"FASCINATING . . . MEMORABLE . . . REVEALING . . . PERHAPS THE BEST OF CARL SAGAN'S BOOKS." --The Washington Post Book World (front page review) In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time. Future generations will look back on our epoch as the time when the human race finally broke into a radically new frontier--space. In Pale Blue Dot Sagan traces the spellbinding history of our launch into the cosmos and assesses the future that looms before us as we move out into our own solar system and on to distant galaxies beyond. The exploration and eventual settlement of other worlds is neither a fantasy nor luxury, insists Sagan, but rather a necessary condition for the survival of the human race. "TAKES READERS FAR BEYOND Cosmos . . . Sagan sees humanity's future in the stars." --Chicago Tribune "From the Trade Paperback edition."

Our rate of oil discovery has reached its peak and will never be exceeded; rather, it is certain to decline - perhaps rapidly - forever forward. Meanwhile, in the 20th century we have developed lifestyles firmly rooted in the promise of an endless, cheap supply. inevitable fossil fuel shortage we face and our most urgent environmental policy decisions. He outlines the drastic effects a fossil fuel shortage will bring down on us and shows us that there is an important silver lining to the need to switch to other sources of energy, for when we have burned up all the available oil, the earth's climate will have moved toward a truly life-threatening state.

"Capitalism as we know it appears to be coming apart. But as financial institutions stagger and crumble, there is no obvious alternative. There is good reason to believe that, in a generation or so, capitalism will no longer exist: for the simple reason that it's impossible to maintain an engine of perpetual growth forever on a finite planet. Yet faced with this prospect, the knee-jerk reaction is often to cling to what exists because they simply can't imagine an alternative that wouldn't be even more oppressive and destructive. The political imagination seems to have reached an impasse. Or has it? In this collection of essays David Graeber explores a wide-ranging set of topics including political strategy, global trade, debt, imagination, violence, aesthetics, alienation, and creativity. Written in the wake of the anti-globalization movement and the rise of the war on terror, these essays survey the political landscape for signs of hope in unexpected places"--

Jason Epstein has led arguably the most creative career in book publishing during the past-century. In 1952 he created Anchor Books, which launched the so-called quality paperback revolution and established the trade paperback format. In the following decade he was co-founder of the New York Review of Books. In the 1980s he created The Library of America and The Reader's Catalog, the precursor of on-line bookselling. In this short book, based on his W. W. Norton Lectures given at the New York Public Library in October 1999, he discusses the severe crisis facing the book business today -- a crisis that affects writers and readers as well as publisher -- and looks ahead to the radically transformed industry that will revolutionize the idea of the book as profoundly as the introduction of movable type did five centuries ago.

A dramatic transformation of global power is under way, one only dimly recognized by most Americans. As economics and trade now loom larger than nuclear stockpiles or Cold War ideology, those countries with the fastest growing economies have begun to rewrite the rules of power and influence in the world. These nations are the Big Emerging Markets, and for too long we have failed to recognize their importance. We can no longer afford that luxury. The Big Ten is the essential guide to the ten most important Big Emerging Markets. Jeffrey E. Garten, the Dean of the Yale School of Management and the former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, explains who they are, why they have burst onto the world scene, and how they will reshape the world in the twenty-first century. The ten countries to watch are spread across the globe: Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina in the Americas; China, India, Indonesia, and South Korea in Asia; Poland and Turkey in Europe; and in Africa, South Africa. The Big Ten are bigger than most people realize: they are home to half the world's population, and the United States exports more products to these countries than to Europe and Japan combined. They also wield immense political influence in many of the world's most critical regions. Moreover, American industrial firms, mutual funds, and pension plans have begun to invest heavily in these dynamic economies, making our own prosperity increasingly dependent on theirs.While the Big Ten offer new opportunities for the United States, Garten observes their potential political instability could create economic havoc around the world. In addition, they pose powerful ethical and strategic dilemmas. The BEMs do not share our values regarding human rights, child labor, corruption, or environmental degradation, and our growing contacts with these societies are sure to violate our notions of fairness and our moral sensibilities. And as the Big Ten grow and mature as regional powers, they will pose unprecedented challenges to American global leadership.Drawing on his first-hand experiences at the highest levels of government, finance, and academia, Garten advances a comprehensive plan for America to meet the challenges of this emerging new world. he addresses the critical questions facing American policy makers, business executives, educators, and concerned citizens, and he outlines the bold changes that will be necessary if we are to control our national destiny in the decades to come. The Big Ten will help readers understand the importance of NAFTA, the rise of China, the connection between trade and human rights, and the imperatives for American foreign policy, business, and higher education. Packed with powerful insights and real-life stories from the front lines of international commerce, The Big Ten will redefine the way we think about America's global role in the twenty-first century.

