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Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store is an independently run bookstore serving the greater Cambridge area. The bookstore is located in Harvard Square and has been family-owned since 1932. We are known for our extraordinary selection of new, used and remaindered books and for a history of innovation. In 2009, we introduced same-day "green delivery" and a book-making robot capable of printing and binding any of millions of titles in minutes. Find out more about us at www.harvard.com.

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Isabel Wilkerson: Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

Tue, Sep 14, 2010

Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson discusses her first book, *The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration*. In *The Warmth of Other Suns*, Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. Having interviewed more than a thousand people and gained access to new data and official records, she recounts how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. Wilkerson captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work.

Civil Rights Movement Series

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Tony Blair: My Political Life

Thu, Sep 16, 2010

Former British prime minister Tony Blair discusses his new political memoir, *A Journey: My Political Life*, in conversation with noted journalist and editor Tina Brown. Tony Blair's emergence as Labour Party leader in 1994 marked a seismic shift in British politics. Within a few short years, he had transformed his party and rallied the country behind him, becoming prime minister in 1997 with the biggest victory in Labour's history, and bringing to an end 18 years of Conservative government. He took Labour to a historic three terms in office as Britain's dominant political figure of the last two decades. *A Journey* is Tony Blair's firsthand account of his years in office and beyond. Here he describes for the first time his role in shaping our recent history, from the aftermath of Princess Diana's death to the war on terror. He reveals the leadership decisions that were necessary to reinvent his party, the relationships with colleagues including Gordon Brown, the grueling negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland, the implementation of the biggest reforms to public services in Britain since 1945, and his relationships with leaders on the world stage--Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush. He analyzes the belief in ethical intervention that led to his decisions to go to war in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, and, most controversially of all, in Iraq. Few British prime ministers have shaped the nation's course as profoundly as Tony Blair, and his achievements and legacy will be debated for years to come.

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Gwynne Dyer: Climate Wars

Thu, Sep 16, 2010

Journalist and historian in war studies Gwynne Dyer explores the cultural and political ramifications of climate change and discusses his new book, *Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats*. Dwindling resources. Massive population shifts. Natural disasters. Spreading epidemics. Drought. Rising sea levels. Plummeting agricultural yields. Crashing economies. Political extremism. These are just some of the expected consequences of runaway climate change in the decades ahead--and any of them could tip the world towards conflict.

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String Theory and the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions

Fri, Sep 17, 2010

Shing-Tung Yau, chair of Harvard's Mathematics department, and science journalist Steve Nadis discuss their new explication of string theory, *The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universes Hidden Dimensions*. String theory says we live in a 10-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. In *The Shape of Inner Space*, Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues that not only is geometry fundamental to string theory, it is also fundamental to the very nature of our universe. Time and again, where Yau has gone, physics has followed. Now for the first time, readers will follow Yau's thinking on where we've been, and where mathematics will take us next.

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Nick Bunker: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World

Wed, May 26, 2010

Journalist and historian Nick Bunker steps into a long-past world with his book, *Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World; A New History*. At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile. Within a decade, despite crisis and catastrophe, they built a thriving settlement at New Plymouth, based on beaver fur, corn, and cattle. In doing so, they laid the foundations for Massachusetts, New England, and a new nation. Using a wealth of new evidence from landscape, archaeology, and hundreds of overlooked or neglected documents, Nick Bunker gives an original account of the Mayflower project and the first decade of the Plymouth Colony. From mercantile London and the rural England of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I to the mountains and rivers of Maine, he weaves a rich narrative that combines religion, politics, money, science, and the sea.

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Kim Severson: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life

Thu, May 27, 2010

Journalist and food writer Kim Severson discusses her new memoir,* Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life*. Somewhere between the lessons her mother taught her as a child and the ones she is now trying to teach her own daughter, Kim Severson stumbled. She lost sight of what mattered, of who she was and who she wanted to be, and of how she wanted to live her life. It took a series of women cooks to reteach her the life lessons she forgot--and some she had never learned in the first place. Some as small as a spoonful, and others so big they saved her life, the best lessons she found were delivered in the kitchen. *Spoon Fed* weaves together the stories of eight important cooks with the lessons they taught her--lessons that seemed to come right when she needed them most. We follow Kim's journey from an awkward adolescent to an adult who channeled her passions into failing relationships, alcohol, and professional ambition, almost losing herself in the process. Finally as Severson finds sobriety and starts a family of her own, we see her mature into a strong, successful woman, as we learn alongside her.

Food and Wellness

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Sebastian Junger: War in Afghanistan

Mon, Jun 7, 2010

Journalist and best-selling author Sebastian Junger discusses his book, *War*, an account of his time with a US Army platoon on the battlefields of Afghanistan. They were collectively known as "The Rock." For one year, in 2007--2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied 30 men--a single platoon--from the storied 2nd battalion of the US Army as they fought their way through a remote valley in eastern Afghanistan. Over the course of five trips, Junger was in more firefights than he could count, as men he knew were killed or wounded and he himself was almost killed. His relationship with these soldiers grew so close that they considered him part of the platoon, and he enjoyed an access and a candidness that few, if any, journalists ever attain. This lecture contains discussion of adult content.

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Laura Eldridge: Contraceptive Choices for Women

Fri, Jun 25, 2010

Womens health writer and activist Laura Eldridge holds a conversation about her new book, *In Our Control: The Complete Guide to Contraceptive Choices for Women*. The efficacy and risks of different birth control options are dramatically different today from what they once were thanks to scientific advances and increased awareness of STDs and other factors. In the most comprehensive book on birth control since the 1970s, Laura Eldridge discusses the history, scientific advances, and practical uses of everything from condoms to the male pill to Plan B. *In Our Control* is a definitive guide to modern contraceptive and sexual health. Eldridge presents her meticulous research and unbiased consideration of women's (and men's) options and goes on to explore large-scale issues that might factor into women's birth control choices, urging her readers to consider the environmental impacts of each method and to take part in a dialogue on how international reproductive health issues affect us all.

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Denial: A Memoir of Terror

Tue, Jul 6, 2010

Terrorism and foreign policy expert Jessica Stern discusses her book, *Denial: A Memoir of Terror*. While the word "terror" is now primarily used in a global context, including in much of Stern′s work, Denial describes the very personal form of terror that she experienced as a young woman and that influenced her life and career in the years to come. Alone in an unlocked house in a safe neighborhood in the suburban town of Concord, Massachusetts, two good, obedient girls, Jessica Stern, 15, and her sister, 14, were raped on the night of October 1, 1973. The girls had just come back from ballet lessons and were doing their homework when a strange man armed with a gun entered their home. Afterward, when they reported the crime, the police were skeptical. The rapist was never caught. For over 30 years, Stern denied the pain and the trauma of the assault. Following the example of her family, Stern—who lost her mother at the age of three, and whose father was a Holocaust survivor—focused on her work instead of her terror. She became a world-class expert on terrorism, a lauded academic and writer who interviewed terrorists around the globe. But while her career took off, her success hinged on her symptoms. After her ordeal she could not feel fear in normally frightening situations.

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What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Mon, Jun 28, 2010

Technology commentator Nicholas Carr explores the psychological impact of the Internet and his new book *The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains*. “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question in an *Atlantic Monthly* cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the bounties of the internet, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Weaving insights from philosophy, neuroscience, and history into a rich narrative, *The Shallows* explains how the internet is rerouting our neural pathways, replacing the subtle mind of the book reader with the distracted mind of the screen watcher.

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