Books like 'Connections'
Readers who enjoyed Connections by James Burke also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical psychological technology politics
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Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the highly acclaimed author of Bandbox and Dewey Defeats Truman–a searing new historical novel about the competing claims of faith, love, and politics during the McCarthy era.Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s: a world of bare-knuckled ideology, hard drinking, and secret dossiers, dominated by such outsized characters as Richard Nixon, Drew Pearson, Perle Mesta, and Joe McCarthy... -
Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest by Peter Huber
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMark Zuckerberg's ‘A Year of Books’ SelectionGeorge Orwell’s bleak visions of the future, one in which citizens are monitored through telescreens by an insidious Big Brother, has haunted our imagination long after the publication of 1984... -
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Annemie de Vries
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsFactfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong... -
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFor those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about.Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios... -
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The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsSpanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function.The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856, where a monk stumbles on the idea of a ‘unit of heredity’... -
Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD by Jason Kander
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From political wunderkind and former army intelligence officer Jason Kander comes a haunting, powerful memoir about impossible choices—and how sometimes walking away from the chance of a lifetime can be the greatest decision of all. “A truly special book... -
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000 by Lee Kuan Yew, Henry Kissinger
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFew gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965... -
An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America...Categorized as:
politics audiobook historical journalism medical mental-illness non-fiction psychological -
You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America by Paul Kix
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom journalist Paul Kix, the riveting story, never before fully told, of the 1963 Birmingham Campaign―ten weeks that would shape the course of the Civil Rights Movement and the future of America.It’s one of the iconic photographs of American A Black teenager, a policeman and his lunging German Shepherd. Birmingham, Alabama, May of 1963... -
Modernity And The Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsEl Holocausto no fue un acontecimiento singular, ni una manifestación terrible pero puntual de un ‘barbarismo’ persistente, fue un fenómeno estrechamente relacionado con las características propias de la modernidad...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century historical male-author non-fiction philosophy postmodernism psychological -
The Real George Washington by Jay A. Parry, Andrew M. Allison
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis is the best-selling classic regularly featured by Glenn Beck to Fox TV viewers! The Real George Washington: The True Story of America s Most Indispensable Man. There is properly no history; only biography, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. If that is true of the general run of mankind, it is particularly true of George Washington. The story of his life is the story of the founding of America... -
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis, Bing West
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratings#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis—the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time—and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine. “A four-star general’s five-star memoir...Categorized as:
politics military non-fiction war audiobook philosophy personal-growth psychological -
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by Francis Fukuyama
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe second volume of the bestselling landmark work on the history of the modern stateWriting in The Wall Street Journal, David Gress called Francis Fukuyama's Origins of Political Order "magisterial in its learning and admirably immodest in its ambition...Categorized as:
politics audiobook historical non-fiction philosophy psychological religion social-commentary -
The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of power... -
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Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche became one of the most influential thinkers of the nineteenth century, whose attempts to unmask the motives that underlie traditional Western religion, morality and philosophy would deeply affect generations of philosophers, psychologists and authors...Categorized as:
politics philosophy classics non-fiction fiction psychological personal-growth historical -
American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy by David Corn
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"[Corn is] a great journalist. I love the way he thinks. I love the way he writes. I'm so glad he's done a super-readable, modern history of the right...We just need smart, digestible history about this stuff right now...[AMERICAN PSYCHOSIS] is perfectly timed...Relevant history for where we are right now...Categorized as:
politics non-fiction audiobook psychological historical historical-fiction fiction book -
The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsFor eighteen years, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith have been part of a team revolutionizing the study of politics by turning conventional wisdom on its head. They start from a single assertion: Leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don’t care about the “national interest”—or even their subjects—unless they have to...Categorized as:
politics 21st-century audiobook historical non-fiction philosophy power psychological -
The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsStrategies of war—and the subtle social game of everyday life—by the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene’s groundbreaking guides, The 48 Laws of Power , The Art of Seduction , and Mastery espouse profound, timeless lessons from the events of history to help readers vanquish an enemy, ensnare an unsuspecting victim, or become the greatest in your field... -
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIf you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science...Categorized as:
politics technology 21st-century audiobook contemporary evolution historical non-fiction -
Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World by Rutger Bregman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsUniversal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today. "A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell."—The New York Times After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need...Categorized as:
politics technology 21st-century audiobook communism contemporary historical journalism -
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratings'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial TimesThe New York Times bestsellerWhat doesn't kill you makes you weakerAlways trust your feelingsLife is a battle between good people and evil peopleThese three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures... -
Sandy Hook by Elizabeth Williamson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBased on hundreds of hours of research, interviews, and access to exclusive sources and materials, Sandy Hook is Elizabeth Williamson’s landmark investigation of the aftermath of a school shooting, the work of Sandy Hook parents who fought to defend themselves, and the truth of their children’s fate against the frenzied distortions of online deniers and conspiracy theorists... -
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century by Louise Perry
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDitching the stuffy hang-ups and benighted sexual traditionalism of the past is an unambiguously positive thing.The sexual revolution has liberated us to enjoy a heady mixture of erotic freedom and personal autonomy.Right? Wrong, argues Louise Perry in her provocative new book...Categorized as:
politics non-fiction feminism psychological philosophy audiobook contemporary social-commentary -
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World by Srdja Popovic, Matthew Miller
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn urgent and accessible handbook for peaceful protesters, activists, and community organizers—anyone trying to defend their rights, hold their government accountable, or change the worldBlueprint for Revolution will teach you how to• make oppression backfire by playing your opponents’ strongest card against them• identify the “almighty pillars of power” in order to shift the balance of control•...Categorized as:
politics non-fiction social-commentary philosophy revolution communism war psychological -
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The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the best-selling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493--an incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow's world... -
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCompulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier’s urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics—the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions... -
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsEinstein was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days, and these character traits drove both his life and his science. In this narrative, Walter Isaacson explains how his mind worked and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered... -
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization by Peter Zeihan
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings2019 was the last great year for the world economy.For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going... -
The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions by Greta Thunberg
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWe still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late... -
Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire by Victor Sebestyen
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJournalist Victor Sebestyen witnessed much of the 1989 fall of the Soviet empire at first hand, and in this book, he reassesses this decisive moment in modern history...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century audiobook cold-war communism historical non-fiction psychological
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