"A world in which the leading liberal-democratic nation does not assume its role as world policeman will become a world in which dictatorships contend, or unite, to fill the breach. Americans seeking a return to an isolationist garden of Eden--alone and undisturbed in the world, knowing neither good nor evil--will soon find themselves living within shooting range of global pandemonium." --From the Introduction In a brilliant book that will elevate foreign policy in the national conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Bret Stephens makes a powerful case for American intervention abroad. In December 2011 the last American soldier left Iraq. "We're leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq," boasted President Obama. He was proved devastatingly wrong less than three years later as jihadists seized the Iraqi city of Mosul. The event cast another dark shadow over the future of global order--a shadow, which, Bret Stephens argues, we ignore at our peril. America in Retreat identifies a profound crisis on the global horizon. As Americans seek to withdraw from the world to tend to domestic problems, America's adversaries spy opportunity. Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore the glory of the czarist empire go effectively unchecked, as do China's attempts to expand its maritime claims in the South China Sea, as do Iran's efforts to develop nuclear capabilities. Civil war in Syria displaces millions throughout the Middle East while turbocharging the forces of radical Islam. Long-time allies such as Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, doubting the credibility of American security guarantees, are tempted to freelance their foreign policy, irrespective of U.S. interests. Deploying his characteristic stylistic flair and intellectual prowess, Stephens argues for American reengagement abroad. He explains how military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan was the right course of action, foolishly executed. He traces the intellectual continuity between anti-interventionist statesmen such as Henry Wallace and Robert Taft in the late 1940s and Barack Obama and Rand Paul today. And he makes an unapologetic case for Pax Americana, "a world in which English is the default language of business, diplomacy, tourism, and technology; in which markets are global, capital is mobile, and trade is increasingly free; in which values of openness and tolerance are, when not the norm, often the aspiration." In a terrifying chapter imagining the world of 2019, Stephens shows what could lie in store if Americans continue on their current course. Yet we are not doomed to this future. Stephens makes a passionate rejoinder to those who argue that America is in decline, a process that is often beyond the reach of political cures. Instead, we are in retreat--the result of faulty, but reversible, policy choices. By embracing its historic responsibility as the world's policeman, America can safeguard not only greater peace in the world but also greater prosperity at home. At once lively and sobering, America in Retreat offers trenchant analysis of the gravest threat to global order, from a rising star of political commentary.

At this critical point in the history of U.S. - China relations, Living with China offers an essential assessment of U.S. foreign policy. From Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and the legacy of Tiananmen Square to trade, markets, and commercial diplomacy, these essays address the complex web of issues that will shape future relations with China. Leading scholars and political experts delve into history and analyze current events to identify obstacles to cooperation and propose possible foundation for building a better understanding --

Future developments in war, armed conflict and international relations are central to our collective fate in this century. This book looks forward by considering the forces that will drive changes in military organizations, sources of conflict, the power of states and the nature of the international system. New military technologies will alter how wars are fought and will influence the balance of power. Changes in the global environment will provide new causes of conflict and will change economic priorities. As a result, the state will survive as the key social institution and populations will look to it to acquire and to distribute scarce resources like water, energy and land. Many of the changes that seem transformatory today, like globalization, the internet and mass consumerism, will be shown to be less significant than we believe them to be. Hirst puts such changes into perspective by comparing them with the revolutionary changes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe: the firepower revolution, the rise of the sovereign territorial state and the parallel development of the international system, and the creation of world trade. These basic structures of the modern world are still with us and will remain, despite major changes in twenty-first-century society. This book will appeal to students of politics, political sociology & international relations as well as the interested general reader.