The life of Harry Morris was a classic 'rags to riches' tale: an East End Jewish barrow boy who became a feted nightclub operator in Knightsbridge and Mayfair. But there was a price to pay - his drive to transcend humble roots and a devastating early illness came at the cost of much myth-making and a family schism. Now, in 1963, as Harry makes a swansong cruise around the world with his mistress on a 'millionaire's yacht', the Caronia, his mask starts to slip. Each port of call brings back...

Zhu Xi (1130–1200) was the preeminent Confucian thinker of the Song dynasty (960–1279). His teachings profoundly influenced China, where for centuries after his death they formed the basis of the country’s educational system. In Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as well, elites embraced his inspired and authoritative synthesis of Confucian thought.In Zhu’s eyes, the great Way of China was in decline, with its very survival threatened by external enemies and internal moral weakness. In his ...

Zhu Xi (1130–1200) was the preeminent Confucian thinker of the Song dynasty (960–1279). His teachings profoundly influenced China, where for centuries after his death they formed the basis of the country’s educational system. In Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as well, elites embraced his inspired and authoritative synthesis of Confucian thought.In Zhu’s eyes, the great Way of China was in decline, with its very survival threatened by external enemies and internal moral weakness. In his ...

The Analects is a compendium of the sayings of Confucius (551–479 b.c.e.), transcribed and passed down by his disciples. How it came to be transformed by Zhu Xi (1130–1200) into one of the most philosophically significant texts in the Confucian tradition is the subject of this book.Scholarly attention in China had long been devoted to the Analects. By the time of Zhu Xi, a rich history of commentary had grown up around it. But Zhu, claiming that the Analects

This volume assembles for the first time a staggering multiplicity of reflections and readings of John Fante’s 1939 classic, Ask the Dust, a true testament to the work’s present and future impact.The contributors to this work—writers, critics, fans, scholars, screenwriters, directors, and others—analyze the provocative set of diaspora tensions informing Fante’s masterpiece that distinguish it from those accounts of earlier East Coast migrations and minglings. A must-read f...

An award-winning journalist uses landmark research to debunk the whole expert prediction industry, and explores the psychology of our obsession with future history.In 2008, experts predicted gas would hit $20 a gallon; it peaked at $4.10. In 1967, they said the USSR would be the world's fastest-growing economy by 2000; by 2000, the USSR no longer existed. In 1908, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it...

“An invaluable resource for anyone who aspires to think clearly” (The Guardian) from the New York Times bestselling author of Superforecasting and Future BabbleFrom terror attacks to collapsing economies, from painkiller epidemics to mass gun violence and poisonous toys from China, our list of fears seems to be exploding. Yet we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Why are we so worried?The Science of Fear...

From terror attacks to the War on Terror, bursting real estate bubbles to crystal meth epidemics, sexual predators to poisonous toys from China, our list of fears seems to be exploding. And yet, we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Irrational fear is running amok, and often with tragic results. In the months after 9/11, when people decided to drive instead of fly—believing they wee avoiding risk—road deaths rose by 1,595. Those lives were lost to fear.The Science of ...

In 2008, as the price of oil surged above $140 a barrel, experts said it would soon hit $200; a few months later it plunged to $30. In 1967, they said the USSR would have one of the fastest-growing economies in the year 2000; in 2000, the USSR did not exist. In 1911, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it, experts are about as accurate as dart-throwing monkeys. And yet every day we ask them to predict the future — everything f...

"All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew...

In an urgent follow-up to his best-selling Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller, Jeff Rubin argues that the end of cheap oil means the end of growth. What it will be like to live in a world where growth is over?Economist and resource analyst Jeff Rubin is certain that the world's governments are getting it wrong. Instead of moving us toward economic recovery, measures being taken around the globe right now are digging us into a deeper hole. Both politicians a...

A forceful argument against America's vicious circle of growing inequality by the Nobel Prize–winning economist.The top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. And, as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains, while those at the top enjoy the best health care, education, and benefits of wealth, they fail to realize that “their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.”Stiglitz draws on his deep understanding of economics to show that growing inequali...