Society & Social Sciences Books

How the politicization of the pandemic endangers our lives-and our democracyCOVID-19 has killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history, but the scale and grim human toll of the pandemic were not inevitable. Pandemic Politics...

A new model for the relationship between science and democracy that spans policymaking, the funding and conduct of research, and our approach to new technologiesOur ability to act on some of the most pressing issues of our time, from pandemics and...

As national political fights are waged at the state level, democracy itself pays the priceOver the past generation, the Democratic and Republican parties have each become nationally coordinated political teams. American political institutions, on the...

The first modern scholarly synthesis of animal domesticationAcross the globe and at different times in the past millennia, the evolutionary history of domesticated animals has been greatly affected by the myriad, complex, and diverse interactions humans...

From the Nobel Prizewinning writer, a new collection of literary and personal essaysOld Truths and New Clichs collects nineteen essays-most of them previously unpublished in English-by Isaac Bashevis Singer on topics that were central to his artistic...

Richard Rorty, one of the most influential intellectuals of recent decades, is perhaps best known today as the philosopher who, almost two decades before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, warned of the rise of a Trumpian strongman in America. What Can...

A timely defense of liberalism that draws vital lessons from its greatest midcentury proponents.Today, liberalism faces threats from across the political spectrum. While right-wing populists and leftist purists righteously violate liberal norms,...

A how-to guide for the aspiring economist, The Economist's Craft covers a host of important issues rarely taught in the graduate classroom, providing readers with the tools and insights they need to succeed as professional scholars.The...

From the perspective of Western modernity, humanity inhabits a disenchanted cosmos. Gods, spirits and ancestors have left us for a transcendent beyond, no longer living in our midst and being involved in all matters of everyday life from the trivial to...

How policies forged after September 11 were weaponized under Trump and turned on American democracy itselfIn the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, the American government implemented a wave of overt policies to fight the nation's enemies. Unseen...

A groundbreaking history of how the Black Death unleashed revolutionary change across the medieval world and ushered in the modern age.In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly...

An engaging introduction to data science that emphasizes critical thinking over statistical techniquesAn introduction to data science or statistics shouldn't involve proving complex theorems or memorizing obscure terms and formulas, but that is exactly...

A clear and comprehensive framework for bridging the widening gap between theorists and empiricists in social scienceThe credibility revolution, with its emphasis on empirical methods for causal inference, has led to concerns among scholars that the...

A fun and fact-filled AZ treasury for anyone with a head on their shoulders.Neuropedia journeys into the mysteries and marvels of the three pounds of tissue between your ears - the brain. Eric Chudler takes you on a breathtaking tour of the nervous...

A pioneering history that transforms our understanding of the colonial era and China's place in it. China has conventionally been considered a land empire whose lack of maritime and colonial reach contributed to its economic decline after the...

What an intensely divisive election portends for American politics.The year 2020 was a tumultuous time in American politics. It brought a global pandemic, protests for racial justice, and a razor-thin presidential election outcome. It culminated in an...

Looking beyond Putin to understand how today's Russia actually works**Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize**Media and public discussion tends to understand Russian politics as a direct reflection of Vladimir Putin's seeming...

On Belonging and Not Belonging provides a sophisticated exploration of how themes of translation, migration, and displacement shape an astonishing range of artistic works. From the possibilities and limitations of translation addressed by Jhumpa Lahiri...

In 63 BC, frustrated by his failure to be elected leader of the Roman Republic, the aristocrat Catiline tried to topple its elected government. Backed by corrupt elites and poor, alienated Romans, he fled Rome while his associates plotted to burn the...

A new way of thinking about the climate crisis as an exercise in delimiting knowable, and habitable, worldsAs carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, Earth's fragile ecosystems are growing increasingly unstable and unpredictable. Horizon Work explores...

From the acclaimed authors of Capitalism without Capital, radical ideas for restoring prosperity in today's intangible economyThe past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of...

How a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracyHitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian...

A remarkable look at how the growth, technology, and politics of high-frequency trading have altered global financial markets In today's financial markets, trading floors on which brokers buy and sell shares face-to-face have increasingly been...

A compelling book that casts the Qur'anic encounter with Jews in an entirely new light.In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Meir Bar-Asher examines how Jews and Judaism are depicted in the Qur'an and later Islamic literature, providing needed context...

By the time a baby is born, its brain is equipped with billions of intricately crafted neurons wired together through trillions of interconnections to form a compact and breathtakingly efficient supercomputer. Zero to Birth takes you on an extraordinary...

Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights-glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth-embedded in myth, legends, and...

A landmark defense of democracy that has been hailed as one of the most important books of the twentieth century One of the most important books of the twentieth century, The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal...

A radical reinterpretation of Adam Smith that challenges economists, moral philosophers, political theorists, and intellectual historians to rethink him - and why he mattersAdam Smith has long been recognised as the father of modern economics. More...

Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and...

A mesmerizing trip across America to investigate the changing face of death in contemporary lifeDeath in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Your family can...

Digital technology, big data, big tech, machine learning, and AI are revolutionising both the tools of economics and the phenomena it seeks to measure, understand, and shape. In Cogs and Monsters, Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems - but also...

From the acclaimed author of Unfinished Business, a story of crisis and change that can help us find renewed honesty and purpose in our personal and political lives.Like much of the world, America is deeply divided over identity, equality, and history...

Why equality cannot be conditional on a shared human "nature" but has to be for allFor centuries, ringing declarations about all men being created equal appealed to a shared human nature as the reason to consider ourselves equals. But appeals to natural...

The surprising story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to despair for the future of the nation they had createdAmericans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate...

Why society's expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic Economic growth - and the hope of better things to come - is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless...

Leading technologists, historians, and journalists reveal the stories behind the computer coding that touches all aspects of life - for better or worse.Few of us give much thought to computer code or how it comes to be. The very word...

The first investigation of how race and gender shaped the presentation and marketing of Modernist decor in postwar America.In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless...

Computational models of urbanism - smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration - promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City...

How nonstate military strategies overturn traditional perspectives on warfareSince September 11th, 2001, armed nonstate actors have received increased attention and discussion from scholars, policymakers, and the military. Underlying debates about...

A new theoretical framework for understanding how social, economic, and political conflicts influence international institutions and their place in the global order Today's liberal international institutional order is being challenged by the...

The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. Virginia Trimble and David Weintraub vividly describe how, before 1900, a woman who...

Mashable's 20 Books from 2020 That Make Great GiftsIn the course of making Human Flow, his epic feature documentary about the global refugee crisis, the artist Ai Weiwei and his collaborators interviewed more than 600 refugees, aid workers,...

A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intolerance.Over the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of...

New perspectives on the role of collective responsibility in modern politics States are commonly blamed for wars, called on to apologise, held liable for debts and reparations, bound by treaties, and punished with sanctions. But what does it...

A War on Global Poverty provides a fresh account of U.S. involvement in campaigns to end global poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. From the decline of modernisation programs to the rise of microcredit, Joanne Meyerowitz looks beyond familiar histories of...

How populism is fueled by the demise of the industrial order and the emergence of a new digital society ruled by algorithms.In the revolutionary excitement of the 1960s, young people around the world called for a radical shift away from the old...

Ever since her triumphant debut in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognisably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers - from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie...

Why 'aporophobia' - rejection of the poor - is one of the most serious problems facing the world today, and how we can fight it.In this revelatory book, acclaimed political philosopher Adela Cortina makes an unprecedented assertion: the...