14302 results for "History"

Beyond the university: why liberal education matters

Roth, Michael S.
From the president of Wesleyan University, an eloquent defense of liberal education, seen against the backdrop of its contested history in America Winner of the 2016 Frederic W. Ness Book Award sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities Contentious debates over the benefits--or drawbacks--of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism, often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student's capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America's long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education. Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. Du Bois's humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington's educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams's emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey's calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future.
Yale University Press 2015 228 pages

Who is Michael Ovitz?

Ovitz, Michael
If you're going to read one book about Hollywood, this is the one. As co-founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Michael Ovitz earned a reputation for ruthless negotiation, brilliant strategy and fierce loyalty to his clients. He reinvented the role of the agent and helped shape the careers of hundreds of A-list stars and directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Sean Connery, Steven Seagal, Bill Murray, Robin Williams and David Letterman. But this personal history is much more than celebrity friendships and bare-knuckled deal-making. It's an underdog's story- How did a kid with no connections work his way into the William Morris mailroom, and become the most powerful person in Hollywood? How did a superagent also become a power in producing, advertising, mergers & acquisitions and modern art? And what were the personal consequences of all those deals? After decades of near-silence in the face of intense controversy, Michael Ovitz is finally telling his whole story in this blistering, unforgettable memoir.
WH Allen 2019-07-16 372 pages

MASTERING THE BASICS OF BITCOIN AND CRYPTO: GO FROM CRYPTO CURIOUS TO CRYPTO COMPETENT WITH JUST ONE BOOK

Shrem, Charlie,Kimelman, Michael
Whether you are brand spanking new to bitcoin and crypto or already understand the basics and want to expand your knowledge, this is the book for you! “Mastering the Basics” is a one-stop guide to help you immediately go from “crypto curious” to “crypto competent.” We know how confusing bitcoin and crypto looks to the uninitiated. The potential is massive and world-changing, but it's intimidating and you don't know where to start. That’s why we wrote this step-by-step guide in simple, plain-English terms that anyone can grasp. After completing this book, you will have a comprehensive working knowledge of the concepts and technologies that make digital assets possible. We’ll take away the mystery and empower you with the knowledge and ability to understand bitcoin and profitably buy, sell, secure, and trade cryptos with ease. This is incredibly valuable knowledge taught by two of the most respected experts in the space with over a decade long track record of success. With one book you can equip yourself with the expertise that only a tiny fraction of people alive today possess. There’s no time like the present to get started and get savvy about the greatest opportunity in history for financial success and personal freedom. It starts here. It starts today. What are you waiting for?
Independently published 2022-06-19 191 pages

The federal impeachment process: a constitutional and historical analysis

Gerhardt, Michael J.
As President Trump and Congressional Democrats battle over the findings of the Mueller report, talk of impeachment is in the air. But what are the grounds for impeaching a sitting president? Who is subject to impeachment? Is impeachment effective as a safeguard against presidential misconduct? What challenges does today’s highly partisan political climate pose to the impeachment process, and what, if any, meaningful alternatives are there for handling presidential misconduct? For more than twenty years, The Federal Impeachment Process has served as the most complete analysis of the constitutional and legal issues raised in every impeachment proceeding in American history. Impeachment, Michael J. Gerhardt shows, is an inherently political process designed to expose and remedy political crimes—serious breaches of duty or injuries to the Republic. Subject neither to judicial review nor to presidential veto, it is a unique congressional power that involves both political and constitutional considerations, including the gravity of the offense charged, the harm to the constitutional order, and the link between an official’s misconduct and duties. For this third edition, Gerhardt updates the book to cover cases since President Clinton, as well as recent scholarly debates. He discusses the issues arising from the possible impeachment of Donald Trump, including whether a sitting president may be investigated, prosecuted, and convicted for criminal misconduct or whether impeachment and conviction in Congress is the only way to sanction a sitting president; what the “Emoluments Clause” means and whether it might provide the basis for the removal of the president; whether gross incompetence may serve as the basis for impeachment; and the extent to which federal conflicts of interest laws apply to the president and other high ranking officials. Significantly updated, this book will remain the standard work on the federal impeachment process for years to come.
The University of Chicago Press 2019-04-12 295 pages

The Franco-Prussian war

Howard, Michael
"In 1870 the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck ordered the Prussian Army to invade France, inciting one of the most dramatic conflicts in European history. It transformed not only the states-system of the Continent but the whole climate of European moral and political thought. The overwhelming triumph of German military might, evoking general admiration and imitation, introduced an era of power politics, which was to reach its disastrous climax in 1914."--Page 4 of cover.
Routledge 2021 525 pages

