Manhattan Institute fellows and the books they write are unique in the world of policy research. Sought after by America's most respected opinion makers, media, and publishing houses, our authors move public sentiment and reshape both policy and culture.

The Manhattan Institute's book program has built an unparalleled public policy legacy over three decades long: Charles Murray's Losing Ground (Basic Books, 1984) reframed the dialogue about welfare and led to historic reform-legislation. Peter Huber's Liability (Basic Books, 1988) and Galileo's Revenge (Basic Books, 1991), and Walter Olson's The Litigation Explosion (Dutton, 1991), sparked national debates on civil justice, junk science, and tort reform. Myron Magnet's The Dream and the Nightmare (William Morrow, 1993) was a paradigm-shifting exposé of the 1960s' counterculture and its devastating impact on the underclass. In Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities (Free Press, 1996), George Kelling and Catherine Coles articulated the policing strategies that reduced crime at record rates.

The legacy continues to the present day. Luigi Zingales' A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity (Basic, 2012) was a Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year nominee, and its free market critique of crony capitalism was featured in Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and many other influential publications. Diana Furchgott-Roth's How Green Jobs Policies Are Damaging America's Economy (Encounter, 2012), called to task government's unquestioning support of "green jobs" programs, and penetrated the 2012 presidential campaign in fall television interviews with Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo. Jim Manzi's Uncontrolled: The Surprising Pay-Off of Trial and Error for Business, Policy, and Society (Basic/City Journal, 2012) earned praise from Andrew Sullivan, David Brooks, Yuval Levin, Tyler Cowen, and many more thought leaders, because it used randomized control trials to prove the ineffectiveness of most costly social programs. Former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein penned the foreword to Marcus Winters' Teachers Matter: Rethinking How Public Schools Identify, Reward, and Retain Great Educators (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), which influenced the current conversation on New York City public school teacher evaluations. Winters won praise from Eric Hanushek, among others, for his bold recommendations for inducing excellence from teachers, whose job performance shapes students' performance.

A New York Times bestseller, Ed Glaeser's Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (Penguin Press, 2011) was excerpted in The Atlantic and featured on The Daily Show. Counterintuitive and provocative, it showcased the superior alternative to a liberal-driven city agenda, and proved there is a large audience receptive to the innovative urban policies developed by the Manhattan Institute.

The first author to be published by City Journal's new joint venture with Basic Books, Kay Hymowitz captured the gender zeitgeist in Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys, which was prominently excerpted by the Wall Street Journal on the front page of its review section. Her analysis sparked an international debate in 2011, covered intensely both in the blogosphere and in traditional media such as The Today Show, The Guardian (UK), and The Globe and Mail (Toronto).

On its 2011 list of the top ten "Books That Drive the Debate," the National Chamber Foundation—the think-tank affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—included two Manhattan Institute books: Steve Malanga's Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer (Ivan R. Dee, 2010) and Robert Bryce's Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (PublicAffairs, 2010)..

Our fellows receive valuable institutional support before, during and after publication: original policy research, in-house veteran editorial guidance, and a carefully crafted marketing campaign expanding the breadth and extending the duration of a traditional publishing house's efforts. In cooperation with an author's publisher, we approach influential opinion leaders, e-mail thousands of our supporters, host speaking engagements often covered by C-SPAN, and maintain a book Web site for our authors, as well as facilitate podcasts, op-ed placements, radio and TV bookings, and print and on-line interviews.

At the Manhattan Institute, our fellows receive the attention merited by their originality of thought and professional performance, and the result is evident in the intellectual distinction and enduring success of their books.

Bernadette Serton Book Director

California is at a tipping point, beholden to special interests. Featuring a foreword by William E. Simon, Jr. and essays on California by Heather MacDonald, Steve Malanga, Victor Davis Hanson, Art Laffer, and others, this volume offers invaluable intellectual capital to a state suffering from severe budget deficits, unsustainable pension costs, heavy taxes, cumbersome regulation, struggling cities, and distressed public schools.

Larry Lindsey's original Growth Experiment proved that Ronald Reagan's supply-side tax cuts benefitted all Americans, regardless of income level. This timely update by a former Federal Reserve Board Governor and Bush economic adviser debunks the conventional wisdom about the past four presidents' fiscal records, gravely warns against President Obama's redistributive strategy, and engineers an ascent out of America's deepening economic abyss.

Peter Huber reveals how Washington's outdated regime obstructs patients pursuing cures tailored to their own "wetware," and discourages private sector investment in the development of new wonder drugs. If the U.S. doesn't quickly reconfigure its national healthcare model, molecular medicine's benefits will accrue to countries more hospitable than our own.

For more on these 2012 Books and our entire book list, please visit our Book Catalogue

Turning Intellect Into Influence:
The Manhattan Institute at 25

Nine leading writers and commentators give in-depth assessments of the institute's intellectual achievement over the last quarter century.
Reed Press)

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