Parent company | Hachette Book Group |
---|---|
Founded | 1950 |
Founder | Arthur Rosenthal |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | New York City |
Official website | www |
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.
History
Basic Books originated as a small Greenwich Village-based book club marketed to psychoanalysts. Arthur Rosenthal took over the book club in 1950, and under his ownership it soon began producing original books, mostly in the behavioral sciences. Early successes included Ernest Jones's The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, as well as works by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson. Irving Kristol joined Basic Books in 1960, and helped Basic to expand into the social sciences. Harper & Row purchased the company in 1969.
In 1997, HarperCollins announced that it would merge Basic Books into its trade publishing program, effectively closing the imprint and ending its publishing of serious academic books. That same year, Basic was purchased by the newly created Perseus Books Group. Perseus's publishing business was acquired by Hachette Book Group in 2016. In 2018, Seal Press became an imprint of Basic.
Authors
Basic's list of authors includes:
- Stephon Alexander
- Robert Alter
- Edward E. Baptist
- H.W. Brands
- Zbigniew Brzezinski
- Iris Chang
- Stephanie Coontz
- Richard Dawkins
- Andrea Dworkin
- Michael Eric Dyson
- Niall Ferguson
- Richard Feynman
- Richard Florida
- Martin Ford
- Howard Gardner
- Jonathan Haidt
- Victor Davis Hanson
- Judith L. Herman
- Christopher Hitchens
- Douglas Hofstadter
- Leszek Kolakowski
- Kevin M. Kruse
- Lawrence Lessig
- Robert Nozick
- Steven Pinker
- Samantha Power
- Eugene Rogan
- Lee Smolin
- Jacob Soll
- Jason Sokol
- Timothy Snyder
- Tamler Sommers
- Thomas Sowell
- Ian Stewart
- Beverly Daniel Tatum
- James Traub
- Sherry Turkle
- Eric Topol
- Michael Walzer
- Elizabeth Warren
- George Weigel
- Steven Weinberg
- Frank Wilczek
- Bee Wilson
- Richard Wrangham
- Irvin D. Yalom
References
- Vitello, Paul (July 8, 2013). "Arthur Rosenthal, Academic Book Publisher, Dies at 93". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
- "Basic Books: 70 Years of Publishing Excellence, 1950–2020" (PDF). Hachette Book Group. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
- Doreen Carvajal (August 22, 1997). "HarperCollins Selling Basic Books Unit to Venture Capital Firm". The New York Times.
- Natasha Onwuemezi, "Perseus sale to Hachette Book Group completed", The Bookseller, 1 April 2016
- "Hachette Book Group Reorganizes Lines, Announces About 25 Layoffs As DiPreta Departs". Publishers Lunch. November 13, 2018. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
- Alexander, Stephon (June 27, 2017). The Jazz of Physics. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465093571. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Alter, Robert (1981). The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00427-X.
- Baptist, Edward (June 27, 2017). The Half Has Never Been Told. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465049660. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Brands, H.W. (February 5, 2019). Dreams of El Dorado. Basic Books. ISBN 9781541672536. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Brzezinski, Zbigniew (June 28, 2017). "Books by Zbigniew Brzezinski". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Chang, Iris (June 27, 2017). The Rape of Nanking. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465068364. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Coontz, Stephanie (June 28, 2017). "Books by Stephanie Coontz". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Dawkins, Richard (June 27, 2017). River Out of Eden. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465069903. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Andrea, Dworkin (June 27, 2017). Intercourse. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465017522. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Dyson, Michael Eric (June 27, 2017). April 4, 1968. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465012862. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Ferguson, Niall (June 27, 2017). Empire. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465023295. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Feynman, Richard (September 2017). "The Featured Feynman". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Florida, Richard (June 28, 2017). "Books by Richard Florida". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Ford, Richard (June 27, 2017). Rise of the Robots. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465097531. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Gardner, Howard (June 27, 2017). Frames of Mind. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465024339. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Haidt, Jonathan (June 27, 2017). The Happiness Hypothesis. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465028023. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Hanson, Victor Davis (September 4, 2018). The Second World Wars. Basic Books. ISBN 9781541674103. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Herman, Judith (June 27, 2017). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465061716. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Hitchens, Christopher (June 27, 2017). Letters to a Young Contrarian. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465030330. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Hofstadter, Douglas (June 27, 2017). Godel, Escher, Bach. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465026562. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Kolakowski, Leszek (June 27, 2017). Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465004997. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Kruse, Kevin (June 27, 2017). One Nation Under God. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465097418. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Lessig, Lawrence (June 27, 2017). Code. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465039142. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Nozick, Robert (June 27, 2017). Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465051007. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Pinker, Steven (June 27, 2017). Words and Rules. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465072705. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Power, Samantha (June 27, 2017). "A Problem from Hell". Basic Books. ISBN 9780465061518. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Rogan, Eugene (June 28, 2017). "Books by Eugene Rogan". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Smolin, Lee (June 27, 2017). Three Roads to Quantum Gravity. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465094547. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- "Jason Sokol".
- Snyder, Timothy. "Bloodlands". Basic Books. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Sommers, Tamler (September 5, 2017). Why Honor Matters. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465098873. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Sowell, Thomas (June 28, 2017). "Books by Thomas Sowell". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Stewart, Ian (June 28, 2017). "Books by Ian Stewart". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Tatum, Beverly Daniel (June 27, 2017). Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465060689. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Traub, James (September 24, 2019). What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present, And Promise of A Noble Idea. Basic Books. ISBN 9781541616851. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
- Turkle, Sherry (June 27, 2017). Alone Together. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465093656. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Topol, Eric (June 27, 2017). "Books by Eric Topol". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Walzer, Michael (June 27, 2017). Just and Unjust Wars. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465052714. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Warren, Elizabeth (June 27, 2017). The Two Income Trap. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465097708. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Weigel, George (June 28, 2017). "Books by George Weigel". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Weinberg, Steven (June 27, 2017). The First Three Minutes. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465024377. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Wilczek, Frank (June 27, 2017). The Lightness of Being. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465018956. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Wilson, Bee (June 28, 2017). "Books by Bee Wilson". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Wrangham, Richard (June 27, 2017). Catching Fire. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465020416. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
- Yalom, Irvin D. (June 27, 2017). "Books by Irvin D. Yalom". Basic Books. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
External links
- Basic Books website
- Perseus Group website (archived February 25, 2017)
- Samuel G. Freedman on the formation of Perseus Books