Firefight

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Richard Engel

Richard Engel graduated from Stanford University in 1996. He wanted to be a foreign correspondent and knew that the Middle East would continue to be a hot spot for breaking news, so he moved into a poor Cairo neighborhood and learned “street” Arabic by talking to his neighbors. After a few years reporting for the BBC and other news outlets, he moved to Jerusalem to gain perspective on the other side of the Middle Eastern conflict. By the end of the Gulf War II, he was NBC’s main on-air war correspondent and one of the few American journalists who filed reports from Baghdad for the duration of the war. In A FIST IN THE HORNET’S NEST, Richard Engel examines the anticipation, impact and aftermath of the war from the insider perspective of the Iraqi people who are still living through it. The stories are wide-ranging and gripping: a Christian Iraqi pharmacist whose biggest fear before the war is what Muslim fundamentalists might do to him; a pastry shop owner who is one of several hundred Iraqis who starts a newspaper in his basement after the war; a history professor -- tortured under Saddam’s regime for starting a movie club in his home -- who, after the war, begins building a headquarters for the new political party he founds. Through a chronological journey that begins well before the first American troops arrive, Engel recounts all of these stories with a sense of immediacy that comes from living and interacting with the people. He also provides a critical assessment of the American war strategy and the future of the Gulf Region.

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John Friedman

The odds of being hit by lightning each year are only about 1 in 750,000 in the U.S. And yet this rare phenomenon has inspired both fear and fascination for thousands of years. In this groundbreaking, brilliantly researched book, journalist John S. Friedman probes lightning's scientific, spiritual, and cultural roots. Blending vibrant history with riveting first-hand accounts of those who have clashed with lightning and lived to tell about it, Out of the Blue charts an extraordinary journey across the ages that explores our awe and dread in the face of one of nature's most fearsome spectacles.Herman Melville called it "God's burning finger." The ancient Romans feared it as the wrath of God. Today we have a more scientific understanding, so why our eternal fascination with lightning? Out of the Blue attempts to understand this towering force of nature, exploring the changing perceptions of lightning from the earliest civilizations through Ben Franklin's revolutionary experiments to the hair-raising adventures of storm chasers like David Hoadley, who's been chronicling extreme weather for half a century. And Friedman describes one of the most treacherous rescues ever attempted in American mountain climbing.Friedman profiles a Virginia ranger who was struck by lightning seven times--and dubbed the human lightning rod--along with scores of others who tell astonishing tales of rescue and survival. And he charts lightning's profound, life-altering effects on the emotional and spiritual lives of its victims.Combining captivating fact with thrilling personal stories, Out of the Blue tells a remarkable true tale of fate and coincidence, discovery and divine retribution, science and superstition. As entertaining as it is informative, it is a book for outdoor adventurers, sports enthusiasts, science and weather buffs, nature lovers, and anyone who has ever been awed or frightened by the sight of lightning.From the Hardcover edition.

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Martha Mulvany

Discusses the history of Boxer dogs from the Middle Ages to the present, describing their role as hunters, fighters, and companions, as well as their work for the military in World Wars I and II.

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Ira Berlin

A leading historian offers a sweeping new account of the African American experience over four centuries Four great migrations defined the history of black people in America: the violent removal of Africans to the east coast of North America known as the Middle Passage; the relocation of one million slaves to the interior of the antebellum South; the movement of more than six million blacks to the industrial cities of the north and west a century later; and since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. These epic migra¡tions have made and remade African American life.Ira Berlin's magisterial new account of these passages evokes both the terrible price and the moving triumphs of a people forcibly and then willingly migrating to America. In effect, Berlin rewrites the master narrative of African America, challenging the traditional presentation of a linear path of progress. He finds instead a dynamic of change in which eras of deep rootedness alternate with eras of massive move¡ment, tradition giving way to innovation. The culture of black America is constantly evolving, affected by (and affecting) places as far away from one another as Biloxi, Chicago, Kingston, and Lagos. Certain to gar¡ner widespread media attention, The Making of African America is a bold new account of a long and crucial chapter of American history.