From its earliest days, America served as an arena for therevolutions in alternative spirituality that eventually swept theglobe. Esoteric philosophies and personas—from Freemasonry toSpiritualism, from Madame H. P. Blavatsky to EdgarCayce—dramatically altered the nation’s culture, politics, andreligion. Yet the mystical roots of our identity are often ignoredor overlooked. Opening a new window on the past, OccultAmerica presents a dramatic, pioneering study of the esotericundercurrents of our history and their profound impact acrossmodern life.

In The Breakthrough , veteran journalist Gwen Ifillsurveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on theimpact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory andintroducing the emerging young African American politicians forginga bold new path to political power. Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during theCivil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men andwomen who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominentleaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor DevalPatrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (allinterviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-comingfigures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviewswith power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary ofState Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, hisson Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as herown razor-sharp observations an

Nationally syndicated talk-radio host and noted film criticMichael Medved has taken an extraordinary journey from liberalactivist to outspoken conservative. Along the way he has earnedmillions of admirers—and more than his share of enemies—with hisdisarming wit and slashing arguments on issues of pop culture andpolitics. In the candid, illuminating Right Turns, Medved chronicles thelessons and adventures that changed him from a Vietnam protestleader to an optimistic promoter of American patriotism, fromsecularism to religion, from adventurous single guy to dotinghusband and father. He skewers leftist orthodoxy, revealing why theRight is right and why his former colleagues on the Left remainhopelessly wrong on every cultural, political, and socialissue.

Jefferson Davis is one of the most complex and controversialfigures in American political history (and the man whom Oscar Wildewanted to meet more than anyone when he made his tour of the UnitedStates). Elected president of the Confederacy and later accused ofparticipating in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he is asource of ongoing dissension between northerners and southerners.This volume, the first of its kind, is a selected collection of hiswritings culled in large part from the authoritative Papers ofJefferson Davis , a multivolume edition of his letters andspeeches published by the Louisiana State University Press, andincludes thirteen documents from manu* collections and oneprivately held document that have never before appeared in a modernscholarly edition. From letters as a college student to his sister,to major speeches on the Constitution, slavery, and sectionalissues, to his farewell to the U.S. Senate, to his inauguraladdress as Confederate president, to letters from prison to hiswif

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In America’s battle against al-Qaeda and their allies, thegoal of the Navy SEALs is to be the best guns in thefight—stealthy, effective, professional, and lethal. Here for thefirst time is a SEAL insider’s battle history of these SpecialOperations warriors in the war on terrorism. “Down range” is what SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq call theirarea of operations. In this new mode of warfare, “down range” canrefer to anything from tracking roving bands of al-Qaeda on aremote mountain trail in Afghanistan to taking down an armedcompound in Tikrit and rousting holdouts from Saddam Hussein’sregime. It could mean interdicting insurgents smuggling car-bombexplosives over the Iraqi-Syrian border or silently boarding afreighter on the high seas at night to enforce an embargo. In otherwords, “down range” could be anywhere, anytime, under anyconditions. In Down Range , author Dick Couch, himself a former Navy SEALand CIA case officer, uses his unprecedented access to bring thereader firs