Dragon on Our Doorstep: Managing China Through Military Power


Pravin Sawhney - 2017
    Apart from superior military power, close coordination between the political leadership and the military and the ability to take quick decisions, China has potent anti-satellite and cyber warfare capabilities. Even more shockingly, regardless of popular opinion, India today is not even in a position to win a war against Pakistan. This has nothing to do with Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. It is because while India has been focused on building military force (troops and materiel needed to wage war) Pakistan has built military power (learning how to optimally utilize its military force). In this lies the difference between losing and winning. Far from being the strong Asian power of its perception, India could find itself extremely vulnerable to the hostility of its powerful neighbors. In Dragon On Our Doorstep, Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab analyse the geopolitics of the region and the military strategies of the three Asian countries to tell us exactly why India is in this precarious position and how it can transform itself through deft strategy into a leading power.The most populous countries and fastest growing economies in the world—India and China—have cultural and economic relations that date back to the second century bc. But over the years, despite the many treaties and agreements between the two nations, border clashes (including the disastrous 1962 war) and disagreements over Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir have complicated the relationship. For decades China kept a low profile. However, since 2008, when it was recognized as an economic power, China has become assertive. Today, this Himalayan balancing act of power is clearly tilted towards China, in whose view there is room for only one power in Asia. In this rise, Pakistan has emerged as China’s most trusted and crucial partner. The partnership between China and Pakistan, whether in terms of military interoperability (ability to operate as one in combat), or geostrategic design (which is unfolding through the wide-sweeping One Belt One Road project), has serious implications for India. The best that India can do is try and manage the relationship so that the dragon’s rise is not at the cost of India.

The Art of War for Women: Sun Tzu's Ancient Strategies and Wisdom for Winning at Work


Sun Tzu - 2002
    This brilliant adaptation of the ancient masterpiece The Art of War shows women how to use Sun Tzu’s philosophy to win in every aspect of life.Would you like to transform your weaknesses into strengths? Succeed at work without compromising your ethics? Integrate your style and personal philosophy into every action you take? If so, this book is for you. In The Art of War for Women, bestselling author Chin-Ning Chu brings the eternal wisdom of philosopher-general Sun Tzu to women looking to gain a better understanding of who they are – and, more importantly, who they want to be. In the West, when we think of war, we imagine battle, casualties, brutality. But Sun Tzu, the man who wrote the Art of War some 2,500 years ago, was Chinese, and the Chinese think of war differently than we do in the West. In their view, war does not revolve around fighting. It is about determining the most efficient way of gaining victory with the least amount of conflict.That’s why Sun Tzu’s Art of War is particularly appropriate for women. Let’s face it, as intelligent and accomplished as we may be, there are very few of us who are comfortable with direct confrontation or situations where our triumph means someone else’s defeat. We are natural negotiators and problem solvers; most of us prefer win-win situations to those in which winner-takes-all.But there is another reason The Art of War is particularly appropriate for us. Although Sun Tzu’s book is about the application of strategies, every one of those strategies begins with having a deep understanding of the people and the world around us. They also require us to understand ourselves – our strengths and weaknesses, our goals and fears. In other words, the aim is not to apply a series of rules coldly and dispassionately, but rather to integrate ourselves and our unique talents into the strategies we will employ. This is not a feel-good book. (But you will feel good after reading it.) It is not a motivational book. (But you will be motivated to achieve what you want, once you are done.) Ultimately, its purpose it to provide women with the strategies we all need to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of our goals and dreams. Sun Tzu’s Art of War is the most influential book on strategy ever published, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide in several editions. Written by one of today’s foremost authorities on Sun Tzu, The Art of War for Women is sure to become a classic in its own right.

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It


Lawrence Lessig - 2011
    Federal Election Commission trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness. While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

Stoicism: A Detailed Breakdown of Stoicism Philosophy and Wisdom from the Greats: A Complete Guide To Stoicism


George Tanner - 2017
    Where some accounts of human nature and the particularly human good fall short by the reduction of human being to physical or psychical phenomena, Stoicism’s power lies in engaging with the whole range of human experience, addressing rationality, emotion, piety, will, and both inner and outer impressions, each on their own terms, in language that treats each as significant in its own right. Stoicism is an active philosophy. That means that it is not enough to know its doctrines, one must also live them, develop habits that expand on and complete their ideas in practice. Practice, therefore, is also the focus of this book. The development of the reader’s inner and outer life, that they may follow their own path and discover what it means to “live life in accordance with nature.”   This book is a general introduction to Stoicism that pulls no punches when faced with the more complex aspects of Stoic doctrine. Topics addressed include: The history of the ancient Stoics. The nature of good and evil, virtue and vice, and positive and negative externals. The difference between those things in our control and those things not in our control. Stoic Logic and practical reasoning. Stoicism’s role in the development of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Stoic exercises and daily practice. Theology’s role in Stoicism and Stoic cosmology. And much more! Grab your copy of a detailed guide on stoicism philosphy and wisdom!

The Interpretation of Dreams


Sigmund Freud - 1899
    Dreams, according to his theory, represent the hidden fulfillment of our unconscious wishes.

Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong


David Bradley - 2012
    With clear and witty writing, this book examines the science behind many popular myths, revealing why many "truths" we think we know, we don't really know at all.

