-Titulo Original : The Firm A Novel-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice of the best firms in America. He made a deadly mistake.For a young lawyer on the make, it was an offer he couldnt refuse: a position at a law firm where the bucks, billable hours, and benefits are over the top. Its a dream job for an up-and-comer-if he can overlook the uneasy feeling he gets at the office. Then an FBI investigation plunges the straight and narrow attorney into a nightmare of terror and intrigue, with no choice but to pit his wits, ethics, and legal skills against the firms deadly secrets-if he hopes to stay alive ... Review Taut, fast and relentless... A ride worth taking.-San Francisco Chronicle.Keeps the reader hooked... From the creepy first chapters... to the vise-tightening midsection and on to the take-the money-and-run finale.-Wall Street Journal. Irresistable... seizes the reader on the opening page and propels him through 400 more.-Newsweek. About the Author Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby-writing his first novel.Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didnt have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girls father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.That might have put an end to Grishams hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career-and spark one of publishings greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grishams reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grishams success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, and The Appeal) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million...

-Titulo Original : The Quiet Americans Four Cia Spies At The Dawn Of The Cold War-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: “Enthralling. . . . Lying and stealing and invading, it should be said, make for captivating reading, especially in the hands of a storyteller as skilled as Anderson.” -The New York Times Book Review A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR At the end of World War II, the United States was considered the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear-to some-that the Soviet Union was already seeking to expand and foment revolution around the world, and the American government’s strategy in response relied on the secret efforts of a newly formed CIA. Chronicling the fascinating lives of the agents who sought to uphold American ideals abroad, Scott Anderson follows the exploits of four spies: Michael Burke, who organized parachute commandos from an Italian villa; Frank Wisner, an ingenious spymaster who directed actions around the world; Peter Sichel, a German Jew who outwitted the ruthless KGB in Berlin; and Edward Lansdale, a mastermind of psychological warfare in the Far East. But despite their lofty ambitions, time and again their efforts went awry, thwarted by a combination of ham-fisted politicking and ideological rigidity at the highest levels of the government. Told with narrative brio, deep research, and a skeptical eye, The Quiet Americans is the gripping story of how the United States, at the very pinnacle of its power, managed to permanently damage its moral standing in the world. Review An Amazon Best Book of September 2020: Scott Anderson’s The Quiet Americans is a deeply-researched history that reads like a character driven novel. At the end of World War II, the United States began turning its attention to the Soviet Union, and the relatively new CIA became integral to the covert effort to confront the Soviets. Much as he did in his epic Lawrence in Arabia, Anderson focuses on the experiences of a handful of men in order to tell the wider story. The result is both intimate and sweeping. Anderson follows four agents whose work was spread across the globe, initially directed at maintaining American ideals, but eventually decaying under the weight of politics, myopia, and overreach. Each of these men bore great costs for the work they did in the CIA. As they were altering the course of world events, the work was altering-sometimes quite severely-the courses of their lives. -Chris Schluep, Amazon Book ReviewEditors pick: The Quiet Americans is both sweeping and intimate, showing how decisions that we view as geopolitical can have very human consequences.-Chris Schluep, Amazon Editor Review A New York Times Notable Book“ENTHRALLING...Lying and stealing and invading, it should be said, make for captivating reading, especially in the hands of a storyteller as skilled as Anderson...the climate of fear and intolerance that it describes in Washington also feels uncomfortably timely. -Kevin Peraino, The New York Times Book Review “Anderson’s look at four men who ran covert operations around the globe after World War II is AS THRILLING AS IT IS TRAGIC, as each man confronts the moral compromises he made in the name of democracy.” -The Washington Post “A DARKLY ENTERTAINING tale about American espionage, set in an era when Washington’s fear and skepticism about the agency resembles our climate today.“ -The New York Times“In his skillful and fascinating “The Quiet Americans”…Mr. Anderson ingeniously tells his story through the entwined sagas of four of the secret service’s most adept and intrepid operatives”-Edward Kosner, Wall Street Journal “This intriguing book is an indictment. From its first page it argues that the CIA lost its way, in all senses, in the first decade of the cold war. Its witnesses are four courageous and initially idealistic patriots. Frank Wisner oversaw some of the earliest efforts to “roll back” communism in Europe. Michael Burke was a daredevil figure in the same game. Edward Lansdale was an eminence grise in the Far East...

-Titulo Original : The Snakehead An Epic Tale Of The Chinatown Underworld And The American Dream-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: In this thrilling panorama of real-life events, the bestselling author of Empire of Pain investigates a secret world run by a surprising criminal: a charismatic middle-aged grandmother, who from a tiny noodle shop in New York’s Chinatown managed a multi-million dollar business smuggling people.“Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it’s all true.” -Time Keefe reveals the inner workings of Sister Ping’s complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way, he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of illegal immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them. Grand in scope yet propulsive in narrative force, The Snakehead is both a kaleidoscopic crime story and a brilliant exploration of the ironies of immigration in America. Review A Book of the Year: Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post “Reads like a mashup of The Godfather and Chinatown, complete with gun battles, a ruthless kingpin and a mountain of cash. Except that it’s all true.”-Time“Essential reading. . . . A rich, beautifully told story, so suspenseful and with so many unexpected twists that in places it reads like a John le Carre novel.”-The Washington Post “A masterwork. . . . In this single tale about a global criminal, Keefe finds a story of quintessentially American hope.” -Christian Science Monitor “Painstakingly reported and vividly told. . . . As immigration reform languishes in Washington . . . everyone involved-from policymakers to activists to the undocumented-would be wise to read The Snakehead.”-Newsweek“A formidably well-researched book that is as much a paean to its author’s industriousness as it is a chronicle of crime.”-Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Keefe has written a vivid non fiction thriller. The Snakehead reads like a Chinese-American version of The Sopranos, except that the mob boss is a grandmother who runs a human smuggling enterprise, and the story is true.”-Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side “Evocatively captures our yin and yang over immigration policy. . . . This is one of the freshest accounts of modern-day migration I’ve read, one filled with moral ambiguity, one that doesn’t pretend to have the answers, one that in these times feels like essential reading.”-Alex Kotlowitz, The Washington Post “An eye-opener. . . . Compelling and informative. . . . Keefe maintains a commendable fairness and objectivity reporting a fascinating story.”-USA Today “Bracing, vivid. . . . Keefe writes gracefully, perceptively, insightfully. . . . Without sacrificing one iota of narrative momentum, he untangles a dauntingly complicated human-trafficking operation so a reader can effortlessly follow along.”-The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice) “Brilliant. . . . Keefe’s mastery of this chapter of our ongoing immigration saga is impressive. He muses thoughtfully about its many conundrums and highlights how our ethos of welcoming the persecuted gets soured by bad policy and the pervasive exploitation of the helpless. There will be more chapters, no doubt, but this one was pretty riveting.”-Los Angeles Times “The Snakehead achieves what only the finest reporting can: it peels back an astonishing hidden world. Keefe takes the reader on a spellbinding journey . . . that will forever change your understanding of what it means to become an American.”-David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z “Timely and compelling.”-Wall Street Journal “Engrossing. . . . Keefe’s narrative delves deeply into Chinatown and the labyrinthine smuggling routes between China and America, but it’s also a glimpse into our conflicted feelings about illegals and the morass of A...

-Titulo Original : Crazy Horse And Custer: The Parallel Lives Of Two American Warriors-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review Movingly told and well written . . . a fine contribution, one that will be read with pleasure and admiration by general reader, student and scholar alike. Ambrose has breathed new life into the familiar facts.--Library JournalAn epic and accurate retelling of one of our countrys most tragic periods.--Baltimore Sun The full story of what led Crazy Horse and Custer to that fateful day at the Little Bighorn, from bestselling historian Stephen E. Ambrose. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 U.S. Army soldiers rode toward the banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer of the Seventh Cavalry. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both had become leaders in their societies at very early ages; both had been stripped of power, and in disgrace had worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie. From Publishers Weekly Military historian Ambrose examines the connections between the Indian chief and the cavalry officer who fought at Little Bighorn. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Publisher On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages; both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.Movingly told and well written . . . a fine contribution, one that will be read with pleasure and admiration by general reader, student and scholar alike. Ambrose has breathed new life into the familiar facts.--Library JournalAn epic and accurate retelling of one of our countrys most tragic periods.--Baltimore Sun From the Inside Flap ling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages; both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie. From the Back Cover On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of the Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where 3,000 Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General Geor...

