Search results for ""baron""

“An Army of skeletons appeared before our eyes naked, starved, sick and discouraged.” Gouverneur Morris recorded these words in his report to the Continental Congress after a visit to the Continental Army encampment at Valley Forge. Sent as part of a fact-finding mission, Morris and his fellow congressmen arrived to conditions far worse than they had initially expected. After a campaigning season that saw the defeat at Brandywine, the loss of Philadelphia, the capital of the rebellious British North American colonies, and the reversal at Germantown, George Washington and his harried army marched into Valley Forge on December 19, 1777. What transpired in the next six months prior to the departure from the winter cantonment on June 19, 1778 was truly remarkable. The stoic Virginian, George Washington solidified his hold on the army and endured political intrigue, the quartermaster department was revived with new leadership from a former Rhode Island Quaker, and a German baron trained the army in the rudiments of being a soldier and military maneuvers. Valley Forge conjures up images of cold, desperation, and starvation. Yet Valley Forge also became the winter of transformation and improvement that set the Continental Army on the path to military victory and the fledgling nation on the path to independence. In The Winter that Won the War: The Winter Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-1778, historian Phillip S. Greenwalt takes the reader on campaign in the year 1777 and through the winter encampment, detailing the various changes that took place within Valley Forge that ultimately led to the success of the American cause. Walk with the author through 1777 and into 1778 and see how these months truly were the winter that won the war.

Read more less

To mark the birthday of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologist, Oxford University Press has reissued the definitive edition of Darwin's classic-a brilliantly entertaining and accessible exploration of human and animal behavior. Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman's edited version of this book is the first to appear the way Darwin ultimately intended, with all of the corrections and additions that were in Darwin's notes for a revision that was never published during his lifetime. "Why do we shrug? Why do dogs wag their tails? Why do we scowl when angry and pout when sad rather than the other way around? What is the difference between guilt and shame? This would be an extraordinary book even if it had only answered these and scores of similar questions about the emotions in 1872 ...Darwin enriched his arguments with hundreds of insightful observations, many with the pathos and humor of great literature, as when he describes the terror of a man being led to his execution or the comical dejection of his dog as soon as it sensed that a walk might end ...This edition has the feel not of a lovingly restored museum piece but of a recent seminal work." --Steven Pinker, Science "Darwin's most readable and human book ...undiminished and intensely relevant even 125 years after publication."--Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat "The Expression of the Emotions predates Freud, and it will still be illuminating human psychology long after Freud's discrediting is complete."--Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion "Highly original ...this is scholarship at its best."--Simon Baron-Cohen, Nature "Ekman's edition is no mere reprint plus introduction."--Mark Ridley, Scientific American

Read more less

A bold critique of the spiritual schools, philosophies, and mystical teachers of the 20th century• Examines newer spiritual “systems” of the modern era, from spiritism and theosophy, to parapsychic research and anthroposophism, to psychoanalysis and the Church of Satan • Compares these newer spiritual “systems” to the traditional spiritual path of the ancients and exposes the misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and occult dangers lurking in their practices • Also examines important modern figures such as Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, Dostoevsky, Freud, Jung, Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, and Anton LaVey Written two years before his most prominent book Revolt Against the Modern World, Julius Evola’s The Fall of Spirituality was originally published in Italian as Maschera e volto dello spiritualismo contemporaneo (The Mask and Face of Contemporary Spiritualism). In it, the Baron critiques the spiritual schools, cults, philosophies, and mystical teachers of the 20th century--from spiritism and theosophy, to parapsychic research and anthroposophism, to psychoanalysis and the Church of Satan--comparing these newer spiritual “systems” to the traditional spiritual path of the ancients and exposing the misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and occult dangers lurking in their practices. Examining important modern figures such as Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, Dostoevsky, Freud, Jung, Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, and Anton LaVey, the author contends that their aspirations to power are limited to a focus on concerns of the mundane world. They are thereby blind to the existence of a supernatural reality that offers individuals transmutation from the fallen human personality into a semigod-like status--a status attainable only by those who can master the rigors demanded of initiates on the traditionalist path. Offering an essential guidebook for serious spiritual seekers looking for a more profound metaphysical discipline than those of the spiritual schools of the modern era, Evola also provides contrasting insights from the age-old path of initiation and high magic.

Read more less

'Glorious...gripping and sometimes tragic' Robbie Coltrane The inspirational story of the Bentley Boys and Le Mans – the race they made their own. Le Mans, 1927. W.O. Bentley peered into the dusk. His three cars, which had led from the start, were missing. Two years running he had failed to finish. Once again he was staring into a void. Racing, his shareholders told him, was a waste of money. This race looked like being his last. W.O’s engineering skills had been forged on the Great Northern railway and in the skies of the First World War, where Bentley-powered Sopwith Camels took the fight to Germany’s Red Baron. Determined to build and race his own cars, he assembled a crack team from all strata of 1920s Britain, from East End boys Leslie Pennal and Wally Hassan to multi-millionaires Woolf Barnato and Tim Birkin, men in search of adventures to blaze their way out of the dark past. They dedicated themselves to building the perfect road and racing car. In the hayloft above their workshop, the first Bentley was born and soon it was the car of choice for the fast-living upper classes. They raced at the fashionable Brooklands circuit and then set their sights on the fledgling 24 Hours Le Mans race. An audacious goal for a British car, yet the Bentley Boys rose to the challenge. But on that night in 1927, after the biggest crash in racing history claimed their cars, could they still pull it off and put British motor racing on the map? In the 1920s, Bentley Motors burned brightly but all too briefly; yet its tale, filled with drama, tragedy, determination and glory still shines a century on.

Read more less

In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives. The range of Freedman's narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment-subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends-provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point. A brilliant overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.

Read more less

Which Side of History? offers a collection of bold essays on how technology is affecting democracy, society, and our future. Featuring prominent national voices such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Marc Benioff, Ellen Pao, Ken Auletta, Chelsea Clinton, Tim Wu, Khaled Hosseini, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Jaron Lanier, Willow Bay, Sal Khan, Sherry Turkle, Shoshana Zuboff, Vivek Murthy, Geoffrey Canada, and many more. The essays focus on the extraordinary impact of technology on our privacy, kids and families, race and gender roles, democracy, climate change, and mental health. This groundbreaking book challenges opinion leaders and the broader public to take action to improve technology's effects on our lives. • Featuring notable journalists, engineers, entrepreneurs, novelists, activists, filmmakers, business leaders, scholars, and researchers, including: Thomas Friedman, Kara Swisher, Michelle Alexander, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Jenna Wortham, Cameron Kasky, Howard Gardner, and Tristan Harris. • Explores the ethical behavior of Big Tech, or the lack thereof. • Offers roadmaps for constructive change and thought-provoking perspectives. With the rise of cyberbullying and hate speech online, issues around climate change and technology, and the "move fast and break things" mentality of tech culture, Which Side of History? will urge readers to draw the line. • This book will help shape the conversations we have around technology in our society and our future for years to come. • A smart gift for anyone who approaches tech and the future with a healthy skepticism • Edited by James P. Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense Media. • Add it to the shelf with books like Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff.

Read more less

In 1894, Martin Conway became the first man to walk the Alps 'from end to end' when he completed a 1,000-mile journey from the Col de Tende in Italy to the summit of the Ankogel in Austria. On a midsummer's morning, nearly 120 years later, Simon Thompson followed in his footsteps, setting out to explore both the mountains and the man. A charming rogue who led a 'fantastically eventful' life, according to The Times, Conway was a climber and pioneering explorer of the Himalaya, Spitsbergen, the Andes and Patagonia; a serial pursuer of American heiresses; an historian, collector and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge; a company director and stock market promoter of dubious gold mines and non-existent rubber forests; the founder of the Imperial War Museum; the first foreigner to see the Russian crown jewels after the revolution; a successful journalist and author of over thirty books; a liberal politician; and a conservative MP. Shortly before he died, he was created 1st Baron Conway of Allington. Conway was a clubbable man who counted Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, J. P. Morgan, John Ruskin, Mark Twain and Edward Whymper among his many friends and acquaintances. An imperialist, a dreamer, a liar and a cheat, Conway 'walked in sunshine all his life', according to contemporaries, but he was also a restless, discontented man, constantly searching for meaning and purpose in his life. And that search that led him back, time and time again, to the Alps. In A Long Walk with Lord Conway, Simon Thompson retraces Conway's long journey over the peaks, passes and glaciers of the Alps and rediscovers the life of a complex and remarkable English adventurer.

Read more less

With remarkably original formulations, Naomi Seidman examines the ways that Hebrew, the Holy Tongue, and Yiddish, the vernacular language of Ashkenazic Jews, came to represent the masculine and feminine faces, respectively, of Ashkenazic Jewish culture. Her sophisticated history is the first book-length exploration of the sexual politics underlying the "marriage" of Hebrew and Yiddish, and it has profound implications for understanding the centrality of language choices and ideologies in the construction of modern Jewish identity. Seidman particularly examines this sexual-linguistic system as it shaped the work of two bilingual authors, S.Y. Abramovitsh, the "grand-father" of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature; and Dvora Baron, the first modern woman writer in Hebrew (and a writer in Yiddish as well). She also provides an analysis of the roles that Hebrew "masculinity" and Yiddish "femininity" played in the Hebrew-Yiddish language wars, the divorce that ultimately ended the marriage between the languages. Theorists have long debated the role of mother and father in the child's relationship to language. Seidman presents the Ashkenazic case as an illuminating example of a society in which "mother tongue" and "father tongue" are clearly differentiated. Her work speaks to important issues in contemporary scholarship, including the psychoanalysis of language acquisition, the feminist critique of Zionism, and the nexus of women's studies and Yiddish literary history. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.

