Politics and Prose Presents

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Committee Members, a collection of wryly funny stories about ordinary women--in all their complexity, fallibility, and humanity.An unsuspecting couple is treated to a luxury vacation by their deceased neighbor. After begrudgingly agreeing to volunteer at a nursing home, a middle school girl gambles over games of bridge with elderly residents. A single mother struggles to understand the unique bond between her autistic son and his dying grandmother. Four friends experience decades of highs and lows as pawns in The Game of Life. A professional gynecology patient runs into a high school flame while at work, undressed, on the job.In this irreverent collection, celebrated novelist Julie Schumacher balances sorrow against laughter. Here, we experience story not only as narrative, but as syllabus and as board game. Each protagonist--ranging from girlhood to senescence--receives her own indelible voice as she navigates social blunders, generational misunderstandings, and the absurdity of the human experience. Exquisitely honest and expertly crafted, Patient, Female renders--with dark humor and wit--the foibles of human behavior and our endearing imperfections.Julie Schumacher is the author of eleven books, including the national bestseller Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Schumacher's other works include two short story collections, a satirical coloring book, and five novels for young readers. Her essays and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Ms., The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards annual anthologies. She is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she has received multiple teaching awards and has been recognized as a Scholar of the College. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Schumacher is in conversation with Michelle Brafman, the author of Washing the Dead, Bertrand Court: Stories, and Swimming with Ghosts, the companion novel to Draw Near to Me. Her work has appeared in Oprah Daily, O Quarterly, Slate, LitHub, Tablet, The Forward, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing in the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and spoken about her work and the creative process at more than 200 venues, including book stores, literary festivals, classrooms, synagogues, and myriad book groups. Learn more at michellebrafman.com.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781639551651?ic_referral=2QmI4C0ithXtPmznnRJrMeaX0SQGoABDrx-zIHyV96UwM0qdact2IGJKp-SxOCizWpnYBOsihIUG-ie6wPWSvBY0ifiT2aKa7kD6bAN7e9dIHU3Q6ROYa1XBcVUtC1sV1JZXeyQ

An unforgettable, sweeping novel of espionage, love, and war that reframes our understanding of the first half of the twentieth century.Born into an aristocratic German Jewish family, Ernst Baerwald is a gifted linguist, talented musician, and fearless idealist. When he's recruited in 1900 to become a spy--his cover working for a company that would become the notorious chemical conglomerate IG Farben--his life becomes an extraordinary adventure spanning two continents, two world wars, and impossible choices that will haunt him forever.From Frankfurt to Milan to Tokyo, Ernst moves through a world of intrigue and passion. He battles Japan's Yakuza while entertaining its royalty and hosts Europe's most brilliant performers. He falls deeply in love . . . with two women. He witnesses the rise of fascism in both Japan and Germany. And when the forces of fascism in Japan meet the horrors of Hitler's Germany, this German Jew faces an impossible choice: destroy the country he loves most or become complicit in unimaginable evil.Based on the life of author David Baerwald's grandfather, The Fire Agent is historical fiction that reads like a thriller. It carries us from nineteenth-century German idealism to the onset of chemical warfare; from Japan's organized crime syndicates to FDR's spy networks; from the Nanking Massacre to the dawn of the Cold War. At its center is the unforgettable character of Ernst--a man who has the courage to fight for what's right, even when the cost is everything. The Fire Agent resonates deeply with our own time, providing a lens through which we come to see, and question, ourselves.David Baerwald is an award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, and recording artist, best known for his critically acclaimed hit album with David Ricketts, Boomtown. He has collaborated with Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, Sheryl Crow, Hans Zimmer, and Baz Luhrmann, among others. Baerwald spent a formative part of his childhood in Tokyo, grew up in Los Angeles, and currently lives in New York's Hudson Valley. This is his first novel.Baerwald is in conversation with Steve Clemons, editor at large of The National Interest and has served as Editor at Large of The Hill, The Atlantic and Semafor as well as in senior editorial roles at National Journal and Quartz. He is also editor and publisher of the popular political blog, The Washington Note, and host of "The Bottom Line" which airs on the global network of Al Jazeera English. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781966302001?ic_referral=3-Xm43ixiA6CSw1eYgtZfTVk5nx0ewulakwLNOJGiKwwM8B8hrDQ2hzQeHSD6Ydrape0qM-csoW8ShPDhna2hCl7L7FVDnmgTa0DkER-q1oYSXCLmTjYF3VJOWibOBJT3mOfI6c

This striking graphic edition adapts the first half of the New York Times bestselling The British Are Coming, the opening volume in Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson’s extraordinary trilogy about the American RevolutionFrom the battles at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 through the Siege of Boston in 1776, American militiamen and the newly created Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable adversary: the British Empire. The gripping saga is alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; and George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between redcoats and rebels all the more compelling. Full of riveting details and iconic stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Expertly rendered in gripping graphic novel-style artwork, the battle for our nation's independence is brought to life like never before. Discover the first act of America’s creation in this vividly illustrated graphic history.Rick Atkinson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous works of history, including The Long Gray Line, the Liberation Trilogy (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light), and the Revolution Trilogy (including The British Are Coming and The Fate of the Day). He has won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism.Atkinson is in conversation with Evan Osnos, who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008. In addition, he is co-host of The New Yorker’s Political Scene podcast, and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His coverage ranges from politics and foreign affairs to white-collar crime and espionage. His first book, “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book “The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich,” was an instant New York Times bestseller. Prior to The New Yorker, he worked as the Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, where he was on teams that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and 2008. Before his assignment to China, he worked in the Middle East, reporting mostly from Iraq. He lives with his family near Washington, D.C.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593799307?ic_referral=9oTjaqFluK6SXjGic1uKLwCWduT7K_Q91kcAHaEEs-QwM_spBFK7xWqYJ6ONYsxP5Z1lOJjK23VnR6MzQOIXWK8DN_7sDdll6MNjfyvlZVdIC7nEwaWTMksEWkQXi851Xe3C4S4

From one of the most electric and consequential figures to emerge from the contemporary American labor movement, the remarkable story of his battle to create the first Amazon union in the U.S. and a powerful call to arms on behalf of the working classIn the early days of the Covid pandemic, warehouse worker Chris Smalls and his colleagues continued showing up as the rest of the world was shutting down. A dedicated and experienced Amazon employee, increasingly frustrated by the inner workings of the retail giant, Smalls had already felt himself reaching a breaking point. So, when coworkers around him began falling ill, and with no transparency or assurances of safety coming from those in charge, he made the only choice left available to him. He staged a walkout with friend Derrick Palmer, eventually finding himself on the picket line without a job. But what began as a demand to keep essential employees safe in a crisis would grow into a movement devoted to achieving dignity and security for the American wage worker, sparking a groundswell of organizers at the most notable companies across the nation—including Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and Apple—and leading to lasting change for labor.When the Revolution Comes is the riveting inside story of how a young Black man from Hackensack, NJ with little-to-no resources led a scrappy band of Staten Island warehouse workers in an improbable fight against Amazon, the second largest private employer in the U.S., and won. This epic David-and-Goliath tale traces Smalls’ dramatic story, from a childhood spent navigating his dad’s stints in and out of prison to his early pursuits of a career in music; from his years of sacrifice and economic uncertainty as a father of three, fighting a miasma of warehouse managerial politics in an effort to make ends meet, to his ascension as the leader of a new generation’s labor movement. Along the way, he details lessons learned from a life spent working paycheck-to-paycheck, advocating for those around him, and persevering in the face of adversity, and shares how those lessons helped him build the coalition that became the first-ever union of American Amazon workers.A deeply personal and eye-opening account of the creation of the Amazon Labor Union, When the Revolution Comes is both a searing exposé of what it’s like to be working class in America today as well as the empowering story of what is possible when the overworked, underpaid, and disempowered join together, a movement born in community.Chris Smalls is the co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union. Under his leadership, the ALU successfully unionized an Amazon warehouse: a historic victory for workers' rights in America. A Fortune “40 Under 40” honoree, he was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2022 by Time magazine, alongside his fellow union organizer Derrick Palmer. When the Revolution Comes is his first book.Smalls is in conversation with Karen Attiah, an award-winning journalist, editor, and global thought leader whose work explores the intersections of race, culture, gender, media, and international affairs. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Northwestern University, Attiah is a former adjunct lecturer at Columbia, where she brought global expertise and academic rigor to her teaching. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593700631?ic_referral=g6QbGFeZDkvz8BkdfL5gtMo0gRO7oOEnchbV3t6cGuowM3lQi1iuPdlQOGMZNdgUtJhOyaCJqYFtIXlmjEFA7g0GH6EI1xDPFaiC-JDIgfsnGFYyaWGPe3Wf7V6PFTXrYjirbxM

A behind-the-scenes story of the last sixty years of American politics, told with purpose and humor by a political legend who worked with ten presidents, made deals with both Obama and Trump, and believes that serving in public office is the best way to help the largest number of people and to keep our Republic from falling apart.Can we survive this?” worried friends ask Lamar Alexander.A US senator who started in JFK’s Justice Department, worked in the Nixon White House, turned down serving as GOP Watergate counsel and as Ford’s campaign manager, walked for six months across Tennessee to become governor, lost two runs for president, and served as a university president and education secretary before winning three senate terms—Lamar Alexander answers that question with a resounding, “Yes.”Over nearly six decades, Alexander saw the public arena from as many angles as any living American. With wry humor and wisdom, he reminds us that Americans have asked this question in times more troubling than today—through wars, economic panics, pandemics, and social upheaval.Alexander paints insider portraits of the ten presidents he worked with—including the one best suited to the job, the most skillful politician, most accomplished in foreign affairs, most “normal,” and another who was on his way to being the most consequential.His book is for Americans hungry for optimism and leadership. It will inspire anyone who wants to serve in public office but doesn’t know how to start. It is a blueprint for those who want to join the 519,682 Americans already elected to office and the millions who work with them.Lamar Alexander has long been known as one of America’s most principled and effective statesmen. As US Senator, Alexander shepherded major laws that today govern K–12 education, medical innovation, and maintenance of our national parks. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “For eighteen years, there was Lamar Alexander, and there was the rest of us. He was hands-down one of the most brilliant, most thoughtful, and most effective legislators any of us have ever seen.” As governor, Alexander brought the auto industry to Tennessee and made it the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well. He was chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the nation’s governors, and of President Reagan’s “Commission on Americans Outdoors.” He served as US Education Secretary and as a university president. Alexander was also known for campaigning in a plaid shirt and performing on the piano with twenty-seven symphonies and on the Grand Ol’ Opry. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and New York University Law School. He and his late wife Honey were married for fifty-four years, had four children and nine grandchildren. His parents were teachers. A seventh generation Tennessean, Alexander lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains near Maryville where he grew up. This is his tenth book, all written by the author himself.Alexander is in conversation with Jonathan Martin, the politics bureau chief and senior political columnist at POLITICO, where he writes a reported column.  Prior to starting his column in 2022, Martin was the national political correspondent for The New York Times.  Covering elections in all 50 states, he served as the publication’s top political reporter for nearly a decade.  He is the co-author This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, which spent three weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and gave readers in-the-room access to the extraordinary events of the 2020 election and its aftermath.  Martin is a contributor to NBC's "Meet the Press."  He and his wife, Betsy, live in Washington and New Orleans.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9798895656488?ic_referral=VtKwg8DrRDJGWrwgYGCXeBKoxxsjbLBNOqdIh7PN0-gwM9RMH41C3qojGep5zPIc35cUpoibsOEMK-qAOS0Ehcx7AUMYB7CuesJaOHj8Ro98jBv4KQ9aKexajdlJ1PeCErTrKC8

The New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Attorney  offers a piercing exposé on the escalating threat of far-right politics—and a clear roadmap for saving our democracy.In The Fix, McQuade draws on her decades of experience as a federal prosecutor to reveal how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power—using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. With clarity, precision, and moral force, she exposes the tactics of today’s far-right MAGA system: information warfare, aggressive retribution, conformism enforced by fear, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances necessary to defend the public interest and uphold justice.Weaving together courtroom stories, real-time political analysis, and cautionary lessons from history and democratic backsliding abroad, McQuade makes the case that the threats we face are not future possibilities—they’re already here. Yet The Fix is not just a warning; it is a call to action. In the book’s final chapters, McQuade outlines common-sense reforms and strategies that can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people.Accessible, eye-opening, and grounded in constitutional faith, The Fix is essential reading for everyone concerned about the future of America—and ready to work together to take a stand for it.Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sportswriter and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant US attorney. McQuade is author of the national bestseller, Attack from Within. She and her husband have four children and live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.McQuade is in conversation with Kimberly Atkins Stohr, a senior opinion writer and columnist for Boston Globe Opinion. She is also an MSNBC contributor, co-host of the Politicon podcast #SistersInLaw, and guest host on WBUR’s On Point. Previously, Kimberly was the first Washington, DC-based news correspondent for WBUR. She has also served as the Boston Herald's Washington bureau chief, guest host of C-SPAN's morning call-in show's Washington Journal, and a Supreme Court reporter for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and its sister publications. She has appeared as a political commentator on a host of national and international television and radio networks, including CNN, Fox News, NBC News, PBS, NPR, Sky News (UK), and CBC News (Canada).PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781644215555?ic_referral=YLrZAtn1dDLg6MQGjOl_ZodZ6PVySizNqWbQ9neu-kUwM2v7E_D105ScFKLcjEoRbCrlGeYlW1vabUKWEBJ5RRJor75wFfah_L3vAOIr9s6rAvYm12-6u5Gnx5SSt1fOy2qGzjo

