What happens inside our prisons? What's Prison For? examines the "incarceration" part of "mass incarceration." What happens inside prisons and jails, where nearly two million Americans are held? Bill Keller, one of America's most accomplished journalists, has spent years immersed in the subject. He argues that the most important role of prisons is preparing incarcerated people to be good neighbors and good citizens when they return to society, as the overwhelming majority will. Keller takes us inside the walls of our prisons, where we meet men and women who have found purpose while in state custody; American corrections officials who have set out to learn from Europe's state-of-the-art prison campuses; a rehab unit within a Pennsylvania prison, dubbed Little Scandinavia, where lifers serve as mentors; a college behind bars in San Quentin; a women's prison that helps imprisoned mothers bond with their children; and Keller's own classroom at Sing Sing. Surprising in its optimism, What's Prison For? is an indispensable guide on how to improve our prison system, and a powerful argument that the status quo is a shameful waste of human potential.

The controversial anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks made headlines around the world when it released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents in 2010. Allowed advance access, The New York Times sorted, searched, and analyzed these secret archives, placed them in context, and played a crucial role in breaking the WikiLeaks story.
Open Secrets is the essential collection of the Times's expert reporting and analysis, as well as the definitive chronicle of the documents' release and the controversy that ensued. An introduction by Times executive editor, Bill Keller, details the paper's cloak-and-dagger relationship with a difficult source. Extended profiles of Assange and Bradley Manning, the Army private suspected of being his source, offer keen insight into the main players. Collected news stories offer a broad and deep view into Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the messy challenges facing American power in Europe, Russia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Also included are editorials by the Times, opinion columns by Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and others, and original essays on what the fracas has revealed about American diplomacy and government security. Open Secrets also contains a fascinating selection of original cables and war logs, offering an unvarnished look at diplomacy in action.

He was a child of royalty, born and raised to defend tradition. But his African name--Rolihlahla, meaning "tree shaker"--hinted at a very different future. Nelson Mandela would spend most of his life shaking his country to its roots. For challenging the cruel system of apartheid, Mandela would be condemned as South Africa's most notorious outlaw and spend more than twenty-seven years in prison. He would emerge to lead a peaceful revolution, becoming the father of a new South Africa and one of the world's most inspiring heroes. The new updated edition of New York Times veteran Bill Keller's moving biography looks back on Mandela's life, offering a clear-eyed view of his legacy and bringing his remarkable story to a new generation of readers.

The acclaimed "New York Times" series on social class in America--and its implications for the way we live our lives
We Americans have long thought of ourselves as unburdened by class distinctions. We have no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life.
In "Class Matters," a team of" New York Times" reporters explores the ways in which class--defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation--influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. We meet individuals in Kentucky and Chicago who have used education to lift themselves out of poverty and others in Virginia and Washington whose lack of education holds them back. We meet an upper-middle-class family in Georgia who moves to a different town every few years, and the newly rich in Nantucket whose mega-mansions have driven out the longstanding residents. And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor's office and at the marriage altar.
For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, "Class Matters" is truly essential reading.
""Class Matters" is a beautifully reported, deeply disturbing, portrait of a society bent out of shape by harsh inequalities. Read it and see how you fit into the problem or--better yet--the solution!"
--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Nickel and Dimed" and "Bait and Switch
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