Helen Plum Library

Get the Summary of Thomas Piketty's “A Brief History of Equality” in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: It is easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem than Thomas Piketty. Now, in this surprising and powerful new work, Piketty reminds us that the...

Get the Summary of Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World in the World in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade,...

Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic--first...

Get the Summary of Matt Ridley's “The Rational Optimist” in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa...

Gary King is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University. His books include A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem (Princeton). Robert O. Keohane is professor emeritus of international affairs at Princeton University. His books include After Hegemony (Princeton). Sidney Verba (1932–2019) was the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor Emeritus and research professor of government at Harvard. His books include...

It has been our nature as humans to be curious since birth, eager to learn, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of everything. There may be differences in our clothing styles and food preferences, but there are some things we all share in common. In our minds, this is the question we all ask regarding the creation of the universe. As a result of our desire to uncover when and how things all began, we are likewise curious about the exact moment...

Émile Durkheim is often referred to as the father of sociology. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber he was a principal architect of modern social science and whose contribution helped established it as an academic discipline. "The Division of Labor in Society", published in 1893, was his first major contribution to the field and arguably one his most important. In this work Durkheim discusses the construction of social order in modern societies, which...

The most popularly read, adapted, anthologized, and incorporated primer on sociology ever written for modern readers   Acclaimed scholar and sociologist Peter L. Berger lays the groundwork for a clear understanding of sociology in his straightforward introduction to the field, much loved by students, professors, and general readers. Berger aligns sociology in the humanist tradition-revealing its relationship to the humanities and philosophy-and establishes...

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall is a landmark novel that explores themes of love, identity, and societal prejudice against homosexuality in early 20th-century England. The story follows the life of Stephen Gordon, a young woman who grapples with her sexual orientation and struggles to find acceptance in a society that condemns her desires. From a young age, Stephen senses that she is different from other girls, feeling a deep attraction towards...

Louges book, Exposed: Battered Women Shelters, is a tell-all book of what really happens to the women and children inside these places, revealing nasty secrets: The kidnapped boy the shelter didnt report to the police; the measles epidemic that went on for over a year without being reported; counselors taking children away from their mothers; aiding and abetting illegal aliens; children living with registered child molesters; discrimination against...