Since its founding in 1952, Basic Books has shaped public debate by publishing award-winning books in history, science, sociology, psychology, politics, and current affairs. Basic's list of influential authors includes Stephon Alexander, Isaac Asimov, Edward Baptist, H.W. Brands, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Iris Chang, George Church, Niall Ferguson, Richard Feynman, Richard Florida, Martin Ford, Howard Gardner, Victor Davis Hanson, Jonathan Haidt, Judith Herman, Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Hofstadter, Leszek Kolakowski, Kevin Kruse, Lawrence Lessig, Claude Levi-Strauss, Alice Miller, Robert Nozick, Steven Pinker, Samantha Power, Diane Ravitch, Eugene Rogan, Thomas Sowell, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Eric Topol, Sherry Turkle, Timothy Snyder, Nicholas Stargardt, Michael Walzer, George Weigel, Bee Wilson, James Q. Wilson, Richard Wrangham, Irvin Yalom, and Shing-Tung Yau. Basic Books is an imprint of Perseus Books, a Hachette Book Group company.
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About Us
Meet The Editors
Lara Heimert
Publisher
Phone: 212-364-0669
Email: lara.heimert@hbgusa.com
Twitter: @laraheimert
Lara Heimert joined Basic Books in 2005. Previously, she was publisher of the trade division at Yale University Press. She has published numerous prize-winning and New York Times bestselling titles. Highlights include Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told, Eugene Rogan’s The Fall of the Ottomans, John Bradshaw’s Dog Sense and Cat Sense, Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War, Bee Wilson’s Consider the Fork, and Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars. A graduate of Princeton University, Lara acquires primarily in the field of history, broadly conceived—from world wars to marginalia, from culinary history to political theory, from diaspora to doodles.
Thomas Kelleher
Vice President And Editorial Director, Sciences
Phone: 212-364-0657
Email: thomas.kelleher@hbgusa.com
Twitter: @tj_kelleher
Thomas Kelleher joined Basic Books in 2009, and publishes predominantly in science, mathematics, and economics. He has published Eric Topol, Sherry Turkle, Edward Frenkel, Eugenia Cheng, and Leonard Susskind, among many others. Recent highlights include Mark Moffet’s Human Swarm, Stephon Alexander’s The Jazz of Physics, Adam Becker’s What is Real?, Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie’s The Book of Why, and Sabine Hossenfelder’s Lost in Math. He is also responsible for the publishing program surrounding The Feynman Lectures on Physics.
Brian J. Distelberg
Senior Editor
Phone: 212-364-0655
Email: brian.distelberg@hbgusa.com
Twitter: @briandistelberg
Brian J. Distelberg joined Basic Books in 2015 and acquires primarily in history. Books he has edited and published include Edward Watts’s Mortal Republic, Erika Lee’s America for Americans, Sarah Churchwell’s Behold, America, and Christopher Goscha’s Vietnam. His forthcoming titles include books by Roderick Beaton, Paul Thomas Chamberlin, Jefferson Cowie, Philip Dwyer, Walter Johnson, Martha Jones, Martyn Rady, Manisha Sinha, and Michael Willrich. He also publishes a select number of books in law and politics; highlights include Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz’s To End a Presidency, Alisa Roth’s Insane, and Alexandra Natapoff’s Punishment Without Crime. Brian worked previously at Harvard University Press and holds a PhD in US history from Yale University.
Eric Henney
Editor
Phone: 212-364-0569
Email: eric.henney@hbgusa.com
Twitter: @EHerbertHenney
Eric Henney joined Basic Books in 2018 and acquires primarily in the sciences. His list includes books by Jeremy England, Marcia Bjornerud, Skylar Tibbits, Kevin Hand, Kerry Emanuel, Phillip Rogaway, and Susan Schneider. Eric also publishes selectively in the social sciences and has edited and acquired books by Richard Grinker, Matthew Gutmann, and others. Before joining Basic, Eric was the editor for physical, earth, and computer sciences at Princeton University Press.