The quest for the red prince

Bar-Zohar, Michael
Few terrorists have been as internationally notorious - or as deadly as "The Red Prince." That was the nickname of Ali Hassan Salameh, a Palestinian who oversaw the Black September Organization from 1970 until his murder by car bomb in 1979. Salameh masterminded the 1972 hijacking of Sabena flight 572 to Tel Aviv, killing 27 tourists at Israel's Lod airport, and the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich. In 1973, he organized the murder of the American and Saudi ambassadors in Sudan. The Red Prince's story is also that of General Aharon "Arale" Yariv, Golda Meir's choice to run Israel's counterterrorism response, and of Zvi Zamir, the head of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence unit. As The Quest for The Red Prince unfolds, Zamir and Yariv orchestrate a series of daring cross-border assassinations, picking off Black September members one by one, chasing down Salameh until a final reckoning in Beirut. The Quest for The Red Prince does more than catalog the awful crimes of a terrorist, and Israel's search for a way to end his bloody reign: it authoritatively recounts the history of one of the central conflicts of our time - the Palestinian-Israeli struggle. (6 x 9, 248 pages, b&w photos) Michael Bar-Zohar's previous books include a biography of Ben Gurion and a history of the Israeli Secret Services. Eitan Haber is an Israeli journalist and coauthor of a book about the raid at Entebbe.
Lyons Press 2002 231 pages

The shifts and the shocks: what we've learned -- and have still to learn -- from the financial crisis

Wolf, Martin
"From the chief economic commentator for the Financial Times, a brilliant tour d'horizon of the new global economy and its trajectory There have been many books that have sought to explain the causes and courses of the financial and economic crisis which began in 2007-8. The Shifts and the Shocks is not another detailed history of the crisis, but the most persuasive and complete account yet published of what the crisis should teach us about modern economies and economics. The book identifies the origin of the crisis in the complex interaction between globalization, hugely destabilizing global imbalances and our dangerously fragile financial system. In the eurozone, these sources of instability were multiplied by the tragically defective architecture of the monetary union. It also shows how much of the orthodoxy that shaped monetary and financial policy before the crisis occurred was complacent and wrong. In doing so, it mercilessly reveals the failures of the financial, political and intellectual elites who ran the system. The book also examines what has been done to reform the financial and monetary systems since the worst of the crisis passed. "Are we now on a sustainable course?" Wolf asks. "The answer is no." He explains with great clarity why "further crises seem certain" and why the management of the eurozone in particular "guarantees a huge political crisis at some point in the future." Wolf provides far more ambitious and comprehensive plans for reform than any currently being implemented. Written with all the intellectual command and trenchant judgment that have made Martin Wolf one of the world's most influential economic commentators, The Shifts and the Shocks matches impressive analysis with no-holds-barred criticism and persuasive prescription for a more stable future. It is a book no one with an interest in global affairs will want to neglect. "--
Penguin Press 2015 503 pages

Casey Stengel: baseball's greatest character

Appel, Martin
A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year Winner of the 2017 Casey Award for the Best Baseball Book of the Year “The ultimate biography.” —The New York Times As a player, Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel's contemporaries included Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson. As a legendary manager, he formed indelible, complicated relationships with Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Billy Martin. For more than five glorious decades, Stengel was the undisputed, quirky, hilarious, and beloved face of baseball—and along the way he revolutionized the role of manager. But for a man who spent so much of his life in the limelight Stengel remains an enigma. Acclaimed New York Yankees' historian and bestselling author Marty Appel digs into Casey Stengel's quirks and foibles, unearthing a tremendous trove of baseball stories, perspective, and history. Weaving in never-before-published family documents, Appel creates a matchless and intimate portrait of a private man. Casey Stengel is a biography that will be treasured by fans of our national pastime for years to come.
Anchor 2018-03-20 432 pages

A chosen few: the resurrection of European Jewry

Kurlansky, Mark
A POWERFUL, DEEPLY MOVING NARRATIVE OF HOPE REBORN IN THE SHADOW OF DESPAIR Fifty years after it was bombed to rubble, Berlin is once again a city in which Jews gather for the Passover seder. Paris and Antwerp have recently emerged as important new centers of Jewish culture. Small but proud Jewish communities are revitalizing the ancient centers of Budapest, Prague, and Amsterdam. These brave, determined Jewish men and women have chosen to settle–or remain–in Europe after the devastation of the Holocaust, but they have paid a price. Among the unexpected dangers, they have had to cope with an alarming resurgence of Nazism in Europe, the spread of Arab terrorism, and the impact of the Jewish state on European life. Delving into the intimate stories of European Jews from all walks of life, Kurlansky weaves together a vivid tapestry of individuals sustaining their traditions, and flourishing, in the shadow of history. An inspiring story of a tenacious people who have rebuilt their lives in the face of incomprehensible horror, A Chosen Few is a testament to cultural survival and a celebration of the deep bonds that endure between Jews and European civilization. “Consistently absorbing . . . A Chosen Few investigates the relatively uncharted territory of an encouraging phenomenon.” –Los Angeles Times “I can think of no book that portrays with such intelligence, historical understanding, and journalistic flair what life has been like for Jews determined to build lives in Europe.” –SUSAN MIRON Forward
Ballantine 2002-03-26 407 pages