-Titulo Original : The Castle On Sunset Life, Death, Love, Art, And Scandal At Hollywoods Chateau Marmont-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: The definitive-and salacious-history of the iconic hotel that Hollywood stars have called a home away from home for almost a century.“Fascinating, dishy, and glimmering with insight.... This is the definitive book about Hollywood’s most storied hotel.” -Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of WildSince 1929, Hollywood’s brightest stars have flocked to the Chateau Marmont as if it were a second home. An apartment building-turned-hotel, the Chateau has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: where director Nicholas Ray slept with his sixteen-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose; and Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months. But despite its mythic reputation, much of what has happened inside the Chateau’s walls has eluded the public eye-until now. With wit and insight, Shawn Levy recounts the wild revelries and scandalous liaisons, the creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, the births and deaths to which the hotel has been a party. Vivid, salacious, and richly informed, The Castle on Sunset is a glittering tribute to Hollywood as seen from inside the walls of its most hallowed hotel. Review “Fascinating, dishy, and glimmering with insight . . . This is the definitive book about Hollywood’s most storied hotel.” -Cheryl Strayed “Stitched through with savory anecdotes that navigate us through an ever-shifting city, as the [Chateau Marmont’s] own story arc mirrors Hollywood’s various transitions: from the studio-run golden era, to Laurel Canyon’s singer-songwriter scene, to the years of the comedy clubs and private bottle-service rooms.” -Los Angeles Times“I want to live inside this book!” -Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & The Six “Fabulously fizzy.” -Vanity Fair “An exuberant record. . . Levy’s pages teem with extraordinary and extreme personalities.” -The Sunday Times (London)“So wild that even Hollywood’s best screenwriters couldn’t make this stuff up.” -Fortune “Reading The Castle on Sunset, I felt like I was sneaking around the hallways of the Chateau after midnight and peering through keyholes in history. Shawn Levy pulls back the velvet curtains to reveal all the decadence, glamour, ghosts, and gossip of a fabled and dreamy Hollywood.” -Joe Hagan, author of Sticky Fingers “Very fun and informative . . . Levy chronicles one of Hollywood’s most famous addresses.” -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “A genuinely fascinating look at how Hollywood supports its stars.” -Booklist “Alongside an endless supply of famous guests, Levy has managed to make the hotel itself a living, breathing, and wonderfully endearing character. The Castle on Sunset is thoughtfully researched and gorgeously executed.” -Jacob Tomsky, author of Heads in Beds “The great chronicler of films and pop culture has done it again. . . . As elegant and naughty as the hotel’s guests, The Castle on Sunset tells a secret history of American film, fame, and decadence.” -Peter Ames Carlin, author of Bruce and Homeward Bound “Levy traces the tumultuous history of the legendary apartment house turned luxury hotel. . . . There never seems to be a dull moment at the Sunset Strip haunt, where the ghosts of Hollywood’s past and present still seem to shake things up.” -Vulture “An irresistible, deliciously dishy deep dive into the many lives of the storied Chateau Marmont, told in prose so witty and alive you feel you’re sitting at the bar with Dominick Dunne. This is a book worthy of its glamorous, alluring subject.” -Wednesday Martin, author of Primates of Park Avenue and Untrue “Fantastic. . . . The Castle on Sunset plays like a riff on Kenneth Anger’s legendary Hollywood Babylon, but consigned to one key locale.” -The Stranger “For years Shawn Levy has been shaming the rest of us who write about movies with his contagious high spirits, elegant ...

-Titulo Original : Hellhound On His Trail The Electrifying Account Of The Largest Manhunt In American History-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review Edgar Award Nominee * One of the Best Books of the Year: O, The Oprah Magazine, Time, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, San Francisco ChronicleViscerally dramatic … spellbinding … Both Dr. King and Ray come to life in these remarkable pages. -The New York Times “Impossible-to-put-down . . . a masterful work of narrative nonfiction, no one does it better than Hampton Sides.” -Associated Press Gripping, exciting, and engrossing . . . hits us with the shuddering intensity of a high-speed collision. -The Times of London A taut, vibrant account....chilling in detail and particularly haunting in evoking the confusion and pathos in the minutes following the single crack of Rays rifle. -Los Angeles TimesAn authoritative, engrossing narrative....thoroughly researched but executed with the pacing of a fine novel and a dash of top-notch police procedural....meticulous.--Miami Herald Searing. . . . A complex crime mystery that shifts the focus from Dr. King to his killer. . . . Gripping.--Wall Street Journal As urgent a page-turner as any crime novel - a feat Sides accomplishes without sacrificing historical detail and insight. --St. Petersburg Times “Remarkable. . . . A window on the passions and contradictions of an era....a page-turner.--Christian Science MonitorA riveting re-creation of a tragedy. . . . Through Sides’ use of novelistic pacing, details and descriptions, he creates suspense that will propel readers through a slice of history.--USA TodayEnlightening . . . a valuable contribution to the historical record [and] a memorable and persuasive portrait. --The Washington Post Meticulously researched, reads like nothing so much as a novel ... creating plenty of plain old-fashioned suspense that makes the readers heart pound.--The Portland OregonianIts as much thriller as history book and the compulsive story races along like a fugitive on the lam.--San Francisco Gate Sides meticulous yet driving account of Rays plot to murder King and the 68-day international manhunt that followed is in essence a true-crime story and a splendid specimen of the genre-a genuine corker.”--Salon Remarkable journalism. . . . compulsively readable. . . . [Sides] writes . . . with a passion that resonates.....Compelling --Dallas Morning NewsExtraordinary....remarkable journalism.... pulsively readable. -San Francisco ChronicleHellhound unfolds like a mystery--one read not for the ending but for all the missteps, gotchas and near misses along the way.--TimeExhaustively researched, fast-paced and at times minute-by-minute telling....To Sides great credit, this is a feat of shoe-leather reporting and research....astonishing....briskly alive.--Austin American StatesmanMeticulous....a page turner, and something more: It brings the disquiet of an era fully alive.-BloombergA carefully researched and crisply written account....Sides crafts careful profiles of his major characters--St. Louis Post-Dispatch[Sides] masterfully recreates the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr ....Though the outcome is clear, we are nonetheless rapt-and then devastated.--Time Out New YorkNailbitingly riveting.--Newsday NATIONAL BESTSELLER * On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel. The nation was shocked, enraged, and saddened. As chaos erupted across the country and mourners gathered at Kings funeral, investigators launched a sixty-five day search for King’s assassin that would lead them across two continents.With a blistering, cross-cutting narrative that draws on a wealth of dramatic unpublished documents, Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, delivers a non-fiction thriller in the tradition of William Manchesters The Death of a President and Truman Capotes In Cold Blood. With Hellhound On His Trail, Sides shines a light on the largest manhunt in American history and brings it to life f...

-Titulo Original : Rising Out Of Hatred The Awakening Of A Former White Nationalist-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: From a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, the powerful story of how a prominent white supremacist changed his heart and mind. This is a book to help us understand the American moment and to help us better understand one another.“The story of Derek Black is the human being at his gutsy, self-reflecting, revolutionary best, told by one of America’s best storytellers at his very best. Rising Out of Hatred proclaims if the successor to the white nationalist movement can forsake his ideological upbringing, can rebirth himself in antiracism, then we can too no matter the personal cost. This book is an inspiration.”-Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in AmericaDerek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father founded Stormfront, the largest racist community on the Internet. His godfather, David Duke, was a KKK Grand Wizard. By the time Derek turned nineteen, he had become an elected politician with his own daily radio show-already regarded as the the leading light of the burgeoning white nationalist movement. We can infiltrate, Derek once told a crowd of white nationalists. We can take the country back.Then he went to college. At New College of Florida, he continued to broadcast his radio show in secret each morning, living a double life until a classmate uncovered his identity and sent an email to the entire school. Derek Black ... white supremacist, radio host ... New College student??? The ensuing uproar overtook one of the most liberal colleges in the country. Some students protested Dereks presence on campus, forcing him to reconcile for the first time with the ugliness of his beliefs. Other students found the courage to reach out to him, including an Orthodox Jew who invited Derek to attend weekly Shabbat dinners. It was because of those dinners-and the wide-ranging relationships formed at that table-that Derek started to question the science, history, and prejudices behind his worldview. As white nationalism infiltrated the political mainstream, Derek decided to confront the damage he had done.Rising Out of Hatred tells the story of how white-supremacist ideas migrated from the far-right fringe to the White House through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost. With great empathy and narrative verve, Eli Saslow asks what Derek Blacks story can tell us about Americas increasingly divided nature. Review “Rising Out of Hatred is a disturbing look at the spread of that extremism - and how it is planted and cultivated in the fertile soil of American bigotry. And yet, Saslow’s vivid storytelling also conveys that during this period of deepening racial division, there is the possibility of redemption.-Washington Post“This is a double portrait: of a worse America, and of a better one. Neither of them has yet come to pass, but each of them might. Thanks to reporting that is both truthful and humane, we see in one young mans decision a guide to the choices that face a generation and a country. -Timothy Snyder, New York Times bestselling author of On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom“The story of Derek Black is the human being at his gutsy, self-reflecting, revolutionary best, told by one of America’s best storytellers at his very best. Rising Out of Hatred proclaims if the successor to the white nationalist movement can forsake his ideological upbringing, can rebirth himself in antiracism, then we can too no matter the personal cost. This book is an inspiration.”-Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in AmericaNo one can match Eli Saslows skill at telling the most improbable, humane, and riveting tales of our time. Anyone despairing at the hate that has fueled so much of Americas politics ought to read this unfo...

