Politics & Current Affairs

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Sohrab Ahmari and Nasser Weddady

"During the Arab Spring, the world saw a long-suppressed group in the Middle East--young people--assert itself and demand its rights. But youthful dissent did not appear overnight; for decades it has been simmering beneath the surface in countries from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, from Iran to Egypt. In Arab Spring Dreams, a number of young Middle Easterners describe their experiences with the region's laws and cultural mores, including the crime of holding hands before marriage, discrimination and harassment over religious beliefs, and young women fighting for the right to complete their educations. They also discuss how previous uprisings, particularly the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, might be channeled to effect change in their own countries. Beautifully written and profoundly moving, these stories present a decisive call for change at a crucial point in the evolution of the Middle East"--

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Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D

Updated with information on the effects of the U.S. presence in Iraq.There is perhaps no other place in the world fraught with as much turmoil as the Middle East. This updated guide provides readers with an intense look at current events and the ever-changing political and social landscape in this dynamic part of the world, as well as the history—ancient and modern—of the region.-Very strong sales for the first two editions-The go-to book on the subject for readers on all sides of the issue-This book has a nationwide appeal for anyone wishing to bring themselves up-to-date on the conflict and its consequences for the United States and the rest of the world-Covers recent events, including the death of Arafat and the Iraqi elections, with expanded information about terrorism in the region

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Jeremy Paxman

Jeremy Paxman knows every maneouvre a politician will make to avoid answering a difficult question, but here he seeks an answer to just one: What makes politicians tick? Embarking on a journey in which he encounters movers and shakers past and present, he discovers:that Prime Ministers have often lost a parent in childhoodwhy Trollope is the politician's novelist of choicethat Lloyd George once hunted Jack the Ripperhow an Admiral's speech in parliament helped win WWII Where do politicians come from? How do they get elected? What do they do all day? And why do they seek power? All these questions and many more are addressed in Paxman's thrilling dissection of that strange and elusive breed – the political animal.

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Stephen Law

Wacky and ridiculous belief systems abound. Members of the Heaven's Gate suicide cult believed they were taking a ride to heaven on board a UFO. Muslim suicide bombers expect to be greeted after death by 72 heavenly virgins. And many fundamentalist Christians insist the entire universe is just 6,000 years old. Of course it's not only cults and religions that promote bizarre beliefs. Significant numbers of people believe that aliens built the pyramids, that the Holocaust never happened, and that the World Trade Center was brought down by the US government. How do such ridiculous views succeed in entrenching themselves in the minds of sane, intelligent, college-educated people and turn them into the willing slaves of claptrap? How, in particular, do the true believers manage to convince themselves that they are the rational, reasonable ones and that everyone else is deluded? Believing Bullshit identifies eight key mechanisms that can transform a set of ideas into a psychological flytrap. Philosopher Stephen Law suggests that, like the black holes of outer space, from which nothing, not even light, can escape, our contemporary cultural landscape contains numerous intellectual black-holes--belief systems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can similarly find themselves drawn in. While such self-sealing bubbles of belief will most easily trap the gullible or poorly educated, even the most intelligent and educated of us are potentially vulnerable....

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Betty Smith [

A collection of True Ghost Stories: hauntings, apparitions and supernatural happenings within the country, by one of Warwickshire's most popular writers.

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[by] Patrick Vinton Kirch

In How Chiefs Became Kings, PKirch addresses a central problem in anthropological archaeology: the emergence of "archaic states" whose distinctive feature was divine kingship. Kirch takes as his focus the Hawaiian archipelago, commonly regarded as the archetype of a complex chiefdom. Integrating anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, traditional history, and theory, and drawing on significant contributions from his own four decades of research, Kirch argues that Hawaiian polities had become states before the time of Captain Cook's voyage (1778-1779). The status of most archaic states is inferred from the archaeological record. But Kirch shows that because Hawai'i's kingdoms were established relatively recently, they could be observed and recorded by Cook and other European voyagers. Substantive and provocative, this book makes a major contribution to the literature of precontact Hawai'i and illuminates Hawai'i's importance in the global theory and literature about divine, kingship, archaic states, and sociopolitical evolution. --Jacket.