Read more less

'Lord Sugar is a self-made man and one of Britain's finest business brains. His story so far is inspirational to the end' The Sun'Sugar is unusual among celebrity memoirists in that he's a clever man who has done a lot with his life, and the tale of his rise from nothing, and nowhere is genuinely revealing' Private EyeFrom a Hackney council estate to the House of Lords, this is the extraordinary story of one of our greatest entrepreneurs.Alan Sugar was born in 1947 and brought up on a council estate in Clapton, in Hackney. As a kid he watched his dad struggle to support the family, never knowing from one week to the next if he'd have a job. It had a huge impact on him, fuelling a drive to succeed that was to earn him a sizeable personal fortune. Now he describes his amazing journey, from schoolboy enterprises like making and selling his own ginger beer to setting up his own company at nineteen; from Amstrad's groundbreaking ventures in hi-fi and computers, which made him the darling of the stock exchange, to the dark days when he nearly lost it all; from his pioneering deal with Rupert Murdoch to his boardroom battles at Tottenham Hotspur FC.In this compelling autobiography, he takes us into the world of The Apprentice, and describes his appointment as advisor to the government and elevation to the peerage. Like the man himself, What You See Is What You Get is forthright, funny and sometimes controversial.'I'm addicted to autobiographies and What You See Is What You Get is one of the best I've read. Love him or loathe him, Baron Sugar of Clapton is the walking, snarling embodiment of all the values he espouses on The Apprentice' Piers Morgan

Read more less

Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013 In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives. The range of Freedman's narrative is extraordinary, moving from the surprisingly advanced strategy practiced in primate groups, to the opposing strategies of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad, the strategic advice of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, the great military innovations of Baron Henri de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, the grounding of revolutionary strategy in class struggles by Marx, the insights into corporate strategy found in Peter Drucker and Alfred Sloan, and the contributions of the leading social scientists working on strategy today. The core issue at the heart of strategy, the author notes, is whether it is possible to manipulate and shape our environment rather than simply become the victim of forces beyond one's control. Time and again, Freedman demonstrates that the inherent unpredictability of this environment-subject to chance events, the efforts of opponents, the missteps of friends-provides strategy with its challenge and its drama. Armies or corporations or nations rarely move from one predictable state of affairs to another, but instead feel their way through a series of states, each one not quite what was anticipated, requiring a reappraisal of the original strategy, including its ultimate objective. Thus the picture of strategy that emerges in this book is one that is fluid and flexible, governed by the starting point, not the end point. A brilliant overview of the most prominent strategic theories in history, from David's use of deception against Goliath, to the modern use of game theory in economics, this masterful volume sums up a lifetime of reflection on strategy.

Read more less

'This is the definitive book on philanthropy – its history, contradictions and future' – John Gray, Emeritus Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics 'Good books lay out the lie of the land. Important books change it. This book is both' – Giles Fraser, priest, journalist and broadcaster The super-rich are silently and secretly shaping our world. In this groundbreaking exploration of historical and contemporary philanthropy, bestselling author Paul Vallely reveals how this far-reaching change came about. Vivid with anecdote and scholarly insight, this magisterial survey – from the ancient Greeks to today’s high-tech geeks – provides an original take on the history of philanthropy. It shows how giving has, variously, been a matter of honour, altruism, religious injunction, political control, moral activism, enlightened self-interest, public good, personal fulfilment and plutocratic manipulation. Its narrative moves from the Greek man of honour and Roman patron, via the Jewish prophet and Christian scholastic – through the Elizabethan machiavel, Puritan proto-capitalist, Enlightenment activist and Victorian moralist – to the robber-baron philanthropist, the welfare socialist, the celebrity activist and today’s wealthy mega-giver. In the process it discovers that philanthropy lost an essential element as it entered the modern era. The book then embarks on a journey to determine where today’s philanthropists come closest to recovering that missing dimension. Philanthropy explores the successes and failures of philanthrocapitalism, examines its claims and contradictions, and asks tough questions of top philanthropists and leading thinkers – among them Richard Branson, Eliza Manningham-Buller, Jonathan Ruffer, David Sainsbury, John Studzinski, Bob Geldof, Naser Haghamed, Lenny Henry, Jonathan Sacks, Rowan Williams, Ngaire Woods, and the presidents of the Rockefeller and Soros foundations, Rajiv Shah and Patrick Gaspard. In extended conversations they explore the relationship between philanthropy and family, faith, society, art, politics, and the creation and distribution of wealth. Highly engaging and meticulously researched, Paul Vallely's authoritative account of philanthropy then and now critiques the excessive utilitarianism of much modern philanthrocapitalism and points to how philanthropy can rediscover its soul.

Read more less

Competing Kingdoms rethinks the importance of women and religion within U.S. imperial culture from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. In an era when the United States was emerging as a world power to challenge the hegemony of European imperial powers, American women missionaries strove to create a new Kingdom of God. They did much to shape a Protestant empire based on American values and institutions. This book examines American women’s activism in a broad transnational context. It offers a complex array of engagements with their efforts to provide rich intercultural histories about the global expansion of American culture and American Protestantism.An international and interdisciplinary group of scholars, the contributors bring under-utilized evidence from U.S. and non-U.S. sources to bear on the study of American women missionaries abroad and at home. Focusing on women from several denominations, they build on the insights of postcolonial scholarship to incorporate the agency of the people among whom missionaries lived. They explore how people in China, the Congo Free State, Egypt, India, Japan, Ndebeleland (colonial Rhodesia), Ottoman Bulgaria, and the Philippines perceived, experienced, and negotiated American cultural expansion. They also consider missionary work among people within the United States who were constructed as foreign, including African Americans, Native Americans, and Chinese immigrants. By presenting multiple cultural perspectives, this important collection challenges simplistic notions about missionary cultural imperialism, revealing the complexity of American missionary attitudes toward race and the ways that ideas of domesticity were reworked and appropriated in various settings. It expands the field of U.S. women’s history into the international arena, increases understanding of the global spread of American culture, and offers new concepts for analyzing the history of American empire.Contributors: Beth Baron, Betty Bergland, Mary Kupiec Cayton, Derek Chang, Sue Gronewold, Jane Hunter, Sylvia Jacobs, Susan Haskell Khan, Rui Kohiyama, Laura Prieto, Barbara Reeves-Ellington, Mary Renda, Connie A. Shemo, Kathryn Kish Sklar, Ian Tyrrell, Wendy Urban-Mead

Read more less

A POCKET-SIZED, PORTABLE VERSION OF KYLE GRAY’S POWERFUL 55-CARD ORACLE DECK TO UNLOCK THE DIVINE MESSAGES OF THE ANGELS AND THE WISDOM OF THE ANCESTORS. Featuring new representations of angels, this portable oracle card deck reminds spiritual seekers that loving, divine guidance, grace, and inspiration from the angels is always available to anyone who is ready to listen. “Kyle Gray is one of the world’s most incredibly gifted angel communicators. I have seen him work and he is authentic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. I highly recommend him and all his creations!” – Colette Baron-Reid, international best-selling oracle expert We are surrounded by countless angels, ancestors, and spirit guides who want to share their knowledge with us to bring healing and change. In whichever culture or religion they appear, Angels have always had one mission: to love, help, and guide humans. On the earthly plane, Ancestors are the wise ones, healers, and warriors who have offered to share their knowledge and magic with us. In this beautiful oracle deck, you will receive wisdom from: Guardians and Messengers These guiding spirits will help you connect with your primal needs and desires so you can live a fulfilling life that is aligned with your highest truth, good, and purpose. Warrior Symbols When these ‘warrior symbols’ appear within a reading, they can reveal important information that will help you understand what you need to do next. Seasons The seasons cards bring messages that will help you move into the flow of life and can also indicate the timing of a message. With this healing oracle deck featuring angels, shamans, medicine people, and warriors from the four corners of the Earth, you have the opportunity to bridge the gap between this world and others. The Angels and Ancestors know what you need to know, and by using the accompanying oracle card guidebook, you'll learn how to unlock their secrets and messages, and live an inspirational life touched by divine, magical guidance!

Read more less

'I guess the end justifies the means. At least that's what I believe. Most of the time'. After the accident, DC Cameron Stone had spent three months in intensive care before he could even recall what happened: the high speed pursuit of a vice baron through the night streets of Glasgow that had not only almost finished him but had taken the life of a teenage mother and her child. Then there'd been the message from Audrey on the back of a 'get well soon' card announcing that she had left him and taken their young son, Mark, with her. Booze, anti-depressants and therapy have all failed to enable him to resume his old job.So now Stone lives in a one-room flat in the worst part of town. He pays the rent by running errands for a private detective agency. His tasks include tracking down a teenage runaway and surveillance for a woman who thinks her husband is sleeping with her sister. He's also paid by his former colleagues, doing the work that's not quite clean enough for them to do themselves - like putting the fear of God into Jason Campbell, a newly released sex offender whose been seen hanging around the local High School in his soft-top Mercedes.Stone is having a bad week. Audrey is getting difficult about contact arrangements for Mark. She's moved into the pulsh home of a plastic surgeon: there's talk of marriage - and adoption for Mark. He finds his runaway in a brothel and just gets roughed-up for his trouble. There's the knife wielding kids who try to mug him on the stairs and the daubing on his front door: Burn in Hell Baby Killer. The only brightness on his horizon is his growing friendship with Liz, the sunny Irish nurse who lives on the next floor. But then petrol is poured through his letterbox and his flat ablaze. And now a stranger has turned up at the school and driven off with his son...

Read more less

“Filled with vivid details, shocking truths, and two sly, strong women who bring panache and humor to every scene. I’m simply in awe of the masterful, magical way Lauren Willig makes history come alive.” — Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Place"A winning epic of war and friendship. Readers will devour this riveting tale."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine—a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.September 1896: An aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into the male-dominated field of excavation. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy throws herself into the conflict as a nurse, not knowing that the decision will change her life forever—and cause a deep and painful rift with her oldest friend, Ava.June 1898: Betsy has sworn off war nursing—but when she gets the word that her estranged friend Ava is headed to Cuba with Clara Barton and the Red Cross to patch up the wounded in the Spanish-American War, Betsy determines to stop her the only way she knows how: by joining in her place. Battling heat, disease, and her own demons, Betsy follows Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting, where she is forced to confront her greatest fears to save both old friends and new….Set during an electrifying era of nation-building, idealism, and upheaval, Two Wars and a Wedding is the tale of two remarkable women striving to make their place in a man’s world—an unforgettable saga of friendship, love, and fighting for what is right.

