Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell us About Our Past and Future by James Shapiro From the publisher: “From leading scholar James Shapiro, a timely exploration of what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about our divided land, from Revolutionary times to the present day […]
The Economics of Belonging by Martin Sandbu From the publisher: “Fueled by populism and the frustrations of the disenfranchised, the past few years have witnessed the widespread rejection of the economic and political order that Western countries built up after 1945. Political debates have turned […]
A Promised Land by Barack Obama From the publisher: “In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly […]
The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again by Robert D. Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett From the publisher: “An eminent political scientist’s brilliant analysis of economic, social, and political trends over the past century demonstrating how we […]
John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation by Harlow Giles Unger From the publisher: “A hero in America’s war against British tyranny, John Marshall with his heroics as Chief Justice turned the Supreme Court into a bulwark against presidential and congressional tyranny and saved […]
I’ve just added a book to my summer reading list: Supreme Inequality by Adam Cohen. The book examines how the Supreme Court has moved in a different direction in the 50 years since the Warren court. It should be a good read. Here is a […]
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight From the publisher: “Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists […]
A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government by Garry Wills From the publisher: “In A Necessary Evil, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills shows that distrust of government is embedded deep in the American psyche. From the revolt of the colonies against king […]
Until the End of Time, by Brian Greene From the publisher: “From the world-renowned physicist and best-selling author of The Elegant Universe comes a captivating exploration of deep time and humanity’s search for purpose. “Until the End of Time is Brian Greene’s breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos […]
The Free Speech Century, edited by Lee C. Bollinger and Jeffrey R. Stone From the publisher: “The Supreme Court’s 1919 decision in Schenck vs. the United States is one of the most important free speech cases in American history. Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, it […]