These are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater," a change virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative--even unique--pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting.--Adapted from publisher description

A reference guide to Jewish history and culture that includes coverage of historical events from the Old Testament to the present, profiles of key Jewish figures, and information about the arts, sciences, politics, and sports.

This book of thoroughly engaging essays from one of today's most prodigious innovators provides a uniquely personal perspective on the lives and achievements of a selection of intriguing figures from the history of science and technology. Weaving together his immersive interest in people and history with insights gathered from his own experiences, Stephen Wolfram gives an ennobling look at some of the individuals whose ideas and creations have helped shape our world today. Contents includes biographical sketches of: Richard Feynman Kurt Godel Alan Turing John von Neumann George Boole Ada Lovelace Gottfried Leibniz Benoit Mandelbrot Steve Jobs Marvin Minsky Russell Towle Bertrand Russell Alfred Whitehead Richard Crandall Srinivasa Ramanujan Solomon Golomb

"A powerful account, by Israeli peace activist Miko Peled, of his transformation from a young man who'd grown up in the heart of Israel's elite and served proudly in its military into a fearless advocate of nonviolent struggle and equal rights for all Palestinians and Israelis. His journey is mirrored in many ways the transformation his father, a much-decorated Israeli general, had undergone three decades earlier. Alice Walker contributed a foreword to the first edition in which she wrote, "There are few books on the Israel/Palestine issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one." In the new Epilogue he takes readers to South Africa, East Asia, several European countries, and the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself."--Amazon.com.

"Philadelphia's progressive district attorney offers an inspiring vision of how people can take back power to reform criminal justice, based on lessons from a life's work as an advocate for the accused." --

Presents the major ideas that have formed the modern Latin American political mind and profiles influential revolutionaries, thinkers, poets, and novelists, from Che Guevara to Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez

Documents the author's choice to leave his privileged life in Beverly Hills to become a member of Israel's most elite security force, for which he became an expert in urban counterterror warfare and participated in more than two hundred life-or-death missions.

Once there was a boy named Leonard who loved to sing and to act. His parents were immigrants who felt like aliens in America, and certainly didn't understand Leonard's drive to perform. "Learn to play the accordion," his father told him. "Actors starve, but at least musicians can eke out a living." But Leonard reached for the stars... and caught them. He moved to Hollywood, where he took acting lessons, and drove a taxi and took every role he could get. He worked hard, learned his lines, showed up on time, and studied his craft. Until one day he was offered the role of an alien science officer on a new TV show called Star Trek. Leonard knew what it felt like to be an alien. But did he want the role?

"Here is the story of how two people most influenced Feynman's early years-his father, who taught him to think, and his first wife Arlene who taught him to love, even as she lay dying in an Albuquerque hospital while Feynman worked nearby, on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. And here are lighter moments, some told through letters, as Feynman reports from Geneva, Trinidad, Greece, and Japan on the effects this curious character has had on the locals. The second half of the book...is Feynman's behind-the-scenes account of the investigation that followed the space shuttle Challenger's explosion in January 1986"--Jacket.

Offers a profile of Academy Award winning sound and film editor Walter Murch and his amateur work in astrophysics as an outsider trying to rehabilitate the discredited eighteenth-century Titius-Bode theory.

Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here the author, himself a theoretical physicist, offers a scientific biography: a narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits. An immensely colorful persona in and out of the office, Feynman revolutionized our understanding of nature amid a turbulent life. The author presents that life, from the death of Feynman's childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his reluctant rise as a scientific icon, seen through the science, providing a new understanding of the legacy of a man who has fascinated millions. A reflection on the issues that drive physics today, this work captures the story of a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that broke all the rules.

"The 1990s was a decade of extreme change. Shifts in culture, politics, and technology radically altered the way Americans did business, expressed themselves, and thought about their role in the world. At the center of it all was Bill Clinton, the charismatic and flawed baby boomer president, along with his polarizing but increasingly popular wife, Hillary. Although it was in many ways a Democratic Gilded Age, the 1990s was also a time of great anxiety. The Cold War was over. America was stable and prosperous. Yet Americans felt more unmoored and isolated. This was the era of glitz and grunge, when we relished living in the Republic of Everything even as we feared it might degenerate into the Republic of Nothing. Bill Clinton dominated this era, but his complex legacy has yet to be clearly defined. Historian Gil Troy examines Clinton's presidency alongside the decade's cultural changes. Taking the '90s year by year, Troy shows how the culture of the day shaped the Clintons even as the Clintons shaped it, offering answers to two enduring questions about Bill Clinton's legacy: How did such a talented politician leave Americans thinking he accomplished so little when he actually accomplished so much? And to what extent was Clinton responsible for the catastrophes of the following decade, specifically 9/11 and the collapse of the housing market? Even more relevant as we head toward the 2016 election, The Age of Clinton will appeal to readers on both sides of the aisle as it chronicles the wild, transformative decade and the president at its center"--

