BABASICSIC BOOKSBOOKS FALLFALL 20182018 Renowned publisher of serious nonfiction by leading intellectuals, scholars, and journalists new titles fa ll 2018 new hardcovers 3 highlights 38 meet the editors 46 contact information 48 COVER DESIGN BY ANN KIRCHNER PATTERN ILLUSTRATION BY ASHLEY CASWELL ADAM ZAMOYSKI NAPOLEON A Life hat a novel my life has been!” “ Napoleon once said of himself. W Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by twenty-six, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only thirty-five. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, The definitive biography of in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Napoleon, revealing the true Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and man behind the legend explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski NEW HARDCOVER • OCTOBER dives deeper than any previous biographer to find Biography / History • $40.00 / $45.00 CAN him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets 6 x 9G • 800 pages the man in his European context. Forty-eight color illustrations and thirty-two maps ADAM ZAMOYSKI is the 978-0-465-05593-7 author of numerous books E-BOOK 978-1-5416-4455-7 about Polish and European Selling Territory: USC history, and has written for publications including the Times (London), the Times Literary Supplement, and the Guardian. He lives in London and Poland. basic books 3 YORAM HAZONY THE VIRTUE OF NATIONALISM ationalism is the issue of our age. From Donald Trump’s “America N First” politics to Brexit to the rise of the right in Europe, events have forced a crucial debate: Should we fight for international govern- ment? Or should the world’s nations keep their independence and self-determination? In The Virtue of Nationalism, Yoram Hazony contends that a world of sovereign nations is the only option for those who care about personal and collective freedom. He recounts how, beginning A leading conservative thinker in the sixteenth century, English, Dutch, and argues that a nationalist order is American Protestants revived the Old Testament’s the only realistic safeguard of love of national independence, and shows how liberty in the world today their vision eventually brought freedom to peoples from Poland to India, Israel to Ethiopia. It is this tradition we must restore, he argues, if we want to limit conflict and hate—and allow human difference and innovation to flourish. NEW HARDCOVER • SEPTEMBER Political Science • $28.00 / $36.50 CAN 6 x 9G • 304 pages YORAM HAZONY i s 978-1-5416-4537-0 president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and director of the E-BOOK 978-1-5416-4538-7 John Templeton Foundation’s Selling Territory: W project in Jewish Philosophical Theology. His books include The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel’s Soul and The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture. He lives in Jerusalem. basic books 4 MARK W. MOFFETT THE HUMAN SWARM How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall f a chimpanzee ventures into the territory of a different group, it will almost certainly I be killed. But a New Yorker can fly to Los Angeles—or Borneo—with very little fear. Psychologists have done little to explain this: for years, they have held that our biology puts a hard upper limit—about 150 people—on the size of our social groups. But human societies are in fact vastly larger. How do we manage, by and large, to get along with each other? In this paradigm-shattering book, biologist Mark W. Moffett draws on findings in psychology, The epic story of how humans sociology, and anthropology to explain the social evolved from intimate chimp adaptations that bind societies. He explores how communities into a world- the tension between identity and anonymity dominating species defines how societies develop, function, and fail. In the vein of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, The Human Swarm reveals how mankind created sprawling civilizations of unrivaled complexity— NEW HARDCOVER • FEBRUARY and what it will take to sustain them. Science/Anthropology • $32.00 / $42.00 CAN 6 x 9G • 384 pages MARK W. MOFFETT, called Twenty-four black-and-white illustrations “a daring eco-adventurer” by 978-0-465-05568-5 Margaret Atwood, is a biologist E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1729-2 and research associate at the Selling Territory: W Smithsonian. He has also Author photo © Lara Heimert authored four books. A resident of New York, he has been a regular guest on The Colbert Report, Conan, NPR’s Fresh Air, and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in New York City. basic books 5 JOHN HOLL DRINK BEER, THINK BEER Getting to