Connor Guy
Editor
Phone: 212-364-0659
Email: connor.guy@hbgusa.com
Connor Guy joined Basic Books in 2019 and acquires in politics, history, sociology, law, and cultural criticism, among other categories. Previously, he worked at the Metropolitan Books imprint of Henry Holt and Company, where he edited titles by Heidi Waleson, Frederick Crews, Mark Roseman, Matt Stroud, Corey Pein, and Sara Lipton.
Claire Potter
Editor
Phone: 212-364-0656
Email: claire.potter@hbgusa.com
Claire Potter joined Basic Books in 2019 and primarily acquires history, biography, and books about women’s issues. Her forthcoming titles include works by Mo Moulton, Cate Haste, Julie Des Jardins, Lisa Levenstein, and Nicola Tallis. Previously, she was an associate editor at Crown Publishers, where she edited and published books by Katharine Smyth, Norman L. Eisen, Annie Lowrey, Nate Blakeslee, Chris Whipple, Kate Bolick, Miranda Richmond Mouillot, Rebecca Mead, and Jenny Nordberg. She has also worked at the Feminist Press, Guernica, and Words Without Borders, and is currently an editor at American Chordata.
Explore Some of the Best of Basic
The Half Has Never Been Told
A groundbreaking, must-read history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of slavesAmericans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution --…
Dog Sense
A New York Times bestseller, Dog Sense is a must-read for any dog owner or dog-lover who wants to better understand man's best friendDogs have…
The Jazz of Physics
A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and Coltrane More…
Bloodlands
From the bestselling author of On Tyranny, the definitive history of Hitler's and Stalin's wars against the civilians of Europe in World War TwoAmericans call…
Consider the Fork
Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally…
The German War
A groundbreaking history of what drove the Germans to fight -- and keep fighting -- for a lost cause in World War IIIn The German…
Insane
An urgent exposé of the mental health crisis in our courts, jails, and prisonsAmerica has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los…
The Fall of the Ottomans
The thrilling and definitive history of World War I in the Middle EastAn Economist Best Book of the YearBy 1914 the powers of Europe were…
Rise of the Robots
The New York Times-bestselling guide to how automation is changing the economy, undermining work, and reshaping our livesWinner of Best Business Book of the Year…
Coyote America
The New York Times best-selling account of how coyotes--long the target of an extermination policy--spread to every corner of the United States Finalist for the…
Alone Together
A groundbreaking book by one of the most important thinkers of our time shows how technology is warping our social lives and our inner ones…
How to Be a Stoic
In the tradition of How to Live and How Proust Can Change Your Life, a philosopher asks how ancient Stoicism can help us flourish todayWhenever…
Love and Math
An awesome, globe-spanning, and New York Times bestselling journey through the beauty and power of mathematicsWhat if you had to take an art class in…
Quantum Mechanics
From the bestselling author of The Theoretical Minimum, a DIY introduction to the math and science of quantum mechanics.First he taught you classical mechanics. Now,…
Beyond Infinity
A mind-expanding and funny trip to the edge of mathematicsHow big is the universe? How many numbers are there? And is infinity + 1 is…
Jefferson
From an eminent scholar of the American South, the first full-scale biography of Thomas Jefferson since 1970 Not since Merrill Peterson's Thomas Jefferson and the…
Locked In
A groundbreaking reassessment of the American prison system, challenging the widely accepted explanations for our exploding incarceration ratesIn Locked In, John Pfaff argues that the…
The New Education
A leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past--and shows how we can revolutionize it for our era of constant…
Atticus Finch
Who was the real Atticus Finch? A prize-winning historian reveals the man behind the legend The publication of Go Set a Watchman in 2015 forever…
To End a Presidency
The history and future of our democracy's ultimate sanction, presidential impeachment, and a guide to how it should be used now To End a…
Moral Combat
From an esteemed scholar of American religion and sexuality, a sweeping account of the century of religious conflict that produced our culture wars Gay marriage,…
The Language of the Game
Essential reading for soccer fans amid the Women's World Cup in 2019, a lively and lyrical guide to appreciating the drama of soccerSoccer is not…
The Second World Wars
A definitive account of World War II by America's preeminent military historianWorld War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had…
Godel, Escher, Bach
Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeA metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis CarrollDouglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature…