This work abandons the conventional distinctions between history and science. Diamond focuses on what ancient people were endowed with in the way of land, animals and plants, and on the confrontations between less and more advanced people to see how this led to today's inequalities.

Asking questions about human motivation and living and reaching some conclusions, this book aims to be at the heart of things we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us: from parenting to crime, sport to politics, fat to cheating, fear to traffic jams.

The biography of an idea: that many of the problems we face - from teenage delinquency to traffic jams - behave like epidemics and are capable of sudden and dramatic change due to their inherent volatility. The author explores the ramifications of this, offering a way to view the world.

Talks about the mysterious collapse of past civilizations - and what this means for the future. Bringing together evidence from many sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, this book shows how unlike our ancestors we can benefit from our knowledge of the past.

Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices and in everyday life.

Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty level wages. Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them in order to find out how anyone survives on six dollars an hour. So began a gruelling, hair-raising and darkly funny odyssey though the underworld of working America.

Explores the links between Hollywood and the fast food trade, and the tactics used to target ever younger consumers. This title is a meticulously researched account.

Drawing on evidence that includes nearly half a million interviews conducted over 25 years in the US, Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, suburban life, technology, and the roles of women are isolating people from each other in a trend that has its reflection in British society.

Widely considered as the most informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism, this remarkable volume holds its own as one of the most significant books of the twentieth century.

What shall we have for dinner? Should we choose the organic apple or the conventional? If organic, local or imported? Wild fish or farmed? Low-carb or low-cal? We can eat what nature has to offer, but deciding what we should eat stirs anxiety. This work traces the origin of what is consumed and the implications of it for us and our planet.

Most people want more income. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. We have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are. All the evidence shows that on an average, people have grown no happier. It is true of Britain, Japan, and other countries. This book shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives.

What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? And, what can Catherine the Great's lovers tell us about probability? This book shows us how to stop trying to predict everything and take advantage of uncertainty.

Takes a look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. This work puts the English national character under the anthropological microscope, and finds a strange culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. It also discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness.

Argues that the biological understanding of human nature threatens humane values. This book reveals positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism.

It used to be easy to distinguish between the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture, but now the bos are all mixed up and it is impossible to tell an espresso-sipping artist from a cappucino-gulping banker. Read how the Bobos define our age.

Explores both the benefits and disadvantages of the developments in global communication. The author discusses the annoyance and dangers of BlackBerrys in meeting rooms, hands-free kits in conversation, and using a phone or iPod whilst driving.

Thomas S. Kuhn's work explaining the process of scientific discovery. This text is the third edition and incorporates a new index.

Presents a synthesis of the findings in biology and brain science, revealing a fundamental discovery: we are designed for sociability, constantly engaged in a 'neural ballet' that connects us brain-to-brain with those around us. This work explains the surprising accuracy of first impressions, the basis of charisma and emotional power, and more.

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim investigated the enduring source of human social identity and fellowship by studying the simplest form of documented religion, totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. His book about the origin and nature of religion and society continues to enthrall sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians.