Both in his life and art, he is thought to embody the climate of inebriated hilarity and excess of the fin de siecle. But as David Sweetman, the noted biographer of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, shows in this definitive work, there was another Toulouse-Lautrec, a committed and concerned man who moved in a secret community of anarchist revolutionaries, whose work betrayed a deep concern for human suffering, an artist who etched his sympathy for fallen women and lesbians into his portraits, and who remained loyal to the disgraced Oscar Wilde when the poet was abandoned and reviled by most. Sweetman's enlightening study of Toulouse-Lautrec has uncovered a man whose alliance with radicals and outspoken social critics (such as Felix Feneon) is implicit in his work.Toulouse-Lautrec was also a man on the cutting edge of radical art. He helped design the sets for the play "Ubu Rio," which, with its foul language and politically subversive imagery, stirred up a frenzy of public outrage and condemnation yet changed the course of theatrical history. Toulouse-Lautrec also created seminal works in the field of graphic art; his posters advertising performances and artistic events were often stolen from their public posting places and reappeared in the living rooms of middle-class homes, making his posters "the Trojan Horse of modern aesthetics."Toulouse-Lautrec's seemingly endless capacity for debauched revelry and his larger-than-life persona are undeniable. Yet hisart is as complex as he was, more varied and disturbing than it has been perceived in our century. Sweetman has introduced in "Explosive Acts" an altogether new way of looking at Toulouse-Lautrec, who, along with Oscar Wilde, Felix Feneon, and their cross-Channel cohort of artists, theorists, and writers, was responding to many of the same social issues and political currents we now face at our own turn of the century.

    Under the expert leadership of Danny O. Coulson, these highly trained agents of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team execute perilous missions in crises too volatile for SWAT teams, and in explosive situations where there are.... "No Heroes"Danny O. Coulson is the founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Hostage Rescue Team, or HRT. In an FBI career that spans three decades, he led the arrest of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, convinced McVeigh's friend Michael Fortier to become the government's star witness, and has helped bring hundreds of murderous extremists and killers to justice -- from the Black Liberation Army police assassins to the treacherous white supremacist terrorists of the Order, and the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord.In "No Heroes," Coulson opens a long-locked door into the secretive world of the HRT, the civilian equivalent of the U.S. military's elite Delta Force. Coulson's stories spring to life with nerve-jangling electricity as he discloses the tactics and teamwork of HRT snipers, operators, negotiators, and experts in assaults, electronics and explosives.Coulson takes the reader inside famous cases and provides riveting first person accounts of such high-profile investigations as the Atlanta prison riots -- and tense showdowns including the disastrous sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco. He sheds new light on the deadliest terrorist attack in American history -- the Oklahoma City bombing that took 168 lives -- withnever-before-revealed details of the FBI's massive efforts to locate the conspirators before they struck again.Finally, Coulson exposes the frightening rise of domestic terrorism and its implications for the 21st Century. For him and the men and women who have followed him, the path to justice is never too steep, too dark or too narrow. Though equipped with high tech weapons and physically fit bodies, these agents consider their razor sharp minds to be their best weapons. They use deadly force only in defense of life.Because, when people die, there are "No Heroes."

    His book is a remarkable analysis of the violence by Jews against Jews in Israel and the sense of restraint among the conflicting parties.

    Neither journalists nor law-enforcement experts nor the public seemed aware of the rich tradition of messianic, revolutionary politics behind groups like Koresh's: this is the history, stretching back to the Middle Ages, that is the subject of Messianic Revolution.David S. Katz and Richard H. Popkin show how the beliefs of many fringe, distressed, and disenfranchised Christians have been transmitted across a millennium. They offer lucid explanations of why and how this apocalyptic strain found especially fertile ground in the New World, and throw new light on the many strands of Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation woven into this complex, fascinating history.

    The technology of bomb disposal, including tools and training, is explained in detail as the author goes on the job with elite bomb squads around the nation. Photos depict the aftermath of bomb blasts, bombs being defused, and specialized equipment and vehicles. Also examined are bomb-sniffing dogs and how bomb squads are addressing the threats of nuclear and biological weapons.

    And after Russia, it is the largest and most important of the post-Soviet states. Yet it is a country about which most westerners know very little, subsumed as it was for decades beneath the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Ukrainian Politics and Society is the first comprehensive study of politics in post-Soviet Ukraine, and is therefore vital reading for anyone concerned with European security, or with politics in the former Soviet Union.The authors’ extensive experience in Ukraine allows them to explain the paradoxes of Ukrainian politics that have led to so many false predictions concerning the future of the Ukrainian state. Their examination of nationality politics shows why ethnic and regional differences have tended to recede rather than to spin out of control, as they have elsewhere in the region. At the same time, these differences hamstring the country’s political system, and the authors show how difficult a task it is for democratic institutions to provide effective government in a country with little consensus. By viewing economic reform in its profoundly political context, the authors expose the chasm between the theory and practice of economic reform. Understanding of how to make profits has not been lacking, but government regulation to ensure that profit-seeking behavior leads to functioning markets has been conspicuously absent.By examining in detail how Ukrainian politics has followed theoretical expectations and where it has contradicted them, the authors arrive at conclusions with implications well beyond Ukraine. Ukraine must first build a state and a nation before it can successfully reform its economy or build a genuine democracy. For Ukraine and its people, the task is daunting. For the west, whose security increasingly relies on stability in Ukraine, this book provides the knowledge necessary to approach the problem, as well as good reason not to ignore it.