In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argues that Americans have become disconnected from one another and from the institutions of their common life, and investigates the consequences of this change. ¶Looking at a range of indicators, from membership in formal organizations to the number of invitations being extended to informal dinner parties, Putnam demonstrates that Americans are interacting less and creating less “social capital” with potentially disastrous implications for their society. ¶I...

"The Shadow Over Redwood" delves into the heart of an ancient forest where darkness lurks beneath the towering canopy of redwoods. Lydia Marsh, a determined academic, stumbles upon a mysterious tome that reveals the existence of a secret society and an age-old ritual linked to the university's founding. As supernatural disturbances unsettle the campus, Lydia, alongside her allies Dr. Julian Blackwood and Cassandra Vale, embarks on a perilous quest to uncover the truth. They must navigate a...

In "The Lighthouse Keeper's Curse," a gripping tale unfolds around an ancient curse binding a remote island's fate to its lighthouse. Sam Jennings, seeking solace from his past, becomes the new keeper, only to find himself entangled in a centuries-old mystery alongside historian Eleanor Gray and seasoned mariner Captain Harris. Together, they embark on a quest to unravel the curse's origins, involving shipwrecks, ghostly apparitions, and a pact made with the sea. As they delve deeper, they...

Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840, challenged conventional thinking about democracy when it first appeared and is still cited today for its in-depth analysis of what makes a successful democracy. ¶ Having witnessed negative effects of democratic revolutions in his native France, Tocqueville visited America in 1831 to see how a democracy could avoid having its citizens become too dependent on the state or developing a “The Tyranny of the Majority” effectively silencing the vo...

Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1838 Democracy in America is a classic of political theory – and of the problem-solving skills central to putting forward political ideas.Problem-solving has several aspects: identifying problems, finding methodologies to deal with them, and applying the right criteria to work out how to solve them. Indeed, offering solutions is only the last stage in a developed process of problem solving. For Tocqueville, the problem at hand was how best to run a ...

American political scientist Robert Putnam wasn’t the first person to recognize that social capital – the relationships between people that allow communities to function well – is the grease that oils the wheels of society. But by publishing Bowling Alone, he moved the debate from one primarily concerned with family and individual relationships one that studied the social capital generated by people’s engagement with the civic life.Putnam drew heavily on the critical think...

Chilling surprises await a grad student when she visits her family's secluded estate in this classic gothic mystery by a New York Times–bestselling author.Laurie has finally returned to Idlewood, the beloved family home deep in the Maryland woods where she found comfort and peace as a lonely young girl. But things are very different now. There is no peace in Idlewood. The haunting sound of a distant piping breaks the stillness of a snowy winter's evening. S...

The New York Times bestselling “Grande Dame of historical mystery” (Washington Post) returns with another thrilling tale of mystery,As the l921-22 season begins, the Emersons are enjoying a busy period of excavation in Egypt, when they hear a lurid description of a man’s mysterious death. His widow is convinced he died of a curse, and implores the Emersons to return the “deadly” little statue that killed him to the tomb from which it was stolen--before it adds her to its list of vi...

A woman returns to Egypt to clear her archaeologist father's name in this mystery by the New York Times–bestselling author of the Amelia Peabody series.Althea Tomlinson's ostensible reason for returning to Egypt is to chaperone a spoiled teenager through this fabulous desert land. The truth is more complex—and dangerous. Ten years ago, something that happened here brought about her archaeologist father's ruin and subsequent death. . . . and Althea intends ...

A renowned historian's temporary assistant gets wrapped up in a madcap international mystery in this "tongue-in-cheek charmer" ( Kirkus).A strange twist of fate at the Copenhagen Airport brings Elizabeth Jones face to face with her idol, the brilliant, eccentric historian Margaret Rosenberg. An even stranger accident makes Elizabeth the esteemed scholar's new private assistant. But luck can go from good to bad in an instant—and less than twenty-four hours l...