The popularity of great Americans frequently simmers before it boils, but the nation’s 40th President heard the kettle whistling from early in his administration. Ronald Reagan came to office in 1981 determined to face head-on foes of the great American experiment. He departed in 1989 adored by millions of fellow citizens and admired even by political adversaries. Join Jay Stephen Whitney in this look at the life and work of Ronald Wilson Reagan through nearly 200 large-format photographs,...

Roy's life was not going well. He was clever, very clever, but his boss didn't like him and finding other jobs in the computer industry at the ripe old age of forty-five could be difficult. He had bought a house with his girlfriend, but she was leaving him because he was "too nice". He would have the debts of the house plus old debts that he was still repaying. Then there was Rosemary, but she seemed preoccupied with her stalker who had threatened Roy, grabbing by the throat on one occasio...

“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was Haeckel’s answer—the wrong one—to the most vexing question of nineteenth-century biology: what is the relationship between individual development (ontogeny) and the evolution of species and lineages (phylogeny)? In this, the first major book on the subject in fifty years, Stephen Jay Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its first appearance among the pre-Socratics to its fall in the early twentieth century.Mr. Gould e...

More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science.Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essa...

All inhabitants of this terrestrial plane are, to some degree, influenced by a dual nature: an outward sense of mortal self and an inner sense of higher Self. This duality keeps us at odds, resulting in a divided consciousness and a life of conflict.A Glimpse into Your Spiritual Identity presents a compilation of the early works of authors Stephen and Lynn Jay, originally published in 1982. Through a penetrating study of the mind and an exposé of human nature, it reveals a step-by-s...

A "vividly, excitingly written" classic of baseball history: "The most thorough investigation of the Black Sox scandal on record" ( Chicago Tribune).It was "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America"—the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up. Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the...

"This sparkling book romps over the range of science and anti-science." --Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and SteelRevised and Expanded Edition.In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. A no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in print, Why People Believe ...

The world’s most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time—a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision. With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of classical Darwinism: that natural selection works on organisms, not genes or species; that it is almost exclusive...

Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould’s command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field.In Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle his subject is nothing less than geology’s signal contribution to human thought—the discovery of “deep ...

It’s no secret that authors have a love-hate relationship with Hollywood. The oft-repeated cliché that “the book was better than the movie” holds true for more reasons than the average reader will ever know. When asked about selling their book rights to Hollywood authors like to joke that they drive their manuscripts to the border of Arizona and California and toss them over the fence, driving back the way they came at breakneck speed. This is probably because Hollywood just doesn’t “get i...

Thomas H. Huxley was one of the first supporters of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, and he did more than any other writer to advance its acceptance among scientists and nonscientists alike. His most famous book, Man’s Place in Nature, published only five years after Darwin’s The Origin of Species, offers a compelling review of primate and human paleontology, and is the first attempt to apply Darwin’s theory to human beings. As co...

"[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."—James Gleick, New York Times Book ReviewHigh in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotte...