The Fate of the West

The Fate of the West PDF

Author: Bill Emmott

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1782832998

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When faced with global instability and economic uncertainty, it is tempting for states to react by closing borders, hoarding wealth and solidifying power. We have seen it at various times in Japan, France and Italy and now it is infecting much of Europe and America, as the vote for Brexit in the UK has vividly shown. This insularity, together with increased inequality of income and wealth, threatens the future role of the West as a font of stability, prosperity and security. Part of the problem is that the principles of liberal democracy upon which the success of the West has been built have been suborned, with special interest groups such as bankers accruing too much power and too great a share of the economic cake. So how is this threat to be countered? States such as Sweden in the 1990s, California at different times or Britain under Thatcher all halted stagnation by clearing away the powers of interest groups and restoring their societies' ability to evolve. To survive, the West needs to be porous, open and flexible. From reinventing welfare systems to redefining the working age, from reimagining education to embracing automation, Emmott lays out the changes the West must make to revive itself in the moment and avoid a deathly rigid future.

The Battle to Save the Houston

The Battle to Save the Houston PDF

Author: Estate of John G. Miller

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2013-01-15

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13: 1612512763

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A World War II adventure story of epic proportions, this book tells the heroic tale of a dedicated band of men who refused to let their crippled ship sink to the bottom of the Pacific in late 1944. Based on over seventy eyewitness accounts and hundreds of official documents and personal papers, it records in rich detail the USS Houston's 14,000-mile perilous journey home to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Part of Bull Halsey's famous Pacific Task Force 38, the Houston's had been supporting air strikes as a prelude to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, when she took an aerial torpedo hit that caused serious flooding. Nearly two-thirds of the crew abandoned ship before the damage-control officer convinced the captain she might be saved. Another torpedo hit two days later complicated the crew's desperate fight. Surrounded by death, floodwaters, and fire, stalked by enemy subs, threatened by air attack, and running from a typhoon, the men of the Houston's remained towers of strength while knowing their ship was never more than minutes away from breaking apart. John Miller's action-packed account gives insights into the nature of heroism and leadership that remain valuable today. Exceptional photographic documentation accompanies the text.

Kontum

Kontum PDF

Author: Thomas P. McKenna

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2011-09-09

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 0813140366

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in what became known as the Easter Offensive. Almost all of the American forces had already withdrawn from Vietnam except for a small group of American advisers to the South Vietnamese armed forces. The 23rd ARVN Infantry Division and its American advisers were sent to defend the provincial capital of Kontum in the Central Highlands. They were surrounded and attacked by three enemy divisions with heavy artillery and tanks but, with the help of air power, managed to successfully defend Kontum and prevent South Vietnam from being cut in half and defeated. Although much has been written about the Vietnam War, little of it addresses either the Easter Offensive or the Battle of Kontum. In Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam, Thomas P. McKenna fills this gap, offering the only in-depth account available of this violent engagement. McKenna, a U.S. infantry lieutenant colonel assigned as a military adviser to the 23rd Division, participated in the battle of Kontum and combines his personal experiences with years of interviews and research from primary sources to describe the events leading up to the invasion and the battle itself. Kontum sheds new light on the actions of U.S. advisers in combat during the Vietnam War. McKenna's book is not only an essential historical resource for America's most controversial war but a personal story of valor and survival.

Monocacy

Monocacy PDF

Author: B. Franklin Cooling

Publisher: White Mane Publishing Company

Published: 2000-07

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781572492295

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This is the first modern study of this pivotal moment in the Confederacy's last major invasion north of the Potomac. The Battle of Monocacy reflected the modern use of railroad, steamboat, and telegraph, reaching its epitome in the use of combined arms in the crucial final Confederate assault against stubborn Federal resistance.

Last Stand

Last Stand PDF

Author: Michael Punke

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-04-21

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0061914525

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

THE EPIC TRUE STORY OF THE AMERICAN BUFFALO—BY MICHAEL PUNKE, THE AUTHOR OF THE REVENANT, NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to twelve. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a Gilded Age that treated the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. The buffalo in this world was a commodity, hounded by legions of swashbucklers and unemployed veterans seeking to make their fortunes. Supporting these hide hunters, even buying their ammunition, was the U.S. Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans. Into that maelstrom rode young George Bird Grinnell. A scientist and a journalist, a hunter and a conservationist, Grinnell would lead the battle to save the buffalo from extinction. Fighting in the pages of magazines, in Washington's halls of power, and in the frozen valleys of Yellowstone, Grinnell and his allies sought to preserve an icon from the grinding appetite of Robber Baron America. Grinnell shared his adventures with some of the greatest and most infamous characters of the American West—from John James Audubon and Buffalo Bill to George Armstrong Custer and Theodore Roosevelt (Grinnell's friend and ally). A strikingly contemporary story, the saga of Grinnell and the buffalo was the first national battle over the environment. In Grinnell's legacy is the birth of the conservation movement as a potent political force.

