The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations


Christopher Lasch - 1978
    Lasch’s identification of narcissism as not only an individual ailment but also a burgeoning social epidemic was groundbreaking. His diagnosis of American culture is even more relevant today, predicting the limitless expansion of the anxious and grasping narcissistic self into every part of American life.The Culture of Narcissism offers an astute and urgent analysis of what we need to know in these troubled times.

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City


Alice Goffman - 2014
    Arrest quotas and high-tech surveillance techniques criminalize entire blocks, and transform the very associations that should stabilize young lives—family, relationships, jobs—into liabilities, as the police use such relationships to track down suspects, demand information, and threaten consequences. Alice Goffman spent six years living in one such neighborhood in Philadelphia, and her close observations and often harrowing stories reveal the pernicious effects of this pervasive policing. Goffman introduces us to an unforgettable cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance—some of them small-time drug dealers, others just ordinary guys dealing with limited choices. All find the web of presumed criminality, built as it is on the very associations and friendships that make up a life, nearly impossible to escape. We watch as the pleasures of summer-evening stoop-sitting are shattered by the arrival of a carful of cops looking to serve a warrant; we watch—and can’t help but be shocked—as teenagers teach their younger siblings and cousins how to run from the police (and, crucially, to keep away from friends and family so they can stay hidden); and we see, over and over, the relentless toll that the presumption of criminality takes on families—and futures. While not denying the problems of the drug trade, and the violence that often accompanies it, through her gripping accounts of daily life in the forgotten neighborhoods of America's cities, Goffman makes it impossible for us to ignore the very real human costs of our failed response—the blighting of entire neighborhoods, and the needless sacrifice of whole generations.

The War on Everyone


Robert Evans - 2019
    Timothy McVeigh, the Tree of Life Synagogue Shooter, Anders Breivik, Dylan Roof and dozens of other mass-killers are all pieces of the same, sinister plot. The actions of a few men, decades ago, crafted this engine of death, and today it's manifested as a War on Everyone. This book is completely free of ads, and available via streaming or by direct download

Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism


Jim DeMint - 2009
    Recent high-profile bailouts show the walls between government and the private sector are getting thinner each day. Federal control now extends in various ways to education, healthcare, financial markets, real estate, businesses, and religion. And as out-of-control government spending and debt increase accordingly, America is drained of the economic and political strength its people fought and worked so hard to achieve. But it isn’t too late to save the land of the free.Saving Freedom is Senator Jim DeMint’s firsthand account of the unsettling socialist shift—behind-the-scenes actions in Congress that are changing the character of our nation. He illuminates key principles of freedom and how they are being compromised by big government. More important, DeMint lays out a complete action plan to reclaim America’s freedom based on legislation that would reduce debt, fix Social Security, and provide a tax credit for every family to buy health insurance. The plan also emphasizes reversing America’s cultural decline by restoring a strong spirit of God and country.Endorsements:Saving Freedom is a new Declaration of Independence, a call for the American people to reclaim America. Jim DeMint's passion for the cause of individual liberty and person"Saving Freedom is a new Declaration of Independence, a call for the American people to reclaim America. Jim DeMint's passion for the cause of individual liberty and personal responsibility is evident in this manifesto. It needs to be read—and acted upon—by every citizen of this republic."— Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives"Jim DeMint has delivered a ‘how to’ plan for avoiding a future that we neither want nor deserve. For those of us who want to keep America the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave,’ Saving Freedom is a must read!"— Oliver North, USMC (Ret.), author of New York Times best seller American Heroes"Once again, as we did in 1776, Americans must choose between freedom and oppression. In Saving Freedom, Jim DeMint describes the clear and present danger posed by big government - and what we must do to preserve individual liberty and personal responsibility. Every American needs to read this book."— Sean Hannity, host of the Sean Hannity Radio Show and Hannity's America on FOX News Channel"It's comforting to know that someone like Jim DeMint is standing in the gap as we see so many of our nation's founding principles eroding. I view Saving Freedom as a blueprint for the effort that all concerned Americans must join to restore and protect the freedoms we depend on."— Steve Forbes, president and chief executive officer of Forbes and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine

I Am Flying into Myself: Selected Poems, 1960–2014


Bill Knott - 2017
    Over his long career, he studiously avoided joining any one school of poetry, preferring instead to freewheel from French surrealism to the avant-garde and back again—experimenting relentlessly and refusing to embrace straightforward dialectics. Whether drawing from musings on romantic love or propaganda from the Vietnam War, Knott’s quintessential poems are alive with sensory activity, abiding by the pulse and impulse of a pure, restless emotion. This provocative, playful sensibility has ensured that his poems have a rare and unmistakable immediacy, effortlessly crystalizing thought in all its moods and tenses.An essential contribution to American letters, I am Flying into Myself gathers a selection of Knott’s previous volumes of poetry, published between 1960 and 2004, as well as verse circulated online from 2005 until a few days before his death in 2014. His work—ranging from surrealistic wordplay to the anti-poem, sonnets, sestinas, and haikus—all convenes in this inventive and brilliant book, arranged by his friend the poet Thomas Lux, to showcase our American Rimbaud, one of the true poetic innovators of the last century.I Am Flying into Myself: Selected Poems, 1960-2014 celebrates one of poetry’s most determined outsiders, a vitally important American poet richly deserving of a wider audience.

Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America


Nelson W. Aldrich Jr. - 1988
    Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Death Comes to Happy Valley: Penn State and the Tragic Legacy of Joe Paterno


Jonathan Mahler - 2012
    The winningest coach ever in college football, crafter of The Grand Experiment that put honor and academics above all else, finished his days under the dark cloud of shame and unspeakable child abuse. How? Why? What mix of fandom, ego, and unfettered power brought Penn State and its beloved coach to this? Just days after Paterno’s death comes this insightful look at the rise of Penn State under the 46-year reign of the man affectionately known as Joe Pa. Acclaimed writer Jonathan Mahler, author of the bestseller "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning", has been immersed in reporting the Paterno saga since the scandal broke last fall. His penetrating narrative traces the arc of Paterno’s career from dogged Ivy League quarterback to visionary coach to unassailable icon. Over the years, as his fame and reputation grew, Happy Valley (as State College, Pennsylvania, was often called) morphed into the realm of Paterno; the chant “We Are Penn State” could just as easily have been “We Are Coach Paterno.” It was perhaps inevitable that what Mahler calls “a slow rot” began to pervade Joe Pa’s football program, culminating with the horrific scandal that rocked Penn State and forever altered the Paterno story. "As it all unraveled," Mahler writes, "he seemed to resemble less his hero Aeneas, building a new nation—Penn State Nation—in Happy Valley, than King Lear, clinging stubbornly to the throne when he no longer had the judgment required to remain in it, then succumbing to the grief and anguish that accompanied the collapse of everything he had so painstakingly built."Mahler’s admiring yet honest assessment shows what can happen when a school, and an entire community, falls under a cult of personality. Part eulogy, part post-mortem, part wise appraisal, "Death Comes to Happy Valley" is a thoughtful farewell to the larger-than-life man who was, in fact, merely mortal.***"An elegant book with a perfect ratio of reportage, biography and criticism. It gently pulls Joe Pa off the pedestal upon which he has long stood." — Dwight Garner, The New York Times***Jonathan Mahler is a contributing writer to the "New York Times Magazine" and the author of the bestselling "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City" (the basis for the ESPN mini-series “The Bronx Is Burning”) and "The Challenge: How a Maverick Navy Officer and a Young Law Professor Risked Their Careers to Defend the Constitution—and Won."

The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory


Andrew J. Bacevich - 2020
    Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation,” its “sole superpower,” the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable.In the decades to come, Americans would put that claim to the test. They would embrace the promise of globalization as a source of unprecedented wealth while embarking on wide-ranging military campaigns to suppress disorder and enforce American values abroad, confident in the ability of U.S. forces to defeat any foe. Meanwhile, they placed all their bets on the White House to deliver on the promise of their Cold War triumph: unequaled prosperity, lasting peace, and absolute freedom. In The Age of Illusions, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes us from that moment of seemingly ultimate victory to the age of Trump, telling an epic tale of folly and delusion. Writing with his usual eloquence and vast knowledge, he explains how, within a quarter of a century, the United States ended up with gaping inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, and an increasingly angry and alienated population, as well, of course, as the strangest president in American history.

Rest Thy Head


Elaine Cantrell - 2014
    She didn’t expect to live in the haunted room or to fall for the inn’s owner, a fire-scarred, war veteran who uses the inn to hide away from the world. She didn’t expect her sister to show up at Rest Thy Head either, much less her formidable mother. Now, thanks to the aid of a friendly ghost, Peyton has a shot at true love, and so does her sister Ashley, provided the guys cooperate of course!

Scotland (Kindle Single)


Gary Greenberg - 2014
    Two registered sex offenders had come to live in the small town Greenberg had called home for thirty years, and his fellow citizens, terrified and enraged, had come out to pin the blame on him. In this riveting memoir about a modern-day witch hunt, Greenberg recounts with his trademark acerbic humor what it is like to be the target of an entire town's wrath. As he describes his Hawthornian moment, he vividly sketches the characters and landscapes that make up a classic New England village and reflects on sex, panic, betrayal, and the sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrible ties that bind communities together.Gary Greenberg is the author of four books, most recently The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry, which will be out in paperback this fall. His features and essays have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Harper's, where he is a contributing editor. He is the recipient of the Erik Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media. A practicing psychotherapist, he lives with his family in Connecticut.Cover design by Kristen Radtke.