Read more less

“Just the thing for a cold winter’s night between episodes.” —The Washington Post Book World “Fans of the show will undoubtedly enjoy the chance to read Jane’s book in real life.” —Entertainment Weekly It’s been a lifetime (and three seasons) in the making, but Jane Gloriana Villanueva is finally ready to make her much-anticipated literary debut!Jane the Virgin, the Golden Globe, AFI, and Peabody Award–winning The CW dramedy, has followed Jane’s telenovela-esque life—from her accidental artificial insemination and virgin birth to the infant kidnapping and murderous games of the villainous Sin Rostro to an enthralling who-will-she-choose love triangle. With these tumultuous events as inspiration, Jane’s breathtaking first novel adapts her story for a truly epic romance that captures the hope and the heartbreak that have made the television drama so beloved. Snow Falling is a sweeping historical romance set in 1902 Miami—a time of railroad tycoons, hotel booms, and exciting expansion for the Magic City. Working at the lavish Regal Sol hotel and newly engaged to Pinkerton Detective Martin Cadden, Josephine Galena Valencia has big dreams for her future. Then, a figure from her past reemerges to change her life forever: the hotel’s dapper owner, railroad tycoon Rake Solvino. The captivating robber baron sets her heart aflame once more, leading to a champagne-fueled night together. But when their indiscretion results in an unexpected complication, Josephine struggles to decide whether her heart truly belongs with heroic Martin or dashing Rake. Meanwhile, in an effort to capture an elusive crime lord terrorizing the city, Detective Cadden scours the back alleys of the Magic City, tracking the nefarious villain to the Regal Sol and discovering a surprising connection to the Solvino family. However, just when it looks like Josephine’s true heart’s desire is clear, danger strikes. Will her dreams for the future dissolve like so much falling snow or might Josephine finally get the happy ever after she’s been dreaming of for so long?

Read more less

‘Packed with insights and details that will both amaze and appal you’ – Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland and Butler to the WorldFrom journalist Chris Blackhurst, Too Big to Jail unveils how HSBC facilitated mass money laundering schemes for brutal drug kingpins and rogue nations – and thereby helped to grow one of the deadliest drugs empires the world has ever seen.While HSBC likes to sell itself as ‘the world’s local bank’ – the friendly face of corporate and personal finance – it was one decade ago hit with a record US fine of $1.9 billion. In pursuit of their goal of becoming the biggest bank in the world, between 2003 and 2010, HSBC allowed El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most notorious and murderous criminal organizations in the world, to turn its ill-gotten money into clean dollars.How did a bank, which boasts ‘we’re committed to helping protect the world’s financial system on which millions of people depend, by only doing business with customers who meet our high standards of transparency’ come to facilitate Mexico’s richest drug baron? And how did a bank that as recently as 2002 had been named ‘one of the best-run organizations in the world’ become so entwined with one of the most barbaric groups of gangsters on the planet?Too Big to Jail is an extraordinary story, brilliantly told by writer, commentator and former editor of The Independent, Chris Blackhurst, that starts in Hong Kong and ranges across London, Washington, the Cayman Islands and Mexico, where HSBC saw the opportunity to become the largest bank in the world, and El Chapo seized the chance to fuel his murderous empire by laundering his drug proceeds through the bank. It brings together an extraordinary cast of politicians, bankers, drug dealers, FBI officers and whistle-blowers, and asks what price does greed have? Whose job is it to police global finance? And why did not a single person go to prison for facilitating the murderous expansion of a global drug empire?

Read more less

The Castorland Journal is a diary, a travel narrative about early New York, a work of autobiography, and a narrative of a dramatic and complex period in American history. In 1792 Parisian businessmen and speculators established the New York Company, one of the most promising French attempts to speculate for American land following the American Revolution. The company's goal was to purchase and settle fertile land in northwestern New York and then resell it to European investors. In 1793, two of the company's representatives, Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux, arrived in New York to begin settlement of a large tract of undeveloped land. The tract, which was named Castorland for its abundant beaver population ("castor" is the French word for beaver), was located in northwestern New York State, along the Black River and in present-day Lewis and Jefferson counties. John A. Gallucci's edition is the first modern scholarly translation of the account Desjardins and Pharoux wrote of their efforts in Castorland from 1793 to 1797. While the journal can be read as tragedy, it also has many pages of satire and irony. Its descriptions of nature and references to the romantic and the sublime belong to the spirit of eighteenth-century literature. The journal details encounters with Native Americans, the authors' process of surveying the Black River, their contacts with Philip Schuyler and Baron Steuben, their excursions to Philadelphia to confer with Thomas Jefferson, Desjardins' trip to New York City to engage the legal services of Alexander Hamilton or Aaron Burr, the planting of crops, and the frustrations of disease and natural obstacles. The Castorland Journal is historically significant because it is an especially rich account of land speculation in early America, the displacement of Native Americans, frontier life, and politics and diplomacy in the 1790s. The Cornell edition of the journal features Gallucci's introduction and explanatory footnotes, several appendixes, maps, and illustrations.

Read more less

FROM KYLE GRAY – WORLD-RENOWNED ANGEL EXPERT AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF RAISE YOUR VIBRATION, A POWERFUL ANGEL ORACLE CARD DECK FOR SPIRITUAL CONNECTION, MIRACLES, AND LOVING GUIDANCEA BEAUTIFUL 44-CARD ORACLE DECK TO ACTIVATE YOUR INTUITION AND RECEIVE INSPIRATION FROM THE ANGELS “Kyle Gray is one of the world’s most incredibly gifted angel communicators. I have seen him work and he is authentic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. I highly recommend him and all his creations!” – Colette Baron-Reid, international best-selling oracle expert Did you know that your angels are constantly ready to share guidance with you? Yet so often we're distracted by daily life and don't recognize these divine signs when they come our way. The Angel Guide Oracle acts as a bridge between heaven and Earth, bringing together 44 images of guardian angels with insightful, supportive, and healing angel messages to strengthen your communication and open your heart to their messages of love. The accompanying oracle card guidebook explains how to attune to the cards, conduct angel readings for yourself as well as for others, and how to interpret and work with card spreads. Example cards include: · Angelic Protection· Ask and Receive · Blessings and Abundance· Inner Child Healing· Self-Acceptance· Trust the Universe· Signs and Reminders...and more!“The angels have been standing faithfully by, recording our life and evolution, waiting for the moment when we open up in spiritual practice to receive from them, and they will be delighted to send us messages, signs, and reminders of their love.Our angels will never judge or abandon us. They see us through the eyes of love, with complete compassion. They want to help us be happy and live with purpose.Allow The Angel Guide Oracle to help you benefit from the spiritual support that is with you now ... and always.”Love, Kyle GrayThis loving angel oracle card deck will help you call upon your angel's wisdom to guide you on your best path ahead!

Read more less

When Count Henry of Anjou and his formidable wife Eleanor of Aquitaine became king and queen of England, they amassed an empire stretching 1,000 miles from the Pyrenees to the Scottish border, including half of France. Henry's grandmother Empress (of Germany) Mathilda had taught him that ruling is like venery: show the hawk the reward, but take it away at the last moment, to keep the bird eager to please. To sons and vassals alike, Henry promised everything but gave nothing, keeping the three adult princes hating him and the other siblings all their lives. Plantagenet Princes traces the lives and infamous webs of mistrust and intrigue among them. What sons they were! Henry (b. 1155), 'the Young king' was entitled to succeed his father, yet was a rich playboy who died crippled by debt before his thirtieth birthday, after living the life of a robber baron. Richard (b. 1157), 'the Lionheart' was lord of his mother's duchy of Aquitaine and became, thanks to her, England's most popular king despite bankrupting the Empire twice in his disastrous 10-year reign. Geoffrey (b. 1158), count of Brittany, was the cleverest, but was trampled to death by horses aged 32 in a pointless melee at Paris, leaving his wife Constance to act as regent for their son Arthur in a long power struggle between Philip Augustus, king of France, and the Plantagenets. The runt of the litter, John (b. 1166) was nicknamed Lackland, since no inheritance was initially promised him. He proved the longest-lived by far, dying at the age of fifty after signing Magna Carta, losing the key duchy of Normandy and most of the other continental possessions - also murdering his nephew Arthur, imprisoning Arthur's sister for life and waging war against his barons, continued by Henry III. The Plantagenet line continued with Richard of Cornwall, Edward I conquering Wales, gay Edward II, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince and Richard II, who died in prison while his usurper sat on the throne.

Read more less

Evelyne Redfern’s family specialises in notoriety. Her father is Sir Reginald Redfern, a feckless, louche second son of an English baron, and her late beloved mother was a glamorous French party girl. Their disastrous marriage ended in divorce and a very public custody battle over nine-year-old Evelyne that only resolved when Genevieve died three years later. However, the damage was done, with the press dubbing Evelyne “The Parisian Orphan” and making her the most notorious child in the world. Years later in 1940, Evelyne is estranged from her father and working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. She’s bored and craving more from her life, but the only contentment she can find is with stacks of mystery novels that fight for space with her roommate Moira’s ever-expanding wardrobe. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne at a night out at the Ritz, Evelyne seizes the chance for a change and finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at the war rooms is murdered and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise earned from years of reading mysteries to find the killer. Little does she know that doing so will put her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out David’s real reason for being in the cabinet war rooms is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up. With her quick wit, sharp eyes, and determination, Evelyne is a heroine to root for. But can she find out who's been selling England's secrets and catch a killer all while battling her growing attraction to David and her own scandalous past?

Read more less

The alarming history of the British, and European, aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy, stories of madness, murder, misery, greed and profligacy.From Regency playhouses, to which young noblemen would go simply in order to insult someone to provoke a duel that might further their reputation, to the fashionable gambling clubs or 'hells' which were springing up around St James's in the mid-eighteenth century, the often bizarre doings of aristocrats. An eighteenth-century English gentleman was required to have what was known as 'bottom', a shipping metaphor that referred to stability. Taking part in a duel was a bold statement that you had bottom. William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne certainly had bottom, if not a complete set of gonads following his duel with Colonel Fullarton, MP for Plympton. Both men missed with their first shots, but the colonel fired again and shot off Shelborne's right testicle. Despite being hit, Shelborne deliberately discharged his second shot in the air. When asked how he was, the injured Earl coolly observed his wound and said, 'I don't think Lady Shelborne will be the worse for it.' The cast of characters includes imperious, hard-drinking and highly volatile Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who is remembered today as much for his brilliant scientific career as his talent for getting involved in bizarre mishaps, such as his death as a result of his burst bladder; the Marquess of Queensberry, a side-whiskered psychopath, who, on a luxury steamboat in Brazil, in a row with a fellow passenger over the difference between emus and ostriches, and knocked him out cold; and Thomas, 2nd Baron Lyttelton, a Georgian rake straight out of central casting, who ran up enormous gambling debts, fought duels, frequented brothels and succumbed to drug and alcohol addiction.Often, such rakes would be swiftly packed off on a Grand Tour in the hope that travel would bring about maturity. It seldom did.

