Thomas Jefferson has been reinvented more than perhaps any American president in history. In the nineteenth century, slavery's defenders invoked Jefferson's defense of states' rights while abolitionists drew on his anti-slavery writings in support of their cause. After the Civil War, Jefferson's reputation declined because of his association with secession and disunion, but in the twentieth century, his image soared as he came to embody the democratic values American fought for during World War II. Unsurprisingly, Jefferson's legacy has shifted yet again in the twenty-first century, effectively becoming a partisan talisman--jettisoned by the left as a plantation patriarch and repurposed by the right as an avatar of white nationalism. Dissatisfied with these political caricatures and manic swings, leading Jefferson scholar Peter S. Onuf and Francis D. Cogliano instead situate the founding father in his complicated historical context and reveal how his wisdom can be applied today. In a series of three interrelated essays, the authors paint a nuanced portrait. "Generations" elucidates how Jefferson's understanding of history shaped his responses to the major problems of his time. "My Country" delves into how he conceived of the American homeland, and "The People" unravels how Jefferson articulated a new national identity in the Declaration of Independence.

"Rediscover the joy of creating - with kid-inspired insights from the bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist"-- Provided by publisher.

"Legendary baseball player and manager Dusty Baker reflects on his extraordinary career in a memoir filled with powerful stories and invaluable lessons on perseverance, leadership, and living life meaningfully on the field and off. Dusty Baker walked with baseball legends and became one himself. After he signed with the Braves in 1967 at the age of eighteen against his father's wishes, no less than the great Hank Aaron promised to take Baker under his wing. Mentored by Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, and Willie Mays, Baker became a premier hitter, helping take the Dodgers to a World Series victory in 1981. He would bookend this with another championship in 2022, this time as a manager working to guide and redeem a Houston Astros team humbled by a scandal. Respected by generations across the game, Baker has come to embody the spirit of the sport -- and yet, to discuss his baseball career is only to scratch the surface of a remarkable life. Crossroads brings readers into the mind of a true original: a curious, inquisitive thinker whose deep interest in the worlds of music, wine, and business and the simpler joys of life charts a journey of success, struggle, faith, and perseverance. Baker's memoir is filled with hard-earned wisdom and a love for life so plentiful it seems to radiate from every sentence. A true American original, counting among his friends presidents and dignitaries, bluesmen and visionaries, Baker weaves a spell of life at the crossroads, where fate turns on our decisions and unexpected answers seek us out when we least expect it."-- Book jacket flap.

"[A]n intimate account of why Vice President JD Vance strayed from the Christianity of his youth and what led him back to faith. Communion is a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian in all the seasons of life JD Vance has experienced -- as a child, a young man, a husband, a father, and a leader. Picking up in some ways where Hillbilly Elegy left off, Communion recounts how Vance's pursuit of material privileges ultimately led him into a secular wilderness. Communion reveals how Vance regained his faith and discusses his conversion to Catholicism, how his faith guides his work in public life, and how it shapes his thoughts about the future." --

A lively history of how reading and writing have changed over time, from ancient scrolls to today's digital screens. Joel Halldorf explores how new technologies have shaped the way people think, learn, and connect, while also examining the challenges of the digital age, including distraction, information overload, and fake news.

