William Hughes

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Billionaire Democracy

Billionaire Democracy

This isn’t your America. No matter who the president is.We’re told that when we vote, when we elect representatives, we’re gaining a voice in government and the policies it implements. But if that’s true, why don’t American politics actually translate...

Coke's insatiable thirst for resources shapes the company and reshapes the globe in this absorbing history.Coca-Cola's success in building a global empire out of sugary water drew on more than a secret formula and brilliant advertising. The real...

Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House in 1933 confronting twenty-five-percent unemployment, bank closings, and a nationwide crisis in confidence. Between March 9 and June 16, FDR sent Congress a record number of bills, all of which passed easily....

Going Broke [Updated Edition]

Going Broke [Updated Edition]

Over the last four decades, debt, bankruptcy, and home foreclosures have risen to epidemic levels, and the personal savings rate has sunk dangerously low. Why, in the richest nation on Earth, can’t Americans hold on to their money?First published in...

After a second world championship in four years, the Boston Red Sox have finally buried the Curse of the Bambino—or have they? Red Sox owner Louis Kenwood has received a note signed “Babe Ruth,” claiming that the 2004 World Series was fixed and...

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

Hyperpartisanship has gridlocked the American government. Congress’ approval ratings are at record lows, and both Democrats and Republicans are disgusted by the government’s inability to get anything done. In It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,...

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

Acrimony and hyperpartisanship have seeped into every part of the political process. Congress is deadlocked, and its approval ratings are at record lows. America's two main political parties have given up their traditions of compromise, endangering...

Lion of Liberty

Lion of Liberty

Known to generations of Americans for his stirring call to arms, "Give me liberty or give me death," Patrick Henry is all but forgotten today as the first of the Founding Fathers to call for independence, the first to call for revolution, and the...

Losing the Signal

Losing the Signal

In 2009 BlackBerry controlled half of the smartphone market. Today that number is 1 percent. What went so wrong?Losing the Signal is a riveting story of a company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of...

Murder in the High Himalaya

Murder in the High Himalaya

An intrepid journalist's investigation of cold-blooded murder in Chinese-occupied Tibet leads him deep within a lawless world in the land of the snows.In August 2006, two young Tibetan women left their hillside village in Biru County to make their way...

An inspiring memoir of a Pulitzer Prize winner’s triumph over disabilityDespite being a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2008, Philip Schultz could never shake the feeling of being exiled to the “dummy class” in school, where he was largely...

Outrageous Fortunes

Outrageous Fortunes

As individuals, companies, and countries struggle to recover from the economic crisis, many are narrowly focused on forecasts for the next week, month, or quarter. Yet they should be asking what the global economy will look like in the years to...

Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue

With keen inside analysis and great stories drawn from astonishing access to Washington’s key players, Pennsylvania Avenue takes us behind the scenes to show what really happens on the first street in America and how that affects the country.The last...

After one of the most successful IPOs in history, Google set forth on an incredible, audacious new strategy for its future—a vision so bold, large-scale, and controversial, that the company has worked very hard to keep it totally under wraps. Neither...

The world’s largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the gross domestic product of all but twenty-five of the world’s countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost one hundred nations. The world’s largest asset...

Republican Gomorrah

Republican Gomorrah

This is a crackling, spicy, and investigative portrait of the freaky and theocratic fringe elements within the conservative movement who are now calling the shots in the post-Bush GOP—and a roadmap to understanding the politics of personal crisis and...

The 10 Rules of Successful Nations

The 10 Rules of Successful Nations

A pithy guide to real-world economics, abridged from Sharma’s New York Times bestseller The Rise and Fall of Nations.This slim primer distills Sharma’s decades of experience into ten rules for identifying nations that are poised to take off or crash....

The Buried Book

The Buried Book

Etched in the wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform on clay tablets, the Epic of Gilgamesh stands as the earliest classic of world literature. Its earliest surviving fragments date back to the eighteenth century BC, more than 3,700 years ago. In The...

The Cryotron Files

The Cryotron Files

The riveting true story of Dudley Buck―American scientist, government agent, and Cold War hero―whose pioneering work with computer chips placed him firmly in the sights of the KGB.Dr. Dudley Allen Buck was a brilliant young scientist on the cusp of...

The Empire Strikes Out

The Empire Strikes Out

"It's our game…America's game: it has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere—belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly as our Constitution's laws, [and] is just as important in the sum total of our historic...

The Extra is set in a future California where members of a desperate populace sign contracts to participate in reality death films, knowing that less than twenty percent of them will survive. It’s a view of the future—and Hollywood—as delightfully...

The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America

The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America

From modest beginnings as a tea shop, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company became the largest retailer in the world. It was a juggernaut, with nearly sixteen thousand stores. But its explosive growth made it a mortal threat to mom-and-pop grocery...

The Management Myth

The Management Myth

Fresh from Oxford with a degree in philosophy and no particular interest in business, Matthew Stewart might not have seemed a likely candidate to become a consultant. Striking fear into the hearts of clients with his sharp analytical tools, Stewart...

The Much Too Promised Land

The Much Too Promised Land

For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller has played a central role in US efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace. His position as an advisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national security advisors has given him a unique perspective on a...

The Predator State

The Predator State

The cult of the free market—with its dogma of tax cuts, small government, and deregulation—has dominated economic policy talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago, seducing even liberals along the way. But a funny thing happened on...