Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today ...

How Economics Explains the World. By Andrew Leigh. Mariner Books; 240 pages; $26. Published in Britain as “The Shortest ...

History and commentary on the events and issues shaping our world.

Michael Castleman is the author of “The Untold History of Books.” It covers everything from cuneiform to Amazon, and it’s ...

As this selection of the best alternate-history novels demonstrates, the world of imagined pasts is rich and potentially endless. The Alteration. By Kingsley Amis. New York Review Books ...