Basic Books
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Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
$21.99 Add to cart“The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made.”–P. J. O’Rourke
Hailed as the “first freedom,” free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a chall
- Author: McHangama, Jacob
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 560
- Publish Date: March 18 2025
- ISBN10: 1541620348
- Language: English
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The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog: And Other Serious Discoveries of Silly Science
$30.00 Add to cartA brilliant new voice in science writing–“witty, whip-smart, truly one of our best” (Mary Roach)–shows why playfulness and curiosity are the key to science
Why would anyone research how elephants p- Author: York, Carly Anne
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 288
- Publish Date: June 17 2025
- ISBN10: 1541605217
- Language: English
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Scorched Earth: A Global History of World War II
$35.00 Add to cartA powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers
In popular memory, the Second World War was a- Author: Chamberlin, Paul Thomas
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 656
- Publish Date: May 06 2025
- ISBN10: 1541619269
- Language: English
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I Am a Part of Infinity: The Spiritual Journey of Albert Einstein
$30.00 Add to cartA “beautifully written” (David Fideler) spiritual biography of Albert Einstein that reveals for the first time the scientific and religious origins of his personal philosophy — “a must-read for anyon… [more below]
- Author: Fox, Kieran
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 336
- Publish Date: April 01 2025
- ISBN10: 1541603575
- Language: English
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The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West
$32.50 Add to cartThe epic story of the past, present, and future of world order, offering a “timely” (Odd Arne Westad, coauthor of The Great Transformation) argument that the decline of the West may be a good thing fo… [more below]
- Author: Acharya, Amitav
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 464
- Publish Date: April 08 2025
- ISBN10: 1541604148
- Language: English
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Beyond the Wall: A History of East Germany
$21.99 Add to cartAN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER – From the ashes of the Second World War to the fall of the Berlin Wall, “an expansive and generous history” of East Germany (New Republic)
In 1990, a country disappeared- Author: Hoyer, Katja
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 512
- Publish Date: February 04 2025
- ISBN10: 1541606361
- Language: English
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Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty
$32.00 Add to cartAn award-winning mathematician shows how we prove what’s true, and what to do when we can’t
How do we establish what we believe? And how can we be certain that what we believe is true? And how do we- Author: Kucharski, Adam
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 368
- Publish Date: May 06 2025
- ISBN10: 1541606698
- Language: English
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For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It
$24.99 Add to cartThe fizzy, “marvelously entertaining” (Los Angeles Times) story of the world’s favorite beverage
For God, Country & Coca-Cola is the definitive history of the great American soft drink and the c- Author: Pendergrast, Mark
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 576
- Publish Date: September 24 2024
- ISBN10: 1541606019
- Language: English
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The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World
$22.99 Add to cartFrom ancient Mesopotamia to today, an “exceptionally rich narrative” (Wall Street Journal) of how humans have used laws to forge civilizations
Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order- Author: Pirie, Fernanda
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 592
- Publish Date: September 03 2024
- ISBN10: 1541606051
- Language: English
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Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution
$34.00 Add to cartA kaleidoscopic narrative history of 1963, the pivotal moment in America’s long civil rights movement–the year of the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and … [more below]
- Author: Joseph, Peniel E.
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 480
- Publish Date: May 13 2025
- ISBN10: 1541675894
- Language: English
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More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
$32.00 Add to cartThis “wild and utterly engaging narrative” (Melanie Mitchell) shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions–with escaping death, building AI tyrants, and creating limitless g… [more below]
- Author: Becker, Adam
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 384
- Publish Date: April 22 2025
- ISBN10: 1541619595
- Language: English
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Around the World in Eighty Games: From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World’s Greatest
$19.99 Add to cartA “fun” and “unexpected” (The Economist) global tour of the world’s greatest games and the mathematics that underlies them
Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Mono- Author: Du Sautoy, Marcus
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 384
- Publish Date: April 08 2025
- ISBN10: 1541606337
- Language: English
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Making Sense of Slavery: America’s Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today
$35.00 Add to cartAn incisive and illuminating history of the study of slavery in America, from the Revolutionary era to the 1619 Project, showing how these intellectual debates have shaped American public life
In rec- Author: Spillman, Scott
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 448
- Publish Date: March 04 2025
- ISBN10: 1541602099
- Language: English
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Aesop’s Fables: A New Translation
$30.00 Add to cartFrom a renowned scholar and translator, the definitive translation of Aesop’s Fables
Aesop’s fables are among the most familiar and best-loved stories in the world. Tales like “The Tortoise and the H- Author: Aesop
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 336
- Publish Date: October 01 2024
- ISBN10: 1541604849
- Language: English
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The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
$28.00 Read moreStorytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may soon destroy it
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But
- Author: Gottschall, Jonathan
- Binding: Hardcover
- Page Count: 272
- Publish Date: November 23 2021
- ISBN10: 1541645960
- Language: English
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Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum
$21.99 Add to cartThe third volume in the bestselling physics series cracks open Einstein’s special relativity and field theory
Physicist Leonard Susskind and data engineer Art Friedman are back. This time, they intro- Series: Theoretical Minimum
- Author: Susskind, Leonard
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 448
- Publish Date: May 07 2019
- ISBN10: 1541674065
- Language: English
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The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention
$19.99 Add to cart*A New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick*
An “ambitious work” (Washington Post) tracing the links between autism and ingenuityIs the ability to invent things unique to humans? In T
- Author: Baron-Cohen, Simon
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 272
- Publish Date: January 24 2023
- ISBN10: 1541647157
- Language: English
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Don’t Read Poetry: A Book about How to Read Poems
$18.99 Add to cart“At once erudite and colloquial” (New Yorker), this book provides an accessible introduction to the joys and challenges of poetry
In Don’t Read Poetry, poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt offers- Author: Burt, Stephanie
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 320
- Publish Date: May 09 2023
- ISBN10: 1541603613
- Language: English
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Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West
$22.99 Add to cart“Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope” (Hampton Sides), this masterfully told account of the American West from a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist sets a new standard as it sweeps from the Califor… [more below]
- Author: Brands, H. W.
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 544
- Publish Date: October 20 2020
- ISBN10: 1541672542
- Language: English
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The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating
$21.99 Add to cartA “drop-dead shocker” (Washington Post Book World) that uses evolutionary psychology to explain human mating and the mysteries of love If we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most ch… [more below]
- Author: Buss, David M.
- Binding: Paperback
- Page Count: 368
- Publish Date: December 27 2016
- ISBN10: 0465097766
- Language: English