"How Latin American migrant workers overcame broken promises and recovered their dreams, with support from Canadian unions, to win justice in a landmark court decision. In April 2006, 42 Latin Americans landed in Vancouver to excavate tunnels for the Canada Line Skytrain. They thought they'd won the lottery with promised wages far above what they would earn at home. But the reality was miserable wages, unpaid overtime and inadequate living conditions - they worked 66 hours per week for less than $4 per hour. It was the beginning of the Canadian construction industry's reliance on migrant workers and the treatment of temporary foreign workers has made headlines ever since. Barrett, fluent in Spanish and a researcher for BC Building Trades unions, began his involvement by investigating the allegation that migrant workers were earning less than $4 per hour. He shares his unique insider perspective as he joined the team of union organizers and became a liaison between workers, union officials and lawyers throughout the court battles. The workers' resentment grew in the face of employer lies, intimidation, coercion and prejudice. Most of them came from a group of villages in central Costa Rica. They grew up together, sharing a background of poverty and hardship. These common bonds gave them the courage they needed to face fears of employer retaliation as they organized, which resulted in a successful vote for union certification, a first for temporary foreign workers in the Canadian construction industry. But their victory was short-lived and their unity was broken by a series of employer "sticks and sweeteners." But the fight for fairness continued at the BC Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) and, ultimately, at the BC Human Rights Tribunal in a race against time before the workers left Canada with the completion of the tunnels. In 2008, the tribunal delivered a triumphant decision, a landmark case in the evolving issue of global migration. Workers were awarded $2.4 million to compensate for discrimination based on country of origin; for wages, inferior accommodations, meals and expenses and injury to dignity and feelings. A Fight for Justice is an inspiring story of collective action and relationships across progressive communities in Canada and Latin America and offers a remarkable story of migrant workers successfully fighting for fairness and equality."--

"By twenty-five, Vijay Gupta had lived several lifetimes: He played Carnegie Hall at eight years old, studied at Juilliard and Yale before most had finished high school, joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at nineteen, gave a celebrated TED Talk seen by millions, and launched a nonprofit. But behind the accolades was estrangement, addiction, and a private unraveling. 'Restrung' is Gupta's unflinching memoir of breaking apart and remaking a self. It begins with a boy raised between the strict devotion of Bengali immigrant parents and the ruthless demands of the conservatory. It follows him through the shimmering world of elite orchestras into the depths of burnout and family collapse and ultimately toward an unexpected reawakening-where he discovered that the music he'd spent his life studying was seen not as a curio of high culture or mere entertainment but a lifeline of connection-most vividly in Skid Row, where people living through addiction, homelessness, and incarceration heard it as survival itself. There, audiences spoke to how they saw their own lives reflected in the stories of composers too often frozen into marble busts: the rage of Beethoven, the fragility of Schumann's mind, the alienation of Bartók, the plight of Handel-who wrote Messiah bankrupt, ill, and broken, yet transformed despair into an enduring Hallelujah. Pico Iyer, in his foreword, calls 'Restrung' as 'a rich and astonishing feast of stories' told with 'vivid precision, unflinching candor, and heart'-a book that unsettles assumptions about success while illuminating how art restores not just audiences but artists themselves"--

"This book presents the transformative framework of integral peace leadership, a holistic approach to challenging violence and aggression while building positive, just, and equitable systems and structures, and showcases stories of community peace leaders working to build sustainable, peaceful change around the world. Integral Peace Leadership explores the four interconnected dimensions essential to peace leadership: Innerwork, the personal peace practices for growth and development; Knowledge, the interactive skills and engagement strategies; Community, the collaborative action and collective impact; and Environment, the navigation and transformation of systemic structures. 16 compelling narratives from peace leaders across Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jammu and Kashmir, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States show how this framework catalyzes meaningful change in diverse contexts. These authentic stories demonstrate how integral peace leadership moves from theory to practice, creating sustainable transformation in communities facing complex challenges. Providing an accessible roadmap for those committed to creating a more just and peaceful world, this book is the ideal resource for both scholars seeking theoretical foundations and practitioners looking to implement peacebuilding strategies"-- Provided by publisher.

"From award-winning journalist Nicole Carr comes a landmark narrative revealing the untold history of Black medical professionals who have long fought to heal their communities--while confronting a system built to exclude them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Americans died at nearly twice the rate of their white counterparts--a disparity rooted not only in access to care but in a long history of exclusion, exploitation, and systemic racism. How did we get here, and why, despite generations of Black medical excellence, do these inequities persist? In The Price of Exclusion, journalist Nicole Carr uncovers that history and its urgent consequences, exposing the hidden toll of America's refusal to value Black doctors and their patients. At the center is the extraordinary life of Carr's great-grandfather, Dr. Lawrence St. Clair Ferguson, a Jamaican-born physician who served in World War I and attended medical school during the Spanish Flu pandemic. His journey from colonial Jamaica to a racially divided America provides both an intimate family portrait and a sweeping history of how Black physicians persevered despite segregation, erasure, and relentless barriers to practice. Through vivid storytelling and meticulous research, Carr resurrects the lives of pioneers who transformed medicine against impossible odds. From America's first four-year medical school located at a historically Black college in North Carolina to the generations of Black physicians whose contributions were pushed aside by institutions of power, Carr shows how these figures were not only doctors but also advocates and innovators whose work reshaped public health and opened doors for those who followed. Carr also reveals the systemic campaigns that actively disempowered Black doctors, from the American Medical Association's exclusionary policies to the devastating closures of Black medical schools after the Flexner Report. That legacy fuels today's shortage of Black medical professionals and the lingering distrust in medicine that continues to cost lives."--

