Timothy P. Carney

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Massachusetts

Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse





Now a Washington Post bestseller.

Respected conservative journalist and commentator Timothy P. Carney continues the conversation begun with Hillbilly Elegy and the classic Bowling Alone in this hard-hitting analysis that identifies the true factor behind the decline of the American dream: it is not purely the result of economics as the left claims, but the collapse of the institutions that made us successful, including marriage, church, and civic life.



During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump proclaimed, "the American dream is dead," and this message resonated across the country.

Why do so many people believe that the American dream is no longer within reach Growing inequality, stubborn pockets of immobility, rising rates of deadly addiction, the increasing and troubling fact that where you start determines where you end up, heightening political strife--these are the disturbing realities threatening ordinary American lives today.

The standard accounts pointed to economic problems among the working class, but the root was a cultural collapse: While the educated and wealthy elites still enjoy strong communities, most blue-collar Americans lack strong communities and institutions that bind them to their neighbors. And outside of the elites, the central American institution has been religion

That is, it's not the factory closings that have torn us apart; it's the church closings. The dissolution of our most cherished institutions--nuclear families, places of worship, civic organizations--has not only divided us, but eroded our sense of worth, belief in opportunity, and connection to one another.

In Abandoned America, Carney visits all corners of America, from the dim country bars of Southwestern Pennsylvania., to the bustling Mormon wards of Salt Lake City, and explains the most important data and research to demonstrate how the social connection is the great divide in America. He shows that Trump's surprising victory was the most visible symptom of this deep-seated problem. In addition to his detailed exploration of how a range of societal changes have, in tandem, damaged us, Carney provides a framework that will lead us back out of a lonely, modern wilderness.

Alienated America

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Jodi Picoult

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Novel

The highly anticipated new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult, who "writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships" (The Boston Globe)

Small Great Things

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Sara Gay Forden

A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed

Did Patrizia Reggiani murder her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, in 1995 because his spending was wildly out of control? Did she do it because her glamorous ex was preparing to marry his mistress, Paola Franchi? Or is there a possibility she didn't do it at all? In this gripping account of the ascent, eventual collapse, and resurrection of the Gucci dynasty, Sara Gay Forden takes us behind the scenes of the trial and exposes the passions, the power, and the vulnerabilities of the greatest fashion family of our times.

House of Gucci

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Item previously purchased from Thriftbooks 

The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA

An insider's gripping account of how political pressure and corporate co-optation have undermined the Environmental Protection Agency, with devastating effects on public safety and the natural world.

Poison Spring

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And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, As Written by Our Genetic Code

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA. In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In THE VIOLINIST'S THUMB, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking. They can even allow some people, because of the exceptional flexibility of their thumbs and fingers, to become truly singular violinists. Kean's vibrant storytelling once again makes science entertaining, explaining human history and whimsy while showing how DNA will influence our species' future.

The Violinist's Thumb

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Staying Healthy in a Toxic World

What's Gotten into Us? is a deep, remarkable, and empowering investigation into the threats--biological and environmental--that chemicals now present in our daily lives.
 
Do you know what chemicals are in your shampoo? How about your cosmetics? Do you know what's in the plastic water bottles you drink from, or the weed killer in your garage, or your children's pajamas? If you're like most of us, the answer is probably no. But you also probably figured that most of these products were safe, and that someone--the manufacturers, the government--was looking out for you. The truth might surprise you.

After experiencing a health scare of his own, journalist McKay Jenkins set out to discover the truth about toxic chemicals, our alarming levels of exposure, and our government's utter failure to regulate them effectively. What's Gotten into Us? reveals how dangerous, and how common, toxins are in the most ordinary things, and in the most familiar of places:
 
* Our water: Thanks to suburban sprawl and agricultural runoff, 97 percent of our nation's rivers and streams are now contaminated with everything from herbicides to pharmaceutical drugs.
* Our bodies: High levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals from cosmetics, flame-retardants from clothing and furniture, even long-banned substances like DDT and lead, are consistently showing up in human blood samples.
* Our homes: Many toxins lurk beneath our sinks and in our basements, of course, but did you know that they're also found in wall-to-wall carpeting, plywood, and fabric softeners?
* Our yards: Pesticides, fungicides, even common fertilizers--there are enormous, unseen costs to our national obsession with green, weed-free lawns.
 
What's Gotten Into Us? is much more than a wake-up call. It offers numerous practical ways for us to regain some control over our lives, to make our own personal worlds a little less toxic. Inside, you'll find ideas to help you make informed decisions about the products you buy, and to disentangle yourself from unhealthy products you don't need--so that you and your family can start living healthier lives now, and in the years to come. Because, as this book shows, what you don't know can hurt you.

What's Gotten into Us?

