Telecommunications networks are vast, intricate, hugely costly systems for exchanging messages and information—within cities and across continents. From the Post Office and the telegraph to today's internet, these networks have sown domestic division while also acting as sources of international power.In Crossed Wires, Dan Schiller, who has conducted archival research on United States telecommunications for more than forty years, recovers the extraordinary social history o...

Why Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, and other slow-food-loving locavores are wrong about food in America—and why Waffle House can save us allThe food industry is a major driver of climate change, pollution, obesity, animal suffering, and workplace exploitation. Many food writers blame the industrial food system and tell individual eaters to fix these problems by buying local, artisanal food from small farmers—a solution most Americans can't afford. But, as food poli...

This engaging book by Jeff Rauseo blends film history with a modern guide to streaming, helping you navigate the complex history of movie making and ultimately how to know what to watch in the vast ocean of content. From the golden age of Hollywood to the best new movies to stream, Rauseo breaks down the ever-evolving movie watching experience to help us understand the good, the bad, and the ugly of streaming.Ever feel overwhelmed by endless streaming choices? Jeff Rauseo's Los...

A must-listen guide to all the adult stuff you're expected to know (but that nobody ever explains).Do you ever feel like you missed the day in school when they taught you . . . literally everything you were going to need for a successful adulthood? How do you iron clothes? Where do friends come from? Why are there so many types of insurance? Does everyone else already know this stuff, and where did they learn it?Well, you don't have to flail around anymore,...

We all know the importance of mothers. They are typically as paramount in the wild as they are in human relationships. But what about fathers? In most mammals, fathers have little to no involvement in raising their offspring—and sometimes even kill the offspring sired by other fathers. How, then, can we explain modern fathers having the capacity to be highly engaged parents? In Father Nature, James Rilling explores how humans have evolved to endow modern fathers with this potentia...

Perhaps no other single day in United States history was as threatening to the survival of the nation as August 24, 1814, when British forces captured Washington, DC. This unique moment might have significantly altered the nation's path forward, but the event and the reasons why it happened are little remembered by most Americans.When Washington Burned narrates and examines the British campaign and American missteps that led to the fall of Washington during the War of 1812...

How the Republican Party transformed from the Party of Lincoln to the Party of LeeThe Republican House Divided is the first comprehensive study of the relationships between the Republican Party and Civil War memory in the twentieth century. Tim Galsworthy reveals how rival Republicans deployed Civil War memory to support, oppose, and ultimately shape the GOP's transformation, during the civil rights era, into a racially conservative party. Drawing on exten...

The illicit global economy encompasses cross-border flows of goods, people, money, and information unauthorized by either the sending or receiving country. Typically, this means flows that are prohibited, regulated, stolen, or counterfeit. Some of these flows are obscure or mostly a law enforcement nuisance, but others receive enormous policy and media attention. Still others have severe environmental impacts and security implications. Collectively, these flows reflect the illicit side of ...

A pioneering scientist presents a mind-expanding account of the sociogenomics revolution, which promises to upend everything we know about human development.Sociogenomics brings together advances in molecular genetics and traditional social and behavioral science. The key tool is the polygenic index, which allows us to analyze DNA to measure a child's genetic potential. Today, we can estimate a child's adult height, how far they will go in school, and their weight ...

Fight for the Final Frontier uses the concepts associated with irregular warfare to offer new insights for understanding the nature of strategic competition in space. Today's most pressing security concerns are best considered using an irregular warfare lens because incidents and points of potential conflict fall outside the definition of armed conflict. While some universal rules of combat apply across all domains, conflict in space up-ends those assumed standards of understandin...

Kiawah Island, located on the picturesque South Carolina coast in the heart of the Lowcountry, has a well-deserved reputation as a world-renowned destination. With its pristine beaches, award-winning golf courses and spectacular resort, Kiawah beckons to thousands of visitors from across the globe each year. Kiawah's charm, however, goes far beyond its breathtaking natural beauty and vaunted destination status. Unknown to many, the history of this beloved sea island is as captivating as it...

For almost four decades, the United States has tried to stop North Korea's attempts to build nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. Joel S. Wit, a former State Department official, takes listeners to the front lines of nuclear negotiations and to fierce policy debates and secret diplomatic gambits, recounting how perilously close the United States and North Korea have come, on various occasions, to nuclear confrontation. Based on more than three hundred interviews with officials...