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Trump Indictments comes a beautiful, accessible guide on how to read the US Constitution.Think of this as the US Constitution explained by America’s favorite law professor, Melissa Murray. On her podcast, Strict Scrutiny, Murray and her cohosts, Kate Shaw and Leah Litman, provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities.On that podcast, on MSNOW—where she is a frequent contributor—in opinion pieces, and when providing commentary as she did in a recent New York Times piece on Justice Brown Jackson, Murray spends an awful lot of time demystifying laws for everyone else. In this book, she tackles one of the founding American documents: the Constitution. Each amendment will be annotated with some historical context provided, as well as examples of how it is relevant to our present day.More necessary than ever, as we look to the Supreme Court and their interpretation of the Constitution as the last institution upholding our democracy, this book is an indispensable read for every thinking American.Melissa Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University’s School of Law. She is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary, cohost of a top-ranked podcast, Strict Scrutiny—which is about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it—and a regular commentator on MSNBC. Her writing appears regularly in major national publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and The Nation. She is frequently called upon by national media outlets such as NPR and PBS to offer expert—yet accessible—commentary on the Supreme Court’s decisions and other pressing legal matters of national importance. Her academic publications have appeared (or are forthcoming) in the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Pennsylvania Law Review, Virginia Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others. Murray is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar and an Echols Scholar, and Yale Law School, where she was notes development editor of the Yale Law Journal. While in law school, she earned special recognition as an NAACP-LDF/Shearman & Sterling Scholar and was a semifinalist of Morris Tyler Moot Court. Following law school, Murray clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Stefan Underhill of the US District Court for the District of Connecticut. Prior to joining the NYU faculty, Murray was on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction. From March 2016 to June 2017, she served as interim dean of Berkeley Law. Murray is a member of the New York bar. She lives in New York City with her family.Murray is in conversation with Eric Holder, a civil rights leader who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He served as the eighty-second attorney general of the United States under President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold that office. Now a senior counsel at Covington & Burling, he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Dr. Sharon Malone, and they have three children. He is the author of Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668221938?ic_referral=DHM3OZdakUPbXDraAfDRRfFf8jEMNaX68BT6EGw6rSwwM_xXIT0An_3JdEzSjUkOsYP1p2l5GegYtR7G_cef6RcY9dbRYIBBpr-8WPB4dIkzAfV_pA6rQnCyiO1L4yaPojTX1Ug

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lords of Finance, a magnificent and timely reckoning with the first truly global financial calamity and the famous banking family at the center of the whirlwindOver the course of the 1850s and 1860s, during the first era of globalization, the world experienced an unprecedented economic boom. Fueling this expansion was an explosion in the global bond market, at the hub of which stood one family—the Rothschilds, arguably the wealthiest banking family in history. While the giant sums of capital provided through the bond market built the railroads, the century’s most transformative investments, the money raised also unleashed a frenzy of speculation, massive overinvestment, and wasteful borrowing by governments.With excessive euphoria leading to disappointed expectations, in the early 1870s the bubble burst. Stock markets from Vienna to New York crashed, and dozens of railroads and many governments defaulted. Financial officials responded by blundering into a precipitous remaking of the global currency system—exacerbating the ensuing economic collapse and setting the stage for decades of a punitive deflation that sparked waves of anti-globalist populism. As Liaquat Ahamed shows us in this enthralling history, the crisis of 1873 was, among other things, a death blow to Reconstruction in the United States and the proximate cause of the Ottoman Empire’s slow death spiral. Ironically, though the Rothschilds had presciently kept a low profile during the bubble, when the deluge came, they were viciously scapegoated as part of a wider hatred directed at “Jewish finance,” a strain of antisemitism that would come to full evil flower during the twentieth century.1873 is a bird’s-eye reckoning with the full dimension of the crisis, from its buildup to its long aftermath. The Rothschilds and a cast of other witnesses give us the human perspective. And we have a brilliant financial historian’s grasp of the larger forces at play, resulting in a global narrative with thrilling explanatory power.Liaquat Ahamed graduated with degrees in economics from Cambridge and Harvard, worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and had a twenty-five career as a professional investment manager based in London and New York before turning to writing. His first book, Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, about the lead up to the 1929 Great Depression, won the Pulitzer Prize for History, the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Gold Medal, and the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. He is a trustee of the Putnam Funds, an adviser to the Rock Creek Group, and the Chair of the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. He lives in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. with his wife Meena.Ahamed is in conversation with Steven R. Weisman, senior editorial adviser at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the leading economic policy think tank in Washington. Before joining PIIE in 2008, he was a correspondent, editor, and member of the editorial board at the New York Times. His last position at the Times was chief international economics correspondent. He is the author/editor of four books, including The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln to Wilson—How the Income Tax Transformed America (Simon and Schuster, 2002), which received the Hillman Prize for the book that most advances the cause of social justice.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781594204173?ic_referral=i5ivFai3RMkD4Q1pYIGloioCo4VALPCevGyLDiv0gQAwM0EXYNpHX1BrCdiCDes77gr3SRxlTXTGlPCwBQRsNqp9Di5TEbMVhR15xWj_GYJ7tPEc8nNVwk7HK6xzXGlTeYbcxs0

In the entertainment world, the spotlight shines on the beautiful— but behind the scenes are those who make the magic happen. Amy Greene is one of them. As head of marketing and public relations at the Cinema Channel, a beloved yet struggling cable network devoted to classic and independent films based in midtown Manhattan, Amy is at the height of her career— but her life is anything but steadfast. Torn between her charismatic boss, Owen Orski, and her husband Jack, Amy’s world schisms with 9/11, the death of her father, and the secrets she’ s kept locked away. The Other Beautiful People is a dazzling cinematic novel about love, loss, and the search for meaning— in work, family, and the spaces in between. It’ s a story that will captivate your heart and stay with you long after the final scene. The Other Beautiful People is a workplace love story unlike any other.Caroline Bock is the author of THE OTHER BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, a workplace love story, inspired by her two-decade career at AMC, Bravo, IFC, and IFC Films. She is also the author of the young adult novels LIE and Before My Eyes as well as the award-winning short story collection Carry Her Home. A graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied creative writing with Raymond Carver, she also holds an MFA in Fiction from the City College of New York. She is the co-president/prose editor at the Washington Writers’ Publishing House.Bock is in conversation with Laura Scalzo, author of two novels, The Speed of Light in Air, Water, and Glass (2018), praised as “lyrical and insightful,” and American Arcadia (2023),“a gorgeous riff of a New York City novel.” Her shorter work has appeared in various literary magazines including Had, Ellipsis Zine, Reflex Fiction, and the Grace & Gravity Series. She was a 2023 Chautauqua Writer-in-Residence and is a 2024, 2025 recipient of a DC Arts Grant. She is a graduate of Syracuse University. Find out more about her at laurascalzo.com.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781646037292?ic_referral=_Xajhhj0XuBmDrLr7OQtWWFwYGGXc2zc1TCoKadwg2cwM-3bUIAD_b6KiB1AJXSEV30f3Nhm12YelJwQ3YDo7olChC33W6v2dEuO25dZIFao9L-yCeEBcL7WV69-uQ4SSm5waXQ

A moving, harrowing, and compulsively readable portrait of the lives of Iranians across five decades, tracing the promise of the 1979 revolution, its betrayal by forces of autocracy, and a people’s undying spirit of resistance In 1979, a revolution in Iran swept aside a monarchy, fueled by the Iranian people’s dreams of social justice and political freedom. But in the years that followed, the movement’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, and his acolytes instead built a system that served their narrow faction and worsened beyond imagination the brutality and corruption that had existed under the previous government. In Stolen Revolution, award-winning journalists Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin tell the entwined stories of six Iranians who, together, have lived the arc of modern Iranian history in all its bitter twists and enduring hopes.We meet Mehdi Karroubi, a devotee of Khomeini, who rose to the heights of power before being cast out of the inner circle. Hila Sedighi, a young activist, gave voice through her poetry to her peers’ hopes and shattered dreams. Amir Moghadam, an ambitious government bureaucrat, witnessed corruption and graft on a scale that impelled him to take enormous risks to expose the truth. Said Rahmani returned to Iran to spark a start-up boom in his native country and encountered a ruthless security state. And Rozhin Yousefzadeh and Kosar Eftekhari, both born in the 1990s, joined a mass movement that confronted a ferocious state apparatus: the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Each paid an enormous price. In this vivid and unforgettable narrative, Stolen Revolution centers ordinary Iranians and their destiny, even as it provides a gutting understanding of life in a modern authoritarian state.Yeganeh Torbati is the Iran correspondent for The New York Times. She has also worked at The Washington Post, ProPublica, Reuters, and The Baltimore Sun, and has covered national security, immigration, and business. She was part of a Reuters team that received the Gerald Loeb Award, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the European Press Prize. Torbati was born in Oklahoma to Iranian immigrants.Bozorgmehr Sharafedin began his journalism career in Iran, rising to editor-in-chief of the most popular youth political magazine in the country. In 2008, he left Iran for the BBC in London. He joined Reuters in 2015, where he shared a National Press Club Award. He moved to Washington DC in 2024 and works as the Head of Digital at Persian-language Iran International.Torbati & Sharafedin are in conversation with David Sanger, the White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times and the bestselling author of The Inheritance, Confront and Conceal, and The Perfect Weapon. He has been a member of three teams that won the Pulitzer Prize, including in 2017 for international reporting about Russia's effort to manipulate the presidential election. A contributor to CNN, he also teaches national security policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Sanger's new book, New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West, is out now.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780385550314?ic_referral=AGmGaepqpsHvNPOtlpoc4zBNR5O1Ud02_rjK3sawT9cwM3q_W8Sg1IpSq_v7txRgrh4xp2DWwqNWviJD_ucwMKK-j8KFyh940Cz5M-G853tLWtQUP1aJAMuGHBd0j7TRkIuMD1g

In the tradition of John Hersey’s Hiroshima, a terse and piercing look at a critical episode in the Ukraine War, from the award-winning author of They Will Have to Die Now.In March of 2022, three weeks after invading Ukraine, Russian forces bombed the shelter housed in the Donetsk Regional Academic Drama Theater, in the city of Mariupol. The bombing stands, to this day, as the single worst act of mass civilian killing of the war. This book tells the story of the group of ordinary Ukrainians—workers, teachers, actors—who built that shelter, giving succor to thousands of their countrypeople, before it was destroyed. Their audacity and humor and humanity in the midst the siege of Mariupol, against impossible odds, will leave readers inspired, amused, and devastated. Their story is the story of a young republic and its struggle to survive.James Verini writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic, among other publications. His journalism has received a National Magazine Award and a George Polk Award. He is the author of They Will Have to Die Now, about the battle that brought down ISIS.Verini is in in conversation with Ambassador William B. Taylor Jr., a distinguished American diplomat and former U.S. Army officer, known for his work in foreign policy, specifically in Ukraine, the Middle East, and former Soviet states. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (2006–2009) and later as Chargé d'Affaires in Kyiv (2019–2020)Verini and Taylor Jr. are introduced by Kateryna Smagliy, Ph.D., who has been serving as a Counselor for Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Ukraine in the USA since February 2022. Prior to her arrival to Washington DC, Kateryna served at Political Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and led the International Cooperation Department at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine.  Smagliy is a Fulbright scholar and a graduate of The McCain Institute Next Generation Leaders program.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668062203?ic_referral=46AIO-TRCtAGBGqQxNV8EEc-n59OEwIfbCtmk67lGLQwM2sSGf-XI7hnjxT7Z-XLp0pMne3rVGicogUkJiLA_AJKMfoFeCPhX_N-PVvllWWoNZk6ar4cGcIDS1urT6QUys4yywI

An inspiring portrait of the men and women who serve in our nation's military that captures their courage and profound sacrifice, by the Emmy Award–winning ABC News anchor, Martha Raddatz. For twenty-five years Martha Raddatz has witnessed the grit and resilience of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have been fighting America’s wars since 9/11. What motivates them to do such impossible things? How do they find the courage to put their lives on the line, or the strength to start over when things don’t go as planned?The Hero Next Door offers a dozen portraits of servicemen and women who are every bit as inspiring as those of the Greatest Generation. Every one of them has shown awe-inspiring strength of character, creativity, and drive, faced daunting odds, and come out stronger.Take Kevin Shaeffer, a naval officer working at the Pentagon on 9/11, whose life-changing experience on that day fueled his determination to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Or Mark Little, who made it his mission, after an IED blew up his convoy in Iraq, to help veterans rebuild their lives when they were down. Or Josh Webster, who dangled by a rope under enemy fire to rescue a fallen officer in the mountains of Afghanistan. Or Rocco Armonda, a highly skilled surgeon who pioneered a new way of treating traumatic brain injury in Iraq. Or Danielle “Purple” Thiriot and Charles “Wingnut” Wickware, who, once they started flying, knew exactly what their mission was. Or Derek Herrera, who gives new meaning to transformative second acts.Life can turn on a moment, and who’s to say what we’ll do? That, we learn, is when you spot the real heroes: when no one is watching. “Individually, their stories are deeply inspiring,” Raddatz writes. “Together, they offer something beyond inspiration: insight into what it means to live with a life-defining courage and sense of purpose.”Martha Raddatz has been covering America’s wars for ABC since September 11, as chief global affairs correspondent and co-anchor of This Week. She is the author of The Long Road Home, a New York Times bestseller made into a National Geographic miniseries. Raddatz was part of the team that won a Peabody Award for coverage of September 11 and an Emmy for coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden. She has won seven Emmys. She was also awarded the George C. Marshall Medal for sustained commitment to the men and women of America’s armed forces.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668093801?ic_referral=ib1m-tJHCv3TVlE3mR3UDZJiRDR9Oaw7eU6wGhcbaq0wM01yYydPyU4suQnqb2NWo0vpYptQnDnB8PYH6inWOQv9QxRqylTDrl1PUIIg6ClfxhiOp3JPlrMIO9oZX7S6WpstanU

