John Sayles on Henry Ford, Detroit and his new historical novel 'Crucible'

From the first home computers to the smartphone revolution, Steve Jobs was a guiding force in the worldwide electronics industry. His innovations, his obsessions, and even his shortcomings impacted the way we use computers today. To understand Jobs’s life is to understand why the modern information landscape functions the way it does.

Walter Isaacson’s biography is considered to be the definitive work on Steve Jobs’s life. He was given full access to Jobs and those who knew him with no limitations on what he might uncover. The result is an intimate portrait of a man who was thoughtful and callous, insightful and blind, and whose passions left a mark on the world.

This guide gives an overview of Steve Jobs’s life, then explores the themes that emerge from Isaacson’s narrative—Jobs’s knack for innovation and his emphasis on design, coupled with a domineering personality and his will to reshape reality to his liking.

Have you ever felt powerless to impact politics? Like the major decisions are all being made by powerful people far away? You’re not alone—and things haven’t always been this way. In The Power Elite, American sociologist C. Wright Mills discusses how a small group of corporate, military, and political leaders has taken over a vast majority of American political and economic decision-making. This class of power elites are unaccountable to the people, can exercise their power broadly, and have exploited many American institutions for their own benefit.

Writing in 1956, Mills explores how the power elite came into existence after the American Civil War and how they solidified their power in the years after World War II. He also discusses who these elites are, how they operate, and what their rule means for the American people. Our guide to The Power Elite will cover his theories while also providing historical examples, dissenting opinions, and context for the era in which the book was written.

Hailed as this one of this generation’s most innovative entrepreneurs, Elon Musk has built several industry-disrupting businesses, and he’s known for shooting for the moon—or more literally, Mars. Technology journalist Ashlee Vance spent almost 50 hours interviewing Musk and talked to around 300 people close to him to produce this biography, which presents new insights into Musk’s life and businesses.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Musk’s childhood and early companies. Then we’ll talk about his roles in SpaceX and Tesla, and later, in SolarCity. Finally, we’ll discuss the traits and management methods that helped Musk succeed throughout his entrepreneurial career. Along the way, we’ll provide updated information about Musk and his companies, as well as perspectives from other experts on business success and key management strategies.

Former FBI agent Scott Payne infiltrated The Base, a neo-Nazi group planning murders to trigger societal collapse and establish a white ethnostate. In Code Name: Pale Horse, he argues that these “accelerationist” extremists represent America’s most urgent terrorism threat. His account reveals why this evolving threat demands both the sophisticated infiltration techniques and the personal sacrifices that undercover work requires.

Payne details how undercover agents build authentic cover identities, how they document what criminals are saying and planning, and how they prevent violence by enabling prosecutions before attacks occur. His account also reveals the significant costs: psychological trauma, betrayed relationships, and the moral complexity the work demands.

Our guide examines what Payne’s prosecutions reveal about the effectiveness and limitations of undercover work. We also add context on radicalization, deradicalization, and the psychology of undercover work—and further explore how to address the threat Payne documents.

Mass surveillance has become a daily part of life, as corporations and governments around the world openly collect data about who we are and how we live our lives. But has this always been the case? And if not, how did we get here?

In Caste, Isabel Wilkerson argues that the racial tensions in the United States are better explained through the lens of caste, not race—a 400-year-old hierarchy placing white people at the top and Black people at the bottom. Wilkerson examines the different caste systems around the world and how they damage the lives of everyone involved, even those at the top. She believes that to understand how to move forward, we must examine the past and the racial structures that keep progress as a nation at bay.

In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of Wilkerson’s caste theory, the eight tenets of a caste system, how the caste system affects the lives of people in the upper and lower castes, and how we can move away from caste and create a more equitable society. We’ll also compare Wilkerson’s ideas to those of other books on the subject of race, such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.

Widely acclaimed upon its publication in 2017, The Color of Law demonstrates that racial residential segregation—the fact that some neighborhoods are almost exclusively African American while others are almost exclusively white—is the result of explicit government policy rather than personal choice and random chance. From the conclusion of the Civil War through to the present day, federal, state, and local governments have enacted laws to confine African Americans to particular areas and prevent them from moving into others. These policies have had a profound and lasting impact on African Americans, affecting their educational and job opportunities, economic well-being, and physical health.

Conventional accounts of American history tend to focus on the people at the top—presidents, generals, CEOs, and other influential figures and their struggles, ambitions, hopes, and dreams. But what about average people? The ones who had to live with the consequences of elite decisions, and who often struggled in obscurity? In A People’s History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn aims to tell their story, providing a bottom-up view of American history focusing on Indigenous people, Black Americans, women, laborers, and activists.

Our guide outlines Zinn’s interpretation of significant events, themes, and historical trends in American history. Through our commentary, we’ll provide alternative opinions on the motivations behind and consequences of historical events. We’ll also further explain Zinn’s approach to history and provide additional context for his arguments as well as his perspective on events that happened after the book’s publication.

In Caste, Isabel Wilkerson argues that the racial tensions in the United States are better explained through the lens of caste, not race—a 400-year-old hierarchy placing white people at the top and Black people at the bottom. Wilkerson examines the different caste systems around the world and how they damage the lives of everyone involved, even those at the top. She believes that to understand how to move forward, we must examine the past and the racial structures that keep progress as a nation at bay.

In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of Wilkerson’s caste theory, the eight tenets of a caste system, how the caste system affects the lives of people in the upper and lower castes, and how we can move away from caste and create a more equitable society. We’ll also compare Wilkerson’s ideas to those of other books on the subject of race, such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.

In his groundbreaking book Bowling Alone, political scientist Robert D. Putnam argues that the social glue holding the US together—its social capital—is breaking down. Social capital—the value of cohesive relationships and networks—differs from the types of capital that economists study (such as financial and physical resources). Social capital enriches people and communities by enabling mutual trust, support, and communication. But after peaking in the 1950s, the US’s social capital has fallen, even as other forms of capital have risen.

Putnam warns that if the US’s social glue keeps fraying, the collective social systems we rely on could dissolve. In this guide, we’ll explore Putnam’s argument that social capital is vital to society, and we’ll follow as he tries to solve the mystery of what caused its decline in the first place. We’ll look at whether these social trends have continued into the 21st century, examine different views on what causes social change, and see how various organizations use social capital for the betterment of all.

The human race has left a mark on our planet, sometimes through carelessness and sometimes by design, but how permanent are the changes we’ve made? In The World Without Us, science journalist Alan Weisman asks what would happen if the human race vanished overnight. What effects, positive or negative, would our disappearance have on the world? Weisman’s goal is to address humanity’s environmental impact by imagining a world in which nature is allowed to flourish. In many ways, the world that follows us would be significantly different than what came before.

In this guide, we’ll examine Weisman’s portrayal of humanity’s footprint and what Weisman claims would happen if we suddenly disappeared. Also, we’ll look at other views on climate change, nature’s resilience, and the human race’s impact. We’ll list suggestions for how our species might adapt to a greener world, as well as scenarios that might cause our extinction.