Why do doctors, army generals, high-ranking government officials, and other people in positions of power make bad decisions that cause harm to others? On the other hand, why do people insist on sitting through an awful play or film just because the tickets were expensive?Irrational beliefs and behaviour are virtually universal. It is not only gamblers and parapsychologists that fall into simple statistical traps to do with sample sizes or simple assumptions, but experts of all type...

The so-called Seven Weeks' War of 1866 between Prussia and Italy and Austria was notable not only for its effect on future German history but also because it was the last time the armies of the smaller German states fought as independent contingents. Forces from 30 smaller states were involved and they were either of some strength or barely able to guard their rulers' palaces. They have largely been ignored in standard histories and this book attempts to begin to redress that imbalance by ...

Stuart Sutherland’s work is the first modern bibliography in English of the Seven Weeks’ War of 1866. It includes books in English French German and Italian and is subdivided into sections on general histories particular campaigns and battles (Hanoverian Bohemian-Moravian Italian southern German and naval) biographies journals and reminiscences by participants and state organizational and regimental histories the last divided by arm of service. Many rare works are covered and there are edi...

This acclaimed account by Stuart Sutherland, the best-selling author of Irrationality, of his own manic depression remains unique in its honesty and perception. As an eminent psychologist who suffered a severe mental breakdown, Sutherland provides us with an original and insightful description of his illness, its often bizarre consequences, and an analysis of the origins of mental illness. Essential reading for students and anyone affected by or interested in mental illness, Sutherland des...

First published in 1962. This volume is a collection of the papers from the Mercantile College that preserved as examples of the 'accounts of many distinguished and eminent merchants deceased ... who trod the Royal Exchange with supreme credit and dignity'. They bring together the commercial pride which was reached in the eighteenth century, before the challenge of industry and an economic interpretation based on its predominance brought its sobering influence to bear on 'the great mercant...

We all feel uncomfortable about the role of profit in healthcare, we all have a vague notion that the global $600bn pharmaceutical industry is somehow evil and untrustworthy, but that sense rarely goes beyond a flaky, undifferentiated new age worldview. Bad Pharma puts real flesh on those bones, revealing the rigged evidence used by drug companies. Bad information means bad treatment decisions, which means patients suffer and die: there is no climactic moment of villainy, but drug...

Our investments are devastated, obesity is epidemic, test scores are in decline, blue-chip companies circle the drain, and popular medications turn out to be ineffective and even dangerous. What happened? Didn't we listen to the scientists, economists and other experts who promised us that if we followed their advice all would be well?Actually, those experts are a big reason we're in this mess. And, according to acclaimed business and science writer David H. Freedman, such expert co...

The uncompromising Nick Cohen exposes the reality behind the freedoms we enjoy in the book that won Polemic of the Year at the 2013 Political Book Awards.After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communism, and the advent of the Web which allowed for even the smallest voice to be heard, everywhere you turned you were told that we were living in an age of unparalleled freedom.‘You Can't Read This Book’ argues that this view is dangerously naive. From the revolution ...

The end of the world is not nigh. The idea that we are one step from calamity is as old as history itself. Every step on the road of progress has always been countered by those who think that we should keep to a primitive lifestyle that they claim is compatible with nature. But despite the fact that they've been proved wrong, the pessimists are undeterred by their abysmal record. They continue to echo a deep-seated fear that unless we repent and change the way we live, we will be instrumen...

“YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE” is a common refrain in the emails Walter Lewin receives daily from fans who have been enthralled by his world-famous video lectures about the wonders of physics. “I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics-colored eyes,” wrote one such fan. When Lewin’s lectures were made available online, he became an instant YouTube celebrity, and The New York Times declared, “Walter Lewin delivers his lectures with the pana...

The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Together, they explain virtually everything about the world we live in. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven't the slightest clue what either is about.Did you know that there's so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or that you grow old more quickly on the top floor of a buildi...