-Titulo Original : The Billion Dollar Spy A True Story Of Cold War Espionage And Betrayal-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review Praise for David E. Hoffman’s The Billion Dollar Spy“The Billion Dollar Spy is one of the best spy stories to come out of the Cold War and all the more riveting . . . for being true. It hits the sweet spot between page-turning thriller and solidly researched history (even the footnotes are informative) and then becomes something more, a shrewd character study of spies and the spies who run them, the mixed motives, the risks. . . . This is a terrific book.” -Washington Post“A true-life tale so gripping at times it reads like spy fiction.” -Los Angeles Times“Engrossing. . . . Mr. Hoffman’s book particularly shines in cinematic accounts of . . . anxious encounters.” -The New York Times“A rare look at the dangerous, intricately choreographed tradecraft behind old-school intelligence gathering. . . . What [Hoffman]’s accomplished here isn’t just a remarkable example of journalistic talent but also an ability to weave an absolutely gripping nonfiction narrative.” -The Dallas Morning News “This riveting drama. . . . packs valuable insights into the final decade of the cloak-and-dagger rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union. . . . A must-read for historians and buffs of that era, as well as aficionados of espionage.” -The Christian Science Monitor“Hoffman excels at conveying both the tradecraft and the human vulnerabilities involved in spying.” -The New Yorker“Gripping and nerve-wracking. . . . Human tension hangs over every page of The Billion Dollar Spy like the smell of leaded gasoline. . . . [Hoffman] knows the intelligence world well and has expertly used recently declassified documents to tell this unsettling and suspenseful story. . . . The Billion Dollar Spy reads like the most taut and suspenseful parts of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Smiley’s People. It’s worth the clenched jaw and upset stomach it creates.” -USA Today “Suspenseful. . . . Hoffman is a scrupulous, meticulous writer whose pages of footnotes and references attest to how carefully he sticks to his sources. . . . His book’s value is in its true-life adventure story and the window it offers into a once-closed world.” -The Columbus Dispatch “Hoffman viscerally evokes the secret, ruthless Cold War battle between the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet KGB in his true-life espionage thriller. . . . An exciting, revealing tale with a courageous, sympathetic protagonist.” -Tampa Bay Times“The fine first sentence of The Billion Dollar Spy could almost have been written with an icicle. A work of painstaking historical research that’s paced like a thriller.” -Departures “Hoffman [proves] that nonfiction can read like a John le Carre thriller. . . . This real-life tale of espionage will hook readers from the get-go.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Fascinating. . . . Hoffman’s revealing of [Adolf Tolkachev] as a person and a spy is brilliantly done, making this mesmerizing true story scary and thrilling.” -Booklist (starred review) “Hoffman ably navigates the many strands of this complex espionage story. An intricate, mesmerizing portrayal of the KGB-CIA spy culture. . . . A thoroughly researched excavation of an astoundingly important (and sadly sacrificed) spy for the CIA.” -Kirkus Reviews“A fabulous read that also provides chilling insights into the Cold War spy game between Washington and Moscow that has erupted anew under Vladimir Putin. . . . It is also an evocative portrait of everyday life in the crumbling Soviet Union and a meticulously researched guide to CIA sources and methods. I devoured every word, including the footnotes.” -Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War “One of the best real-life spy stories ever told. This is a breakthrough book in intelligence writing, drawing on CIA operational cables-the holy grail of the spy world-to narrate each astonishing move. Hoffman reveals CIA tradecraft tricks that are more delicious tha...

-Titulo Original : Marie Antoinette The Journey-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: The national bestseller from the acclaimed author of The Wives of Henry VIII. France’s beleaguered queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous “Let them eat cake,” was the subject of ridicule and curiosity even before her death; she has since been the object of debate and speculation and the fascination so often accorded tragic figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted, privileged, but otherwise unremarkable child was thrust into an unparalleled time and place, and was commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in history. Antonia Fraser’s lavish and engaging portrait of Marie Antoinette, one of the most recognizable women in European history, excites compassion and regard for all aspects of her subject, immersing the reader not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, buaimedt also in the unraveling of an era. Review “Fascinating . . . the court at Versailles comes alive.” -The Washington Post“Colorful, fluently narrated. . . . A touching, psychologically believable portrait.” -The Wall Street Journal“Absorbing as ever. Fraser’s blend of insight and research persuade us that this unfortunate queen deserves neither the vilification nor the idealization she has received.” -The New Yorker From the Inside Flap France?s beleaguered queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous ?Let them eat cake,? was the subject of ridicule and curiosity even before her death; she has since been the object of debate and speculation and the fascination so often accorded tragic figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted, privileged, but otherwise unremarkable child was thrust into an unparalleled time and place, and was commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in history. Antonia Fraser?s lavish and engaging portrait of Marie Antoinette, one of the most recognizable women in European history, excites compassion and regard for all aspects of her subject, immersing the reader not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, but also in the unraveling of an era. From the Back Cover Frances beleaguered queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous Let them eat cake, was the subject of ridicule and curiosity even before her death; she has since been the object of debate and speculation and the fascination so often accorded tragic figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted, privileged, but otherwise unremarkable child was thrust into an unparalleled time and place, and was commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in history. Antonia Frasers lavish and engaging portrait of Marie Antoinette, one of the most recognizable women in European history, excites compassion and regard for all aspects of her subject, immersing the reader not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, but also in the unraveling of an era. About the Author Antonia Fraser is the author of many internationally bestselling historical works, including Love and Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola, The Wives of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, and Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832. She is also the author of Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter. She has received the Wolfson Prize for History, the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal of Britain’s Historical Association, and the Franco-British Society’s Enid McLeod Literary Prize. She was made a Dame of the British Empire for services to Literature in 2011 Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. chapter oneA Small ArchduchessHer Majesty has been very happily delivered of a small, but completely healthy Archduchess.Count Khevenhuller, Court Chamberlain, 1755On 2 November 1755 the Queen-Empress was in labour all day with her fif...

-Titulo Original : Mao The Unknown Story-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review “An atom bomb of a book.” -Time“A magisterial work. . . . This magnificent biography methodically demolishes every pillar of Mao’s claim to sympathy or legitimacy. . . . A triumph.” -The New York Times Book Review“Chilling. . . . Impressive. . . . An extremely compelling portrait of Mao that will still shock many.” -The Christian Science Monitor“An important book in ways not envisaged. . . . A work of unanswerable authority.” -The Seattle Post-Intelligencer“The most complete and assiduously researched biography of its subject yet published. . . . No earlier work comes close to matching the density of detail here. . . . The authors have performed brilliant historical detective work.” -The Atlantic MonthlyChang and Halliday cast new and revealing light on nearly every episode in Maos tumultuous life…a stupendous work and one hopes that it will be brought before the Chinese people, who still claim to venerate the man and who have yet to come to terms with their own history…-Michael Yahuda, The GuardianJung Chang and Jon Halliday have not, in the whole of their narrative, a good word to say about Mao. In a normal biography, such an unequivocal denunciation would be both suspect and tedious. But the clear scholarship, and careful notes, of The Unknown Story provoke another reaction. Mao Tse-Tungs evil, undoubted and well-documented, is unequalled throughout modern history.-Roy Hattersley, The ObserverEver since the spectacular success of Changs Wild Swans we have waited impatiently for her to complete with her husband this monumental study of Chinas most notorious modern leader. The expectation has been that she would rewrite modern Chinese history. The wait has been worthwhile and the expectation justified. This is a bombshell of a book.-Chris Patten, last British governor of Hong Kong, in The TimesA triumph. It is a mesmerising portrait of tyranny, degeneracy, mass murder and promiscuity, a barrage of revisionist bombshells, and a superb piece of research.-Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Sunday TimesJung Chang and Jon Halliday enter a savage indictment drawing on a host of sources, including important Soviet ones, to blow away the miasma of deceit and ignorance which still shrouds Maos life from many Western eyes...Jung Chang delivers a cry of anguish on behalf of all of those in her native land who, to this day, are still not free to speak of these things.-Max Hastings, The Sunday TelegraphDemonstrating the same pitilessness that they judge to be Maos most formidable weapon, they unstitch the myths that sustained him in power for forty years and that continue to underpin Chinas regime…I suspect that when China comes to terms with its past this book will have played a role.-Nicolas Shakespeare, TelegraphThe detail and documentation are awesome. The story that they tell, mesmerising in its horror, is the most powerful, compelling, and revealing political biography of modern times. Few books are destined to change history, but this one will. -George Walden, Daily Maildecisive biography…they have investigated every aspect of his personal life and career, peeling back the layers of lies, myths, and what we used to think of as facts…what Chang and Halliday have done is immense and surpasses, as a biography, everything that has gone before.-Jonathan Mirsky, The Independent, Saturdaywritten with the same deft hand that enlivened Ms. Changs 1991 memoir, Wild Swans…-The Economist The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before - and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin w...

