Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in...

From the cover. Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? How much do parents really matter? Freakonomics reveals the answers to these and many more questions. It is a collaboration between Steven D Levitt, the award-winning University of Chicago economist, and acclaimed author Stephen J Dubner. Based on Levitt's unorthodox research, this groundbreaking book repeatedly turns conventional...

"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No...

"As more feminism migrates online, full-spectrum doulas remain focused on life's physically intimate relationships: between caregivers and patients, parents and pregnancy, individuals and their own bodies. They are committed to supporting a pregnancy no matter the outcome--whether it results in birth, abortion, miscarriage, or adoption--facing the question of choice head-on. Mary Mahoney is founder and board co-chair of the Doula Project, and a key...

"An intriguing, in-depth look at the most famous home in the United States, this kid-friendly activity book educates young readers on the White House. Blending facts from numerous primary sources with engaging anecdotes--from learning that George Washington never actually slept in the White House and Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom to how Gerald Ford's daughter Susan held her high school prom in the White House--this book provides...

Posing the question "What should we be worried about?" to one hundred fifty of the world's greatest minds, this collection of responses reveals what about the present or the future worries each of them the most.

"According to U.S. military planners, climate change now poses the #1 national security threat to the United States, even before terrorism. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reports that a person is four times more likely to be forced to move due to environmental disaster than by war, and in 2015 alone, 19.2 million people were displaced worldwide by environmental disasters. Droughts, fires, and floods are driving ever-larger numbers of...

"Parenting for Liberation: A Guide for Raising Black Children is Trina Greene Browne's debut nonfiction work, and addresses the subject of how to raise Black children in a world of systemic racism, violence, and inequality. Pairing personal stories with open-ended prompts for reflection, this book serves as a support for people seeking to root their parenting techniques in practices of liberation"--

"A deeply original celebration of George Lucas's masterpiece as it relates to history, presidential politics, law, economics, fatherhood, and culture by Harvard legal scholar and former White House regulatory czar"--

"This book explains why so many efforts by liberals to help the black underclass not only fail but often harm the intended beneficiaries. The intentions behind welfare programs may be noble, but in practice they have slowed the self-development that was necessary for other groups to advance. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they also have a long history of pricing blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative...