Russell Shorto's Books

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

By: Russell Shorto

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Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

By: Russell Shorto

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.

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272

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393245594

ISBN 13

9780393245592

The Island at the Center of the World

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

By: Russell Shorto

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The Island at the Center of the World

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

By: Russell Shorto

In a riveting, groundbreaking narrative, Russell Shorto tells the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colony which pre-dated the Pilgrims and established ideals of tolerance and individual rights that shaped American history. "Astonishing . . . A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past." --The New York Times When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Russell Shorto draws on this remarkable archive in The Island at the Center of the World, which has been hailed by The New York Times as “a book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past.” The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.

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Page Count

418

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400078679

ISBN 13

9781400078677

Saints and Madmen

How Pioneering Psychiatrists Are Creating a New Science of the Soul

By: Russell Shorto

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Saints and Madmen

How Pioneering Psychiatrists Are Creating a New Science of the Soul

By: Russell Shorto

Psychiatry, once famously opposed to religion, has done an about-face. Like the legendary explorers of a century ago, some psychiatrists have set off into what they see as the last frontier: the spiritual self. In this moving and impeccably researched narrative, Russell Shorto tells remarkable stories of people suffering from what once were deemed spiritual afflictions, then came to be seen as purely medical disorders, and now are being treated as both. In the process, Shorto brings to bear issues from the cutting edge of consciousness studies. He explores the shared territory of psychosis and mysticism; the changing meaning of "self," "soul," "mind," and "brain"; the theory that psychotropic drugs have a spiritual dimension; the meaning of religious terrorism; and the possibility that addiction and depression are spiritual conditions. In weaving his case studies into a single story, Shorto delivers a concise update on the science of the mind and the newest efforts to probe the deepest meaning of human existence.

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272

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0805059016

ISBN 13

9780805059014

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

By: Russell Shorto

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Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

By: Russell Shorto

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272

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W. W. Norton & Company

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ISBN 10

0393245594

ISBN 13

9780393245592

Gospel Truth

On the Trail of the Historical Jesus

By: Russell Shorto

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Gospel Truth

On the Trail of the Historical Jesus

By: Russell Shorto

Russell Shorto meticulously investigates Christian history and the Bible’s New Testament to reveal the true, historical Jesus Christ. For roughly two thousand years, the world has known only the biblical depiction of Jesus: the virgin birth, miraculous life, and resurrection. Recently, scholars have pursued the historical Jesus Christ by poring through texts, examining ancient documents, and even holding votes. They make a fresh attempt to answer some of history’s greatest questions: Who was he? Where did he live? What did he think? And was the Bible’s account true? In Gospel Truth, bestselling author Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World) brings a journalist’s eye to the life of Jesus Christ. Shorto looks into the Jesus Seminar, where historians seek and analyze evidence of the world’s most famous carpenter’s son. He compiles their research and ideas to create a composite biographical portrait of Yeshu, a man of ordinary beginnings who changed the world in extraordinary ways. A skillfully compiled biblical interpretation, Shorto shows “a Jesus stripped of the unhistorical” (Library Journal). The result will fascinate believers and nonbelievers alike.

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Page Count

364

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453265929

ISBN 13

9781453265925

Saints and Madmen

How Science Got Religion

By: Russell Shorto

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Saints and Madmen

How Science Got Religion

By: Russell Shorto

From the New York Times–bestselling author: “Each chapter . . . offers a window on a different intersection of psychiatry and spirituality” (New Age). In Saints and Madmen, bestselling author Russell Shorto explains how modern science is beginning to reconcile centuries of religious experiences with current psychiatric theories. Psychotic patients sometimes believe they’re developing mystical powers, speaking to animals or conversing with God during their episodes. As one patient said, psychosis can be life’s greatest joy, and also its worst hell. Traditional psychiatry has approached the existence of these occurrences as a treatable medical problem, a case of unbalanced chemicals in the brain. But could it be more? In Saints and Madmen, Shorto writes about the scientists who reject the Freudian view of religious experience as narrow-minded, and shows us how their findings could change how we understand our own minds and spirits.

