Taxi drivers love to talk, and when astrobiologist Charles Cockell is their passenger, they love to talk about aliens. This humorous, insightful collection gathers essays inspired by conversations with cabbies, ranging over the possible nature of alien societies, the inevitability of life, and links between environmentalism and space exploration.

To understand the 2008 financial crisis, Neil Fligstein looks to the business models of the big US banks. He shows how firms got hooked on mortgages-originating them, securitizing them, selling those securities, and even buying the same securities. In time their addiction nearly collapsed the economy.

Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.

Nancy Hill and Alexis Redding contest the accusation that today's young people are coddled and immature. Unearthing studies of college students five decades ago, the authors show that the behaviors now decried as markers of stalled development have long been typical of adolescents. Hill and Redding's advice for adults? Judge less, nurture more.

Human space journeys are awe-inspiring but risky and immensely expensive. Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees argue that science calls for leaving space exploration to AI-guided robots, since robots range more widely and see more than any human can. Humanity's future in space must await decisions based on results from our ever-better machines.

The Greek war for independence (1821-1830) goes missing from the narrative of the Age of Revolutions, yet the overthrow of Ottoman rule was of profound political significance. The Greek Revolution offers short essays detailing the activities, personalities, intellectual underpinnings, and global resonances of a pivotal episode in modern history.

The Mongols are universally known as conquerors, but they were more than that: influential thinkers, politicians, engineers, and merchants. Challenging the view that nomads are peripheral to history, The Horde reveals the complex empire the Mongols built and traces its enduring imprint on politics and society in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Human rights offer a vision of international justice that idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. This book elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage.