**A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice“Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker**The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern worldCoffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highla...

**A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice“Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker**The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern worldCoffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highla...

**“Superbly intelligent…[a] rewarding Sapiens-style big history.” —The Times (London)A bold and original history of the invention and transformation of masculinity’s most important institution, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary “crisis of men”, told through a collective portrait of emblematic fathers who have helped to define our fundamental ideas of familial love, political power, and what it means to be a man.**What makes a father? At least since t...

The story of the greatest of all philosophical friendships—and how it influenced modern thoughtDavid Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as "the Great Infidel" for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two...

You’re not imagining it: Women aren’t getting a good deal at home or at work. We have the evidence to prove it. This audiobook gives you the power to change it.For women in America today, the promise of “having it all” is an ever-elusive carrot. Faced with unsustainable demands in every sphere, we are certainly doing it all—but at a steep cost. Research shows that biologically, culturally, and economically, we are on uneven playing ground, and one that dra...

In the tradition of Why Nations Fail, this book solves one of the great puzzles of history: Why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world?Western exceptionalism—the idea that European civilizations are freer, wealthier, and less violent—is a widespread and powerful political idea. It has been a source of peace and prosperity in some societies, and of ethnic cleansing and havoc in others.Yet in The Invention of Power, ...

**Named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker“Excellent and timely.” —The New Yorker“Informative, insightful and provocative, On Antisemitism couldn’t be more timely.” —The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“An immense contribution. . . . In tracing the evolving meaning of ‘antisemitism,’ [Mazower] demonstrates persuasively how we might turn it from a weapon back into a word. . . . Rigorous and lucid.” —The New RepublicFrom ...

A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.Some of engineering's mightiest achievements are small in scale, even hidden—and yet, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.From ...

A rousing defense of public education as the cornerstone of American democracy, by the woman attacked by the far right as “the most dangerous person in the world”Attacks on schools and teachers have long been a hallmark of fascist regimes: Throughout history, as many dictators rose to power they began banning books and controlling curriculum. Fascists fear teachers because teachers foster an educated and empowered population that can see past propaganda and scare t...

An illuminating account of a lone wolf journeying across the Alps into Italy, and what the resurgence of wolves says about our connection to nature, immigration, and one another—from an award-winning journalist.“Lone Wolf is a deeply fascinating story, grippingly told.”—Robert Macfarlane, New York Times bestselling author of UnderlandFINALIST FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZEIn 2011, a lone wo...

What if everything you thought you knew about yourself was an illusion?For more than twenty years, University of Chicago professor J. Eric Oliver has taught a legendary course—The Intelligible Self—that students routinely describe as life–changing. Now, in How to Know Your Self, he brings the best of that classroom experience to readers everywhere, guiding us through the most profound and meaningful journey of all: understanding who we really are.W...

New York Times bestselling author and co-founder/CEO of The Modern Elder Academy inspires readers to embrace midlife as a time of joy in this life-changing book.“A clear blueprint for creating the lives we want.” —Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness ProjectThe midlife crisis is the butt of so many jokes, but this lon...