It’s not an exaggeration to say that middle-class Americansare an endangered species and that the American Dream of a secure,comfortable standard of living has become as outdated as an Edselwith an eight-track player. That the United States of Americais in danger of becoming a third world nation. The evidence is all around us: Our industrial base is vanishing, taking with it the kind of jobsthat have formed the backbone of our economy for more than acentury; our education system is in shambles, making it harder fortomorrow’s workforce to acquire the information and training itneeds to land good twenty-first century jobs; ourinfrastructure—our roads, our bridges, our sewage and water, ourtransportation and electrical systems—is crumbling; our economicsystem has been reduced to recurring episodes of Corporations GoneWild; our political system is broken, in thrall to a smallfinancial elite using the power of the checkbook to control bothparties. And America’s middle class, the

In The Fatal Englishman, his first work of nonfiction,Sebastian Faulks explores the lives of three remarkable men. Eachhad the seeds of greatness; each was a beacon to his generation andleft something of value behind; yet each one died tragicallyyoung. Christopher Wood, only twenty-nine when he killed himself, was apainter who lived most of his short life in the beau monde of 1920sParis, where his charm, good looks, and the dissolute life thatfollowed them sometimes frustrated his ambition and achievement asan artist. Richard Hillary was a WWII fighter pilot who wrote a classicaccount of his experiences, The Last Enemy, but died in a mysterious trainingaccident while defying doctor’s orders to stay grounded afterhorrific burn injuries; he was twenty-three. Jeremy Wolfenden, hailed by his contemporaries as the brightestEnglishman of his generation, rejected the call of academia to become a hackjournalist in Cold War Moscow. A spy, alcoholic, and openhomosexual at a time when su

On September 11, 2001, hours after the terrorist attacks onNew York and Washington, the eminent military historian VictorDavis Hanson wrote an article in which he asserted that the UnitedStates, like it or not, was now at war and had the moral right torespond with force. An Autumn of War , which opens with thatfirst essay, will stimulate readers across the political spectrumto think more deeply about the attacks, the war, and their lessonsfor all of us.

Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln s birth, hereis his extraordinary story as only the Smithsonian could tell it,featuring the unpublished Lincoln collections at the NationalMuseum of American History. For the first time, the Smithsonian is publishing its unparalleledLincoln collection. Its many historical treasures include: Lincolns top hat, his gold pocket watch from his days as a Springfieldlawyer, the inkstand he used to draft the EmancipationProclamation, his patent model for lifting boats, one of MaryLincoln s White House gowns and jewelry, and prison hoods andshackles worn by the Lincoln conspirators. With more than 125 colorphotographs, Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life tells a new andintimate story of the life and legacy of this remarkable Americanicon.

“Uttering lines that send liberals into paroxysms of rage,otherwise known as ‘citing facts,’ is the spice of life. When I seethe hot spittle flying from their mouths and the veins bulging andpulsing above their eyes, well, that’s when I feel trulyalive.” So begins If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, AnnCoulter’s funniest, most devastating, and, yes, most outrageousbook to date. Coulter has become the brightest star in the conservativefirmament thanks to her razor-sharp reasoning and biting wit. Ofcourse, practically any time she opens her mouth, liberal elitesdenounce Ann, insisting that “She’s gone too far!” and hopefullypredicting that this time it will bring a crashing end to hercareer. Now you can read all the quotes that have so outraged her enemiesand so delighted her legions of fans. More than just the definitivecollection of Coulterisms, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d BeRepublicans includes dozens of brand-new commentaries written byC

The Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the office ofthe Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel on June17, 1971, and ended when President Gerald Ford granted Richard M.Nixon a pardon on September 8, 1974, one month after Nixon resignedfrom office in disgrace. Effectively removed from the reach ofprosecutors, Nixon returned to California, uncontrite andunconvicted, convinced that time would exonerate him of anywrongdoing and certain that history would remember his greataccomplishments—the opening of China and the winding down of theVietnam War—and forget his “mistake,” the “pipsqueak thing” calledWatergate. In 1977, three years after his resignation, Nixon agreed to aseries of interviews with television personality David Frost.Conducted over twelve days, they resulted in twenty-eight hours oftaped material, which were aired on prime-time television andwatched by more than 50 million people worldwide. Nixon, a skilledlawyer by training, was paid $1 million for the i

