Education Biography

We all know what is wrong with today’s schools - or do we? Tracy Kidder spent a year in a fifth grade class in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The teacher is excellent, but something else is very wrong. Kidder skillfully presents the problems and leaves the listener to ponder the solutions.

Marty Kihn was the nicest guy in the world, until he got fed up with being passed over for promotions at work, tired of being suckered into walking his neighbor's dog, and sick of being disrespected by the man who sold him his morning coffee. On the day he turned 40, Kihn set out to transform himself from Mr. Nice Guy into a rule-breaking, power-mongering, Fox News-watching asshole.

A fun and fascinating social history of the famed Katharine Gibbs School, which from the 1910s to the 1960s, trained women for executive secretary positions but surreptitiously was instilling the self-confidence and strategic know-how necessary for them to claim equality, power, and authority in...

One of the most revered, imitated, and controversial governmental documents in the world, the US Constitution serves as the foundation for the American government and shapes the lives of Americans every day. But how many of us know its history and the impact it has on guiding our ever-evolving...

4 stories of resilience, mutual aid, and radical rebellion that will transform how we understand the Great Depression Drawing on little-known stories of working people, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression? amplifies voices that have been long omitted from standard histories of the...

An award-winning author's deep exploration of pivotal moments in Texas history through multiple generations of her own family, and a ruthless reexamination of our national and personal myths Seven generations of Jessica Goudeau’s family have lived in Texas, and her family’s legacy—a word...

From a pioneering advocate for LGBTQ youth, a gripping, impassioned account of how an unhoused queer youth’s murder compelled him to create the nation’s largest housing program for homeless LGBTQ teens. “A gut-wrenchingly poignant real-life saga . . . Carl Siciliano has written an...

This book examines fifteen judgments that have influenced the financial destiny of India. With significant macroeconomic dimensions, these judgments, when explored, show a long-term impact on the economy. In doing so, judgments from different times of history have been examined to give the...

The first and only comprehensive collection of writings by Elizabeth Garver Jordan, the groundbreaking journalist, suffragist, and editor whose fearless reporting on women preceded the #MeToo movement and popularized the true-crime genre A Penguin Classic The Case of Lizzie Borden and Other...

Written during the most eventful years of Benjamin Franklin's life (1771-90), the autobiography is one of the most influential memoirs in history. This newly edited Norton Critical Edition includes an introduction that explains the history of the autobiography within the larger history of the life-writing genre as well as within the history of celebrity.

Life is full of small details that we tuck away somewhere to revisit when we need them most: the calming sound of the sea, that childlike joy when you feel the sun hit your face on an early February morning. These small details knitted together make up our perfect ordinary lives. Few understood the importance of these more than Sarah Hughes, who lived with terminal metastatic cancer for over three years and who died in April 2021.

For many of us, fear is something best avoided. But as professional snowboarder Aimee Fuller knows well, fear can also be a catalyst for growth—and the true magic happens when you take your fear and turn it into fire. In this bright and insightful book, Aimee draws from her personal experience to show you how to get to know fear without letting it hold you back, how to learn from failure, and help you reframe fear as your most powerful ally.

Alistair Horne is a leading scholar of French history. Here he trains his sights on one of the most compelling figures of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte. Far from a mere dictator, Napoleon was a military, political and social visionary whose legacy can still be felt in France and all over the world. Horne examines the one-time emperor at his most human, from his greatest triumphs to his disastrous failures.

Born on a rural farm in Idaho to strict Mormon parents, Tara Westover spent her childhood and teen years working in her father’s junkyard and helping her mother create herbal medicine while attending a small, devout church. Tara’s parents were skeptical of public education, medical institutions, and the government’s role in the lives of its citizens. This skepticism led to their self-sufficient lifestyle, homeschooling their children and even tending to serious burns and injuries with herbal remedies. Going against her father’s wishes, Tara attended Brigham Young University.

Was Savarkar really a co-conspirator in the Gandhi murder? Was there a pogrom against a particular community after Gandhi's assassination? Decades after his death, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar continues to uniquely influence India's political scenario. An optimistic advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity in...

Is India ready to emerge as a world leader? Our times are characterized not by estranged Superpowers building formidable arsenals but by engaged societies building a robust global economy. Emerging countries are redefining the geo-economic (and geopolitical) dynamic. The twenty-first century...

The story of the birth of India's states is the story of the birth and continuing rebirth of India, the nation. It is a story that everyone in India must know, from young to old. This rigorously researched book lays out the fascinating political and historical circumstances of the birth of...

Albemarle Street: Portraits, Personalities and Presentations at The Royal institution is a lively and compelling personal selection of the remarkable personalities and achievements of some of the extraordinary scientists and individuals who, during the 19th and 20th centuries, worked or lectured at 21 Albemarle Street in Mayfair, central London. John Meurig Thomas offers a unique and valuable insight into the history of this prestigious address, having himself lived and worked at the Royal Institution for some 20 years.

A young queer millennial physicist unveils some of the most mind-bending physics concepts in the universe—and uses them to illuminate their own fascinating life story “I see physics everywhere,” Karmela Padavic-Callaghan writes. “It offers itself to me when I try to make sense of all the...

Drawing from the experiences of real-life giving circles, philanthropy leader Hali Lee challenges our traditional understanding of giving, showing how everyday people can take back philanthropy from the billionaires and make the world a better place. When you think of philanthropy, what do you...