All evidence points to the superiority of the libertarian ideal—private property, capitalism, international trade, laissez-faire—but something is keeping the world from embracing it. That something is wrong-headed ideology, some philosophical error grown into a massive system of thought, an agenda that if unleashed would mutilate and crush civilization as we know it.Murray Rothbard had a nose for such error. And when he smelled it, he wrote it up, exposed its underside, refuted its logic, and obliterated its intellectual foundation. That's why he was so hated—and so loved. He is so relentless that it makes the reader squirm. But he also teaches and inspires.So it goes through this wonderful book called "Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays." It might just be the wildest Rothbard romp ever. Fully armed, he slices and dices crazies of all sorts, from those who would level all incomes to those who would free all people's of the world through bombings and nuclear war. This is Rothbard providing the reader a strong does of sanity against the hordes of ideological fanatics who care not a knit for reality or reason.But Rothbard is not one of those thinkers who, like Russell Kirk, conclude that ideology is itself a bad thing. On the contrary, Rothbard believes that ideology is critical for the defense of liberty: we must organize our ideas to make sense of the world and to have an agenda for the future.Thus does this book also include outstanding pieces of positive theory, including "Justice and Property Rights," "War, Peace, and the State," and "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty." It concludes with his rallying cry: "Why Be Libertarian?"With all the political books out there, each with a partisan spin, it's wonderful to read a thinker who doesn't fear exposing the errors of left and right, measuring anyone and everyone against the great benchmark of the idea of liberty.

"Begley writes with a contemplative wisdom that permeates his work....[He] has captured some of the wispy melancholy of midcentury fiction, and this feat in itself is mellifluous to both ear and spirit." THE BOSTON GLOBE A man without a country or family, a Holocaust survivor, Ben long ago left the wreckage of Europe and recreated himself as a brilliant financier. He rejects the comforts of love and is shocked to discover Veronique--beautiful, unwisely married, and all that Ben suddenly knows he has always needed. In their stolen hours and weekends, their deep commitment to one another fills their lives as nothing ever has. But the question remains: Can Ben finally take what he has always denied himself...? From the author of WARTIME LIES. "From the Trade Paperback edition.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 6 - It's winter, but academic madness is in full bloom at the State University of Michigan. Untenured professor Nick Hoffman is desperately trying to keep out of the way as three senior professors battle to be the chair of his department. They all hate each other and all demand his support in an atmosphere of intense crisis. The situation implodes when an emergency meeting turns the department upside down. Nick is left desperate to make a quick getaway, so his partner Stefan suggests an idyllic week at a Caribbean Club Med. The island of Serenity, however, proves to be anything but serene. Once again, Edith Wharton scholar Nick Hoffman, who grew up in New York City and was never even mugged, finds himself face-to-face with murder. In this sixth novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, amuses and delights on campus and on vacation. Included in this new edition, a foreword by Anthony Bidulka (Russell Quant Mysteries). "Author Lev Raphael knows quite a lot about the dismal swamps of academe and the sunlit beaches of the Caribbean. The time he has obviously spent in these places make it possible for him to write vividly - and wittily - about both, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek." - Lambda Book Report "Funny, cynical, and bittersweet, the new Nick Hoffman mystery will be eagerly pounced on by Raphael's many fans." - Lauren Henderson, My Lurid Past "Lev Raphael has done it again - another mordantly witty mystery featuring everyone's favourite acerbic English professor, Nick Hoffman. Relax with Tropic of Murder and take an entertaining, exotic Club Med vacation without even having to get out of your favorite chair." - Dean James, Decorated to Death "Beguiling and funny." - Washington Post "Raphael keeps us turning pages with mouthwatering descriptions of buffets and a paradise brimming with cheerful attendants; he ratchets up tension with rumors of ghosts and some very substantial fellows threatening to trade blows." - Booklist "Raphael's wit is sharp as ever." - Kirkus Reviews

"From Consent to Coercion examines the increasing assault against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada by federal and provincial governments. Centring the struggles of Canadian unionized workers, this book explores the diminution of the welfare state and the impacts that this erosion has had on broader working-class rights and standards of living. The fourth edition witnesses the passing of an era of free collective bargaining in Canada--an era in which the state and capital relied on obtaining the consent of workers and unions to act as subordinates in Canada's capitalist democracy. It looks at how the last twenty years have marked a return to a more open reliance of the state and capital on coercion--on force and on fear--to secure that subordination. From Consent to Coercion considers this conjuncture in the Canadian political economy amid growing precarity, poverty, and polarization in an otherwise indeterminate period of austerity. This important edition calls attention to the urgent task of rebuilding and renewing socialist politics--of thinking ambitiously and meeting new challenges with unique solutions to the left of social democracy."--