In their acclaimed book The Water Defenders, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh told the story of activists in San Isidro, El Salvador, who fought multinational mining corporation OceanaGold and won—protecting their drinking water and environment from irreparable harm—despite great personal danger. Now, Jon Sack’s captivating graphic adaptation brings the story to new audiences and with new urgency, as environmental progress and human rights remain under assault around the world. The book is also updated to address Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele's ascent and the subsequent arrests of five water defenders.Initially excited by the company’s promises of jobs and prosperity, farmer Vidalina Morales, brothers Marcelo and Miguel Rivera, and others soon realized that the trade-off was catastrophic contamination of El Salvador’s main source of fresh water. Facing corporate machinations and violence, the ordinary people of San Isidro and surrounding communities built a transnational coalition that prevailed over powerful adversaries to score an environmental victory with worldwide repercussions.Broad and Cavanagh draw on over a decade of research, interviews, and experience as allies and experts in international development to recount the harrowing saga. A blueprint for civic bravery and local-to-global activism, as well as a rich history of Central America’s political conflicts and people’s fights against environmental and economic exploitation, this story will inspire anyone who feels helpless against corporate malfeasance.Robin Broad is a two-time MacArthur fellow and won a Guggenheim fellowship for her work surrounding mining in El Salvador. A research professor at American University, she served as an international economist in the US Department of the Treasury, in the US Congress, and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Broad and her husband, John Cavanagh, helped build the network of global allies that spearheaded the fight against mining in El Salvador. They have coauthored several books together.John Cavanagh is senior advisor for and former director of the Washington, DC–based Institute for Policy Studies, an organization that collaborates with the Poor People’s Campaign and other dynamic social movements to turn ideas into action for peace, justice, and the environment. Previously, he worked with the United Nations to research corporate power. Cavanagh and his wife, Robin Broad, helped build the network of global allies that spearheaded the fight against mining in El Salvador. They have coauthored several books together. Jon Sack (Illustrator) Jon Sack is a US- and UK-based artist and writer. His comic books include La Lucha, which is about violence in Juárez and the lawyers working to combat it, and Iraqi Oil for Beginners, about the complicated history of oil in Iraq, as well as My Fairy Godfather and Windows on the World.Broad and Cavanagh are in conversation with Tope Folarin, a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington, D.C. He serves as Director of the Institute for Policy Studies and the Lannan Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Whiting Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other awards. His debut novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man, was published by Simon & Schuster.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780814259689?ic_referral=EIX6IdwkvUutYHxga1dADe106Vq71zL4UREZmFSDefIwM6oyb8bkpNXSn2ii0MXL-zc6vAb6Y6vmeO16nnf3eyRcsYyBBEw83JAw7UyP7GtGkyoAAarflK6OpGD2S7IljIsi2Yw

Lauren Green never expected to be a suspect in a murder investigation on her first day at D.C.-based Lens magazine. But then again, nothing had been going well lately.Dumped by her fiance, her academic career floundering, and her living situation up in the air, she's barely holding things together. She knows she didn't kill reporter Tony Mandel. But who did? Surrounded by murder suspects-including one whom she finds surprisingly intriguing-Lauren tries to piece the clues together, not only about Tony Mandel's death but also about her own life.Deborah Kalb is a freelance writer and editor. She spent about two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors.Kalb is in conversation with Susan Coll, the best-selling author of eight novels, including The Literati, Real Life and Other Fictions, Bookish People, and The Stager, a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice. Her novel Acceptance was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Moment Magazine, NPR.org, and Atlantic.com. She is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781627206426?ic_referral=ei73PTKl6loUw63pU6Vkyh0A-65zb0ysorHeN2ipJ9wwMyw5ch6OyoKhiXIpb5WSaq3QV2VDgB-YTGfVYIjqgUbSU6qb9vfIVifCNxcxu8-1Yqq_pZPTZ_JBNKS9IuyOfmxCfkk

On a February morning, Danielle Crittenden's world cleaved in two: the life before her daughter Miranda was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment, and the life after. With unflinching honesty and unexpected grace, she chronicles the shattering impact of a child's death and the strange afterlife of grief itself: how it infiltrates grocery stores and dinner parties, transforms friendships, and ultimately reshapes the mourner as fundamentally as the world.Here is grief in all its terrible specificity: the police call that changes everything, the surreal task of choosing a burial dress, the well-meaning friends who "griefsplain." But here too is love distilled: a mother's meditation on a daughter who commanded dinner tables at twelve, who interviewed Dick Cheney with a child's notebook, who transformed into a luminous young woman living her dreams in New York. She writes of joining "the world's worst club"--parents who have lost children--and the terrible wisdom its members share.Written with the narrative power that has made Crittenden one of our most incisive observers of family and culture, Dispatches from Grief brings a journalist's eye to the landscape of loss. For those walking through grief, for those who love someone grieving, and for all who dare imagine how precious and precarious our time together is, this book stands as both singular portrait and universal truth.Danielle Crittenden is a journalist, author, and former host of the podcast The Femsplainers, known for her incisive and original commentary on women, family, and modern life. In addition to writing a popular monthly newsletter on Substack, her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. She is the author of four previous books, including What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman, praised by Vanity Fair as the work of "one of the most important new thinkers about women and family." Born in Toronto, she now lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, journalist and author David Frum.Crittenden is in conversation with Mary Haft, a writer, producer, and founder of HAFT PRODUCTIONS, LLC, specializing in documentaries for nonprofits. A Vice President of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and Co-Founder of the Nantucket Book Festival, she is the author of Nantucket: Portrait of an American Town, and a recently completed memoir: Staying the Course: The Making of a Marine Mom.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781964378114?ic_referral=EX2Qg-4fY39AbNtpZ0fGHMiebqen6rvfewaaXhriklswMxiIOg8YRcXWWE6hxe_uAW2pn_E85vgPHOr_UAdeUt60PEACG_U0j45xYQ_OhrV0YkMOflB4duKhTNxu8wbV_PMpcaU

The Devil Wears Prada meets The White Lotus in a story of colliding egos and shocking betrayal, as intoxicatingly ice cold as the pink prosecco that flows all weekend.Everything needs to be just right for bestselling mystery writer Faye Wader's first-ever fan weekend. Her sales might be slipping--only a little --but her readers still love her enough to pony up for three days and two nights on Great Misery Island. The retreat is precisely planned, from the small-batch artisanal doughnuts to the perimenopausal Mermaid Meditation, by Faye and her beleaguered assistant, Jade--an aspiring author who can't seem to finish her own novel.Faye's longtime agent and editor will be there, as well as Faye's number one fan, Peggy Mercer, who has been first in line at every one of Faye's events. When news comes that the weekend will be crashed by glamorous, charismatic rival novelist Abby Schuss, Faye thinks things can't get worse ... until one of the attendees is found dead in her room, setting off an unexpectedly murderous chain of events that makes prepub anxiety seem like a day at the beach. How far is Faye willing to go to get exactly what she wants from her Author Weekend?The Author Weekend is a thrilling and hilarious dive into the dark heart of envy, and a glorious exploration of a woman of a certain age desperate to survive the dog-eat-dog world of publishing and control her own narrative.Laura Zigman is the author of Small World (a New York Times Group Text pick and Editor's Choice), Separation Anxiety, Animal Husbandry (which was made into the movie "Someone Like You," starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd), Dating Big Bird, Her, and Piece of Work. She has collaborated on several works of non-fiction--including Eddie Izzard's New York Times bestseller, Believe Me--and has been a contributor to the New York Times and other publications. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Zigman is in conversation Nora Krug, a writer and editor based in Washington, DC. For nearly two decades she worked at The Washington Post, primarily as an editor in Book World. Prior to that she was an editor at The New York Times, Architectural Digest and Little, Brown. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9798228330412?ic_referral=Tj6AQlm6_2Vb20sykRAlDkXuYgCbSlOaNYHeIslra9gwMzivd3CWiAH4HJx0QF61p1Gcx5V-FkH6qcqBj_REtCIK2ZuCTTJ2Dbz-3ePccBghSRXZHQK1-lJJUOYcf2VPpj6UlBk

The author of the critically acclaimed The Viral Underclass (one of Kirkus Reviews best books of 2022) is back with The Overseer Class, which explores what happens when members of historically minoritized groups are selected for high-visibility positions of power within existing institutions—but under the conditions of a kind of Faustian bargain.Our society places so much weight and attention on those who become the first or only of their identifying group that we miss one of the inherent issues in that model. This book is about the kinds of compromises made by a small but influential group of people from minoritized groups in the United States as they have entered segregated institutions in highly visible positions. People in the overseer class wield enormous institutional power, even necropolitical power over who lives and who dies; it’s just that their power is predicated upon repressing other people who look (or speak/have sex/come from places) like them.The most obvious contemporary overseer is the Black police officer. The Overseer Class begins with this quote from James Baldwin from 1967:“The poor, of whatever color, do not trust the law and certainly have no reason to, and God knows we didn't. ‘If you must call a cop,’ we said in those days, ‘for God's sake, make sure it's a white one.’ We did not feel that the cops were protecting us, for we knew too much about the reasons for the kinds of crimes committed in the ghetto; but we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder--on your head--to prove to himself and his colleagues that he was not like all the other n******.”But this dynamic does not only exist within law enforcement, it exists in many different spheres and The Overseer Class explores what it looks like in mass media, universities, corporate America, the military, and government. The Overseer Class aims not only to educate us and start this discussion but to provide a framework for challenging that dynamic. It is a weighty topic but one that Dr. Thrasher is well-equipped to handle.Steven W. Thrasher, PhD is the author of the award-winning book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, which was a New York Times's Paperback Row Editors' Pick, named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews, was longlisted for both the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Literature, and won the 2023 POZ Award for Best in Literature. He is also the inaugural Daniel Renberg Chair for Social Justice in Reporting at the Medill School of Journalism and a faculty member of Northwestern University's Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. An internationally renowned scholar on race, gender, and infectious disease, Dr. Thrasher's writing has been published by the Guardian, Atlantic, New York Times, Scientific American, Literary Hub, and in many academic journals. Thrasher is in conversation with Victor Ray, the F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and at the University of Iowa and Vice President of the American Sociological Association. His research applies critical race theory to classic sociological questions, including social notions of progress and organizational theory. His work has won multiple awards, including the early career award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and the Southern Sociological Society’s Junior Scholar Award. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063399419?ic_referral=7MV_S95eHf4h4YjDPrUZlI8bYovvKoanMVbeHv88P2QwM3zEX-zkUHkOH5Z6xHhDdi0oPl9AjCTSQCe83oiVNGRLlAaomlCLlZFt7girMVwB6-yT1mhoK6bV4FJqcc7WE6MUVfc

What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? This sweeping history of the United States told through fifteen speeches relives the battle over American identity, from a New York Times bestselling author and one of President Barack Obama’s former speechwriters.For 250 years, we have debated what it means to be American. This question shaped the compromises in our Constitution and the arguments we’ve been having ever since—spawning abolitionism, secession, and civil war; populism, mass migration, and global leadership; movements for reform and the backlashes to them. In All We Say, Ben Rhodes tells the story of fifteen speeches—some iconic, others long forgotten—which have both shaped and reflected the argument Americans have been having from our founding to the intense divisions of our time.Through riveting and beautifully rendered accounts of the people, movements, and moments that produced these speeches, Rhodes traces the history of our battle over identity. The result is a singular and revealing portrait of America itself: a nation divided between two stories—one of inheritance, power, and exclusion, the other of equality, striving, and belonging. Drawing on a decade writing for Barack Obama, Rhodes also shows us how words can redirect a nation, what makes a speech enduring, and why oratory is a unique form of persuasion in American democracy.From Benjamin Franklin’s call for compromise at the Constitutional Convention, to Alexander Stephens’ case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy; from Martin Luther King’s dream of true equality to Donald Trump’s rallying cry against democracy itself, these speeches remind us that history is a living argument. At a time when American identity—and truth—is contested, All We Say offers a fresh and powerful look at who we really are and who we could still become.Ben Rhodes is the author of the New York Times bestsellers After the Fall and The World as It Is; co-host of Pod Save the World; a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC; the co-chair of National Security Action; and an advisor to former president Barack Obama.Rhodes is joined in conversation with Susan Page, the award-winning Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY. She is also the New York Times best-selling author of The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty (Twelve, 2019); Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power (Twelve, 2021), and The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Her latest book is The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, being published by Harper in April 2026.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593595121?ic_referral=Yq6EfQGeR6CJfzHEsWjM8qrhLGPYzM_eNU3cJs2rtkUwM8bMoODge29eXfGm85hj-8y2U27LhIWOIVx6h_LNzCZj6gMgiRrr0xo3vnUXvl7YhC_fdHpb_34Nv_yaJ1aW8TmVXtQ

