Measuring Eternity
The Search for the Beginning of Time
Written by Martin Gorst

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: November 12, 2002
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-0844-3 (0-7679-0844-9)

The untold story of the religious figures, philosophers, astronomers, geologists, physicists, and mathematicians who, for more than four hundred years, have pursued the answer to a fundamental question at the intersection of science and religion: When did the universe begin?

The moment of the universe's conception is one of science's Holy... Read more >

Debt
The First 5,000 Years
Written by David Graeber

Format: Trade Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher: Melville House
On Sale: November 27, 2012
Price: $22.00
ISBN: 978-1-61219-129-4 (1-61219-129-0)

Winner of the Bateson Book Prize awarded by the Society for Cultural Anthropology

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit... Read more >

The Book of the Courtesans
A Catalogue of Their Virtues
Written by Susan Griffin

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: September 10, 2002
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-0451-3 (0-7679-0451-6)

In The Book of the Courtesans, Susan Griffin offers true tales and informative anecdotes from the courtesans’ memoirs to further reveal how these cunning women seized their opportunity to become the West’s first female liberators, free to choose their own lovers and command remarkable respect. Griffin tears away the superficial veneer... Read more >

The Eros of Everyday Life
Essays on Ecology, Gender and Society
Written by Susan Griffin

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: August 1, 1996
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-47399-6 (0-385-47399-0)

In her collection of essays on the relationship between feminism, science, nature, and the evolution of Western culture, Pulitzer prize finalist Susan Griffin boldly argues that the ways in which society subordinates women are (not accidentally) very similar to the ways in which Western culture attempts to achieve dominion over nature... Read more >

Divine Utterances
The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria
Written by Katherine J. Hagedorn

Format: Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: August 17, 2001
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-947-9 (1-56098-947-5)

In Divine Utterances, Katherine J. Hagedorn explores the enduring cultural and spiritual power of the music of Afro-Cuban Santería and the process by which it has been transformed for a secular audience. She focuses on the integral connections between sacred music performances and the dramatizations of theatrical troupes, especially the state-sponsored... Read more >

The Righteous Mind
Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Written by Jonathan Haidt

Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: March 13, 2012
Price: $28.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-37790-6 (0-307-37790-3)

Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding.

His... Read more >

Making Whiteness
The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940
Written by Grace Elizabeth Hale

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 1, 1999
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77620-8 (0-679-77620-6)

Hale examines the roots of American racial mythology and ideology, showing how, in the wake of Reconstruction and the active citizenship of their ex-slaves, white southerners chose to establish their identity through a cultural system of violence and physical separation based on skin color. This culture of segregation, Hale argues, created... Read more >

Beyond Culture

Written by Edward T. Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 7, 1976
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-12474-4 (0-385-12474-0)

Hall argues that because man does not understand his own culture, he cannot understand other cultures. He proposes that humankind must now embark on the difficult journey beyond cutlure. Using concrete examples ranging from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake to the mating habits of the bowerbird of New Guinea, Hall takes us... Read more >

Hidden Differences
Doing Business with the Japanese
Written by Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: May 18, 1990
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-23884-7 (0-385-23884-3)

An analysis and explanation of the unstated rules of Japanese-American business relations. By drawing Western readers into the world in which they must function, the Halls simplify the process of adapting Western ways to a new environment.

“The authors believe that by better understanding Japanese culture, American business people will become... Read more >

The Hidden Dimension

Written by Edward T. Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 1, 1990
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-08476-5 (0-385-08476-5)

An examination of various cultural concepts of space and how differences among them affect modern society. Introducing the science of "proxemics," Hall demonstrates how man's use of space can affect personal business relations, cross-cultural exchanges, architecture, city planning, and urban renewal. Read more >

The Silent Language

Written by Edward T. Hall

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: July 3, 1973
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-05549-9 (0-385-05549-8)

Leading anthropologist Hall analyzes the many aspects of non-verbal communication and considers the concepts of space and time as tools for transmission of messages. His stimulating work is of interest to both the intelligent general reader and the sophisticated social scientist. Read more >

Living with Our Genes
The Groundbreaking Book About the Science of Personality, Behavior, and Genetic Destiny
Written by Dean H. Hamer and Peter Copeland

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 16, 1999
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-385-48584-5 (0-385-48584-0)

Nowhere is the nature-nurture controversy being more arduously tested than in the labs of world-rennowned molecular scientist Dean Hamer, whose cutting-edge research has indisputably linked specific genes to behaviorial traits, such as anxiety, thrill-seeking, and homosexuality.

