Eating the flesh of an Egyptian mummy prevents the plague. Distilled poppies reduce melancholy. A Turkish drink called coffee increases alertness. Tobacco cures cancer. Such beliefs circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era when the term "drug" encompassed everything from herbs and spices—like nutmeg, cinnamon, and chamomile—to such deadly poisons as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs w...

Eating the flesh of an Egyptian mummy prevents the plague. Distilled poppies reduce melancholy. A Turkish drink called coffee increases alertness. Tobacco cures cancer. Such beliefs circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era when the term "drug" encompassed everything from herbs and spices—like nutmeg, cinnamon, and chamomile—to such deadly poisons as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs w...

**A Los Angeles Times BestsellerOne of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley."Brilliant and original."―Charles King, author of Gods of the Upper Air and Midnight at the Pera Palace**"It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the...

Eating the flesh of an Egyptian mummy prevents the plague. Distilled poppies reduce melancholy. A Turkish drink called coffee increases alertness. Tobacco cures cancer. Such beliefs circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an era when the term "drug" encompassed everything from herbs and spices—like nutmeg, cinnamon, and chamomile—to such deadly poisons as lead, mercury, and arsenic. In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs w...

**A Los Angeles Times BestsellerOne of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley."Brilliant and original."―Charles King, author of Gods of the Upper Air and Midnight at the Pera Palace**"It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the...

You’ve heard of IQ and EQ. But in today's world, they’re no longer enough. We need the Agility Quotient (AQ).“Holistic, practical, and easy to digest (without feeling corporate). If you’re looking for a quick, yet addictive read about how to manage uncertainty, this is one of those books that will make you feel a little more steady.”—theSkimmIn a time defined by nonstop disruptions, when jobs vanish overnight, industries evolve in ...

Discover the magic of retreating, wherever you are and however much time you have.What comes into your mind when you hear the word "retreat"? Meditation at a mountain monastery? A trip to far-flung places? The centuries-old practice of retreating is rooted in a person's inner life and belongs to everyone. This book offers you the wisdom and practical steps to retreat wherever you are, whether it’s for a long weekend, a day—or even an hour.Using the seasons ...

**This program is read by an AI-based synthesized voice.An authoritative history of the energy crises of the 1970s and the world they wrought**In 1973, the Arab OPEC cartel banned the export of oil to the United States, sending prices and tempers rising across the country. Dark Christmas trees, lowered thermostats, empty gas tanks, and the new fifty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit all suggested that America was a nation in decline. “Don’t be fuelish” became the national mott...

From Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, comes an eye-opening story about the first major spousal rape trial in America and urgent questions it raised about women’s rights that would reverberate for decades.In 1978, Greta Rideout was the first woman in United States history to accuse her husband of rape, at a time when the idea of “marital rape” seemed ludicrous to many Americans and was a crime in only four states. After a qui...

How the world’s oldest asset secretly shapes our modern economyIn The Land Trap, Mike Bird—Wall Street editor at The Economist—reveals how this ancient asset still exerts outsize influence over the modern world. From the speculative land grabs of colonial America to China's real estate crisis today, Bird shows how fortunes are built—and destroyed—on the bedrock of land.Tracing three centuries of history, Bird explores how land quietly beca...

This groundbreaking book tracks the massive wealth amassed from slavery from pre-Civil War to today, showing how our modern economy was built on the backs of enslaved Black people—and lays out a clear argument for reparations that shows exactly what was stolen, who stole it, and to whom it is owed.In this timely, powerful, investigative history, The Stolen Wealth of Slavery, Emmy Award-nominated journalist David Montero follows the trail of the massive wea...

“McDowell’s gorgeous book opens an ivy-covered door to new information about one of the world’s most famous authors.”—Angelica Shirley Carpenter, editor of In the GardenNew York Times bestselling author Marta McDowell has revealed the way that plants have stirred some of our most cherished authors, including Beatrix Potter, Emily Dickinson, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. In her latest, she shares a moving account of how gardening deeply inspired France...