'Magisterial...a biography that is almost as much a personaladventure story as an intellectual treatise.' - Andrew Roberts 'A penetrating interpretation...No one with a serious interestin the Napoleonic period can afford to ignore it. ' - TimesLiterary Supplement
Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History atHarvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College,Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution,Stanford University. The bestselling author of Paper andIron , The House of Rothschild , The Pity of War , The Cash Nexus , Empire , and Colossus , he alsowrites regularly for newspapers and magazines all over the world.Since 2003 he has written and presented three highly successfultelevision documentary series for British television: Empire , American Colossus , and, most recently, TheWar of the World .
This important book explores alternative strategies in agricultural and rural development to address the impacts of globalization processes on smallholder agriculturalists and marginalized rural people. Its goal is twofold: (1) to identify and assess the key processes by which globalization is affecting the smallholder agricultural and rural sectors; and (2) to identify and propose both micro- and macro-level policies and other strategies to deal with the problems that arise. This volume presents writings of leading scholars and practitioners working in the private and public sectors. Their work focuses on major crosscutting issues in the developing world and on country-specific case studies.
The accession of ten new members to the European Union on May 1st 2004 is among the most significant developments in the history of European integration. Based upon studies conducted by the European Forecasting Network, this book analyses key aspects of the impact of this recent enlargement with reference to eight of the ten new Member States, namely the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). It demonstrates that the enlargement could have profound consequences on both the new Member States and on the pre-accession members of the Union, given the unparalleled magnitude of the enlargement, the fact that the CEECs have levels of prosperity and economic development well below the Union average, and their history of participation in centrally planned regimes. The contributions examine regional policy, the debate about accession to the EMU, the macroeconomic trajectories of the Central and Eastern European economies to date and their likely future development.
India is everywhere: on magazine covers and cinema marquees, at the gym and in the kitchen, in corporate boardrooms and on Capitol Hill. Through incisive reportage and illuminating analysis, Mira Kamdar explores India's astonishing transformation from a developing country into a global powerhouse. She takes us inside India, reporting on the people, companies, and policies defining the new India and revealing how it will profoundly affect our future -- financially, culturally, politically. The world's fastest-growing democracy, India has the youngest population on the planet, and a middle class as big as the population of the entire United States. Its market has the potential to become the world's largest. As one film producer told Kamdar when they met in New York, "Who needs the American audience? There are only 300 million people here." Not only is India the ideal market for the next new thing, but with a highly skilled English-speaking workforce, elite educational institutions, and growing foreign inves
America's power is in decline, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past few years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. Celebrated Slate columnist Fred Kaplan explains the grave misconceptions that enabled George W. Bush and his aides to get so far off track, and traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas from the era of Nixon through Reagan to the present day.
The conclusion to The Baroque Cycle is a veritable doorstop, but a doorstop perhaps worth its weight in 18th-century gold coins—especially to those who need a reminder about the dangerous misuses of science and “progress.” Critics can’t heap enough praise on Stephenson’s eloquent narration, true-to-life characters, and impeccable plotting (“generated via Waterhouse’s Logic Mills,” says the San Francisco Chronicle). Stephenson exquisitely unearths Baroque history, too, from mints to gardens to Jacobites. While compelling, you’ll best appreciate this epic history-romance-science fiction story “once you have a solid liberal arts education under your belt” (Chronicle). Stephenson mostly gets away with his philosophical pedantry because he’s so smart and inventive. If you have the courage to delve in, you won’t be disappointed. And if you can’t bring yourself to start with Quicksilver, System includes a preface relating “the story thus far” that reviewers found helpful enough.
Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm thatswept the world remains the definitive history of the Second WorldWar. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep andfor its sense of personal involvement, it is universallyacknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring,compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize forliterature. The Grand Alliance recounts the momentous events of1941 surrounding America's entry into the War and Hitler's march onRussia the continuing onslaught on British civilians during theBlitz, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the alliance betweenBritain and America that shaped the outcome of the War.