"A perfect match of writer and subject: one of our most brilliant biographers takes on one of our greatest living playwrights--with his cooperation and access to a trove of hitherto unseen material. Tom Stoppard is a towering and beloved literary figure. Known for his dizzying narrative inventiveness and intense attention to language, he deftly deploys art, science, history, politics, and philosophy in works that span a remarkable spectrum of literary genres: theater, radio, film, TV, journalism, and fiction. His most acclaimed creations--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Shakespeare in Love--remain as fresh and moving as when they dazzled their first audiences. Stoppard's life, too, is fascinating: born in Czechoslovakia, he escaped the Nazis with his mother and spent his early years in Singapore and India before arriving in England at age eight. Skipping university, he embarked on a brilliant career, becoming close friends over the years with an astonishing array of writers, actors, directors, musicians, and political figures, from Peter O'Toole, Harold Pinter, and Stephen Spielberg to Mick Jagger and Vaclav Havel. Having long described himself as a "bounced Czech," Stoppard was surprised to learn late in life of his Jewish family and the relatives he lost to the Holocaust, secrets his mother had kept from him. Lee's in-depth analysis seamlessly weaves Stoppard's life and work together into a vivid, insightful, and always riveting portrait of a remarkable man"--

Along with Satre, Camus and Orwell, Arthur Koestler helped to shape the ideas of today. Once a communist, he saw through Marxism and led the intellectual counter-attack that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. His writings on science introduced millions to cutting-edge theories of evolution and the workings of the human mind. His speculations on human nature and the future of mankind in the atomic age stamped a generation that grew up in the shadow of the Bomb. As restless in his personal relationships as he was in politics, his violent affairs with women were legendary. His fascinating study is t he first to make use of Koestler's private papers and draws on previously secret documents held by the KGB and the FBI, exposing the depth of his involvement in the Communist Party and, later, his relations with the CIA. It also reveals the darker side to his nature, which led to the tragic dual suicide with his third wife, Cynthia, in 1983. David Cesarani has ensured Koestler's place in the pantheon of intellectual giants of the twentieth century as surely as the 'warts and all' approach is guaranteed to perpetuate the controversy that swirled around Koestler in his life and death.

"Blending the historical, biographical and political, this wide-ranging "memoir + manifesto" describes how the values of the 1960s are shaping a new progressive majority in 2016 and beyond. Multi-faceted Mark Green--bestselling author, public interest lawyer, elected official--guides us through contemporary American politics as Johnson retaliates against his antiwar work; Nader launches the modern consumer movement; Clinton wins the 1992 New York primary and therefore the nomination; the author debates Castro in Havana on human rights; and Green loses the closest NYC mayoral election in a century to Bloomberg after 9/11 in a perfect storm of money, terrorism, and race. As Public Advocate for New York City, Green is Mayor Giuiliani's bête noir--he exposes the NYPD's racial profiling, kills off Joe Camel, inspires the city's 311 system, and shows how a person who believes in positive, progressive government can make it work for average citizens. Starting with the consequential movements of the 1960s, Bright, Infinite Future tracks how a rising tide of minority and Millennial voters, the GOP's lurch from mainstream to extreme, and the contrast between the disastrous presidency of Bush 43 and the successful ones of Clinton and Obama are leading to a new era of "progressive patriotism" that will culminate in the 2016 presidential election. Full of behind-the-scenes stories about boldfaced names, this will be the 2016 book for liberals looking to Leonard Bernstein's 'bright, infinite future," conservatives who want to know what they're up against, and readers who want to know what it takes and what it's like "in the arena." "--

A narrative thriller about the battle royale surrounding Barack Obama's quest for a second term amid widespread joblessness and one of the most poisonous political climates in American history.