Read more less

The publication of "Short Stories for Children" celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But, the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. The third and last volume, "Short Stories for Children", starts with "Broomsticks and Other Tales" of 1925, with its twelve stories, and continues with "The Lord Fish" of 1933 with seven stories. It includes three distinctive stories, 'Pigtails, Ltd', 'The Thief' and 'A Nose', that have never been reprinted since they originally appeared in Broomsticks. Quirky, disparate, unpredictable, acutely observed, sometimes frightening, and often preoccupied with states of mind and personal identity, these stories have much in common with the adult stories. Some of them are peopled with giants, witches, kind elves, evil and spiteful fairies, and imprisoned maidens in castles, but most are not.We find ourselves in railway trains, a mansion in the City of London, another Elizabethan one in a mysterious tract of country, a remote farm house near the sea, a waterlogged forest, a drawing-room being watched by a fly; and, among other things, we encounter a wise monkey, a haunted cat, a fish magician, a baron transmogrified into a donkey, a thief desperate to be burgled, a man who believes he has a wax nose, and a godmother celebrating her 350th birthday. As in de la Mare's poems, everyday reality may at any time become undercut by disturbing uncertainty and dark, though not always malign, forces. A full understanding of the poems and stories is impossible without knowledge of both. Vivid and timeless, Bold's original woodcut designs and Rex Whistler's original engravings have been used to illustrate the two parts of the book.

Read more less

Dieses Buch klärt, was man über Marketing und Sales Automation wissen muss, wie man Projekte zu deren Umsetzung steuert, Werkzeuge auswählt und implementiert und welche Ergebnisse man erzielen kann. Zudem werden die erwartbaren Entwicklungen in der Zukunft aufgezeigt. Über die Hälfte der Inhalte dieser zweiten Auflage wurden im Vergleich zur Vorauflage erneuert. Das Themenspektrum spannt den Bogen von der Schaffung einer validen Datengrundlage über die Auswirkungen der Datenschutzgrundverordnung bei der Ansprache von Kunden und Interessenten bis hin zu Empfehlungen zur Auswahl und Implementierung der notwendigen IT-Systeme. Experten berichten von ihren Erfahrungen und geben Tipps und Hilfestellungen. Dabei wird ein besonderer Fokus auf die Verzahnung von Marketing und Vertrieb und das Management der Customer Journey sowie die Verbesserung der Customer Experience gelegt.Der Inhalt Digitalisierung von Marketing und Vertrieb Status Quo und Entwicklung von Marketing und Sales Automation Automation als Wachstumstreiber Entwicklung von Buyer Personas Datenschutz und rechtskonforme Marketing Automation Roadmap zum Einsatz von Automationslösungen Evaluation von Automation Tools Lead Management Automation Evaluierung der Touchpoint-Performance entlang der Customer Journey Funnel Performance Management Account-based Marketing Künstliche Intelligenz in Marketing und Vertrieb Mit Beitragen von Gerrit Ahlers, A.T. KearneyManfred Aull, Aull Sales SuccessJan Beco, BeConsulting Marc Bernrath, Wendero GmbH Prof. Dr. Nikolas Beutin, PwC DeutschlandProf. Dr. Simone Braun, Hochschule Offenburg Philipp Baron von der Brügen, leadtributor GmbHProf. Dr. Claudia Bünte, SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences und Kaiserscholle GmbHDr. habil. Roland Burkholz, chain relations GmbHThomas Foell, Kommunikationsagentur wob AG Thomas Geiger, Market Data Analyst in einem internationalen Technologiekonzern Melanie Gipp, Adobe Deutschland Fabienne Halb, leitet das globale Customer Relationship Management in einem internationalen TechnologiekonzernDr. Martin Handschuh, eco2nomy GmbHDr. Klaus Heinzelbecker, Instituts für Sales und Marketing AutomationTorsten Herrmann, chain relations GmbHSabine Heukrodt-Bauer, Kanzlei RESMEDIA in Mainz und BerlinUlrich Hoffmann, ByteConsult Alexander Körner, b.relevant - Agile Digital Marketing Agency GmbH Dennis Krieger, SNP Schneider-Neureither & Partner SE Vivien Kupplmayr, Cisco SystemsPhilipp Moder, Phocus Direct Communication GmbHSteffen Oder, A.T. Kearney Martin Philipp, SC-Networks GmbHAndrew Sanderson, Ansaco Norbert Schuster, Strategieberater bei strike2Dr. Uwe Seebacher, Executive Advisor Thorsten Sydow, SALT Solutions GmbH Tobias Voigt, markenmut AGRoger Voland, t-systems Tony Vormelcher, ByteConsult Alexander Woelke, Cloudbridge Consulting

Read more less

The first volume in legendary master and New York Times bestselling author Raymond E. Feist’s epic heroic fantasy series, The Firemane Saga – an electrifying tale of two young men whose choices will determine a world’s destiny. The world of Garn once boasted five great kingdoms, until the King of Ithrace was defeated and every member of his family executed by Lodavico, the ruthless King of Sandura, a man with ambitions to rule the world. Ithrace's ruling family were the legendary Firemanes, and represented a great danger to the other kings. Now four great kingdoms remain, on the brink of war. But rumour has it that the newborn son of the last king of Ithrace survived, carried off during battle and sequestered by the Quelli Nacosti, a secret society whose members are trained to infiltrate and spy upon the rich and powerful throughout Garn. Terrified that this may be true, and that the child will grow to maturity with bloody revenge in his heart, the four kings have placed a huge bounty on the child's head. In the small village of Oncon, Declan is apprenticed to a master blacksmith, learning the secrets of producing the mythical king's steel. Oncon is situated in the Covenant, a neutral region lying between two warring kingdoms. Since the Covenant was declared, the region has existed in peace, until violence explodes as slavers descend upon the village to capture young men to press as soldiers for Sandura. Declan must escape, to take his priceless knowledge to Baron Daylon Dumarch, ruler of Marquensas, perhaps the only man who can defeat Lodavico of Sandura, who has now allied himself with the fanatical Church of the One, which is marching across the continent, imposing its extreme form of religion upon the population and burning unbelievers as they go. Meanwhile, on the island of Coaltachin, the secret domain of the Quelli Nacosti, three friends are being schooled in the deadly arts of espionage and assassination: Donte, son of one of the most powerful masters of the order; Hava, a serious girl with fighting abilities that can set any opponent on their back; and Hatu, a strange, conflicted lad in whom fury and calm war constantly, whose hair is a bright and fiery shade of red…

Read more less

In 1932, Benno Weiser Varon was a student of medicine in Vienna. During a brawl at the Anatomic Institute he rescues a Jewish fellow student, when he cracked the skull of a huge Nazi with two outsized metal keys, while some thirty Nazis watched from an upper floor. He considered this event his rite of passage, in which he proved to himself that “Jews are no cowards.” Life would give him many an opportunity to prove it again. A Jewish Rambo? Not at all. Fellow Viennese remember him for making them laugh. He wrote, directed, and performed in literary cabarets. Gerhard Bronner, Vienna’s foremost entertainer, claims that watching Weiser perform inspired his choice of career. “All I could take along from Nazi Vienna,” says Weiser Varon, “was my accent.” But he also exported his fighting spirit. As Ecuador’s first syndicated columnist, blending drama with satire, he dispensed faith to those who rooted for the Allies and heartburn to the powerful Nazi colony. The Axis powers sponsored seven weeklies to counteract his influence, there was an interpellation in parliament, a “promise” by the minister of the interior to silence him, an op-ed dual with a Vichy diplomat. The New York Times, reporting on his struggle, called him one of Latin America’s best known columnists. In 1946 the World Zionist Organization drafted him into its campaign to convince the nations of Latin America of the justice of the Jewish fight for statehood. Varon’s niche in history is the U.N. Palestine Partition Resolution of 1947. The Encyclopedia Judaica credits him and a colleague with the decisive Latin American votes. In 1964 Golda Meir appointed him ambassador to a succession of Latin American countries. In 1970 Baron survived an assassination attempt by Palestinian terrorists. In 1972 he retired from diplomacy and returned to journalism. Varon met Albert Einstein and Aleksandr Kerensky as well as the Who’s Who of Latin-American writers, painters, intellectuals, and statesmen, such as Perón, Castro, the Somozas, Stroessner. He also placed second-best in a joke contest with Bob Hope and, together with his actress-wife, wrote a play, “A Letter to the Times,” which was produced in both English and Spanish.

Read more less

______________ ‘One of the best writers of my generation’ - John Irving ‘A playful yet searching novel of gay life in the New York of Ed Koch and Studio 54’ - Kirkus ‘Smart, worldly, erudite, well-connected, and funny’ - New York Review of Books ‘Remarkable … America’s most significant gay writer’ - Literary Review ______________ ‘Has everyone always been in love with you? Of course they have, who am I kidding? What did they say about Helen of Troy? That her face launched a thousand ships? That’s you, you’re that beautiful. A thousand ships’ New York City in the eighties, and at its decadent heart is Guy. The darling of Fire Island's gay community and one of New York’s top male models, Guy is gliding his way to riches that are a world away from his modest provincial upbringing back home in France. Like some modern-day Dorian Gray he seems untouched by time: the decades pass, fashions change, yet his beauty remains as transcendent and captivating as ever. Such looks cannot help but bring him adoration. From sweet yet pathetic Fred to the wealthy and masochistic Baron, from the acerbic and cynical Pierre-Georges to Andre, fabricating Dalí fakes and hurtling towards prison and the abyss, all are in some way fixated on him. In return for the devotion and expensive gifts they lavish on him, he plays with unswerving loyalty whatever role they project onto him: unattainable idol, passionate lover, malleable client. But just as the years are catching up on his smooth skin and perfect body, so his way of life is closing in on him and destroying the men he loves. Edmund White has in Our Young Man created some of the richest representations of gay male identity, from the disco era to the age of AIDs. What links them all is the allure and enchantment they find in beauty. Revelling in its magic, Our Young Man nonetheless slips beneath the seductive surface to examine its dangerous depths, exploring its power to fascinate, enslave and deceive. Mesmerising, blackly comic, and delicately crafted, this is an exquisite novel from a contemporary master.