Poverty is not inevitable.In fact, we have already made historic progress in reducing it-both globally and in the United States. In Poverty Abolitionists, economist, pastor, and activist David Beckmann shows that with collective will, effective strategy, and renewed moral vision, we can virtually eliminate poverty in our generation.Drawing on decades of leadership at the World Bank and as president of Bread for the World, Beckmann distills five essential insights and ten strategies to reinvigorate the fight against hunger and deprivation. He highlights data that proves poverty is solvable, confronts the big political setback that has reversed progress, and calls for a new poverty abolition movement-similar in scale and determination to the movement that ended enslavement.At the heart of this book is hope: hope grounded in evidence, history, and the countless efforts of communities and advocates who continue to push for justice. Beckmann insists that the movement to abolish poverty is not only political but also spiritual. He invites people of faith, seekers, and skeptics alike to deepen their solidarity with those in need and with a threatened planet.With a foreword by travel writer Rick Steves, Poverty Abolitionists offers both a practical roadmap and a stirring moral challenge--it is a clarion call to action for activists, policy makers, and ordinary citizens who care about the future of humanity and who seek to build a fairer, freer, and more just world.David Beckmann is an economist, pastor, and activist who has spent his life working to end poverty. A former World Bank economist, he served for 29 years as president of Bread for the World, where his leadership helped secure U.S. and global policy changes that reduced hunger worldwide. Awarded the World Food Prize, Beckmann now leads the Circle of Protection, a coalition of Christian leaders advocating for programs that serve low-income people, and teaches on religion, politics, and poverty reduction.Beckmann is in conversation with Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group and served as the vice president in charge of Advocacy at World Vision U.S. and the senior political director at Sojourners.Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention and serves in ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va. Follow him on Bluesky @revadamtaylor. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/david-beckmann-052626

Join April Ryan for another installment in an ongoing series of discussions focusing on the panelists' most recent books and current events. Ryan will examine recent and longstanding issues with the following panelists: White House Correspondent April Ryan has a unique vantage point as the only Black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House - a position she has held for over 28 years, since the Clinton era.  She is now the longest-serving Black member of the press corps.  Her position as a White House Correspondent has afforded her unusual insight into the racial sensitivities, issues, and attendant political struggles of our nation's past presidents. April is the Washington D.C. Bureau Chief for Black Press USA and the host of The Tea with April Ryan on Substack. She has been featured in Essence, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Elle Magazines to name a few.  April Ryan has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association. She is also an esteemed member of the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club. In 2015, Ms. Ryan was nominated for an NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Literary Work-Debut Author) for her first book. In 2017 April was the Journalist of the Year for the National Association of Black Journalists. April Ryan is the author of the award-winning book, The Presidency in Black and White, and At Mama's Knee, where she looks at race relations through the lessons and wisdom that mothers have given their children. April is also the author of Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House. Her latest book, Black Women Will Save the World, celebrates Black women's resilience and unheralded strength, reflects on "The Year That Changed Everything" — 2020 — and discusses African-American women's unprecedented role in upholding democracy.Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former chairwoman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Legal History, the author of 13 books, and the recipient of 37 honorary degrees. Dr. Berry has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show, Tavis Smiley, PBS NewsHour, CBS Evening News, Al Jazeera America News, and various MSNBC and CNN shows.Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award–winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is a distinguished professor, gifted writer, and prominent media personality. He has taught at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, including Princeton, Brown, and Georgetown, and is currently a Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Dyson has authored over 25 books, including seven New York Times bestsellers. He has won numerous awards for his literary achievements, including the 2020 Langston Hughes Medal, the American Book Award, and two NAACP Image Awards. In addition to his academic and writing pursuits, Dr. Dyson is also a leading public intellectual, known for his thought-provoking insights on race, social justice, and contemporary culture. His books on figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Barack Obama have garnered widespread acclaim and sparked important conversations about race in America.

Two top trade experts with popular economics podcasts argue for a new way of operating between the biggest economic powers in the world.We used to take trade for granted. No more.Everything we know about trade has changed. With Trump’s tariffs throwing everything up in the air, this is the book to explain the eruption. As we enter this new era of trade conflict, we need a new way of operating between the biggest economic powers in the world. Trade experts Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown argue that now that the rules of the game have been abandoned, we need a different strategy. Yearning for the old approach to start working again isn’t an option. Ultimately, the authors argue that a Western system that protects market-oriented democracies from China’s one will require the embrace of some uniquely Chinese tools. If we want to avoid a war with guns, drones, and battles, then we need to understand these weapons better in How to Win a Trade War.The authors give a tour of products and supply chains, from metals to sushi, and the impact of trade—and trade disruptions—on workers and consumers. They follow a lipstick with plastic casing manufactured in China, filled in Mexico, and then shipped to Canada after stopping off at a Texan warehouse. They trace an electronics supply chain from silicon sourced in the Appalachian Mountains, to “wafers” made in Japan, to chips made in Taiwan using equipment made in the Netherlands, to smartphones assembled in China and sent to America.They speculate what all-out economic warfare might look like. What if the world’s key shipping lanes got blocked? Or satellite communication went down? What about export restrictions cutting off supplies of key products? Tariffs could be the least of our problems.Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist at the Financial Times and host of the podcast The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes. Before joining the Financial Times in July 2023, she spent eight years at The Economist, where she won an award from the Association of Business Journalists for her commentary on the first Trump administration’s trade policy. She cofounded the Trade Talks podcast during the Trump administration’s first term and cohosted The Economist’s Money Talks podcast. She started her career as an economist working at the UK Treasury and then as a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. She has an undergraduate degree and masters in economics from the University of Cambridge.Chad Bown is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and host of the Trade Talks podcast. He has performed public service in two US administrations, as Chief Economist at the Department of State in the Biden-Harris administration and as Senior Economist in the White House on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors. He has also been on the research staff at the World Bank and World Trade Organization, and was on the faculty at Brandeis University for twelve years and was a tenured professor of economics. He received a BA magna cum laude in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Keynes and Bown are in conversation with Joseph Politano, an economic analyst, data journalist, and online content creator. He is the writer and founder of Apricitas Economics—an independent weekly newsletter read by more than 45,000 people. His work focuses on macroeconomics, particularly labor markets, inflation, housing, international trade, and industrial policy. Prior to writing Apricitas, Joseph received a BA in Economics & Political Science from the George Washington University, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics."PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668221310?ic_referral=ojweu8iMSGlmFEjkU9x6gp0Lfcs4GxU5r47-kzNenNkwM5wHWhZhmGvXS9RmWdXtheZSPM9WSDToRgyLN0hDkQYPVSOxpsqVQc3NhsmvHEw4ty16TiYllyY81uSoLRQqiGCGNCs

From MS NOW legal analyst and veteran federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, an urgent summons to tackle the scourge of political lies in America—and prevent a figure like Donald Trump from ever rising again.“The 2020 election was a total FRAUD!” “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” “There is NO WAY Biden got 80,000,000 votes!!!” These and other lies by Donald Trump sparked a historic insurrection to topple our democracy and undermined the public’s faith in elections. The Trump administration’s deceit has enabled the use of law enforcement and the military against the people, the unlawful deportation of immigrants, and the disregard of international rules meant to promote a civilized and peaceful world. Other politicians, inspired by the success of the political lie, have flooded the public square with falsehoods of their own. As Andrew Weissmann reveals, our vulnerability to politicians’ lies stems from a flaw in America’s legal system—one that can be fixed. But it will take courage, creativity, and a willingness to look beyond our borders to other countries that have already confronted this crisis. A slim, elegant treatise, Liar’s Kingdom is a playbook for stopping politicians like Trump from holding office in the future—and for saving our democracy. We are entitled to more from our government, and this book shows how we can get it.Andrew Weissmann is an NYU Law School professor and widely respected legal analyst on MS NOW. He was a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director Mueller, a leader of the Enron Task Force, and started out as an organized crime prosecutor in Brooklyn. He is a co-host of MS NOW's award-winning podcast Main Justice and, before that, Prosecuting Donald Trump. He has written two New York Times bestsellers, Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation, and, as co-author, The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary, and also writes the Substack newsletter Behind the Headlines. He holds degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law School, was a Fulbright scholar, and teaches at NYU School of Law. He is a New Yorker through and through.Weissmann is in conversation with Carol Leonnig, a five-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the author of three bestselling books and an investigative reporter who has worked at The Washington Post for the last twenty-five years. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on security failures by the Secret Service. She also was part of Post teams awarded Pulitzers in 2024, 2022, 2018, and 2014. Leonnig, a contributor to MSNBC, is the author of Zero Fail and coauthor of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780316601306?ic_referral=sTGTIJDt3cmp7BNBFY93q3ohedGt6JohBMTEkgMoOoAwM-f6qko9O_aav7pkG395wrETyLwdeNL6nj4KzHRiv4CqiD9WbYVBc3f6hNa1uxDEgpgoov0LCJp8XVYBxPw32QDHpB8

“Lois Romano writes with grace and empathy to bring depth and dignity to Mary’s story, shining a light on the contradictions that defined her—ambition and vulnerability, devotion and volatility, public scrutiny and private sorrow. What emerges is a deeply human portrayal of a fiercely intelligent, emotionally layered, and courageous woman—flawed, fragile, and tested by unimaginable tragedy—who was not merely a witness to history, but a full partner in a presidency that altered the course of American history." - Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of "Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."A revelatory new biography of one of the most misunderstood and vilified First Ladies in American history: Mary Todd Lincoln.Mary Lincoln was at the center of politics at a time when society’s expectations for women were rigid and circumscribed. The product of Southern aristocracy, she grew up among an influential clan of politicians and elites who founded Lexington, Kentucky. Mary’s early exposure to the male-dominated world of politics instilled in her a keen political acumen and a fierce ambition. Proclaiming as a child that she was destined to become the wife of a president, she played a crucial role in boosting her husband to greatness.But her hopes for a triumphant experience at the pinnacle of power were lost to the Civil War and unfathomable family tragedies. Still, Mary persevered. She steadfastly supported the Union war effort, visited encampments, tended to wounded soldiers, and generously donated money and gifts to refugees from slavery. She was an unconventional, larger-than-life character who dressed too ostentatiously, grieved too publicly, suffered a shopping addiction, and seemed unable or unwilling to corral her emotions, her temper, and her opinions. She made enemies—influential men who wrote her story for her, often unfairly. After Lincoln was assassinated, she was all but abandoned by the nation he had given his life to defend and preserve.Former Washington Post writer and columnist Lois Romano rectifies the tortured legacy of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was failed at nearly every turn in her widowhood—by her family, by her government, by medical professionals ill-equipped to diagnose her mental illness, and finally, by history. Romano draws on hundreds of archives, letters, and memoirs to provide the most complete portrait—of not simply of an inconvenient widow, but of a brilliant and flawed woman, who possessed uncommon tenacity in the face of extraordinary adversity and personal torment, and helped launch one of America’s greatest presidents.Lois Romano is a long-time national political journalist who was an editor, columnist, and reporter for The Washington Post and POLITICO, and who has covered numerous first ladies.Romano is in conversation with Elisabeth Bumiller, a writer at large for The New York Times, where she focuses on the people, politics and culture of Washington, and how decisions made there affect lives in the nation and around the world. She was The Times’ Washington bureau chief from 2015 to 2024, when she oversaw all news in Washington during the last year of the Obama White House and the next eight years of the Trump and Biden administrations. Over the previous two decades she covered the White House, the Pentagon, John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and New York’s City Hall for The Times. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781982140724?ic_referral=ROhrcIM3JimnLwz_-3th9X5kWses4aTwY7Y3aGwRJ6owMyvyNQWq7p57uHi7Lr8u5GMXagL8_DUrTF3DmhZWu4gQbqcG_lLua8kWWcXkWd3TyRLqzP1pB3tCjecp6CN7c9YMX88

Find happiness and comfort in life’s everyday moments with this insightful visual volume of prose and poetry.In our busy and stress-filled world, it’s easy to miss the smaller moments that can provide happiness and fulfilment. Small Wonders is your invitation to slow down and savor the minor miracles of everyday living. With her insightful prose and evocative poetry, author Jennifer Shoop celebrates the little moments that connect us to each other and to the world around us. Dreamy photography brings the text to life, showcasing the beauty found in the often-overlooked, mundane details all around us. Author Jennifer Shoop (@magpiebyjenshoop), creator of the literary lifestyle publication Magpie, encourages you to find joy and replenishment in the small stuff, such as:A long phone call with a friendThe dance of backyard firefliesThe well-worn charm of a beloved hand-me-downAnd more. Wherever you are on your path, life's small wonders can nurture your soul. Jennifer Shoop (@magpiebyjenshoop) is the creator of Magpie, the literary lifestyle publication and platform that focuses on inspiring women to live thoughtful, well-curated lives, with an invitation for self-discovery. Magpie features a daily blog with an engaged readership that covers a wide range of lifestyle topics, including motherhood, friendship, love, literature, and beyond. Jennifer holds an advanced degree in literature from Georgetown University and resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and two children.Shoop is in conversation Chesley McCarty, architecture & photography defines her perspective as a realtor in Washington, DC. After working for 7 years in commercial real estate – a year of which she spent traveling & working remotely across Europe – she now partners with clients who share an appreciation for homes with architectural heritage and strong design character. Chesley is an old soul who enjoys a good book, anything French, and the sound of the (Mediterranean) sea.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781577157267?ic_referral=pbRcvxLL1kiVrU-WQWjDzJRbfumdITf_CPN76_cB2lcwM_TfFWPI2TcTHRRzLUIcFI3oWafuaU85xv0G31lCc5Nhj6kgqf-muzliXp-_HC4IbIeWX5hD2KuTgfZLWDZ0NkMDjGM

