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.
After nearly a dozen books and service as secretary of statefor presidents Nixon and Ford, Kissinger has established himself asa major thinker, writer, and actor on the world's diplomatic stage.His newest work is a remarkable survey of the craft ofinternational relations from the early 17th century to the presentera. Beginning with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, Kissingersummarizes three centuries of Western diplomacy, giving specialattenton to the influence of Wilsonian idealism on 20th-centuryAmerican foreign policy. He is not shy about describing his owncontributions to Nixon's foreign gambits, nor is he reticient aboutoffering his own advice to the current administration on how tohandle Russia, China, or the rest of the world. From Kissinger welearn that there is really little new about the New World Order.This is an important contribution to the theoretical literature onforeign affairs and will also serve quite ably as a one-volumesynthesis of modern diplomatic history. All libraries should havethi
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.
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
In his inspiring new book, You Don’t Need a Title to Be aLeader , Mark Sanborn, the author of the national bestseller The Fred Factor , shows how each of us can be a leader in ourdaily lives and make a positive difference, whatever our title orposition. Through the stories of a number of unsung heroes, Sanbornreveals the keys each one of us can use to improve ourorganizations and enhance our careers. Genuine leadership – leadership with a “little l ”, as heputs it, is not conferred by a title, or limited to the executivesuite. Rather, it is shown through our everyday actions and the waywe influence the lives of those around us. Among the qualities thatgenuine leaders share: ? Acting with purpose rather than getting bogged down by mindlessactivity ? Caring about and listening to others ? Looking for ways to encourage the contributions and developmentof others rather than focusing solely on personalachievements ? Creating a legacy of accomplishment and contribution ineverything they do As reade
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.
About national and international power in the "modern" or PostRenaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen andfallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "newmonarchies" in W. Europe.
In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmonbrings to light one of the most shameful chapters in Americanhistory—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath ofthe Civil War through the dawn of World War II.Using a vast recordof original documents and personal narratives, Douglas A. Blackmonunearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants whojourneyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and thenback into the shadow of involuntary servitude shortly thereafter.By turns moving, sobering, and shocking, this unprecedented accountreveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against there-emergence of human labor trafficking, the companies thatprofited most from neoslavery, and the insidious legacy of racismthat reverberates today.
The political memoiras rousing adventure story—a sizzling account of a life lived inthe thick of every important struggle of the era. April 1973: snow falls thick and fast on the Badlands ofSouth Dakota. It has been more than five weeks since protestingSioux Indians seized their historic village of Wounded Knee, andthe FBI shows no signs of abandoning its siege. When Bill Zimmermanis asked to coordinate an airlift of desperately needed food andmedical supplies, he cannot refuse; flying through gunfire and amechanical malfunction, he carries out a daring dawn raid andsuccess?0?2fully parachutes 1,500 pounds of food into the village.The drop breaks the FBI siege, and assures an Indian victory. This was not the first—or last—time Bill Zimmerman put his life atrisk for the greater social good. In this extraordi?0?2nary memoir,Zimmerman takes us into the hearts and minds of those making thesocial revolution of the sixties. He writes about registering blackvoters in deepest, most racist Mississippi; marc
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.
One ofthe most critical battles of the Afghan War is now revealed asnever before. Lions of Kandahar is an inside account from theunique perspective of an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forcescommander, an unparalled warrior with multiple deployments to thetheater who has only recently returned from combatthere. Southern Afghanistan was slipping away.That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his thirdtour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies wereinfiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, theirstrategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATOcoalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in itshistory. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packedwarren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers,lush orchards, and towering marijuana stands, all laced withtreacherous irrigation ditches. A mass exodus of civilians heraldedthe carnage to come. Dispatched as a diversionary force insuppo
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.
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.
An instant classic of war reporting, The Forever War isthe definitive account of America's conflict with Islamicfundamentalism and a searing exploration of its human costs.Through the eyes of Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the NewYork Times, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, theaftermath of the attack on New York on September 11th, and theAmerican wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only Americanjournalist to have reported on all these events, and hisexperiences are conveyed in a riveting narrative filled withunforgettable characters and astonishing scenes.
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.
This updated edition contains new analysis on the situation inIraq and the war against terrorism. Sold over 10,000 copies in hardcover. No one outside the intelligence services knows more about theirculture than Thomas Powers. In this book he tells stories ofshadowy successes, ghastly failures, and, more often, grippinguncertainties. They range from the CIA's long cold war strugglewith its Russian adversary to debates about the use of secretintelligence in a democratic society, and urgent contemporaryissues such as whether the CIA and the FBI can defend Americaagainst terrorism.
Edward Said has long been considered one of the world’s mostcompelling public intellectuals, taking on a remarkable array oftopics with his many publications. But no single book hasencompassed the vast scope of his stimulating erudition quite like Power, Politics, and Culture , a collection of interviewsfrom the last three decades. In these twenty-eight interviews, Said addresses everything fromPalestine to Pavarotti, from his nomadic upbringing under colonialrule to his politically active and often controversial adulthood,and reflects on Austen, Beckett, Conrad, Naipaul, Mahfouz, andRushdie, as well as on fellow critics Bloom, Derrida, and Foucault.The passion Said feels for literature, music, history, and politicsis powerfully conveyed in this indispensable complement to hisprolific life's work.
"Jefferson aspired beyond the ambition of a nationality, and embraced in his view the whole future of man." --Henry Adams
A brilliant account of religion's role in the politicalthinking of the West, from the Enlightenment to the close of WorldWar II. The wish to bring political life under God's authority is nothingnew, and it's clear that today religious passions are again drivingworld politics, confounding expectations of a secular future. Inthis major book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-oldquest-and its surprising role in shaping Western thought. Making uslook deeper into our beliefs about religion, politics, and the fateof civilizations, Lilla reminds us of the modern West's uniquetrajectory and how to remain on it. Illuminating and challenging, The Stillborn God is a watershed in the history ofideas.
Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years ofconflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not onlyabout how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawingfrom thousands of hours of previously unavailable (and stillclassified) tape-recorded meetings between the highest levels ofthe American military command in Vietnam, A Better War is aninsightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these finalyears. Through his exclusive access to authoritative materials,award-winning historian Lewis Sorley highlights the dramaticdifferences in conception, conduct, and-at least for a time-resultsbetween the early and later years of the war. Among his mostimportant findings is that while the war was being lost at thepeace table and in the U.S. Congress, the soldiers were winning onthe ground. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better Warsheds new light on the Vietnam War.