音楽がもたらしたコンピューターの発明

An examination of one of life's great mysteries — why does music move us so powerfully — written by a neuroscientist and musician who manages to explain both brain science and music theory with engaging clarity and insight. 

A magisterial survey of 20th-century music and the cultural impact of composers that stretched the boundaries of what the human ear perceives as music.

A riveting account of the craze for automatons that swept through European culture in the late 1700s, including the famous chess-playing automaton that turned out to be a hoax.

The classic treatise on the role of play in human culture, written during the rise of fascism in the late 1930s. My own approach is more historical than Huizinga, but his broad sociological approach to play deeply shaped my ideas on the subject.

Everything you thought you knew about America's favorite board game is wrong. Mary Pilon reveals the secret history of the woman who actually invented Monopoly as a vehicle for championing progressive tax reform. 

A sweeping look at the social history of chess, from its influence on military strategy, to class identity in the Middle Ages, to twentieth-century neuroscience and artificial intelligence. 

A lyrical and mesmerizing account of the spice trade, which created the first true global marketplace, and laid the groundwork for the amazingly multi-cultural palate most of us enjoy today