Read more less

Written by two Croatia experts, this new, thoroughly updated third edition of Bradt's Croatia: Istria, with Rijeka and the Slovenian Adriatic remains the only full-length guide to this well-heeled, varied part of former Yugoslavia to include detailed background and practical information. Catering for all types of travellers (from outdoors enthusiasts to culture vultures, foodies to oenophiles) and budgets, the guide offers revised listings for accommodation, restaurants, and what to see and do. Istria crams remarkable diversity in a conveniently compact region: it takes under an hour to drive almost anywhere on the peninsula. The region boasts some of Croatia's most famous sites, including Pula's spectacular Roman amphitheatre, Porec's UNESCO-listed Byzantine mosaics (every bit as good as Italy's Ravenna and Istanbul's Aya Sofya), picturesque medieval hill towns (such as Motovun and Draguc) and frescoes, and the Brijuni Islands National Park. In 2020, the transport hub and carnival city of Rijeka in the Kvarner region became Croatia's first ever European Capital of Culture. Istria is renowned for its cuisine, particularly pasta, game, seafood and truffles (until recently Istria held the world record for the world's largest truffle), and also produces fine wine and world-class olive oil. There is plenty of pampering on offer, too, with luxury and boutique hotels, excellent restaurants and inexpensive spa treatments. Istria makes a great base to explore nearby Capodistria on Slovenia's coast, and karst limestone areas with beautiful and uncrowded coastal towns, castles, Lipizzaner horses and the UNESCO-listed Skocjan cave. New or expanded coverage in this edition include advice and information on the Vivapa Valley, Slovenian wines, recently opened hotels, travelling to Istria by rail, and vegetarian or vegan restaurants. With extensive sections on trekking, cycling (including the Parenzana long-distance cycling route) and diving, plus information on windsurfing, paragliding, wreck diving (including sites such as the Coriolanus and the Baron Gautsch) and sailing, and detail on wildlife (30 species of orchid grow on Cape Kemenjak alone), numerous festivals (including celebrations of film, fish, truffles and prosciutto), music, travelling with children and ancient history, this Bradt guide provides everything you need to plan and enjoy a visit.

Read more less

Winner of the 2004 New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Book Award for Scholarly Non-Fiction | Named a 2005 Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Essential reading for anyone interested in the most famous American crime of the twentieth century Since its original publication in 2004, The Case That Never Dies has become the standard account of the Lindbergh kidnapping. Now, in a new afterword, historian Lloyd C. Gardner presents a surprise conclusion based on recently uncovered pieces of evidence that were missing from the initial investigation as well as an evaluation of Charles Lindbergh’s role in the search for the kidnappers. Out of the controversies surrounding the actions of Colonel Lindbergh, Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the New Jersey State Police, and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Gardner presents a well-reasoned argument for what happened on the night of March 1, 1932.The Case That NeverDies places the Lindbergh kidnapping, investigation, and trial in the context of the Depression, when many feared the country was on the edge of anarchy. Gardner delves deeply into the aspects of the case that remain confusing to this day, including Lindbergh’s dealings with crime baron Owney Madden, Al Capone’s New York counterpart, as well as the inexplicable exploits of John Condon, a retired schoolteacher who became the prosecution’s best witness. The initial investigation was hampered by Colonel Lindbergh, who insisted that the police not attempt to find the perpetrator because he feared the investigation would endanger his son’s life. He relented only when the child was found dead.After two years of fruitless searching, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant, was discovered to have some of the ransom money in his possession. Hauptmann was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Throughout the book, Gardner pays special attention to the evidence of the case and how it was used and misused in the trial. Whether Hauptmann was guilty or not, Gardner concludes that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of first-degree murder.Set in historical context, the book offers not only a compelling read, but a powerful vantage point from which to observe the United States in the 1930s as well as contemporary arguments over capital punishment.

Read more less

The “greater fool” theory of economics states that it’s possible to make money by buying paper (securities), whether overvalued or not, and later, selling it at a profit because there will always be an even greater fool willing to pay the higher price. Many described in this book profited by peddling such worthless junk to foolish investors. But for some people—Bernie Madoff, Norman Hsu, Sholam Weiss, and “Crazie Eddie” Antar, aka the “Darth Vader of Capitalism”—overvalued securities were not enough. Outright fraud was their way of life. History of Greed is the compelling inside story of the names you know—Charles Ponzi, Baron Rothschild, Lou Pearlman—and the names you don’t—Isaac Le Maire, the world’s first “naked” short-seller. It’s also our story—why we ignore the lessons of the past and fall prey, most every time, to the promise of easy money.For thousands of years, alchemists unsuccessfully tried to turn worthless base metals into gold. Where science failed at turning nothing into something, business succeeded. Sometimes we praise the creators of derivatives, collateral debt obligations, subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or auction rate securities as Wall Street’s new financial wizards, the creators of “magic paper.” Other times, we vilify and prosecute them as scam artists. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell who is who. History of Greed reveals the inside secrets of how the markets really work, and how scam artists abuse them to gain an unfair edge or to outright steal. It describes how luftgescheft (“air business”), wizardry, dishonesty, and fraud are used to swindle people. Along with a comprehensive bibliography, History of Greed also details: 400 years of financial fraud—from everyday fraud to the odd and unusual Accounting fraud (phantom sales), stock option fraud (backdating), auction rate securities, hedge fund fraud, Ponzi schemes, promotion fraud (pump-and-dump scams), and money laundering How to detect fraudulent schemes How government regulation only fixes yesterday’s problems If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If they say you can’t lose, you probably will. History of Greed shows that there really is no such thing as a free lunch, while also detailing how not to become the “greater fool.”

Read more less

A POWERFUL 55-CARD ANGEL ORACLE CARD DECK TO UNLOCK THE DIVINE MESSAGES OF THE ANGELS AND WISDOM OF THE ANCESTORSVOTED BEST CARD DECK OF 2018 FROM SPIRIT GUIDES MAGAZINE—FROM WORLD-RENOWNED ANGEL EXPERT AND BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF RAISE YOUR VIBRATION, KYLE GRAYFeaturing new representations of angels, this oracle card deck reminds spiritual seekers that loving, divine guidance, grace, and inspiration from the angels is always available to anyone who is ready to listen.“Kyle Gray is one of the world’s most incredibly gifted angel communicators. I have seen him work and he is authentic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. I highly recommend him and all his creations!”– Colette Baron-Reid, international bestselling oracle expert We are surrounded by countless angels, ancestors, and spirit guides who want to share their knowledge with us to bring healing and change. In whichever culture or religion they appear, Angels have always had one mission: to love, help, and guide humans. On the earthly plane, Ancestors are the wise ones, healers, and warriors who have offered to share their knowledge and magic with us.In this beautiful oracle deck, you will receive wisdom from: Guardians and Messengers These guiding spirits will help you connect with your primal needs and desires so you can live a fulfilling life that is aligned with your highest truth, good, and purpose.Warrior Symbols When these ‘warrior symbols’ appear within a reading, they can reveal important information that will help you understand what you need to do next. SeasonsThe seasons cards bring messages that will help you move into the flow of life and can also indicate the timing of a message.With this healing oracle deck featuring angels, shamans, medicine people, and warriors from the four corners of the Earth, you have the opportunity to bridge the gap between this world and others. The Angels and Ancestors know what you need to know, and by using the accompanying oracle card guidebook, you'll learn how to unlock their secrets and messages, and live an inspirational life touched by divine, magical guidance!

Read more less

You have to fight for the ones you love.'An ideal book for fans of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers, Mandasue Heller, Jessie Keane and Casey Kelleher' Ginger Book Geek, 5 starsAnna Davis has spent years terrified of her sadistic gangster boyfriend. Right up until she runs away in the dead of night, she's frightened he will kill her. And she knows he still will, if he ever finds her...As Anna starts her new life in London, she meets two strangers who will change her fortunes forever. Tanya Smith is a gorgeous stripper with a big heart. Anna and Tanya quickly become inseparable and open up London's hottest new nightclub together. And East End baron Freddie Tyler is everything Anna's ex-boyfriend was not - he's kind, caring and would do anything to make Anna happy. Just as Anna begins to see a brighter future for herself, she begins to suspect her past is catching up with her. She could be about to lose everything - even her life. But she's a different person now. She's got something to live for and she's not going to give up without a fight. But are Tanya and Freddie, the only people she trusts to help her, telling Anna the truth about who they really are?This book was previously published as Life Game If you love Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers, Casey Kelleher and Jessie Keane, you'll love Runaway Girl. This fast-paced, gripping thriller will have you reading well after dark.What readers are saying about Runaway Girl:'I can finally breathe again after holding my breath throughout . . . amazing and addictive . . . I enjoyed every second . . . an absolute roller coaster of a story, I will definitely be recommending this one' Goodreads Reviewer'Absolutely brilliant. I loved every minute of it . . . will grab hold of you and won't let go . . . will simply take your breath away . . . fantastic' Goodreads Reviewer'Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I can say no more. I loved this book from beginning to end and will be looking out for more' Goodreads Reviewer'WOW . . . What a brilliant book . . . hooked from the first page, it was gritty, gripping . . . If you are a fan of Martina Cole, Jessie Keane and Casey Kelleher this is a book for you' Goodreads Reviewer

Read more less

Larry McMurtry has done more than any other living writer to shape our literary imagination of the American West. With The Last Kind Words Saloon he returns again to the vivid and unsparing portrait of the nineteenth-century and cowboy lifestyle made so memorable in his classic Lonesome Dove. Evoking the greatest characters and legends of the Old Wild West, here McMurtry tells the story of the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Opening in the settlement of Long Grass, Texas—not quite in Kansas, and nearly New Mexico—we encounter the taciturn Wyatt, whiling away his time in between bottles, and the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc, more adept at poker than extracting teeth. Now hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge—more often with a mean look than a pistol—Wyatt and Doc are living out the last days of a way of life that is passing into history, two men never more aware of the growing distance between their lives and their legends. Along with Wyatt's wife, Jessie, who runs the titular saloon, we meet Lord Ernle, an English baron; the exotic courtesan San Saba, "the most beautiful whore on the plains"; Charlie Goodnight, the Texas Ranger turned cattle driver last seen in McMurtry's Comanche Moon, and Nellie Courtright, the witty and irrepressible heroine of Telegraph Days. McMurtry traces the rich and varied friendship of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday from the town of Long Grass to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Denver, then to Mobetie, Texas, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, culminating with the famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral, rendered here in McMurtry's stark and peerless prose. With the buffalo herds gone, the Comanche defeated, and vast swaths of the Great Plains being enclosed by cattle ranches, Wyatt and Doc live on, even as the storied West that forged their myths disappears. As harsh and beautiful, and as brutal and captivating as the open range it depicts, The Last Kind Words Saloon celebrates the genius of one of our most original American writers.