In contrast to the wave of noisy polemics around AI, AI For Good explores how, in practice, it can actually improve our lives and tells the stories of everyday citizens at the forefront of this new “AI entrepreneurship.”AI is often framed as a force of radical transformation, either catapulting us into a utopian future or dragging us toward existential ruin. But this book tells a different story. It’s not about high-profile tech CEOs who want to use AI to “break shit,” but about a bunch of smart pragmatists using AI to make the world better.Josh Tyrangiel’s journey into AI began with a late-night YouTube video featuring General Gustave Perna, the retired four-star general who orchestrated the distribution of Covid vaccines during Operation Warp Speed. Perna’s success—and the end of the pandemic—depended on AI’s practical ability to synthesize and standardize vast amounts of logistical data. AI wasn’t the hero of the story—it was the tool that helped real people get things done.This book follows those people, who make up a kind of AI counterculture. It explores AI’s quiet revolution in government services, medicine, education, and human connection—places where it’s being used to amplify human judgment rather than replace it. It tells the stories of teachers, doctors, and bureaucrats who often stumbled into AI as a means to solve specific, tangible problems, often with no prior software expertise.While the loudest voices in AI debate doomsday scenarios and trillion-dollar market opportunities, this book focuses on those working in the messy, incremental, but deeply impactful space of AI practice. However, there is one big caveat—success is not guaranteed. Change is hard. Institutions move slowly. But even in failure there are lessons for everyone who’s interested in using AI—carefully, thoughtfully—to build a better world today.Tyrangie is in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, and is the moderator of Washington Week With The Atlantic on PBS. He joined The Atlantic in 2007 as a national correspondent and in 2016 was named editor in chief, the 15th person to serve as editor in The Atlantic's 168-year history. During his editorship, The Atlantic has set new audience and subscription records, and won its first-ever Pulitzer Prizes. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, The Atlantic received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence from the American Society of Magazine Editors, the top award in the industry.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668082508?ic_referral=xDjSBCvCKlxoDSvzbSZEXFQ_9nQsl94jeiSbEtyVy2gwM2IPS57Shu_435f6BN6hDfAbQa8FW9eDOdleFpCNsQbuYruiWdQxy7b_gF8_zEzHIzrkVb8ngIqCf5QPJ0QLO7MXKyo

Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford’s president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubrisSlush funds. Shell companies. Yacht parties. This is life for Silicon Valley’s favored teenagers.Seventeen-year-old Theo Baker showed up for freshman year at Stanford University as a tech-obsessed coder. It seemed like paradise. There were Rodin sculptures next to nuclear laboratories and inventors lounging with Olympians. But Baker soon discovered a culture that embraced corner-cutting, that vested infinite excess and access in the hands of kids with few safeguards to catch bad behavior.Stanford, he realized, was less a school than a business. Its annual budget was nearly twice that of Harvard or Yale and higher than those of 116 countries. The product? Students. Especially those special few identified as the next trillion-dollar startup founders. For them, there were secret societies, “pre-idea” funding offers, and social calls from billionaires, all with the expectation that these geniuses would soon join the ruling elite.At the helm of this business was Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a superstar neuroscientist and wealthy biotech executive. But when Baker joined the student newspaper and started poking around the Stanford president’s record, he discovered never-reported allegations of research misconduct in studies published across two decades bearing Tessier-Lavigne's name.Only one month into college and thousands of miles from home, Baker began receiving anonymous letters, going on stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources. High-powered lawyers and public relations teams were hired to attack his reporting. By the end of the year, Tessier-Lavigne was out as president.This is the incredible story of how a reluctant teenage reporter uncovered a scandal that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world—and what they’re learning from those who already do.How to Rule the World is a shocking, hilarious, and moving debut, showcasing Silicon Valley’s training ground as never before.Theo Baker is an undergraduate at Stanford University. His reporting led to former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation and made Baker the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. He will graduate from Stanford in June 2026.Baker is in conversation with award-winning broadcaster and author Mary Louise Kelly, one of the most prominent voices in American journalism today. As host of NPR’s All Things Considered, her assignments have included North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran and beyond. Kelly’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. She serves on Harvard’s Board of Overseers and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and author of two novels, Anonymous Sources and The Bullet. Her 2023 memoir, It.Goes.So.Fast, was an instant New York Times bestseller.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593832837?ic_referral=qdsl1C8-9UReZwOarua4dji6fRLtF_Q8n7iDUi5gdLcwMxP-eYooALk1YeSABpWueF6l4D1cH3ofB3qivXYcc-L21huDkUeOXK0bxfWkhWB342rNnHM2ghkNXwbmEIVfZX2nk0Q

How should we remember George Washington's entanglement in slavery? Americans have argued over that question for nearly 250 years. More than any other Founding Father, Washington's ties to slavery have vexed us. He enslaved more people than any of his fellow founders, yet he was the only one of them to emancipate the people he held in bondage. Since his death, Americans have grappled with this contradiction, shaping and reshaping our collective memory of Washington and slavery--along with our understanding of the nation.In Thy Will Be Done, historian John Garrison Marks tells the story of Americans' long, fraught struggle to come to terms with Washington's legacy of slavery. He traces how politicians, abolitionists, educators, activists, Washington's former slaves and their descendants, and others have remembered, forgotten, and manipulated slavery's place in Washington's story, and how they have wielded versions of that story in the political and cultural fights of their time. Marks shows how generational struggles over our collective memory of Washington and slavery have always been part of a bigger conversation about defining the United States and its people. As debates about the founders' participation in the system of slavery continue to roil public discourse, Marks shows with new clarity that Americans have never collectively reconciled Washington's conflicted legacy. By truly grappling with Washington's role as enslaver and emancipator, we may come to better understand the nation and ourselves.John Garrison Marks is a historian, writer, and author of Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery.Marks is in conversation with Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, and the poetry collections, Counting Descent and Above Ground.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781469693521?ic_referral=dxycLH8ra_yKdaJiqfoNYRfbLxa0GgSeY9_b9YbB2KgwM8PLlnx2bkbmlNB6p9H_uiLrHXdjSEfPnEw23XcXt8VHXY330V3Z59UF4Ywr5xGHh2wSXwPwyZ0tW22UvMGTQqQSblw

Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck and coeditor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Lewis teaches at the University of Iowa; Canon is their first novel.Lewis is in conversation with Kaveh Akbar, whose poems appear in the New Yorker, New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin Classics 2022). Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), Kaveh’s first novel, was a New York Times Bestseller, the 2024 recipient of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize for Fiction, a 2024 Discover Prize Finalist, and a 2024 National Book Award Finalist. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217059362?ic_referral=1tOdCWuxGnAwIJnuknWJ6Y9xCuHl5L3MCfkBQUEf-TkwM0LmnnirCLlT1tb6HjbN9tSjhRXrPmBFqHixp7YZegMB7LQNauwicbFOwlPiKay7_S_JgPpn63rBuPJzztQzrAQedrQ

You know that 3 a.m. feeling? When you’re wide awake asking yourself: Is this really it?That nagging feeling that "this isn’t enough anymore" isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom. What once felt fresh now feels like going through the motions. Successful but not satisfied. Accomplished but not alive. You’ve spent years building a life that looks perfect on paper but feels like something is missing when you’re alone with your thoughts.Society calls it a crisis. But what if it’s actually clarity?In The Comeback Era, TODAY Show wellness expert Yasmine Cheyenne transforms that restless feeling into rocket fuel for authentic change. Through reconnecting with "Little You"—the person you were before the world told you who to be—you’ll stop performing for everyone else and start living for yourself. This isn’t about burning your life down. It’s about remembering who you were before you learned to dim your light.In the book, you’ll meet five people who also answered the call: The executive who realized her corner office was a cage. The mother who discovered "having it all together" meant losing herself completely. The achiever who checked every box except the one that mattered. Their stories—and Yasmine’s Seven C’s of Purpose framework—will show you how to:Stop watching your life go by and start living itTransform past mistakes into pocket wisdom—not baggageConvert “someday” dreams into today’s realityTurn midlife confusion into crystal clarityThis book is your permission slip to stop pretending everything’s fine and start building the life you actually want.Yasmine Cheyenne is a TODAY Show wellness expert and author of three transformative books with HarperCollins whose work helps people reconnect with who they were before the world had a say. Her groundbreaking trilogy—The Sugar Jar (teaching boundary-setting to protect your energy), Wisdom of the Path (navigating life's difficult journeys), and her newest book The Comeback Era: From Limiting Beliefs to Living Without Limits (May 2026)—has guided hundreds of thousands from surviving to thriving. As Wellness Coach for The TODAY Show's Start TODAY platform and former Host of PBS's wellness series "Inside Out," Yasmine has become a trusted voice in wellness and transformation. She's served as a featured instructor on the Melissa Wood Health platform and shared her expertise through many partnerships. Global corporations including Google, Pepsi, GE, Well & Good, Cigna Health, and Meta have invited her to guide their teams in creating lives that feel as good as they look. Her TED Talk on how boundaries make space for the things you want to enjoy in life and features in Forbes, InStyle, Refinery29, The Everygirl, Poosh, and major outlets have established her as the go-to expert for authentic transformation. An Air Force Veteran who worked with victims of domestic violence, Yasmine brings unique perspective to healing and resilience. A native New Yorker and mother of two, she now lives in Washington, DC where she continues to prove that your comeback isn't a crisis—it's clarity. And it's waiting for you.Cheyenne is in conversation with Chloe Dulce Louvouezo. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063456198?ic_referral=pjyAAlhkUmvyT7isUjfAeZ-gB4fflY1XLhqQrMfKp80wM3R1A6HK4Sw-dWt4rE01QBn0Y_5TInLfX15GU8AUJcLHoeDEtGBf4rnDt-7A3IFMIv7oEs6Cy4fHeE35nQrUmaS8jrc

It’s 1972. Tricky Dick is in office, James Brown is on the radio, and Wayne Beasley reluctantly presides over the comings and goings of his barbers and patrons at Wayne’s Clip and Trim in Augusta, South Carolina. When one of Wayne’s former customers, an unassuming small-town son, is designated 4-F, unfit to serve in Vietnam, he seeks refuge in becoming the next best thing—a security guard for a downtown DC hotel. It is there on a hot summer’s night, that Wayne’s wayward patron interrupts a break-in that will disrupt the course of a nation’s history and his own.Wesley Brown, author of Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Blue in Green: A Novella, once again remaps the tributaries that run into the stream of our American subconscious, by dipping into the headwaters of pivotal memories and histories to tell the tale from the perspective of the real folks whose stories were too long submerged. Without Frank Wills there is no Watergate. And without Watergate the veil of secrecy and corruption that came to define the Nixon years, warping the very fabric of political discourse from that moment on, would have remained firmly in place. Wesley Brown’s re-imagining of the life of Frank Wills reconciles the greatest heist of all—our place in the American story. What was stolen from Wills as he was briefly thrust into the spotlight, while excluded from the annals of history, is reclaimed, as Brown gives voice and breath to the people who loved him and the barber who did his best to guide him.Wesley Brown is the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, a novella, and five plays. He is professor emeritus in English at Rutgers University and a former visiting professor in the Arts Division at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He wrote the narration for a segment of the 1997 PBS documentary W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices, has held visiting writer residencies in creative writing at the University of Minnesota, New York University, Bennington College, and Sarah Lawrence College, and is co-editor of The Methuen Drama Anthology of American Women Playwrights: 1970–2020. A new edition of his first novel, Tragic Magic, was published, as a part of the Of the Diaspora series, by McSweeney’s in 2021. He lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia.Brown is in conversation with Lisa Page, the co-editor of We Wear The Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America, (Beacon Press). Her work has appeared in TheAtlantic, LitHub Weekly, The Crisis, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, Playboy, the Washington Post Book World, Playbill, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications and anthologies, including Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race (Doubleday). She has worked as a freelance writer, editor, speechwriter, lyricist, instructor, actor and literary consultant. She created the Playboy College Fiction Contest. She is the former President of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Lisa Page is assistant professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the George Washington University where she previously served as Interim Director of Africana Studies. She is also a resident faculty member of the Yale Writers’ Workshop. She lives outside Washington, DC.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781963270655?ic_referral=ker76wfJJtdrMZoE9BXLUB_dUQVDzi8qq2SBMT7LXvwwM1bgk-7Wxjhrmf_NkPe7TmzMPbqFR3QiaZtVsC0PC2vmZMyPBhm4azGT5UI5GBAEy0USv8_JUFlvunr9v1ql9oP7Zu4

