Harvard Book Store Channel |
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December 17, 2020
Katie Mack and Kim Stanley Robinson
present The End of Everything and The Ministry for the Future -
November 5, 2020
What Just Happened: Writers Discuss the Post-Election Moment
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October 23, 2020
Deborah Willis, John Stauffer, and Sarah Lewis
discuss To Make Their Own Way in the World with Ilisa Barbash -
October 19, 2020
Claire Messud and André Aciman
present Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write and Find Me -
September 28, 2020
Felton Earls and Mary Carlson
discuss Voice, Choice, and Action with Alex Kotlowitz -
August 22, 2020
Bookstore Romance Day Panel
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July 31, 2020
Alexander Keyssar
discusses Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? with Miles Rapoport -
July 30, 2020
Sara Faith Alterman
discusses Let's Never Talk About This Again with Meredith Goldstein -
July 24, 2020
Adrian Tomine
discusses The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist with Leanne Shapton -
July 12, 2020
Where Do We Go From Here: A Fundraiser for Black Lives
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June 8, 2020
Megha Majumdar and Sue Monk Kidd
discuss A Burning and The Book of Longings with Jordan Pavlin -
May 27, 2020
Heather Cox Richardson
discusses How the South Won the Civil War with Lindsay M. Chervinsky -
November 27, 2018
David A. Kaplan
presents The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution -
October 19, 2018
Jabari Asim
discusses We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival with Adrian Walker -
October 1, 2018
Sarah Smarsh
presents Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth -
September 13, 2018
Soraya Chemaly
discusses Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger with Jaclyn Friedman -
August 15, 2018
Roy Scranton
discusses We're Doomed. Now What? Essays on War and Climate Change with Andrew Bacevich -
June 11, 2018
Howard Bryant
presents The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism -
February 26, 2018
Fifty Years Since MLK
with Brandon M. Terry, Tommie Shelby, Elizabeth Hinton, and Cornel West -
November 14, 2017
Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič
discuss Incontinence of the Void and What IS Sex? with Mladen Dolar -
October 27, 2017
Worldwide Week with Transition Magazine
featuring Phanuel Antwi, David Chariandy, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Moses Kilolo, Danielle Legros Georges, Enzo Silon Surin, and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma -
September 7, 2017
Vanessa Grigoriadis
discusses Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus -
March 22, 2017
Chris Hayes
discusses a Colony in a Nation with Jabari Asim, Frank Rudy Cooper, and Anthony Brooks -
February 22, 2017
Yuval Noah Harari
discusses Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow with Michael Sandel -
February 17, 2017
James R. Valcourt
discusses Systematic: How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine -
February 6, 2017
Gender and Color in Comics
A panel discussion featuring Mildred Louis, John Jennings, and Joel Christian Gill -
January 29, 2017
Melissa Fleming
discusses A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, & Survival -
January 9, 2017
Keramet Reiter
discusses 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement -
October 26, 2016
Sara Goldrick-Rab
discusses Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream -
October 24, 2016
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
discusses Growing Each Other Up: When Our Children Become Our Teachers -
August 29, 2016
An Evening with Pangyrus
Boston's new journal of literature, perspective, arts, and politics -
May 20, 2016
Malcolm K. Sparrow
discusses Handcuffed: What Holds Policing Back, and the Keys to Reform -
April 8, 2016
Thomas Frank
discusses Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? -
February 19, 2016
Hillary L. Chute
discusses Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form -
January 29, 2016
Roberto G. Gonzales
discusses Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America -
December 9, 2015
An Evening of Poetry with Boston Review
featuring Mary Jo Bang, Lucie Brock-Broido, Stephen Burt, and Major Jackson -
October 8, 2015
Roberta Kaplan
discusses Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA with Eric Lander -
September 18, 2015
Daniel Geary and Benjamin Hedin
discuss today's civil rights movement with Eugene Rivers -
June 19, 2015
City by City
featuring Stephen Squibb and contributors Greg Afinogenov, Dan Albert, and Annie Wyman -
June 16, 2015
The Nation’s First 150 Years
featuring Katrina vanden Heuvel, D.D. Guttenplan, and Chloe Maxmin -
March 24, 2015
Barney Frank
discusses Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage -
September 3, 2014
George Marshall
discusses Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change -
May 2, 2014
The Opposite of Loneliness
Essays and stories by Marina Keegan presented by Anne Fadiman, Ratna Gill, and Luke Vargas -
September 28, 2012
Steven Johnson
discusses Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age -
September 28, 2012
Natalie Hopkinson
discusses Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City -
September 21, 2012
Daniel Kantstroom
discusses Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora -
October 18, 2011
Ron Suskind
discusses Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President -
March 4, 2011
Maya Jasanoff
discusses Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
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December 20, 2013
Don’t Watch This If You Are a Bookseller’s Cousin or Mom
What is our discerning staff giving for the holidays? -
September 22, 2011
Minimum Paige: A Harvard Book Store Comic Anthology
A project this heroic could only be accomplished by the most dynamic of duos. -
September 16, 2011
Lucy the Wonder-Pup Picks the Booker
Can this adorable puppy predict the winner of the Man Booker Prize? -
January 21, 2011
HBTV Presents: Jurassic Books
A short film that ponders the possibilities of a large scale book printing robot... -
January 14, 2011
HBTV Is On The Air!
Cambridge's only local, fictional television station that's based out of an independent book store. -
September 8, 2010
Carole
recommends Wrestling with Moses and The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don’t Want to Know
by Cass R. SunsteinPrice $27.95Hardcover
In Stock
Cass R. Sunstein
Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes renowned legal scholar CASS R. SUNSTEIN—the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and author of The Cost-Benefit Revolution—for a discussion of his latest book, Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don't Want to Know.
How much information is too much? Do we need to know how many calories are in the giant vat of popcorn that we bought on our way into the movie theater? Do we want to know if we are genetically predisposed to a certain disease? Can we do anything useful with next week's weather forecast for Paris if we are not in Paris? In Too Much Information, Cass Sunstein examines the effects of information on our lives. Policymakers emphasize “the right to know,” but Sunstein takes a different perspective, arguing that the focus should be on human well-being and what information contributes to it. Government should require companies, employers, hospitals, and others to disclose information not because of a general “right to know” but when the information in question would significantly improve people's lives.
Sunstein argues that the information on warnings and mandatory labels is often confusing or irrelevant, yielding no benefit. He finds that people avoid information if they think it will make them sad (and seek information they think will make them happy). Our information avoidance and information seeking is notably heterogeneous—some of us do want to know the popcorn calorie count, others do not. Of course, says Sunstein, we are better off with stop signs, warnings on prescriptions drugs, and reminders about payment due dates. But sometimes less is more. What we need is more clarity about what information is actually doing or achieving.
Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He was the recipient of the 2018 Holberg Prize, one of the largest annual international research prizes awarded to scholars who have made outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social science, law, or theology. He is the author of The Cost-Benefit Revolution, How Change Happens (both published by the MIT Press), Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler), and other books.