More than two thousand years after his death, Julius Caesarremains one of the great figures of history. He shaped Rome forgenerations, and his name became a synonym for "emperor" -- notonly in Rome but as far away as Germany and Russia. He is bestknown as the general who defeated the Gauls and doubled the size ofRome's territories. But, as Philip Freeman describes in thisfascinating new biography, Caesar was also a brilliant orator, anaccomplished writer, a skilled politician, and much more. Julius Caesar was a complex man, both hero and villain. Hepossessed great courage, ambition, honor, and vanity. Born into anoble family that had long been in decline, he advanced his careercunningly, beginning as a priest and eventually becoming Rome'sleading general. He made alliances with his rivals and thendiscarded them when it suited him. He was a spokesman for theordinary people of Rome, who rallied around him time and again, buthe profited enormously from his conquests and lived opulently.Eventually he
Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm thatswept the world remains the definitive history of the Second WorldWar. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep andfor its sense of personal involvement, it is universallyacknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring,compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize forliterature. Triumph and Tragedy recounts the dramatic months as theWar drew to a close the Normandy landings, the liberation ofWestern Europe, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and thesurrender of Germany and Japan.
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.
Praise for Man of the People "Among the many legends who have made America great stands John McCain. Man of the People, Revised and Updated lyrically tells his quintessentially American story: a seemingly ordinary man doing extraordinarily heroic and selfless things—out of a pure devotion to his country. This dynamic biography shows why it's easy to imagine him among the ranks of Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan, who led America with such daring and wisdom. McCain's life is so organically American, so true to the legacies of the leaders who preceded him, that the greatest chapter of his story is still to be written." —Monica Crowley, panelist, The McLaughlin Group; host, The Monica Crowley Show "John McCain is a real man. By that I mean he has faults and weaknesses like anybody else. But he has supplemented those with a ferocious courage and intensity. Paul Alexander brings McCain's life to life in a way the reader will never forget." —Bill O'Reilly, anchor, The O'Reilly Fac
Reinaldo Arenas was born in Cuba in 1943. In 1980, he was oneof 120,000 Cubans who arrived in the United States on the Marielboatlift. Arenas settled in New York where he lived until hisdeath from AIDS ten years later. Andrew Hurley is a translator of numerous works of literature,criticism, history, and memoir. He is professor emeritus at theUniversity of Puerto Rico. Thomas Colchie is an acclaimed translator, editor, and literaryagent for international authors. He is the editor of A HammockBeneath the Mangoes. He has written for the Village Voice and TheWashington Post. His translations include Manuel Puig's Kiss of theSpider Woman and (with Elizabeth Bishop, Gregory Rabassa, and MarkStrand) Carlos Drummond de Andrade's Travelling in the Family.
As his parents finished packing the few personal belongines they were permitted to take out of Germany,the bespectacled 15-year-old stood in the corner of the apartment memorizing the details of the scene.He was a bookish and reflective child,with that odd mixture of ego and insecurity that can come from growing up smart yet persecuted.“I'll be back someday.”he saide to the cutoms inspector who was surveying the boses.Years later,he would recall how the offciual looded at him“with the disdain of ages”and said nothing. Henry Kissinger was right:he did come bacd to his Bavarian birthplace,first as a soldier with the U.S. Army counterintelligence corps,them as a ren owned scholar of international relations,and eventually as the dominant relations,and eventually as the dominant statesman of his era. Bya the time he was made secretary of stalte in 1973,he had become,according to the Gallup Poll,the most admired person in America.In addition.as the conducted foreign ploicy with the air of a gues
Barack Obama's first book, Dreams from My Father, was a compelling and moving memoir focusing on personal issues of race, identity, and community. With his second book The Audacity of Hope, Obama engages themes raised in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, shares personal views on faith and values and offers a vision of the future that involves repairing a "political process that is broken" and restoring a government that has fallen out of touch with the people. We had the opportunity to ask Senator Obama a few questions about writing, reading, and politics, see his responses below. --Daphne Durham
During an impassioned address to the UN'S General Assembly,the Soviet Premier Khrushchev,irritatred by the in difference of his audience,astounded his peers by taking off his shoe and pounding it vigor-ously on his desk.His indelible gesture not only captured the attention of the audience,but it also transformed their lack of interest into outrage. In Khnushchev's Shoe,Roy Underhill recounts this incident and offers dozens of other stories to illus-trate how our efforts to engage an audience can make or break a presentation.It draws on lessons from some of today's greatest communicators such as Garrison Keillor,and Larry King,Jr.,Mark Twain,and Francis Bacon,to show Readers how to enter-tain,inform or persuade a group of any size. 作者简介： Roy Underhill has been host of the popular PBS series The Woodwright's Shop for twenty years.He is the author of five previous books.In addition,Underhill works as a communications consultant and conducts workshops and seminars throughour the country.