Joy School / Until The Real Thing Comes Along


Elizabeth Berg - 2005
    Unable to fit in at school, she forges alliances where she can: with her housekeeper, with a pimply fellow misfit named Cynthia, and with the gorgeous Taylor, who gets her kicks out of shoplifting. Most frustrating of all is Katie's imperfect friendship with the proprietor of a local gas station, a handsome 23-year-old who shares her love of checkers but doesn't return her crush. With humour and an eye for telling detail, Berg conveys the way each uncompromising element of Katie's life ultimately offers her more than she had anticipated.Until The Real Thing Comes AlongPatty Murphy is facing that pivotal point in a woman's life when her biological clock ticks as insistently as a beating heart. Will she find Mr Right and start a family? But Patty is in love - with a man who is not only attractive and financially sound, but sensitive and warmhearted. There's just one small problem: He is also gay. Against her better judgment, and pleas from family and friends, Patty refuses to give up on Ethan. Every man she dates ultimately leaves her aching for the gentle comfort and intimacy she shares with him. But even as she throws eligible bachelors to the wayside to spend yet another platonic night with Ethan, Patty longs more and more for the consolation of loving and being loved. In the meantime she must content herself with waiting - until the real thing comes along . . .

Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City


Paul Stoller - 2002
    In Money Has No Smell, Paul Stoller offers us a more complete portrait of the complex lives of West African immigrants like Diallo, a portrait based on years of research Stoller conducted on the streets of New York City during the 1990s.Blending fascinating ethnographic description with incisive social analysis, Stoller shows how these savvy West African entrepreneurs have built cohesive and effective multinational trading networks, in part through selling a simulated Africa to African Americans. These and other networks set up by the traders, along with their faith as devout Muslims, help them cope with the formidable state regulations and personal challenges they face in America. As Stoller demonstrates, the stories of these West African traders illustrate and illuminate ongoing debates about globalization, the informal economy, and the changing nature of American communities.

The Lost Decade: Short Stories from Esquire, 1936-1941


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1939
    Scott Fitzgerald was an Esquire author. Between 1934 & 1940, Fitzgerald sold some 45 pieces of writing to the magazine: fiction, nonfiction & personal essays. This volume of the Cambridge Edition includes 13 short stories published by Fitzgerald in Esquire, together with the entire Pat Hobby Series: 17 stories about an aging screenwriter scrambling to make a living in Hollywood during the 1930s. One other story-"Dearly Beloved," submitted to Esquire but not published there-is included as an appendix. The volume provides restored, accurate texts based on Fitzgerald's surviving manuscripts, typescripts & proofs. A textual apparatus records editorial decisions; explanatory notes identify people, places, literary works, historical events & references to Hollywood actors, directors & films. The volume also includes selected facsimiles of Fitzgerald's manuscripts & typescripts for the Esquire writings.

Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack


Marc A. Thiessen - 2009
    Bush’s 2006 speech explaining the CIA’s interrogation program and why Congress should authorize it. Few know more about these CIA operations than Thiessen, and in his new book, Courting Disaster, he documents just how effective the CIA’s interrogations were in foiling attacks on America, penetrating al-Qaeda’s high command, and providing our military with actionable intelligence. Thiessen also shows how reckless President Obama has been in shutting down the CIA’s program and releasing secret documents that have aided our enemies. Courting Disaster proves:How the CIA program thwarted specific deadly attacks against the U.S.Why “enhanced interrogation” was not torture by any reasonable legal or moral standardHow the information gained by “enhanced interrogation” could not have been acquired any other wayHow President Obama’s actions since taking office have left America much more vulnerable to attackIn chilling detail, Thiessen reveals how close the terrorists came to striking again, how intelligence gained from “enhanced interrogation” repeatedly stymied their plots, and how President Obama’s dismantling of this CIA program is inviting disaster for America.

Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter


Tom Horn - 1904
     Tom Horn awaits execution for the murder of fourteen-year-old boy. He writes this memoir. Tom Horn was born in Missouri, in 1860. His parents, who were deeply religious, regularly beat him – on one occasion leaving him laid up in the family barn, where he needed a week to recover. Their attempts to beat him into submission soon ended when aged just fourteen years old, he left home and headed West. With $11 in his pocket after selling his rifle, and nothing to stay for after his beloved dog had been shot, young farm boy Tom Horn travelled through Kansas and reached Santa Fe in 1874. Horn went on to become many things. He was to become a pivotal figure in the cattle business, making a name for himself amid growing hostility between cattle barons and settlers as a government scout and interpreter for Generals Wilcox, Crook and Miles in the Apache wars. He was assistant to the infamous Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts, and was known as the ‘King of Cowboys’. He was a Pinkerton, a cowboy, a range detective and a gunman with potentially lethal ability – yet he was well respected and known as a gentleman who was true to his word. In this account of his life, he recounts the shocking events that led to his imprisonment for the murder a fourteen year old boy. It was a crime for which he was hanged in 1904, and many think he was wrongly accused. Life of Tom Horn is a compelling western and a story of guilt, innocence and justice amongst the Apache Wars. Tom Horn (1860-1903) was a US Army Scout, Pinkerton, cowboy, detective and assassin. He wrote his memoirs whilst in jail for a murder. His innocence is still debated.