From a leading scholar of the ancient world, ATLAS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE offers a stunning illustrated guide to the Roman Empire, exploring every aspect of its rise to power, its dominion over the world, and its eventual fall.
Featuring stunning photographs of weapons, fortifications, portraits, and monuments, author David Potter illuminates the ancient arms race between Rome and its imperial rivals. Comprehensive political maps show the dynamic ebb and flow of conquest and resistance, with battle maps elucidating the tactics that made Rome so successful.
Packed with detail and lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned maps and images, this is the ultimate guide to the world’s most formidable empire.
Order your copy today via the link in bio!
#nonfiction #history #ancient #rome #romanempire #ancienthistory
It's graduation season! These three books from the Basic Books Group make great gifts for the college graduate looking for inspiration and guidance as they embark on their next chapter.
On this day in 1914, one of the greatest boxers of the 20th century, Joe “the Brown Bomber” Louis, was born in LaFayette, Alabama.
Louis held the heavyweight championship from 1937 to 1949, defending it a record 25 times. In 1938, he defeated the German fighter Max Schmeling in “The Battle of the Century” at Yankee Stadium, perhaps the most famous and important boxing match of all time.
However, it was Louis’s service in the fight against the Nazis that transformed him from a patriotic role model into history’s first prominent Black athlete turned activist.
In THE FIGHT FOR HIS LIFE, award-winning sports historians Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts tell the story of Louis’s battles both in and out of the ring. Already world-famous at the outset of World War II, Louis enlisted in the army, serving as a goodwill ambassador and promoting unity across military bases that crackled with racial tension. Yet Louis’s experience with segregation in the army sparked his political awakening. As the war dragged on, he advocated for Black soldiers facing discrimination. Once the war ended, he joined veterans and civil rights activists to fight for voting rights and racial equality.
Expertly revising the life story of one of America’s most iconic Black athletes, Smith and Roberts’s biography celebrates Joe Louis’s forgotten fight against fascism abroad and racism at home.
Order your copy today via the link in bio.
#nonfiction #sports #worldwarII #boxing #joelouis
ATHENS AND SPARTA: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece is available now!
From award-winning historian Adrian Goldsworthy, ATHENS AND SPARTA tells the definitive history between brutal, militaristic Sparta and brash, radically democratic Athens. Side by side, they beat the Persians, the only superpower of that age, yet later, they spread conflict and destruction throughout the eastern Mediterranean, culminating in the horrors of the Peloponnesian War. Goldsworthy narrates their incredible rise to prominence and how they became allies, rivals, and enemies.
“Goldsworthy tells a timely tale of national pride, and he has much to be proud of: Respectful of the somber grandeur of its subject, this book sparkles with wisdom and fury.” - J.E. Lendon, author of Soldiers & Ghosts
A remarkable account of ancient Greece at its height, ATHENS AND SPARTA is the tale of two cities that helped build it—before almost tearing it apart.
Order your copy today at the link in bio!
On this day in 1918, theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman was born in New York City.
A pioneer in quantum mechanics, Feynam worked on the Manhattan Project and assisted the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger disaster. He also was one of the greatest science communicators of the 20th century, delivering lectures on physics to students and lay audiences.
SIX EASY PIECES: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher collects a series of such lectures, delivered at the California Institute of Technology between 1961-1963, that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, SIX EASY PIECES is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of modern times.
“If one book was all that could be passed on to the next generation of scientists it would undoubtedly have to be SIX EASY PIECES.” - John Gribbin, New Scientist
Order your copy today—link in bio!
💐 Looking for a meaningful Mother's Day gift? These nine titles from the Basic Books Group offer something for every mom, covering groundbreaking women in history and modern womanhood, plus guides for new moms.
Save 20% on all featured titles with code MOMDAY20—link in bio.
Code only valid for domestic orders now through May 11, 2026. Not case sensitive, apply code at checkout.
ATLAS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: Battles, Conquests, Legions and Rulers by David Potter is out now!
