The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?

The Shame Of The Nation: The Restoration Of Apartheid Schooling In America

Jonathan Kozol · 416 pages

"This is a book about betrayal of the young, who have no power to defend themselves. It is not intended to make readers comfortable." Visiting nearly 60 public schools, Kozol finds that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the 15 years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. First, the segregation of black children is at a l

The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire

Tim Schwab · 496 pages

Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools

Steven Brill · 496 pages

In a reporting tour de force, award-winning journalist Steven Brill takes an uncompromising look at the adults who are fighting over America's failure to educate its children and points the way to reversing that failure. Brill's vivid narrative -- filled with unexpected twists and turns -- takes us from the Oval Office, where President Obama signs off on an unprecedented plan that will infuriate t

The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap

Matt Taibbi · 432 pages

"Matt Taibbi's genius is in untangling complex stories and making us care about them by providing striking moral clarity and a genuine sense of outrage. He has become among the most read journalists in America, leading the dialogue with epic Rolling Stone pieces that offer an "almost startling reminder of the power of good writing" (Washington Post). In this new work, he once again takes readers i

Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class

Noam Scheiber · 384 pages

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

Evan Osnos · 416 pages

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

Diane Ravitch · 462 pages

Award-winning author, public intellectual, and former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch critiques a lifetime's worth of school reforms and reveals the simple--yet difficult--truth about how we can create actual change in public schools.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich · 240 pages

The author's experience holding low-wage jobs in three parts of the U.S. in the late 1990s.

How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization

Franklin Foer · 261 pages

Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in b

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

George Packer · 448 pages

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

David K. Shipler · 596 pages

Examines the relationships, mutual images, and stereotypes that have evolved between Arabs and Jews in Israel and in territorities under Israeli control.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick · 314 pages

A remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the lives of six ordinary citizens Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years--a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape most of us have nev

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul

Edward Humes · 380 pages

What should we teach our children about where we come from?Is evolution good science? Is it a lie? Is it incompatible with faith?Did Charles Darwin really say man came from monkeys? Have scientists really detected "intelligent design"—evidence of a creator—in nature?What happens when a town school board decides to confront such questions head-on, thrusting its students, then an entire community, o

The Loudest Voice in the Room: How Roger Ailes and Fox News Remade American Politics

Gabriel Sherman · 568 pages

An inside account of Fox News offers insight into its operations and influence, covering the original launch of the cable news network by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch and the ways in which Fox has become a dominant force in American politics.

The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS

Elizabeth Pisani · 386 pages

"In this breakneck ride through the red-light districts of East Asia and other hotspots in the flamboyant world of AIDS prevention, writer-scientist Elizabeth Pisani dishes on both friends and enemies in the battles where she has been on the front lines for more than a decade." "Pisani's swashbuckling wit takes no prisoners, as she exposes both those who think AIDS can be prevented by preaching ab

The Age of American Unreason

Susan Jacoby · 357 pages

Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon--one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Disdain for logic and evidence

Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women

Susan Faludi · 592 pages

*Skillfully Probing the Attack on Women's Rights* "Opting-out," "security moms," "desperate housewives," "the new baby fever"--the trend stories of 2006 leave no doubt that American women are still being barraged by the same backlash messages that Susan Faludi brilliantly exposed in her 1991 bestselling book of revelations. Now, the book that reignited the feminist movement is back in a fi

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

Peter Pomerantsev · 272 pages

"Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible is a journey into the glittering, surreal heart of 21st century Russia: into the lives of oligarchs convinced they are messiahs, professional killers with the souls of artists, Bohemian theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, supermodel sects, post-modern dictators, and playboy revolutionaries. This is a world erupting with new money and new pow

Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay · 360 pages

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink, all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once l

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

Jason Stearns · 416 pages

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

David Remnick · 581 pages

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel

Max Blumenthal · 513 pages

"In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens. Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-09, which brought into

You Are Being Lied To

Russ Kick, Russell Kick · 399 pages

We Should All Be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 64 pages

In this essay -- adapted from her TEDx talk of the same name -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah, offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author's exploration