"From Consent to Coercion examines the increasing assault against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada by federal and provincial governments. Centring the struggles of Canadian unionized workers, this book explores the diminution of the welfare state and the impacts that this erosion has had on broader working-class rights and standards of living. The fourth edition witnesses the passing of an era of free collective bargaining in Canada--an era in which the state and capital relied on obtaining the consent of workers and unions to act as subordinates in Canada's capitalist democracy. It looks at how the last twenty years have marked a return to a more open reliance of the state and capital on coercion--on force and on fear--to secure that subordination. From Consent to Coercion considers this conjuncture in the Canadian political economy amid growing precarity, poverty, and polarization in an otherwise indeterminate period of austerity. This important edition calls attention to the urgent task of rebuilding and renewing socialist politics--of thinking ambitiously and meeting new challenges with unique solutions to the left of social democracy."--

Should America try to bring democracy to countries that are young or poor or that have cultures very different from our own? This book shows why the sophisticates have been wrong, why idealism offers the most sound basis for US policy. Since its small beginnings in 1776, America has served as the world's great engine of democracy. Our aid and trade, our overseas broadcasts and libraries, our cloak-and-dagger exploits, but above all else, the power of our example have been forces of moral good throughout the world. Foreseeing a Pax Americana in the next century resulting not from war or diplomacy but from the triumph of democratic ideals, the author argues that the effort to spread democracy further should form the core of US foreign policy.

An extraordinary collection of essays by Nobel Peace laureates and leading scholars on the concluded Iraq War, The Iraq War and its Consequences is the First and Only book that brings together more than 30 Nobel Peace laureates and eminent scholars to offer opinions, analyses and insights on the war that has drawn both widespread opposition and strong support.In this intellectually captivating book, Professor Irwin Abrams, considered the leading authority world-wide on the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Antioch University, and Professor Wang Gungwu, renowned historian and Director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, have collected works of notable laureates and scholars from diverse backgrounds. The Nobel Peace laureates and eminent scholars, together, expound on the consequences and impacts of the Iraq War ? an effort that has not been made before. In conclusion, there are two sermons by Gunnar St†lsett, Bishop of Oslo.The Prominent Contributors are: Nobel Peace LaureatesTenzin Gyatso (The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, 1989)David Trimble (MP, Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, UK, 1998)Jody Williams (International Ambassador of International Campaign to Ban Landmines, USA, 1997)Sir Joseph Rotblat (Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, UK, 1995)Jose Ramos-Horta (Foreign Minister of East Timor, 1996)Frederik Willem de Klerk (Former President of South Africa, 1993)Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Co-founder, Community of Peace People, Northern Ireland, UK, 1976)Bernard Lown (Co-founder, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1985)Peter Hansen (Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UN, 1945)Irene Khan (Sec-General, Amnesty International, 1977)Mary Ellen McNish (Executive Secretary, American Friends Service Committee, USA, 1947)Brian Philips of Oxford Brookes University (Quaker Peace and Social Witness, UK, 1947)Cora Weiss, President (Permanent International Peace Bureau, 1910)Christian Dominice (Sec-General, Institute of International Law, 1904)Eminent ScholarsNoam Chomsky (Prominent Political Critic, Professor of Linguistics, MIT)Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel laureate in Economics 2001, Columbia University)Richard A Falk (Albert G Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, Emeritus, Princeton University)Sir John Daniel (UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education)John W Dower (Pulitzer Prize winner & Elting E. Morison Professor of History, MIT)Eric Stover (Director of Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley)Frank N von Hippel (Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University)Lord Colin Renfrew of Kaimsthorn (Director of McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University)William Hartung (Director of Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center, World Policy Institute)Benjamin R Foster (Professor of Assyriology and Curator of the Yale Babylonian Collection, Yale University)Svetlana Broz (Sarajevo Cardiologist, Author and Lecturer)Faleh A Jabar (Iraq specialist and Research Fellow, Birkbeck College, London University)Lisa Martin (Professor of Government, Harvard University)Helena Cobban (Middle-East Specialist and Columnist for Christian Science Monitor)Mahmood Mamdani (Director of Institute of African Studies, Columbia University)Rosemary Foot (Professor of International Relations, Modern History, Oxford University)Robin Lakoff (Professor of Linguistics, UC Berkeley)Roland Paris (Political Science and International Affairs, University of Colorado at Boulder

