The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

Lawrence Wright · 448 pages

"Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a

The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam

Eliza Griswold · 322 pages

Award-winning investigative journalist and poet, Eliza Griswold has spent the past seven years traveling between the equator and the tenth parallel: in Nigeria, the Sudan, and Somalia, and in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The stories she tells in "The Tenth Parallel" show us that religious conflicts are also conflicts about land, water, oil, and other natural resources, and that local

Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party

Max Blumenthal · 413 pages

Award-winning journalist and documentary videographer Max Blumenthal has been behind some of the most sensational (and funniest) exposes of Republican excesses. Whether it was his revelation of Sarah Palin's involvement with a Kenyan pastor who boasted of epic battles with witches, his shocking reports on rapture-ready fanatic Pastor John Hagee's ties to Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman,

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

Chris Hedges · 272 pages

Includes information on abortion, Antichrist, apocalyptic violence, Bible, religious broadcasting media, George W. Bush, Christian Right, Christians, conversion process, converts, creationism, democracy, Democratic Party, dominionism, education system, elections, Darwinʼs theory of evolution, fundamentalism, homosexuality, Islam, Jesus, Jews, lesbians, liberalism, love, male church leaders, cult o

The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church

John Thavis · 321 pages

Presents a behind-the-scenes perspective on the Vatican's inner workings that challenges popular perceptions, revealing the personal conflicts, authority-undermining scandals, and modern considerations that are challenging the Vatican's daily business.

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

Robin Wright · 307 pages

Written by a veteran reporter, this is an up close portrait of the fierce struggle between moderates and extremists taking place within the Islamic world today. Why don't Muslims challenge the violent extremists among them? Well, they do. Here she cites the clerics, comedians, and rappers who challenge al Qaeda violence; the women who are launching liberation movements; and the former jihadists wh

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

Jeffrey Toobin · 384 pages

Bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin takes you into the chambers of the most important--and secret--legal body in our country, the Supreme Court, and reveals the complex dynamic among the nine people who decide the law of the land.Just in time for the 2008 presidential election--where the future of the Court will be at stake--Toobin reveals an institution at a moment of transition, when decades of co

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Joby Warrick · 384 pages

"In a thrilling dramatic narrative, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents. When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist ma

God is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China

Liao Yiwu · 231 pages

When journalist Liao Yiwu first stumbled upon a vibrant Christian community in the officially secular China, he knew little about Christianity. In fact, he'd been taught that religion was evil, and that those who believed in it were deluded, cultists, or imperialist spies. But as a writer whose work has been banned in China and has even landed him in jail, Liao felt a kinship with Chinese Christia

One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein

Whitney Alyse Webb · 544 pages

ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror

Michael Weiss, Hassan Hassan · 341 pages

"How did a group of religious fanatics, clad in black pajamas and armed to the teeth, manage to carve out a violent, fundamentalist "Islamic state" in wide swaths of Syria and Iraq? How did the widely celebrated revolution against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad descend into a movement led by a psychopathically violent band of jihadists dedicated to the destruction of America? And just who are these

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

Jonathan Blitzer · 544 pages

The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq

George Packer · 512 pages

"The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration's war policy and led America to the Assassins' Gate - the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The consequences of that policy are shown in

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Rajiv Chandrasekaran · 336 pages

An unprecedented account of life in Baghdad’s Green Zone, a walled-off enclave of towering plants, posh villas, and sparkling swimming pools that was the headquarters for the American occupation of Iraq.

Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces

Radley Balko · 401 pages

The last days of colonialism taught America's revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko, over the last several decades, America's cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the hom

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo

Michela Wrong · 353 pages

Known as "the Leopard," the president of Zaire for thirty-two years, Mobutu Sese Seko, showed all the cunning of his namesake -- seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace l

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

Randy Shilts · 651 pages

The blueprint of 20th century investigative journalism. Tracing the course of HIV/AIDS through society; from its earliest as then unknown incarnation, to the height of this 1980s hysteria – the death of Rock Hudson: Shilts's book should be in every High School's final academic examinations coursework reading list, as a compulsory item. An unregrettable read.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein · 619 pages

**The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism** is a 2007 book by the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein. In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of "shock therapy". This centers on the exploitation of national crises (dis

Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

Ahmed Rashid · 294 pages

Shrouding themselves and their aims in deepest secrecy, the leaders of the Taliban movement control Afghanistan with an inflexible, crushing fundamentalism. The most extreme and radical of all Islamic organizations, the Taliban inspires fascination, controversy, and especially fear in both the Muslim world and the West. Correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban into sharp

Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia

Luke Harding

Altar of Secrets : Sex, Politics, and Money in the Philippine Catholic Church

Aries C. Rufo · 211 pages

Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump

Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan

“Regime Change is exceptional. It transcends its genre. . . . the book is packed with news that will stay news. . . . This is reporting of consequence.”\ \ —David Remnick, The New Yorker\ \ \ \ “A flabbergasting feat of political reporting.”\ \ —Tina Brown\ \ “Riveting and richly textured. . . . What the authors add is the vivid detail that makes these events feel actual. They wrest real

Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad

Melanie Kirkpatrick · 362 pages

It is a crime to leave North Korea. Yet increasing numbers of North Koreans dare to flee. They go first to neighboring China, which rejects them as criminals, then on to Southeast Asia or Mongolia, and finally to South Korea, the United States, and other free countries. They travel along a secret route known as the new underground railroad. With a journalist's grasp of events and a novelist's ear

The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government's Secret Drone Warfare Program

Jeremy Scahill, The Staff of The Intercept · 256 pages

The "author and his colleagues at the investigative website, The Intercept, expose stunning new details about America's secret assassination policy."--NoveList.