Basic Books: 1466 books
1812
The Navy's War
Language: English
Release Date: October 4, 2011
At the outbreak of the War of 1812, America's prospects looked dismal. It was clear that the primary battlefield would be the open ocean-but America's war fleet, only twenty ships strong, faced a practiced British navy of more than a thousand men-of-war. Still, through a combination of nautical deftness...
Origins
How Earth's History Shaped Human History
Language: English
Release Date: May 14, 2019
A New York Times-bestselling author explains how the physical world shaped the history of our species
When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes...
Knowing the Score
What Sports Can Teach Us About Philosophy (And What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Sports)
Language: English
Release Date: May 2, 2017
In Knowing the Score, philosopher David Papineau uses sports to illuminate some of modern philosophy's most perplexing questions. As Papineau demonstrates, the study of sports clarifies, challenges, and sometimes confuses crucial issues in philosophy. The tactics of road bicycle racing shed new light...
A Mood Apart
Depression, Mania, and Other Afflictions of the Self
Language: English
Release Date: May 12, 2015
When first published in 1997 this groundbreaking work on the science of mood both redefined the field and-with compassion, understanding, and scientific rigor-made it accessible to those who would most benefit from the latest findings. Now, Peter Whybrow, one of the world's most distinguished psychiatrists,...
The Accursed Tower
The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades
Language: English
Release Date: November 5, 2019
**From a New York Times-bestselling author, a stirring account of the siege of Acre in 1291, when the last Christian stronghold fell to the Muslim army
The 1291 siege of Acre was the Alamo of the Christian Crusades -- the final bloody battle for the Holy Land. After a desperate six weeks, the...
The Rise of Andrew Jackson
Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics
Language: English
Release Date: October 23, 2018
The story of Andrew Jackson's improbable ascent to the White House, centered on the handlers and propagandists who made it possible
Andrew Jackson was volatile and prone to violence, and well into his forties his sole claim on the public's affections derived from his victory in a thirty-minute...
The Island of Knowledge
The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning
Language: English
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Why discovering the limits to science may be the most powerful discovery of all
How much can we know about the world? In this book, physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and...
Patterns In The Mind
Language And Human Nature
Language: English
Release Date: August 4, 2008
What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can speak and understand a language? Why can't other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human abilities? Recent dramatic discoveries in linguistics and psychology provide intriguing answers to these...
The Tell
The Little Clues That Reveal Big Truths about Who We Are
Language: English
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Every day we make predictions based on limited information, in business and at home. Will this company's stock performance continue? Will the job candidate I just interviewed be a good employee? What kind of adult will my child grow up to be? We tend to dismiss our predictive minds as prone to bias...
by James Wilson
Language: English
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: May 14, 2013
As crime rates inexorably rose during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, disputes over how to handle the violence sweeping the nation quickly escalated. James Q. Wilson redefined the public debate by offering a brilliant and provocative new argument-that criminal activity is largely rational and shaped...
by Ernst Mayr
Language: English
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Language: English
Release Date: March 18, 2008
At once a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader, What Evolution Is poses the questions at the heart of evolutionary theory and considers how our improved understanding of evolution has affected the viewpoints and values of modern man.Science Masters Series
Liberty of Conscience
In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality
Language: English
Release Date: February 5, 2008
The respect for religious difference has formed the bedrock of our nation and made equality possible. Yet today we are told that moral values”-code for a government shaped by religious concerns-must be the keystone of our social compact.
A rich and compelling chronicle of an essential idea,...
by Allan Bloom
Language: English
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: November 22, 2016
The definitive translation of Plato's Republic, the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy
Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato's Republic that has yet been published, this widely acclaimed translation by Allan Bloom was the first to take a strictly literal...
The Equations of Life
How Physics Shapes Evolution
Language: English
Release Date: June 19, 2018
A groundbreaking argument for why alien life will evolve to be much like life here on Earth
We are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In...