"An engrossing and impossibly wide-ranging project . . . In The Free World, every seat is a good one." —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post
"The Free World sparkles. Fully original, beautifully written . . . One hopes Menand has a sequel in mind. The bar is set very high." —David Oshinsky, The New York Times Book Review | Editors' Choice
One of The New York Times's 100 best books of

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A history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

"The first history of American adulthood, The Prime of Life examines how succeeding generations of Americans dealt with the primary tasks of adulthood: Navigating the passage from youth to maturity, achieving intimacy and connection, raising the next generation, experiencing work's pleasures and pains, and wresting meaning from life's losses and stresses. Highly attentive to class, ethnicity, gender, and race, this book draws upon a wealth of private...

Presents the diary of the sixteen-year-old daughter of a prominent Quaker family who moved with her family from British-occupied Philadelphia for the safety of the countryside during the Revolutionary War. Includes sidebars, activities, and a timeline related to this era.

"Cultural anthropologist and thought leader Grant McCracken proposes a radical solution for our time of unprecedented scandal: a return to honor. What used to be shocking has somehow become the new normal in our politics, workplaces, and universities. Sexual predators stalk interns at work and teenagers abroad. Parents try to buy a place for their kids in college. Pharmaceutical companies refuse to acknowledge the Opioid epidemic they helped create....

"A journalist channels her ice-cream obsession, scouring the United States for the best artisanal brands and delving into the surprising history of ice cream and frozen treats in America. For Amy Ettinger, ice cream is not just a delicious snack but a circumstance and a time of year--frozen forever in memory. As the youngest child and only girl, ice cream embodied unstructured summers, freedom from the tyranny of her classmates, and a comforting escape...

"The Darkest Year is acclaimed author William K. Klingaman's narrative history of the American home front from December 7, 1941 through the end of 1942, a psychological study of the nation under the pressure of total war. For Americans on the home front, the twelve months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor comprised the darkest year of World War Two. Despite government attempts to disguise the magnitude of American losses, it was clear...

"In his hit musical "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda paints Founding Father Alexander Hamilton as the ultimate outsider, the "bastard, orphan, son of a whore," who by sheer grit and smarts achieves political greatness, leaving a permanent mark on the American landscape as the architect of its financial system. In this book Andrew Porwancher argues that the first Secretary of the Treasury and chief author of "The Federalist Papers" was even more of an...