Why did George W. Bush invade Iraq? Thomas Powers uses a broad perspective to examine the American tendency to respond to political crises with military force.

Joseph Kerman examines the ongoing vitality of the classical music tradition, and argues that the recent upsurge of interest in opera is proof of an extremely invigorating and healthy art form.

Essential reading and an indispensable reference book for both the interested layman and the scholar of history and religion.

In this essay of literary autobiography, V. S. Naipaul sifts through memories of his childhood in Trinidad, his university days in England, and his earliest attempts at writing, seeking the experiences of life and reading that shaped his imagination and his growth as a writer.

How can intellectuals, who should be alert to the evils of tyranny, betray the ideals of freedom and independent inquiry? How can they take positions that, implicitly or not, endorse oppression and human suffering on a vast scale?

In this acclaimed collection, Larry McMurtry profiles explorers and martyrs, hucksters and scholars—figures in the West's enduring yet ever-shifting mixture of myth and reality.

Dyson profiles scientists—Newton Einstein, Teller, Feynman—whose independent thought allowed them to make great conceptual leaps.

An award-winning investigative journalist evaluates the controversial American and British stratagem for the Iraq war.

Ronald Dworkin analyzes the partisan decisions of the current Supreme Court and argues that Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas have created a conservative alliance bent on rewriting constitutional law, leaving past decisions on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and campaign financing vulnerable to reversal in the next several years.

Flanagan brings what Christopher Cahill calls his "keen eye and strong gaze and sharp tongue" to reassessments of key figures of Irish culture.