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Svetlana Satchkova

"In this gripping tale of contemporary Russia, a young filmmaker and her friends run afoul of a government that ruthlessly oppresses artists who dare to satirize the regime ... When Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie with her friends, it seems like a promising start to a career in indie film. Little does she know that her jokey lo-fi satire will soon attract the attention of the autocratic censors at the highest levels of the Russian police state. What follows is a propulsive narrative of an artist being crushed by state power, and the choices that one makes within a system where free expression is literally illegal. Written with the undeniable voice of a emigre from Putin's Russia, The Undead is a tense, piercing story that serves as a parable, and a warning, about political oppression"--

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David McCullough

History Matters is a celebrated work by David McCullough (Double Pulitzer Winner, Double National Book Award Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Erik Larson

Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson is an acclaimed literary masterpiece celebrating major critical honors and timeless storytelling.

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Yuval Noah Harari

From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

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Yuval Noah Harari

Animal Liberation Now is a celebrated work by Yuval Noah Harari (Global Phenomenon), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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David Grann

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed ashore on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager. But six months later, another vessel landed in Chile with three survivors who claimed the first men were not heroes, but violent mutineers.

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Orisanmi Burton

>*Tip of the Spear* centers Black revolutionary warfare and warriors seeking to explain them and their conflict as they experienced a form of prison authority meant for extrapolation to us all. - Jared A. Ball

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Ralph Klein

Mit dieser Veröffentlichung wird eine Lücke der neueren Wittener Stadtgeschichte geschlossen. Sie dokumentiert umfassend die Ausbeutung Tausender Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Zwangsarbeiter in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus durch Industrie, Bergbau, Transportwirtschaft, Handel, Bauwesen, Handwerk, Landwirtschaft, öffentliche Einrichtungen und Privathaushalte in Witten. Buchstäblich die gesamte Stadtgesellschaft profitierte von ihrer Arbeit. Es wird deutlich, wie tief einige Wittener Industriebetriebe in den nationalsozialistischen Vernichtungskrieg eingebunden waren. Nach dem Krieg wurde dies verschwiegen – wenn überhaupt, erzählte man von „plündernden Ausländerhorden“, die nach ihrer Befreiung die Stadt heimgesucht hätten. Seit 1993 erinnert ein Denkmal auf dem ehemaligen jüdischen Friedhof der Gemeinde Witten-Annen an 395 Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Zwangsarbeiter, die zwischen 1939 und 1945 in Witten starben. Die Gesamtzahl der verstorbenen Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Zwangsarbeiter war jedoch deutlich höher. Nur ein einziger Wittener, der Unternehmer Paul Pleiger aus dem Hammertal, wurde für seine Verbrechen in diesem Zusammenhang zur Rechenschaft gezogen.

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Andrew Roberts

Privacy in the Republic is a celebrated work by Andrew Roberts (Wolfson History Prize), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Jan M. Ziolkoski

"In this two-part anthology, Jan M. Ziolkowski builds on themes uncovered in his earlier The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity. Here he focuses particularly on the performing arts. Part one contextualises Our Lady's Tumbler, a French poem of the late 1230s, by comparing it with episodes in the Bible and miracles in a wide variety of medieval European sources. It relates this material to analogues and folklore across the ages from, among others, Persian, Jewish and Hungarian cultures. Part two scrutinizes the reception and impact of the poem with reference to modern European and American literature, including works by the Nobel prize-winner Anatole France, professor-poet Katharine Lee Bates, philosopher-historian Henry Adams and poet W.H. Auden. This innovative collection of sources introduces readers to many previously untranslated texts, and invites them to explore the journey of Our Lady's Tumbler across both sides of the Atlantic. Reading the Juggler of Notre Dame: Medieval Miracles and Modern Remakings will benefit scholars and students alike. The short introductions and numerous annotations shed light on unusual beliefs and practices of the past, making the readings accessible to anyone with an interest in the arts and an openness to the Middle Ages."--Publisher's website.

