In a tempestuous narrative that sweeps across five continents and seven centuries, this book explains how a succession of catastrophes—from the devastating Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050—has produced a relentless succession of rising empires and fading world orders.During the long centuries of Iberian and British imperial rule, the quest for new forms of energy led to the development of the colonial sugar plantation as a uniquely prof...

Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the fourteen-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormity of the numbers almost demands that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials?

Learn to see art as an artist does. As the mysteries of techniques and styles are revealed, viewing paintings and sculptures becomes a more powerfully enriching experience that will stay in your mind long after you’ve left a museum.A visit to a museum can be overwhelming, exhausting, and unrewarding. Lincoln Perry wants to change that. In eleven essays—each framed around a specific theme—he provides new ways of seeing and appreciating art.Perry is a disarmi...

In the spring of 1959, eighteen-year-old Bruce Lee returned to San Francisco, the city of his birth, and quickly inserted himself into the West Coast’s fledgling martial arts culture. Even though Asian fighting styles were widely unknown to mainstream America, Bruce encountered a robust fight culture in a San Francisco Bay area that was populated with talented and trailblazing practitioners such as Lau Bun, Chinatown’s aging kung fu patriarch; Wally Jay, the innovative Hawaiian jujitsu mas...

This gripping memoir by the world’s foremost marine geologist is an enthralling blend of maritime history, popular science, and Clive Cussler–style adventure.David L. Mearns has discovered some of the world’s most fascinating and elusive shipwrecks. From the mighty battleship HMS Hood, sunk in a pyrrhic duel with the Bismarck, to solving the mystery of HMAS Sydney, to the crumbling wooden skeletons of Vasco da Gama’s sixteenth century fleet, Mearns has se...

In his New York Times bestseller Wheat Belly, Dr. William Davis changed the lives of millions of people by teaching them to remove wheat from their diets to reverse years of chronic health damage. Now he goes beyond cutting wheat to help people take charge of their own overall health in Undoctored. Dr. Davis wants the world to understand that conventional medicine is no longer working in our favor. He exposes how millions of people are prescribed unnecessary medi...

A string of bestsellers have alerted us to the importance of grit—an ability to persevere and control one’s impulses that is closely associated with greatness. But no book yet has charted the most accessible and powerful path to grit: our prosocial emotions. These feelings—gratitude, compassion, and pride—are easier to generate than the willpower and self-denial that underpin traditional approaches to grit. And, while willpower is quickly depleted, prosocial emotions actually become strong...

Since Marco Polo, the West has waited for the “Asian Century.” Today, the world believes that century has arrived. Yet from China’s slumping economy to war clouds over the South China Sea and from environmental devastation to demographic crisis, Asia’s future is increasingly uncertain.Historian and geopolitical expert Michael Auslin argues that far from being a cohesive powerhouse, Asia is a fractured region threatened by stagnation and instability. Here he provides a comprehensive...

The “riveting” (Al Michaels) story of a modern NFL that can’t get out of its own way—and can’t stop making moneyIn recent decades, the NFL has simultaneously become an athletic, financial, and cultural powerhouse—and a League that can’t seem to go more than a few weeks without a scandal. Whether it’s about domestic violence, performance-enhancing drugs, racism, or head trauma, the NFL always seems to be in some kind of trouble. Yet no matter the drama, the TV netwo...

A new edition based on the timeless business classic—updated to help today’s readers succeed more quickly in a rapidly changing world.For decades, The One Minute Manager® has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book’s publication. The exponential rise of technology, global flattening of markets, instant communication, and pressures on corporate wo...

After focusing on topics ranging from teamwork and leadership to employee engagement and meetings New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni has finally turned his attention toward his own craft—consulting and client service. Tapping into the simple but powerful model that his firm, The Table Group, has been built on, Lencioni presents what may be his most engaging, humorous audiobook yet.Getting Naked tells the remarkable story of a management consultant...

Ram Dass’s long-awaited Be Love Now is the transformational teaching of a forty year journey to the heart. The author of the two-million-copy classic Remember, Be Here Now and its influential sequel Still Here, Dass is joined once more by Rameshwar Das—a collaborator from the Love Serve Remember audio recordings—to offer this intimate and inspiring exploration of the human soul. Like Deepak Chopra’s Book of Secrets, the Dalai Lama’s Art of H...