greater well-being, and, yes, even love. Revealing is a road map for making smarter, bolder, and ultimately more satisfying decisions about just how much you want to share and why.

Connie Converse's recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense. Her music seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana, the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later. And then there was the legend: in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Fishman approaches Converse's story as both a fan and a journalist, and places her in the canon as a significant outsider artist, a missing link between a now old-fashioned kind of American music and the reflective, complex, arresting music that transformed the 1960s and music forever. It is a story that includes suicide, mental illness, cross-country road trips, 1950s Greenwich Village, an America marching into the Cold War, questions about sexuality, and visionary, forward thinking about race, class, and conflict.