Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Sociology

Talk about a fish story! New York Times and Harper's columnist Mark Kurlansky offers "history filtered through the gills of the fish trade." David McCullough, the historian behind John Adams, says Kurlansky's "charming tale" of a "seemingly improbable idea" will change the way people think of the fish and the history.

What is our concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted? When did the new millennium begin? And why must our calendars be so complex, anyway? Best-selling author Stephen Jay Gould applies his wit and erudition to explore these questions, which cover one of today's most pressing subjects.

After his father died, Leon Wieseltier began to observe the traditional year-long period of mourning, going to the synagogue three times a day to recite the prayer known as the mourner's Kaddish. Struck by the profound, yet unexpected power of this practice and the poverty of his knowledge about it, Leon began to study the history and meaning of this ancient ritual.

Accomplished poet and writer Jerome Washington offers an unforgettable glimpse of prison life. You'll meet Cleanhead: thief, con artist, and disciple of Dale Carnegie; Shing-a-Ling, a pimp on a mission to become literate; Sugar-Ditch Pearl and his lover Rex, who are spending their honeymoon in the exercise yard lifting weights; and Juanito, caught in a laughing jag while being bludgeoned to death by the guards. Iron House is a portrait of a culture where brutality is the norm and moments of kindness are few and treasured.

The best selling author and evolutionary scientist holds the mirror up to all of our millennial passions in this wide-ranging discussion that reveals our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.

When Pauline Chen began medical school, she dreamed of saving lives. What she didn't count on was how much death would be a part of her work. Final Exam follows Chen over the course of her training, as she struggles to reconcile a shared humanity with her patients and to separate ideals about healing from a fierce desire to cure. Chen's transfixing and beautiful rumination on how doctors negotiate the ineluctable fact of death becomes, in the end, a brilliant questioning of how we should live.