The First Scientists

No one more completely embodies the notion of the Renaissance Man than Leonardo da Vinci. His lifetime (1452-1519) frames the heart and soul of the Italian Renaissance, one of the most remarkable periods in history. In its sweep, Leonardo's genius touched on nearly every aspect of human endeavor. Yet as Michael White argues in this fascinating and forceful new biography, da Vinci, mythic though his stature, has never been fully appreciated as one of the most remarkable scientific minds not merely of his age but of any age…

A sci-fi horror story, set in New York in 2022 when about 20 million citizens, half of New York's population, are out of work. Voluntary death is encouraged by government clinics and people live on a green food called Soylent. An America plunged into a permanent heat wave, where nature has disappeared. Mostly homeless, its inhabitants are fed only by strange plankton-based biscuits distributed by a sprawling company. In 1973, Richard Fleischer's "Soylent Green", starring Charlton Heston, was the first science-fiction film to evoke a climatic and environmental catastrophe for which man is solely responsible.

Global history records an astonishing variety of forms of social organization. Yet almost universally, males subordinate females. How does the relationship between men and women shape the wider political order? The First Political Order is a groundbreaking demonstration that the persistent and systematic subordination of women underlies all other institutions, with wide-ranging implications for global security and development.