-Titulo Original : Unbowed A Memoir-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. BeginningsI was born the third of six children, and the first girl after two sons, on April 1, 1940, in the small village of Ihithe in the central highlands of what was then British Kenya. My grandparents and parents were also born in this region near the provincial capital of Nyeri, in the foothills of the Aberdare Mountain Range. To the north, jutting into the sky, is Mount Kenya.Two weeks into mbura ya njahi, the season of the long rains, my mother delivered me at home in a traditional mud-walled house with no electricity or running water. She was assisted by a local midwife as well as women family members and friends. My parents were peasant farmers, members of the Kikuyu community, one of forty-two ethnic groups in Kenya and then, as now, the most populous. They lived from the soil and also kept cattle, goats, and sheep.At the time of my birth, the land around Ihithe was still lush, green, and fertile. The seasons were so regular that you could almost predict that the long, monsoon rains would start falling in mid-March. In July you knew it would be so foggy you would not be able to see ten feet in front of you, and so cold in the morning that the grass would be silvery-white with frost. In Kikuyu, July is known as mworia nyoni, the month when birds rot, because birds would freeze to death and fall from the trees.We lived in a land abundant with shrubs, creepers, ferns, and trees, like the mitundu, mukeu, and migumo, some of which produced berries and nuts. Because rain fell regularly and reliably, clean drinking water was everywhere. There were large well-watered fields of maize, beans, wheat, and vegetables. Hunger was virtually unknown. The soil was rich, dark red-brown, and moist.When a baby joined the community, a beautiful and practical ritual followed that introduced the infant to the land of the ancestors and conserved a world of plenty and good that came from that soil. Shortly after the child was born, a few of the women attending the birth would go to their farms and harvest a bunch of bananas, full, green, and whole. If any of the bananas had ripened and birds had eaten them, the women would have to find another full bunch. The fullness expressed wholeness and wellness, qualities the community valued. Along with the bananas, the women would bring to the new mother’s house sweet potatoes from her and their gardens and blue-purple sugarcane (kigwa kia nyamuiru). No ordinary sugarcane would do.In anticipation of the birth, the expectant mother would fatten a lamb that slept and ate inside her home. While the women were gathered the ritual foods, the child’s father would sacrifice the lamb and roast a piece of the flesh. The bananas and the potatoes would also be roasted and along with the meat and the raw sugarcane given to the new mother. She would chew small pieces of each in turn and then put some of the juice into the baby’s tiny mouth. This would have been my first meal. Even before breast milk, I would have swallowed the juice of green bananas, blue-purple sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and a fattened lamb, all fruits of the local land. I am as much a child of my native soil as I am of my father, Muta Njugi, and my mother, Wanjiru Kibicho, who was more familiarly known by her Christian name, Lydia. Following the Kikuyu tradition, my parents named me for my father’s mother, Wangari, an old Kikuyu name.According to the Kikuyu myth of origin, God created the primordial parents, Gikuyu and Mumbi, and from Mount Kenya showed them the land on which they were to settle: west from Mount Kenya to the Aberdares, on to Ngong Hills and Kilimambogo, then north to Garbatula. Together, Gikuyu and Mumbi had ten daughters-Wanjiru, Wambui, Wangari, Wanjiku, Wangui, Wangeci, Wanjeri, Nyambura, Wairimu, and Wamuyu-but they had no sons. The legend goes that, when the time came for the daughters to marry, Gikuyu prayed to God under a holy fig tree, mËœugumo, as was his t...

-Titulo Original : A Really Good Day How Microdosing Made A Mega Difference In My Mood, My Marriage, And My Life-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: “Relentlessly honest and surprisingly funny.” - The Washington Post“Genuinely brave and human.” -The New York Times “Wildly brilliant.” -ElleThe true story of how a renowned writer’s struggle with mood storms led her to try a remedy as drastic as it is forbidden: microdoses of LSD. Her fascinating journey provides a window into one family and the complex world of a once-infamous drug seen through new eyes.When a small vial arrives in her mailbox from Lewis Carroll, Ayelet Waldman is ready to try anything. Her depression has become intolerable, severe and unmanageable; medication has failed to make a difference. Married with four children and a robust career, she should be happy, but instead her family and her work are suffering at the mercy of her mood disorder. So she opens the vial, places two drops on her tongue, and becomes part of a burgeoning underground group of scientists and civilians successfully using therapeutic microdoses of LSD. As Waldman charts her experience over the course of a month, during which she achieved a newfound feeling of serenity, she also explores the history and mythology of LSD, the cutting-edge research into the drug, and the byzantine policies that control it. Drawing on her experience as a federal public defender, and as the mother of teenagers, and her research into the therapeutic value of psychedelics, Waldman has produced a book that is candid, revealing and completely enthralling. Review “Genuinely brave and human… In normalizing the conversation about LSD, she may one day help others feel normal.” -Jennifer Senior, The New York Times A wildly brilliant, radically candid, and rigorous daybook of [Waldman’s] life-changing, last-resort journey. -Lisa Shea, Elle Relentlessly honest and surprisingly funny. -Sharon Peters, USA Today An intriguing and thorough look at the therapeutic possibilities of an illegal drug... Engaging and deeply researched. -Nora Krug, The Washington Post Smart, outspoken, provoking, and funny… Poignant, sometimes hilarious... Waldman calls for renewed research and drug-law reform in this informative, candid, altogether irresistible quest. -Donna Seaman, Booklist Honest and intelligent… A humane, well-reasoned, and absolutely necessary argument for a major overhaul of America’s drug policy. The book triumphantly coheres in a lucid manifesto of how and why the racist, immoral undertaking called the War on Drugs has failed… Passionate, persuasive. -Claire Vaye Watkins, The New Republic About the Author AYELET WALDMAN is the author of the novels Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and Daughters Keeper, as well as of the essay collection Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, and the Mommy-Track Mystery series. She was a federal public defender and taught at Loyola Law School and the UC Berkeley School of Law, where she developed and taught courses on the legal implications of the war on drugs. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Michael Chabon, and their four children. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. This morning I took LSD. The table I’m sitting at right now is not breathing. My keyboard is not exploding in psychedelic fireworks, lightning bolts shooting from the letters “R” and “P.” I am not giddy and frantic, or zoned out with bliss. I feel no transcendent sense of oneness with the universe or with the divine. On the contrary. I feel normal.Well, except for one thing: I’m content and relaxed. I’m busy, but not stressed. That might be normal for some people, but it isn’t for me.I did not drop a tab of acid. What I took is known as a “microdose,” a subtherapeutic dose of a drug administered at a quantity low enough to elicit no adverse side effects yet high enough for a measurable cellular response. A microdose of a psychedelic drug is approximately one-tenth of a ...