From the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Hitler in Los Angeles, the definitive story of the intrepid activists and spies who fought against a resurgent movement of hate in America-a book that "should be read by every American who wants to know how courageous men and women can resist hatred." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)Americans today like to believe that the end of World War II brought a new era of tolerance in the United States. But antisemitism and racism went up-not down-after the war's end. Violence broke out in cities across the country, and the number of organized hate groups more than doubled from 1940 to 1946. In this shocking account of a resurgence of White Supremacy in America, celebrated historian Steven J. Ross reveals how four key leaders-Emory Burke, J. B. Stoner, James Madole, and George Lincoln Rockwell-worked together to “finish the job Hitler had begun,” launching deadly attacks on Jews and African Americans and building a network of terrorists across the U.S. In response to this “war of hate,” three men-Arnold Forster of the Anti-­Defamation League, George Mintzer of the American Jewish Committee, and James Sheldon of the Non-­Sectarian Anti­-Nazi League-along with dozens of men and women, launched a multipronged effort: They infiltrated, monitored, and undermined these hate groups, putting their own safety on the line and scoring important victories that, today, have been all but forgotten.Tracing the extraordinary work of these unsung heroes, The Secret War Against Hate provides a groundbreaking reconsideration of the legacy of the “Good War,” and essential reading on how America today can beat hate once again and build a just and united nation.Steven J. Ross is a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern California and Director of the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. He is the author of Hitler in Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hollywood Left and Right, which received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Film Scholars Award, and Working-Class Hollywood, named a Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Southern California.Ross is in conversation with Dr. Robert J. Williams, a CEO and Finci-Viterbi Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation, UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research, and the Advisor to the 35-nation International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). His recent book is the coedited Routledge History of Antisemitism (2023). He is currently writing a much-delayed monograph on efforts to whitewash and rehabilitate the reputations of fascists and Holocaust perpetrators in North America and Europe and a separate book on US and Soviet media policy in occupied Germany.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781635578003?ic_referral=y-zXNl3TAvd0bwaVgn1i-YXSfU5v9KMO34q8SQ6bMKAwM48Dkd_cxfFSao44zJaii15Ap-R5L8Nysc30cQN12x2A_K-w4CvUYGq752hdnnrRZGIMSZgUPhPxtoAMelrM56_QIo0

From the cofounder of the Amazon Labor Union, a definitive how-to guide to workplace organizing told through a David vs. Goliath chronicle for the ages. On April 1, 2022, the Amazon warehouse known as JFK8, in Staten Island, notched an improbable victory when its workers voted to become the company’s first unionized facility. Miraculously, a completely self-taught and worker-led union had defeated one of the most powerful corporations on the planet. In the aftermath, two of the founders of the Amazon Labor Union, Derrick Palmer and Chris Smalls, began traveling across the country to help workers at Amazon and other corporations form their own unions. Unsurprisingly, nearly everyone they met had the same question: How did they do it? In Handbook for the Revolution, Derrick Palmer, who continues to work at JFK8, provides the answer in the form of a how-to guide to organizing in today’s workplace while providing gripping, never before-told anecdotes from the ALU's fight and its plans for the future. Practical, philosophical, and full of personality, Palmer’s manual-cum-manifesto is an accessible step-by-step playbook for the often contentious and complex process of unionization, and a powerful call for equality—and greater understanding—through worker solidarity. Full of hard-won lessons and personal experience, and written in the context of mass consolidation, fluctuating labor laws, and an ever widening wealth gap, Handbook for the Revolution is an invaluable resource for the modern labor movement, a thrilling chronicle of persistence, and an inspiring push for change in the workplace—and beyond.Derrick Palmer is the cofounder of the Amazon Labor Union, which in 2022 successfully unionized an Amazon warehouse for the first time in the company’s history. In 2022, he and union cofounder Christian Smalls were honored with placement on Time's 100 Most Influential People list and as one of the Dynamic Duos on Ebony's Power 100 list. He continues to work at the Amazon JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, where he lives.Palmer is in conversation with Afeni Evans, an activist and organizer, a Movement 4 Black Lives Electoral Justice Table member, former regional field lead for The Green Party and forever frontline from the George Floyd Uprising. Afeni's passion for advocacy and her voice is lended to all marginalized people from our Palestinian siblings to protesters being brutalized in Nigeria, Afeni's voice knows no border. Afeni is passionate about equity, anti-racism and leadership development.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780374613716?ic_referral=6h7UDIKDMGWASJnwBoTNzCG4U1VrHUqiN3S4MG3OVZQwMzGPGPOztdo2heEYQD5rpyuAeKUHwqALgdV4sH0Ll9ZPcWhAhRmt2ju8PgBVj4oxRYp0V4lN50yxeUMofQ9AqYg4z4c

The DC punk scene meets Little Free Libraries.Hilarious, vibrant, magically drawing cohesion between divergent themes, brimming with endorsements of the best music and books you haven't heard or read yet. J. Hunter Bennett, author of The Prodigal Rogerson and Upside-Down Punks, started a little free punk rock bookstore during the pandemic outside his house on a well-trafficked corner of Chevy Chase, D.C., and published a companion newsletter. It began as a way to offload his excess music books and noir novels, but swiftly grew into a neighborhood fixture and underground punk zine for the modern era. Here you'll find book reviews, band interviews, neighborhood gossip, and praise from at least two members of Fugazi. A touching testament to the DIY spirit, a treasure trove of literary and punk rock recommendations, and a low-key how-to guide for building something unique with your own network of like-minded weirdos. C'mon, where else you gonna find Millions of Dead Cops and James Salter in the same place? This riot of a book is graced with an introduction by Jim Spellman of Velocity Girl and a foreword by Anton Bogomazov of the neighborhood's more official bookstore, Politics and Prose.J. Hunter Bennett writes for the music magazine Ugly Things and plays bass guitar in the band Dot Dash. Because neither of these jobs pays very well--okay, at all--he also practices government contracts law at a large law firm in Washington, DC. He previously served as a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Justice, and an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia. He considers himself a connoisseur of orange soda.Bennett is in conversation with Kim Coletta, who plays bass in the local band Jawbox and runs the independent record label DeSoto Records, pursuits that keep her closely tied to the creative side of music. She is also a long-time humanities teacher at a local private school, where she brings the same curiosity and passion to the classroom. Kim doesn’t enjoy orange soda at all, yet somehow she and Hunter are friends.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781648414268?ic_referral=LTNiMp2GxWZtcm8BDqOGza5VB6oUgdziUUoCFz6Tg78wMxvjUI1SiRF2R8HLa3jjv5KsIl4x_fJPyDle4xlxyBaC7KDa5k5klPYScb7TlJRtjTqQkd3KKq_HauVf653V-nYOZdA

A police detective in Hong Kong races to solve a vicious murder, while the city around him teeters on the brink of destruction.Hong Kong is a city ablaze—its streets filled with protesters, its government in crisis, its people torn between rage and fear of what defiance might cost. At the center stands Superintendent Killian Tong, once a rising star in the police, now disgraced and haunted by a tragic accident at a protest. Exiled to a remote post, Killian is called back when a dismembered body is uncovered in a landfill. The gruesome murder could be his path to redemption—if he can withstand mounting pressure from superiors desperate to bury the truth, and the even more dangerous fractures within his own family.His beloved younger sister Jun refuses to speak to him, devoting herself to the protest movement. Once inseparable, the siblings now face each other across barricades, Jun’s fierce commitment pulling her closer to arrest and ruin.As Killian follows the murder trail into Hong Kong’s highest corridors of power, he must confront not only the city’s corruption, but the searing question at his heart: When politics ignites a family war, can love survive the flames?City on Fire is both a taut thriller and a deeply human story of loyalty, betrayal, and the search for redemption in a city under siege.Simon Elegant is China bureau chief for The Washington Post, based in Taiwan. Previously, he held a variety of reporting and editing jobs in Asia including Beijing bureau chief and Southeast Asia correspondent for Time magazine. Elegant was the founding partner and investor in Temple Restaurant Beijing, which won the 2019 readers’ choice award from TripAdvisor as the world’s best restaurant. He is the author of two previous novels, A Chinese Wedding (Piatkus), and A Floating Life (Ecco/Harper), about China’s greatest poet, Li Bai, a novel that succeeded “in summoning up the man and his age in ways that are both deliciously foreign and all too familiar,” according to the New York Times. Elegant is in conversation with Kurt Campbell, a veteran U.S. diplomat and strategic strategist widely regarded as a chief architect of Washington’s “pivot to Asia.” He served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under Barack Obama and later as the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator—often described as the administration’s “Asia czar”—under Joe Biden. Across these roles, he has been central to shaping U.S. policy toward China, blending engagement with strategic competition.Campbell co-founded the Center for a New American Security and has held senior positions at the U.S. Department of State and White House National Security Council. His long experience in Asia policy has made him one of Washington’s most influential voices on China’s rise. Since leaving government in January 2025, Campbell has returned to The Asia Group South China Morning Post — the strategic advisory firm focused on the Asia-Pacific region that he co-founded in 2013 Wikipedia — resuming its chairmanship and making Hong Kong his first overseas stop, where he warned that US China policy under Trump risks dangerous miscalculation.PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798897100958?ic_referral=PHHzD_tx5BzoQD7Lh6XdIfNqN7N8hfRsZDWZ3CQQKUQwMz0zqSh8qsoyCoLjZCaLy3zZ6G7oxAta-TIpaMaovAYuaMK-r2NM1Brxb2vkuQMS1hhC5Y3tvbZBABUVsGqkqAif0gU

From the author of the acclaimed As Close to Us as Breathing, a captivating novel steeped in history, revealing the bonds of family and community, and the healing powers hidden inside broken hearts.For much of her adult life Ruth Pearl has lived in the small New England town of Wells, Connecticut, on the shore of Lake Topaqua. Decades back, when she was fourteen, she and her parents fled German-occupied Amsterdam after the murder of her beloved older sister Sophia, and in the wake of such loss, Ruth has long taken comfort in the natural beauty of her lake view.But in the winter of 2000, Ruth’s neighbor builds an addition to his home that blocks Ruth’s view, a disruption of her peace that sparks fear that her tumultuous past is happening again.One day, seeking solace, Ruth heads out for a cathartic skate on the lake only to spot a boy in the distance falling through the ice. Also witnessing this event is Judge Arthur Cantrell, by chance in Wells that day to avoid the consequences of a failed romance.Together, Ruth and Arthur save Ian Lima, a despairing sixteen-year-old, and over the days to come, as Ruth and Arthur help Ian heal, they find themselves healing too. Soon enough, this turn of events begins to impact Ruth’s daughter, Ian’s mother, and even Arthur’s love interest.In Spinning at the Edges, Elizabeth Poliner, a masterful storyteller, seamlessly interweaves the lives of a rich cast of characters living in two historical time periods—America 2000, marked by a controversial presidential election, and Netherlands 1941, marked by rising fascism—to tell an unforgettable story about how the past haunts the present, how sharing pain heals, and how love—and even democracy—are fragile concepts in a changing, spinning world.Elizabeth Poliner is the author of the novel As Close to Us as Breathing, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction and was a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award in Fiction and the Ribalow Prize. She has also published a poetry collection, What You Know in Your Hands, and a novel-in-stories, Mutual Life & Casualty. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Story, and Colorado Review, among other journals. She lives in Virginia.Poliner is in conversation with Alice McDermott, her ninth novel, Absolution, was an instant New York Times bestseller, winner of the 2024 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.  Charming Billy won the National Book Award for fiction. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.  Her novels have been short-listed for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Award. She is also the author of an essay collection, What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction. For two decades, she was the Richard A. Mackey Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. She has been named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  Her tenth novel, Herself, Of Course, will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2027.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063434530?ic_referral=xISjBneqS_OmEeurIns8aRRybgokyko8QBSWoNVYjEIwMx08pGbefD9kmdUnBrLgwv7jKL0jSdqX-DDsUGlsxmavhnowXwBI1gIpC9Mw-r1dZcyu4MiQI7W5JsJDDqPuqGtG-YQ

A guide to dealing with uncertainty at a time when our lives have never felt less certain.From our careers to our politics to our personal lives, the future is unknown. And yet, our capacity to tolerate this uncertainty is in decline. How to Not Know will help you prepare for—and even appreciate—the uncertainty that surrounds us.Through gripping stories of people grappling with big problems without easy answers—from an economist trying to predict the next market crash to an island nation reckoning with the existential impact of climate change—acclaimed journalist Simone Stolzoff shows how to develop comfort with ambiguity and build tolerance for the unknown.Blending engrossing storytelling, research, and practical insights, How to Not Know is an essential guide to navigating uncertainty with courage and clarity.Simone Stolzoff is a journalist and author from San Francisco. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and on the TED stage. His debut book, The Good Enough Job, was translated into more than a dozen languages.Stolzoff will be in conversation with Rhaina Cohen, the bestselling author of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center. She's an award-winning producer and editor for NPR's Embedded podcast. Her writing about social connection has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and published by The Atlantic, The New York Times and The Washington Post and is forthcoming in the anthology Living, Together. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781324089452?ic_referral=D9pjmwHndtx4CQefcKf0Lr2mIGCgwy72wtGzyi-S9xowM4KJrX0NORIOPgdmZEz-qF_NvbGZ9knR7ESa4f-Oqoj20isuzZ_o1mF8sXVuysrogE4ukZRjYn7gM3d2dT1b6Odv3g4

