This acclaimed biography of the Gilded Age's Queen of Wall Street is "a must-read for all aspiring moguls" (Regina Herzlinger, Harvard Business School).When J. P. Morgan called a meeting of New York's financial leaders after the stock market crash of 1907, Hetty Green was the only woman in the room. The Guinness Book of World Records memorialized her as the World's Greatest Miser, and, indeed, this unlikely robber baron—who parlayed a comfortable inheritan...

"Slack engagingly reveals how the Federalist attack on the First Amendment almost brought down the Republic . . . An illuminating book of American history." — Kirkus Reviews , starred reviewIn 1798, with the United States in crisis, President John Adams and the Federalists in control of Congress passed an extreme piece of legislation that made criticism of the government and its leaders a crime punishable by heavy fines an...

Gain the competitive edge by conducting a valuation of your company every year―quickly, accurately, and inexpensivelyBusiness leaders who know their company’s value at any given moment are more likely to seize the competitive edge―especially these days, when adding digital capabilities can dramatically affect value. But most businesses drop the ball because traditional valuation is complex, time-consuming, and expensive.Not anymore. Reed Phillips, Chairman ...

“Wonderfully detailed....Today’s vilified moguls look like pussycats compared with Hetty.” —ForbesA biography of the “Witch of Wall Street,” who amassed a fortune of $100 million before women had the right to voteA full century before Oprah and Martha Stewart became icons of female entrepreneurship, there was Hetty Green, America’s richest woman, who stood alone among the roguish giants of the Gilded Age. The Guinness Book of W...

The acclaimed social historian provides an in-depth look at eight society women who shaped upper class culture from the Gilded Age to WWII.Astor. Rockefeller. McCormick. Belmont. Family names that still adorn buildings, streets, and charity foundations. While their men blazed across America with their oil, industry, and railways, the matriarchs founded art museums, opera houses, and symphonies that functioned almost as private clubs. Linked by money, marriage, privi...

An in-the-room account of John Colt's scandalous nineteenth-century murder trial from "America's principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers" ( Boston Review).In this masterful account, renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes you into the life and crimes of convicted murderer John Caldwell Colt, drawing parallels between John's rise to notoriety and his brother Samuel Colt's rise to fame as the inventor of the legendary revolver. ...

The thinkers who built the Western mind—and still shape your own.This is the best book on philosophy I have ever read. —Philip van Heusen for Readers' FavoriteThree men. Three rival visions of reality. And together, the hidden framework behind how you think about truth, morality, happiness, and meaning.Much of Western philosophy can be traced back to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—figures whose ideas continue to shape not o...

How, over the course of five centuries, one particular god and one particular Christianity came to dominate late Roman imperial politics and pietyThe ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Chris...

Meet the overlooked women in history who loved, nurtured, and defended the famed American scientist and founding father.“ . . . highlights a side of Ben Franklin too often ignored by historians . . . and provides a necessary reminder that the women who came into his life are as deserving of our attention as Ben himself.” —Carol Berkin, author of Revolutionary MothersEveryone knows Benjamin Franklin—the thrifty inventor-statesman of...

"In his moving memoir, John Cotter anticipates a world without sound . . . a compelling portrait of how deafness isolates people." — The Washington PostJohn Cotter was thirty years old when he first began to notice a ringing in his ears. Soon the ringing became a roar inside his head. Next came partial deafness, then dizziness and vertigo that rendered him unable to walk, work, sleep, or even communicate. At a stage of life when he expected to be emerging f...

The story of the iconic Anheuser-Busch dynasty, written—for the first time—by a Busch heir.As an heir to the Anheuser-Busch company and fortune, Billy Busch was raised on the real stories of how his family built one of America’s oldest and most iconic brands. Since the company was formed almost 150 years ago, the Busch family, their beer, the famous Clydesdales in their advertising, and even their style of business have become a symbol of the American dream—that no...

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up meets Nudge in this irresistible design method from Japan.We are living in a time when behavioral change is necessary for our health and survival. Yet we find it exceedingly difficult to transform our own habits, let alone those of other people. Enter Naohiro Matsumura, whose powerful new design method is as astonishingly simple in its logic as it is sophisticated in its psychology. It allows any of us—from UX...