America is in trouble. We face four major challenges on which our future depends, and we are failing to meet them—and if we delay any longer, soon it will be too late for us to pass along the American dream to future generations.
In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, offer both a wake-up call and a call to collective

...

Why is it that some of the greatest works of literature have been produced by writers in the grip of alcohism, an addiction that cost them personal happiness and caused harm to those who loved them?In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol through the work and lives of six extraordinary men: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. All...

An engaging study of the nerd in American popular culture and throughout history discussed in such contexts as the rise of online gaming, the science fiction club, ethnicity, Asperger's syndrome, autism, and high school and college debating.

James Beard Award-winning food journalist Kevin Alexander traces an exhilarating golden age in American dining. Over the past decade, Kevin Alexander saw American dining turned on its head. Starting in 2006, the food world underwent a transformation as the established gatekeepers of American culinary creativity in New York City and the Bay Area were forced to contend with Portland, Oregon. Its new, no-holds-barred, casual fine-dining style became...

"As we struggle to keep up in a knowledge economy that never sleeps, we arm ourselves with life hacks, to-do lists, and an inbox-zero mentality, grasping at anything that will help us work faster, push harder, and produce more. There's just one problem: most of these solutions are making things worse. Creativity isn't produced on an assembly line, and endless hustle is ruining our mental and physical health while subtracting from our creative performance....

"The founder of global baby brand aden + anais reveals how she built a $100 million business from her kitchen table. Raegan Moya-Jones never thought of herself as an entrepreneur. She was a wife, a mother, and a full-time corporate cog in her thirties. But she was sick and tired of her micromanaging boss, so she quietly started a company in the wee hours of the morning while her daughters were asleep. She finally quit her 9-5 when her side hustle,...

"Change is no stranger to us in the twenty-first century. All of us must constantly adjust to an evolving world, to transformation and innovation. But for many thousands of creative artists, a torrent of recent changes has made it all but impossible to earn a living. A persistent economic recession, social shifts, and technological change have combined to put our artists--from graphic designers to indie-rock musicians, from architects to booksellers--out...

"An epic tale of invention, in which ordinary people's lives are changed forever by a quest to engineer a radically new kind of car. In 2007, science-fiction enthusiast Peter Diamandis announced he would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that traveled 100 miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than 300 teams from all over the world, including dozens of amateurs. This book...

"En Escuelas creativas, Ken Robinson desarrolla las ideas de su famosa charla TED "Cómo la escuela mata la creatividad" y presenta soluciones innovadoras y revolucionarias para uno de los problemas más relevantes de nuestra sociedad: cómo transformar un sistema educativo que no funciona. En una época en la que los procesos de evaluación se estandarizan, las escuelas pasan por momentos difíciles y tanto estudiantes como educadores sufren una...