Read more less

When wielded by the white majority, ethnic humor can be used to ridicule and demean marginalized groups. In the hands of ethnic minorities themselves, ethnic humor can work as a site of community building and resistance. In nearly all cases, however, ethnic humor can serve as a window through which to examine the complexities of American race relations. In Ethnic Humor in Multiethnic America, David Gillota explores the ways in which contemporary comic works both reflect and participate in national conversations about race and ethnicity.Gillota investigates the manner in which various humorists respond to multiculturalism and the increasing diversity of the American population. Rather than looking at one or two ethnic groups at a time—as is common scholarly practice—the book focuses on the interplay between humorists from different ethnic communities. While some comic texts project a fantasy world in which diverse ethnic characters coexist in a rarely disputed harmony, others genuinely engage with the complexities and contradictions of multiethnic America.The first chapter focuses on African American comedy with a discussion of such humorists as Paul Mooney and Chris Rock, who tend to reinforce a black/white vision of American race relations. This approach is contrasted to the comedy of Dave Chappelle, who looks beyond black and white and uses his humor to place blackness within a much wider multiethnic context. Chapter 2 concentrates primarily on the Jewish humorists Sarah Silverman, Larry David, and Sacha Baron Cohen—three artists who use their personas to explore the peculiar position of contemporary Jews who exist in a middle space between white and other. In chapter 3, Gillota discusses different humorous constructions of whiteness, from a detailed analysis of South Park to “Blue Collar Comedy” and the blog Stuff White People Like.Chapter 4 is focused on the manner in which animated children’s film and the network situation comedy often project simplified and harmonious visions of diversity. In contrast, chapter 5 considers how many recent works, such as Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and the Showtime series Weeds, engage with diversity in more complex and productive ways.

Read more less

This book conveys the excitement, diversity and richness of London at a time when the city was arguably at the height of its power, uniqueness and attraction. Balancing the social, the topographical and the visible aspects of the great city, author Andrew Saint uses buildings, architecture, literature and art as a way into understanding social and historical phenomena. While many volumes on Victorian London focus on poverty (an issue which is included in this book), the author here provides a broader picture of life in the city. It is enlivened with a rich line-up of colourful characters, including Baron Albert Grant; Henry Mayers Hyndman and his connections with Karl Marx, William Morris and George Bernard Shaw; John Burns; Octavia Hill; Aubrey Beardsley and the artistic bohemians; Alfred Harmsworth and the Garrett sisters, and includes insightful quotes on London by esteemed authors such as Trollope, Henry James and Rudyard Kipling. Divided into four long chapters, each dealing with a decade, London’s evolution between 1870 and 1914 comes across clearly. Although not intended to be a complete history, it does cover all the most important historical developments in London and London life.  Particular issues are allotted to the decade in which they seem to have been most critical. Topics covered include: the creation of new neighbourhoods and roads; how the Victorians dealt with their housing crisis; why certain architectural styles were preferred; and the fashion for focusing on certain types of building, such as ice rinks, schools, houses, hospitals, fire stations, exhibition halls, water works, music halls, recital rooms and pubs. This is an up-to-date, readable and well-illustrated book which embraces the whole in a positive spirit. Saint’s interpretation of London’s history in the period covered is unashamedly one of progress in the face of great odds. He shows that, in almost every aspect, it was a much better city in1914 than in 1870. At a time when local autonomy in Britain has been ruthlessly downgraded and London’s face is every year coarsened further by money-led developments, this story of gradual and earnest improvement may have lessons to teach.

Read more less

Two Depression-battered nations confronted destiny in 1932, going to the polls in their own way to anoint new leaders, to rescue their people from starvation and hopelessness. America would elect a Congress and a president—ebullient aristocrat Franklin Roosevelt or tarnished “Wonder Boy” Herbert Hoover. Decadent, divided Weimar Germany faced two rounds of bloody Reichstag elections and two presidential contests—doddering reactionary Paul von Hindenburg against rising radical hate-monger Adolf Hitler. The outcome seemed foreordained—unstoppable forces advancing upon crumbled, disoriented societies. A merciless Great Depression brought greater—perhaps hopeful, perhaps deadly—transformation: FDR’s New Deal and Hitler’s Third Reich. But neither outcome was inevitable. Readers enter the fray through David Pietrusza’s page-turning account: Roosevelt’s fellow Democrats may yet halt him at a deadlocked convention. 1928’s Democratic nominee, Al Smith, harbors a grudge against his one-time protege. Press baron William Randolph Hearst lays his own plans to block Roosevelt’s ascent to the White House. FDR’s politically-inspired juggling of a New York City scandal threatens his juggernaut. In Germany, the Nazis surge at the polls but twice fall short of Reichstag majorities. Hitler, tasting power after a lifetime of failure and obscurity, falls to Hindenburg for the presidency—also twice within the year. Cabals and counter-cabals plot. Secrets of love and suicide haunt Hitler. Yet guile and ambition may yet still prevail. 1932’s breathtaking narrative covers two epic stories that possess haunting parallels to today’s crisis-filled vortex. It is an all-too-human tale of scapegoats and panaceas, class warfare and racial politics, of a seemingly bottomless depression, of massive unemployment and hardship, of unprecedented public works/infrastructure programs, of business stimulus programs and damaging allegations of political cronyism, of waves of bank failures and of mortgages foreclosed, of Washington bonus marches and Berlin street fights, of once-solid financial empires collapsing seemingly overnight, of rapidly shifting social mores, and of mountains of irresponsible international debt threatening to crash not just mere nations but the entire global economy. It is the tale of spell-binding leaders versus bland businessmen and out-of-touch upper-class elites and of two nations inching to safety but lurching toward disaster. It is 1932’s nightmare—with lessons for today.

Read more less

AN EMPOWERING ORACLE CARD DECK FROM BEST-SELLING ORACLE AUTHOR AND WORLD-RENOWNED ANGEL TEACHER KYLE GRAYUNLOCK SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE, ANCIENT WISDOM, AND HEALING SUPPORT FROM 44 ASCENDED DIVINE MASTERS“Kyle Gray is one of the world’s most incredibly gifted angel communicators. I have seen him work and he is authentic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. I highly recommend him and all his creations!”– Colette Baron-Reid, international bestselling oracle expertThe Divine Masters Oracle card deck brings together a congregation of enlightened souls who have dedicated themselves to the healing and nurturing of the world. These beings are universal spiritual guides and, like angels, anyone can connect and work with them, no matter their background or experience. You may already know some of them—Mary Magdalene, Buddha and Horus—but there are many more, and they are all ready to support you on your spiritual path. All you have to do is call upon them.Use this oracle card deck to connect and communicate directly with these beings. When your intention is combined with the imagery, meanings, and messages of the cards, guidance from the Divine Masters will come to you not just through the cards, but from within too.Example Divine Masters Oracle Card Meanings and Messages· Jesus – Acts of ServiceWhen you serve, the Universe serves you.· Gaia – Resilient SpiritEarth connection. Stay rooted in trust and faith.· Horus – Manifestation VortexBelief makes manifest. Thoughts attract and create.· Rama and Sita – Holy UnionSoulmate connection. Romantic opportunity.“No matter what path or tradition you follow, the Divine Masters are willing to guide and support you. Call upon these beings in challenging times and they will support you through the process of healing and transformation.This 44-card deck acts as a bridge of light for you to connect directly with these beings and receive their guidance. Let this connection become an exciting spiritual process that supports the raising of your vibration and leads you to a life filled with meaning and purpose.”Love, Kyle GrayThe Divine Masters know what you need to know and, by using this deck and the accompanying oracle card guidebook, you’ll receive their wisdom and support in living your best life.

Read more less

Victorian London harbours many secrets: alien visitors, strange phenomena and unearthly powers. But a trio of investigators stands ready to delve into such mysteries - the Great Detective, Madame Vastra; her resourceful spouse, Jenny Flint; and their loyal valet, Strax. If an impossible puzzle needs solving, or a grave injustice needs righting, help can be found on Paternoster Row. But even heroes can never escape their past...Contains three new adventures - 1.Dining with Death by Dan Starkey. When negotiations between two warring alien races are sabotaged, Madame Vastra offers Paternoster Row as neutral ground upon which to continue their diplomacy – and the celebrate the treaty with a feast. While Strax frets about hosting two species with very different dietary needs, Jenny investigates the dissenters who want to halt the peace process. But a deadly plot is brewing, and the diners way not survive the cheese course...2.The Screaming Ceiling by Guy Adams. In one of the earliest cases of his illustrious career, Thomas Carnacki heads to the Highlands to embark upon the terrifying investigation of Castle Kraighten. On arrival, he finds that another party of sleuths has been engaged – surely these amateurs of Paternoster Row have nothing to teach the great Ghost Finder? But this is no ordinary haunting. A room in the castle has a mouth in the ceiling. And it screams...3. Spring-Heeled Jack by Gemma Arrowsmith. People are being stolen from the streets by a monster. By all accounts, it has burning eyes, breathes blue flames, and can leap the height of a building at a bound. While Vastra and Jenny fend off an over-eager member of the gutter press, Strax dives into dangerous waters. CAST: Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra), Catrin Stewart (Jenny Flint), Dan Starkey (Strax), Hywel Morgan (Baron Gallos Flambo), Polly Kemp (Duchess Callys Flambo), Glen McCready (Auditor-General Otak Lame), Joe Jameson (Carnacki), David Shaw-Parker (John Campbell), Caroline Guthrie(Anna Campbell), Janet Henfrey (Dorothy), Isabella Inchbald (Elizabeth), Daniel Easton (Jimmy), Sophie Cotton (Gwendoline Platt), Joe Sims (Sergeant Grout). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Read more less