“This is a thriller, a page-turner, a probing look into theinner workings of the assassination squads that Israel mobilizedafter the Munich massacre.” –David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Arab andJew “Gratitude is due to Mr. Klein for his painstaking . . . book, thebest one could possibly hope for.” –Walter Lacquer, The Wall Street Journal Award-winning journalist Aaron J. Klein tells, for the firsttime, the complete story of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre andthe Israeli counterterrorism operation it spawned. Withunprecedented access to Mossad agents and an nparalleled knowledgeof Israeli intelligence, Klein peels back the layers of myth andmisinformation that have permeated previous books, films, andmagazine articles about the “shadow war” against Black Septemberand other related terrorist groups. In this riveting account,long-held secrets are finally revealed, including who was killedand who was not, how it was done, which targets were hit and whichwere m

Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV adsand the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: a manwrestling with the momentous decision to run for the presidency,feeling torn about leaving behind a young family, and figuring outhow to win the biggest prize in politics. This book is the previously untold and epic story of how apolitical newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into theworld’s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimateportrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the SecretService code name Renegade. Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate andpresident, as well as twenty-one months covering his campaign as ittraveled from coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yetenduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he? Based on Wolffe’s unprecedented access to Obama, Renegade reveals the making of a president, both on the campaign trail andbefore he ran for high office. It explains how the politician whoemerged in

March 23, 2003: U.S. Marines from the Task Force Tarawa arecaught up in one of the most unexpected battles of the Iraq War.What started off as a routine maneuver to secure two key bridges inthe town of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq degenerated into anightmarish twenty-four-hour urban clash in which eighteen youngMarines lost their lives and more than thirty-five others werewounded. It was the single heaviest loss suffered by the U.S.military during the initial combat phase of the war. On that fateful day, Marines came across the burned-out remains ofa U.S. Army convoy that had been ambushed by Saddam Hussein’sforces outside Nasiriyah. In an attempt to rescue the missingsoldiers and seize the bridges before the Iraqis could destroythem, the Marines decided to advance their attack on the city bytwenty-four hours. What happened next is a gripping and gruesometale of military blunders, tragedy, and heroism. Huge M1 tanks leading the attack were rendered ineffective whenthey became mired in an open sewer. Then a

"The letters provide a nostalgic timeline of American historytold through the words and feelings of Americans, from regularfolks to kings." —Star Gazette, Elmira, NY, Dec. '05 "There are more than 80 letters, reflecting both our history andour very American sense that when we speak, our president shouldlisten." —The Arizona Republic, Dec. '05 Drawn from the extensive holdings of the National Archives—whichincludes all of the Presidential libraries—these carefully chosenletters remind us that ours is a government "of the people, by thepeople, and for the people," which entitles us to make our viewsknown to our leaders. Most of the letters come from workingcitizens; others were written by notable figures: John Glenn, ElvisPresley, Walt Disney, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita Kruschev, Upton Sinclair,John Steinbeck, Robert Kennedy, and many more. Grouped thematically, the sections cover such topics as civilrights, the Cold War, physical fitness, joblessness, World War II,western expansion, and the space race. An

The Unexplored Connections Between Two of History’s GreatestLeaders Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill were true giants of thetwentieth century, but somehow historians have failed to notice themany similarities between these extraordinary leaders. Untilnow. In Greatness, Steven F. Hayward–who has written acclaimed studiesof both Reagan and Churchill–goes beneath superficial differencesto uncover the remarkable parallels between the two statesmen. Inexploring these connections, Hayward shines a light on the natureof political genius and the timeless aspects ofstatesmanship–critical lessons in this or any age.