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Antony Beevor

Russia is a celebrated work by Antony Beevor (Wolfson History Prize, Hawthornden Prize), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Yuval Noah Harari

Unstoppable Us, Volume 1 is a celebrated work by Yuval Noah Harari (Global Phenomenon), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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James M. McPherson

A Very Civil War is a celebrated work by James M. McPherson (Pulitzer Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Andrew Roberts

George III is a celebrated work by Andrew Roberts (Wolfson History Prize), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Manfred Gailus

"Woran glaubten die 65 Millionen Deutschen im Dritten Reich? Welche Rolle spielte die »religiöse Frage« für Bestand und Stabilität des NS-Regimes? Wie dieses Buch zeigt, war die Hitlerzeit nicht, wie bisher weithin angenommen, von Säkularisierungsprozessen oder sogar von »Gottlosigkeit« bestimmt, sondern vielmehr von multiplen religiösen Erneuerungen geprägt. Bereits das politische Umbruchsjahr 1933 war von einem tiefgehenden »religious revival« begleitet. Eine uns heute paradox anmutende Gemengelage von christlichen Traditionsbeständen und einem völkisch-politischen Neuglaube spielte eine wesentliche Rolle im Nationalsozialismus"-- Back cover.

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Between Two Millstones, Book 2 is a celebrated work by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Laureate), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Andrew Roberts

Idols of the Odeons is a celebrated work by Andrew Roberts (Wolfson History Prize), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

The latest installment of the multimillion-selling Killing series is a gripping journey through the American West and the historic clashes between Native Americans and settlers. The bloody Battle of Tippecanoe was only the beginning. It's 1811 and President James Madison has ordered the destruction of Shawnee warrior chief Tecumseh's alliance of tribes in the Great Lakes region. But while General William Henry Harrison would win this fight, the armed conflict between Native Americans and the newly formed United States would rage on for decades. Bestselling authors Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard venture through the fraught history of our country's founding on already occupied lands, from General Andrew Jackson's brutal battles with the Creek Nation to President James Monroe's epic "sea to shining sea" policy, to President Martin Van Buren's cruel enforcement of a “treaty” that forced the Cherokee Nation out of their homelands along what would be called the Trail of Tears. O'Reilly and Dugard take readers behind the legends to reveal never-before-told historical moments in the fascinating creation story of America. This fast-paced, wild ride through the American frontier will shock readers and impart unexpected lessons that reverberate to this day. - Publisher.

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Edith Futscher

Die Filme Marguerite Duras? sind eigentümlich verstörend ? karg in der Bildsprache, mitunter beharrlich in der Artikulationsweise. Ihre ästhetischen Antworten auf soziale und politische Fragen des 20. Jahrhunderts sind heillos. ?Was restlos übrigbleibt? ist eine umfassende Werkmonografie, die dieser Verzahnung Rechnung trägt. In Kontakt mit Fragmenten von Maurice Blanchot wird in deskriptiven Analysen das dichte Geflecht an Filmen und literarischen Texten vorgestellt. Es wird hinsichtlich der Möglichkeiten diskutiert, mit Stille, Leere, Langsamkeit, mit dem Einsatz von Barrieren, Klüften oder Entfärbung von Dingen zu sprechen, die sich nicht zeigen oder zeigen lassen, die wir dennoch sehen können. Mit weitgehend neutralen Bildern, Bildern, die weder hervorstechen noch zuordenbar sein wollen, gelang es Duras, sowohl Übersehenes in den Blick zu rücken als auch extreme Erfahrung zu thematisieren.

