Showing titles in Sociology

Brought to you by Penguin. The wealthy and powerful few have dominated the masses throughout most of human history. This is starkly visible now more than ever—today, the gulf between oligarchs and the average citizen is larger than any gap that existed during European serfdom or the slave...

We all know what psychopathy is. Or, at least, we think we do. For decades, we have looked at psychopaths as something 'other': as monsters, or bogeyman. But psychopaths don't just exist on our screens - they exist in our communities, offices and, sometimes, in our very own families. The...

Robert Greene is a master guide for millions, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves.

Bloomsbury presents The Rest is History by The Rest is History, read by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. 'An idiosyncratic ride through history' Independent 'Holland and Sandbrook have pretty much reinvented popular history for the modern age' The Times The nation’s favourite historians, Tom...

With a scientific eye and an empathetic heart, the authors turn conventional perceptions about atheism on their head. They show that atheism need not be reactionary (against religion and God), but rather that it can offer a clear set of constructive principles to live by, which establish atheism as a positive worldview.

In this book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un-reachability of...

Brought to you by Penguin. 'We love a rags-to-riches story, and we love to see someone triumph through sheer determination. But the story is rarely that simple. My story isn't, anyway.' As the middle of five kids growing up in dire poverty, the odds were low on Katriona O'Sullivan making...

Whether it is pastoral care for the bereaved, discussions about the afterlife, or being called out to perform the last rites, death is part of the Reverend Richard Coles's life and work. But when his partner, the Reverend David Coles, died, shortly before Christmas in 2019, much about death took Coles by surprise. For one thing, David's death at the early age of 43 was unexpected. The man that so often assists others to examine life's moral questions now found himself in need of help. He began to look to others for guidance to steer him through his grief.

A sweeping history of the British village, both rural and urban, which makes a compelling case for why we need to protect our local communities, from bestselling author Simon Jenkins We are a nation of villages, from the rural, picturesque hamlets of Castle Combe and Clovelly, to the tight-knit...

Exploring the extraordinary social and political dominance enjoyed by the British aristocracy over the centuries, Entitled seeks to explain how a tiny number of noble families rose to such a position in the first place. It reveals the often nefarious means they have employed to maintain their wealth, power, and prestige and examines the greed, ambition, jealousy, and rivalry which drove aristocratic families to guard their interests with such determination. 

For fans of Educated and Invisible Child, David Sussillo combines memoir and cutting-edge neuroscience to tell the story of his unlikely journey from group homes and drug-addicted parents to the scientific elite—exploring why, and how, he managed to succeed against all odds. David Sussillo has...

Brought to you by Penguin. The Charente: roofs of red terracotta tiles, bleached-white walls, windows shuttered against the blaring sun. The baker does his rounds in his battered little white van with a hundred warm baguettes in the back, while a cat picks its way past a Romanesque church, the...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? “Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint...

Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson, bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time–war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, race, and tribalism–in a way that stimulates a...

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.

Brought to you by Penguin. Urgent and inspiring stories of rural Britain today, from the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling author of Politics on the Edge Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as MP for Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border. As he came to know and love this part...

Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and...

‘You think you’ve married a journalist, then, horrors, he becomes a politician.' How Not to Be a Political Wife is an unflinching account of life at the heart of politics, and what it's like to have politics rip the heart out of your life. It’s a story of high hopes and dirty tricks...

Read by Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror, James Bond, Toxic Town) From political journalist Daniel Trilling, If We Tolerate This is a vital look at Britain's alarming shift towards far-right politics and what can be done to reverse it. The language of the far right is now in the mouths of our...

Brought to you by Penguin. The highly anticipated new book from Malcom Gladwell, host of the chart-topping podcast Revisionist History. With original archival interviews and musical scoring, this enhanced audiobook edition of Talking to Strangers brings Gladwell's renowned storytelling to life...