Books like Orphans Preferred by Christopher Corbett

Explores how rapid judgments—‘the blink’—are shaped by experience and environmental cues, showing how we can sharpen intuition to improve decision‑making in work, relationships, and society.

Candide: A Tale of Conviviality and Optimism in a Wretched World

Upton Sinclair’s *The Jungle* exposes the harsh realities of Chicago's stockyards, highlighting the exploitation of immigrants and workers in the early 20th century and sparking reforms such as the Pure Food and Meat Inspection Act.

Eyewitness account of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy, detailing the climbers’ perilous ascent, descent, and the catastrophic events that shaped the deadliest season in the mountain’s history.

Adam Smith’s seminal 1776 treatise that laid the groundwork for modern economic theory, presented here in a reprint of Edwin Cannan’s 1904 edition with a new preface by economist George J. Stigler.

Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography chronicles his rise from a self‑taught youth to a celebrated printer, inventor, diplomat, and statesman, offering insight into his life and the early United States.

Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 National Book Award winner chronicles the harrowing ordeal of the Essex whale ship crew that survived a near-sinking and subsequent harrowing journey on the ocean's surface.

With bold adventure and biographical insight, Candice Millard recounts Theodore Roosevelt’s perilous 1913–14 descent of an uncharted Amazon tributary, exposing the harsh jungle, violent rapids, and personal trials that reshaped a nation’s map.

An engaging blend of river history, Twain’s early steamboat memories, and humorous sketches that inspired his classic "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," offering readers a lively portrait of the Mississippi and its people.

Eddie Chapman, a charismatic con‑man turned double agent, seduced, deceived, and ultimately betrayed both Nazi and British intelligence—revealing the fraught loyalties of wartime espionage.

A gripping 1922 memoir detailing Apsley Cherry‑Garrard’s firsthand experience of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill‑fated 1910‑1913 Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s first‑hand diary of the 1914‑17 Imperial Trans‑Antarctic Expedition, detailing the Endurance’s crushing by ice, the crew’s nine‑month ordeal on drifting ice, and their daring survival against the polar wilderness.

Nathaniel Philbrick's Sea of Glory: A Story of Exploration, Discovery, and the Naming of the New World

A satirical look at the first years of the new millennium, penned by humorist Dave Barry, blending historical notes with his signature wit.

Raphael explains the central purpose of his "people's history" thusly: "By uncovering the stories of farmers, artisans, and laborers, we discern how plain folk helped create a revolution strong enough to evict the British Empire from the thirteen colonies. And by digging deeper still, we learn how people with no political standing -- women, Native Americans, African Americans -- altered the shape of a war conceived by others." After carefully reconstructing the histories of all these groups, he concludes: "The story of our nation's founding, told so often from the perspective of the 'founding fathers,' will never ring true unless it can take some account of the Massachusetts farmers who closed the courts, the poor men and boys who fought the battles, the women who followed the troops, the loyalists who viewed themselves as rebels, the pacifists who refused to sign oaths of allegiance, the Native Americans who struggled for their own independence, the southern slaves who fled to the British, the northern slaves who negotiated their freedom by joining the Continental Army". Raphael's account rings true: these people made the American Revolution. - Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh.

A colorful, illustrated overview of the Pony Express, designed for young readers interested in West Coast history and postal service adventures.

In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world. The Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States.While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award--winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world. From the Hardcover edition.

Elanor Creesy became the first woman navigator on the 1851 maiden voyage of the clipper ship Flying Cloud, steering it from New York to San Francisco in just 89 days—a world‑record‑setting passage that symbolized a young nation's frontier spirit.

Amelia Earhart’s life, from her historic 1928 solo Atlantic flight to the mystery of her 1937 disappearance, is illuminated in a ten‑year research portrait that contextualizes her achievements and enduring legacy.