History & Society

Eric Jay Dolin traces the history of the relationship between America and China back to its earliest days, when the United States traded with China for furs, opium and rare sea cucumbers, but left an ecological and human rights disaster that still reverberates today.

Available for the first time to the general public, the transcripts and recordings of John F. Kennedy's time in office reveal his decision-making process and thoughts on world events, including the Cuban Missile crisis and the Civil Rights movement, giving a rare opportunity to step inside the Oval Office and Cabinet Room.

Where China Meets India: Burma And The New Crossroads Of Asia analyzes the inherent potential of recently dissolved boundaries between China and India; it cites a clash between modern and traditional worlds throughout affected regions while considering Burma's strategic centrality and the ways it is being targeted.

My Husband and My Wives: A Gay's Man's Odyssey is Charles Rowan Beye's memoir of a man reflecting on eight tumultuous decades at the complications of discovering at puberty that he is attracted to other men.

The author of Mothers of Invention assesses the devastating impact of the enormous carnage of the Civil War on every aspect of American life from a material, political, intellectual, cultural, social, and spiritual perspective, from the logistical challenges of burying the battlefield dead to the evolution of a federal system of national cemeteries. 35,000 first printing.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch presents a sobering analysis of the ways everyday people are systematically victimized by corporate interests, revealing small-print tactics in commonplace consumer agreements while sharing recommendations for how to combat consumer-targeting abuses.

Gen. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was one of the heroes of the French Revolution, leading armies of thousands in triumph through the snows of the Alps and the sands of Egypt. Today, he is almost forgotten, though he lives on in his son's stories. The son of a Haitian slave and a French nobleman, this mixed-race swordsman was the father of novelist Alexandre Dumas, and his adventures helped inspire The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Tom Reiss' biography of the elder Dumas explores the real-life adventures behind these classic novels.

The cohost of NPR's On the Media narrates, in cartoon form, two millennia of the influence of the media on the populace, from newspapers in Caesar's Rome to the penny press of the American Revolution to today. 30,000 first printing.

The award-winning "Significant Others" columnist shares character portraits of remarkable men and women whose low-profile accomplishments contribute to the running of the nation, from coal miners and oil rig workers to migrant laborers and air traffic controllers.

President Obama and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts both went to Harvard Law School and worked on the Harvard Law Review, but their similar legal backgrounds have led to dramatically different conclusions. Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine, presents an insider's account of an ideological war between the Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration. Toobin argues that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision and the Affordable Care Act ruling show how the Constitution is being reinterpreted — and how Supreme Court precedent is being quickly overturned.