NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

Raw, gritty, rich, and captivating, the stories in this book will astonish you. High Seas Wranglers presents real scenes from the lives of some of Florida's best-known commercial and charter fishing captains. Through Terry Howard's interviews, Captains Tristram Colket, A. J. Brown, Ray Perez, Glenn Cameron, and George Kaul tell true stories about hunting swordfish, kingfish, sharks, tuna, and billfish. They describe falling overboard alone many miles offshore, riding out deadly storms, navigating angry east coast inlets, orchestrating dangerous rescues at sea, struggling to land huge fish, playing pranks on other captains, and how they ended up living the lives that some only dream of. These fishermen have long been a part of the maritime life and culture of Florida, but today their livelihood is challenged and their industry fading. In this book, you'll hear in their own words the reasons they've chosen a life away from land, as well as their opinions about drift nets and falling fish populations. Their firsthand accounts of commercial handline mackerel fishing, commercial longline swordfish and shark fishing, and the growth of charter fishing on Florida’s eastern seaboard provide insights into a fascinating world. Gutsy fishing exploits like the ones in High Seas Wranglers are usually passed down through storytelling alone. This book preserves a thrilling history that would otherwise be lost.

This reference traces the region's 400-year recorded hurricane history, from Jamestown to the present, drawing on accounts in newspaper articles, books, private journals, and interviews. Emphasizing the human side of a hurricane's aftermath rather than scientific aspects, each hurricane account tells how individuals and communities reacted to the storms. Storms are profiled in year-by-year entries from the 1600's to the current century.

Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education Despite being immensely popular—and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Now with a new afterword by Bryan Caplan, this explosive book argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As only to forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for average workers, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense—The Case against Education points the way.