Book cover of National Service: A Generation in Uniform 1945-1963 by Richard Vinen
Europe

National Service: A Generation in Uniform 1945-1963

Richard Vinen’s National Service is a serious—if often very entertaining—attempt to get to grips with the reality of that extraordinary institution, which now seems as remote as the British Empire itself. With great sympathy and curiosity, Vinen unpicks the myths of the two “gap years,” which all British men who came of age between 1945 and the early 1960s had to fill with National Service. This book is fascinating to those who endured or even enjoyed their time in uniform, but also to anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of post-war Britain. […Learn More]

Biography & Autobiography

Kissinger: 1923 – 1968: The Idealist

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower, the definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers.

Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award

No American statesman has been as revered or as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Once hailed as “Super K”—the “indispensable man” whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama—he has also been hounded by conspiracy theorists, scouring his every “telcon” for evidence of Machiavellian malfeasance. […Learn More]

Book cover of Private Empire ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll
Business & Money

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

From the award-winning and bestselling author of Ghost Wars and Directorate S, an “extraordinary” and “monumental” exposé of Big Oil (The Washington Post)

Includes a profile of current Secretary of State and former chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson

In this, the first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil—the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States—Steve Coll reveals the true extent of its power. […Learn More]

Astronomy & Space Science

Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality

One of our great contemporary scientists reveals the ten profound insights that illuminate what everyone should know about the physical world

In Fundamentals, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek offers the reader a simple yet profound exploration of reality based on the deep revelations of modern science. With clarity and an infectious sense of joy, he guides us through the essential concepts that form our understanding of what the world is and how it works. […Learn More]

History

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

An illuminating history of North America’s eleven rival cultural regions that explodes the red state-blue state myth.

North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn’t confront or assimilate into an “American” or “Canadian” culture, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory […Learn More]

Book Cover of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
Biological Sciences

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, “The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that…those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. […Learn More]