History / Other / Social History

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

National Book Critics Circle for General Non-fiction 2010

von Isabel Wilkerson

One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of...

The Untold History of the United States

von Oliver Stone & Peter Kuznick

A companion to Oliver Stone’s ten-part Showtime documentary series in the tradition of Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, this cutting-edge and provocative book challenges the status...

The Art of Seduction

von Robert Greene

This bold, instructive guide to power of attraction by the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, and Mastery can make anyone a master of this devastating and timeless art

This...

The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia

von Mike Dash

Before the notorious Five Families dominated U.S. organized crime, there was the one-fingered criminal genius Giuseppe Morello and his lethal coterie. Combining first-rate scholarship and pulse-quickening action,...

Portrait of a Turkish Family

von Irfan Orga & Ates Orga

Irfan Orga was born into a prosperous family in the twilight of the Ottoman Empire. His mother was a beauty, married at thirteen, who lived in the seclusion of a harem, as befitted a Turkish woman of her class....

Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

von Andrew Rimas & Evan D.G. Fraser

We are what we eat: this aphorism contains a profound truth about civilization, one that has played out on the world historical stage over many millennia of human endeavor.

Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century...

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

von Jared Diamond

Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none...

Encountering America

von Jessica Grogan

A dramatic narrative history of the psychological movement that reshaped American culture

The expectation that our careers and personal lives should be expressions of our authentic selves, the belief that our...

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves

von Dan Ariely

The New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality returns with thought-provoking work to challenge our preconceptions about dishonesty and urge us to take an honest...

Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England 1815-1872 Second Edition

von Brian Harrison

This scholarly treatise discusses temperance and drink in Victorian England. Topics including the political, social, and economic factors that affected the temperance movement, subgroups of the movement, as...

Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character

von Jack Hitt

WHAT IS IT THAT DRIVES THE SUCCESS OF AMERICA AND THE IDENTITY OF ITS PEOPLE? ACCLAIMED WRITER AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO THIS AMERICAN LIFE JACK HITT THINKS IT’S BECAUSE WE’RE ALL A BUNCH OF AMATEURS.

America’s...

Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

von Paul Barrett

Based on fifteen years of research, Glock is the riveting story of the weapon that has become known as American’s gun.  Today the Glock pistol has been embraced by two-thirds of all U.S. police departments,...

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

von Nelson Johnson & Terence Winter

Providing the inspiration and source material for the upcoming HBO series produced by Academy Award–winning director Martin Scorsese and Emmy Award–winning screenwriter Terence Winter, this riveting and wide-reaching...

A History of Women in America

von Carol Hymowitz & Michaele Weissman

From colonial to modern-day times this narrative history, incorporating first-person accounts, traces the development of women's roles in America. Against the backdrop of major historical events and movements,...

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

von Toby Wilkinson

In this landmark work, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire—three...

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time

von Stephen Fried

The legendary life and entrepreneurial vision of Fred Harvey helped shape American culture and history for three generations—from the 1880s all the way through World War II—and still influence our lives...

American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to Our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are

von Wade Graham

From Frederick Law Olmsted to Richard Neutra, Michelle Obama to our neighbors, Americans throughout history have revealed themselves in the gardens they create. Melding biography, history, and cultural commentary,...

Bloodlust: On the Roots of Violence from Cain and Abel to the Present

von Russell Jacoby

THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND ACROSS CULTURES, the most common form of violence is that between family members and neighbors or kindred communities—in civil wars writ large and small. From assault to genocide, from...

The English is Coming!: How One Language is Sweeping the World

von Leslie Dunton-Downer

English has fast become the number one language for everything from business and science, diplomacy and education, entertainment and environmentalism to socializing and beyond—virtually any human activity...

On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance

von Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld

From 1920 to 1940, the Harlem Renaissance produced a bright beacon of light that paved the way for African-Americans all over the country. The unapologetic writings of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, the...