Heralded as the catalyst of the sexual revolution and the solution to global overpopulation, the contraceptive pill was one of the twentieth century's most important inventions. It has not only transformed the lives of millions of women but has also...

This deeply engaging book introduces the reader to the creative chaos of the tiny Parisian studio of the great sculptor Alberto Giacometti, from the moment he and his brother, Diego, arrived in 1927, with all their possessions in a wheelbarrow, until...

Since taking up photography in the mid-1960s, Robert Adams (born 1937) has quietly become one of the most influential chroniclers of the evolving American landscape. Carefully edited by Adams from a remarkable body of work that spans over four decade...

Can the use of force first against a less-than-imminent threat be both morally acceptable and consistent with American values? In this timely book, Mark Totten offers the first in-depth, historical examination of the use of preemptive and preventive...

<p>We live in a world awash in manmade chemicals, from the pesticides on our front lawns to the diesel exhaust in the air we breathe. Although experts are beginning to understand the potential dangers of these substances, there are still more than 80...

This ambitious book is about a way of building that for centuries dominated the making of monumental architecture – yet now not only is it lost as practice, but knowledge of its very existence is consigned to oblivion. In pre-modern Europe, the archi...

In recent years, Iran has gained attention mostly for negative reasons – for its authoritarian religious government, disputed nuclear programme, and controversial role in the Middle East – but there is much more to the story of this ancient land than...

In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Yoko Kawaguchi explores the Western portrayal of Japanese women – and geishas in particular – from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. She argues that in the West, Japanese women have come to embo...

The garden suburb has its origins in London, and, contrary to wide-spread belief, its earliest phase took place not at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the much discussed garden-city movement, but one century earlier, with the creation of...

The statistics are startling. Since 1973, America's imprisonment rate has multiplied over five times to become the highest in the world. More than two million inmates reside in state and federal prisons. What does this say about our attitudes toward...