David Boyle

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Minnesota

Presents a concise edition of the 1848 treatise on the economic, political, and social conditions of the working class, which served as the platform of the Communist League and subsequent Communist movement. Includes an introduction and an analysis of its impact.

The Communist Manifesto

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Mary Doria Russell

A Novel

A priest named Emilio Sandoz embarks on a quest to demystify God's providence that leads him to question the possibility of faith

Children of God

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Slight frayed edges on cover but otherwise in perfect condition

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The sole survivor of a crew sent to explore a new planet, Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz discovers an alien civilization that raises questions about the very essence of humanity, an encounter that leads Sandoz to a public inquisition and the destruction of his faith. Reader's Guide included. Reissue. 12,500 first printing.

The Sparrow

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Cathy O'Neil

How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Longlisted for the National Book Award New York Times Bestseller A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life -- and threaten to rip apart our social fabric We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives--where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance--are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. But as Cathy O'Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they're wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can't get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), he's then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a "toxic cocktail for democracy." Welcome to the dark side of Big Data. Tracing the arc of a person's life, O'Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These "weapons of math destruction" score teachers and students, sort r sum s, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health. O'Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it's up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change. -- Longlist for National Book Award (Non-Fiction) -- Goodreads, semi-finalist for the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards (Science and Technology) -- Kirkus, Best Books of 2016 -- New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2016 (Non-Fiction) -- The Guardian, Best Books of 2016 -- WBUR's "On Point," Best Books of 2016: Staff Picks -- Boston Globe, Best Books of 2016, Non-Fiction

Weapons of Math Destruction

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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Slight denting on front and back of cover. Otherwise like new condition. 

In the 150 years since the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, the story of race and America has remained a brutally simple one, written on flesh: it is the story of the black body, exploited to create the country's foundational wealth, violently segregated to unite a nation after a civil war, and, today, still disproportionately threatened, locked up and killed in the streets. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can America reckon with its fraught racial history? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer those questions, presented in the form of a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his own awakening to the truth about history and race through a series of revelatory experiences: immersion in nationalist mythology as a child; engagement with history, poetry and love at Howard University; travels to Civil War battlefields and the South Side of Chicago; a journey to France that reorients his sense of the world; and pilgrimages to the homes of mothers whose children's lives have been taken as American plunder. Taken together, these stories map a winding path towards a kind of liberation—a journey from fear and confusion, to a full and honest understanding of the world as it is. Masterfully woven from lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me offers a powerful new framework for understanding America's history and current crisis, and a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Between the World and Me

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Nathan J. Robinson

In this sharp collection of essays from Current Affairs magazine, Nathan J. Robinson systematically demolishes the flimsy intellectual chicanery of contemporary critics of the left. Robinson shows the bankruptcy of conservative ideas and the value of a humane egalitarian alternative.

The Current Affairs Rules for Life

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Claudia Rankine

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

An American Conversation

FINALIST FOR THE 2021 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION

Claudia Rankine'sCitizen changed the conversation--Just Us urges all of us into it

As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history.

Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, even and especially in breaching the silence, guilt, and violence that follow direct addresses of whiteness. Rankine's questions disrupt the false comfort of our culture's liminal and private spaces--the airport, the theater, the dinner party, the voting booth--where neutrality and politeness live on the surface of differing commitments, beliefs, and prejudices as our public and private lives intersect.

This brilliant arrangement of essays, poems, and images includes the voices and rebuttals of others: white men in first class responding to, and with, their white male privilege; a friend's explanation of her infuriating behavior at a play; and women confronting the political currency of dying their hair blond, all running alongside fact-checked notes and commentary that complements Rankine's own text, complicating notions of authority and who gets the last word.

Sometimes wry, often vulnerable, and always prescient,Just Us is Rankine's most intimate work, less interested in being right than in being true, being together.

Just Us

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John Fox

Some marks on cover, but like new inside.

Social Studies

A Mathematical Primer for Social Statistics, Second Edition presents mathematics central to learning and understanding statistical methods beyond the introductory level: the basic "language" of matrices and linear algebra and its visual representation, vector geometry; differential and integral calculus; probability theory; common probability distributions; statistical estimation and inference, including likelihood-based and Bayesian methods. The volume concludes by applying mathematical concepts and operations to a familiar case, linear least-squares regression. The Second Edition pays more attention to visualization, including the elliptical geometry of quadratic forms and its application to statistics. It also covers some new topics, such as an introduction to Markov-Chain Monte Carlo methods, which are important in modern Bayesian statistics. A companion website includes materials that enable readers to use the R statistical computing environment to reproduce and explore computations and visualizations presented in the text. The book is an excellent companion to a "math camp" or a course designed to provide foundational mathematics needed to understand relatively advanced statistical methods.

Jiji K

@jiji704392

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David Boyle

The Communist Manifesto

Mary Doria Russell

Children of God

Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow

Cathy O'Neil

Weapons of Math Destruction

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me

Nathan J. Robinson

The Current Affairs Rules for Life

Claudia Rankine

Just Us

John Fox

A Mathematical Primer for Social Statistics

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David Boyle

The Communist Manifesto

Mary Doria Russell

Children of God

Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow

Cathy O'Neil

Weapons of Math Destruction

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me

Nathan J. Robinson

The Current Affairs Rules for Life

Claudia Rankine

Just Us

John Fox

A Mathematical Primer for Social Statistics

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