New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off to the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it.“It’s a difficult thing, to separate legend from story from memory from fact.”As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald was always captivated by Johnny Appleseed, drawn by family ties to the legend, his father’s larger-than-life stories, and a shared restlessness to leave home and discover what lies beyond. In American Rambler, he sets out, walking from Massachusetts to Indiana on a year-long journey to follow Appleseed’s path, turning a childhood fascination into a profound reckoning of loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas-station bathrooms and scenic apple picking. A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland and an antidote to the breakneck pace of modern life.Isaac Fitzgerald is the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts. He is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). He appears frequently on The Today Show, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He lives with his wife on the North Fork of Long Island.Fitzgerald is in conversation with Ben Smith, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, where he oversees the production of Semafor’s weekly Media newsletter. Prior to Semafor, he served as a media columnist for The New York Times and was the founding editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News. With over a decade of experience, Ben has covered American politics, media, and technology at Politico, the New York Daily News, and other outlets. He is the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593537794?ic_referral=M6djFilqiyD_IYgZVIMHArjlOuN3cLTUFUIZW5E8VLcwM0S7EimxkXjVIV05HoFwgBCdXRQMUt9BSpH60ObdSWP9PS6IFGLwoL-1uKdpfAHPjEZ8fZwpbC6CzEbd8f0QKtNrDMA

Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia, but heard around the world: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters around the world—in Oslo and Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface of this ascendant idea: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have been expressing some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change and restoring national greatness.What is great replacement theory? Variations on the theory have existed for centuries, but it was given this name by a French novelist in 2011 who believed Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” Europe’s White population. From there, politicians and theorists—whether in the United States or the United Kingdom, Germany or Chile, Hungary or Australia—repackaged the conspiracy as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and diversity initiatives to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and the very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded the threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India. All are targeted with the message that they are under an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent.In our fast-shifting political landscape, most people are unfamiliar with this theory’s origins and its spread, which isn’t a coincidence. In Chain of Ideas, international bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi uses exacting and clear prose to uncover the roots of great replacement theory and its various mutations around the world. It is an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. He is author of many highly acclaimed bestsellers including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.Dr. Kendi is in conversation with Leah Greenberg. Greenberg is a co-founder and co-Executive Director of the Indivisible Project. Prior to founding the Indivisible Project, Leah served as Policy Director for the Tom Perriello for Governor of Virginia campaign. She has managed human trafficking grants and programs as an Investments Manager for Humanity United, served as an Advisor to the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, and worked on Capitol Hill for Congressman Tom Perriello (D-VA).PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/ibram-x-kendi

Two writers show you how to turn a worthy sentence into a memorable one. Starting where The Elements of Style leaves off, Good Writing can improve your book, your essay, your memo, your blog post, speech, or script. These essential rules for persuasive language work on any type of writing, and anyone can learn them quickly.Each rule is accompanied by examples and a lively pair of essays, the first by Neal Allen, who developed the list of tips over the course of his journalism and corporate careers; the second by his wife, Anne Lamott, acclaimed author of Bird by Bird and nineteen other nonfiction works and novels. The authors don’t always agree on the specifics, but they are passionate about making better sentences.Neal Allen is a writer, spiritual coach, and speaker. He is the author of Shapes of Truth and Better Days. A former journalist and corporate executive, he holds master’s degrees in Political Science and Eastern Classics.Anne Lamott is the author of twenty books, including the New York Times bestsellers Help, Thanks, Wow; Dusk, Night, Dawn; Traveling Mercies; and Bird by Bird, as well as seven novels. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California with her family.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/neal-allen-anne-lamott

Named one of the 30 most anticipated books of 2026 by Foreign Policy, The Criminal State offers a gripping account of how law has confronted the most radical forms of state violence. Beautifully written, broad in scope, and bracingly original, it weaves history with political thought to trace the shifting legal response to state aggression and atrocities, from Leopold’s rule over the Congo to Putin’s war in Ukraine.At its heart is Lawrence Douglas’s fresh interpretation of the law’s reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thought—rooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkers—that shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nuremberg’s bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide—while leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human rights.Providing rare historical perspective on the dilemmas facing international courts, The Criminal State is a sweeping, provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice.Lawrence Douglas is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. His many books include The Right Wrong Man (Princeton) and The Memory of Judgment. His writing has appeared in leading publications such as Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.Douglas is in conversation with Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, and is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts; the Supreme Court; national security law; and military justice.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780691180410?ic_referral=O9vkk_LstN1f_MwL_9abiTAv-naU-W1eCAAzu9y6SRQwM6_CLzHXdsdAGF5QdctoUdAjfFdF7VCUzB0BdJmUl1WV9GUSgai8JAvJPwWx99Z8j3OrvDTQ2u7MSqtsd2xjYqmmb4c

From a preeminent King scholar, the origin story of the man, minister, and civil rights hero who would lead the nation and change the world.We know who Martin Luther King, Jr. became, but who was he at the beginning of his life? How did his youth inform his outlook and his approach to activism and service?Before Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and a global hero, he was an emotional boy, and a middling high school student devoted to fashion, dancing, and dating. As he headed to college, he left the Jim Crow South for a summer job that would test his oratory skills preaching in the tobacco fields of Connecticut and ultimately give him a sense of hope for a life of racial peace and harmony.Lerone A. Martin, Centennial Professor at Stanford University and the Faculty Director of the Martin Luther King Institute, traces the youthful roots of this legendary American to reveal the makings of a mighty force. Filled with revelations and written with compassion, Young King offers a new understanding of the influential preacher and activist’s emotional life, his youthful confusion about his future and career direction, his inspiration to fight for justice, his teenage missteps, and his first revelations of courage. As America undergoes another era of turmoil and change, this powerful biography offers encouragement for readers at a similar moment of life and provides an understanding of how greatness comes to light.Martin illuminates both King’s weaknesses and the social failures that shaped him, including the brutal racism he endured growing up. This vital and essential work is a testament to how history shapes a leader.Young King includes rarely seen black-and-white photographs of an adolescent MLK from his high school days and college years.Lerone A. Martin is the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Dr. Martin is an internationally recognized award-winning author and public speaker. His writing and commentary have been featured on the Today show, the History Channel, PBS, NPR, and C-SPAN as well as in the New York Times and the Boston Globe. He currently serves as senior editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project and was an adviser on the PBS documentary series Gospel. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.Martin is in conversation with Kim Martin, who joined KIPP DC in January 2025 as a Deputy Chief of School Transformation. In this role, she has focused on driving systemic change and enhancing educational outcomes across the network's schools. Kim is a native of Ohio and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in English and History from Case Western Reserve University, followed by a Master’s degree in Secondary Education from John Carroll University. Once in DC, she furthered her academic pursuits with an Executive Master’s in Leadership and a Certificate in Leadership Coaching, both from Georgetown University and she culminated her educational journey with a Doctorate in Education from American University. Prior to joining KIPP DC, Kim held the position of Instructional Superintendent for DC Public Schools. With a career spanning over 18 years as a high school principal, Kim served as a principal in DC, Ohio, and Colorado. When Kim isn’t working, she can be found listening to live music at the VFW, where she serves on the Auxiliary, or she can be found cooking, hiking, or riding her Peloton. She also serves on the board of the Urban Adventure Squad, which promotes outdoor education for DC youth. Kim lives with her son and her husband in Takoma Park, MD with their two dogs, Rosco and Charlie Brown.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063340947?ic_referral=TAAIFWSzQT9qcNWDrQvJ3tlmM7yNfYa5hhCNfZPki18wM8eTK-ubhKf9sqWr5aJlBfixw39PzLMEWbCJCAoaIDuXd8TUGcpzQepC3tPjTjlj-Q0g468KsULekQpy2vp8uA9UbZ8

In the late 1970s, Ziad Idilbi, a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, marries Salma, a Lebanese refugee escaping the war in Beirut. Resolving to start over for the very last time, the couple opens a corner store in Toledo, Ohio, across from the General Motors factory, where Toledo’s Arab community intermingles with the working class. Over the decades, whether it’s bigotry (pre- and post-9/11), financial ruin, or terminal illness, the Idilbis find themselves on life’s outskirts, attempting to build something new.Achingly poignant and slyly funny, the linked stories in Carryout follow the Idilbis and their children as they teeter on the brink of catastrophe. Walid, the youngest child of Ziad and Salma, navigates the heartbreaks of youth as well as the colorful characters who haunt his parents’ corner store. As he grows up into a writer, Walid’s gaze fixes on his father and the long shadow of displacement and occupation. Mustafa, the eldest son, is forever trying to outrun the disasters that seem to seek him out, while Nawal, the only daughter, is dumped by a friend and hatches a scheme to win her back. Unsure whether to run toward each other or away from each other, the characters in Dudar’s exquisite debut suffer the absurdities and indignities of life in America with wry obstinance and striking wisdom.Hasan Dudar is from Toledo, Ohio, and lives in Washington, DC. Carryout is his first book of fiction.Dudar is in conversation with Eugenia Kim, whose debut novel, The Calligrapher’s Daughter, won the Borders Original Voices Award, was shortlisted for the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a Washington Post Best Historical Novel and Critic’s Pick. Her second novel, The Kinship of Secrets, was a Library Reads best book of November and Hall of Fame list for 2018, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month/Literature and Fiction. She is a two-time Washington DC Council on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship recipient, and received fellowships at Yaddo, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, and elsewhere. Ms. Kim teaches fiction and nonfiction at Fairfield University’s MFA Creative Writing Program.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781685970611?ic_referral=9u6qLdWRRoRAygnPuBkKr_PxcCG-kRXfWzO4b-s47CkwM0pCe8kpFIFyThteVCm4CSGsilx7jTKfLSaLvoLUFRYJgrosz76zgF-F1hNLU0d19MoK9Gs0bNEyhRNONueK0iuOIxY

One of the premier French cult novels of the last thirty years, a tender and combative portrait of Paris’s queer rave scene in the 90s — for fans of Virginie Despentes and Gary Indiana.Louise is a woman in her early thirties with a record contract, colorful roommates, and a passionate, volatile relationship with the lesbian community around her. She used to be part of the French rock scene, having dated and collaborated with a man named Nikki who was a crucial figure in that milieu. But she has been out of that world for years, having switched from rock to rave culture and, concurrently, having started to date chiefly women. Her longest and most combative relationship in this scene has been with Alex, another woman who has established herself as a DJ and has recently started seeing a much younger woman named Inès.    One day, Louise receives a life-changing advance from a record label to produce her own electronic music. She struggles to handle the responsibility of professionalizing her lifestyle, one suffused with the omnidirectional drama of the women in her circle, and with her own equivocations about her role in it. They bar-crawl, watch MTV, go to each other’s sets, hook up, and do copious drugs.    Tension builds as Louise finds herself pulled toward multiple possible paths: forward in her career in the techno world; backward toward rock’n’roll, Nikki, and the life he represents; toward Alex again; and toward Inès, leading to a dangerous and ultimately devastating affair. Ann Scott portrays the Paris underground in all its beauty, ugliness, and pulpy grandeur, with the caustic voice of a born punk struggling to conform to the standards of a new, hungry world of anticonformists. Jonathan Woollen, translator of SUPERSTARS, is a French-to-English translator originally from North Carolina, currently based in Queens, NY and working in publishing. He previously led the in-store author event program at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC and served as music director of the radio station WXYC-Chapel Hill. His work has appeared in outlets including Electric Literature and Asymptote. Superstars is his first published book-length translation. Woollen will be in conversation with Lily Meyer, a translator, a critic, and the author of the novel Short War. She is also a staff writer at The Atlantic. Her stories and translations can be found in The Dial, The Drift, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and many other journals, and her essays and criticism appear in outlets including Bookforum, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781662603471?ic_referral=GqB_WqRU2BS4sMU4xebeM-Qq-7Cb4J4SeMBAEnVgd4UwMxThvwwPsDAkEgDv9jZkq_hpaFJoxNyEejKnu6dPcKOQvi2DH3HH7pruJBEQguqp3_e0cHJFv2lY2Pw9CJ0sH6Elu_o

