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Recommendations based on Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracyby Christopher L. Hayes
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
by Rachel Maddow
Investigation of the US military's unchecked growth and its consequences for American democracy.
"One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security ... (Goodreads)
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't
by Nate Silver
An exploration of the art and science of prediction, examining why some predictions succeed while others fail.
Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair's breadth. He solidified his standing as the nation's foremost political ... (Goodreads)
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder
A study of history and a call to action against the rise of authoritarianism.
#1, New York Times, Bestseller •, A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America's turn towards authoritarianism., The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat ... (Barnes & Noble)
Detroit: An American Autopsy
by Charlie LeDuff
An in-depth examination of the decline of Detroit, focusing on the people and stories behind the city's fall.
In the heart of America, a metropolis is quietly destroying itself. Detroit, once the richest city in the nation, is now its poorest. Once the vanguard of America’s machine age—mass production, ... (Goodreads)
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
by Daron Acemoğlu
Examination of the economic and political forces that shape the success and failure of nations.
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail, answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health ... (Goodreads)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond
Study of past societies' successes and failures in terms of environmental, economic, and political decisions.
Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid ... (Goodreads)
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
by Jonathan Haidt
Exploring the underlying moral foundations of political and religious beliefs and how they shape our views.
An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780307377906 can be found, here., Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about ... (Goodreads)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
by Reza Aslan
An examination of Jesus' life, death and legacy within the context of 1st century Judea.
From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as ... (Goodreads)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson
An exploration of the life-changing journeys of the millions of African-Americans who migrated from the South to the North, Midwest, and West from 1915 to 1970.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black ... (Goodreads)
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
by Rachel Held Evans
A memoir of a woman's journey through the ups and downs of faith, church, and spirituality.
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans comes a book that is both a heartfelt ode to the past and hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the Church. Centered ... (Barnes & Noble)
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
by Liaquat Ahamed
An exploration of the economic decisions of four central bankers that changed the course of history.
The book discusses the personal histories of the four heads of the Central Banks of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, and their efforts to steer the world economy from the period ... (Wikipedia)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
Exploring the roots and reality of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system.
"Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting ... (Goodreads)
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
by Daniel C. Dennett
Examines the origins of religious belief, exploring how it has shaped society.
An innovative thinker tackles the controversial question of why we believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future. For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important ... (Goodreads)
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
by James W. Loewen
Exposing the inaccuracies in American history textbooks and exploring the forces that shaped them.
“Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Forever War
by Dexter Filkins
A collection of war stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, exploring the human cost of conflict and the impact on soldiers and civilians alike.
From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time. Through the eyes of Dexter ... (Goodreads)
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
by Richard H. Thaler
An exploration of the principles of behavioral economics and its implications for society.
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Get ready to change the way you think about economics., Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central ... (Barnes & Noble)
What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
by Thomas Frank
Investigates why working-class Americans vote against their economic interests and support conservative politicians.
With a New Afterword by the Author,The New York Times, bestseller, praised as "hilariously funny . . . the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic ... (Goodreads)
Stillness Speaks
by Eckhart Tolle
Exploring how to live in the present moment and awaken to true joy and peace.
Eckhart Tolle shows you how to become your true self by embracing stillness and silence. When we are no longer limited by our thinking mind, suffering and pain disappears and we are able to move ... (Goodreads)
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
by Abhijit V. Banerjee
Examines global poverty from economic, social and political perspectives and offers strategies to reduce it.
Winner of the 2011, Financial Times,/Goldman Sachs Best Business Book of the Year Award Billions of government dollars, and thousands of charitable organizations and NGOs, are dedicated to helping ... (Goodreads)
Paris, 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
by Margaret MacMillan
An account of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its lasting effects on the modern world.
'Without question, Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 is the most honest and engaging history ever written about those fateful months after World War I when the maps of Europe were redrawn. Brimming ... (Goodreads)
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steven Pinker
An exploration of the origins and development of human language and its implications for cognitive science.
The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind. In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you ... (Goodreads)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
by Max Weber
Examines the relationship between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism, arguing that religious beliefs influenced economic behavior.
The Protestant ethic — a moral code stressing hard work, rigorous self-discipline, and the organization of one's life in the service of God — was made famous by sociologist and political economist ... (Goodreads)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson
Fascinating true story of the invention of the wireless and its effect on two men's lives.
The interwoven stories of two men whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal cases of all time - Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator ... (Goodreads)
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
by Tony Judt
History of Europe since the end of World War II, examining the changes and challenges of the region.
Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first ... (Goodreads)
The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
Ancient Chinese military treatise outlining strategies for success in battle.
Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on ... (Goodreads)
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
by James Gleick
A comprehensive history of the development of information technology, from ancient times to the digital age.
James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius , now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: a revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the ... (Goodreads)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
Tracing the origins of human civilizations through the lens of geography, technology, and biology.
"Diamond has written a book of remarkable scope ... one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: ... (Goodreads)
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Comprehensive guide to using mindfulness meditation to manage stress, pain, and illness.
2005 15th anniversary edition reprint Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is perhaps the best-known proponent of using meditation to ... (Goodreads)
