It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.

Early successes included Ernest Jones's The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, as well as works by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson.

[2] In 1997, HarperCollins announced that it would merge Basic Books into its trade publishing program, effectively closing the imprint and ending its publishing of serious academic books.

That same year, Basic was purchased by the newly created Perseus Books Group.

[3] Perseus's publishing business was acquired by Hachette Book Group in 2016.