Basic Books: 1466 books
Just Six Numbers
The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe
Language: English
Release Date: August 4, 2008
The genesis of the universe elegantly explained in a simple theory based on just six numbers by one of the world's most renowned astrophysicists
by Leszek Kolakowski
Language: English
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Language: English
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Do we have free will?
How can we know anything?
What is justice?
Why is there evil in the world?
What is the source of truth?
Is it possible for God not to exist?
Can we really believe what we see?
These are some of the questions that have intrigued the world's greatest thinkers over the ages....
Sin Boldly!
Dr. Dave's Guide To Writing The College Paper
Language: English
Release Date: April 28, 2009
Cheeky, original, and decidedly practical to boot, Sin Boldly! is unlike any other writing handbook available. Jammed with sage advice, genuine encouragement, and surprising examples (of how to write and how not to write), this book gives beginning writers and confident students alike an easy-to-follow...
Male on Male Rape
The Hidden Toll of Stigma and Shame
Language: English
Release Date: January 7, 2008
A groundbreaking examination of a vastly unrecognized though widely prevalent form of violence. Male on Male Rape shatters the silence and offers concrete strategies for prevention and recovery.
Open Heart
A Cardiac Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table
Language: English
Release Date: June 20, 2017
In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death
When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined...
The Annotated Flatland
A Romance of Many Dimensions
Language: English
Release Date: July 31, 2008
Flatland is a unique, delightful satire that has charmed readers for over a century. Published in 1884 by the English clergyman and headmaster Edwin A. Abbott, it is the fanciful tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions,...
City of Light
The Making of Modern Paris
Language: English
Release Date: October 9, 2018
A sparkling account of the nineteenth-century reinvention of Paris as the most beautiful, exciting city in the world
In 1853, French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works in Paris, directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann...
Shadow Warrior
William Egan Colby and the CIA
Language: English
Release Date: April 9, 2013
World War II commando, Cold War spy, and CIA director under presidents Nixon and Ford, William Egan Colby played a critical role in some of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century. A quintessential member of the greatest generation, Colby embodied the moral and strategic ambiguities of the...
Darwin's Devices
What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology
Language: English
Release Date: April 3, 2012
What happens when we let robots play the game of life?
The challenge of studying evolution is that the history of life is buried in the past—we can’t witness the dramatic events that shaped the adaptations we see today. But biorobotics expert John Long has found an ingenious way to overcome...
Hundred Days
The Campaign That Ended World War I
Language: English
Release Date: January 28, 2014
In the late summer of 1918, after four long years of senseless, stagnant fighting, the Western Front erupted. The bitter four-month struggle that ensued-known as the Hundred Days Campaign-saw some of the bloodiest and most ferocious combat of the Great War, as the Allies grimly worked to break the...
How We Talk
The Inner Workings of Conversation
Language: English
Release Date: November 14, 2017
An expert guide to how conversation works, from how we know when to speak to why huh is a universal word
We all had teachers who scolded us over the use of um, uh-huh, oh, like, and mm-hmm. But as linguist N. J. Enfield reveals in How We Talk, these "bad words" are fundamental to...
Stand by Me
The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation
Language: English
Release Date: March 1, 2016
From a prominent young historian, the untold story of the rich variety of gay life in America in the 1970s
Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started...
By the Rivers of Water
A Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey
Language: English
Release Date: October 8, 2013
In late 1832, a young missionary couple sailed from the Chesapeake Bay, headed for western Africa. John Leighton Wilson and his wife, Jane, were traveling to the colony of Liberia, where they-and their fellow passengers, mostly liberated slaves and freeborn African Americans-hoped to find an alternative...
Battle
A History Of Combat And Culture
Language: English
Release Date: April 24, 2009
Battle: A History of Combat and Culture spans the globe and the centuries to explore the way ideas shape the conduct of warfare. Drawing its examples from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and America, John A. Lynn challenges the belief that technology has been the dominant influence...