This new visual biography is an extraordinary chronicle of Lady Pamela's life. Daughter of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last viceroy of India, Lady Pamela was a first cousin to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and served as a bridesmaid and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, before marrying legendary interior designer David Hicks. Sifting through her parents' archives, India has uncovered a trove of material about her mother. This beautifully illustrated personal history includes ephemera such as letters from the Queen; images of the houses and gardens where she grew up and made her wonderfully elegant home; details of her extraordinary work during Indian independence, her marriage to David Hicks and the homes he designed for them, the assassination of her father in Ireland, and later life in the country, as well as the lessons India has learned from her mother having had a front-row seat at so many historical events --

By focusing on the human side as well as the intellectual dimensions of how economists work and think, this collection of interviews with top economists of the 20th century becomes a startling and lively introduction to the modern world of macroeconomics. A fun read! For more information, frequent updates, and to comment on the forthcoming book, visit William A. Barnett's weblog at http://economistmind.blogspot.com/. Acclaim for Inside the Economist's Mind "In candid interviews, these great economists prove to be fabulous story tellers of their lives and times. Unendingly gripping for insiders, this book should also help non-specialists understand how economists think." Professor Julio Rotemberg, Harvard University Business School, and Editor, Review of Economics and Statistics. "Economics used to be called the 'dismal science'. It will be impossible for anybody to hold that view anymore ... This is science with flesh and blood, and a lot of fascinating stories that you will find nowhere else." Dr. Jean-Pascal Bénassy, Paris-Jourdan Sciences Économiques, Paris, France "This book provides a rare and intriguing view of the personal and professional lives of leading economists ... It is like A Beautiful Mind , scaled by a factor of 16 [the number of interviews in the book]." Professor Lee Ohanian, University of California at Los Angeles " ... if you want an insider view of how economics has been developing in the last decades, this is the (only) book for you." Professor Giancarlo Gandolfo, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza,’ Rome "Here we see the HUMAN side of path-breaking research, the personalities and pitfalls, the DRAMA behind the science." Professor Francis X. Diebold, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

A Revealing Profile of the Father of the Atomic Bomb Highly praised by New York Review of Books, The Spectator, Los Angeles Times, Booklist, & More J. Robert Oppenheimer was a puzzle to everyone. The nuclear physicist most responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, he was a genius both scientifically and otherwise. His standards were impossibly high. He read widely in many languages, wrote poetry, and did superb science. Yet in Jeremy Bernstein's intensely interesting biographical memoir, Oppenheimer emerges as a man unsure of his identity and captive to an element of self-destructiveness in his makeup. Oppenheimer is the long-awaited book that many people feel Mr. Bernstein was almost born to write. As a former colleague of Oppenheimer's, he has composed a book that is both personal and historical, bringing the reader close to the life and workings of an extraordinary and controversial man. Oppenheimer once told the author that during the now-famous hearing in which he lost his security clearance—one of the most spectacular attacks of the McCarthy era—he felt it was happening to someone else. His lawyer at the hearing, after being with Oppenheimer day in and day out for several months, said he did not know him in any real sense at all. Yet everyone in the scientific community and in government agreed that without Oppenheimer's totally remarkable leadership at Los Alamos, the atomic bomb would not have happened, and the Second World War would have ended very differently. Filled with revealing insights and details that set the historical record straight, Oppenheimer is that rare quantity: a vastly entertaining study of one of the most important and enigmatic scientists of the atomic age. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

"A down-to-earth, inspiring book about the American promise fulfilled." -President Bill Clinton "Fascinating . . . . Made me wish I had been born in the Bronx." -Barbara Walters A touching and provocative collection of memories that evoke the history of one of America's most influential boroughs-the Bronx-through some of its many success stories The vivid oral histories in Arlene Alda's Just Kids from the Bronx reveal what it was like to grow up in the place that bred the influencers in just about every field of endeavor. The Bronx is where Michael Kay, the New York Yankees' play-by-play broadcaster, first experienced baseball; where J. Crew's CEO Millard ("Mickey") Drexler found his ambition; where Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dava Sobel fell in love with science; and where local music making inspired singer-songwriter Dion DiMucci and hip-hop's Grandmaster Melle Mel. The parks, the pickup games, the tough and tender mothers, the politics, the gangs, the food-for people who grew up in the Bronx, childhood recollections are fresh. Arlene Alda's own Bronx memories were a jumping-off point from which to reminisce with a nun, a police officer, an urban planner, and with Al Pacino, Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Maira Kalman, Bobby Bonilla, Mary Higgins Clark, and many other leading artists, athletes, scientists, and entrepreneurs-experiences spanning six decades of Bronx living. Alda then arranged these pieces of the past, from looking for violets along the banks of the Bronx River to the wake-up calls from teachers who recognized potential, into one great collective story, a filmlike portrait of the Bronx from the early twentieth century until today.