SELECTED BY THE ECONOMIST AS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARRemarkable as it may seem today, there once was a time when the president of the United States could pick up the phone and ask the president of General Motors to resign his...

Arthur Herman has now written the definitive sequel to his New York Times bestseller, How the Scots Invented the Modern World, and extends the themes of the book—which sold half a million copies worldwide—back to the ancient Greek...