British historian Simon Schama provides a fresh historical perspective as he tells how and why many American slaves chose to fight on the British side during the American Revolution. Decrying the misinformation spread at the time by the American side, Schama explains the British views on slavery, in... Read more

$19.00 - $19.00

This collection of 13 essays (10 of which were published previously in literary journals) focuses on how poems have a mind of their own unbeknownst to the poet. Subject matter includes the work of Shelley, Bishop, and Charles Wright. ... Read more

$9.95 - $9.95

Now in paperback, this monumental history has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most important books ever written about World War II in the Pacific". 20 pages of illustrations. ... Read more

$11.00 - $12.00

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the best-selling Ghost Wars traces the Bin Laden family's rise to power and privilege, describes the diverse lifestyles of the generation to which Osama bin Laden belongs, and discusses their attempts to recover from the effects of September 11. ... Read more

$3.85 - $5.44

The poetry of Brenda Shaughnessy's second collection begins with the title, which indicates how the use of "sugar" can make human darkness more palatable. In Shaughnessy's case, the "sugar" is humor, which she uses to leaven some decidedly dark aspects of humanity, such as vanity... Read more

$9.00 - $13.00

Allan J. Lichtman provides a survey of the American conservative movement that begins much earlier than the usual studies that credit William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater as founding fathers. Lichtman looks at the whole 20th century, and in particular the years after World War I, as significant as... Read more

$17.00 - $18.00

This overview of literature for young people thoughtfully examines the importance of children's stories throughout Western history. Seth Lerer places such classic works as ALICE'S ADVENDURES IN WONDERLAND, THE GIVING TREE, and the Harry Potter series in the context of their times in order to explain... Read more

$13.00 - $13.00

Alex Ross, the wonderfully erudite and insightful music critic for The New Yorker, traces the shifting currents of classical music from the 1906 premiere of Richard Strauss's SALOME to the end of the 20th century. Along the way, he provides vivid portraits of classical composers, brings to life pivo... Read more

$120.00 - $120.00

A colorful history of modern music is set against the backdrop of the events, personalities, social institutions, and cultural movements of the twentieth century, chronicling the evolution of mass culture and mass politics, technological innovation, revolution, social experiments, and more in terms ... Read more

$22.00 - $26.00

A noted naturalist, novelist, and environmental activist chronicles his love affair with the mystique of the American West as a landscape, an idea, and a way of life as he recalls his discovery of the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana and the impact of the wild landscape on his writing career and ... Read more

$15.00 - $16.00

Poet Reginald Shepherd died in 2008, making this, sadly, his first and last book of prose. This collection of his essays, articles, and reviews clearly establishes the liberatory power of poetry and literature. Shepherd's work, including the autobiographical essay about his childhood in the Bronx, a... Read more

$17.00 - $30.00

This anecdotal study explores the marks readers leave behind in books as they read. Sometimes readers mourn what's not present in the margin: Fermat's last theorem is famously missing because he allegedly found the margins too small; sometimes they deplore what is: De Quincey admonished Wordsworth f... Read more

$20.00 - $42.00

The most important, acclaimed, and galvanizing political biography of our era--which began with The Path to Power--continues in this national bestseller. In Means of Ascent Lyndon Johnson's almost mythic personality is seen at its most nakedly ambitious. The culminating drama--the explosive heart of... Read more

$12.00 - $38.00

Winner of the Yale Younger Poets series judged by W. S. Merwin, this collection draws on the author's experiences as a Park Ranger at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, using the cave both as a setting for his explorations and as a metaphor for America's racial history. The initial long section imagines the l... Read more

$12.00 - $16.00

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984, Olds's book of poetry considers her abusive past and her own children against a backdrop of international political violence. ... Read more

$10.00 - $11.00

In these tales told by immigrants trying to make new lives in various American cities, their true search is for empowerment and dignity. Mukherjee's second collection was the winner of the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. ... Read more

$7.26 - $8.78

From Sharon Olds—a stunning new collection of poems that project a fresh spirit, a startling energy of language and counterpoint, and a moving, elegiac tone shot through with humor.From poems that erupt out of history and childhood to those that embody the nurturing of a new generation of ... Read more

$10.00 - $13.00

Dorothy Bliss, having buried her husband Ted, spends her remaining years in a condominium overlooking Florida's Biscyane bay. Her character is illuminated not with action and plot twists, but rather with the mundane quotidian details of her life as an 80-year-old widow in the final stages of her own... Read more

$1.47 - $11.66

A native of Sarajevo, where he spends his adolescence trying to become Bosnia’s answer to John Lennon, Jozef Pronek comes to the United States in 1992—just in time to watch war break out in his country, but too early to be a genuine refugee. Indeed, Jozef’s typical answ... Read more

$7.77 - $10.40

Quarrel & Quandary showcases the manifold talents of one of our leading and award-winning critics and essayists.In nineteen opulent essays, Cynthia Ozick probes Dostoevsky for insights into the Unabomber, questions the role of the public intellectual, and dares to wonder what poetry is. She ... Read more

$7.77 - $11.05