Interviews with History and Conversations with Power


Oriana Fallaci - 2010
    Oriana Fallaci was granted access to countless world leaders and politicians throughout her remarkable career. Considering herself a writer rather than a journalist, she was never shy about sharing her opinions of her interview subjects. Her most memorable interviews—some translated into English for the first time—appear in this collection, including those with Ariel Sharon, Yassir Arafat, the former Shah of Iran, Lech Walesa, the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy, and many others. Also featured is the famous 1972 interview in which she succeeded in getting Henry Kissinger to call Vietnam a "useless war" and to describe himself as "a cowboy." To this day he calls the Fallaci interview "the most disastrous conversation I ever had with the press."

Raising Holy Hell


Bruce Olds - 1995
    Viewed in the North as a saint of freedom and in the South as the devil incarnate, Brown was a visionary who not only foretold but made inevitable the bloody apocalypse of the Civil War. An intricate mosaic of alternating narrative voices, Bruce Old's Raising Holy Hell is an explosive, multitextured evocation of the prophetic madness of the man who saw an America damned by the sin of slavery.

Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital


Erin Marie Olszewski - 2020
    After serving in Iraq, she was back on the front lines—and this time, she found, the situation was even worse.    Rooms were filthy, nurses were lax with sanitation measures, and hospital-acquired cases of COVID-19 were spreading like wildfire.   Worse, people who had tested negative multiple times for COVID-19 were being labeled as COVID-confirmed and put on COVID-only floors. Put on ventilators and drugged up with sedatives, these patients quickly deteriorated—even though they did not have coronavirus when they checked in.   Doctors-in-training were refusing to perform CPR—and banning nurses from doing it—on dying patients whose families had not consented to “Do Not Resuscitate” orders.   Erin wasn’t about to stand by and let her patients keep dying on her watch, but she knew that if she told the truth, people wouldn’t believe her. It was just too shocking. Willing to go to battle for her patients, Erin made the decision to go deep undercover, recording conversations with other nurses, videos of malpractice, and more. She began to share what she found on social media. Unsurprisingly, she was fired for it.   Now, Erin is standing up to tell the whole horrifying story of what happened inside Elmhurst Hospital to demand justice for those who fell victim to the hospital’s greed. Not only must the staff be held accountable for their unethical actions; but also, this kind of corruption must be destroyed so that future Americans are not put at risks. The deaths have to end, and Erin won’t rest until the bad actors are exposed.   Undercover Epicenter Nurse: How Fraud, Negligence, and Greed Led to Unnecessary Deaths at Elmhurst Hospital is a shocking and infuriating inside exposé of the American healthcare system gone wrong. At the same time, it’s the story of a woman who traveled from the small-town streets of Wisconsin, to the battlefields of Iraq, to the mean streets of Queens, on a quest to help fight for her country. With this book, the real battle has begun.

Gallipoli Sniper: The Life Of Billy Sing


John Hamilton - 2008
    Scrub, cliffs, spurs and hills meant that both Anzac and Turkish positions often overlooked one another. The unwary or unlucky were prey to snipers on both sides, and the sudden crack of a gunshot and instant death were an ever-present menace. The most successful and most feared sniper of the Gallipoli campaign was Billy Sing, a Light Horseman from Queensland, who was almost unique among the Australian troops in having a Chinese-born father. A combination of patience, stealth and an amazing eye made him utterly deadly, with the incredible - and horrifying - figure of over 200 credited 'kills'. John Hamilton has written an extraordinary account of a hidden side of the campaign - the snipers' war. Following Sing from his recruitment onwards, Hamilton takes us on a journey into the squalor, dust, blood and heroism of Gallipoli, seen from the unique viewpoint of the sniper. Gallipoli Sniper is a powerful and very different account of war and its effect on those who fight.

Missing, The Execution of Charles Horman


Thomas Hauser - 1977
    Horman was arrested by the US-led Chilean armed forces and never again seen alive by his family. American operatives seem to have played a major role in his brutal murder.Charles Horman was an American, a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker who had traveled to Chile in the early 1970s to explore a country undergoing significant changes under its Socialist president, Salvador Allende. In the course of his research he seems to have uncovered information about CIA involvement in a plot to overthrow Allende. The coup took place, with Gen. Augusto Pinochet taking over as dictator and ordering the mass arrest of thousands of dissidents and suspected opponents. Charles Horman was one of these people, dragged from his home as the American embassy refused him help. His wife Joyce, who was with him in Chile, and his family never saw him alive again. Chilean security police murdered him, though they never admitted it. Horman's father, Ed, a patriotic American businessman, traveled to Santiago, where officials of the American embassy, led by the ambassador himself, offered to help him search for the son he believed had simply disappeared.