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Luca Costantini

"Traiciones políticas y sentimentales, intercambio de parejas, facciones y familias en lucha componen una narración política y humana del partido que quiso interpretar el espíritu de los indignados del 15-M. Un partido surgido del malestar de la crisis económica que quiso asaltar los cielos y llegar al paraíso en una apuesta por el doble o nada. Una estrategia basada en el golpe de efecto para arrebatarle al PSOE el cetro de la izquierda. Pero es también la historia de una generación de jóvenes políticos despiadados, arribistas, atrevidos y visionarios, tanto en el uso de las redes como de la televisión. AQUÍ MANDO YO desentraña por primera vez el fenómeno Iglesias y su modo de comunicación ideado por Silvio Berlusconi en Italia. Inédita es también la crónica de su conflicto con Íñigo Errejón, surgido, en contra de los que se cree, nada más celebrarse las elecciones europeas de 2014; así como la intrahistoria del carácter y los rasgos más íntimos de los protagonistas de este relato, desde el líder máximo de Podemos hasta Tania Sánchez e Irene Montero." --Back cover.

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Mariusz Krzysztofek

Personal data protection has become one of the central issues in any understanding of the current world system. In this connection, the European Union (EU) has created the most sophisticated regime currently in force with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679. Following the GDPR's recent reform - the most extensive since the first EU laws in this area were adopted and implemented into the legal orders of the Member States - this book offers a comprehensive discussion of all principles of personal data processing, obligations of data controllers, and rights of data subjects, providing a thorough, up-to-date account of the legal and practical aspects of personal data protection in the EU. -- backcover.

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Douglas E. Streusand

The author explains the origins of the three empires: the Ottomans (centered in what is now Turkey), the Safavids (in modern Iran), and the Mughals (ruling the Indian subcontinent) and compares the ideological, institutional, military, and economic contributors to their success.

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Andrew Roberts

Leadership in War is a celebrated work by Andrew Roberts (Wolfson History Prize), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Adam Higginbotham

The definitive, dramatic untold story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and newly declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham’s narrative brings to life the catastrophic meltdown and the desperate cover-ups that followed.

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Patrick Radden Keefe

In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her disappearance was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles.

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William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple recounts how a single London private corporation, the East India Company, managed to conquer and loot the entire subcontinent of India and replace the mighty Mughal Empire.

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David McCullough

The Pioneers is a celebrated work by David McCullough (Double Pulitzer Winner, Double National Book Award Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Niklas Natt och Dag

The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries and the realm is governed by a self-interested elite, leaving its citizens to suffer. On the streets, malcontent and paranoia abound. A body is found in the city's swamp by a watchman, Mickel Cardell, and the case is handed over to investigator Cecil Winge, who is dying of consumption. Together, Winge and Cardell become embroiled in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams, and one death will expose a city rotten with corruption beneath its powdered and painted veneer. The Wolf and the Watchman depicts the capacity for cruelty in the name of survival or greed - but also the capacity for love, friendship, and the desire for a better world.

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Jared Diamond

Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change is a 2019 nonfiction book by American scientist Jared Diamond. Diamond attempts to analyze devastating crises (political, economic, civil, ecological, etc.) that may destroy whole countries and the multiple reasons causing them. To support his analysis with real-world examples, Diamond investigates past crises that have hit such countries as Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia, and the United States. Diamond also tries to understand the ways in which individuals learn to cope with personal traumas and how these approaches can be applied to nations. His unexpected conclusion is that individuals do learn from crisis but countries seldom do. He also concludes that the United States is a country in which crises are getting worse.

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Yuval Noah Harari

In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power. Censorship works not by blocking the flow of information, but rather by flooding people with disinformation and distractions. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century cuts through these muddy waters and confronts some of the most urgent questions on today’s global agenda. Why is liberal democracy in crisis? Is God back? Is a new world war coming? What does the rise of Donald Trump signify? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news? Which civilisation dominates the world – the West, China, Islam? Should Europe keep its doors open to immigrants? Can nationalism solve the problems of inequality and climate change? What should we do about terrorism? What should we teach our kids? Billions of us can hardly afford the luxury of investigating these questions, because we have more pressing things to do: we have to go to work, take care of the kids, or look after elderly parents. Unfortunately, history makes no concessions. If the future of humanity is decided in your absence, because you are too busy feeding and clothing your kids – you and they will not be exempt from the consequences. This is very unfair; but who said history was fair? A book doesn’t give people food or clothes – but it can offer some clarity, thereby helping to level the global playing field. If this book empowers even a handful of people to join the debate about the future of our species, it has done its job. ---------- After Sapiens looked deep into humankind’s past and Homo Deus considered our existence in a future powered by intelligent design, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century stops to focus on the biggest questions of the present moment. What is really happening right now? What are today’s greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? 21 Lessons builds on the ideas explored in the previous two books to take the pulse of our current global climate. It untangles political, technological, social, and existential questions, and highlights how they impact the everyday lives of humans worldwide. By presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, the book invites the reader to consider values, meaning and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty.