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Page Count

315

Publisher

Open Road Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1453265910

ISBN 13

9781453265918

Amsterdam

A History of the World's Most Liberal City

By: Russell Shorto

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Amsterdam

A History of the World's Most Liberal City

By: Russell Shorto

An endlessly entertaining portrait of the city of Amsterdam and the ideas that make it unique, by the author of the acclaimed Island at the Center of the World Tourists know Amsterdam as a picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals; student travelers know it for its legal brothels and hash bars; art lovers know it for Rembrandt's glorious portraits. But the deeper history of Amsterdam, what makes it one of the most fascinating places on earth, is bound up in its unique geography-the constant battle of its citizens to keep the sea at bay and the democratic philosophy that this enduring struggle fostered. Amsterdam is the font of liberalism, in both its senses. Tolerance for free thinking and free love make it a place where, in the words of one of its mayors, "craziness is a value." But the city also fostered the deeper meaning of liberalism, one that profoundly influenced America: political and economic freedom. Amsterdam was home not only to religious dissidents and radical thinkers but to the world's first great global corporation. In this effortlessly erudite account, Russell Shorto traces the idiosyncratic evolution of Amsterdam, showing how such disparate elements as herring anatomy, naked Anabaptists parading through the streets, and an intimate gathering in a sixteenth-century wine-tasting room had a profound effect on Dutch-and world-history. Weaving in his own experiences of his adopted home, Shorto provides an ever-surprising, intellectually engaging story of Amsterdam.

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Page Count

378

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385534582

ISBN 13

9780385534581

Descartes' Bones

A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

By: Russell Shorto

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Descartes' Bones

A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

By: Russell Shorto

Sixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters. But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy, and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day. A New York Times Notable Book

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307275663

ISBN 13

9780307275660

The Island at the Center of the World

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

By: Russell Shorto

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The Island at the Center of the World

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

By: Russell Shorto

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418

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400078679

ISBN 13

9781400078677

So How's the Family?

And Other Essays

By: Arlie Russell Hochschild

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So How's the Family?

And Other Essays

By: Arlie Russell Hochschild

In this new collection of thirteen essays, Arlie Russell Hochschild—author of the groundbreaking exploration of emotional labor, The Managed Heart and The Outsourced Self—focuses squarely on the impact of social forces on the emotional side of intimate life. From the "work" it takes to keep personal life personal, put feeling into work, and empathize with others; to the cultural "blur" between market and home; the effect of a social class gap on family wellbeing; and the movement of care workers around the globe, Hochschild raises deep questions about the modern age. In an eponymous essay, she even points towards a possible future in which a person asking "How’s the family?" hears the proud answer, "Couldn’t be better.

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Page Count

265

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520956788

ISBN 13

9780520956780

Weighing the World

The Reverend John Michell of Thornhill

By: Russell McCormmach

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Weighing the World

The Reverend John Michell of Thornhill

By: Russell McCormmach

The book about John Michell (1724-93) has two parts. The first and longest part is biographical, an account of Michell’s home setting (Nottinghamshire in England), the clerical world in which he grew up (Church of England), the university (Cambridge) where he studied and taught, and the scientific activities he made the center of his life. The second part is a complete edition of his known letters. Half of his letters have not been previously published; the other half are brought together in one place for the first time. The letters touch on all aspects of his career, and because they are in his words, they help bring the subject to life. His publications were not many, a slim book on magnets and magnetism, one paper on geology, two papers on astronomy, and a few brief papers on other topics, but they were enough to leave a mark on several sciences. He has been called a geologist, an astronomer, and a physicist, which he was, though we best remember him as a natural philosopher, as one who investigated physical nature broadly. His scientific contribution is not easy to summarize. Arguably he had the broadest competence of any British natural philosopher of the eighteenth century: equally skilled in experiment and observation, mathematical theory, and instruments, his field of inquiry was the universe. From the structure of the heavens through the structure of the Earth to the forces of the elementary particles of matter, he carried out original and far-reaching researches on the workings of nature.

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Page Count

495

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

9400720211

ISBN 13

9789400720213

Descartes' Bones

A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

By: Russell Shorto

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Descartes' Bones

A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason

By: Russell Shorto

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Vintage

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307275663

ISBN 13

9780307275660

Careers for People who Like People

Interviews

By: Russell Shorto,RUSSELL. SHORTO

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Careers for People who Like People

Interviews

By: Russell Shorto,RUSSELL. SHORTO

People working in a wide range of careers, including a day care worker, flight attendant, and hotel manager, describe the daily routine, benefits, and drawbacks of their jobs and the education and training they received.

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ISBN 10

1562941577

ISBN 13

9781562941574

Book's by Russell Shorto

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

The Island at the Center of the World

The Island at the Center of the World

Saints and Madmen

Saints and Madmen

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

Gospel Truth

Gospel Truth

Saints and Madmen

Saints and Madmen

Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Descartes' Bones

Descartes' Bones

The Island at the Center of the World

The Island at the Center of the World

So How's the Family?

So How's the Family?

Weighing the World

Weighing the World

Descartes' Bones

Descartes' Bones

Careers for People who Like People

Careers for People who Like People

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