One woman's journey through progressive blindness and the extraordinary guide dog who kept her safe along the way. When ethics scholar Deni Elliott, born with limited vision, realized she could no longer navigate the world safely alone, she turned to a guide dog--a decision that reshaped her understanding of disability and independence. Co-authored with master trainer Graham Buck, Catching Sight offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of guide dog breeding and training, revealing the intelligence and decision-making skills these dogs develop from birth. Catching Sight is for readers interested in the transformative power of human relationships with animals. As Deni confronts her changing reality, she shares the hidden world of guide dog training and introduces Alberta, a yellow Lab whose quiet brilliance changed her interaction with the world and herself. Catching Sight offers a fresh and unforgettable perspective on disability, identity, and the power of partnership.

"In 1990 in Washington state, the bodies of Yolanda Sapp, Nickie Lowe, and Kathy Brisbois were found on the banks of the Spokane River. They were part of a close-knit alliance of sex workers whose oath to protect each other was, in the end, hopeless. For twenty-two years their brutal murders went unsolved. In 2012, a DNA cold hit pointed to Douglas Perry. A repeat assault offender, Douglas was currently incarcerated in Carswell, Texas. But there was a twist: The facility was for female prisoners. The man authorities hunted for decades was now Donna Perry. Her gender reassignment not only helped to mask the evil deeds of the past, it ended a life of childhood traumas and a pent-up rage unleashed on nearly thirty victims, according to Donna herself. Through total reinvention, she believed she'd finally slayed the monster within. By the River's Edge is the astonishing true story of an elusive serial killer, an escape plan like no other, and the women who lived and died on the fringes of the Lilac City for whom justice was at long last served"--

"An irresistible delight, this hilarious and heartwarming essay collection gathers essential tales about growing up in the South, the pitfalls of date night, and why no one should ever tell a Black girl how to Black Girl"--

"Since the advent of smallpox inoculation in the eighteenth century, the idea that a disease introduced to the body in some lesser, weakened form might prevent full-blown infection has been one of the greatest public health insights of the modern era, inspiring the invention of numerous vaccines and saving countless human lives. But, just as humanity acquired the god-like power to stop infectious disease in its tracks, some feared we had gone too far, leading to the skepticism that has hijacked public health discourse today.In three sweeping essays written for our current moment of scientific mistrust, Thomas Levenson searches for the origins of the most common arguments against vaccines: that they are unnatural; that they are more dangerous than the illnesses they claim to prevent; and that they are an affront to freedom. Each arose from the earliest development of particular vaccines and the campaigns to distribute them. Even as the pattern repeats, Levenson reveals how innocent that skepticism initially was and, in each case, how very human fears and questions ultimately turned into something darker, where no truth would be enough to overcome the doubt. Searing but ultimately empathetic, A Pox on Fools explores the human impulse to question and wonder--sometimes past the point at which the very act of questioning turns deadly."--