-Titulo Original : Missoula Rape And The Justice System In A College Town-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review “Excellent. . . . Krakauer doesn’t just tell the story of these crimes. As he has done so brilliantly in his other books . . . he sets the story firmly in the context of social history.” -The Boston Globe“An important, difficult and timely subject. . . . Meticulously reported, fascinating and deeply disturbing.” -USA Today“Jon Krakauer began his career as an author of taut, finely reported outdoor adventures; seven books later, he emerges as the conscience of a nation.” -The Christian Science Monitor “Missoula will be a touchstone of any future correction to the rape culture we live in.” -Minneapolis Star Tribune “Compelling. . . . Meticulous. . . . Krakauer is a writer committed above all else to asking difficult questions. . . . [A] timely and important book.” -Los Angeles Times “Compelling. . . . Clear and dispassionate, offering level-headed, in-depth reportage.” -Chicago Tribune “A narrative nonfiction page-turner. . . . Krakauer skillfully strengthens his sources’ recollections without taking away their agency.” -Buzzfeed “A devastating expose of colleges and local law enforcement. . . . A substantive deep dive into the morass of campus sex crimes, where the victim is too often treated like the accused.” -Entertainment Weekly “A good and needed thing. . . . Powerful. . . . Krakauer has done a great service by taking on this subject.” -Newsweek “Krakauer exposes the cavalier attitude of police, prosecutors and football fans toward victims of acquaintance rape in the Montana town full of fanatics for the University of Montana football team.” -The Denver Post “A clear and undeniable picture of a broken system. . . . Krakauer’s straightforward writing resists sensationalism. . . . This is a book we all needed.” -Missoula Independent “A harrowing read. . . . Missoula stands as both a reminder of the forces arrayed against women raising their voices, and of the tremendous power of the telling of their stories.” -The Toronto Star “Krakauer’s evocative reporting, honed to a fine edge of anger, vividly conveys the ordeal of victims and their ongoing psychological dislocations. . . . A hard-hitting true-crime expose that looks underneath the he-said-she-said to get at the sexist assumptions that help cover up and enable these crimes.” -Publishers Weekly (starred) “Riveting. . . . A raw and difficult but necessary read.” -Kirkus Reviews NATIONAL BESTSELLER * “A devastating expose of colleges and local law enforcement.... A substantive deep dive into the morass of campus sex crimes, where the victim is too often treated like the accused.” -Entertainment WeeklyMissoula, Montana, is a typical college town, home to a highly regarded state university whose beloved football team inspires a passionately loyal fan base. Between January 2008 and May 2012, hundreds of students reported sexual assaults to the local police. Few of the cases were properly handled by either the university or local authorities. In this, Missoula is also typical.In these pages, acclaimed journalist Jon Krakauer investigates a spate of campus rapes that occurred in Missoula over a four-year period. Taking the town as a case study for a crime that is sadly prevalent throughout the nation, Krakauer documents the experiences of five victims: their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; the skepticism directed at them by police, prosecutors, and the public; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. These stories cut through abstract ideological debate about acquaintance rape to demonstrate that it does not happen because women are sending mixed signals or seeking attention. They are victims of a terrible crime, deserving of fairness from our justice system. Rigorously researched, rendered in incisive prose, Missoula stands as an essential call to action. About the Author Jon Krakauer is the author of eight books and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Let...

-Titulo Original : The Man Who Ran Washington The Life And Times Of James A. Baker Iii-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times * The Washington Post * Fortune * BloombergFrom two of Americas most revered political journalists comes the definitive biography of legendary White House chief of staff and secretary of state James A. Baker III: the man who ran Washington when Washington ran the world.For a quarter century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency or ran the White House without the advice of James Addison Baker III. A scion of Texas aristocracy who became George H. W. Bush’s tennis partner, Baker had never worked in Washington until a devastating family tragedy struck when he was thirty-nine. Within a few years, he was leading Gerald Ford’s campaign and would go on to manage a total of five presidential races and win a sixth for George W. Bush in a Florida recount. He ran Ronald Reagan’s White House and became the most consequential secretary of state since Henry Kissinger. Ruthlessly partisan during campaign season, Baker became an indispensable dealmaker after the election. He negotiated with Democrats at home and Soviets abroad, rewrote the tax code, assembled the coalition that won the Gulf War, brokered the reunification of Germany, and helped bring a decades-long nuclear superpower standoff to an end. Brilliantly crafted by Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, The Man Who Ran Washington is a page-turning study in the acquisition, exercise, and preservation of power in late twentieth-century America and the story of Washington when Washington ran the world. Their masterly biography is necessary reading and destined to become a classic. Review SILVER MEDAL WINNER OF THE ARTHUR ROSS BOOK AWARDA masterclass in political biography.-The EconomistAn illuminating biographical portrait of Mr. Baker, one that describes the arc of his career and, along the way, tells us something about how executive power is wielded in the nation’s capital. . . often has the feel of a novel.-The Wall Street JournalEnthralling, comprehensive . . . The authors rightly highlight the dimensions of Baker’s illustrious career that show so much about what is broken in the current American political system.-The New York Times Book Review“The Man Who Ran Washington . . . will rank alongside it as among the very best books about American political life in the late 20th century.”-The Washington PostA masterly biography.-The GuardianA fascinating look at political power.-The New York TimesImmensely informative, nuanced and judicious.-Minneapolis Star Tribune“One of the finest political biographies of the year.” -Dallas Morning NewsEnthralling.-The Financial TimesA sweeping history as well as an intimate biography, the book is also a fascinating study of how to acquire power in Washington and how to use it to maximum effect.-Foreign AffairsAccomplished . . . Exhaustively reported and fluently written.-CommentaryAmerican political culture is broken, but it hasn’t always been that way. James Addison Baker was -the consummate master at actually getting things done in Washington.-FortuneSuperlative.-The American Conservative“Nobody was better at getting things done than James A. Baker. In a book that is at once fascinating, coolly revealing, and at moments touching, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have given us a biography worthy of one of the most important figures of the late American Century. If you want to understand power in Washington-or anywhere, for that matter-this is the book for you.” -Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, authors of The Wise Men“Monumental. . . . It’ll live forever, and it ought to be in every library in America, because it’s not just about Jim Baker. It’s about how government really works. . . . Epic.” -Tom Brokaw “This book is a window into the way power works, in the tradition of Caro.” -Robert Costa“Towering. . . . A fascinating, engrossing and dishy read. I think it sets...

-Titulo Original : The Book Of Honor The Secret Lives And Deaths Of Cia Operatives-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: A national bestseller, this extraordinary work of investigative reporting uncovers the identities, and the remarkable stories, of the CIA secret agents who died anonymously in the service of their country.In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. Official CIA records only name thirty-five of them, however. Undeterred by claims that revealing the identities of these nameless stars might compromise national security, Ted Gup sorted through thousands of documents and interviewed over 400 CIA officers in his attempt to bring their long-hidden stories to light. The result of this extraordinary work of investigation is a surprising glimpse at the real lives of secret agents, and an unprecedented history of the most compelling-and controversial-department of the US government. Review Rich reporting...a fitting tribute.-The Boston Globe From the Inside Flap In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. Official CIA records only name thirty-five of them, however. Undeterred by claims that revealing the identities of these nameless stars might compromise national security, Ted Gup sorted through thousands of documents and interviewed over 400 CIA officers in his attempt to bring their long-hidden stories to light. The result of this extraordinary work of investigation is a surprising glimpse at the real lives of secret agents, and an unprecedented history of the most compelling-and controversial-department of the US government. From the Back Cover In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall into which seventy-one stars are carved-each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. Official CIA records only name thirty-five of them, however. Undeterred by claims that revealing the identities of these nameless stars might compromise national security, Ted Gup sorted through thousands of documents and interviewed over 400 CIA officers in his attempt to bring their long-hidden stories to light. The result of this extraordinary work of investigation is a surprising glimpse at the real lives of secret agents, and an unprecedented history of the most compelling-and controversial-department of the US government. About the Author Ted Gup is the author of the bestseller The Book of Honor and of Nation of Secrets and A Secret Gift. He is a professor and chair of the journalism department at Emerson College. A former investigative reporter for The Washington Post and Time, he has also written for The New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, Slate, and Salon ...

