When We Walk By

Author: Donald W. Burnes

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $12.99

Deal price: $0.99

Deal starts: July 26, 2025

Deal ends: July 26, 2025

Description:

How to end homelessness in America: a must-read guide to understanding housing instability, supporting our unhoused neighbors, and reclaiming our humanity. A deeply humanizing analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness—for the socially engaged reader of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste and Matthew Desmond's Evicted.Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or did you avert your gaze?When We Walk By takes an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose—in ourselves and as a society—when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets. And it brilliantly shows what we stand to gain when we embrace our humanity and move toward evidence-based people-first, community-driven solutions, offering social analysis, economic and political histories, and the real stories of unhoused people.Authors Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes, with Amanda Banh and Andrijana Bilbija, recast chronic homelessness in the U.S. as a byproduct of twin crises: our social services systems are failing, and so is our humanity. Readers will learn:Why our brains have been trained to overlook our unhoused neighborsThe social, economic, and political forces that shape myths like “all homeless people are addicts” and “they’d have a house if they got a job”What conservative economics gets wrong about housing insecurityWhat relational poverty is, and how to shift away from “us versus them” thinkingThat for many Americans, housing insecurity is just one missed paycheck awayWho “the homeless” really are—and why that might surprise youWhat you can do to help, starting todayA necessary, deeply humanizing read that goes beyond theory and policy analysis to offer engaged solutions with compassion and heart, When We Walk By is a must-read for anyone who cares about homelessness, housing solutions, and their own humanity.

Before & After Alexander

Author: Richard A. Billows

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $9.99

Deal price: $0.99

Deal starts: June 21, 2025

Deal ends: June 21, 2025

Description:

In the arc of Western history, Ancient Greece is at the apex, owing to its grandeur, its culture, and an intellectual renaissance to rival that of Europe. So important is Greece to history that figures such as Plato and Socrates are still household names, and the works of Homer are regularly adapted into movies. The most acclaimed hero of all, though, is Alexander the Great. While historians have studied Alexander’s achievements at length, author and professor Richard A. Billows delves deeper into the obscure periods of Alexander’s life, before and after his reign. In the definitive Before and After Alexander, Billows explores the years preceding Alexander, who, Billows argues, without the foundation laid by his father, Philip II of Macedon, would not have had the resources or influence to develop one of the greatest empires in history. Alexander was groomed from a young age to succeed his father, and by the time Philip was assassinated in 336 BC, his great empire was already well underway. The years following Alexander's death were even more momentous. In this ambitious new work, Richard Billows robustly challenges the notion that the political strife that followed was for lack of a leader as competent as Alexander, pointing out instead that there were too many extremely capable leaders who exploited the power vacuum created by Alexander's death to carve out kingdoms for themselves. Above all, in Before and After Alexander, Billows eloquently and convincingly posits a complex view of one of the greatest empires in history, framing it not as the achievement of one man, but the culmination of several generations of aggressive expansion toward a unified purpose.

This Will Change Everything

Author: John Brockman

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $6.99

Deal price: $0.99

Deal starts: June 09, 2025

Deal ends: June 09, 2025

Description:

“This Will Change Everything offers seemingly radical but actually feasible ideas with the potential to change the world.”—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

Editor John Brockman continues in the same vein as his popular compilations What Are You Optimistic About and What Have You Changed Your Mind About with This Will Change Everything. Brockman asks 150 intellectual superstars “what game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?” Their fascinating responses are collected here, from bestselling author of Atonement Ian McEwan to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek to electronic music pioneer Brian Eno to writer, actor, director, and activist Alan Alda.

Midlothian Mayhem

Author: Malcolm Archibald

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $3.99

Deal price: $0.99

Deal starts: June 01, 2025

Deal ends: June 01, 2025

Description:

Murders, riots, strikes and runaway horses. Midlothian in the 18th and 19th centuries was an interesting place to live.This book introduces the reader to the hard lives of the colliers, the birth of the rural police force and the impact the army had on life in the county south of Scotland’s capital city. Highwaymen and grave robbers, footpads and murderers, illicit distillers and murderous poachers; all lived or worked in Midlothian at a time when Scotland was changing from a rural to an industrial nation.Midlothian Mayhem opens the door to this time and place, giving you a view of this fascinating area through different eyes.

Pirates and Pickled Heads

Author: Helen Susan Swift

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $3.99

Deal price: $0.99

Deal starts: May 30, 2025

Deal ends: May 30, 2025

Description:

A collection of valiant vessels and storied sea captains from years past, Pirates and Pickled Heads is an eclectic look at some of Scotland’s most unusual maritime stories.Within four sections spanning the personalities, ships, places, and pirates of Scotland, you’ll discover an intriguing nautical history nestled among sweeping sea views and lush coastal landscapes. From tales of warrior lords and privateers to the mystery of the Maggie Smith, and the strange legend of the remote island of Rona, you’ll explore the unique seafaring history of Scotland.

The Kings and Queens of Britain

Author: Cath Senker

Category: History, Politics & Culture

Regular price: $4.99

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Deal starts: May 27, 2025

Deal ends: May 27, 2025

Description:

Who was the first king of England? Did Henry I assassinate his brother? How did 'Bloody Mary' reinstate Roman Catholicism?For more than 1,000 years the British monarchy has dramatically shaped national and international history. Kings and queens have conquered territory, imposed religious change and extracted taxation, each with their own motivations and ambitions.In this fascinating book, Cath Senker delves into the extraordinary history of the British monarchy and its host of kings, queens and pretenders. There have been benevolent rulers, violent ones, religious fanatics, brilliant economists, masters of diplomacy and the power hungry. But whether they have abused their power or used it for good, each monarch has played a part in the rich tapestry of British history, coping with both international and civil wars, rebellions and criticism.The Kings & Queens of Britain introduces a thousand-year history, providing rich biographical detail of Britain's remarkable monarchs.