"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions...

New York. Ames Billiards, with high ceilings and air of hushed concentration, is a church of pool. "Fast" Eddie Felson enters as an innocent con man and leaves with a taste of what the world can do, that talent alone will only get him so far, and that a man's search for "character," that hard-to-define quality that is simultaneously elusive and essential, could last a lifetime. Having come to take on pool legend Minnesota Fats, Eddie is soundly beaten...

A poor African-American family make the best of things in the Chicago housing projects.

You have been predicted -- by companies, governments, law enforcement, hospitals, and universities. Their computers say, "I knew you were going to do that!" These institutions are seizing upon the power to predict whether you're going to click, buy, lie, or die. Why? For good reason: predicting human behavior combats financial risk, fortifies healthcare, conquers spam, toughens crime fighting, and boosts sales. How? Prediction is powered by the world's...