Baron Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg (1885–1921) was a Baltic German aristocrat and tsarist military officer who fought against the Bolsheviks in Eastern Siberia during the Russian Civil War. From there he established himself as the de facto warlord of Outer Mongolia, the base for a fantastical plan to restore the Russian and Chinese empires, which then ended with his capture and execution by the Red Army as the war drew to a close. In The Baron’s Cloak, Willard Sunderland tells the epic story of the Russian Empire’s final decades through the arc of the Baron’s life, which spanned the vast reaches of Eurasia. Tracking Ungern’s movements, he transits through the Empire’s multinational borderlands, where the country bumped up against three other doomed empires, the Habsburg, Ottoman, and Qing, and where the violence unleashed by war, revolution, and imperial collapse was particularly vicious. In compulsively readable prose that draws on wide-ranging research in multiple languages, Sunderland re-creates Ungern’s far-flung life and uses it to tell a compelling and original tale of imperial success and failure in a momentous time. Sunderland visited the many sites that shaped Ungern’s experience, from Austria and Estonia to Mongolia and China, and these travels help give the book its arresting geographical feel. In the early chapters, where direct evidence of Ungern’s activities is sparse, he evokes peoples and places as Ungern would have experienced them, carefully tracing the accumulation of influences that ultimately came together to propel the better documented, more notorious phase of his career. Recurring throughout Sunderland’s magisterial account is a specific artifact: the Baron’s cloak, an essential part of the cross-cultural uniform Ungern chose for himself by the time of his Mongolian campaign: an orangey-gold Mongolian kaftan embroidered in the Khalkha fashion yet outfitted with tsarist-style epaulettes on the shoulders. Like his cloak, Ungern was an imperial product. He lived across the Russian Empire, combined its contrasting cultures, fought its wars, and was molded by its greatest institutions and most volatile frontiers. By the time of his trial and execution mere months before the decree that created the USSR, he had become a profoundly contradictory figure, reflecting both the empire’s potential as a multinational society and its ultimately irresolvable limitations.

Read more less

A vital text for understanding the twenty-first-century battlefield and the shifting force structure, this book prepares students to think critically about the rapidly changing world they'll inherit.American Defense Policy, first published in 1965 under the leadership of Brent Scowcroft, has been a mainstay in courses on political science, international relations, military affairs, and American national security for more than 50 years. This updated and thoroughly revised ninth edition, which contains about 30% all-new content, considers questions of continuity and change in America's defense policy in the face of a global climate beset by geopolitical tensions, rapid technological change, and terrorist violence.The book is organized into three parts. Part I examines the theories and strategies that shape America's approach to security policy. Part II dives inside the defense policy process, exploring the evolution of contemporary civil-military relations, the changing character of the profession of arms, and the issues and debates in the budgeting, organizing, and equipping process. Part III examines how purpose and process translate into American defense policy. This invaluable and prudent text remains a classic introduction to the vital security issues the United States has faced throughout its history. It breaks new ground as a thoughtful and comprehensive starting point to understand American defense policy and its role in the world today.Contributors: Gordon Adams, John R. Allen, Will Atkins, Deborah D. Avant, Michael Barnett, Sally Baron, Jeff J.S. Black, Jessica Blankshain, Hal Brands, Ben Buchanan, Dale C. Copeland, Everett Carl Dolman, Jeffrey Donnithorne, Daniel W. Drezner, Colin Dueck, Eric Edelman, Martha Finnemore, Lawrence Freedman, Francis Fukuyama, Michael D. Gambone, Lynne Chandler Garcia, Bishop Garrison, Erik Gartzke, Mauro Gilli, Robert Gilpin, T.X. Hammes, Michael C. Horowitz, G. John Ikenberry, Bruce D. Jones, Tim Kane, Cheryl A. Kearney, David Kilcullen, Michael P. Kreuzer, Miriam Krieger, Seth Lazar, Keir A. Lieber, Conway Lin, Jon R. Lindsay, Austin Long, Joseph S. Lupa Jr., Megan H. MacKenzie, Mike J. Mazarr, Senator John McCain, Daniel H. McCauley, Michael E. McInerney, Christopher D. Miller, James N. Miller, John A. Nagl, Henry R. Nau, Renée de Nevers, Joseph S. Nye Jr., Michael E. O'Hanlon, Mancur Olson Jr., Sue Payton, Daryl G. Press, Thomas Rid, John Riley, David Sacko, Brandon D. Smith, James M. Smith, Don M. Snider, Sir Hew Strachan, Michael Wesley, Richard Zeckhauser

Read more less

'In order to use law to improve social welfare, scholars and policy makers need to be able to predict how people will respond to the legal change. To do so, they must understand when and how decisions are affects by systematic biases and heuristics, including how people respond to changes in either the legal or institutional environment. In this path-breaking volume, Professors Teitelbaum and Zeiler have assembled leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to enrich our understanding of human decision-making and analyze the implications of behavioral analysis for a wide range of legal issues, including antitrust, consumer finance, criminal law, torts, and property. This book will be enormously valuable for students, scholars and policy makers.'- Jennifer Arlen, New York University, School of Law, US The field of behavioral economics has contributed greatly to our understanding of human decision making by refining neoclassical assumptions and developing models that account for psychological, cognitive, and emotional forces. The field?s insights have important implications for law. This Research Handbook offers a variety of perspectives from renowned experts on a wide-ranging set of topics including punishment, finance, tort law, happiness, and the application of experimental literatures to law. It also includes analyses of conceptual foundations, cautions, limitations and proposals for ways forward.The leading scholars of law, economics, and psychology featured in this Research Handbook use their insights to synthesize and contribute to the extant research at the intersection of behavioral economics and key areas of law, and to demonstrate methods for effective original research. With synthetic literature reviews and original research, conceptual overviews and critical perspectives, as well as topic-specific chapters, it provides a strong overview of this burgeoning field.Law and economics scholars, behavioral law scholars, and behavioral economists and psychologists dealing with law, judgement and decision-making will appreciate this Research Handbook?s dedication to applicable research, and judges, lawmakers, policy advocates and regulators will note its important practical implications for law and public policy.Contributors include: S. Agarwal, A. al-Nowaihi, B.W. Ambrose, J. Baron, M. Bos, G. Charness, T. Chorvat, G. DeAngelo, S. Dhami, B. Ho, P.H. Huang, D. Huffman, O.D. Jones, C.M. Landeo, B. Luppi, K. McCabe, G. Mitchell, F. Parisi, S. Payne Carter, P.M. Skiba, A. Stein, T. Wilkinson-Ryan, E. Xiao, K. Zeiler

Read more less

Anthony Speelman is the doyen of English art dealers specializing in Dutch Golden Age art. Vividly written and handsomely illustrated, his memoirs offer fascinating insight into the sometimes secretive world of Old Masters. This book will appeal not only to dealers, collectors and others in the fine art world, but also to would-be collectors eager for a glimpse behind the curtain.These memoirs cover a lifetime of dealing in Old Masters at the very highest level. Speelman’s career started under the guidance of his father Edward, whose own biography has much to tell. Over the years, Speelman has sold paintings to many of the world’s greatest collectors, including Norton Simon, Paul Mellon, Baron Thyssen, Harold Samuel, Charles Clore and the Wrightsmans in New York, along with world renowned museums such as the Getty, the Louvre and the National Gallery, London, among many others. He writes about his encounters with these eminent bodies in a light-hearted style, sometimes amusing, always extremely interesting – including an anecdote about a recent meeting with a Chinese billionaire with a penchant for fine wine.The two monkeys in the title refer to two paintings of a monkey holding a peach by George Stubbs, the outstanding English animal painter. Anthony describes how he discovered one of these masterpieces as a ‘sleeper’ in a Sotheby’s sale. Early in his career Anthony’s rooms in Piccadilly were broken into and a number of paintings stolen, including a George Stubbs painting of a spaniel. An intriguing tale follows, ending with the paintings recovered some eighteen months later after a failed blackmail attempt on the part of the thieves.Amongst his accomplishments, Speelman was for many years chairman of the vetting committee at the annual Maastricht art fair. He describes the working of the committees which ensure that all works exhibited are correctly described. Still active in the art world, he is currently chairman of the vetting committee of the prestigious annual Masterpiece art fair in London.Other chapters detail Speelman’s travels to California, New York and Paris, his interest in gastronomy and his thrilling adventures in the world of horseracing. The book is beautifully illustrated with examples of works that have passed through the author’s hands. The wide range of illustrations is not limited to Dutch art and includes works by Canaletto, Stubbs, Raphael, Tiepolo, Melendez and other Old Masters.

Read more less

In the 19th century, Daniel Waggoner and his son, W.T. (Tom), put together an empire in North Texas that became the largest ranch under one fence in the nation. The 520,000-plus acres or 800 square miles covers six counties and sits on a large oil field in the Red River Valley of North Texas. Over the years, the estate also owned five banks, three cottonseed oil mills, and a coal company. Headquarters are in an office building in Vernon. Estimated value last quoted was $300 million. The history is colorful. Although Dan seems to have led a fairly low-profile life, W. T. moved to Fort Worth, became a bank director, built two office buildings, ran his cattle on the Big Pasture in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), hosted Teddy Roosevelt at a wolf hunt in the Big Pasture, and sent Quanah Parker to Washington, D.C., for Roosevelt’s inauguration. W. T. had three children including his daughter, Electra, the light of his life. W. T. built a mansion in Fort Worth for her—today the house, the last surviving cattle baron mansion on Fort Worth’s Silk Stocking Row, is open to the public for tours and events. Electra, an international celebrity and extravagant shopper (she once spent $10,000 in one day at Neiman Marcus), died at the age of forty-three. W.T.’s brother Guy had nine wives; his brother E. Paul, partier and horse breeder, was married to the same woman for fifty years and had one daughter, Electra II. Electra II was a both a celebrity and a talented sculptor, best known for a heroic-size state of Will Rogers on his horse, Soapsuds, as well as busts of two presidents and various movie stars. She is said to once have been involved with Cary Grant. After marriage to an executive she settled in a mansion at the ranch and raised two daughters. This book tells the story of the Wagonner women and their need to do something with the restless energy they possessed. The women did not have—or did not choose—ranching as an outlet for their strong personalities. The story is also about the juxtaposition of a love of the land versus the self-indulgent love of money—a common theme among ranch families that led to the dissolution of many.