-Titulo Original : Instant Replay The Green Bay Diary Of Jerry Kramer-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: A sports classic, Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaaps Instant Replay takes readers inside the 1967 season of the Green Bay Packers, following that storied team from training camp to their dramatic victory in Super Bowl II. Candid and often amusing, Jerry Kramer describes from a player’s perspective a bygone era of sports, filled with blood, grit, and tears. No game better exemplifies this period than the classic “Ice Bowl” conference championship game between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, which Kramer, who made the crucial block in the climactic play, describes in thrilling detail. We also get a rare and insightful view of the Packers’ legendary leader, coach Vince Lombardi. As vivid and engaging as it was when it was first published, Instant Replay is an irreplaceable reminder of the glory days of pro football. Review “The best behind-the-scenes glimpse of pro football ever produced.”-The New York Times“An unprecedented look into the gritty world of professional football. . . . Still the gold standard of sports biographies.”-Sports Illustrated“A classic for its insights into the game and its people, [written] with wit and without scandal or obscenity. . . . A landmark work.”-Los Angeles Times “Groundbreaking. . . . Candid. . . . An uncommonly frank account.”-Chicago Tribune “The first great professional sports diary.”-The Boston Globe“The gold standard for football memoirs. . . . This modern sports classic is a smart, funny and literate diary of the Packers’ successful quest to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowl victories.”-The Plain Dealer “This seminal, as-told-to diary . . . changed the way sports readers expected their heroes to sound. No more of this Grantland Rice purple prose. Schaap gave us the tough jock sounding like a real-and witty and introspective and profane-human being.”-Chicago Sun-Times “A must read. . . . An insightful look at the sometimes-maddening methods of Lombardi and the love-hate relationship the players had with the legendary coach.”-Green Bay Press-Gazette “An honest, hilarious and insightful diary, with Lombardi alternately serving as the hero and the villain, the lovable leader and the soul-crushing ogre.”-San Jose Mercury News “This was the book that started it all-for athletes telling their stories, for sportswriters going in depth, for great athletic tales being bound between the covers. Dick Schaap’s classic is timeless. Required reading for anyone who loves sports or sportswriting.”-Mitch Albom“One of the great sports books of all time.” -Billy Crystal“Kramer detailed the 1967 championship season in an understated, respectful tone, but showed a keen eye for details the fan would never glimpse.”-The Baltimore Sun “One of the rarest of things-a sports book written in English by an adult.”-Jimmy Breslin “Daring stuff for its time, revealing how athletes really act, talk and think back when such candor was taboo.”-Charlotte Observer “A no-holds-barred diary. . . . One really gets a sense of the physical, mental and emotional agonies players can go through in a season.”-Orlando Sentinel “[Kramer is] observant, honest, sensitive and a bone-crusher at right guard.”-The Oregonian “The ultimate football diary. . . . Detailed and dramatic. . . . Kramer’s description of his decisive block against Jethro Pugh at the goal line in the waning seconds [of the Ice Bowl] . . . is as fresh and raw as the minus-15-degree weather at kickoff.”-Tampa Tribune “In my life as a writer and reader, there are only a few books that I’ve read over and over again for the sheer pleasure of the experience. Jerry Kramer’s Instant Replay is the only sports book among them. I loved it when I was a teenage, and I love it still today.”-David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered About the Author Jerry Kramer was a right guard for the Green Bay Packers from 1958 to 1968. During his time with the team, the Packers won five National Championships and Super B...

-Titulo Original : The Legends Club Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, And An Epic College Basketball Rivalry-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: On March 18, 1980, the Duke basketball program announced the hiring of Mike Krzyzewski, the man who would restore glory to the team. The only problem: no one knew who Krzyzewski was. Nine days later, Jim Valvano was hired by North Carolina State to be their new head coach. The hiring didnt raise as many eyebrows, but the two new coaches had a similar goal: to unseat North Carolinas Dean Smith as the king of college basketball. And just like that, the most sensational competitive decade in history was about to unfold. In the skillful hands of John Feinstein, The Legends Club captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition. Feinstein pulls back the curtain on the recruiting wars, the intensely personal competition that wasnt always friendly, the enormous pressure and national stakes, and the battle for the very soul of college basketball. Review The book is one of [John Feinsteins] best, a beguilingly personal, sometimes heartbreaking look at the psychic cost of doing battle in America’s most brutally, nakedly competitive (and actual) arenas. It makes a fitting bookend to the author’s first, “A Season on the Brink” (1986), his hair-raising expose of Indiana coach Bobby Knight, expletives included.-The Wall Street JournalA compelling story of the complex relationships and backyard rivalries of the three coaches who dominated college basketball during the 1980s and early ’90s...Feinstein’s relationship with all three coaches gave him the intimate details that form the backbone of the book. One story leads quickly to another story in this fast-moving account of a memorable era in college basketball. Dating back to Feinstein’s first interview with Smith, this book was nearly 40 years in the making. It was worth the wait, because it is one of Feinstein’s best.-Chicago TribuneFeinstein entertains readers with fair, objective observations based on fact and his unique inside access gained not only through years of his coverage but also through many new interviews with former players, coaches and administrators...In a famous speech before he died, Valvano implored all of us to attempt to do three things each day: laugh, think and cry. He would be pleased with “The Legends Club” because it will evoke all three from readers, no matter where their college basketball allegiances lie.-The Washington Post The legends are right there in the subtitle: Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry. The unbilled fourth legend is the author. His longstanding relationships with the principals give the book its insider appeal; his history with each man goes back decades, and the intersecting, layered looks at each are built on firsthand knowledge...Funny and smart.-USA TodayDuke, UNC and N.C. State fans might quibble about the details, as they always do, Feinstein faithfully captures a rivalry that will remain a legend in sports.-BookPage“Fascinating. . . . The book is crammed with enough minutia and fresh anecdotes about the three competing coaches to satisfy any basketball junkie.” -Lincoln Journal Star “The author informs his narrative with myriads of interviews with all of his principals-and with those who have survived them-and enriches all with his deep knowledge and love of the game. He navigates through the murky waters of recruiting and explains how certain rules have affected the game-e.g., the 45-second shot clock, the fairly recent NBA ruling that forbids young men to enter the draft right out of high school. A text that will delight college basketball fans.” -Kirkus “Feinstein’s long history with these coaches gives him intimate knowledge of his subjects, allowing him to provide an insider’s perspective that likely will be new even to ACC aficionados.” -Publishers Weekly About the Author The Legends Club is John Feinsteins 36th book. He is the author of A Season o...

-Titulo Original : The Landmark Arrian The Campaigns Of Alexander (landmark Series)-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Arrian’s Campaigns of Alexander, widely considered the most authoritative history of the brilliant leader’s great conquests, is the latest addition to the acclaimed Landmark series. After twelve years of hard-fought campaigns, Alexander the Great controlled a vast empire that was bordered by the Adriatic sea to the west and modern-day India to the east. Arrian, himself a military commander, combines his firsthand experience of battle with material from Ptolemy’s memoirs and other ancient sources to compose a singular portrait of Alexander. This vivid and engaging new translation of Arrian will fascinate readers who are interested in classical studies, the history of warfare, and the origins of East­-West tensions still swirling in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan today. Enriched by the series’ trademark comprehensive maps, illustrations, and annotations, and with contributions from the preeminent classical scholars of today, The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander is the definitive edition of this essential work of ancient history. Review “The most thrilling volume in this fine series.” -The New York Times Book Review“A sumptuously annotated and lavishly illustrated new edition of The Campaigns of Alexander. . . . Arrian is by far our best and most reliable source for the events he describes.” -The Wall Street Journal “Pamela Mensch’s new translation is both literal and fast-paced. . . . An ideal introductory text to the career of Alexander, [that] will introduce readers to an accessible ancient historian.” -The New Criterion“Illuminating. . . . Alexander’s conquests stretched across the known world-this is the first edition of Arrian to show that world in all its vastness.” -The NationalPraise for the Landmark SeriesThe Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika“Lavish. . . . Outstanding. . . . There is nothing else like [it].” -The New York Review of Books “Truly worthy of the series name. . . . Strassler and the other contributors bring Xenophon to life.” -Sacramento Book Review The Landmark Herodotus“The most densely annotated, richly illustrated, and user-friendly edition of his Histories ever to appear.” -Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker “A real service. . . . Considerably improves accessibility by integrating hundreds of maps and extensive timelines . . . [and] amplifies the first historian’s own epic accomplishment.” -Forbes The Landmark Thucydides “Without question, this is the finest edition of Thucydides’ history ever produced. It is a treasure.” -The Washington Times“The editor and his contributors have asked themselves the fundamental question: how can one best present and interpret the work of one of the most fascinating but difficult of ancient authors to a modern audience? They have answered this question brilliantly.” -The Classical Quarterly About the Author James Romm is James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His books include The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought and the forthcoming Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire. Robert B. Strassler is an unaffiliated scholar who holds an honorary Doctorate of Humanities and Letters from Bard College and is chairman of the Aston Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts...