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Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

With his classics of social commentary "The Geography of Nowhere and "Home from Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler has established himself as one of the great commentators on American space and place. Now, with "The Long Emergency, he offers a shocking vision of a post-oil future. The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind. But the oil age is at an end. The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life as we know it, and much sooner than we think. As a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance that will collapse. "The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after we pass the tipping point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Are we laboring under a Jiminy Cricket syndrome when we tell ourselves that alternative means of energy are just a few years away? Even once they are developed, will they ever be able to sustain us in the way that fossil fuels once did? What will happen when our current plagues of global warming, epidemic disease, and overpopulation collide to exacerbate the end of the oil age? Will the new global economy be able to persevere, or will we be forced to revert to the more agrarian, localized economy we once knew? Could corporations like Wal-Mart and McDonald's, built on the premise of cheap transportation, become a thing of the past? Will the misguided experiment of suburbia--considered a birthright and a reality by millions of Americans--collapse when the car culturebecomes obsolete? Riveting and authoritative. "The Long Emergency is a devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore. It is bound to become a classic of social science.

The Long Emergency

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What We Leave Behind is a piercing, impassioned guide to living a truly responsible life on earth. Human waste, once considered a gift to the soil, has become toxic material that has broken the essential cycle of decay and regeneration. Here, award-winning author Derrick Jensen and activist Aric McBay weave historical analysis and devastatingly beautiful prose to remind us that life-human and nonhuman-will not go on unless we do everything we can to facilitate the most basic process on earth, the root of sustainability- one being's waste must always become another being's food.

What We Leave Behind

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An Unnatural History

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half-billion years, there have been Five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

The Sixth Extinction

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Discovering Your Cosmic Self and Why It Matters

You Are the Universe

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Cacciato gathers compass, fresh water, and maps and walks out of the mire and fury of Vietnam, bound for the gaiety and life of Paris.

Going after Cacciato

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The classic Vietnam memoir, as relevant today as it was almost thirty years ago.

In March of 1965, Marine Lieutenent Philip J. Caputo landed at Da Nang with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history's ugliest wars, he returned home--physically whole but emotionally wasted, his youthful idealism forever gone.
A Rumor of War is more than one soldier's story. Upon its publication in 1977, it shattered America's indifference to the fate of the men sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. In the years since then, it has become not only a basic text on the Vietnam War but also a renowned classic in the literature of wars throughout history and, as Caputo explains, of "the things men do in war and the things war does to men."

"A singular and marvelous work." --The New York Times

A Rumor of War

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#hardcover #medicine #newspaper #journalism #science #medicalscience #newyorktimes

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Today we live longer, healthier lives than ever before in history--a transformation due almost entirely to tremendous advances in medicine. This change is so profound, with many major illnesses nearly wiped out, that it's hard now to imagine what the world was like in 1851, when the New York Times began publishing. Treatments for depression, blood pressure, heart disease, ulcers, and diabetes came later; antibiotics were nonexistent, viruses unheard of, and no one realized yet that DNA carried blueprints for life or the importance of stem cells. Edited by award-winning writer Gina Kolata, this eye-opening collection of 150 articles from the New York Times archive charts the developing scientific insights and breakthroughs into diagnosing and treating conditions like typhoid, tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and AIDS, and chronicles the struggles to treat mental illness and the enormous success of vaccines. It also reveals medical mistakes, lapses in ethics, and wrong paths taken in hopes of curing disease. Every illness, every landmark has a tale, and the newspaper's top reporters tell each one with perceptiveness and skill.

Rachel Williams

@rachel5489

Books Listed

Following

Followers

Timothy P. Carney

Alienated America

Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things

Sara Gay Forden

House of Gucci

E. G. Vallianatos

Poison Spring

Sam Kean

The Violinist's Thumb

McKay Jenkins

What's Gotten into Us?

James Howard Kunstler

The Long Emergency

Derrick Jensen; Aric McBay

What We Leave Behind

Elizabeth Kolbert

The Sixth Extinction

Deepak Chopra; Menas C. Kafatos

You Are the Universe

Tim O'Brien

Going after Cacciato

Philip Caputo; Kevin Powers (Foreword by)

A Rumor of War

G. Kolata

New York Times Book of Medicine

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Browse by categories

Timothy P. Carney

Alienated America

Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things

Sara Gay Forden

House of Gucci

E. G. Vallianatos

Poison Spring

Sam Kean

The Violinist's Thumb

McKay Jenkins

What's Gotten into Us?

James Howard Kunstler

The Long Emergency

Derrick Jensen; Aric McBay

What We Leave Behind

Elizabeth Kolbert

The Sixth Extinction

Deepak Chopra; Menas C. Kafatos

You Are the Universe

Tim O'Brien

Going after Cacciato

Philip Caputo; Kevin Powers (Foreword by)

A Rumor of War

G. Kolata

New York Times Book of Medicine

Get The App