"Takes dead aim at the conservative economic consensus that has dominated U.S. politics . . . Biting and necessary."— The American ProspectIn this provocative, witty, and revealing polemic, Daniel Brook's The Trap argues that the exploding income gap—a product of the conservative ascendance—is systematically dismantling the American dream, as debt-laden, well-educated young people are torn between their passions and the pressure to earn six-figure ...

A technicolor history of the first civil rights movement and its collapse into black and white.Brutal slavery existed all over the New World, but only America followed emancipation with a twisted system of segregation. The Accident of Color asks why. Searching for answers, Daniel Brook journeys to the places that resisted Jim Crow the longest. In the cosmopolitan port cities of New Orleans and Charleston, integrated streetcars plied avenues patrolled by in...

**A New Yorker Best Book of 2025An illuminating portrait of a lost thinker, German-Jewish sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld.**More than a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, dubbed the “Einstein of Sex,” grew famous (and infamous) for his liberating theory of sexual relativity. Today, he’s been largely forgotten.Journalist Daniel Brook retraces Hirschfeld’s rollicking life and reinvigorates his legacy, recovering one of the great visionaries of the ...

A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai.Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the da...

In The Accident of Color, Daniel Brook journeys to nineteenth-century New Orleans and Charleston and introduces us to cosmopolitan residents who elude the racial categories the rest of America takes for granted. Before the Civil War, these free, openly mixed-race urbanites enjoyed some rights of citizenship and the privileges of wealth and social status. But after Emancipation, as former slaves move to assert their rights, the black-white binary that rules the rest of the nation b...

A new chapter of life can bring more room to reflect on experiences that were set aside while you cared for others, worked, or simply kept moving. Looking back does not mean living in the past. It can be a way to understand old patterns with the perspective and resources you have now. This 90-day guided journey offers women over 50 a structured space to explore childhood messages, recognize present needs, and practice responding to themselves with greater patience.The prompts move ...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.The Girl Who Vanished TwiceEmma Carlisle thought she was ordinary—until the night she disappeared. Found shaken and bruised, she should be safe. But something has marked her, and the shadows of Ashford won’t let her go.As cryptic messages arrive and a hooded figure follows her every move, Emma turns to Detective Ian Holt—a man hiding secrets of his own. Together, they uncover a pattern of disappearances stretching back y...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.The Girl Who Vanished TwiceEmma Carlisle thought she was ordinary—until the night she disappeared. Found shaken and bruised, she should be safe. But something has marked her, and the shadows of Ashford won’t let her go.As cryptic messages arrive and a hooded figure follows her every move, Emma turns to Detective Ian Holt—a man hiding secrets of his own. Together, they uncover a pattern of disappearances stretching back y...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.The Girl Who Vanished TwiceEmma Carlisle thought she was ordinary—until the night she disappeared. Found shaken and bruised, she should be safe. But something has marked her, and the shadows of Ashford won’t let her go.As cryptic messages arrive and a hooded figure follows her every move, Emma turns to Detective Ian Holt—a man hiding secrets of his own. Together, they uncover a pattern of disappearances stretching back y...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.The Girl Who Vanished TwiceEmma Carlisle thought she was ordinary—until the night she disappeared. Found shaken and bruised, she should be safe. But something has marked her, and the shadows of Ashford won’t let her go.As cryptic messages arrive and a hooded figure follows her every move, Emma turns to Detective Ian Holt—a man hiding secrets of his own. Together, they uncover a pattern of disappearances stretching back y...

Peter is putting on a show. He’s a bit stressed. In the show, he will read from a manuscript. It’s a large manuscript, but don’t worry, he’s only going to read the parts about him, and there aren’t many. It’s a memoir written by someone who abandoned him twice—once as a baby and once when he was a young man of thirteen. This person has figured prominently in Peter’s life for over fifty years now, but judging by the memoir, he has not figured so much in theirs. So perhaps it’s going to be a...

A man is at a silent meditation retreat where participants are not supposed to speak or communicate in any other way with each other for ten days. His recent terminal cancer diagnosis has made him acutely aware of the need for community and human interaction, but his thoughts are his only company. In this poignant and surprisingly funny solo play, Brooks invites us to bear witness as he explores the anxieties and joys of loving and living, and the inevitability of dying.