This foray into the often violent subcultures of Japan dramatically debunks the Western perception of a seemingly controlled and orderly society.

Who Hasn't Gazed upon the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat or the jungle-choked cities of the Maya and wondered, could the same fate happen to us? In this riveting book, Jared Diamond--whose Guns, Germs, and Steel revolutionized our understanding of history--explores how humankind's use and abuse of the environment reveal the truth behind the world's great collapses, from the Anasazi of North America to the Vikings of Greenland to modern Montana. What...

The world-renowned economist offers an irreverent analyses of financial debacle from the tulip craze of the seventeenth century to the recent plague of junk bonds. With incomparable wisdom, skill, and wit, world-renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith traces the history of the major speculative episodes in our economy over the last three centuries. Exposing the ways in which normally sane people display reckless behavior in pursuit of profit, Galbraith...

Murder, interrupted: Rich, cheating financier Frank Howard wants his wife dead, and he's willing to pay Billie Earl Johnson whatever it takes, to the tune of $750,000. When his bullet misses the mark, Billie Earl and Frank will turn on each other in a fight for their lives . . . Mother of all murders: Dee Dee Blancharde is a local celebrity. Television reports praise her as a single mother who tirelessly cares for her wheelchair-bound, chronically...

"Yalom describes his patients' struggles-- as well as his own-- to come to terms with the two great challenges of existence: how to have a meaningful life, and how to reckon with its inevitable end"--Dust jacket flap.

On a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man was shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of hundreds of young men slain in Los Angeles every year. His assailant ran down the street, jumped into an SUV, and vanished, hoping to join the vast majority of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes. But as soon as the case was assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shifted. Here is the kaleidoscopic...

A former advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff explains the common role of corruption in today's international uprisings, tracing corruption since the 1990s while arguing that corrupt governments have been largely responsible for extreme acts of rebellion.

Why did American leaders work hard to secure multilateral approval from the United Nations or NATO for military interventions in Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, while making only limited efforts to gain such approval for the 2003 Iraq War? In Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors, Stefano Recchia draws on declassified documents and about one hundred interviews with civilian and military leaders to illuminate little-known aspects of U.S. decision making in...

Part important warning, part riveting memoir, former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake paints six terrifying scenarios that threaten our country's safety & shows how the government is prepared to face them - & how it is not. Though we live in a time of peace, serious threats to our national security lie just beyond the horizon. In Six Nightmares, former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake examines six major threats to America's safety that...

Why do some workplace cultures inspire energy and innovation, while others fuel anxiety, boredom, or cynicism? Until now, such legendary cultures have seemed like magic beyond our control. However, behind every culture is a surprisingly elegant science. Primed to Perform argues that the highest-performing cultures are built on a simple truth: why people work affects how well they work. Great organizations inspire the three most powerful motives for...