Phantom Warrior: The Heroic True Story of Private John McKinney's One-Man Stand Against the Japanese in World War II


Forrest Bryant Johnson - 2007
    On May 11, 1945, McKinney returned fire on the Japanese attacking his unit, using every available weapon-even his fists-standing alone against wave after wave of dedicated Japanese soldiers. At the end, John McKinney was alive-with over forty Japanese bodies before him. This is the story of an extraordinary man whose courage and fortitude in battle saved many American lives, and whose legacy has been sadly forgotten by all but a few. Here, the proud legacy of John McKinney lives on.

From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68


H.H. Scullard - 1959
    More than forty years after its first publication this masterful survey remains the standard textbook on the central period of Roman history.

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed


Slavenka Drakulić - 1991
    A portrayal of the reality behind the rhetoric, her essays also chronicle the consequences of these regimes: The Berlin Wall may have fallen, but ideology cannot be dismantled so quickly, and a lifetime lived in fear cannot be so easily forgotten.Many of the pieces focus on the intense connection Drakulic discovers between material things and the expression of one’s spirit, individuality, and femininity—an inevitable byproduct of a lifestyle that, through its rejection of capitalism and commoditization, ends up fetishizing both. She describes the moment one man was able, for the first time in his life, to eat a banana: He gobbled it down, skin and all, enthralled by its texture. Drakulic herself marvels at finding fresh strawberries in N.Y.C. in December, and the feel of the quality of the paper in an issue of Vogue.As Drakulic delves into the particular hardships facing women—who are not merely the victims of sexism, but of regimes that prevent them from having even the most basic material means by which to express themselves—she describes the desperate lengths to which they would go to find cosmetics or clothes that made them feel feminine in a society where such a feeling was regarded as a bourgeois affectation. There is small room for privacy in communal housing, and the banishment of many time-saving devices, combined with a focus on manual labor, meant women were slaves to domestic responsibility in a way that their Western peers would find unfathomable. From this vantage point, she provides a pointed critique of Western feminism as a movement borne out of privilege.How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed is a compelling, brilliant account of what it was really like to live under Communist rule and its inevitable repercussions.

The First World War


Hew Strachan - 2003
    The First World War was a truly global conflict from the start, with many of the most decisive battles fought in or directly affecting the Balkans, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Even more than World War II, the First World War continues to shape the politics and international relations of our world, especially in hot spots like the Middle East and the Balkans. Strachan has done a masterful job of reexamining the causes, the major campaigns, and the consequences of the First World War, compressing a lifetime of knowledge into a single definitive volume tailored for the general reader. Written in crisp, compelling prose and enlivened with extraordinarily vivid photographs and detailed maps, The First World War re-creates this world-altering conflict both on and off the battlefield—the clash of ideologies between the colonial powers at the center of the war, the social and economic unrest that swept Europe both before and after, the military strategies employed with stunning success and tragic failure in the various theaters of war, the terms of peace and why it didn’t last. Drawing on material culled from many countries, Strachan offers a fresh, clear-sighted perspective on how the war not only redrew the map of the world but also set in motion the most dangerous conflicts of today. Deeply learned, powerfully written, and soon to be released with a new introduction that commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the war, The First World War remains a landmark of contemporary history.

The Cus D'Amato Mind: Learn The Simple Secrets That Took Boxers Like Mike Tyson To Greatness


Reemus Boxing - 2017
    Perfect for aspiring boxers, athletes and ambitious people who want to be more confident and talented in their craft. THE GREATEST BOXING COACH IN HISTORY ‘The Cus D’Amato Mind’ teaches the principles and philosophies of the great trainer D’Amato, which took young boys such as Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson to the heavyweight championship in a few short years. THE MAN WHO MADE MIKE TYSON In 1980, a young Mike Tyson was in the Tryon school for juvenile delinquents. By the age of 13, Mike had already been arrested dozens of times, had suffered bullying, and often engaged in criminal activities like armed robbery and house burglary. He was heading down a certain path to death or a life of prison. Fast forward six years later, and Mike Tyson had become the youngest heavyweight champion at 20 years old, after destructively crafting a route to the top. What had happened? How could such a change happen in such a short space of time? The answer is Cus D’Amato. The great boxing coach Cus D’Amato was a revolutionist. He was a modern-day philosopher. He was a leader who changed the lives of those he helped. Cus would literally take juvenile kids of the street, and house them in his fourteen-room mansion. Impressively, he was able to instill them with the character of champions, so they would be able to go out and conquer the world, whether they were fighters or not. Cus D’Amato created champions. LEARN HIS SECRETS In this book, we break down the mental strategies that any fighter (or anyone) can use in order to excel towards greatness. Fighters all over the world are able to acquire trainers that can teach technique. But they are unable to find teachers, like the Cus D’Amato’s and the Angelo Dundee’s, who can instill them with charismatic confidence, and help them deal with anxiety and fear before matches. The book consists of five sections. Each section is designed to empower you in a different area. The five sections are: • Character • Fear • Anxiety • Resistance • Leadership The aim of the book is to increase your belief and confidence in your potential, as well as giving you the knowledge of what it specifically takes to become a champion. After reading the book, you will be able to make simple adjustments, so that you can think like a champion.Without knowing what makes a champion, and how you can become one too, you will never be able to achieve it. After learning what makes ‘The Cus D’Amato Mind’, you will be more charismatic, confident, with a greater sense of control over your path to boxing greatness.

