人类一出现武装斗争，间谍便应运而生，成为最古老的两大职业之一。间谍活动神秘莫测，惊心动魄，涌现了不少大智大勇的人物，产生过许多引人入胜的故事。本书讲述了从古埃及、古罗马直至大数据时代下间谍的历史，跨越了5000余年。从中，读者可以看到：古今谍海魅影秘密行动：摩西派间谍窥探迦南，马可·；波罗潜入东方搜集情报，盟军破译德军恩尼格玛密码，苏联“剑桥五人帮”的英国卧底行动等。世界情报机构历史沿革：从古亚述国“国王之眼”，到法国路易十五“国王秘密”，再到军情五处和六处、中情局、克格勃，直至以色列摩萨德等组织。谍战秘密技术更新换代：从密码棒到恩尼格玛密码机，加密技术愈发复杂；从热气球到侦察机，搜集手段不断升级；从人力到卫星，传递方式花样翻新等。情报对人类战争的作用：在塞莫皮莱大战、乌尔姆之战

A blistering journalistic exposé: an account of governmentnegligence, corporate malfeasance, familial struggle, drugs,politics, murder, and a daring rescue operation in the Colombianjungle. On July 2, 2008, when three American private contractors andColombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt were rescuedafter being held for more than five years by the RevolutionaryArmed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the world was captivated by theirpersonal narratives. But between the headlines a major story waslost: Who exactly are the FARC? How had a drug-funded revolutionaryarmy managed to hold so many hostages for so long? Had our costlyWar on Drugs failed completely? Hostage Nation answers thesequestions by exploring the complex and corrupt political andsocioeconomic situations that enabled the FARC to gainunprecedented strength, influence, and impunity. It takes us behindthe news stories to profile a young revolutionary in the making, anelite Colombian banker-turned-guerrilla and the hard-drivenAmeric

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.

On September 11, 2011, the world will be watching astheNational September 11 Memorialopens on the site of the WorldTrade Center. With photographs and architectural plans never beforepublished, paired with comments in the very voices of those whowitnessed the event, those who struggled in its shadow for days andmonths after, and those who have dedicated the years since torebuilding a place of hope and meditation at Ground Zero, this bookwill stand apart from all the reston the tenth anniversary of thatworld-changing event. Heavily illustrated and elegantly designed,the book recalls the excitement and symbolism of the Twin Towers,the horror and chaos of the attack of 9/11, the fierce devotion andexhaustion as rescue of living victims became recovery of remains.But it also carries on from that date in history to tell the insidestory of the long, complex, and sometimes contentious efforts toturn eight acres of Downtown Manhattan into a lasting memorial tothose lost in New York, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon.

Ronald Reagan was one of the most powerful and popularAmerican presidents. The key to understanding his political successand the remarkable likability and effortless charisma that made itpossible is hidden in his early years as a Hollywood moviestar. Other biographers and Reagan in his two memoirs have skimmed overthe thirty years he spent as an actor, union activist, and ladies’man. Now, for the first time, in this highly entertaining andprovocative new work, acclaimed film critic and historian MarcEliot reveals the truth of those formative years and presents a fardifferent and infinitely more detailed portrait of Reagan than everbefore. Based on original research and never-before-published interviews,documents, and other materials, Eliot sheds new light on Reagan’sfilm and television work opposite some of the most talented womenof the time, including Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, and GingerRogers; his starlet-strewn bachelor days when his name was linkedwith Lana Turner and Susan Hayward

During the civil rights movement, epic battles for justicewere fought in the streets, at lunch counters, and in theclassrooms of the American South. Just as many battles were waged,however, in the hearts and minds of ordinary white southernerswhose world became unrecognizable to them. Jason Sokol’s vivid andunprecedented account of white southerners’ attitudes and actions,related in their own words, reveals in a new light thecontradictory mixture of stubborn resistance and pragmaticacceptance–as well as the startling and unexpected personaltransformations–with which they greeted the enforcement of legalequality.

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.

For more than a half-century, Israel has been forced to defendits existence against international political disapproval, racistcalumny, and violence visited upon its citizens by terrorists ofmany stripes. While nations have always been made to defend theirmoral, political, economic, or social actions, Israel has theunique plight of having to defend its very right to exist. Covering Israel's struggle for existence from the Britishoccupation and the UN’s partition of Palestine, to the dashed hopesof the Oslo Accords and the second intifada, Yaacov Lozowick trainsan enlightening, forthright eye on Israel’s strengths and failures.A lifelong liberal and peace activist, he explores Israel’snational and regional political, social, and moral obligations aswell as its right to secure its borders and repel attacks bothphilosophical and military. Combining rich historical perspectiveand passionate conviction, Right to Exist sets forth theagenda of a people and a nation, and elegantly articulates Isra

At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians andthe Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the rootsof their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to theregion. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respectedhistorians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in onPalestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth ofexperience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context forthe realities on the ground today, a context that has been, untilnow, notably lacking in our discourse. The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state beginsin the mandate period immediately following the breakup of theOttoman Empire, the era of British control, when fledgling Arabstates were established by the colonial powers with assurances ofeventual independence. Mandatory Palestine was a place of realpromise, with unusually high literacy rates and a relativelyadvanced economy. But the British had already begun to construct aniron cage to hem in t

The complete American presidential inaugural addressesfeaturing historical background by a National Book Awardwinner A testament to the power of oratory, this stirring and oftensurprising collection includes all fifty-five United Statespresidential inaugural addresses, as well as a general introductionand commentary that provides historical context for each speech.Marking pivotal moments in American history, readers willlearn: ? How George Washington came to ad-lib “So help me, God” at theend of his first inaugural address ? Why Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address is consideredone of the finest ever delivered ? The historical background behind Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Theonly thing we have to fear is fear itself” and John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what youcan do for your country.”