-Titulo Original : A Taste Of Power A Black Womans Story-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Profound, funny ... wild and moving ... heartbreaking accounts of a lonely black childhood.... Brown sees racial oppression in national and global context; every political word she writes pounds home a lesson about commerce, money, racism, communism, you name it ... A glowing achievement.” -Los Angeles TimesElaine Brown assumed her role as the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party with these words: “I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within. Am I right, Comrade?” It was August 1974. From a small Oakland-based cell, the Panthers had grown to become a revolutionary national organization, mobilizing black communities and white supporters across the country-but relentlessly targeted by the police and the FBI, and increasingly riven by violence and strife within. How Brown came to a position of power over this paramilitary, male-dominated organization, and what she did with that power, is a riveting, unsparing account of self-discovery. Brown’s story begins with growing up in an impoverished neighborhood in Philadelphia and attending a predominantly white school, where she first sensed what it meant to be black, female, and poor in America. She describes her political awakening during the bohemian years of her adolescence, and her time as a foot soldier for the Panthers, who seemed to hold the promise of redemption. And she tells of her ascent into the upper echelons of Panther leadership: her tumultuous relationship with the charismatic Huey Newton, who would become her lover and her nemesis; her experience with the male power rituals that would sow the seeds of the partys demise; and the scars that she both suffered and inflicted in that era’s paradigm-shifting clashes of sex and power. Stunning, lyrical, and acute, this is the indelible testimony of a black woman’s battle to define herself. Review “Profound, funny. . . . Movie makers, where are you? This narration is as wild and moving as Bonnie and Clyde. It’s as adventurous as Lawrence of Arabia. It has more gore than 14 Terminators. And it also has beautiful, touching, heartbreaking accounts of a lonely black childhood. . . . Brown sees racial oppression in national and global context; every political word she writes pounds home a lesson about commerce, money, racism, communism, you name it. . . . A glowing achievement.” -Los Angeles Times“A Taste of Power is chilling, well-written, and profoundly entertaining.” -The New York Times Book Review “Honest, funny, subjective, unsparing, and passionate. . . A Taste of Power weaves autobiography and political history into a story that fascinates and illuminates.” -Washington Post“A stunning picture of a black woman’s coming of age in America. Put it on the shelf beside The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” -Kirkus Reviews“A superb achievement. Finally I understood what the Black Panthers were all about. They were bold, daring, and beautiful, and so is A Taste of Power.” -Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land“What Elaine Brown writes is so astonishing, at times it is even difficult to believe she survived it. And yet she did, bringing us that amazing light of the black woman’s magical resilience, in the gloominess of our bitter despair.” -Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple “This is the kind of book you develop a relationship with-one of those tumultuous, passionate relationships commonly reserved for lovers. I drank my morning coffee with it, and arrived at work in anticipation of returning to it in the evening. . . . Fascinating. . . . Remarkable.” -Farah Jasmine Griffin, Boston Review “The writing is lyrical, poetic, searing, and staunchly intelligent, much I suspect like the author herself.” -Marita Golden, author of Long Distance Life “With this book, Elaine Brown makes a crucial contribution to American history, African-American history, women’s history.” -Hattie Gossett, author of presenting sister no...

-Titulo Original : The Ladys Handbook For Her Mysterious Illness A Memoir-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head-but wasn’t. In her harrowing, darkly funny, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldnt diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological. The Ladys Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions-autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Rameys pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a page-turning medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of todays chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine. The Ladys Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored. Review “Sarah Ramey’s candor in discussing more than a decade of pain, confusion, and dismissal by countless doctors is matched by compassion for herself and every woman who has been told that her symptoms are only in her head, even when she knows her body is screaming. This is a book for anyone who has ever asked a question that didn’t have an immediate or easy answer, anyone who has worried about themselves or a loved one who isn’t getting better-despite following all the experts’ advice-and anyone interested in their own health, public health, or medicine. In other words, it’s a book with something resonant and useful for all of us. It’s also, not incidentally, a terrific read.” -Chelsea Clinton, co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and ResilienceBy making The Ladys Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness so smart, funny, and engaging, Sarah Ramey has found a way to turn life-saving medicine into a delicious read. Ive given this book to so many people and theyve all come back with overwhelming gratitude.-Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House “Sarah Ramey is a person of uncommon wit, bravery, compassion, honesty, and intellect. Every one of those qualities is on full display in this unflinching, important, and stunningly written memoir, which gives voice to millions of women whose experiences and pain have been ignored and minimized.” -Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life “With brilliant storytelling, Sarah Ramey tells of her experience with a mysterious illness while weaving in a practical roadmap for the woman who is overwhelmed, confused, depressed, desperate, and suffering with confusing symptoms. As she undertakes her heroine’s journey through her relationship with her body, she reclaims her power and comes home to herself-because in the end, it’s getting back into our bodies that allows us to become free. A masterwork and a page-turning, fantastic read.” -Alisa Vitti, author of In The FLO and founder of FLO Living“A visceral, scathing, erudite read that digs deep into how modern medicine continues to fail women and what can be done about it.” -Booklist, Starred Review “Illuminating . . . Though this medical saga is disturbing in the many miscalculations her doctors made, Ramey’s hilarious and upbeat sense of humor lightens even the direst of circumstances . . . Her uncanny grit and fortitude will deeply inspire the multitudes facing similar issues.” -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review“Astonishing, thorough and revelatory, a valuable resource fo...

-Titulo Original : Empress Dowager Cixi The Concubine Who Launched Modern China-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: About the Author Jung Chang is the best-selling author of Wild Swans, which The Asian Wall Street Journal called the most widely read book about China, and Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday), which was described by Time as “an atom bomb of a book.” Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than fifteen million copies outside mainland China, where they are both banned. She was born in China in 1952 and moved to Britain in 1978. She lives in London. A New York Times Notable BookAn NPR Best Book of the Year In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son’s regents and placed herself as the true source of power-governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials. Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehensively overturns Cixi’s reputation as a conservative despot. Cixi’s extraordinary reign saw the birth of modern China. Under her, the ancient country attained industries, railways, electricity, and a military with up-to-date weaponry. She abolished foot-binding, inaugurated women’s liberation, and embarked on a path to introduce voting rights. Packed with drama, this groundbreaking biography powerfully reforms our view of a crucial period in China’s-and the world’s-history. Review “Cixi’s extraordinary story has all the elements of a good fairy tale: bizarre, sinister, triumphant and terrible.” -The Economist“A truly authoritative account of Cixi’s rule. Her story is both important and evocative.” -Orville Schell, The New York Times Book Review “A fantastic Machiavellian tale. . . . Dives into a genuinely fascinating figure: a fierce imperial consort who ruled behind the thrones of two successive Chinese emperors and helped ease China into the twentieth century.” -New York magazine “Certain to become the standard by which all future biographies of the Dowager Empress are measured.” -The Daily Beast“Jung Chang has written a pathbreaking and generally persuasive book.” -The New York Review of Books “If there is one woman who mattered in the history of modern China, it is the empress dowager Cixi. . . . [Her] conventional image is queried in this detailed and beautifully narrated biography, which at long last restores the empress dowager to her rightful place.”-The Sunday Times (London) “Sets out to rehabilitate the reputation of a woman who, [Chang] argues, helped modernize China. . . . While Chang acknowledges Cixi’s missteps-such as allowing the Boxers to fight against a Western invasion, which led to widespread slaughter-she sees her as a woman whose energy, farsightedness, and ruthless pragmatism transformed a country.” -The New Yorker “[An] authoritative and epic biography.” -The Toronto Star “Well-researched and provocative. . . . Cixi deserves to be remembered and this book is to be welcomed for giving an important figure in Chinese history the prominence she deserves. . . . This spirited biography reminds us that a greater female presence might be a trigger for much-needed political change.” -New Statesman “Fascinating. . . . Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Jung Chang’s new book gives the infamous concubine Cixi her due.” -The Spectator “This is a rich, dramatic story of rebellions, battles, plotting, rivalry, foreign invasion, punishment and forbidden love. . . . [Chang] uses new evidence and meticulous research to cast a spotlight on the amazing woman she regards as the mother of modern China.” -Daily Mail “Corrects a longstanding misconception about a woman whose impact on China can’t be overstated. It’s a fascinating look at power, politics and the gender divide.” -BookPage “A rich and fascinating book that never relaxes its hold on the reader despite the marshalling of a mass of complex historical details seen through the prism of ...

