A New York Times–bestselling author looks at mathematics education in America-when it's worthwhile, and when it's not. Why do we inflict a full menu of mathematics-algebra, geometry, trigonometry, even calculus-on all young Americans, regardless of their interests or aptitudes? While Andrew Hacker has been a professor of mathematics himself, and extols the glories of the subject, he also questions some widely held assumptions in this thought-provoking...

"From the New York Times-bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas. In this illustrated volume, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences....

A deeply perceptive and beautifully written cultural history of shyness, from one of our most astute observers of the everyday.

From an award-winning journalist comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.

A former Google data scientist presents an insider's look at what the vast, instantly available amounts of information from the Internet can reveal about human civilization and society.

"Twelve eye-opening, mind-expanding, funny, and provocative essays on the implications of artificial intelligence for the way we live and the way we love from New York Times bestselling author Jeanette Winterson. "Talky, smart, anarchic and quite sexy," wrote Dwight Garner in the New York Times about Jeanette Winterson's last novel, Frankissstein, her first foray into the subject of AI. In 12 Bytes, Winterson's first nonfiction since her bestselling...

Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science, Foer puts the DNA of the very idea of "tech" under the microscope. Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are breaking laws intended to protect intellectual property and privacy. This is not the path towards freedom and prosperity, but the total automation and homogenization of our social, political, and intellectual lives. Today's corporate giants want access to every facet...

Sustainable Literature Commitee's2018 Green Prize Winner •One of Bustle's "17 Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out In June 2018" • One of The Revelator's "16 New Environmental Books for June" • One of Equinox's "5 Books High Performers Should Read in June" • One of Foodtank's "18 Books Making a Splash This Summer" •One of CivilEats' "22 Noteworthy Food and Farming Books for Summer Reading-and Beyond" From the voice of a new generation of...

Thompson examines "the hidden psychology of why we like what we like and reveals the economics of cultural markets that invisibly shape our lives. [Exploring] the sentimental myths of hit-making that dominate pop culture and business, Thompson [argues that] quality is insufficient for success, nobody has 'good taste,' and some of the most popular products in history were one bad break away from utter failure. It may be a new world, but there are some...

The historical achievements of religious belief have been large and well chronicled. But what about the accomplishments of those who have challenged religion? Traveling from classical Greece to twenty-first century America, Imagine There's No Heaven explores the role of disbelief in shaping Western civilization. At each juncture common themes emerge: by questioning the role of gods in the heavens or the role of a God in creating man on earth, nonbelievers...