Basic Books

11/21/2025

"Summer of Fire and Blood," by Lyndal Roper, is a Financial Times 2025 Best Book in History!

Read more, and see the whole list:

Frederick Studemann selects his must-read titles

11/20/2025

“Engaging and uncondescending.”

PROOF, by epidemiologist and mathematician Adam Kucharsky, is a Financial Times Best Book of 2025!

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Simon Kuper and Anjana Ahuja select their must-read titles

11/20/2025

"Easterly's commitment to liberal ideas is powerful."

VIOLENT SAVIORS, by renowned economist William Easterly, is a Financial Times Best Book of 2025 in Economics!

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Martin Wolf selects his must-read titles

11/19/2025

Listen to Inger Kuin talk about her new book, "DIOGENES: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic," on the Daily Stoic. Find it here, or wherever you get your podcasts:

Diogenes wasn’t a Stoic… but without him, the Stoics don’t exist. His life was so bold, so uncompromising, and so brutally honest that it reshaped the entire philosophical world the Stoics inherited. In today’s episode, Ryan sits down with classicist Inger Kuin to unpack the wild and brillia...

11/18/2025

"A compelling and fascinating account of Cicero's role in the [Roman] Republic's collapse and its lessons for our time."

"Lawless Republic," by Josiah Osgood, is a Bloomberg Best Book of 2025!

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Our annual list of what powerful people across the globe found essential reading this year.

11/18/2025

"More Everything Forever," Adam Becker's rivetting exposé of the powerful and sinister ideas that dominate Silicon Valley, is a Kirkus Best Book of 2025!

John McMurtrie highlights some standout titles on our list of the year’s best nonfiction.

11/18/2025

"No one can communicate complex maths to non-mathematicians better than Du Sautoy."

"Blueprints" by Marcus Du Sautoy is a 2025 Financial Times Best Book in Science!

Pilita Clark, Clive Cookson and John Thornhill select their must-read titles

11/14/2025

"Vivid and authoritative... [an] intriguing portrait of a gifted, self-absorbed, exuberant, and intuitive man." Read what The New York Times is saying about "CRICK: A Mind in Motion," Matthew Cobb's new, definitive biography of the man who co-discovered DNA.

Read it here:

In “Crick: A Mind in Motion,” the British biologist Matthew Cobb provides a biography both vivid and authoritative.

11/14/2025

A huge congratulations to Basic Books author Cathy N. Davidson, WINNER of the 2025 McGraw Prize in Higher Education!

Her book, “THE NEW EDUCATION: How To Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux,” is now available in paperback.

11/14/2025

A huge congratulations to Basic Books author Cathy N. Davidson, WINNER of the 2025 McGraw Prize in Higher Education!

Read here about her incredible career:

Cathy N. Davidson has spent her career reimagining higher education for a rapidly changing world.

11/13/2025

A book of "bitter wisdom" -- Michael Dirda reviews Robin Waterfield's new translation of The Peloponnesian War for the Washington Post.

Read it here: https://wapo.st/3JCaTrQ

Robin Waterfield’s new translation of Thucydides’ “The History of the Peloponnesian War” offers clarity but little consolation as we face upheaval and conflict.

11/11/2025

Happy publication day to "DIOGENES: The Rebellious Life and Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic," a new intellectual biography of the ancient Greek thinker who inspired Stoicism, by Inger N. I. Kuin!

Available now: https://bit.ly/4n2Wtyq