Portrait of Myself

Margaret Bourke-White
THIS is the story of a gallant, beautiful and glamorous American woman. For more than thirty years, Margaret Bourke-White had made photographic history as the first photographer to see the artistic and storytelling possibilities in American industry, as the first to write social criticism with a lens, and as the most distinguished and venturesome foreign correspondent-with-a camera to report wars, politics and social and political revolution on three continents. In the world of pictures, of magazines, of books, she won fame and fortune. Here are the tales of her struggles to master her art and craft, of photographing Stalin, Gandhi and many other notables, of being torpedoed off North Africa while reporting World War II, of flying combat missions, of photographing the dread murder camps of Nazi Germany, of touring Tobacco Road to produce the book You Have Seen Their Faces with Erskine Caldwell (whom she later married), of adventures and wonderful picture-taking in the mines of South Africa, in the frozen North, in war-torn Korea. And then, tragically, this beautiful and indomitably vigorous woman was stricken by Parkinson's disease. This story of Miss Bourke-White's winning battle with Parkinsons was the subject first of a long report in Life Magazine and then of a thrilling documentary television film which was seen throughout the nation.
Chosho Publishing 2022-09-12 412 pages

The taste of ashes: the afterlife of totalitarianism in Eastern Europe

Shore, Marci
Oskar has just killed himself. After waiting a quarter century, he returned to Prague only to find it was no longer his home. With his memorial service, Yale historian and prize-winning author Marci Shore leads us gently into the post-totalitarian world. We meet a professor of literature who as a child played chess with the extortionist who had come to deliver him to the Gestapo and an elderly Trotskyite whose deformed finger is a memento of seventeen years in the Soviet gulag. Parents who had denounced their teenage dissident daughter to the communist secret police plead for understanding. For all of these people, the fall of Communism has not ended history but rather summoned the past: rebellion in 1968, Stalinism, the Second World War, the Holocaust. The revolutions of 1989 opened the archives, illuminating the tragedy of twentieth-century Eastern Europe: there were moments in which no decisions were innocent, in which all possible choices caused suffering. As the author reads pages in the lives of others, she reveals the intertwining of the personal and the political, of love and cruelty, of intimacy and betrayal. The result is a lyrical, touching, and sometimes heartbreaking portrayal of how history moves and what history means.
Broadway Books 2013 370 pages

In the shadow of young girls in flower

Proust, Marcel
Within a Budding Grove (1919) is the second volume of Marcel Proust's seven-part novel In Search of Lost Time . Written while Proust was virtually confined to his bedroom from a lifelong respiratory illness, Within a Budding Grove is a story of memory, history, family, and romance from a master of Modernist literature. Praised by Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Chabon, and Graham Greene, In Search of Lost Time explores the nature of memory and time while illuminating the history of homosexuality in nineteenth century Europe. After years of admiring the Swann family from a distance, the narrator befriends the lovely young Gilberte. Through her, he gains access to her parents and their home, where artists and intellectuals gather to discuss their lofty ideals alongside the latest gossip. Despite his attraction to Gilberte, he finds himself enthralled with her mother, a careworn beauty so often ignored by her husband. As he grows and learns, he begins to recognize the reality concealed by convention: the secret liaisons between lovers; the petty competitions of artists; the fleeting nature of affection and lust alike. Written in flowing prose, Within a Budding Grove is a masterpiece of twentieth century fiction that continues to entertain and astound over a century after it appeared in print. This edition of Marcel Proust's Within a Budding Grove is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
Mint Editions 2021 500 pages

The World Made New Why the Age of Exploration Happened & how it Changed the World

