"Legendary novelist, poet, and essayist Margaret Atwood delivers a surprising look at the topic of "debt"--a timely subject during our current period of economic upheaval. In her intelligent and imaginative approach to the subject, Atwood proposes that "debt" is like air--something we take for granted and never think about until things go wrong. This is not a book about practical debt management or high finance, although it does touch upon those subjects....

"A Short History of Progress is nothing less than a concise history of the world since Neanderthal times, elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and stunningly clear in its warning to us now. Wright shows how human beings have a way of walking into "progress traps," beginning with the worldwide slaughter of big game in the Stone Age. The same pattern of overconsumption then took a new from, as many of the world's most creative civilizations - Mesopotamia,...

"In this year's highly anticipated Massey Lectures, internationally acclaimed historian Margaret MacMillan gives her own personal selection of the great figures of the past, women and men, who have changed the course of history and even directed the currents of their times--and sometimes with huge consequences, as in the cases of Hitler, Stalin, and Thatcher. She also acknowledges people such as Richard Nixon and George W. Bush who stubbornly went...

"Writer, filmmaker, and organizer Astra Taylor takes a curious, critical, and ultimately hopeful look at the uniquely modern concept of insecurity. These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially precarious, overwhelmed and anxious, and worried about the future. While millions endure the stress of struggling to make ends meet, in reality, the status quo isn't working for anyone, even the affluent and comparatively privileged; they, too, are...