The culmination of that research is the provacative book, Living with Our Genes.  In it, Dr. Hamer... Read more >

Cannibals and Kings
Origins of Cultures
Written by Marvin Harris

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: June 4, 1991
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-72849-8 (0-679-72849-X)

Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological... Read more >

Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints
A Prehistory of Religion
Written by Brian Hayden

Format: Hardcover, 528 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: December 17, 2003
Price: $60.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-168-6 (1-58834-168-2)

Historians of art or religion and mythologists, such as Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade, have written extensively on prehistoric religion, but no one before has offered a comprehensive and uniquely archaeological perspective on the subject. Hayden opens his book with an examination of the difference between traditional religions, which are passed... Read more >

The Hacker Ethic
A Radical Approach to the Philosophy of Business
Written by Pekka Himanen
Prologue by Linus Torvalds
Epilogue by Manuel Castells

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: February 12, 2002
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75878-2 (0-375-75878-X)

Nearly a century ago, Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism articulated the animating spirit of the industrial age, the Protestant ethic. Now, Pekka Hinamen — together with Linus Torvalds and Manuel Castells — articulates how hackers* represent a new, opposing ethos for the information age. Underlying hackers’... Read more >

Notes from The Century Before
A Journal from British Columbia
Written by Edward Hoagland
Edited by Jon Krakauer
Introduction by David Quammen

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: February 12, 2002
Price: $19.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-75943-7 (0-375-75943-3)

In 1966, Edward Hoagland made a three-month excursion into the wild country of British Columbia and encountered a way of life that was disappearing even as he chronicled it. Showcasing Hoagland’s extraordinary gifts for portraiture—his cast runs from salty prospector to trader, explorer, missionary, and indigenous guide—Notes from the Century Before... Read more >

Mother Nature
Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species
Written by Sarah Hrdy

Format: Trade Paperback, 752 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
On Sale: September 5, 2000
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-345-40893-8 (0-345-40893-4)

~Library Journal Best Book of 1999~

Maternal instinct--the all-consuming, utterly selfless love that mothers lavish on their children--has long been assumed to be an innate, indeed defining element of a woman's nature. But is it? In this provocative, groundbreaking book, renowned anthropologist (and mother) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shares a radical new vision... Read more >

Somalis in Maine
Crossing Cultural Currents
Afterword by Ahmed I. Samatar
Edited by Kimberly A. Huisman, Mazie Hough, Kristin M. Langellier and Carol Nordstrom Toner

Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
On Sale: June 7, 2011
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-1-55643-926-1 (1-55643-926-1)

Lewiston, a mill town of about thirty-six thousand people, is the second-largest city in Maine. It is also home to some three thousand Somali refugees. After initially being resettled in larger cities elsewhere, Somalis began to arrive in Lewiston by the dozens, then the hundreds, after hearing stories of Maine’s attractions... Read more >

Homo Ludens
A Study of the Play-Element in Culture
Written by Johan Huizinga

Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: June 1, 1971
Price: $24.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-4681-4 (0-8070-4681-7)

Read more >

The Gift
Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World
Written by Lewis Hyde

Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 4, 2007
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-27950-7 (0-307-27950-2)

By now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orchestrated defense of the value of creativity and of its importance in a culture increasingly governed by money and overrun with commodities. Widely available again after twenty-five years, this book is even more necessary today than when it first appeared. An... Read more >

Cities and the Wealth of Nations

Written by Jane Jacobs

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: March 12, 1985
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-72911-4 (0-394-72911-0)

"Learned, iconoclastic and exciting...Jacob's diagnosis of the decay of cities in an increasingly integrated world economy is on the mark." --The New York Times Book Review
"Not only comprehensible but entertaining...Like Mrs. Jacobs' other books, it offers a concrete approach to an abstract and elusive subject. That, all by itself, makes for... Read more >

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Written by Jane Jacobs

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 1, 1992
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-74195-4 (0-679-74195-X)

A direct indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what... Read more >

Love in a Headscarf

Written by Shelina Janmohamed

Format: Trade Paperback, 272 pages
Publisher: Beacon Press
On Sale: October 12, 2010
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8070-0080-9 (0-8070-0080-9)

When Shelina Janmohamed, an Oxford-educated Muslim living in the bubbling ethnic mix of North London, opted for the traditional “arranged” route to finding a partner, she never suspected where the journey would take her...

Through ten long years of matchmaking buxom aunties, countless mismatches, and outrageous dating disasters, Shelina discovers more... Read more >

Decoded

Written by Jay-Z

Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: November 1, 2011
Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8115-5 (0-8129-8115-4)

Expanded paperback edition of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller features 16 pages of new material, including 3 new songs decoded.

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one... Read more >

The United States of Arugula
The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution
Written by David Kamp

Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Broadway
On Sale: July 17, 2007
Price: $15.99
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1580-9 (0-7679-1580-1)

“With the sweep of an epic novel, David Kamp takes us behind the scenes and into the sweaty, wacky, weird trenches of the Great American Food Revolution. His reporting is solid, his storytelling magnificent, and his good humor is seemingly inexhaustible . . . . a terrific book.” —Molly O’Neill
“Culturally aware... Read more >