History - Social History

OUR BEST-REVIEWED BOOK OF THE YEAR! "Namaste, fascists! An original and entertaining analysis of the dubious origins of the Western middle class's favourite postural exercise" - The Times "A hilarious grenade thrown at platitudes & the knit-your-own yoghurt brigade. Home lifts the magic carpet...

"Superbly intelligent...[a] rewarding Sapiens-style big history." --The Times (London) A bold and original history of fatherhood, exploring its invention and transformation from the Bronze Age to the present through a collective portrait of emblematic fathers who have helped to define how the world should...

"Superbly intelligent...[a] rewarding Sapiens-style big history." --The Times (London) A bold and original history of the invention and transformation of masculinity's most important institution, from the Bronze Age to the contemporary "crisis of men", told through a collective portrait of emblematic fathers who have...

Our era is one of sexual upheaval. Roe v. Wade was overturned in the summer of 2022, school systems across the country are banning books with LGBTQ+ themes, and the notion of a "tradwife" is gaining adherents on the right while polyamory wins converts...

"So smart and entertaining it should come with its own popcorn"--PeopleCoinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the film version of Truman Capote's Breakast at Tiffany's, the acclaimed, New York Times bestseller that is the definitive account of Audrey Hepburn and the making of the...

How New York's elite claimed authority over social welfare in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy In American history, few tragedies have been as consequential--and as enduringly misunderstood--as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Long remembered as a turning point in the...

Secret Service agent Clint Hill reveals the stories behind the iconic images of the five tragic days surrounding President John F. Kennedy's assassination in this 60th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller. On November 22, 1963, three shots were fired in Dallas,...

Flapper is a dazzling look at the women who heralded a radical change in American culture and launched the first truly modern decade. The New Woman of the 1920s puffed cigarettes, snuck gin, hiked her hemlines, danced the Charleston, and necked in roadsters. More...

Uncover the myths, legends, and secrets of the world's most iconic trees. Did you know that laurel is said to protect against snakebites and shield against witchcraft? Or that yews are often planted near graveyards to keep the devil out? Across cultures and centuries,...

A provocative, authoritative reckoning with the past and future of marriage, explaining why it's become more rewarding as well as riskier Marriage rates have fallen dramatically since the 1970s. Yet far from devaluing marriage, people still overwhelmingly describe marriage as the highest commitment they...

Public toilets determine who gets everyday dignity, freedom of movement, and civic belonging--and who doesn't.Americans have nowhere to go. Nationwide, countless public spaces lack one crucial thing: bathrooms, never mind ones that are safe and functional. Yet in the past, political leaders celebrated the...

In a land where loyalty is life and betrayal is blood, "Forbes: A Story of Scotland" delivers a sweeping yet remarkably readable history of Scotland-told through the vivid, deeply human lens of one of its most influential clans. For the first time, the full...

For over fifty years, a growing movement has been quietly organizing wealthy people to redistribute their resources toward justice. From the radical rich kids of the 1970s to today's cross-class coalitions, this is the most comprehensive collection of stories to date from the front...

The word nerd gift book of the year! With warmth and humor, a popular radio and podcast host shares her love of language, weaving together linguistic history, regional phrases, the hidden poetry in etymologies, new words, and stories from her life and time on...

The word nerd gift book of the year! With warmth and humor, a popular radio and podcast host shares her love of language, weaving together linguistic history, regional phrases, the hidden poetry in etymologies, new words, and stories from her life and time on...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring From the motorcar to the radio, modern technology radically transformed urban life by the first decade of the twentieth century. As one of Western Europe's least industrialized countries, Italy appeared impervious to such developments. It was this state...

The "monumental" (The Washington Post), field-defining history of gay life in New York City in the early to mid-20th century Gay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed in the closet, where all gay men were isolated, invisible,...

Antoinette Burton argues that gender history is hiding in plain sight, at work everywhere we look.This volume introduces the field of gender history--its origins, development, reception, recalibrations, and frictions. It offers a set of working definitions of gender as a descriptive category and as...

The seminal work on generations from acclaimed authors William Strauss and Neil Howe of The Fourth Turning, and Howe's The Fourth Turning Is Here. The Strauss-Howe generational theory explains how generations evolve, and how they affect our society--from hundreds of years in the past...

A beautifully written history of high society in Newport, Rhode Island, from the acclaimed author of Party of the CenturyNewport is the legendary and beautiful home of American aristocracy and the sheltered super-rich. Many of the country's most famous blueblood families?the closest thing we...