Nonfiction Reviews
FEBRUARY 2, 2026 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 97
How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn’t) Joseph S. Moore . Harper Business, $32 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-346458-2 “Getting ahead has never been easier than it is today,” contends historian and investor Moore ( Founding Sins ) in this sweeping history of financial advice in the U.S. Moore takes readers through case studies of financial success and failure, debunking commonly held beliefs and extrapolating lessons that can be applied now. Demonstrating that “the story of a cash-only, debt free, rugged-individualist America is entirely fictional,” he describes how Benjamin Franklin got his start in the printing business by going thoroughly into debt. Elsewhere, he demonstrates that supposedly new phenomena have historical precedents. Women, for example, have always been active investors; Abigail Adams, wife of the second U.S. president, began buying government bonds after the American Revolution and ultimately achieved a lifetime annualized return of 18%, almost equaling that of billionaire Warren Buffett. Moore’s historical survey, as well as stories of his own financial downfalls and hard-won tri- umphs, set the stage for a concise and practical concluding section featuring seven ideas that have failed historically and 25 that have, generally, succeeded. Among the refreshingly unequivocal advice on offer: “Never cosign a loan... ever!” and “Marriage matters, a lot. Make yours work.” Readers seeking a time-tested approach to financial well-being will find plenty to bank on here. (Apr.) Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class Noam Scheiber. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $32 (384p) ISBN 978-0-374-61081-4 This insightful investigation from New York Times reporter Scheiber ( The Escape Artists ) examines how a radical new cohort of young, college-educated workers at major American corpora- tions powered a wave of unionizations and strikes in recent years. The “dismal
these gripes escalated into violence, as in the case of a man arrested for threatening to kill BLM protestors in response to rumors that “antifa soldiers” were coming to town. It amounts to a captivating, unsettling up-close look at America’s increasingly vicious partisan split. (Apr.) When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine Francesca Albanese, trans. from the Italian by Gregory Conti. Other Press, $28.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-63542-603-8 ★ ❘ “I am writing these words at a strange moment in my life: I have just been sanctioned by the United States.... for the absurd ‘crime’ of allegedly working with the International Criminal Court,” begins this incisive, heart-wrenching account from UN special rapporteur Albanese ( Palestinian Refugees in International Law ). The author spotlights the “unspeakable suffering” of the Palestinians and examines fraught questions around the Israeli occupation through close looks at 10 individuals who have shaped her thinking. They include slain five-year- old Hind Rajab; trauma expert Gabor Maté; Abu Hassan, a Palestinian acquaintance who took Albanese on an “alternative tour” of Jerusalem, including areas where “children had to crawl through sewage pipes to go to school because of the obstacles put in place by the Israelis”; and the author’s own husband, who used to accompany West Bank Palestinians in their daily activities in order to shield them from settler violence. Along the way, Albanese delves into complicated debates surrounding Israel-Palestine, such as whether to call the system of government apartheid; incorporates her own observations from living in Jerusalem, including a distressing encounter when an Israeli man told a Palestinian friend, “You don’t exist”; and draws on harrowing remote interviews she conducted with Gazan children in 2022. The result is an indispensable, at times deeply sickening, overview of the situation on the ground in Palestine. (Apr.)
economy” during and after the Great Recession led to many college gradu- ates taking low-wage jobs in retail and customer service, or working for years for low pay within their profes- sion. This widening “gap... between the expectations of many graduates and their actual prospects” fueled an upswing in labor activism. Scheiber tracks workers preparing to unionize at an Apple store in Towson, Md., and a Chicago Starbucks, along the way spotlighting other labor disputes and developments, such as the Writers Guild of America’s 2023 strike and the United Auto Workers’ election of president Shawn Fain by an insurgent collective of “fed-up autoworkers and... graduate students.” Scheiber mixes nitty-gritty contract fights with poignant profiles of workers like Apple employee Chaya Barrett, who was “radicalized” by CEO Tim Cook’s astro- nomical $750 million stock windfall (“I’m working my butt off for not even a full percent of what you just sold”), as well as glimpses of corporations’ anti-union intimidation efforts, such as Starbucks establishing new benefits and wage increases only for non-union workers. It’s a galvanizing look at a stymied white-collar generation with the “politics... of the proletariat.” (Apr.) Just One More Game: A Pickleball Quest Clare Frank . Abrams, $18 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4197-8286-2 Retired firefighter Frank ( Burnt ) examines the allure of pickleball in this sweet if underwhelming account of why she and millions of other Americans are obsessed with the sport. After joining a friend at a community center pickleball game in 2021, Frank was immediately hooked. Here, she traces its origins to Bainbridge Island in 1965 and describes attending pickleball camp, tournaments, and the country’s first PickleCon. At each stop, she asks seasoned players why the non-volley zone is called “the kitchen”— a recurring question that promises intrigue but goes unanswered. At the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Fla., Frank, alongside
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