Current Affairs

1. Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law

   Gabriel Schoenfeld

   An intensely controversial scrutiny of American democracy’s fundamental tension between the competing imperatives of security and openness.More

2. From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism

   Darren Dochuk

   A sweeping, five-decade history of the evangelical movement in southern California that explains an epochal realignment of American politics.More

3. Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America's Future

   Angela Glover Blackwell, Stewart Kwoh, Manuel Pastor

   Revised and Updated Edition

   With a mixed-race president, a Latino population that is now the largest minority, and steadily growing Asian and Native American populations, race is both the most dynamic facet of American identity and the defining point of American disunity.More

4. Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation

   Saree Makdisi

   “A compelling account . . . and a reminder that a true peace can be built only on justice.”—Desmond M. TutuMore

5. In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

   Seth G. Jones

   “How we got to where we are in Afghanistan.”—Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street JournalMore

6. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

   Michael Lewis

   A brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff.More

7. Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose

   Deirdre Barrett

   A Harvard psychologist explains how our once-helpful instincts get hijacked in our garish modern world.More

8. About a Mountain

   John D'Agata

   From “one of the most significant U.S. writers” (David Foster Wallace), an investigation of Yucca Mountain and human destruction in Las Vegas.More

9. Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy

   Joseph E. Stiglitz

   Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz explains the current financial crisis—and the coming global economic order.More

10. State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability

    The Worldwatch Institute

    The premier environmental nonprofit shows the ways to transform our consumer culture into a culture centered on sustainability.More

11. Gray Land: Soldiers on War

    Barry Goldstein

    Photographs of, and candid interviews with, soldiers of the Iraq War, documenting the extraordinary challenges they face.More

12. Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

    Tristram Stuart

    The true cost of what the global food industry throws away.More

13. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

    Lester R. Brown

    Substantially Revised

    “[Brown’s] ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is remarkable.”—Katherine Salant, Washington PostMore

14. Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines

    Richard A. Muller

    “A triumph.”—Steve Weinberg, Boston GlobeMore

15. Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked

    Ivan Vladislavic

    “Surely one of the most ingenious love letters—full of violence, fear, humour, and cunning—ever addressed to a city.” —Geoff DyerMore