Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, 4th Edition, by John Charles Chasteen was published in 2016. The first edition was printed in 2001. Chasteen works as an author, translator, and professor of Latin American history and culture. He teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some of his other notable works are Americanos: The Struggle for Latin American Independence, National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of... Read Born in Blood and Fire Summary

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom (2019) is a work of nonfiction by investigative journalist Katherine Eban. Eban discusses some of the deceit and fraud within generic drug manufacturing with a special focus on Ranbaxy, a prominent Indian pharmaceutical company. Eban explores the consequences of compromised drug quality and regulatory shortcomings, including the challenges of ensuring the safety of generic medications. Throughout the work, Eban discusses The Consequences of Cost-Cutting... Read Bottle of Lies Summary

In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert D. Putnam chronicles the decline of civic engagement and social connectedness in the late 20th-century United States and highlights the importance of renewing these forms of social capital for the sake of individual, societal, and democratic health. Putnam, a political science professor and former dean, has the expertise to contribute this work to the academic literature in social science. Originally published in 2000, the... Read Bowling Alone Summary

In 1932, Brave New World, a novel by the English author Aldous Huxley, was published. Contemporary events inspired this influential fantasy novel, which depicted a future society governed by totalitarianism. In 1958, a full twenty-seven years later, Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited, a short nonfiction book which reexamines the novel’s ideas and predictions in light of events that had happened since the publication of Brave New World. Huxley argues that the world is accelerating... Read Brave New World Revisited Summary

Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future is a work of political economy and comparative analysis by Dan Wang, a technology analyst and writer specializing in Chinese industrial policy and US–China relations. Wang brings unique expertise to his subject, having worked for six years at Gavekal Dragonomics, an investment research firm, where he analyzed China’s technological developments and political economy for hedge funds and institutional investors. During this period, he lived in Hong Kong, Beijing... Read Breakneck Summary

Bright Young Women is a historical fiction/crime novel written by Jessica Knoll and published in 2023. The plot is based on the crimes committed by American serial killer Ted Bundy, although Bundy is never named in the novel. Knoll uses the novel to critique and subvert the true crime genre by centering the stories of women, including both victims and survivors. The novel explores themes of misogyny, toxic family dynamics, and salacious interest in crime... Read Bright Young Women Summary

Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America is a 2018 book by historian and professor Kathleen Belew. It offers a history of the extreme right wing in the United States, particularly its segment of racists who take up arms to ensure or restore what they regard as a proper social hierarchy with white Christians on top. The book spans from the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War in 1973... Read Bring the War Home Summary

Burnt Shadows, first published in 2009, is the fifth novel by Pakistani-British author Kamila Shamsie. A political-historical novel, it was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction, one of the UK’s most prestigious literary awards, and won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, which celebrates books that contribute to a greater understanding of racism and diversity. Shamsie has been shortlisted several times for a John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; she also received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature... Read Burnt Shadows Summary

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, a nonfiction history by librarian and historian Dee Brown, was published in 1970 and became a widely influential bestseller. Dee Brown (full name Dorris Alexander Brown) was the author of more than 30 fiction and nonfiction books. As a librarian at the University of Illinois, he had access to the primary historical records from the late 19th century that became the main... Read Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Summary

Originally published in 1986, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner illustrates how precarious the American West’s water supply is. This reality was something few people, including Westerners, realized at the time. The book was listed as one of the Modern Library’s 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th century and was nominated for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. It was also made into a PBS documentary. There is... Read Cadillac Desert Summary

Caesar and Cleopatra, a play by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), premiered on Broadway in 1906 and debuted on the West End in London in 1907. George Bernard Shaw, an Irish-born playwright, wrote for the English stage in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. He wrote over 60 plays and remains one of the most influential and remembered voices to write for the English-language theatre. Some of his major works include Arms... Read Caesar and Cleopatra Summary

Silvia Federici’s 2004 monograph, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, is a synthesis of the history of Europe’s transition to capitalism from a global and applied perspective. The author, a philosopher, places the origins of modern patriarchy within this transition using Marxist-feminist theory as her primary mode of analysis.This study guide uses the edition of the text published in 2014 by Autonomedia. Content Warning: This book contains references to violence, especially... Read Caliban and the Witch Summary

Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead is the 2019 memoir of former US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corp general, with Bing West as a coauthor. His stated purpose in writing the memoir is to teach others some of the leadership skills he obtained as a military officer. While there is some discussion of philosophy of leadership, the lion’s share of the book consists of narrative military history. Mattis follows an... Read Call Sign Chaos Summary

Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a 2013 work of political economy by French economist Thomas Piketty. Piketty explores the historical evolution of wealth from the late 18th century to the present, looking at how wealth ownership changed in that time. Specifically, he asks why inequality fell between the First World War and the 1950s and why it has been increasing since. He also explores the ramifications of this growing inequality for 21st-century capitalism. This... Read Capital in the Twenty-First Century Summary

First published in 1962, Capitalism and Freedom is a nonfiction book about economics, politics, and government. Author Milton Friedman advocates a classical-liberal approach to economic policy in the United States, one that promotes individual freedom by allowing the free market to function as effectively as possible.Friedman wrote Capitalism and Freedom while he was an economics scholar at the University of Chicago. He opens the book with a quote by President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not... Read Capitalism And Freedom Summary

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy is a work of economics and political theory by Austrian born economist Joseph A. Schumpeter, originally published in 1942. Schumpeter argues that capitalism, where private, for-profit ownership controls a nation’s industry, will be eventually replaced by socialism, an economic system based on the public, state ownership of industry. However, he disagrees with German philosopher Karl Marx. Unlike Marx, Schumpeter does not believe the shift to socialism will come about due to... Read Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Summary

In the 2013 nonfiction book, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, British political theorist Timothy Mitchell upends the traditional view on the relationship between carbon-based energy (primarily coal and oil) and democracy. Mitchell takes issue with previous accounts because they typically gloss over how workers, oil companies, imperial powers, the public, and carbon-energy producing countries create political relations out of the flows of and demand for energy. As a political scientist and... Read Carbon Democracy Summary

Catch and Kill is a 2019 nonfiction book by the American journalist Ronan Farrow. The book details Farrow’s investigation into decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups committed by Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein as well as numerous institutional attempts to prevent his abuse coming to light. Catch and Kill begins with investigative journalist Ronan Farrow searching for a story with producer Rich McHugh in 2016. Although rumors about Harvey Weinstein’s abusive behavior are beginning to reach... Read Catch and Kill Summary

Cato, a Tragedy is a play written by Joseph Addison in 1712. Set in the Roman Republic during the reign of Julius Caesar, the play centers on the final days of the Stoic Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, a man of virtue who fiercely opposed Caesar. The play focuses on themes such as the importance of virtue and the battle between liberty and tyranny, and takes place in Utica, Tunisia, in the kingdom of Numidia, where... Read Cato, a Tragedy Summary

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a 2015 work of investigative nonfiction by British-Swiss author Johann Hari. Hari explores the so-called international war on drugs by looking deeply into its historical roots, its legal and social implications, and the possibility for reform. He examines addiction and the consequences of past and present drug laws across nine continents and 30,000 miles. A major focus is the criminalization and... Read Chasing the Scream Summary