Read more less

Twentyoneyearold Leonhard Rempe volunteered to serve Germany in 1914. By the time World War One ended, he had seen action on both major fronts, witnessed the war from the back of a horse and the cockpit of plane, and amassed one of the more unique records of anyone in the Kaiser’s army. From German Cavalry Officer to Reconnaissance Pilot is his remarkable story. Rempe initially served as a cavalryman in the 35th (1st West Prussian) Field Artillery of the XX ArmeeKorps, fighting in several bloody and significant battles against the Russians on the Eastern Front. In 1916, he exchanged his spurs for the cockpit and transferred to the Western front. Flying specially built planes for reconnaissance work was dangerous duty, but Rempe relished his time in the open cockpits, flying at altitudes high and low to provide detailed intelligence information for the German army. He met and knew many of the pilots who flew in both fighter and reconnaissance planes, including Manfred von Richthoven—the Red Baron. Unlike so many of his fellow pilots, Rempe survived several crashes, and was shot down over Reims, France, in March of 1918. At war’s end, Rempe returned to a defeated Germany in the midst of turmoil and revolution and served briefly in a Freikorps (Free Corps) regiment dedicated to preserving the new government in Weimar against German Communists. Seeking a new beginning, he arrived at Ellis Island in the spring of 1923 to start his life as an American. He brought with him flight reports, other miscellaneous documents, and scores of remarkable photographs documenting his wartime service, most of which are published here for the first time. During 1956, the last year of his life, Rempe penned a brief memoir of his World War One service which, together with the photographic record, forms the basis of From German Cavalry Officer to Reconnaissance Pilot. Using primary and secondary sources Dr. Paul Rempe provides insight into the grim realities of Leonhard’s war while his father’s own memoir recalls his special comradeship with his fellow soldiers and airmen. From German Cavalry Officer to Reconnaissance Pilot adds substantially to the growing literature of the First World War, and paints a unique and compelling portrait of a young German caught up in the deadly jaws of mass industrialized war.

Read more less

Shows vividly how the Great Fire of 1835, which nearly leveled Manhattan also created the ashes from which the city was reborn. On a freezing December night almost two centuries ago, a fire erupted in lower Manhattan. The city's inhabitants, though accustomed to blazes in a town with so many wooden structures, a spotty water supply, and a decentralized fire department, looked on in horror at the scale of this one. Philip Hone, a former mayor of New York, wrote in his diary how "the progress of the flames, like flashes of lightning, communicated in every direction, and a few minutes sufficed to level the lofty edifices on every side." By the time the fire was extinguished, a huge swath of land had been transformed from a thriving business center into the "Burnt District," an area roughly the same size as was devastated during the September 11th attack. In the end, nearly 700 buildings were destroyed. So vast was the conflagration that it was immediately and henceforth known as the Great Fire of 1835. Manhattan Phoenix reveals how New York emerged from the disaster to become a global powerhouse merely a quarter of a century later. Daniel S. Levy's book charts the city's almost miraculous growth during the early 19th century by focusing on the topics that shaped its destiny, starting with fire but including water, land, disease, culture, and politics, interweaving the lives of New Yorkers who took part in its transformation. Some are well-known, including the land baron John Jacob Astor. Others less so, as with the Bowery Theatre impresario Thomas Hamblin and the African-American restaurateur Thomas Downing. The book celebrates Fire Chief James Gulick, who battled the Great Fire, examines the designs of the architect Alexander Jackson Davis who built marble palaces for the rich, follows the abolitionist Arthur Tappan, chronicles the career of the merchant Alexander Stewart, and reveals how the engineer John Bloomfield Jervis succeeded in bringing clean water into homes. The city's resurrection likewise owed much to such visionaries as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who designed Central Park, creating the refuge that it remains to this day. Manhattan Phoenix offers the story of a city rising from the ashes to fulfill its destiny to grow into one of the world's greatest metropolises—and in no small part due to catastrophe. It is, in other words, a New York story.

Read more less

DISCOVER THE MEANING OF ANGEL NUMBER SEQUENCES AND NUMBER PATTERNS YOU SEE FROM BEST-SELLING ANGEL EXPERT AND AUTHOR OF RAISE YOUR VIBRATION, KYLE GRAYLEARN WHAT MESSAGES YOUR ANGELS HAVE FOR YOU WHEN YOU SEE NUMBERS FROM 0 THROUGH 999 LIKE 1:11, 2:22, AND 5:55 Are you seeing repeating numbers like 11:11 and 4:44 everywhere you turn? In Angel Numbers, world-renowned angel author Kyle Gray explains exactly what your angels and spirit guides are trying to tell you through repeated number sequences you see. In this day and age, our understanding of the cosmos is all calculated using numbers, so it’s no wonder that angels, the universe’s greatest divine messengers since the dawn of time, are using numbers to send us signs and messages from heaven. There’s a good chance you’ve seen number sequences appearing time and time again in your life—on license plates, purchase receipts, flight numbers, and of course your phone—and these numbers aren’t just numbers, they’re angel numbers.They’re angel messages and calls to action. Now that we’re living in what can only be described as a digital age, angels are using the numbers we see on digital clocks, such as 11:11, 1:23, 21:12, 22:22, and 5:55 to help remind you of your higher truth. Some Example Angel Number Meanings: 12:12 You have the power to bring healing and light to the world. Notice how your intentions and actions are already doing just that.4:44 Your guardian angels want you to know that they are with you. Your prayers are being heard loud and clear. Have faith.1:23 You are moving up a step. All the challenges you have previously experienced are now being released. The angels of ascension are with you.“Kyle Gray is one of the world’s most incredibly gifted angel communicators. I have seen him work and he is authentic, intelligent, and deeply compassionate. I highly recommend him and all his creations!” – Colette Baron-Reid, international best-selling oracle expertWhenever you need guidance from your angels, simply ask. Angel Numbers is the perfect companion to refer to daily as a reminder that your angels are always listening and sending you loving messages to help with whatever you’re going through.

Read more less

'In order to use law to improve social welfare, scholars and policy makers need to be able to predict how people will respond to the legal change. To do so, they must understand when and how decisions are affects by systematic biases and heuristics, including how people respond to changes in either the legal or institutional environment. In this path-breaking volume, Professors Teitelbaum and Zeiler have assembled leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to enrich our understanding of human decision-making and analyze the implications of behavioral analysis for a wide range of legal issues, including antitrust, consumer finance, criminal law, torts, and property. This book will be enormously valuable for students, scholars and policy makers.'- Jennifer Arlen, New York University, School of Law, US The field of behavioral economics has contributed greatly to our understanding of human decision making by refining neoclassical assumptions and developing models that account for psychological, cognitive, and emotional forces. The field?s insights have important implications for law. This Research Handbook offers a variety of perspectives from renowned experts on a wide-ranging set of topics including punishment, finance, tort law, happiness, and the application of experimental literatures to law. It also includes analyses of conceptual foundations, cautions, limitations and proposals for ways forward.The leading scholars of law, economics, and psychology featured in this Research Handbook use their insights to synthesize and contribute to the extant research at the intersection of behavioral economics and key areas of law, and to demonstrate methods for effective original research. With synthetic literature reviews and original research, conceptual overviews and critical perspectives, as well as topic-specific chapters, it provides a strong overview of this burgeoning field.Law and economics scholars, behavioral law scholars, and behavioral economists and psychologists dealing with law, judgement and decision-making will appreciate this Research Handbook?s dedication to applicable research, and judges, lawmakers, policy advocates and regulators will note its important practical implications for law and public policy.Contributors include: S. Agarwal, A. al-Nowaihi, B.W. Ambrose, J. Baron, M. Bos, G. Charness, T. Chorvat, G. DeAngelo, S. Dhami, B. Ho, P.H. Huang, D. Huffman, O.D. Jones, C.M. Landeo, B. Luppi, K. McCabe, G. Mitchell, F. Parisi, S. Payne Carter, P.M. Skiba, A. Stein, T. Wilkinson-Ryan, E. Xiao, K. Zeiler

Read more less

The definitive history of the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati and their founder, Adam Weishaupt The Bavarian Order of the Illuminati is the most celebrated secret society in the world. Though officially lasting only 11 years, the powerful spell and shadow cast by the Illuminati still looms in the present day, where its influence can be seen in current conspiracy beliefs and actions by powerful individuals working in the shadows. The original Order of the Illuminati was founded by Bavarian professor Adam Weishaupt in 1776. Although the order was banned and brought down by the Bavarian Elector in 1787--when he became aware of the extent to which it had infiltrated the courts, schools, and his own administration--its legend and deep influence lives on to this day. Charting the rise and fall of this infamous order, this book--first published in French in 1915 and never before available in English--remains the definitive history of the Order of the Bavarian Illuminati. It also offers a revealing look at the world that spawned and shaped it: a ceaseless ferment of revolutionary and occult ideas and the ceaseless attempts by crown and church to suppress them. Other secret societies that shared the stage with the Illuminati during these years include the Templar Strict Observance, von Hund’s Templar Freemasonry, and other Masonic lodges the Illuminati targeted to subvert for their own purposes. Many of the documents the author consulted for the writing of this book were destroyed during the two World Wars, making this book the only surviving record of many of the order’s secrets. The author explains the Bavarian Illuminati’s grades, rituals, and ceremonies as well as its fundamental philosophies. He paints vivid portraits of the leaders of the order, including Weishaupt, Baron Knigge, and Xavier von Zwack. He reveals how Weishaupt early on decided to subvert the existing German Freemason Lodge as a shortcut to gain esoteric hegemony over the occult world, all in order to extend Illuminati influence into the society at large and the government. The author also provides extensive detail of the order’s eventual destruction by the Bavarian government. In addition to its revelation of little-known secrets of the Illuminati Order, the author also sheds new light on much of the occult life of this time, including the activities of figures such as Cagliostro and Mirabeau and other active groups such as Freemason chapters, the Rosicrucians, and the Martinists.

Read more less