With these interwoven autobiographical essays, Geoffrey Wolff, author of the acclaimed The Duke of Deception, recounts the moral (and immoral) education of a writer, friend, husband, and father, as he offers his spirited, elegant, and deeply felt observations on an extraordinary life: from wildly dysfunctional childhood Christmases to a concupiscent career teaching literature in Istanbul; from a victory over the chaos of drink to a life-affirming surrender to the majesty of the Matterhorn; and from a foundering friendship to the transcending love of family. He shares with us, then, the wisdom of an alert man learning through the unsettling collisions of time, place, and local custom, and through the force of hardship and hazard, to bring his many disparate selves together -- with astonishing high-stakes candor and dazzling literary agility. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Chess strategy Tactics, strategy, openings and closes from the great chess master! Highly recommended! Edward Lasker was born in present day Poland in 1885 and before the outset of World War I immigrated to America. An engineer by trade, Lasker won five US Open Chess Championships between 1916 and 1921. Filled with numerous example games and game situations "Chess Strategy" provides a clear, logical, and systematic approach to the game in a warm and personal style. Separate sections of this book are devoted to the key stages of the game: openings, middle and end games. Originally written in 1911, "Chess Strategy" will provide the beginner as well as the experienced chess player something of value in this clear and concise explanation of strategic chess playing.

Tea leaf reading is an age-old form of divination that has followed the tea trade around the globe, touching many cultures along the way. The Stranger in the Cup will teach you the secret lore of tea cup magic, including how to select a cup, how to choose the best tea for a reading, how to brew the tea, and how to give amazing tasseomantic readings. With a full dictionary of more than 800 tea leaf symbols, plus dozens of sample cup interiors that will show you exactly what the leaves reveal, this book will guide you from beginner to expert cup reader in no time. Along the way, you will learn the history of tea, the history of tea leaf reading, and the history of the rare tea cups specially marked for cartomancy, numerology, and astrology readings, as well as the history of the woman-led Tea Room Movement of the 20th century that made tea leaf reading the preferred fortune-telling method of the radical Suffragettes. Profusely illustrated, beautifully laid out, and deeply descriptive, this is a book to treasure or to share with a special friend.

An invitation to all--regardless of religious background--to engage the Bible, grapple with its language, unlock its mysteries, and understand its relevance in our own time. Reading the Book is the model for Bill Moyers's forthcoming 10-part PBS series, Genesis: A Living Conversation, to be aired in the fall of 1996. From the Trade Paperback edition.

By the middle of the eighteenth century the merchants were dominant figures in the northern American colonies, powerful economically, politically, and socially. But in New England this preeminence had not been present in the first years of settlement; it had been achieved in the course of three generations of social development as the merchants often Puritans themselves, rose within the Bible Commonwealths to challenge the domination of the Puritan fathers. In lively detail Mr. Bailyn here presents the struggle of the merchants to achieve full social recognition as their successes in trade and in such industries as fishing and lumbering offered them avenues to power. Surveying the rise of merchant families, he offers a portrait in depth of the emergence of a new social group whose interests and changing social position powerfully affected the developing character of American society. The story of this group is the story of people and of their many-sided interests. The merchants were united by the demands of their common devotion to trade, yet they did not form a socially homogeneous unit. In fact their social differences--created in the confusions and dislocations of the early days of settlement came to play an important role in their business and political activities. Moreover, their commercial ventures, successes, and failures affected their social and political situation. Internationalists by occupation, they were deeply affected by personal relations with Europeans as well as by events in the Old World. Drawing on source material from many fields--business records, religious and political data, literary remains, and genealogical information--Mr. Bailyn has discovered much that is new about the merchants, and has brought it all together into a composite portrait of our economic founding fathers that is fascinating in itself and that will reorient our thinking about many aspects of early New England history.

