Books in the The Macat Library series

Eric Foner's 1988 account of the decade following the American Civil War shows that black people were integral in ending slavery and were often key drivers of what successes there were in the 'Reconstruction' period.

Considered his most important work, Mahbub ul Haq's Reflections on Human Development appeared at the end of his career in international development, and consolidates his revolutionary contribution to the discipline.

Politics was one of the first books to investigate the concept of political philosophy and the starting point of political science studies as we know them. Written in the fourth century B.C.E., it explores how best to create political communities that support, serve, and improve citizens.

Born in 1858, Franz Boas permanently changed the standards and practices of anthropology. His 1940 work Race, Language and Culture brings together a half-century's worth of ground-breaking scholarship in one volume.

Most likely written between 170 and 180, Meditations is a remarkable work, a unique insight into one of the most conscientious and able Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius, who ruled at the apex of the empire's power.

Hamid Dabashi suggests that the Iranian Revolution of 1978-9 would not have taken place had it not been for the influential ideas set out by eight Iranian Islamic thinkers in the decades before it occurred.

Because the potential returns appear to be greater in poorer countries than in the developed world, modern economic theory implies that rich countries should continually invest in poor countries until returns balance out.

Goldstone examines the causes of revolutions and uprisings between 1500 and 1800 in both Europe and Asia. Many thinkers previously believed that Europe's distinctive history-particularly the rise of capitalism-had created the revolutions that launched its path to global supremacy.

First published in 1980, The 'Hitler Myth' is recognized as one of the most important books yet written about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi State. Focusing on what he called the 'history of everyday life,' Kershaw investigated the attitude of the German people toward Hitler.

In The Gift (1925), Marcel Mauss elevates a simple gift from the status of innocent object to something that has the capacity to motivate people and define social relationships. The Gift analyzes cultures across the world and across time, examining the ways gifts are given and received.

Do we need religion to be good people? When Immanuel Kant tackled this question in 1793, he produced a book that remains a key text in the shaping of Western religious thought.

The idea of evolution and that earth's species descended from common ancestors had already been around for some time when Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. What was new about his work was that it explained evolution, using a theory called natural selection.

Hobson's 1902 book presents a controversial interpretation of Britain's motivations to conquer foreign lands in the nineteenth century. He proposed that ultra-wealthy financiers consciously worked to manipulate political leaders so they could invest money and sell goods in the new outposts of their country's empire.

Published in 1776, when America was teetering on the brink of war with Britain, Common Sense galvanized the colonists and George Washington's army, influencing not only the course of the Revolutionary War, but also the resultant government.

In Collapse, Diamond identifies five factors he believes determine the success or failure of all human societies throughout history. Asking first why societies collapse, he explores various examples of failed societies, from the Norsemen of Scandinavia to the 18th century inhabitants of Easter Island.

In the 1960s, researchers began to understand memory as operating under two systems: a short-term one handling information for mere seconds, and a long-term one for managing information indefinitely. Short-term memory, they found, wasn't simply a 'filing cabinet,' but appeared to work on cognitive tasks.

Written amid the political fallout and 'war on terror' following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York-Dabashi's adopted city-in 2001, Iran: A People Interrupted offers an insider's insight into the Iranian psyche.

Our Common Future, produced in 1987 by a United Nations commission, responded to a growing number of environmental concerns faced by the global community.

Born in 1961, US anthropologist and activist David Graeber was weaned on leftist politics, and declared himself an anarchist at age 16. He became an anthropology professor, and his early cultural research in Madagascar exposed him to poverty that he saw as caused by pressures to repay excessive government debt.

One of America's foremost statesmen, Henry Kissinger was interested in how different countries, in different periods, in all parts of the globe have attempted to impose order on an often chaotic world. World Order sets out his understanding of how we make sense of the world politically.

Best known for her novels, Toni Morrison enters the realm of literary criticism to draw attention to the often overlooked significance of race in literature.

Before the publication of Nature's Metropolis in 1991, historians generally treated urban and rural areas as distinct from one another, each following separate lines of development and maturity.

Hume's 1779 book on the existence of God remains vastly influential. Using the conceit of a cleverly crafted fictional conversation, Dialogues argues on the one hand that a universe that looks designed must have a designer-and that if it has as 'an uncaused first cause,' that cause can only be God.

The rise of China on the international stage is one of the most significant developments in contemporary geopolitics. Mainstream Western international relations theories argue that the rise of a new global power invariably leads to worrisome instability.

In Outline of a Theory of Practice, Bourdieu questions the preeminent ideas of social anthropologists such as Levi-Strauss who stressed the structural principles governing human action rather than the actions themselves and, Bourdieu asserts, doesn't account for all observable nuances of behaviour.

Argyris's `The Individual and Organization' is part of a series of essays and books considering how organisations should be run. This essay explores the lack of congruence between the needs and expectations of individual employees and the organisations that employ them.

Exploration and Exploitation is a key text for scholars and business practitioners interested in promoting economic well-being and sustainable growth.