Starred Review。 Some failures lead to phenomenal successes，andthis American nurse’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2，the world’ssecond tallest mountain，is one of them。Dangerously ill when hefinished his climb in 1993，Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeksby the small Pakistani village of Korphe； in return， he promised tobuild the impoverished town’s first school， a project that grewinto the Central Asia Institute， which has since constructed morethan 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan。 CoauthorRelin recounts Mortenson’s efforts in fascinating detail，presenting compelling portraits of the village elders，con artists，philanthropists，mujahideen， Taliban officials，ambitious schoolgirls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way。As the bookmoves into the post-9/11 world， Mortenson and Relin argue that theUnited States must fight Islamic extremism in the region throughcollaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access toeducation，

On the South Branch of the Raritan River in New Jersey, BillPlummer casts his line in the hope that fly-fishing will fortifyhim in the face of a failed marriage, his father's death, and afaltering career. With the discovery of his father's fly-fishingdiary, Bill has set his mind to understanding his father's devotionto the sport and fathoming the depths of what he thought was adistant and enigmatic man. He comes to delight in the peculiarpleasures of the pastime, finding in it points of tangency to hisown son, while developing the strength for a second marriage. Wishing My Father Well is a moving intergenerational memoirwhich will remind readers of James Prosek's Joe and Me, JamesDodson's Faithful Travelers, and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays WithMorrie.

Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way thingswork, and often don't work, at the highest levels ofgovernment--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideasinspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and whobecame the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americansget better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, socialcritic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in theirtwenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clintonadministration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries inhistory. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignantchronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those inWashington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those withexactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the careerbureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, onoccasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders whoclash by day an

John McCain is one of the most admired leaders in the UnitedStates government, but his deeply felt memoir of family and war isnot a political one and ends before his election to Congress. Withcandor and ennobling power, McCain tells a story that, in the wordsof Newsweek, "makes the other presidential candidates look likepygmies." John McCain learned about life and honor from his grandfather andfather, both four-star admirals in the U.S. Navy. This is a memoirabout their lives, their heroism, and the ways that sons are shapedand enriched by their fathers. John McCain's grandfather was a gaunt, hawk-faced man known asSlew by his fellow officers and, affectionately, as Popeye by thesailors who served under him. McCain Sr. played the horses, drankbourbon and water, and rolled his own cigarettes with one hand.More significant, he was one of the navy's greatest commanders, andled the strongest aircraft carrier force of the Third Fleet in keybattles during World War II.

"In wartime," Winston Churchill wrote, "truth is so preciousthat she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies." ForBritain's counterintelligence operations, this meant finding theunlikeliest agent imaginable-a history professor named AlfredVicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highlydangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have alsochosen an unlikely agent: Catherine Blake, a beautiful widow of awar hero, a hospital volunteer-and a Nazi spy under direct ordersfrom Hitler to uncover the Allied plans for D-Day...

“Nearly forty years after I first got involved, I remaincaptivated by the possibilities of politics and public service. Infact, I believe that my chosen profession is a noble calling.That’s why I wanted to be a part of it.” –Joe Biden As a United States senator from Delaware since 1973, Joe Biden hasbeen an intimate witness to the major events of the past fourdecades and a relentless actor in trying to shape recent Americanhistory. He has seen up close the tragic mistake of the VietnamWar, the Watergate and Iran-contra scandals, the fall of the BerlinWall, the reunification of Germany, the disintegration of theSoviet Union, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a presidentialimpeachment, a presidential resignation, and a presidentialelection decided by the Supreme Court. He’s observed Nixon, Ford,Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and two Bushes wrestling with thepresidency; he’s traveled to war zones in Europe, the Middle East,and Africa and seen firsthand the devastation of genocide. Heplayed a vital role

On August 28, 1963, over a quarter-million people—two-thirdsblack and one-third white—held the greatest civil rightsdemonstration ever. In this major reinterpretation of the GreatDay—the peak of the movement—Charles Euchner brings back thetension and promise of the march. Building on countless interviews,archives, FBI files, and private recordings, this hour-by-houraccount offers intimate glimpses into the lives of those keyplayers and ordinary people who converged on the National Mall tofight for civil rights in the March on Washington.