No one brings history so enjoyably to life as the insatiably curious Tony Robinson. Now he turns his attention to a subject dear to our hearts - us. In Tony Robinson's History of Australia , the always-entertaining storyteller explores the modern history of our nation, from colonial beginnings to the Stolen Generations apology, with trademark gusto. He delights in unfurling lesser-known tales such as the First Fleet's Founding Orgy or how shots fired in Port Phillip Bay raised the curtains of both World Wars. But it's people that most interest Robinson, and from William Dampier to Anh Do he profiles a multicultural cast of characters who have contributed to the remarkable Australian story. For this book, as well as Tony Robinson Explores Australia , The History Channel's highest-ever-rating TV series, he travelled the country, taste-testing colonial rations and spending time in dark solitary at Port Arthur - even learning of a possible convict ancestor. He dove into archives and libraries, chatted to experts and relatives of historic figures, and was guided by some of our most respected historians, such as Thomas Keneally, Tim Flannery and Eric Willmot. Lavishly illustrated with historical images as well as beautiful photographs taken on location, Tony Robinson's History of Australia will spark the memory, fill the gaps and invite fresh consideration of who we are and how we've come to be this way.

For this latest projects, Bloom has stepped away from the magnificent wildlife and landscape photography with which he made his name to create a unique portrait of the small traders of Nairobi.

The pioneering anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner combines her trademark ethnographic expertise with critical film interpretation to explore the independent film scene in New York and Los Angeles since the late 1980s. Not Hollywood is both a study of the lived experience of that scene and a critical examination of America as seen through the lenses of independent filmmakers. Based on interviews with scores of directors and producers, Ortner reveals the culture and practices of indie filmmaking, including the conviction of those involved that their films, unlike Hollywood movies, are "telling the truth" about American life. These films often illuminate the dark side of American society through narratives about the family, the economy, and politics in today's neoliberal era. Offering insightful interpretations of many of these films, Ortner argues that during the past three decades independent American cinema has functioned as a vital form of cultural critique

Missy tells all … and there is a lot to tell. First came Missy. Then came Sable, Sunny, Chyna, and the rest. Missy Hyatt was professional wrestling’s first character — the original sexy “socialite” sidekick whose trademark Gucci purse and tough-girl attitude made her the most loved — and most hated — woman in wrestling. Now, fifteen years after she first shimmied up to the ring, Missy Hyatt takes fans inside the world of wrestling. From her high school days as a hard-core fan, cheering from her living room, to the cover of Wrestler magazine, Missy has done it all. In this no-holds-barred memoir, Missy discloses the behind-the-scenes secrets of table-throwing, chair-smashing, hair-pulling, and the technique of “juicing” — how wrestlers make themselves bleed on cue. Find out about her intimate relationships with Jake the Snake, Wonder Years’ Jason Hervey, Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert, and many many more. Missy has worked with wrestling’s biggest stars, from Hulk to Jesse, from Vince to the Rock, and she tells everything.

Yokohama Burning is the story of the worst natural disaster of the twentieth century: the earthquakes, fires, and tsunamis of September 1923 that destroyed Yokohama and most of Tokyo and killed 140,000 people during two days of horror. With cinematic vividness and from multiple perspectives, acclaimed Newsweek correspondent Joshua Hammer re-creates harrowing scenes of death, escape, and rescue. He also places the tumultuous events in the context of history and demonstrates how they set Japan on a path to even greater tragedy. At two minutes to noon on Saturday, September 1, 1923, life in the two cities was humming along at its usual pace. An international merchant fleet, an early harbinger of globalization, floated in Yokohama harbor and loaded tea and silk on the docks. More than three thousand rickshaws worked the streets of the port. Diplomats, sailors, spies, traders, and other expatriates lunched at the Grand Hotel on Yokohama's Bund and prowled the dockside quarter known as Bloodtown. Eighteen miles north, in Tokyo, the young Prince Regent, Hirohito, was meeting in his palace with his advisers, and the noted American anthropologist Frederick Starr was hard at work in his hotel room on a book about Mount Fuji. Then, in a mighty shake of the earth, the world as they knew it ended. When the temblor struck, poorly constructed buildings fell instantly, crushing to death thousands of people or pinning them in the wreckage. Minutes later, a great wall of water washed over coastal resort towns, inundating people without warning. Chemicals exploded, charcoal braziers overturned, neighborhoods of flimsy wooden houses went up in flames. With water mains broken, fire brigades could only look on helplessly as the inferno spread. Joshua Hammer searched diaries, letters, and newspaper accounts and conducted interviews with nonagenarian survivors to piece together a minute-by-minute account of the catastrophe. But the author offers more than a disaster narrative. He details the emerging study of seismology, the nascent wireless communications network that alerted the world, and the massive, American-led relief effort that seemed to promise a bright new era in U.S.-Japanese relations. Hammer shows that the calamity led in fact to a hardening of racist attitudes in both Japan and the United States, and drove Japan, then a fledgling democracy, into the hands of radical militarists with imperial ambitions. He argues persuasively that the forces that ripped through the archipelago on September 1, 1923, would reverberate, traumatically, for decades to come. Yokohama Burning , a story of national tragedy and individual heroism, combines a dramatic narrative and historical perspective that will linger with the reader for a long time.