"Thoughtload—not workload—is the culprit causing chaos for your team. Be the leader that creates clarity, calm, and greater capacity. In Thoughtload, New York Times bestselling author and team effectiveness advisor Liane Davey tackles today’s most pressing management challenges: over-burdened systems, burned-out teams, and declining results. However, contrary to conventional wisdom, Davey argues that the problem is not with out-sized workloads. The root cause of the madness sapping productivity in today’s offices is with our excessive thoughtload. Thoughtload is the cumulative and often overwhelming burden of increasing cognitive and emotional demands, worsened by decreasing physical and mental energy. In this brilliant, highly prescriptive guide, Davey lays out the steps for reducing thoughtload, so that you and your team feel more focused—and get more done. The process starts with you. By learning to better manage your attention, you create periods of deep concentration that lead to the outcomes you strive for, and a sense of accomplishment. By processing emotions triggered in the workplace and at home, you gain greater control of your mood and productivity. And by making informed choices about where your energy comes from (and where it goes), you connect with reliable and renewable resources that fuel you to do the things that matter most. Davey then gives you powerful tools you can use as a leader to coach your team members to manage thoughtload for themselves. Doing so, you and your team will feel more focused, less burnt out, and finally free to do more great work. Backed by science and written with the time- and energy-strapped manager in mind, Thoughtload is Liane Davey’s potent handbook for a better way to lead. Apply the strategies in this book to create calm within the chaos—so you and your team can perform, produce, and prosper."--

"An activist priest's sermons remind us that one of the first social justice frameworks was the Bible. When lifelong activist and celebrated author Maggie Helwig became an Anglican priest, she brought both her hard-earned social justice wisdom and her incomparable literary prowess to the role. Where the homily - the weekly act of taking pre-assigned sections of an ancient and sometimes cryptic biblical text and making them speak to their time, their place, their community - can easily become a rote exercise, Helwig takes the language and narrative very seriously. The homilies in this book, selected from those presented to her congregation over the last five years, talk about the Bible, and by extension, the world, through both an activist and a literary lens. 'Instructions for the End of the World' is how Helwig describes the gospels. As we live through the climate crisis and the rise of fascism around the world, Helwig's responses to the ancient texts feel urgent and necessary, reminders of hope and meaning during a time of great anxiety and fear. Whether you're religious or not, these homilies offer a basis for resistance and resources for building communities that may sustain us all."--

"Most of us learned about natural selection back in high school science class and think we understand it pretty well-or, at least, we get the basics of how it works. Many of us even have a sense of its implications for everyday life, like how we should be cautious about overusing antibiotics, but also take care to finish out a full prescription even after we're already feeling better. Yet studies show that significant misconceptions about evolution and natural selection abound, even among highly educated specialists in biology, from medical students to high school biology teachers-not to mention the rest of us. In Force of Nature, professor of biology and law Owen D. Jones shows how we misunderstand and neglect natural selection to our detriment, both missing opportunities to better achieve our goals and, sometimes, even imperiling lives and livelihoods. Ranging across the natural world and spheres of human endeavor alike, from medicine, agriculture, and AI to economics, law, and beyond, Jones demonstrates how a finer appreciation of the speed, scale, and applications of natural selection-including its influence on behavior, both human and animal-can help open new horizons in cancer treatment and space exploration; create faster machines and more maneuverable robots; design more effective, just laws; and more. We all know that evolution put us here in the first place, but Force of Nature shows how a richer understanding of it can be even more useful than we may think"-- Provided by publisher.

The American Dream at its best is an ethical ideal and a moral compass. If respected and sustained, it can guide the United States through Trump 2.0. Anchored in the US Constitution, Saving the American Dream features meditations for dark times. Meditations are intentional acts of focused attention. They seek insight--clear and deep understanding--about critical issues. What, for example, is most important for the United States today? Are we Americans doing the best we can? How may inquiry about the American Dream advance the reflection and action needed now to support and defend the Constitution of the United States? Saving the American Dream is a journey that goes where such questions lead. Its fundamental premise is that individuals moved to communal action by warned awareness and committed resistance are indispensable to meet challenges that grow by the day. Guidance from reliable American writers--philosophers, historians, novelists, poets, essayists, religious thinkers--maps the way.