Since it was first published in 1952, Lincoln and HisGenerals has remained one of the definitive accounts ofLincoln’s wartime leadership. In it T. Harry Williams dramatizesLincoln’s long and frustrating search for an effective leader ofthe Union Army and traces his transformation from a politician withlittle military knowledge into a master strategist of the CivilWar. Explored in depth are Lincoln’s often fraught relationshipswith generals such as McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Fremont,and of course, Ulysses S. Grant. In this superbly writtennarrative, Williams demonstrates how Lincoln’s persistent“meddling” into military affairs was crucial to the Northern wareffort and utterly transformed the president’s role ascommander-in-chief.

Capitalism has never been a subject for economists alone.Philosophers, politicians, poets and social scientists have debatedthe cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism forcenturies, and their claims have been many and diverse. The Mindand the Market is a remarkable history of how the idea ofcapitalism has developed in Western thought. Ranging across an ideological spectrum that includes Hobbes,Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and MatthewArnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, andneoliberal intellectuals, historian Jerry Muller examines afascinating thread of ideas about the ramifications of capitalismand its future implications. This is an engaging and accessiblehistory of ideas that reverberate throughout everyday life.

Uranium occurs naturally in theearth s crust-yet holds the power to end all life on theplanet. This is its fundamental paradox, and its story is afascinating window into the valor, greed, genius, and folly ofhumanity. A problem for miners in the Middle Ages, an inspirationto novelists and a boon to medicine, a devastat?ing weapon at theend of World War II, and eventually a polluter, killer, excuse forwar with Iraq, potential deliverer of Armageddon and a possiblelast defense against global warming- Uranium is the rivetingstory of the most powerful element on earth, and one which willshape our future, for better or worse.

Despite all that has already been written on Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, Joseph Persico has uncovered a hitherto overlookeddimension of FDR's wartime leadership: his involvement inintelligence and espionage operations. Roosevelt's Secret War is crowded with remarkablerevelations: -FDR wanted to bomb Tokyo before Pearl Harbor -A defector from Hitler's inner circle reported directly to theOval Office -Roosevelt knew before any other world leader of Hitler's plan toinvade Russia -Roosevelt and Churchill concealed a disaster costing hundreds ofBritish soldiers' lives in order to protect Ultra, the Britishcodebreaking secret -An unwitting Japanese diplomat provided the President with adirect pipeline into Hitler's councils Roosevelt's Secret War also describes how much FDR had beentold--before the Holocaust--about the coming fate of Europe's Jews. And Persico also provides a definitive answer to the perennialquestion Did FDR know in advance about the attack on PearlHarbor? By temperament and chara

The "dean of Cold War historians" ( The New York Times )now presents the definitive account of the global confrontationthat dominated the last half of the twentieth century. Drawing onnewly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players,John Lewis Gaddis explains not just what happened but why —from the months in 1945 when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust ofthe Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reaganand Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in itsdrama, The Cold War stands as a triumphant summation of theera that, more than any other, shaped our own.

“H.W Brands has given us the authoritative Franklin biographyfor out time.” —Joseph J. Ellis author of the PulitzerPrize-winning Founding Brothers “Like its subject, this biography is both solid and enchanting.”—The New Yorker “[A] biography with a rich cast of secondary characters and alarge and handsome stock of historical scenery.... Brands writesclearly and confidently about the full spectrum of the polymath’sinterests.... This is a Franklin to savor.” —The Wall StreetJournal “Benjamin Franklin’s life is one every American should know well,and it has not been told better than by Mr. Brands.” —The DallasMorning News “A vivid portrait of the 18th-century milieu and of the18th-century man.... [Brands is] a master storyteller.” —TheChristian Science Monitor “A thorough biography of Benjamin Franklin, America’s firstRenaissance man.... In graceful, even witty prose.... Brandsrelates the entire, dense-p

The ideas of US Air Force Colonel John Boyd have transformedAmerican military policy and practice. A first-rate fighter pilotand a self-taught scholar, he wrote the first manual on jet aerialcombat; spearheaded the design of both of the Air Force's premierfighters, the F-15 and the F-16; and shaped the tactics that savedlives during the Vietnam War and the strategies that won the GulfWar. Many of America's best-known military and political leadersconsulted Boyd on matters of technology, strategy, andtheory. In The Mind of War, Grant T. Hammond offers the first completeportrait of John Boyd, his groundbreaking ideas, and his enduringlegacy. Based on extensive interviews with Boyd and those who knewhim as well as on a close analysis of Boyd's briefings, thisintellectual biography brings the work of an extraordinary thinkerto a broader public.

