Books published by PublicAffairs,U.S.

A revealing examination of the making of America's most famous anti-Semite

Current has become currency. This is the story of electricity--the commodity that determines which nations rise and which fall or remain mired in poverty, and powers us physically and politically.

A riveting exposé of a permanent financial dystopia, its causes, and real-world consequences   It is abundantly clear that our world is divided into two very different economies. The real one, for the average worker, is based on productivity and results. It behaves according to traditional rules of money and economics. The other doesn’t. It is the product of years of loose money, poured by central banks into a system dominated by financial titans. It is powerful enough to send stock markets higher even in the face of a global pandemic and threats of nuclear war.      This parting from reality has its roots in an emergency response to the financial crisis of 2008. “Quantitative Easing” injected a vast amount of cash into the economy—especially if you were a major Wall Street bank. What began as a short-term dependency became a habit, then a compulsion, and finally an addiction.       Nomi Prins relentlessly exposes a world fractured by policies crafted by the largest financial institutions, led by the Federal Reserve, that have supercharged the financial system while selling out regular citizens and leading to social and political reckonings. She uncovers a newly polarized world of the mega rich versus the never rich, the winners and losers of an unprecedented distortion that can never return to “normal.”

When President Biden announced Janet Yellen as his choice for secretary of the treasury, it was the peak moment of a remarkable life. Not only the first woman in the more than two-century history of the office, Yellen is the first person to hold all three top economic policy jobs in the United States: chair of both the Federal Reserve and the President's Council of Economic Advisors as well as treasury secretary.Through Owen Ullmann's intimate portrait, we glean two remarkable aspects of Yellen's approach to economics: first, her commitment to putting those on the bottom half of the economic ladder at the center of economic policy, and employing forward-looking ideas to use the power of government to create a more prosperous, productive life for everyone. And second, her ability to maintain humanity in a Washington policy world where fierce political combat casts others as either friend or enemy, never more so than in our current age of polarization.As Ullmann takes us through Yellen's life and work, we clearly see her brilliance and meticulous preparation. What stands out, though, is Yellen as an icon of progress-the "Ruth Bader Ginsburg of economics"-a superb-yet-different kind of player in a cold, male-dominated profession that all too often devises policies to benefit the already well-to-do. With humility and compassion as her trademarks, we see the influence of Yellen's father, a physician whose pay-what-you-can philosophy meant never turning anyone away. That compassion, rooted in her family life in Brooklyn, now extends across our entire country.

The inside story of how the Dodgers won their first championship in more than thirty years—but helped cripple the sport of baseball in the processAfter years of frustrating playoff runs, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally reclaimed the World Series trophy after more than thirty years, led by star pitcher Clayton Kershaw, electric outfielder Mookie Betts, and a bevy of impressive young players assembled by team president Andrew Friedman. No team is better positioned to win now and in the future.Yet winning at modern baseball is nothing like it was even twenty years ago. In the years since the famous Moneyball revolution, baseball has grown to look less like a sport than a Wall Street firm that traded its boiler room for a field. Teams relentlessly chase every tiny advantage to win games and make money, even as it hurts fans, TV ratings, and players, courting bigger problems in the long run.This dramatic and insightful book takes you into the clubhouse with the championship players, as well as into the offices where teams constantly seek new ways to win—even when it hurts the game. How to Beat a Broken Game shows not only what it takes to win, but what it will take to save the sport.

An urgent, transformative guide to dealing with disasters from one of today’s foremost thinkers in crisis management.The future may still be unpredictable, but nowadays, disasters are not. We live in a time of constant, consistent catastrophe, where things more often go wrong than they go right. So why do we still fumble when disaster hits? Why are we always one step behind?In The Devil Never Sleeps, Juliette Kayyem lays the groundwork for a new approach to dealing with disasters. Presenting the basic themes of crisis management, Kayyem amends the principles we rely on far too easily. Instead, she offers us a new framework to anticipate the “devil’s” inevitable return, highlighting the leadership deficiencies we need to overcome and the forward thinking we need to harness. It’s no longer about preventing a disaster from occurring, but learning how to use the tools at our disposal to minimize the consequences when it does.Filled with personal anecdotes and real-life examples from natural disasters like the California wildfires to man-made ones like the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, The Devil Never Sleeps is a guide for governments, businesses, and individuals alike on how to alter our thinking so that we can develop effective strategies in the face of perpetual catastrophe.

The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world.

Blending data analysis with compelling stories and exclusive interviews, Super Founders shows us that nearly everything we thought was true about successful, billion dollar companies is false.

Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" was originally written as a caustic rebuttal to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," yet these songs that begin in conflict actually have much in common, tapping into a deep well of American song writing and patriotism that transcends race, politics, and class.

In 1946, in the midst of global turmoil and after being voted out of office, Winston Churchill made a trip to the unlikely venue of Fulton, Missouri, to deliver an address now known as the Iron Curtain Speech, which defined the dangers of totalitarian Communism. This is the story of that pivotal speech, the college president who made it happen, and the irrepressible man who delivered it.

The acclaimed biography of the great South African statesman, by the author of The Fate of Africa

This book is a quest to understand Van Morrison's particular genius through a close look at the most extraordinary and unclassifiable moments in his long career, beginning in 1965 and continuing in full force to this day: sometimes entire songs, sometimes single words or even the guttural spaces between words that become musical events in themselves.

The opening of the world''s first railroad in Britain and America in 1830 marked the dawn of a new age. Within the course of a decade, tracks were being laid as far afield as Australia and Cuba, and by the outbreak of World War I, the United States alone boasted over a quarter of a million miles. With unrelenting determination, architectural innovation, and under gruesome labor conditions, a global railroad network was built that forever changed the way people lived. From Panama to Punjab, from Tasmania to Turin, Christian Wolmar shows how cultures were enriched, and destroyed, by one of the greatest global transport revolutions of our time, and celebrates the visionaries and laborers responsible for its creation.

At the height of the roaring ’20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression. Yet after his suicide in 1932, it became clear that Kreuger was not all he seemed: evidence surfaced of fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products— many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today’s markets. In this gripping financial biography, Frank Partnoy recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.

Now in paperback: Eva Hoffmans extraordinarily clear-eyed and unsentimental meditation on our relationship to the Holocaust (New York Times Book Review)

A real life version of THE DOGS OF WAR in which a band of mercenaries plots to over throw a venal government of the newly oil-rich nation of Equatorial Guinea

A young physician-reporter chronicles the experiences of doctors and nurses in a besieged city, illuminating the passions, challenges, tragedies, and agonizing moral qunadaries of practicing medicine in a war zone

In the tradition of Didion, Stegner, and McPhee, an intimate portrait of the American West by the best-selling author of The King of California that blends stellar writing with hard-hitting reporting.

“Going green is easy and profitable.” That’s the common refrain from sustainability gurus. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why? Because implementing sustainability is brutally difficult. If we’re going to cut CO2 emissions 80 percent by midcentury, it will take more than a recycling program and some hemp shopping bags. We’ll only solve our problems if we’re realistic about the challenge of climate change. In this witty book, a sustainable business foot soldier with over a decade’s worth of experience illuminates the path.

The first comprehensive investigation into how the religious right came to dominate the child adoption'market', creating a system that legitimizes their social agenda globally and garners them hundreds of millions in revenues and government support, while marginalizing parents

A stark work of graphic journalism that combines first-hand reporting with in-depth research and artistry to depict the murderous rise of Joseph Kony

A century-old manufacturing company is taking a radically innovative approach to management--no layoffs--with provocative implications for every business