Politics & Social Sciences

Life on Our Planet Today there are 20 million species on our planet. Yet what we see is just a snapshot in time. 99% of Earth's inhabitants are lost to our deep past. The story of what happened to these lineages - their rise and their fall - is truly remarkable. Accompanying the...

Before the Big Bang 'Fascinating'  ROGER PENROSE, Nobel laureate 'What if our universe is but an infinitesimal fragment of reality? What would this "multiverse" be like? There is no better guide to the bizarre, and sometimes paradoxical, cosmic super-realm than Laura Mersini-Houghton'...

The Big Fail In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic made it painfully clear that governments across the world could not adequately protect their citizens. Millions of people suffered and died in just two years, while administrations around the globe blundered; prize-winning economists overlooked...

Why Politics Fails Politics is failing us. This is why. 'Brilliant . . . a must-read'  Daron Acemoglu, co-author of  Why Nations Fail When it comes to politics, there are five goals that voters generally agree upon. We all want a say in how we're governed, to be treated equally, a...

How to Write Short In  How to Write Short , Roy Peter Clark turns his attention to the art of painting a thousand pictures with just a few words. Short forms of writing have always existed-from ship logs and telegrams to prayers and haikus. But in this ever-changing Internet age,...

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe  It is intimidating to realize that we live in a world overflowing with misinformation, bias, myths, deception, and flawed knowledge. There really are no ultimate authority figures-no one has the secret, and there is no place to look up the definitive...

Utopia for Realists "A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell." --  New York Times After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way -- and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED...

The Art of Statistics The age of big data has made statistical literacy more important than ever. In  The Art of Statistics , David Spiegelhalter shows how to apply statistical reasoning to real-world problems. Whether we're analyzing preventative medical screening or the terrible crime...

Poor Economics Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based on years of field research from...

The Secret Language of Flowers  Discover the uses and symbolic meanings of flowers over the centuries and across the globe. Flowers have been depicted as objects of beauty and wonder in countless paintings and poems, exchanged as tokens of love and affection, and displayed as symbols...

Little Genius Dinosaurs  Little Genius . . . where curious kids can learn and laugh while being captivated by the world around them. Spiky tail and plated back, Stegosaurus is no one’s snack. Moving slowly on its feet, this herbivore likes plants to eat. A child’s fascination with...

The Great Philosophers: Aristotle

The Great Philosophers: Plato 'Courage is knowing what not to fear' Plato 'One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors' Without the work of Plato, western thought is, quite literally, unthinkable. No single...

The New Silk Roads From the internationally bestselling author of  The Silk Roads:  everything you need to know about the present and future of the world 'Masterly mapping out of a new world order'  Evening Standard 'Frankopan is a brilliant guide to terra incognita'  The...

From Nobel laureate, world-renowned doctor, and noted human rights activist Dr. Denis Mukwege comes an inspiring clarion call-to-action to confront the scourge of sexual violence and better learn from women's resilience, strength, and power. At the heart of Dr. Mukwege’s message will be...