At once a fascinating account of the birth of modern China and a moving chronicle of courage, creativity, and resistance.The riveting story of China's rise from economic ruin to global giant in the past four decades is illuminated by another, equally...

Set in the heart of swirling, Dickensian London, the wondrous history of a unique institution and the incredible characters—human and animal—that populated it.The founding of a zoo in Georgian London is a story of jaw-dropping audacity in the Age of...

This groundbreaking study of Franz Kafka’s legacy—to be published during the centenary of his death in 2024—explores Kafka’s life and influence in an entirely new and dynamic way.In 2024, exactly one hundred years after his death at the age of forty,...

An inspired and impassioned story of adventure that explores the richness of marine life and charts a path of resilience and hope. Everyone alive today is witnessing a mass extinction event caused by the more than eight billion humans who share this...

The death of Socrates may be the most famous unsolved murder in history. Set during the Peloponnesian War, this narrative solves that mystery, revealing for the first time how the philosopher was set up, who did it, and why.The influence of the ancient...

An exploration of artistic freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination, including James Baldwin in Provence, Josephine Baker in Paris, Kevin Killian in San Francisco, and E. M. Forster in Cambridge, among other groundbreaking queer...

Dispelling the myths around this legendary queen, this biography of Henrietta Maria, queen consort of King Charles I, retells the dramatic story of the English Civil War from the perspective of this dynamic woman.Henrietta Maria is British history’s most...

Part of the Gibbs Smith Women's Voices series: A collection of literary voices written by, and for, extraordinary women―to encourage, challenge, and inspire.By the matriarch of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women tackles...

"It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution," Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two...

“This powerful and meticulously argued book reveals that immigration crackdowns … [have] always been about saving and protecting the racist idea of a white America.” —Ibram X. Kendi, award-winning author of Four Hundred Souls and Stamped from the...

A monumental, canon-defining anthology of three centuries of American essays, from Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin to David Foster Wallace and Zadie Smith—selected by acclaimed essayist Phillip Lopate"Not only an education but a joy. This is a book...

The theme of this extraordinary book is the evolution of the modern conception of family life and the modern image; of the nature of children. Aries traces the evolution of the concept of childhood from the end of the Middle Ages, when the child was...

Winner of the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature "Dramatic and illuminating…[R]aises momentous questions about nationality, religion, literature, and even the Holocaust." —Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic When Franz Kafka died in 1924, his loyal friend...

Eternity Street tells the story of a violent place in a violent time: the rise of Los Angeles from its origins as a small Mexican pueblo. In a masterful narrative, John Mack Faragher relates a dramatic history of conquest and ethnic suppression, of...

An epic, full-color visual journey through all scales of the universeIn The Zoomable Universe, the award-winning astrobiologist Caleb Scharf and the acclaimed artist Ron Miller take us on an epic tour through all known scales of reality, from the largest...

A groundbreaking reading of Duchamp's work as informed by Asian “esoterism, ” energetic spiritual practices identifying creative energy with the erotic impulse.Considered by many to be the most important artist of the twentieth century, the object of...

Charles Dickens's masterful assault on the injustices of the British legal systemAs the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose...

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE PEACOCK TV SERIES STARRING AMANDA SEYFRIEDONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR—BY THE AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF THE WOODSAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICKTwo sisters travel the...

Five masterful dramatic works from one of the world's best-loved playwrights, including The Seagull—now a major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan, Elizabeth Moss, and Annette BeningAt a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by formulaic...

The rich and ongoing development of Russian lyric poetry, explored through close readings of thirty-four poems by poets ranging from Alexander Blok to Maria StepanovaThe Russian cultural tradition treats poetry as the supreme artistic form, with...