"Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America's most remarkable espionage plots ever--with CIA agents, mob hitmen, "kompromat" sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba's Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves...

First published in 1899 by American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen, "The Theory of the Leisure Class" is a classic and important examination of the economics of the upper classes and the impact that their habits have upon society at the end of the 19th century. In this work, Veblen, influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Adam Smith, contends that the evolutionary development of human society is the basis for our modern...

American Book Award Winner: A "moving, intimate" account of serving as a translator for undocumented children facing deportation (The New York Times Book Review).

Nonfiction Finalist for the Kirkus Prize
Finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism

Structured around the forty questions volunteer worker Valeria Luiselli translates from a court system form and asks undocumented...

Politico Magazine's chief political correspondent provides a rollicking insider's look at the making of the modern Republican Party-how a decade of cultural upheaval, populist outrage, and ideological warfare made the GOP vulnerable to a hostile takeover from the unlikeliest of insurgents: Donald J. Trump. The 2016 election was a watershed for the United States. But, as Tim Alberta explains in American Carnage, to understand Trump's victory is...

This vintage book contains a collection of forty-nine essays written by Gilbert Keith Chesterton that deal with the various societal problems of his day. A fascinating and arguably timeless social inquiry, "What's Wrong with the World?" tackles such subjects as role of women in society, education, socialism, capitalism, the family unit, and much more. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in early-twentieth century English society...

An in-depth look at the British monarchy that’s “a superb synthesis of historical analysis, politics, and top-notch royal gossip” (Kirkus Reviews).
Since William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel in 1066 to defeat King Harold II and unite England’s various kingdoms, forty-one kings and queens have sat on Britain’s throne. “Shining examples of royal power and majesty

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"For anyone who's ever picked an apple fresh from the tree or enjoyed a glass of cider, writer and orchardist Diane Flynt offers a new history of the apple and how it changed the South and the nation. Showing how southerners cultivated over 2,000 apple varieties from Virginia to Mississippi, Flynt shares surprising stories of a fruit that was central to the region for over 200 years. Colorful characters abound in this history, including aristocratic...

"White rural voters hold the greatest electoral sway of any demographic group in the United States, yet rural communities suffer from poor healthcare access, failing infrastructure, and severe manufacturing and farming job losses. Rural voters believe that our nation has betrayed them, and to some degree they're right. In White Rural Rage, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political...

History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." Riebling shows that, in reality, Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Skimming from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recording meetings with top Nazis, Pius played sent birthday cards to Hitler-- while secretly plotting to kill him. Fearing that overt protest would...