At a time when America faces escalating racial tensions, the re-emergence of white nationalist movements, and growing threats to democracy, Ralph Remington's Penetrating Whiteness is an urgently needed clarion call.This powerful and timely collection of essays offers piercing insights into the realities of racism, sexism, homophobia, and the damaging legacy of Donald Trump's divisive presidency. With Trump mounting another run for the White House in 2024 amid the fallout of the January 6th insurrection, the national atmosphere is tinged with volatility and civil war rhetoric. Into this powder keg moment steps Remington, one of America's leading Black multi-sector voices on identity, social justice, and the path toward racial healing. His essays boldly confront the uncomfortable truths about the persisting toxicity of white supremacy and systemic discrimination.Ralph Remington is currently the Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission. He has extensive professional experience in arts administration and government, and has experience as a director, actor, essayist, playwright and screenwriter. He is the founding producing artistic director of Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis where he is also a former City Council member.Prior to joining the City and County of San Francisco, he served as the Deputy Director for Arts and Culture for the City of Tempe, Arizona. In that role, he was responsible for Tempe Center for the Arts' comprehensive performance and visual art programming, as well as overseeing public art, the Tempe History Museum, arts engagement and municipal arts granting. He previously served as the former Western Regional Director and Assistant Executive Director for Actors Equity Association in Los Angeles. Prior to that, he was Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) under President Obama in Washington, D.C, where he was the first Black man ever appointed. In 2010, he received the NEA Chairman's Distinguished Service Award. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University. Ralph Remington currently resides in San Francisco, California.Remington is in conversation with Kristal Knight. With over a decade of political experience, Kristal has positioned herself as a premier political operative and commentator. She recently hosted a self-titled podcast with Newsweek discussing relevant political and cultural news and she actively provides commentary on Fox News, News Nation, MSNBC and other outlets. Currently she advises national brands on communication and political strategies. During the 2022 midterm elections she consulted with NAACP, Demos and Faith in Action providing political strategy and training. She served as the political director for Priorities USA during the 2020 cycle, then Biden’s then preferred super pac. As a seasoned campaign operative, Kristal has worked local, state and national elections to help elect progressive candidates across the country. Her most impactful work involved helping women in her home state run and get elected to office when she ran Emerge Tennessee. In 2019 she founded and currently chairs a voting rights non-profit, Organize Tennessee, which shows her commitment to democracy and her home state. She completed her master’s degree in International Public Policy from University College London (UCL) and graduated from Howard University with a BA in Journalism.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781963667349?ic_referral=Fb-C9haoo6zEsvdfgkTfFraKp2mDhAuErobXAVe47FIwM8xlso97BOpRjA-mV8IcNAqG7JfItoqKKaKBWuStp9gv3sHt_TsGIZo9PiQrdJPbYmajbzuvqB8twlburfYrvX_4NI4

The inspiring story of the Declaration of Independence—the first to take us from its drafting by Thomas Jefferson to today—charting the many lives of a document that captures the soul of America and has united generations around its defiant ideals, published for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.Quiet and politically untested, Thomas Jefferson was not the obvious choice to draft a statement of principles explaining why the American colonies were breaking ties with the King of England, but his soaring rhetoric would inspire generations of Americans to live up to the founders’ dreams. National Treasure is the gripping story of our most revered founding relic, as a physical object and a set of ideals that have made America what it is today. An award-winning historian, Dr. Michael Auslin take us from the boarding house in Philadelphia where Jefferson put quill to paper to the Declaration’s stealthy printing, covert signing, dissemination in the doldrums of the revolutionary war, and long, harrowing, and ultimately hallowed afterlife. We follow the parchment as it is hauled out of a soon-to-be-burning Washington in 1814 and see it hidden in a dank cellar, posted in classrooms, recited on village greens, printed on handkerchiefs, and used to sell insurance and bundle coal. An inspiration to both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in the Civil War, it has grown more important for each new generation. While FDR and Churchill celebrated its commitment to freedom from tyranny, the document itself was lowered into a bunker at Fort Knox. After the war, its precious ink fading, it was painstakingly preserved and enshrined.Through it all, Jefferson’s words have inspired implausibly varied causes, from suffragists, abolitionists and civil rights leaders to groups waging war on the US government. As Jefferson had hoped, the principles enshrined in the Declaration became a beacon to the world. But what lessons should we take from it today? Can this statement of ideals in whose name the signers pledged their lives and sacred honor bring a disparate nation together? As we gather to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founders’ bold experiment in democracy, Auslin reminds us that this enduring document was not just a call for freedom and equality but an eloquent statement of the principles that bind us together.Dr. Michael Auslin is the Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Prior to that, he was a history professor at Yale. He wrote National Treasure as a Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress’s John W. Kluge Center and an American Heritage Partners Research Fellow at the American Revolution Institute. A longtime contributor to The Wall Street Journal, he is passionately committed to civic education and actively involved in celebrating America’s 250th. He writes a Substack, The Patowmack Packet, on Washington, DC, past and present, and lives in Virginia.Auslin is in conversation with Dr. Colleen Shogan, the 11th Archivist of the United States, the first woman in American history appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). A noted author and political scientist, Colleen is deeply committed to civics education and prioritized sharing the records of the National Archives to a wider audience. Under her leadership, NARA launched numerous strategic initiatives to enhance services and make its holdings more accessible, both in-person and online, with the goal of cultivating public participation and strengthening our nation's democracy. PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668214541?ic_referral=fz2I7a_mYpNbvCpCsSjVVC68tg8_uAHJGw-mqWUSEUMwMysPaKnqGOdXQFZdJZTr2hCvjo8wClIkUa1HfJ79FeSaV5oVtpglfTs_4H1GhrCvOrRV08vrjQbAvf7q0m4Q6-m8X4A

A dazzling novel in stories from a master of the form that follows the Royal family across generations of obsession, betrayal, and reinvention.For fans of Mary Gaitskill and Lauren Groff.In postwar Paris, a boy is seduced by his mysterious nanny into a world of adult secrets. In 1950s New York, a young caretaker struggles to protect her charge, a married woman weakened by a recent stroke, as new bruises appear each day on her body. In 1969, a fragile cousin wanders into the Royals’ jazz-soaked townhouse, where music, sex, and ruin intertwine. And at the heart of these stories is Rainey Royal herself, struggling to come of age in Greenwich Village, reinventing herself as an artist despite neglect, even cruelty in the tumultuous ’70s and ’80s. By turns shocking, erotic, and deeply humane, List of All Possible Desires is a haunting portrait of family and history—written with Landis’s trademark beauty and precision.This publication is joined by special expanded reissues of the other two books in the Rainey Royal Cycle, the novel in stories Normal People Don’t Live Like This and the novel Rainey Royal. Each book can be read on its own, but together they echo and amplify one another, creating a world of almost unbearable richness and intensity.Dylan Landis is the author of the novel Rainey Royal, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and the novel in stories Normal People Don’t Live Like This, both in the Rainey Royal Cycle. Her work has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and other anthologies. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction and lives in Los Angeles.Landis is in conversation with Susan Coll, the best-selling author of eight novels, including The Literati, Real Life and Other Fictions, Bookish People, and The Stager, a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice. Her novel Acceptance was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Moment Magazine, NPR.org, and Atlantic.com. She is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781641297325?ic_referral=dS62JmVd_p96gKjRgXHqGwFbqu5WwxbtaMWmOovt-8owM4caDfSb9AriIUZXgOAbKH67ZQQ7r0elZF6hhf1DdqVVPgEgpisGWIpPmILvvbelAuOQRqJqs_WZelU0QOkJylsQHG4

From the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father's expectations and a son's desiresOut of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry back home to the island of Harris to find that little has changed except for him. He returns to the windswept croft where he grew up and the two pillars of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, tweed weaver, and lay preacher in the local Presbyterian church, and his maternal grandmother Ella, a profanity-loving Glaswegian whose steady warmth helped Cal weather the sudden departure of his mother.Cal privately wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, while John is dismayed by his son's long hair, strange clothes, and seeming unwillingness to be Saved. But Cal isn't the only one in the croft house keeping secrets. As lambing season turns to shearing season, everything seems poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly frayed, and nothing will remain as it was before.John of John is a singular novel about duty, passion, and the transformative power of the truth. It is a magnificent literary work that cements Douglas Stuart's reputation as one of our greatest working novelists.Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author. His New York Times-bestselling debut novel Shuggie Bain won prizes including the 2020 Booker Prize and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award, among many others. His latest novel, Young Mungo, was a national bestseller, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and a finalist for the British Book Award, and one of the most highly acclaimed books of the year. His stories are published in the New Yorker and his essays have featured on Literary Hub. He lives in New York City.Stuart is in conversation with Aminatta Forna, the author of the novels The Window Seat, Happiness, Ancestor Stones, The Memory of Love, and The Hired Man, as well as the memoir The Devil That Danced on the Water. Forna's books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her essays have appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and Vogue. She is currently Director and Lannan Foundation Chair of Poetics at Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780802167194?ic_referral=E6-xI__h0b7_s_leBv5xNtH70Bqrxs7FVWzyIamvY28wM0Bcn0sT0HjHcZPc9oXYRyIJMq2aJuqJYEtrpa6X-kkYihHjiK67xBiB25kW4edHQ2dYMbO9y_za-32cqL2SrHoKYvY

From the beloved host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, moving tales of the marvelous animals who have crossed his path.Scott Simon’s household does not make much distinction between humans and other animals. Whether two legged or four, flesh-covered, fur-covered, feathered, or gilled—everyone is family. Today, the beloved radio host lives with the haiku-writing and absolument charmant French poodle Daisy; the daringly audacious foster cat Gato Blanco; and the energetic, cage-escaping hamster Bagel, who was almost Gato’s meal. And that’s just the start. In Ulysses S. Cat and Other Animals I Have Known, Simon warmly philosophizes on the unforgettable and utterly ordinary but enduring moments in the remarkable relationships between species, along with their joys, worries, love, and humor. From a cat who escaped the British Embassy—Simon had to promise she’d keep her accent—to street dogs during Sarajevo’s siege, to a series of beta fish all named Salman Fishdie, this enchanting work is a profusion of exuberant memories and musings on a life spent in animal company.Scott Simon hosts NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and Up First, and is special contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning. A winner of Emmy and Peabody Awards, he is in the Radio Hall of Fame and the Illinois Lincoln Academy. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife and two daughters.Simon is in conversation with Robert Siegel, who, prior to his retirement, was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9781324117186?ic_referral=YflW7jg35cZMe_V70NjIbZRs-06CrZnPUqsLhWSKqhUwM_YXHicBk7h-WLjtfmPGXzompqvKadEm4rIa3H59h7Cz7qumir3NecoaqAU6q2kHmhpKieHjrDSt4veZNY0fjwAA0dA

How to do more with less and use limits to stimulate creativity, innovation, and collaboration, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of RangeWe live in a world that gives us seemingly infinite choices and values freedom above all else. The irony is that total freedom can be paralyzing, and unlimited resources don’t necessarily lead to the biggest breakthroughs. In fact, overvaluing complete freedom can be disastrous for everything from starting a company to harnessing creativity to finding personal satisfaction.David Epstein argues that we can all benefit from narrowing our options. He dives into the science and practice of constraints, exploring exactly when and how guardrails can be beneficial, whether we’re working with limited resources or using self-imposed boundaries to tap unexpected wells of focus and innovation.Original, galvanizing, and deeply researched, Inside the Box tells absorbing stories of people and organizations that embraced constraints to transform themselves, and the world—as well as a few that struggled from a lack of limits. Epstein reveals how boundaries create breakthroughs, and how setting the right constraints can help you become the most creative, productive, and satisfied version of yourself.David Epstein is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rangeand the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and an investigative reporter for ProPublica. He lives in Washington, DC.Epstein is in conversation with Daniel H. Pink, who is the author of five books, including To Sell Is Human and the long-running New York Times bestsellers A Whole New Mind and Drive. His books have been translated into thirty-three languages and have sold more than a million copies in the United States alone. Pink lives with his family in Washington, D.C.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593715710?ic_referral=JZ1D554z9s4xszev700h4qcl_E7p7CVD9KrVXRWxUsEwM3pZ1O10wDeXqk4R9UKq3DZjUuoyBSIRVwqC3sIrutT5BaKrrsmrmkWy8UkkvhHgl_KnRlplmYnlfnXMm6ylZnmF328

A history of the engineering marvels behind one of America's most innovative and beloved entertainment experiencesWhen Disneyland opened to the public in 1955, it demystified the hidden world of factory automation through its extraordinary new attractions. In this fascinating book, Roland Betancourt tells the story of how the visionary engineers and designers at Disney transformed the technologies of the postwar assembly line into an entertainment experience unlike anything the world had ever seen.Disneyland and the Rise of Automation traces the origins and evolution of these technical innovations during the theme park's first three decades in operation, exploring how engineers reimagined the systems and machines of industrial manufacturing and the military. The magnetic tape used to test ballistic missiles was repurposed to animate the talking macaws in the Enchanted Tiki Room. Programmable Logic Controllers, widely used on automotive assembly lines, brought to life the spectacular rides of the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Space Mountain. Betancourt shows how these and other attractions helped to allay fears about automation and job displacement in 1950s America. Along the way, he situates Disneyland's remarkable creations within a broader history of the technologies that increasingly order and construct the world around us, from the Fordist factory to artificial intelligence.Essential reading for anyone interested in engineering, corporate histories, or popular culture, Disneyland and the Rise of Automation invites us to consider how technology and the logic of automation become integrated into our lives through entertainment.Roland Betancourt is Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Irvine, and a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. His books include the prize-winning Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton) and Performing the Gospels in Byzantium: Sight, Sound, and Space in the Divine Liturgy.Betancourt is in conversation with Bruce Holsinger, the author of Culpability, the 116th selection of Oprah’s Book Club and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as “a must-read for all generations.” His four previous novels include The Gifted School, a Book of the Month Club selection and winner of the the Colorado Book Award; The Displacements, the inaugural title in the United Nations Read for Action Book Club; and The Invention of Fire and A Burnable Book, historical novels set in medieval London. He’s also written many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications, and he has been profiled on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is the editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History as well as a frequent instructor at WriterHouse, a nonprofit in Charlottesville. He teaches English at the University of Virginia and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780691255873?ic_referral=Cp0te3F19h0pap0AuB-MLHlGio11mdL5RFwPXyi1P1YwMz2PHmq8HO9DSd-AwHRoNC6Rh0ia9-5SxdvLKbgX-mdn7aik7_OEAkeOxKiN8dcRylkl8ki3Fl1ar7PjBJ9TokEkKGc