The Bush administration's drive to politicize the Justice Department reached a new low with the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys in late 2006. Their action has ignited public outrage on a scale that far surpassed the reaction to any of the Bush administration's other political debacles. David Iglesias was one of those federal prosecutors, and now he tells his story. Iglesias has long served in the Navy as part of the JAG corps. One of his earliest cases, about an assaulted Marine in Guantanamo Bay, became the basis for the movie A Few Good Men. When Bush chose him to become the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, it was a dream come true. He was a core member of Karl Rove's idealized Republican Party of the future -- handsome, Hispanic, evangelical, and a military veteran. The dream came to an abrupt end when Senator Pete Domenici improperly called Iglesias, wanting him to indict high-level Democrats before the 2006 elections. When Iglesias refused, the line went dead. Iglesias was fired just weeks later. F
From Publishers Weekly The language of clinical psychology can convey detachment—or, as in this starstruck study of the 42nd president, gushing admiration. Deploying his trademark diagnosis, Johns Hopkins psychologist Gartner (The Hypomanic Edge) pegs Clinton as a hypomanic personality with boundless energy and charisma, but prone to impulsive appetites and lapses in judgment. The author attributes much of Clinton's psyche to genes (many inherited, he argues, from an illegitimate father he tentatively identifies), but he also embraces Freudian notions: Clinton's relationships with women, Gartner contends, follow a pattern established in childhood when he felt torn between his bossy, Hillaryesque grandmother and his lushly erotic, Monica-like mother. Gartner sometimes overreaches—We can almost see Clinton going through the stages of his relationship with [stepfather] Roger in his approach to Bosnia—but his analysis of Clinton's political talents, right down to his mesmerizing facial expressions whi
Burke's seminal work was written during the early months ofthe French Revolution, and it predicted with uncanny accuracy manyof its worst excesses, including the Reign of Terror. A scathingattack on the revolution's attitudes to existing institutions,property and religion, it makes a cogent case for upholdinginherited rights and established customs, argues for piecemealreform rather than revolutionary change - and deplores theinfluence Burke feared the revolution might have in Britain."Reflections on the Revolution in France" is now widely regarded asa classic statement of conservative political thought, and is oneof the eighteenth century's great works of political rhetoric.
In this book, Daniel Shapiro argues that the dominant positions in contemporary political philosophy - egalitarianism, positive rights theory, communitarianism, and many forms of liberalism - should converge in a rejection of central welfare state institutions. He examines how major welfare institutions, such as government-financed and -administered retirement pensions, national health insurance, and programs for the needy, actually work. Comparing them to compulsory private insurance and private charities, Shapiro argues that the dominant perspectives in political philosophy mistakenly think that their principles support the welfare state. Instead, egalitarians, positive rights theorists, communitarians, and liberals have misunderstood the implications of their own principles, which in fact support more market-based or libertarian institutional conclusions than they may realize. Shapiro's book is unusual in its combination of political philosophy with social science. Its focus is not limited to any particula
The Prince and Other Writings, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is partof the Barnes Noble Classics series, which offers qualityeditions at affordable prices to the student and the generalreader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages ofcarefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable featuresof Barnes Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers andscholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporaryhistorical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes andendnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems,books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired bythe work Comments by other famous authors Study questions tochallenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographiesfor further reading Indices Glossaries, when appropriateAlleditions are beautifully designed and are printed to superiorspecifications; some include illustrations of historical interest.Barnes Noble Classics pulls together a constell
Tying into the official theme for the 2009 Inauguration, “A NewBirth of Freedom” from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Penguinpresents a keepsake edition commemorating the inauguration ofPresident-elect Barack Obama with words of the two great thinkersand writers who have helped shape him politically, philosophically,and personally: Abraham Lincoln and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Having Lincoln and Emerson’s most influential, memorable, andeloquent words along with Obama’s much-anticipated historicalinaugural address will be a gift of inspiration for every Americanand a keepsake for generations. Includes: * Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 2009 * Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865 * Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863 * Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861 * Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841