"It's the 'North,' they like to say, not the Midwest. It's dif­ferent. Minneapolis is a city for everyone. But in 2020, George Floyd's murder by the city's police left many Americans stunned and wondering, 'How could this hap­pen in Minneapolis?' To Ellis, the real question is: What made people think it couldn't? The Minneapolis Justin Ellis grew up in is not the idealistic metropolis it claims to be. The 'City of Lakes' was built on discrimination-- in its housing, its schools, its politics--much like all other American cities. Black families were systematically cut out of the prosperous neighborhoods, lush parks, and pristine lakes that make Minneapolis a haven of the heartland. Because of its image as a liberal ally in the fight for civil rights, Minne­apolis has rarely been forced to confront this fact. But when George Floyd's murder sparks a global protest movement with the city as ground zero, its residents must finally ask what being a good neighbor actually means. In a powerful new epilogue, Ellis turns his gaze back to Minneapolis as the sweeping federal immigration operation once again thrusts the city into national headlines. If George Floyd's murder forced Minneapolis to confront questions of policing, power, and responsibility, the events of 2026 ask what those years of reckoning ultimately changed. Where fear once threatened to overwhelm the city's response to state violence, Ellis finds a community newly practiced in dissent and collective action. The crisis reveals a Minneapolis still wrestling with its identity, but also one transformed by experience--no longer shocked into awakening, but shaped by it."--

"Discover how the book and TV miniseries Roots became a cultural phenomenon that has shaped our understanding of heritage, race, identity, and family for fifty years. As we approach the 50th anniversaries of Alex Haley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Roots (1976) and its landmark television adaptation (1977), journalist and storyteller Lucas L. Johnson II reflects on the enduring legacy of Haley's work through the voices of those it continues to move, including scholars, artists, genealogists, students, and original cast members like LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen. With vivid personal anecdotes, emotional tributes, and probing reflections, Remembering Roots shows how Haley's vision gave birth to a genealogy movement, inspired generations to reclaim their identities, and challenged America to confront its past. From a sixth-grader who became the first lawyer in her family, to a blind musician empowered by his father's retelling of Roots' most iconic scene, Johnson traces the ripple effects of Haley's griot storytelling across time and culture. As debates rage over which histories get told, Remembering Roots boldly asserts the necessity to remember and retell our stories. A call to action, this book reaffirms that storytelling is not just an art--it's a path to healing"--

"On an unassuming January day in 1854, an entrepreneur named Cyrus Field was struck by an idea: if he could lay a telegraph cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, thereby wiring the world for near-instantaneous communication, he was sure to bring about peace on Earth. His plan would later be described as a 'wild and visionary scheme,' the moonshot of the nineteenth century. At the time, no project like it had ever been attempted; in fact, science still lacked a universal theory of electricity. But twelve years, four spectacular-and spectacularly public-failures, and near-incalculable amounts of money, bravery, and tenacity later, the first transatlantic cable was laid, ushering in the global information age and transforming life on Earth forever. In Lightning Beneath the Sea, acclaimed author James M. Tabor weaves an unforgettable tale of radical vision, unwavering determination, and improbable triumph against the odds and wild rages of the Atlantic. The dream team Field assembled to realize the cable project included telegraph legend Samuel F. B. Morse; a young William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, called the da Vinci of his day; Michael Faraday, the father of electrical engineering; and legendary philanthropist and railway pioneer Peter Cooper, founder of the Cooper Union. Together, they battled miscalculations, freak accidents, probable corporate sabotage, and the hubris of the project's original chief electrician-a man who insisted on being called Wildman Whitehouse-while racing two rival efforts to establish telegraphic communications between continents. When it was finally done, their cable would span 2,000 miles and lie as many as 2.5 miles deep under the ocean. Today, hundreds of its descendants still carry 99 percent of the world's information through a 'world undersea web.' Deeply researched and written with verve, Lightning Beneath the Sea is the definitive account of an epoch-making achievement"--