the Bottom of Every Pint ight here, right now is the best time in the history of mankind to be a beer R drinker. America now has more brew- eries than at any time since prohibition, and globally, beer culture is thriving and constantly innovating. Drinkers can order beer brewed with local yeast or infused with moondust. However, beer drinkers are also faced with uneven quality and misinformation about flavors. And the industry itself is suffering from growing pains, beset by problems such as unequal access to taps, From an award-winning journalist skewed pricing, and sexism. and beer expert, a thoughtful Drawing on history, economics, and inter- and witty guide to understanding views with industry insiders, John Holl provides and enjoying beer a complete guide to beer today, allowing readers to think critically about the best beverage in the world. Full of entertaining anecdotes and surprising opinions, Drink Beer, Think Beer is a must-read for beer lovers, from casual enthusiasts NEW HARDCOVER • SEPTEMBER Cooking • $26.00 / $34.00 CAN to die-hard hop heads. 5½ x 8G • 288 pages 978-0-465-09551-3 JOHN HOLL is senior editor of Craft Beer and Brewing E-BOOK 978-0-465-09553-7 Magazine and the former editor Selling Territory: W of All About Beer Magazine. He’s Author photo © Tim Ivy cohost of the Steal This Beer podcast, author of The American Craft Beer Cookbook and a Great American Beer Festival judge. Holl lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. basic books 6 RICHARD BROOKHISER JOHN MARSHALL The Man Who Made the Supreme Court n 1801, a genial and brilliant Revolutionary War veteran and politician became the I fourth chief justice of the United States. He would hold the post for thirty-four years (still a record), expounding the Constitution he loved. Before he joined the Court, it was the weakling of the federal government, lacking in dignity and clout. After he died, it could never be ignored again. Through three decades of dramatic cases involving businessmen, scoundrels, Native Americans, and slaves, Marshall defended the federal government against unruly states, established the Supreme Court’s right to rebuke The life of John Marshall, Congress or the president, and unleashed the founding father and America’s power of American commerce. For better and preeminent chief justice for worse, he made the Supreme Court a pillar of American life. In John Marshall, award-winning biographer Richard Brookhiser vividly chronicles America’s NEW HARDCOVER • NOVEMBER greatest judge and the world he made. Biography / History • $30.00 / $39.00 CAN 6 x 9G • 272 pages RICHARD BROOKHISER Thirty black-and-white illustrations is a senior editor of National 978-0-465-09622-0 Review and the author of twelve E-BOOK 978-0-465-09623-7 books, including Founder’s Selling Territory: W Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln; Author photo © Lara Heimert Alexander Hamilton; American; and Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. He lives in New York City. basic books 7 JAMES BARR LORDS OF THE DESERT The Battle Between the United States and Great Britain for Supremacy in the Modern Middle East e usually assume that Arab nation- alism brought about the end of W the British Empire in the Middle East—that Gamal Abdel Nasser and other Arab leaders led popular uprisings against colonial rule that forced the overstretched British from the region. In Lords of the Desert, historian James Barr draws on newly declassified archives to argue instead that the US was the driving force behind the British exit. Though the two nations were An authoritative history of allies, they found themselves at odds over just how the US supplanted about every question, from who owned Saudi Great Britain as the preeminent Arabia’s oil to who should control the Suez power in the Middle East Canal. Encouraging and exploiting widespread opposition to the British, the US intrigued its way to power—ultimately becoming as resented as the British had been. As Barr shows, it is impossible to understand the region today without first NEW HARDCOVER • SEPTEMBER History • $32.00 / $42.00 CAN grappling with this little-known prehistory. 6 x 9G • 432 pages Twenty black-and-white illustrations JAMES BARR is a visiting 978-0-465-05063-5 fellow at King’s College London and the author of A Line in the E-BOOK 978-1-5416-1740-7 Sand and Setting the Desert on Selling Territory: USC Fire. He lives in London. Author photo © Jaime Turner basic books 8 GEOFFREY WAWRO SONS OF FREEDOM The Forgotten American Soldiers who Defeated Germany in World War I he American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the T twentieth century, and yet it has all but vanished from view.