Lady Justice

Lady Justice PDF

Author: Dahlia Lithwick

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2023-09-19

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0525561404

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Winner of the LA Times Book Prize in Current Interest An instant New York Times Bestseller! “Stirring…Lithwick’s approach, interweaving interviews with legal commentary, allows her subjects to shine...Inspiring.”—New York Times Book Review “In Dahlia Lithwick’s urgent, engaging Lady Justice, Dobbs serves as a devastating bookend to a story that begins in hope.”—Boston Globe Dahlia Lithwick, one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, tells the gripping and heroic story of the women lawyers who fought the racism, sexism, and xenophobia of Donald Trump’s presidency—and won After the sudden shock of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, many Americans felt lost and uncertain. It was clear he and his administration were going to pursue a series of retrograde, devastating policies. What could be done? Immediately, women lawyers all around the country, independently of each other, sprang into action, and they had a common goal: they weren’t going to stand by in the face of injustice, while Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican party did everything in their power to remake the judiciary in their own conservative image. Over the next four years, the women worked tirelessly to hold the line against the most chaotic and malign presidency in living memory. There was Sally Yates, the acting attorney general of the United States, who refused to sign off on the Muslim travel ban. And Becca Heller, the founder of a refugee assistance program who brought the fight over the travel ban to the airports. And Roberta Kaplan, the famed commercial litigator, who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. And, of course, Stacey Abrams, whose efforts to protect the voting rights of millions of Georgians may well have been what won the Senate for the Democrats in 2020. These are just a handful of the stories Lithwick dramatizes in thrilling detail to tell a brand-new and deeply inspiring account of the Trump years. With unparalleled access to her subjects, she has written a luminous book, not about the villains of the Trump years, but about the heroes. And as the country confronts the news that the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices, will soon overturn Roe v. Wade, Lithwick shines a light on not only the major consequences of such a decision, but issues a clarion call to all who might, like the women in this book, feel the urgency to join the fight. A celebration of the tireless efforts, legal ingenuity, and indefatigable spirit of the women whose work all too often went unrecognized at the time, Lady Justice is destined to be treasured and passed from hand to hand for generations to come, not just among lawyers and law students, but among all optimistic and hopeful Americans.

Science as a Contact Sport

Science as a Contact Sport PDF

Author: Stephen H. Schneider

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1426205406

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Schneider's firsthand account of a scientific and political odyssey, in which he navigates both the turbulent waters of the world's power structures and the arcane theater of academic debaters.

Demagogue

Demagogue PDF

Author: Michael Signer

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2009-02-03

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0230618561

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A demagogue is a tyrant who owes his initial rise to the democratic support of the masses. Huey Long, Hugo Chavez, and Moqtada al-Sadr are all clear examples of this dangerous byproduct of democracy. Demagogue takes a long view of the fight to defend democracy from within, from the brutal general Cleon in ancient Athens, the demagogues who plagued the bloody French Revolution, George W. Bush's naïve democratic experiment in Iraq, and beyond. This compelling narrative weaves stories about some of history's most fascinating figures, including Adolf Hitler, Senator Joe McCarthy, and General Douglas Macarthur, and explains how humanity's urge for liberty can give rise to dark forces that threaten that very freedom. To find the solution to democracy's demagogue problem, the book delves into the stories of four great thinkers who all personally struggled with democracy--Plato, Alexis de Tocqueville, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt.

Tut: My Epic Battle to Save the World

Tut: My Epic Battle to Save the World PDF

Author: P. J. Hoover

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2017-02-28

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0765390841

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Pleasantly reminiscent of Rick Riordan’s work.”--Publishers Weekly Meet Tut! He used to rule Egypt. Now he's stuck in middle school. Having defeated his evil uncle and the Cult of Set, who tried to send him to the afterlife, the perpetually fourteen-year-old King Tut is looking forward to a relaxing summer vacation. But then Tut discovers that his brother Gilgamesh has been captured by the Egyptian god Apep, Lord of Chaos. Gil helped to vanquish Apep thousands of years ago, and now Apep is back for vengeance. It’s up to Tut and his friends, Tia and Henry, to find Gil and stop Apep before he succeeds in his scheme to swallow the sun and plunge the world into darkness forever.... Tut: My Epic Battle to Save the World will appeal to fans of fast and funny mythological fantasy. Don’t miss Tut’s first epic adventure, Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Battle of the Classics

The Battle of the Classics PDF

Author: Eric Adler

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-09-04

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 019751880X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

These are troubling days for the humanities. In response, a recent proliferation of works defending the humanities has emerged. But, taken together, what are these works really saying, and how persuasive do they prove? The Battle of the Classics demonstrates the crucial downsides of contemporary apologetics for the humanities and presents in its place a historically informed case for a different approach to rescuing the humanistic disciplines in higher education. It reopens the passionate debates about the classics that took place in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America as a springboard for crafting a novel foundation for the humanistic tradition. Eric Adler demonstrates that current defenses of the humanities rely on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of certain poorly defined skills such as "critical thinking." It criticizes this conventional approach, contending that humanists cannot hope to save their disciplines without arguing in favor of particular humanities content. As the uninspired defenses of the classical humanities in the late nineteenth century prove, instrumental apologetics are bound to fail. All the same, the book shows that proponents of the Great Books favor a curriculum that is too intellectually narrow for the twenty-first century. The Battle of the Classics thus lays out a substance-based approach to undergraduate education that will revive the humanities, even as it steers clear of overreliance on the Western canon. The book envisions a global humanities based on the examination of masterworks from manifold cultures as the heart of an intellectually and morally sound education.