A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracyIt is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy ...

A Modern Legal Ethics proposes a wholesale renovation of legal ethics, one that contributes to ethical thought generally.Daniel Markovits reinterprets the positive law governing lawyers to identify fidelity as its organizing ideal. Unlike ordinary loyalty, fidelity requires lawyers to repress their personal judgments concerning the truth and justice of their clients' claims. Next, the book asks what it is like--not psychologically but ethically--to practice law subject to ...

A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracyIt is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy ...

The 1979 Islamic Revolution triggered a cold war between Iran and the United States—former fast friends. Despite the US's relentless efforts at containment, Iran has risen as a formidable power in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza. Its newfound status not only frustrates the US but has swiftly become a thorn in the side of Israel and Saudi Arabia. How did Iran rise so rapidly? And as it faces ever increasing pressure at home and abroad, can it hold onto its power? Mohsen Milani guides ...

Late one July night in 2020, armed men, identified only by the word POLICE written across their uniforms, began snatching supporters of Black Lives Matter off the street in Portland, Oregon, and placing them in unmarked vans. These mysterious actions were not carried out by local law enforcement or even right-wing terrorists, but by the US Border Patrol. Why was the Border Patrol operating so far from the boundaries of the United States? What were they doing at a protest that had nothing t...

An unsparing, incisive, yet ultimately hopeful look at how we can shed the American obsession with self-reliance that has made us less healthy, less secure, and less fulfilledThe promise that you can “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is central to the story of the American Dream. It’s the belief that if you work hard and rely on your own resources, you will eventually succeed. However, time and again we have seen how this foundational myth, with its emphasis on...

**AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • This fascinating deep dive into one of the most powerful and least understood American institutions—the Federal Reserve—is “a riveting narrative...[and] an invaluable guide to the monetary policy debates of the last few years" (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lords of Finance).“The best book on the Fed in our time and a model of financial writing.” –Kirkus**The marble halls of the Federal Reserve have alway...

"People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one, at least in recent years, has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does in 'Let the People Pick the President.'" -- The New York Times Book ReviewThis program is read by the authorThe framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions...

**A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2024“An eye-opening analysis of why our politics have become so polarized….Keith Payne illuminates one of the biggest problems of our time and lights the way toward some promising solutions.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again"Good Reasonable People challenges each of us to drop the weapon of demonization and replace it with something more powerful: a framework f...

Our idea of the Founders’ America and its values is not true. We are not the heirs of the Founders, but we can be the heirs of Reconstruction and its vision for equality.There’s a common story we tell about America: that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law in the Constitution. But, with the country increasingly divided, this story isn’t working for us anymore—what’s more, it’...

A rallying cry for a more just approach to the law that bolsters social justice movements by throwing out originalism—the theory that judges should interpret the Constitution exactly as conservatives say the Founders meant it“The greatest trick conservatives ever pulled was convincing the world that originalism exists. This book is vital for understanding why the world sucks right now.”—Elie Mystal, author of Allow Me to RetortTher...

A timely examination by a leading scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequalityToday’s inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. In The Broken Ladder psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically, but also has profound consequences for how we think, how our cardiovascular systems re...