Marc Aronson
Describes how the discoveries made by the Europeans around the time of Columbus changed the world. National Geographic has always given readers the bigger picture of our world. Now The World Made New shows children the bigger context of American history. Written by award-winning children's author Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn, this innovative title will lead children through the causes and consequences of the defining age of exploration. Its unique approach will provide children with new ways of thinking about and learning from history, and instill a lasting sense of our country's past. The World Made New provides a detailed account of the charting of the New World and the long-term effects of America's march into history. The text uses primary sources to bring history to life and features evocative profiles of the major explorers of the age. The book is beautifully illustrated with full-color artwork, multiple-time lines, and six custom National Geographic maps. The text and layout combine to provide an enlightening overview of New World exploration, and outline the historical context for the discoveries that literally changed the world. The narrative carries young readers through this age of glorious, and sometimes inglorious, adventure. Follow the timeline of history unfolding; how the early colonies were established; how dissemination of products like the potato, tomato, tobacco, and corn made the Americas a major part of the new world economy; and how the Caribbean became a major trading hub.
Scholastic Press 2008 64 pages

The Reincarnationist

M. J. Rose
An epic thriller of secrets, history and murder that will challenge how we think about who we are, and who we were. A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white, and photojournalist Josh Ryder's world explodes. As Josh recovers, thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories invade him. But they are not his. They are ancient…and violent with an urgency he cannot ignore—pulling him to save Sabina…and the treasures she protects. But who is Sabina? Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the Phoenix Foundation—a research facility that scientifically documents past-life experiences. He is led to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient, powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present. Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present.
Mira 2010-02-16 400 pages

The Book of Lost Fragrances

M. J. Rose
Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past -- her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up with as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances -- and of her mother's suicide -- she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company as well as its financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing, leaving a dead body in his wake, Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind. In Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend that the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Could there really be a scent that unlocks the mystery of reincarnation? In The Book of Lost Fragrances, M. J. Rose fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.
Center Point Large Print 2012 556 pages

Unlocked The Life and Crimes of a Mafia Insider

Louis Ferrante
Louis Ferrante began hijacking delivery trucks at age seventeen, and New York's infamous Gambino crime family took notice. By twenty-one, Ferrante's Mafia connections had enabled him to pull off some of the most lucrative heists in history. But betrayals by close friends brought Ferrante a slew of federal indictments, and he would spend the next decade as an inmate in some of America's most notorious penitentiaries—with ample time to ponder life's essential questions: Who am I? What makes me this way? Do I have a purpose? In the prison library he embarked on an extraordinary journey of the mind that took him from history to philosophy to major world religions, from the art of writing to the law. And after successfully appealing his own conviction—in a case now cited in courtrooms across the country—Ferrante walked away from prison a writer and a profoundly changed man. Unlocked is a remarkable memoir of personal transformation—a true story that is shocking, brutal, inspiring, and unforgettable.
HarperCollins 2009-02-24 320 pages

The U.S. Supreme Court: a very short introduction

Greenhouse, Linda
For 30 years, the author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist chronicled the activities of the U.S. Supreme Court and its justices as a correspondent for the New York Times. In this introduction, she draws on her knowledge of the court's history and of its written and unwritten rules to show how the Supreme Court really works. She offers an institutional biography of a place and its people, men and women who exercise great power but whose names and faces are unrecognized by many Americans and whose work often appears cloaked in mystery. How do cases get to the Supreme Court? How do the justices go about deciding them? What special role does the chief justice play? What do the law clerks do? How does the court relate to the other branches of government? The author answers these questions by depicting the justices as they confront deep constitutional issues or wrestle with the meaning of confusing federal statutes. Throughout, the author examines many individual Supreme Court cases to illustrate points under discussion, ranging from Marbury v. Madison, the seminal case which established judicial review, to the recent District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which struck down the District of Columbia's gun-control statute and which was, surprisingly, the first time in its history that the Court issued an authoritative interpretation of the Second Amendment. To add perspective, she also compares the Court to foreign courts, revealing interesting differences. For instance, no other country in the world has chosen to bestow life tenure on its judges.
Oxford University Press 2012 126 pages

A Leonard Bloomfield anthology

Bloomfield, Leonard
In the centenary year of Leonard Bloomfield's birth, this abridgment makes available a representative selection of the writings of this central figure in the history of linguistics. "Hockett has achieved his purpose—to reveal Bloomfield's way of working, the general principles that guided his work, and last, but by no means least, to indicate how Bloomfield's interests and attitudes changed with the passing years."—Harry Hoijer, Language
University of Chicago Press 1987-07-27 314 pages

Mitla Pass

Leon Uris
A sweeping novel of love, passion, and freedom, Mitla Pass stands as an epic look at modern Middle Eastern history and is quite possibly Uris's most autobiographical work. Gideon Zadok arrives in Israel with every intention to research a new book, mend a broken marriage, and improve his dysfunctional family. But as political tensions escalate and his family is evacuated, Zadok asks to follow Israeli paratroopers to secure Mitla Pass and finds himself in the midst of one of the largest global crises of the twentieth century.
Blackstone Publishing 2022-11-22 393 pages