To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J.Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyricprose that have made him one of the premier historians of theRevolutionary era. Training his lens on a figure who sometimesseems as remote as his effigy on Mount Rushmore, Ellis assessesGeorge Washington as a military and political leader and a manwhose “statue-like solidity” concealed volcanic energies andemotions. Here is the impetuous young officer whose miraculous survival incombat half-convinced him that he could not be killed. Here is thefree-spending landowner whose debts to English merchants instilledhim with a prickly resentment of imperial power. We see the generalwho lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president whotried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet. HisExcellency is a magnificent work, indispensable to anunderstanding not only of its subject but also of the nation hebrought into being.

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and theemancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to beingthe greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise togreatness is as complex as it is compelling. In this superb,prize-winning biography, acclaimed historian Richard Carwardineexamines Lincoln’s dramatic political journey, from his early yearsin the Illinois legislature to his nation-shaping years in theWhite House. Here, Carwardine combines a new perspective with acompelling narrative to deliver a fresh look at one of the pillarsof American politics. He probes the sources of Lincoln’s moral andpolitical philosophy and uses his groundbreaking research to cutthrough the myth and expose the man behind it.

Kindred spirits despite their profound differences inposition, Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman shared a vision of thedemocratic character. They had read or listened to each other’swords at crucial turning points in their lives, and both wereutterly transformed by the tragedy of the Civil War. In thisradiant book, poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein tracks theparallel lives of these two titans from the day that Lincoln firstread Leaves of Grass to the elegy Whitman composed after Lincoln’sassassination in 1865. Drawing on a rich trove of personal and newspaper accounts anddiary records, Epstein shows how the influence and reverence flowedbetween these two men–and brings to life the many friends andcontacts they shared. Epstein has written a masterful portrait oftwo great American figures and the era they shaped through wordsand deeds.

Reagan’s War is the story of Ronald Reagan’s personaland political journey as an anti-communist, from his early days asan actor to his years in the White House. Challenging popularmisconceptions of Reagan as an empty suit who played only a passiverole in the demise of the Soviet Union, Peter Schweizer detailsReagan’s decades-long battle against communism. Bringing to light previously secret information obtained fromarchives in the United States, Germany, Poland, Hungary, andRussia—including Reagan’s KGB file—Schweizer offers a compellingcase that Reagan personally mapped out and directed his war againstcommunism, often disagreeing with experts and advisers. Anessential book for understanding the Cold War, Reagan’s War should be read by open-minded readers across the politicalspectrum.

Now the inspiration for the CBS Television drama, "TheUnit." Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secretstrike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won'thear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal theirtop-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readersinside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes usbehind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal thenever-before-told story of 1st Special Forces OperationalDetachment-D (Delta Force). Inside Delta Forece The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers,terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy byparachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone inhostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemytargets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He isthe ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator. In this dramatic behind-the-scenes ch

Capital, one of Marx's major and most influential works, wasthe product of thirty years close study of the capitalist mode ofproduction in England, the most advanced industrial society of hisday. This new translation of Volume One, the only volume to becompleted and edited by Marx himself, avoids some of the mistakesthat have marred earlier versions and seeks to do justice to theliterary qualities of the work. The introduction is by ErnestMandel, author of Late Capitalism, one of the only comprehensiveattempts to develop the theoretical legacy of Capital.

Drawing upon dozens of other "declarations of independence"written to protest the repression of the colonies by King GeorgeIII, as well as carefully analyzing the drafts of the Declarationsigned on July 4, 1776, Maier reveals the extent to whichJefferson's words and ideas were indebted to popular politicalbeliefs.

The Coming of the New Deal, 1933-1935, volume two of PulitzerPrize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr."sAge of Roosevelt series, describes Franklin Delano Roosevelt'sfirst tumultuous years in the White House. Coming into office atthe bottom of the Great Depression, FDR told the American peoplethat they have nothing to fear but fear itself. The conventionalwisdom having failed, he tried unorthodox remedies to averteconomic collapse. His first hundred days restored national morale,and his New Dealers filled Washington with new approaches torecovery and reform. Combining idealistic ends with realisticmeans, Roosevelt proposed to humanize, redeem, and rescuecapitalism. The Coming of the New Deal, written with Schlesinger'scustomary verve, is a gripping account of critical years in thehistory of the republic.