Spring Hardcovers: Contemporary Affairs

Arcade

A Brief History of the Future (Aug., $26.95) by Jacques Attali predicts what Earth might be like in the coming decades.

Bantam

The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Mar., $26) by Aaron David Miller questions whether the U.S. can actually broker peace. 75,000 first printing. Ad/promo.

Basic Books

Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics (Mar., $26) by Eleanor Clift. The examples of Terri Schiavo and Clift’s own husband illustrate how Americans deal—or fail to deal—with dying. 75,000 first printing. Ad/promo.

Beacon Press

(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: The Decline of the Professional Middle Class (May, $24.95) by Nan Mooney advocates improving government-backed education and health care.

Bloomsbury

All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo (May, $24.95) by Bryan Mealer. The foreign correspondent’s personal experiences illuminate the country’s brutal history.

Broadway Books

A Time to Fight (May, $24.95) by James Webb. The U.S. senator cites ways to reorient our government’s priorities toward people and away from special interests.

Brookings Institution Press

Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy (May, $26.95) by Tamara Cofman Wittes seeks to secure our long-term goals in the Middle East.

Cambridge Univ. Press

Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children (May, $22) by Marci Hamilton assesses the statute of limitation laws pertaining to sexual abuse claims.

Chatham House

(dist. by Brookings Institution Press)

The Gulf Region: A New Hub of Global Financial Power? (July, $39.95), edited by John Nugée and Paola Subacchi, identifies which markets might become global leaders.

Continuum

Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies (Mar., $26.95) by Gregory S. Prince Jr. argues that educational institutions should move from neutrality to engagement with issues.

Putin’s Kremlin: How the West Misinterprets Modern Russia (Aug., $27.95) by Bruno S. Sergi asserts that our views often have little relation to reality.

Cornell Univ. Press

Safety in Numbers: Nurse-to-Patient Ratios and the Future of Health Care (May, $26) by Suzanne Gordon et al. considers arguments for and against mandatory staffing ratios.

Counterpoint

Defeat: Why the Americans and British Lost Iraq (Mar., $26) by Jonathan Steele shines new light on failure in the Middle East.

Sarah Crichton Books

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Mar., $25) by Melody Petersen discloses how corporate salesmanship has triumphed over science.

Crown

Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terror Without Terrorizing Ourselves (Mar., $24.95) by Michael A. Sheehan shows Americans how everything they think they know about terrorism is wrong.

Crown Forum

Failed Grade: The Four Simple Truths That Can Save American Education (Aug., $24.95) by Charles Murray offers a manifesto about what the American education system can and cannot do. 80,000 first printing.

Encounter Books

(dist. by NBN)

The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture (July, $27.95) by Ishmael Jones unravels the blunders and grave mistakes made by the U.S. over the years.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (Mar., $26) by David Hajdu recalls the creativity, irreverence and suspicion of authority demonstrated by comics after WWII.

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making (Mar., $26) by David Rothkopf examines the wealthy and powerful who control just about everything that affects us.

Harvard Univ. Press

Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Mar., $35) by Matthew Connelly marks how affluent countries, foundations and organizations experiment with population control.

Lyons Press

How Can You Defend Those People? (Apr., $24.95) by Mickey Sherman takes apart both the criminal justice system and the big cases spread across the TV screen.

Mcgill–Queen’s Univ. Press

No Easy Fix: Global Responses to Internal Wars and Crimes Against Humanity (May, $29.95) by Patricia Marchak considers whether humanitarian intervention appropriately addresses the issues of societies that have suffered genocide.

McGraw-Hill

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (June, $32.95) by Clayton Christensen et al. presents a new business model to change and improve education.

Metropolitan Books

This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation (July, $24) by Barbara Ehrenreich examines recent socioeconomic developments.

MIT Press

New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication Is Reshaping Social Cohesion (Mar., $24.95) by Rich Ling documents the effects of cellphones and other mobile communication systems.

Multnomah Books

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations (Apr., $16.99) by Alex and Brett Harris challenges teens to rediscover their purpose and potential.

Nation Books

(dist. by Perseus)

The Man Who Brought America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures and Obsessions of Ahmed Chalabi (Mar., $26.95) by Aram Roston probes a controversial figure’s past. 3-city author tour.

National Geographic Books

Peace: The Biography of a Symbol (May, $25) by Ken Kolsbun pays homage to the famous antiwar graphic.

Other Press

Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror (May, $25.95) by Steven Wax. A public defender struggles to rescue two innocent men.