"A long-overdue reappraisal of the groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age. By the age of thirty, the young woman who was born Aurore Dupin in 1804 in a Paris garret had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, her novels were outselling even Victor Hugo. Her enormous and radical corpus would grow to include seventy novels, travel writing, plays, autobiography, and political writing. But despite this prodigious talent, Sand was simultaneously a figure of scandal. Cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, and promiscuous, she seemed to break all the rules society set for women. Was her iconoclasm simply an act of courage, a declaration of absolute autonomy? Or did her sexual and emotional relationships with the leading figures of her day--from Fryderyk Chopin to Gustave Flaubert, and Alfred de Musset to Eugène Delacroix--form part of her dialogue with the world around her: a dialogue that's intrinsic to writing itself? To what extent do we invent ourselves? And what can we learn, from Sand's life and art, about how writers in particular invent themselves, and are reinvented by the society around them? This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sand's death, and Becoming George is a fitting celebration of her literary genius--as well as the first new biography in nearly twenty-five years. Award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates an artistic and intellectual giant who still speaks to us today. Brilliantly prescient--about ecology, politics, society, gender--George Sand was truly a figure ahead of her time."--

Our world is going through a fundamental shift. The crises and threats pile up: AI takeover, climate carnage, intensified conflicts, technofascist rule and authoritarianism. Why now, and why everything, all at once? In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson explains that we are in the midst of what every sophisticated civilisation before us has experienced - complex systems collapse. She goes on to explore how we, as tender-hearted humans, can navigate this radical moment together. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with scientists, philosophers, economists, historians and spiritual leaders, she offers a compassionate guide to help us navigate the 'too-muchness', make meaningful choices for our lives and rise to our full humanity - all while refusing to succumb to despair. With her warm, incisive voice, Wilson reframes collapse not as a finality but as an invitation to reconnect with what matters to us, and to meet the future with courage, creativity and unprecedented care. What if, she asks, this new world we're entering is more stunning than we'd ever imagined?

"A miracle unfolded on October 10, 1944, at Auschwitz. Amidst the gas chambers and crematoria, a ragtag group of Jewish boys, aged thirteen to seventeen, were marched naked into Crematorium 5, their names already crossed out in Nazi ledgers as "gestorben," or "dead." They would soon be put to death in the infamous gas chambers. But just moments before Zyklon B pellets were released, fate intervened: three German officers arrived on motorbikes and ordered their evacuation, selecting them to unload a consignment of potatoes from Greece. This is their astonishing story. Miracle: The Boys Who Escaped the Gas Chamber in Auschwitz illuminates their incredible journey from the brink of death to lives of profound purpose and resilience. Experience the raw emotion, the struggle for survival, and the enduring power of faith amidst unimaginable cruelty. These boys--who survived concentration camps, death marches, and constant dehumanization--rebuilt their families and became living testaments to hope. Through archival research, survivor testimonies, and haunting personal accounts, Miracle gives voice to a chapter of Holocaust history that was nearly lost. It reveals how a single twist of fate and the strength of the human spirit changed the course of so many lives. Miracle is more than a historical account; it is a memorial of tears, defiance, and unimaginable dignity, urging us to remember and carry forward their legacy for a better future. Their courage echoes through time, reminding us that even in history's darkest moments, the light of humanity can prevail." --

"A radically vulnerable and virtuosic inquiry into the pursuit of freedom and the interminable nature of struggle, from the award-winning author of What We Lose. Weaving personal reflections with piercing insight and expansive vision across nine brilliant essays, Zinzi Clemmons explores the complexities of the elusive concept of freedom. As the daughter of a South African mother and a Trinidadian American father, she recounts growing up in the largely white, affluent town of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania-and her frequent travels to Johannesburg, where the lofty promise of freedom was all around her. Coming of age amidst the euphoria of South Africa's first all-race elections, she grapples with the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the shattered hope in the wake of the Obama era. Clemmons critiques the entrenched inequalities that haunt both countries, from the tragic loss of a childhood friend to the violence that often befalls women who have the audacity to be free. In a deft mix of memoir, family history, criticism, and reportage, drawing on a vast range of material from Joan Didion to James Baldwin, political analysis and history to Clemmons's own experiences across the globe, Freedom is an incendiary exploration of race, sex, class, and inheritance. In elegiac prose, Clemmons trains her discerning eye on American institutions and mythologies, probing the bounds of liberation and autonomy to interrogate our most enduring quest--the relentless pursuit of freedom for all"--