In 1831, the then twenty-seven year old Alexis de Tocqueville, was sent with Gustave de Beaumont to America by the French Government to study and make a report on the American prison system. Over a period of nine months the two traveled all over America making notes not only on the prison systems but on all aspects of American society and government. From these notes, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America", an exhaustive analysis of the successes...

"Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life--from...

"From SoulCycle to Scientology, we're all obsessed with cults. Linguist Amanda Montell examines the language cults use to draw us in"--

"Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives. Celebrated...

Thirty years after its original publication, The Stranger remains among the most influential books of our time. A terrifying picture of a man victimized by life itself-- he is a faceless man, who has committed a pointless murder-- it is a book whose unrelenting grip upon our consciousness has not diminshed to this day.

"Examples of Antifragility: When you stress your body by lifting a big weight, your body gets stronger. New York has the best restaurants in the world because particular restaurants are always going bust, making the aggregate stronger and stronger, or antifragile. Evolution is antifragile. Certain business and investment strategies are antifragile. Older things tend to be more antifragile than newer ones - because they've been exposed to more Black...

Presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms. Contains Marx and Engels' theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually...

Whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically, Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling to show how people respond to incentives.

A part of Harper Perennial's special "Resistance Library" highlighting classic works that illuminate the "Age of Trump": A boldly packaged reissue of the classic examination of dangerous nationalist political movements. A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer-the first and most famous of his books-was made into a bestseller...

"Women's rights activist Laura Bates is no stranger to misogynistic attacks online, but over time, the vitriol hinted at something widespread and toxic. Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women as Bates traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spiderweb of groups. Drawing parallels to other extremist movements around the world, Bates shows what attracts men to the movement, how it grooms and radicalizes...