Böcker utgivna av Basic Books

Offers a critique about (but not for) intellectuals that explores their impact on public opinion, policy, and society at large. This title not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged.

"In December 1937, in what was then the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (Na"

"War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization -- sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war's drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again."--

The groundbreaking work on trauma that remains a “classic for our generation” (Bessel van der Kolk, MD, author of The Body Keeps the Score)Trauma and Recovery is the foundational text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a political frame, psychiatrist Judith L. Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war.This edition includes a new epilogue by the author assessing what has—and hasn’t—changed in understanding and treating trauma over the last three decades.Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud,” Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how we heal.

A respected physics professor and author breaks down the great debate over the Big Bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe. Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation, just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half-baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned out to be right -- mostly -- and Hoyle, despite his many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: "The Big Bang." Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, imagination, and the universe itself.

From Roxane Gay to Leslie Jamison, 30 brilliant writers share their timeless stories about the everlasting magic -- and occasional misery -- of living in the Big Apple, in a new edition of the classic anthology

The book that started the computer revolution in education -- updated for a new generation.

Based on twenty years of clinical experience studying and treating chronic illness, a Harvard psychiatrist and anthropologist argues that diagnosing illness is an art tragically neglected by modern medical training, and presents a compelling case for bridging the gap between patient and doctor.

A bestselling military historian provides a comprehensive account of how World War II was fought, showing how disparate conflicts waged across the globe in the air, on land, and at sea coalesced into a single war-and how the Allied powers won it

The groundbreaking history of how climate change transformed Europe and the world, from a renowned archaeologist -- updated with a new preface on the latest climate research

A modern classic, revised and expanded: How the age-old art of storytelling can transform the way we communicate-and the way we do business

"Filled with insight, surprises, and lucid explanations of the latest ideas and discoveries from the sciences of love and sex."-Steven Pinker

A natural history of the coyote-whose success story and adaptability mirror humanity's own

"A rigorously researched book that gracefully pivots between the world of the ring and the racial politics of the early'60s."-New York Times Book Review

A revolutionary argument for how putting patients in charge will make healthcare better for everyone

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was sent to claim for Spain a vast area of today's southern United States. Cabeza de Vaca ultimately wrote an extraordinary chronicle of his journey. This work conjoins the facts recounted by Cabeza with the author's own research in the history and culture of 16th century North America to describe this epic journey.

As a fundamental aspect of our knowledge of the physical world, quantum mechanics remains a vital subject in physics. This is a collection of the late Richard P Feynman's lectures. It is suitable for students of physics and those seeking an introduction to the field from the inimitable Richard Feynman.

As a fundamental aspect of our knowledge of the physical world, quantum mechanics remains a vital subject in physics. This is a collection of the late Richard P Feynman's lectures. It is suitable for students of physics and those seeking an introduction to the field from the inimitable Richard Feynman.

A biologist-turned-philosopher shows how scientific discoveries can help resolve some of philosophy's longest-debated issues

A broad-based and withering critique of America's current trajectory.

Gardner's seminal 1993 account of the practical applications of Multiple Intelligences theory is now completely updated and expanded to reflect the latest developments in the field.

In a memoir more chilling than a John le Carre novel, we meet the senior KGB officer who recruited and handled two of America's most dangerous traitors, and whose career spanned four continents

"I have found The Einstein Syndrome filled with insight, acute observations, and fertile ideas...This is an invaluable contribution to human knowledge by one of the great minds of our time."--Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works

Every new parent desperately wants to know what goes on in the mind of a baby. Now a noted authority on infant development and psychiatry brings us closer than ever before to penetrating a your child's consciousness. In alternating sections of evocative prose, representing the baby's own voice, and explanatory text, Daniel Stern draws on the latest research findings to recreate the baby's world."

A New York Times bestseller and "a brilliant and bracing analysis" (Mark R. Levin) of Donald Trump, his presidency, and his vision of America's future--now updated for 2024 In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become an extremely successful president. Trump alone saw a political opportunity in defending the working people of America's interior whom the coastal elite of both parties had come to scorn, Hanson argues. And Trump alone had the instincts and energy to pursue this opening to victory, dismantle a corrupt old order, and bring long-overdue policy changes at home and abroad. After decades of drift, America needed the outsider Trump to do what normal politicians would not and could not do. Now updated for the 2024 election with a comprehensive new introduction, this is the essential book on what Donald Trump means for America.

The New York Times-bestselling "skeptical environmentalist" argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good

"At this very moment, we are moving through space at 130 miles per second, and yet we don't notice at all. Nothing slips and falls off the kitchen table as the Earth spins, and our bodies aren't catapulted against random buildings and trees by the planet orbiting the Sun. We, and everything around us, move at the same rate, so we simply don't notice the force that propels us through space. Nor do we notice the strangest fact of all: that we and everything around us ripple through the universe like whitecaps on the ocean, emerging from the cosmic backdrop and yet moving through it as though the backdrop wasn't even there. ... In [this book], theoretical physicist Matthew J. Strassler explains how our lives--every day and every moment-- are shaped by the core tenants of physics that make up the universe"--

From two New York Times-bestselling psychologists, “an engaging master class in how to foil purveyors of false promises” (Philip E. Tetlock, author of Superforecasting)   From phishing scams to Ponzi schemes, fraudulent science to fake art, chess cheaters to crypto hucksters, and marketers to magicians, our world brims with deception. In Nobody’s Fool, psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris show us how to avoid being taken in. They describe the key habits of thinking and reasoning that serve us well most of the time but make us vulnerable—like our tendency to accept what we see, stick to our commitments, and overvalue precision and consistency. Each chapter illustrates their new take on the science of deception, describing scams you’ve never heard of and shedding new light on some you have. Simons and Chabris provide memorable maxims and practical tools you can use to spot deception before it’s too late.    Informative, illuminating, and entertaining, Nobody’s Fool will protect us from charlatans in all their forms—and delight us along the way.

“A beautifully written evocation of Ukraine's brutal past and its shaky efforts to construct a better future.”—Financial Times Ukraine is gripped in a bloody crisis that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and is transforming the world’s energy policies and security architecture. As celebrated journalist Anna Reid shows in Borderland, this conflict is the latest of many. Ukraine has been a borderland, and a battlefield, for more than seven centuries, from the Mongol invasion of 1240 to the Maidan protests of 2014—and, of course, the devastating Russian invasion of 2022.  In this penetrating book, Reid combines research and her own experiences to chart Ukraine’s tragic past and uncertain future. Talking to peasants and politicians, rabbis and racketeers, dissidents and paramilitaries, survivors of Stalin’s famine and of Nazi labor camps, she reveals the layers of myth and propaganda that wrap this divided land. From the Polish churches of Lviv to the coal mines of the Donbass to the Tatar shantytowns of Crimea, the book explores Ukraine’s struggle to build itself a national identity. Updated to include firsthand material from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war, Borderland is essential reading for anyone looking to understand Ukraine and how its history is shaping its destiny.