Oxford Univ. Press

Blogwars (Mar., $24.95) by David Perlmutter debates the hype and deflates myths surrounding blogs and their power over political discourse.

Palgrave MacMillan

Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (May, $26.95) by Philippe Sands examines the people and events that led up to the shocking interrogations at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

Pegasus Books

(dist. by W.W. Norton)

Washington’s War: From the American War of Independence to the Iraqi Insurgency (Apr., $24.95) by Michael Rose finds that the insurgents have adopted the same guerrilla techniques used by American revolutionaries. 50,000 first printing. Author tour.

Penguin Press

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives (May, $25.95) by Jim Sheeler pays tribute to the soldiers who have perished in the Iraqi war.

Phaidon Press

The Endless City (Apr., $59.95) by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic focuses on the impact of more than half the world’s population now inhabiting urban areas. Author tour.

Potomac Books

How We Missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan (Apr., $26) by Roy Gutman exposes how the U.S., the U.N. and others misread events leading up to 9/11. A United States Institute of Peace book.

After the Taliban: Nation-Building in Afghanistan (June, $24.95) by Ambassador James F. Dobbins delves into the Bush administration’s post-9/11 foreign policy.

Presidio Press

Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11 (May, $25.95) by Patrick Creed and Rick Newman chronicles the moment-by-moment efforts following the attack.

Princeton Architectural Press

(dist. by Chronicle Books)

The Concrete Dragon: China’s Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World (June, $35) by Thomas J. Campanella discusses rapid urbanization and its global implications.

Princeton Univ. Press

The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Apr., $22.95) by Noah Feldman submits that the establishment of traditional Islamic state law could hold promise for both Muslims and the West.

Prometheus Books

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (June, $25.95) by Maggie Jackson charges that technological advances are limiting our capacity for sustained attention.

Public Affairs

Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Defending Democracy (Apr., $26.95) by Natan Sharansky underscores identity’s power in shaping political interactions.

Putnam

Armageddon in Retrospect... and Other New and Unpublished Writings on War and Peace (Apr., $24.95) by Kurt Vonnegut collects 12 pieces, as well as his last speech and his drawings. 150,000 first printing.

Rodale

Boots on the Ground by Dusk (May, $25.95) by Mary Tillman with Narda Zacchino. The mother of the NFL player-turned-soldier killed by friendly fire shares his story. 100,000 first printing.

Seven Stories Press

(dist. by CBSD)

Rogue Economics (Apr., $24.95) by Loretta Napoleoni unveils paradoxical connections within the new global marketplace.

Stackpole

On the Border (July, $27.95) by David Danelo scrutinizes the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

Red, White, or Yellow? The Military, the Media, and the War in Iraq (Aug., $27.95) by Charles Jones is based on interviews with military officers, administration officials and journalists.

St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne

Letter to a New President: 10 Things Our New Leader Must Do (July, $21.95) by Robert Byrd. One of the longest-tenured senators in our history suggests ways to put the country back on track. 100,000 first printing.

Syracuse Univ. Press

One Family’s Response to Terrorism (Mar., $22.95) by Susan Kerr van de Ven recounts the tragedy that ensued when family members were caught up in Middle Eastern politics.

Twelve

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (Mar., $24.99) by Jennifer 8. Lee blends sociology and history in viewing the Chinese-American experience through the lens of food.

Univ. of Michigan Press

Deployed: How Reservists Bear the Burden of Iraq (May, $24.95) by Michael Musheno and Susan M. Ross presents the stories of army reserve soldiers mobilized after September 11.

This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (May, $24.95) by Jim Rossignol shares an insider’s view of online games and how they change us.

Univ. of Minnesota Press

A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture (Apr., $24.95) by John Hagedorn. Gangs in Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Capetown, South Africa, exemplify how these groups form because of the ravages of globalization.

Univ. of Oklahoma Press

A Letter to America (Mar., $14.95) by David L. Boren. The former senator proposes major reforms to restore our responsible political system.

Viking

The Warrior: A Mother’s Story of a Son at War (Apr., $21.95) by Frances Richey explores a mother’s feelings as her son fights for his country in Iraq. 9-city author tour.

Walker & Company

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Tales from the New City (June, $25.95) by Michael Meyer visits an ancient neighborhood facing destruction due to the city’s modernization. 40,000 first printing.

Wiley

Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Just Go with the Flow (Mar., $25.95) by Jim Hightower maintains that we must fight for our future.

A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (June, $25.95) by Stephen Kinzer profiles Paul Kagame, one of today’s most successful revolutionaries.