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Rob Ray

Freedom Press is the oldest anarchist publishing house in the English-speaking world. Founded in 1886, the press has weathered wars, police raids, fascist attacks and innumerable internal crises while publishing some of the world’s most important libertarian thinkers, from Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman to Colin Ward and Murray Bookchin. 2018 marks 50 years since the Press bought its current home in Angel Alley, and to celebrate the occasion is publishing A Beautiful Idea, attempting to draw out a narrative from its densely-packed history.

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Nicolas Walter

Walter’s book About Anarchism was first published in 1969. It went through many editions and has been translated into many languages. A revised edition was published in 2002, with a foreword by his daughter, the journalist and feminist writer Natasha Walter.

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Steve Sheinkin

Abby and her stepbrother, Doc, must persuade Abraham Lincoln to play his part in history after one too many comments about history being boring cause him to go on strike.

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Carlos Taibo

Ideas como las de autogestión, democracia directa y apoyo mutuo han sido defendidas tanto por el anarquismo que vio la luz en la Europa del siglo XIX como por muchos pueblos indígenas que espontáneamente las han llevado a la práctica desde tiempo inmemorial. Este libro estudia la relación entre esos dos mundos, y lo hace con la voluntad de alentar, en paralelo, una definitiva descolonización del propio pensamiento anarquista. Sirve como introducción, también, a la realidad, comúnmente olvidada, de los anarquismos que adquirieron carta de naturaleza en América, África, Asia y Oceanía.

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John Carreyrou

The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, written by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end, despite pressure from its charismatic CEO and threats from her lawyers.

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Eric Jay Dolin

"Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy's 'Golden Age'--spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s--when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond"--

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Yuval Noah Harari

Clean Meat is a celebrated work by Yuval Noah Harari (Global Phenomenon), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.

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Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts

A book that strikes at the heart of the recent flare-ups over Confederate symbols in Charlottesville, New Orleans, and elsewhere, Denmark Vesey's Garden reveals the deep roots of these controversies and traces them to the heart of slavery in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina, where almost half of the U.S. slave population stepped onto our shores, where the first shot at Fort Sumter began the Civil War, and where Dylann Roof shot nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the congregation of Denmark Vesey, a black revolutionary who plotted a massive slave insurrection in 1822. As early as 1865, former slaveholders and their descendants began working to preserve a romanticized memory of the antebellum South. In contrast, former slaves, their descendants, and some white allies have worked to preserve an honest, unvarnished account of slavery as the cruel system it was. Examining public rituals, controversial monuments, and whitewashed historical tourism, Denmark Vesey's Garden tracks these two rival memories from the Civil War all the way to contemporary times, where two segregated tourism industries still reflect these opposing impressions of the past, exposing a hidden dimension of America's deep racial divide. Denmark Vesey's Garden joins the small bookshelf of major, paradigm-shifting new interpretations of slavery's enduring legacy in the United States. --inside jacket.