The Real Thomas Jefferson: The True Story of America's Philosopher of Freedom


Andrew M. Allison - 1983
    he may yet prove to be the central figure in modern history. So stated noted historian Henry Steele Commager. And as the English novelist Samuel Butler once wrote, Though God cannot alter the past, historians can. His observation is especially applicable to our changing perceptions of great historical personalities, most of whom are relentlessly reinterpreted by each new generation of biographers. It is doubtful whether many of these renowned characters of yesteryear would even recognize themselves in some of the publications devoted to them today.There is no better example of this kind of metamorphosis than Thomas Jefferson, author of the American Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. Since his death in 1826 he has been alternately vilified and deified in numerous forms by writers of varying motivations. In The Real Thomas Jefferson, by allowing Jefferson to explain his life and ideas in his own words, we have tried to ensure that his spirit, not ours, will breathe in these pages — so that all who read them will become acquainted with Jefferson himself, not another second-hand interpretation of him. His biography appears in Part I, and Part II brings together the most insightful passages from his writings, arranged by subject.

Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life


Joshua Rubenstein - 2011
    He was an effective military strategist and an adept diplomat, who staked the fate of the Bolshevik revolution on the meager foundation of a Europe-wide Communist upheaval. He was a master politician who played his cards badly in the momentous struggle for power against Stalin in the 1920s. And he was an assimilated, indifferent Jew who was among the first to foresee that Hitler’s triumph would mean disaster for his fellow European Jews, and that Stalin would attempt to forge an alliance with Hitler if Soviet overtures to the Western democracies failed.Here, Trotsky emerges as a brilliant and brilliantly flawed man. Rubenstein offers us a Trotsky who is mentally acute and impatient with others, one of the finest students of contemporary politics who refused to engage in the nitty-gritty of party organization in the 1920s, when Stalin was maneuvering, inexorably, toward Trotsky’s own political oblivion.As Joshua Rubenstein writes in his preface, “Leon Trotsky haunts our historical memory. A preeminent revolutionary figure and a masterful writer, Trotsky led an upheaval that helped to define the contours of twentieth-century politics.” In this lucid and judicious evocation of Trotsky’s life, Joshua Rubenstein gives us an interpretation for the twenty-first century.

Galileo


Bertolt Brecht - 1943
    Through the dramatic characterization of the famous physicist, Brecht examines the issues of scientific morality and the difficult relationship between the intellectual and authority. This version of the play is the famous one that was brought to completion by Brecht himself, working with Charles Laughton, who played Galileo in the first two American productions (Hollywood and New York, 1947). Since then the play has become a classic in the world repertoire. "The play which most strongly stamped on my mind a sense of Brecht's great stature as an artist of the modern theatre was Galileo." - Harold Clurman; "Thoughtful and profoundly sensitive." - Newsweek.

Waiting for a Miracle: Historical Novel


Helen (Wininger) Livnat - 2018
     It begins somewhere in Russia in the mid-19th century, and takes the reader into the events during the two world wars, and their ways of existence during the holocaust. The simple and touching stories are presented from the perspective of a sensitive young boy, fascinated by his surroundings. In a moment of anxiety and fear, the boy is torn from his family, and the journey of his life begins. The story describes four generations that represent the history of Eastern European Jews. The author creates a unique attraction between the book and the reader, by her fluent and vivid language. Historical truths are intertwined with fascinating stories about the power of a violin, and the miracles that occurred during the attempt to survive under impossible conditions in a period where sanity was lost. “People will forget what I said, people will forget what I did, people will never forget what I made them feel.”

Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill


Barry Singer - 2012
    This book features a vivid and entertaining timeline of his public history, but also focuses on the more personal, nonwork aspects of his day-to-day life, covering topics such as autos, books, cigars, dining, fashion, home, libations, and pastimes. Churchill lived an extravagant life, but in reality did not have much money. His ability to live well beyond his means is a lesson that will intrigue many.Praise for Churchill Style:“Despite the hundreds of books written on the wartime leader, there has been surprisingly little compiled on his lifestyle. Barry Singer—a writer, self-described Churchill fanatic and proprietor of Manhattan's Chartwell Booksellers (which touts itself as "the world's only Winston Churchill bookshop")—has corrected the deficit." —Wall Street Journal "There’s a good deal to like about this jaunty book . . . In brief, Churchill lived beyond his means and appears to have enjoyed every minute of it. Churchill Style puts on display his resourcefulness at doing it." —Buffalo News “Hundreds of books have been written about Winston Churchill, most of which focus on his military service and his leadership during both World Wars, but none assess his personal style like Barry Singer does in Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill.” —Cool Hunting.com