From a leading scholar of the ancient world, this stunning illustrated guide to the Roman Empire explores every aspect of its rise to power, its dominion over the world, and its eventual fall.
At its peak, the Roman Empire stretched from the borders of Scotland to the shores of the Persian Gulf and boasted a population of 100 million. Founded by Augustus in 31 BCE, and enduring for over four centuries, the empire was helmed by some of the most famous—and notorious—figures in history.
In ATLAS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, Potter provides a comprehensive look at the empire from rise to fall. Featuring stunning photographs of weapons, fortifications, portraits, and monuments, the book illuminates the ancient arms race between Rome and its imperial rivals. Comprehensive political maps show the dynamic ebb and flow of conquest and resistance, with battle maps elucidating the tactics that made Rome so successful. Social history is also woven throughout with intimate portraits of people across the empire, from the emperor himself to subjects in far-flung provinces.
Packed with detail and lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned maps and images, this is the ultimate guide to the world’s most formidable empire.
Order your copy today at the link in bio!
#newbooks #nonfiction #rome #ancienthistory
Happy publication day to AFTER THE FALL: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy, How Politicians Broke Our World!
Renowned political scientist Ian Shapiro provides a searing explanation for the rightward turn of global politics since the end of the Cold War.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ushered in an era of tremendous political optimism: communism was receding and democracy was on the march across the globe. Four decades later, euphoria has given way to resentment and pessimism. Britain left the EU, Donald Trump’s populist crusade gained him the White House not once, but twice, and right-wing parties have gained power across Europe and other parts of the world on a scale not seen since the 1930s.
What happened?
In AFTER THE FALL, Shapiro argues that the current crisis was far from inevitable. Politicians made consistently bad choices on topics ranging from NATO’s future to the War on Terror to humanitarian intervention and the governance of their economies. In doing so, they fostered a crisis of confidence in political institutions, empowered anti-system parties and candidates, and produced a new Cold War as dangerous as the last.
By scrutinizing the roads not taken by politicians in the past, Shapiro maps out what better futures might still be possible.
Order your copy today—link in bio!
#nonfiction #newbooks #politicalscience #history #theory #communism #politics #coldwar #EU
It’s National Space Day! From astronaut stories to NASA missions, radio astronomy, and a history of the stars, these six titles from the Basic Books Group will take you beyond our world. 🌌
Some of the most intractable controversies in our divided society are, at bottom, about what actions and transactions should be banned. Disagreements are fierce because arguments on both sides are often made in uncompromising moral or religious terms.
But in MORAL ECONOMICS, Nobel Prize-winning economist Alvin E. Roth asserts that we can make progress on these and other difficult topics if we view them as markets—tools to help decide who gets what.
Find out the answers to these pressing controversies and so many more on in MORAL ECONOMICS, hitting shelves May 12.
Preorder your copy today and receive 20% off with code MORAL20. Link in bio
Code only valid for domestic orders now through June 12, 2026. Not case sensitive, apply code at checkout.
On this day in 1975, the capital of South Vietnam was captured by the North Vietnamese army. The events of that day would lead to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, the hasty evacuation of thousands of military personnel and civilians, and (ultimately) the formal reunification of the country under communist rule.
Learn about the Fall of Saigon and other turning points in Vietnamese history in Christopher Goscha's magisterial VIETNAM: A New History available in paperback from Basic Books. Get your copy today via the link in bio!
#nonfiction #vietnam #history #government #communism #southvietnam #northvietnam
The great mathematician, logician, and philosophy Kurt Gödel was born on this day in 1906. His famous "incompleteness theorems," published when he was only 25, explored the limits of provability in formal axiomatic theories and remain among the most important intellectual breakthroughs of the 20th century.
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning classic GÖDEL, SCHER, BACH, Douglas R Hofstadter explores the implications of Gödel's theories for human consciousness.
#philosophy #math #mathematics #incompleteness #consciousness #godel #escher #bach #loops #strangeloops #nonfiction #nonfictionbooks #bookstagram