""Acclaimed author and feisty nonagenarian Hotchner's witty ruminations about the art of living well into old age...with brio and a touch of his trademark sass, Hotchner writes about rediscovering love after 75, finding joy in a scrappy African gray parrot he named after his longtime friend, Ernest Hemingway, and going on his very first safari at age 88." - Kirkus Reviews When youngsters in their seventies and eighties, nervously lurching toward the horizon of ninety, ask me, "What's the secret?" That's what I tell them: "O.J. in the morning, gin and tonic at night." You don't have to be in your seventies or eighties to enjoy A. E. Hotchner's elixir for aging happily, but after reading this charming collection of essays, you may wish you were. Nonagenarian, novelist, playwright, and biographer, Hotchner gives us heartfelt and laugh-out-loud anecdotes that describe his unique reflections on the aging process. His musings cover everything from the outlandish commercials that target the older generation (Viagra, Cialis, and Flomax) to suggestions on adapting the tennis game for seniors (he suggests lowering the net by two inches and moving all outer lines two feet inward) to the advantages of having a pet (his pet parrot often tells guests to "kiss my ass"). He can equally capture the headier side of aging, which is bittersweetly revealed in his piece about divorce. With his disarming, eloquent voice and dry sense of humor, Hotch illuminates life's wisdoms through his optimistic, witty, and romantic outlook, all the while maing you feel, well, not unhappy about growing older. O.J. in the Morning, G&T at Night is a book of courageous advice, humorous wisdom, and, above all, good strategies for how to stay young at heart"--

The second volume of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, first published in 1952, was a survey by an international group of specialist scholars covering trade and industry in pre-Roman, Roman and Byzantine Europe, the medieval trade of northern and southern Europe, and the histories of medieval woollen manufacture, mining and metallurgy, and building in stone. This second edition, in addition to revising most chapters and the bibliographies appended to them, also fills gaps which arose from the wartime and post-war circumstances in which the first edition was written. New chapters provide accounts of the trade and industry of eastern Europe, of medieval Europe's trade with Asia and Africa, and of medieval coinage and currency. Taken with volumes I and III of the series, this volume is designed to complete a comprehensive review of the economic history of medieval Europe as a whole. It was planned by the late Sir Michael Postan, and was largely completed under his editorship.

"The first trade edition of new poems by punk progenitor and acclaimed writer Richard Hell since he largely abandoned poetry at the age of 22 includes also a valedictory essay, "Falling Asleep," and a "list" of recent notebook writings, and art by Christopher Wool. Richard Hell dropped out of high school shortly after turning 17 to move to New York and become a poet, 1967. He succeeded at that but by 1973 had forsaken poetry writing for the composition of aggressive, lyrical songs that would soon be scorned and hailed as punk. After 10 years as a professional musician, in 1984 he switched again, leaving music and resuming writing but now prose-fiction and essays mostly. Come 2020, pandemic time, Hell, at the age of 70, found himself gratified, in lockdown isolation, to finally become a poet, a working poet without distractions or competing intentions, content(ish) to struggle the days into mediums for poems. The result comprises one half of this volume. The second half of the book consists of an essay called "Falling Asleep" and a list of note(book) entries called "Chronicle." "Falling Asleep," from 2019, is Hell's equivalent to Poe's late-life summing up of his conception of the universe, "Eureka" (but better). "Chronicle," compiled in 2021 at the behest of Adam Marnie for his F Publications pamphlet series, captures in 88 numbered entries Richard's view and experience of recent years"--