The definitive biography of the iconic skyscrapers and the ambitions that shaped them--from their dizzying rise to their unforgettable fallMore than a year after the nation began mourning the lives lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center, it became clear that something else was being mourned: the towers themselves. They were the biggest and brashest icons that New York, and possibly America, has ever produced--magnificent giants that became intimately familiar around the globe...

The New York Times Bestseller2005 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction"102 Minutes does for the September 11 catastrophe what Walter Lord did for the Titanic in his masterpiece, A Night to Remember . . . Searing, poignant, and utterly compelling."—Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Army at DawnHailed upon publication as an instant classic, the critically accl...

Once America's capitalist dream town, Detroit is our country's greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city's worst crisis yet (and that's saying something) has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, neopastoral agriculturalists, and utopian environmentalists—all have been drawn to Detroit's baroquely decaying, nothing-left-to-lose frontier.With an eye for both the da...

The Roaring Twenties in New York was a time of exuberant ambition, free-flowing optimism, an explosion of artistic expression in the age of Prohibition. New York was the city that embodied the spirit and strength of a newly powerful America.In 1924, in the vibrant heart of Manhattan, a fierce rivalry was born. Two architects, William Van Alen and Craig Severance (former friends and successful partners, but now bitter adversaries), set out to imprint their individual marks on the gr...

From the king of “Gonzo” journalism and bestselling author who brought you Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas comes another astonishing volume of letters by Hunter S. Thompson, featuring a new introduction from award-winning author and staff writer at The New Yorker Jon Lee Anderson.Brazen, incisive, and outrageous as ever, this second volume of Thompson’s private correspondence is the highly anticipated follow-up to The Proud Highway. When t...

Biographical profile of Ransom E. Olds, regarded as the first of the great American automobile pioneers. He not only sold the first car manufactured in America, his company was also the first of the great automobile enterprises, a model and training ground for the Dodge brothers, Henry Ford, Henry Leland (founder of Cadillac and Lincoln), and other automotive trailblazers. His first horseless carriage, a vehicle made of whitewood and oak, resting on three steel-tired buggy wheels, steered by ...

The great American automotive pioneers were entrepreneurial inventors and visionaries who changed the American landscape and brought us a new national culture. These pioneers lifted the veil of isolation that enveloped most pre-twentieth century Americans and made it possible for the average person to travel whenever and wherever he or she pleased. Automobiles changed the concept of transportation and more so, how and where we lived, worked and played. Many lessons can be drawn from these pio...

Uncle John loves New York, so he's taking the plunge…into the land of bagels, bluebirds, and the Brooklyn Bridge.Start spreading the news. You’re reading today. You’re going to be a part of it--New York, New Yooooork! In this ode to the greatest place on Earth, Uncle John takes you through Ellis Island and down the Hudson to bring you the tome about New York that could only come from the Bathroom Readers’ Institute. Find out why the Empire State is the Big Apple of...

The definitive family biography of President Donald Trump.The revealing story of the Trumps mirrors America’s transformation from a land of striving immigrants to a world in which the aura of wealth alone can guarantee a fortune. The Trumps begins with a portrait of President Trump’s immigrant grandfather, who as a young man built hotels for miners in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush. His son, Fred, took advantage of the New Deal, using government subs...

“Supreme City captures a vanished Gotham in all its bustle, gristle, and glory” (Vanity Fair). In the 1920s midtown Manhattan became the center of New York City, and the cultural and commercial capital of America. This is the story of the people who made it happen.In just four words—“the capital of everything”—Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: the Jazz Age. Supreme City i...

Flim Flam explores the world of Canadian white-collar crime, a place inhabited by hustlers, wild gamblers, and crazy dreamers. It takes the reader to the Vancouver Stock Exchange, where dream salesmen have peddled wild stories of easy money, through the "moose pasture" scams of northern Canada, to the con artists who have been drawn to Toronto's financial district. Along the way, you'll meet crooked politicians, a young con man who confessed to a church congregation after he was "...

A compelling, original, and illuminating account chronicling the historic week between Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and his funeral.In the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, riots broke out in 110 cities across the country. For five days, Atlanta braced for chaos while preparing to host King’s funeral. An unlikely alliance of former student radicals, the middle-aged patrician mayor, the no-nonsense police chief, black ministers, white c...