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Basic Books began in 1950, when founding publisher Arthur Rosenthal purchased a psychoanalytic book club.
From its origins as "the house that Freud built," Basic's list soon expanded into the social sciences, always with an emphasis on serious scholarship that could also appeal to nonacademic readers.
Now, as Basic enters its eighth decade, its talented and close-knit team of editors, publicists, marketers, and designers stands poised to uphold a proud tradition of 70 years of essential reading.
The definitive translation of Plato's Republic, the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato's…
The award-winning, field-defining history of gay life in New York City in the early to mid-20th centuryGay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before…
Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeA metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the…
The definitive edition of the classic, myth-shattering history of the American familyLeave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been…
The foundational text of libertarian thought, named one of the 100 Most Influential Books since World War II (Times Literary Supplement) First published in response…
One of the twentieth century's most influential books, this classic work of anthropology offers a groundbreaking exploration of what culture is With The Interpretation of…
“A classic in the field” (New York Times), this is a penetrating investigation into moral and ethical questions raised by war, drawing on examples from…
This bestselling book examines childhood trauma and the enduring effects of repressed anger and pain. Why are many of the most successful people plagued by…
Design doesn't have to complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics. Even the smartest…
In his classic, bestselling work, the masterful therapist and novelist Irvin Yalom describes his sometimes tragic, sometimes inspiring, and always absorbing encounters with patients In…
The New York Times bestselling account of one of history's most brutal -- and forgotten -- massacres, when the Japanese army destroyed China's capital city…
From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War IThe Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known…
From former UN Ambassador and author of the New York Times bestseller The Education of an Idealist Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book on America's…
"The most brilliant and lucid analysis of virtue and well-being in the entire literature of positive psychology. For the reader who seeks to understand happiness,…
In this classic work of developmental psychology, renowned psychiatrist and the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Happened to You? reveals how trauma affects children—and outlines…
Stokely Carmichael, the charismatic and controversial black activist, stepped onto the pages of history when he called for "Black Power" during a speech one Mississippi…
A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of enslaved peopleWinner of the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the…
Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally…
"A dauntingly ambitious, obsessively researched" (Los Angeles Times) global history of music that reveals how songs have shifted societies and sparked revolutions. Histories of music overwhelmingly…
A Chernobyl survivor and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe "mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system" in this…
One of the world's most creative mathematicians finds the meaning of mathematics in the kitchen in this "whimsical...rigorous and insightful" (New York Times) book What…
The New York Times-bestselling guide to how automation is changing the economy, undermining work, and reshaping our lives Winner of Best Business Book of the…
A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and ColtraneMore than…