The Political Determinants of Health


Daniel E. Dawes - 2020
    However, in a country of more than 325 million people, addressing everyone's issues is challenging. How can we effect beneficial change for everyone so we all can thrive? What is the great equalizer?In this book, Daniel E. Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers--including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options--that affect all other dynamics of health. By understanding these determinants, their origins, and their impact on the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, we will be better equipped to develop and implement actionable solutions to close the health gap.Dawes draws on his firsthand experience helping to shape major federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act, to describe the history of efforts to address the political determinants that have resulted in health inequities. Taking us further upstream to the underlying source of the causes of inequities, Dawes examines the political decisions that lead to our social conditions, makes the social determinants of health more accessible, and provides a playbook for how we can address them effectively. A thought-provoking and evocative account that considers both the policies we think of as health policy and those that we don't, The Political Determinants of Health provides a novel, multidisciplinary framework for addressing the systemic barriers preventing the United States from becoming the healthiest nation in the world.

Psychology in Bite Sized Chunks


Joel Levy - 2013
    From Bobo dolls to invisible gorillas, Clever Hans to Little Albert, the halo effect to the Stockholm syndrome, the book charts a path through the subject's controversial history and along its most intriguing diversions. Discover how Pavlov made a dog neurotic and electroconvulsive therapy turned a man bisexual, why schizophrenics can tickle themselves, and how the U.S. military developed a pigeon-guided missile.

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning


Jonah Goldberg - 2007
    Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst? Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on the theories and practices that define fascist politics. Replacing conveniently manufactured myths with surprising and enlightening research, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the original fascists were really on the left, and that liberals from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Hillary Clinton have advocated policies and principles remarkably similar to those of Hitler's National Socialism and Mussolini's Fascism. Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence the term -National socialism-). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth and spent vast sums on public education. They purged the church from public policy, promoted a new form of pagan spirituality, and inserted the authority of the state into every nook and cranny of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They loathed the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities--where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler was an animal rights activist. Do these striking parallels mean that today's liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal. Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a -friendlier, - more liberal form. The modern heirs of this -friendly fascist- tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore. These assertions may sound strange to modern ears, but that is because we have forgotten what fascism is. In this angry, funny, smart, contentious book, Jonah Goldberg turns our preconceptions inside out and shows us the true meaning of Liberal Fascism.

In Defense of Elitism


William A. Henry III - 1994
    But here, at long last, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic William A. Henry III takes on, and debunks, some basic, fundamentally ingrained ideas: that everyone is pretty much alike (and should be); that self-fulfillment is more important than objective achievement; that everyone has something significant to contribute; that all cultures offer something equally worthwhile; that a truly just society would automatically produce equal success results across lines of race, class, and gender; and that the common man is almost always right. Henry makes clear, in a book full of vivid examples and unflinching opinions, that while these notions are seductively democratic they are also hopelessly wrong.

#DELETED: Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election


Allum Bokhari - 2020
    He has discovered a dark plot to seize control of the flow of information, and utilize that power to its full extent—to censor, manipulate, and ultimately sway the outcome of democratic elections. His network of whistleblowers inside Google, Facebook and other companies explain how the tech giants now see themselves as "good censors," benevolent commissars controlling the information we receive to "protect" us from "dangerous" speech.They reveal secret methods to covertly manipulate online information without us ever being aware of it, explaining how tech companies can use big data to target undecided voters. They lift the lid on a plot four years in the making—a plot to use the power of technology to stop Donald Trump's re-election.

Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America--and How We Can Get More of It


Arthur C. Brooks - 2008
    Liberals believe they are happier than conservatives, and conservatives disagree. In fact, almost every group thinks it is happier than everyone else. In this provocative new book, Arthur C. Brooks explodes the myths about happiness in America. As he did in the controversial Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, Brooks examines vast amounts of evidence and empirical research to uncover the truth about who is happy in America, who is not, and-most important-why. He finds that there is a real “happiness gap” in America today, and it lies disconcertingly close to America’s cultural and political fault lines. The great divide between the happy and the unhappy in America, Brooks shows, is largely due to differences in social and cultural values. The values that bring happiness are faith, charity, hard work, optimism, and individual liberty. Secularism, excessive reliance on the state to solve problems, and an addiction to security all promote unhappiness. What can be done to maximize America’s happiness? Replete with the unconventional wisdom for which Brooks has come to be known, Gross National Happiness offers surprising and illuminating conclusions about how our government can best facilitate Americans in their pursuit of happiness.

The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers


Joseph Hickman - 2015
    They are not the victims of ruthless enemy warfare, but of their own military commanders. These soldiers, afflicted with rare cancers and respiratory diseases, were sickened from the smoke and ash swirling out of the “burn pits” where military contractors incinerated mountains of trash, including old stockpiles of mustard and sarin gas, medical waste, and other toxic material.This shocking work includes: Illustration of the devastation in one soldier’s intimate storyA plea for helpConnection between the burn pits and Major Biden’s unfortunate suffering and deathThe burn pits’ effects on native citizens of Iraq: mothers, fathers, and childrenDenial from the Department of Defense and othersWarning signs that were ignoredand much moreBased on thousands of government documents, over five hundred in-depth medical case studies, and interviews with more than one thousand veterans and active-duty GIs, The Burn Pits will shock the nation. The book is more than an explosive work of investigative journalism—it is the deeply moving chronicle of the many young men and women who signed up to serve their country in the wake of 9/11, only to return home permanently damaged, the victims of their own armed forces’ criminal negligence.