Books published by Times Books

Musicians are often loath to discuss their craft for fear of destroying its improvisational essence, rendering jazz among the most ephemeral and least transparent of the performing arts. This work coaxes out an understanding of the men and women themselves, the context of their work, and how jazz from horn blare to drum riffs created conceptually.

Catapulted into national politics by his heroic campaigns to feed Europe during and after World War I, Herbert Hoover - an engineer by training - exemplified the economic optimism of the 1920s. This book assesses Hoover's policies and legacy in the face of one of the darkest periods of American history.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent with unprecedented access to the inner workings of the U.S. Supreme Court chronicles the personal transformation of legendary justice Harry A. Blackmun who wrote numerous landmark decisions, including Roe v. Wade, and participated in the most contentious debates of his era--all behind closed doors.

An American icon and hero faces a nation-and a world-in transitionA bona-fide American hero at the close of World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower rode an enormous wave of popularity into the Oval Office seven years later. Though we may view the Eisenhower years through a hazy lens of 1950s nostalgia, historians consider his presidency one of the least successful. At home there was civil rights unrest, McCarthyism, and a deteriorating economy; internationally, the Cold War was deepening. But despite his tendency toward "brinksmanship," Ike would later be revered for "keeping the peace." Still, his actions and policies at the onset of his career, covered by Tom Wicker, would haunt Americans of future generations.

In this eye-opening biography, the legal scholar and historian Finkelman reveals how Millard Fillmore's response to the crisis he inherited in 1850 set the country on a dangerous path that led to the Civil War.

In this addictive collection of trivia, Bakalar shares the wonders of medicine, takes a tour of diseases that belong in horror movies, and tickles the curiosity of both the healthy and the hypochondriac.

William Henry Harrison died just 31 days after taking the oath of office in 1841. Today he is a curiosity in American history, but as Collins shows in this entertaining and revelatory biography, he and his career are worth a closer look.

From the "New York Times" retirement expert, comes an authoritative resource for successfully assessing and tackling the real costs and challenges of retirement.

Holt, a leading historian of 19th-century partisan politics, paints a portrait of the genial but troubled New Englander whose single-minded partisan loyalties inflamed the nation's simmering battle over slavery.

Richard Bernstein's Out of the Blue provides a gripping and authoritative account of the September 11, 2001 attack, its historical roots, and its aftermath. Few news stories in recent memory have commanded as much attention as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but no news organization rivaled the New York Times for its comprehensive, resourceful, in-depth, and thoughtful coverage. This effort may well emerge as the finest hour in the paper's distinguished 150-year history. In an unprecedented commitment, the Times assigned one of its most skilled reporters, Richard Bernstein, to turn the newspaper's brilliant and incisive reporting into a riveting narrative of September 11th. Following the lives of heroes, victims, and terrorists, Bernstein weaves a complex tale of a multitude of lives colliding in conflagration on that fateful morning. He takes us inside the Al Qaeda organization and the lives of the terrorists, from their indoctrination into radical Islam to the harrowing moments aboard the aircraft as they raced toward their terrible destiny. We meet cops and firefighters, and become intimate with some of the Trade Center workers who were lost on that day. We follow the lives of the rest of America--ordinary citizens and national leaders alike--in the hours and days after the attack. Finally, Bernstein chronicles the nation's astonishing response in the aftermath. No account of this singular moment in American history will be as sharp, readable, and authoritative as Out of the Blue.

A revealing view of America and its citizens at the dawn of a new century, by the author of the New York Times Notable Book Who We AreFor more than two centuries, America has taken stock every decade, producing a statistical self-portrait of our population. In Who We Are Now, Sam Roberts identifies and illuminates the trends and social shifts changing the face of America today. America is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. The nation's complexion changed significantly over the twentieth century, creating more varied and intermingled identities, and with the baby boomers nearing retirement and their children entering college, the graying of America has been balanced, precariously, by the youth culture. And in the wake of welfare reform in the 1990s, the fate of the working poor has become all the more tenuous. Roberts masterfully weaves stories of individuals from all corners of the country alongside the data from the latest U.S. census, creating a compelling guided tour of the places, personalities, and politics that will shape America as the new century stretches before us.

A dazzling appraisal of the definitive classical music performances available today For classical music lovers, there is nothing more beguiling and exciting than the range of technique and emotion that can capture or transform the great works in the hands of a conductor and musicians. But with hundreds of recordings released every year, discovering the jewels is a challenge, for newcomers as well as for connoisseurs.New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn offers the ultimate collector''s guide, packed with a rich history of the composers and performers who stir our souls. From Bach''s eloquent Goldberg Variations performed by master pianist Glenn Gould at the beginning and end of his career in startlingly different interpretations, to a lyrical performance of Rimsky-Korsakov''s Scheherezade conducted by Kiril Kondrashin shortly after his defection from the Soviet Union, Kozinn places each work in the greater context of musical development and stretches the listener''s understanding of each pivotal composition. These original essays on the one hundred greatest recorded classical works provide both practical guidance for building a library and deep insight into the transcendent power of music itself.

Those ignorant of the mistakes of the past are bound to lose a lot of money.  That''s why Bob McMath founded the New Products Showcase and Learning Center--a "Smithsonian for Stinkers," Business Week dubbed it.  There, executives from top corporations pay huge amounts of money to rummage through some 80,000 products gone awry.  Their mission: to avoid the misguided, expensive, and occasionally ludicrous mistakes that trip up even top companies.In What Were They Thinking?, McMath shows you how to avoid such mistakes, with more that eighty marketing lessons he''s learned  from his long experience with clods and clunkers.  As People magazine put it "McMath knows his goods--and his uglies, too"--and here he shows you how to:  Steer clear of the number one killer of new products  (page 129)  Develop a marketing campaign based on a "Significant Point of Difference"  (page 183)  Take advantage of eight  "Hot Buttons for Success in the Millennium"  (page 101)   Keep out of the "Buy-This-If-You''re-a-Loser School of Marketing"  (page 28)  Combat "Corporate Alzheimer''s"  (page 4)and much more !

The former senator offers a provocative new assessment of the first "national security president"--James Monroe--remembered for being the last of the Virginia dynasty and for issuing the Monroe Doctrine.