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Jürgen Diethe

Die Anfänge des Journalismus werden meist auf das 18. Jahrhundert datiert? doch bereits 200 Jahre zuvor profilierten sich die Vorläufer der uns heute bekannten Presseorgane. Vor dem Hintergrund der turbulenten Ereignisse der Englischen Revolution Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts erlebte der Journalismus ein explosives, wenn auch kurzlebiges Wachstum. Die ersten Journalisten betraten die Szene, angeführt von der schillernden Figur des Marchamont Nedham, ein Mann mit zahlreichen Talenten? ein rassiger Schreiber, gebildeter Humanist, republikanischer Theoretiker und obendrein ein innovativer Mediziner. Gleichzeitig war er ein notorischer Wendehals, der sich nicht scheute, seine geniale Feder ganz gegensätzlichen Sachen zur Verfügung zu stellen. Immer stand er im Zentrum der politischen Ereignisse, als Propagandist des Parlaments, als Kämpfer für den todgeweihten König, als Sprecher von Cromwell und schliesslich als Speerspitze für Karl II.

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Carl Minzner

"China's reform era is ending. Core factors that characterized it-political stability, ideological openness, and rapid economic growth-are unraveling. Since the 1990s, Beijing's leaders have firmly rejected any fundamental reform of their authoritarian one-party political system, even as a decades-long boom has reshaped China's economy and society. On the surface, their efforts have been a success. Political turmoil has toppled former Communist East bloc regimes, internal unrest overtaken Middle East nations, and populist movements risen to challenge established Western democracies. China, in contrast, has appeared a relative haven of stability and growth. But as [the author] shows, a closer look at China's reform era reveals a different truth. Over the past three decades, a frozen political system has fueled both the rise of entrenched interests within the Communist Party itself, and the systematic underdevelopment of institutions of governance among state and society at large. Economic cleavages have widened. Social unrest has worsened. Ideological polarization has deepened. Now, to address these looming problems, China's leaders are progressively cannibalizing institutional norms and practices that have formed the bedrock of the regime's stability in the reform era. Technocratic rule is giving way to black-box purges; collective governance sliding back towards single-man rule. The post-1978 era of 'reform and opening up' is ending. China is closing down. Uncertainty hangs in the air as a new future slouches towards Beijing to be born. End of an Era explains how China arrived at this dangerous turning point, and outlines the potential outcomes that could result."--

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Jeremy Bailenson

Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, pushing the limits of our imagination and granting us access to any experience imaginable. With well-crafted simulations, these experiences, which are so immersive that the brain believes they're real, are already widely available with a VR headset and will only become more accessible and commonplace. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws on two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR and other mass media to help readers understand this powerful new tool. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use--not to distance ourselves from reality, but to enrich our lives and influence us to treat others, the environment, and even ourselves better. In the world of VR, a football quarterback plays a game against a competing team hundreds of times before even stepping onto the field; members of the United Nations embody a young girl in a refugee camp going through her day-to-day life; and veterans once again walk through the streets where they had experienced trauma. There are dangers and many unknowns in using VR, but it also can help us hone our performance, recover from trauma, improve our learning and communication abilities, and enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities. Like any new technology, its most incredible uses might be waiting just around the corner. Experience on Demand is the definitive look at the risks and potential of VR--a must-read for navigating both the virtual and the physical worlds ahead. Virtual reality blurs the line between reality and illusion, pushes the limits of our imagination, and grants us access to any experience imaginable. With the right equipment, the brain believes they're real. But how does this new medium affect its users, and does it have a future beyond fantasy and escapism? Bailenson offers guidelines for interacting with VR and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use to enrich our lives and influence us to treat others, the environment, and even ourselves better. -- adapted from jacket.

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Hans Rosling

When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is growing—we systematically get the answers wrong. Hans Rosling reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective, offering a radically hopeful, data-grounded worldview.

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Elizabeth Dennis

Do you know about the adventures of Eugene Bullard, the first African-American fighter pilot, who fought in World War I? Did you know that, in the same war, America used a kind of camouflage called Dazzle Painting that made ships look like Easter eggs? Or that Americans Indians sent secret messages as code talkers in the Choctaw Telephone Squad? Find out in this book of amazing true stories!

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Pierce Brown

"Ten years after the events of Morning Star, Darrow and the Rising are battling the remaining Gold loyalist forces and are closer than ever to abolishing the color-coded caste system of Society for good. But new foes will emerge from the shadows to threaten the imperfect victory Darrow and his friends have earned"--