Best selling Reference books from Basic Books
On this page you’ll find a ranking of the best Reference books from Basic Books. To give you a quick overview, we’ve added the most important product details. This page always stays fresh and updates automatically.
1. Basic Books The Drama of the Gifted Child
A psychological study by a Swiss psychoanalyst examines the upbringing of talented children by their often narcissistic and unwittingly hurtful parents.
2. Basic Books The Meaning of it All
Many appreciate Richard P. Feynman's contributions to the physics of the twentieth century, but few recognize how deeply he engaged with the world around him – how profoundly and thoughtfully he considered the religious, political, and social questions of his time. Now, a wonderful book based on a previously unpublished three-part public lecture he gave in 1963 at the University of Washington reveals this other side of Feynman as he discusses the fundamental conflict between science and religion, people's distrust of politicians, and our universal fascination with flying saucers, faith healing, and mental telepathy. Here we see Feynman at his best: almost breaking into a Navajo war chant, then pushing for a revision of the English language (if you want to know why Johnny can't read, just look at the spelling of "friend"); and finally reflecting thoughtfully on the death of his first wife from tuberculosis. This is the essence of Feynman – thoughtful, entertaining, and always enlightening.
3. Basic Books The Discovery Of The Unconscious
This classic work is a monumental, integrated view of humanity's quest for an understanding of the inner realms of the mind. In a report that is both comprehensive and engaging, the esteemed psychiatrist and author illustrates the long developmental chain through exorcists, magnetists, and hypnotists that led to the realization of dynamic psychiatry in the psychological systems of Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung.
4. Basic Books A Thousand Brains
A bestselling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer unveils a theory of intelligence that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI. Despite all the advancements in neuroscience, we have made little progress on the biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain generate intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to create a model of the world – not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer crucial questions about how we perceive the world, why we have self-awareness, and where advanced thinking originates. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a book that inspires big thinking in every way. One of the Financial Times' best books of 2021. One of Bill Gates' five favorite books of 2021.
5. Basic Books Answers for Aristotle
How should we live? According to philosopher and biologist Massimo Pigliucci, the greatest guidance to this essential question lies in combining the wisdom of 24 centuries of philosophy with the latest research from 21st century science. In "Answers for Aristotle," Pigliucci argues that the combination of science and philosophy first pioneered by Aristotle offers us the best possible tool for understanding the world and ourselves. As Aristotle knew, each mode of thought has the power to clarify the other: science provides facts, and philosophy helps us reflect on the values with which to assess them. But over the centuries, the two have become uncoupled, leaving us with questions about morality, love, friendship, justice, and politics that neither field could fully answer on its own. Pigliucci argues that only by rejoining each other can modern science and philosophy reach their full potential, while we harness them to help us reach ours. Pigliucci discusses such essential issues as how to tell right from wrong, the nature of love and friendship, and whether we can really ever know ourselves, all in service of helping us find our path to the best possible life. Combining the two most powerful intellectual traditions in history, "Answers for Aristotle" is a remarkable guide to discovering what really matters and why.
6. Basic Books The Invention of Medicine
Medical thinking and observation were radically changed by the ancient Greeks, one of their great legacies to the world. In the fifth century BCE, a Greek doctor put forward his clinical observations of individual men, women, and children in a collection of case histories known as the Epidemics. Among his working principles was the famous maxim "Do no harm." In The Invention of Medicine, acclaimed historian Robin Lane Fox puts these remarkable works in a wider context and upends our understanding of medical history by establishing that they were written much earlier than previously thought. Lane Fox endorses the ancient Greeks' view that their texts' author, not named, was none other than the father of medicine, the great Hippocrates himself. Lane Fox's argument changes our sense of the development of scientific and rational thinking in Western culture, and he explores the consequences for Greek artists, dramatists, and the first writers of history. Hippocrates emerges as a key figure in the crucial change from an archaic to a classical world.
7. Basic Books Intercourse
Andrea Dworkin, once referred to as the "Malcolm X of feminism," was revered, reviled, criticized, and analyzed – but never ignored. The power of her writing, the passion of her ideals, and the intensity of her intellect have sparked the arguments and commitment of two generations of feminists. Now, the book for which she is best known – in which she provoked the debate that ultimately divided the feminist movement – is being reissued for the young women and men of the twenty-first century.
Intercourse, upon its initial publication in 1987, outraged as many readers as it inspired. In it, Dworkin argues that in a male-dominated society, sexual intercourse between men and women is a central part of women's subordination to men. This argument was quickly – and incorrectly – simplified to "all sexuality is rape," further fueling Dworkin's already radical reputation. In her introduction to this twentieth anniversary edition of Intercourse, Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, discusses the circumstances of Dworkin's early death in the spring of 2005 and the enormous impact of her life and work. Dworkin's argument, she points out, raises the trickiest question of feminism: Can a woman fight against power when it shares her bed?.
8. Basic Books The Futures
In "The Futures," Emily Lambert, senior writer at Forbes magazine, tells us the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, which together comprised the original, most bustling futures market in the world. She details the emergence of the futures business as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers and its subsequent transformation into a sophisticated electronic market where contracts are traded at lightning-fast speeds. Lambert also discusses the disastrous effects of Wall Street’s adoption of the futures contract without the rules and close-knit social bonds that had made trading in Chicago work so well. Ultimately, Lambert argues that the futures markets are the real “free” markets and that speculators, far from being mere parasites, can serve a vital economic and social function given the right architecture. The traditional futures market, she explains, because of its written and cultural limits, can serve as a useful example for how markets ought to work and become a tonic for our current financial ills.
9. Basic Books Unique
Inspired by the abundance of unique personalities available on dating websites, a renowned neuroscientist examines the science of what makes you, you. David J. Linden has devoted his career to understanding the biology common to all humans. A few years ago, he found himself on OkCupid. Looking through that vast catalog of human diversity, he wondered: What makes us all so different? Unique is the riveting answer. Exploring everything from the roots of sexuality, gender, and intelligence to whether we like bitter beer, Linden shows how our individuality results not from a competition of nature versus nurture, but rather from a mélange of genes continually responding to our experiences in the world, beginning in the womb. He also shows why individuality matters, as it is our differences that enable us to live together in groups. Told with Linden’s unusual combination of authority and openness, seriousness of purpose and wit, Unique is the story of how the factors that make us all human can change and interact to make each of us a singular person.
10. Basic Books General Relativity: The Theoretical Minimum
The latest volume in the New York Times bestselling physics series explains Einstein’s masterpiece: the general theory of relativity. He taught us classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and special relativity. Now, physicist Leonard Susskind, assisted by a new collaborator, André Cabannes, returns to tackle Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Starting from the equivalence principle and covering the necessary mathematics of Riemannian spaces and tensor calculus, Susskind and Cabannes explain the link between gravity and geometry. They delve into black holes, establish Einstein field equations, and solve them to describe gravity waves. The authors provide vivid explanations that, to borrow a phrase from Einstein himself, are as simple as possible (but no simpler). An approachable yet rigorous introduction to one of the most important topics in physics, General Relativity is a must-read for anyone who wants a deeper knowledge of the universe’s real structure.
Reference books
CHF44.70
General Relativity: The Theoretical Minimum
English, André Cabannes, Leonard Susskind, 2023
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