-Titulo Original : Gods Of The Upper Air How A Circle Of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, And Gender In The Twentieth Century-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award WinnerFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle AwardFrom an award-winning historian comes a dazzling history of the birth of cultural anthropology and the adventurous scientists who pioneered it-a sweeping chronicle of discovery and the fascinating origin story of our multicultural world.A century ago, everyone knew that people were fated by their race, sex, and nationality to be more or less intelligent, nurturing, or warlike. But Columbia University professor Franz Boas looked at the data and decided everyone was wrong. Racial categories, he insisted, were biological fictions. Cultures did not come in neat packages labeled primitive or advanced. What counted as a family, a good meal, or even common sense was a product of history and circumstance, not of nature. In Gods of the Upper Air, a masterful narrative history of radical ideas and passionate lives, Charles King shows how these intuitions led to a fundamental reimagining of human diversity. Boass students were some of the centurys most colorful figures and unsung visionaries: Margaret Mead, the outspoken field researcher whose Coming of Age in Samoa is among the most widely read works of social science of all time; Ruth Benedict, the great love of Meads life, whose research shaped post-Second World War Japan; Ella Deloria, the Dakota Sioux activist who preserved the traditions of Native Americans on the Great Plains; and Zora Neale Hurston, whose studies under Boas fed directly into her now classic novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Together, they mapped civilizations from the American South to the South Pacific and from Caribbean islands to Manhattans city streets, and unearthed an essential fact buried by centuries of prejudice: that humanity is an undivided whole. Their revolutionary findings would go on to inspire the fluid conceptions of identity we know today. Rich in drama, conflict, friendship, and love, Gods of the Upper Air is a brilliant and groundbreaking history of American progress and the opening of the modern mind. Review “Elegant and kaleidoscopic . . . This looks to be the perfect moment for King’s resolutely humane book.”-Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times“Thoughtful, deeply intelligent, and immensely readable.”-Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic“King’s comprehensive archival research illuminates intellectual giants . . . With a light yet unmistakable touch, King connects the dots from Boas’s time to ours. He mentions President Donald Trump’s describing of Mexicans as ‘rapists’ during the kickoff of his presidential campaign, and we get the point: The reduction of human beings to types-people stereotyped as inferior and menacing, deserving of being keep out or cast out-is a clear and present danger. Reading Gods of the Upper Air, though, provides inspiration. The anthropology of equality tells us that every population is as fully human as any other, and deserving of understanding and compassion.” -Barbara J. King, NPR “[Gods of the Upper Air] offers a vitally relevant way to frame the ugly spectre of racism as it resurfaces in our politics . . . Now, more than ever, we need to recognise how Boas and others developed an alternative vision of humanity. Understanding this oft-ignored intellectual history is a first step towards defending it.” -Gillian Tett, Financial Times “[King] succeeds in bringing Mead and her fellow travelers into sharp focus as they pioneered a new field and documented mankind’s many-splendored diversity in a positive, rather than a divisive, light.” -David Holahan, USA Today“An intellectual adventure story of the best sort-elegantly written, thought-provoking, and full of biographical riches.” -Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live and At the Existentialist Cafe “A masterful history of a group of maverick thinkers in the early 20th century who aimed to dethrone the eugenicists dominating racial thought. With eugenics ascendant again, Kin...

-Titulo Original : The General Vs. The President Macarthur And Truman At The Brink Of Nuclear War-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: Review The General vs. The President is that rare military chronicle that becomes an instant page-turning classic. -San Antonio Express-NewsFast-paced, dramatic, and amply illustrates why Truman’s stock has been on the rise in recent decades. -Boston GlobeA vivid accounting of an event that was, on the surface, a personality conflict between two strong-minded figures and, at the bottom, a courageous act that solidified civilian authority over the military in wartime. -Dallas Morning NewsBrands spikes the shadowboxing between [Truman and MacArthur] with vivid dispatches from the battlefield that give his tale a get-along kick. -TIMEA highly readable take on the clash of two titanic figures in a period of hair-trigger nuclear tensions. . . . History offers few antagonists with such dramatic contrasts, and Brands brings these two to life. -Los Angeles Times “Two American heroes tested and tried at their most inspired hours. . . . An exciting, well-written comparison study of two American leaders at loggerheads during the Korean War crisis.” -Kirkus Reviews, starred review At the height of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman committed a gaffe that sent shock waves around the world, when he suggested that General Douglas MacArthur, the willful, fearless, and highly decorated commander of the American and U.N. forces, had his finger on the nuclear trigger. At a time when the Soviets, too, had the bomb, the specter of a catastrophic third World War lurked menacingly close on the horizon. A correction quickly followed, but the damage was done; two visions for America’s path forward were clearly in opposition, and one man would have to make way.The contest of wills between these two titanic characters unfolds against the turbulent backdrop of a faraway war and terrors conjured at home by Joseph McCarthy. From the drama of Stalin’s blockade of West Berlin to the daring landing of MacArthur’s forces at Inchon to the shocking entrance of China into the war, The General and the President vividly evokes the making of a new American era. About the Author H. W. BRANDS holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and Traitor to His Class. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The General vs. the PresidentPROLOGUEDecember 1950Clement Attlee didn’t like appearing flustered. The British prime minister’s predecessor, Winston Churchill, was the one who indulged in dramatics: the speeches about blood, sweat and tears; finest hours; Iron Curtains. Attlee had evicted Churchill from 10 Downing Street at the end of World War II in no small part because the British people wanted less drama and more predictability. Yet the sudden news from America had even Attlee sweating. The House of Commons was debating the optimal course of British foreign policy when the BBC brought word that Harry Truman was brandishing the atom bomb against China. This itself horrified the British lawmakers. The American president was the only person in history who had ordered the use of the monstrous weapon, and a man who had atom-bombed Japan might, without additional scruple, do the same to China. But there was a crucial new element, these five years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that made the prospect still more appalling. The Russians had the bomb, too, and were China’s allies. A nuclear war in 1950 would not be one-sided. And there was something else, something that pushed the alarm level in Britain far past that of any previous Cold War crisis. By Truman’s own statement, the decision on use of the atom bomb rested with the American field commander in Korea, Douglas MacArthur. Attlee and many others in Britain could think of no one more frightening than MacArthur to have control of the bomb. MacArthur was brilliant, brave and imaginati...

-Titulo Original : American Heiress The Wild Saga Of The Kidnapping, Crimes And Trial Of Patty Hearst-Fabricante : Anchor-Descripcion Original: A National BestsellerFrom New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Nine and The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, the definitive account of the kidnapping and trial that defined an insane era in American historyOn February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, a sophomore in college and heiress to the Hearst Family fortune, was kidnapped by a ragtag group of self-styled revolutionaries calling itself the Symbonese Liberation Army. The weird turns that followed in this already sensational take are truly astonishing--the Hearst family tried to secure Pattys release by feeding the people of Oakland and San Francisco for free; bank security cameras captured Tania wielding a machine gun during a roberry; the LAPD engaged in the largest police shoot-out in American history; the first breaking news event was broadcast live on telelvision stations across the country; and then there was Pattys circuslike trial, filled with theatrical courtroom confrontations and a dramatic last-minute reversal, after which the term Stockholm syndrome entered the lexicon. Ultimately, the saga highlighted a decade in which America seemed to be suffering a collective nervous breakdown. American Heiress portrays the electrifying lunacy of the time and the toxic mic of sex, politics, and violence that swept up Patty Hearst and captivated the nation. Review A New York Times BestsellerThe abduction and subsequent radicalization of Patricia Hearst is one of the most bizarre but illuminating episodes of that tumultuous era of protest...and in American Heiress Jeffrey Toobin retells the story with a full-blown narrative treatment that may astonish readers too young to remember it themselves...Toobin spins this complex chapter of recent history into an absorbing and intelligent page-turner.-The Washington Post [A] clever companion piece to The Run of His Life (1996), his book about the O. J. Simpson case. Mr. Toobin has used the same winning formula of delving deeply into an American crime story that had tremendous notoriety in its day and retelling it with new resonance. Ms. Hearst’s tale is much more bizarre than Mr. Simpson’s... [I]n an age of terrorism, the chronicle of how a sedate heiress named Patricia morphed into a gun-toting, invective-spouting revolutionary calling herself Tania holds a definite fascination.-Janet Maslin, The New York Times “[R]iveting… American Heiress is a page-turner certainly, but Toobin, a gifted writer, infuses it with much more…Even if he ridicules the ideas and condemns the violent deeds of this ragtag group of revolutionary wannabes, they emerge not as cardboard villains but flesh and blood protagonists.”-The Boston Globe“Toobin has crafted a book for the expert and the uninitiated alike, a smart page-turner that boasts a cache of never-before-published details...Toobin’s book successfully captures the unrivaled spectacle of the Hearst drama.”-San Francisco Chronicle “Terrifically engrossing…Toobin uses his knowledge of the justice system and his examination of the evidence to pierce the veil of spectacle…As for Patty Hearst herself, Toobin treats her as a person, not a tabloid phantasm.-New York Times Book Review“[A] spell-binding retelling … In the end the real test of a writer’s worth is…how well they can tell a story that’s already been told many times before by many different people, including - in this case - by some of the main characters themselves. By that standard Toobin gets an A-plus for American Heiress… Everything about this book feels right: the structure, the style and the tone, which is the New Yorker meets Raymond Chandler. As always with great writing, it comes down to a strong, distinctive narrative voice spiced with the judicious use of juicy details.-LA Weekly About the Author JEFFREY TOOBIN is the bestselling author of The Nine, for which he won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, The Oath, Too Close to Call, A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of...