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This Element describes and synthesizes archaeological knowledge of humankind's first cities for the purpose of strengthening a comparative understanding of…
urbanism across space and time. Case studies are drawn from ancient Mesopotamia, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They cover over 9000 years of city building. Cases exemplify the 'deep history' of urbanism in the classic heartlands of civilization, as well as lesser-known urban phenomena in other areas and time periods. The Element discusses the relevance of this knowledge to a number of contemporary urban challenges around food security, service provision, housing, ethnic co-existence, governance, and sustainability. This study seeks to enrich scholarly debates about the urban condition, and inspire new ideas for urban policy, planning, and placemaking in the twenty first century.In this &“gripping . . . spectacular piece of reporting&” (Ken Burns), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines Senator Frank Church,…
the man at the center of numerous investigations into the abuses of power within the American government. For decades now, America&’s national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power—and winning—in The Last Honest Man. An instant New York Times bestsellerArms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier: From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC–AD 192
Par Raffaele D'Amato, Graham Sumner. 2009
A survey of the various forms of armour worn by the Roman soldier from 112 BC to 192 AD, featuring…
a wealth of illustrations and plates. From the Latin warriors on the Palatine Hill in the age of Romulus, to the last defenders of Constantinople in 1453 AD, the weaponry of the Roman Army was constantly evolving. Through glory and defeat, the Roman warrior adapted to the changing face of warfare. Due to the immense size of the Roman Empire, which reached from the British Isles to the Arabian Gulf, the equipment of the Roman soldier varied greatly from region to region. Through the use of materials such as leather, linen and felt, the army was able to adjust its equipment to these varied climates. Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier sheds new light on the many different types of armour used by the Roman soldier, and combines written and artistic sources with the analysis of old and new archaeological finds. With a huge wealth of plates and illustrations, which include ancient paintings, mosaics, sculptures and coin depictions, this book gives the reader an unparalleled visual record of this fascinating period of military history. This book, the first of three volumes, examines the period from Marius to Commodus. Volume II will cover the period from Commodus to Justinian, and Volume III will look at the period from Romulus to Marius. &“An impressive achievement, a testament to an enormous scholarly effort—and it is a significant contribution to the understanding of the Roman army.&” —Bryn Mawr Classical Review &“Without doubt, this is the definitive study of clothing, armour and weaponry worn by Roman soldiers during the golden age of their conquests...D&’Amato has brought together a remarkable collection of archaeological photographs gathered over decades to illustrate every aspect of this military evolution . . . A treasure trove of facts and illustrations that is essential reading for any Roman military enthusiast.&” —Tim Newark, Military Illustrated MagazineRegina Diana: Seductress, Singer, Spy
Par Vivien Newman, David A. Semeraro. 2017
The Untold Story of Rgina Diana tells of the rebellious daughter of working-class French-Italian parents from a run-down area of…
Geneva who, trained by the most ruthless spymaster of them all, Elisabeth Schragmller (aka Fraulein Doktor), became a much-adored French caf-concert singer, a discreet and highly prized prostitute plying her trade, and a successful German Great War spy.Reginas spy operations were full of intrigue: a network spanning four countries based in the shamed city of Marseille, with her performing abilities and sexual charms allowing her to lure men from privates to generals into giving her vital information.This book is not just about Rgina, but also explodes the much-vaunted myth of Swiss neutrality. Switzerland, a nest of spies, was riven between support for Germany and France; in an extraordinary penetration of the upper echelons of Swiss society, the Swiss Army Commander-in-Chief was married to former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarks daughter.Yet exhuming Rgina from her unmarked grave involved a tantalizing journey - getting past her disavowal by both France and Switzerland, unraveling the truth behind a three-line report about a pretty Swiss singers execution and overcoming the obfuscation of French military archivists. Even her execution was fittingly exceptional. So determined were the French authorities that she should die, her firing squad numbered not the usual twelve, but twenty-five smoking rifles.Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland
Par Henry Hemming. 2024
'A truly page-turning, compulsive and also profoundly moving narrative. Superb.' JAMES HOLLAND'Gripping, urgent, superbly reported and brilliantly written' DAN JONES'A…
gripping and pacey book that reads like a thriller. I found it shocking in a world where I didn't think I could be shocked any more. Henry Hemming wears his extensive research very lightly and manages to shape a great narrative from a complex and dark episode from our recent history. An important and skilfully crafted book.' JOHN O'FARRELLHOW THE DEATH OF A SPY IN THE IRA LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST MURDER INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITISH HISTORY. On 26th May 1986, the body of an undercover British agent was found by the side of a muddy lane, with a rope tied around its wrists and tape over each eye. Years later, it was reported that this murder might have been carried out by another undercover British agent, known as 'Stakeknife'. In 2016, a detective began to investigate this case, and would soon find himself running the largest murder investigation in British history.In a compulsive blend of investigative journalism and true crime thriller, Henry Hemming exposes the parallel worlds of the IRA and British intelligence through the lives of those inextricably bound up in both. He reveals the bravery of those who were crucial in ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bloodiest and longest-running conflict in recent British history, and the determination of one detective in his dogged search for justice and the truth.'a compelling story' - The Times'[a] gripping and consistently surprising true-life thriller' - ObserverThis book presents a fresh perspective on eleventh- and twelfth-century Irish architecture, and a critical assessment of the value of…
describing it, and indeed contemporary European architecture in general, as “Romanesque”.Medieval Irish Architecture and the Concept of Romanesque is a new and original study of medieval architectural culture in Ireland. The book’s central premise is that the concept of a “Romanesque” style in eleventh- and twelfth-century architecture across Western Europe, including Ireland, is problematic, and that the analysis of building traditions of that period is not well served by the assumption that there was a common style. Detailed discussion of important buildings in Ireland, a place marginalised within the “Romanesque” model, reveals the Irish evidence to be intrinsically interesting to students of medieval European architecture, for it is evidence which illuminates how architectural traditions of the Middle Ages were shaped by balancing native and imported needs and aesthetics, often without reference to Romanitas.This book is for specialists and students in the fields of Romanesque, medieval archaeology, medieval architectural history, and medieval Irish studies.Advanced Technologies for Cultural Heritage Monitoring and Conservation: The Collection of Chigi Palace in Ariccia, Italy (Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction)
Par Sofia Ceccarelli, Mauro Missori, Roberta Fantoni. 2024
This book provides the results of an extensive scientific measurements campaign using advanced technologies and innovative non-invasive approaches carried out…
for the first time in such large numbers inside one of the most important baroque residences in Italy, the Chigi Palace in Ariccia, near Rome (Italy), with the aims of monitoring, characterizing and documenting several kinds of heritage items with different conservative and artistic issues. The analyses involved several research groups from regional universities (Sapienza, Tor Vergata, Roma 3) and research institutions (ENEA, INFN, CNR) and they were performed within the ADAMO project, which was addressed to technologies of analysis, diagnostics and monitoring for the preservation and restoration of Cultural Heritage. The project was proposed by the Centre of Excellence at the Technological District for Cultural Heritage (DTC) financed by the Lazio Region. At the Chigi Palace, important collections of paintings, documents, statues and wall decorations are preserved, dating back from the 16th up to the 18th centuries. The purpose of this book is twofold: it provides an overview of methodologies and technologies currently available in the field of heritage science, through the presentation of their in situ applications for the study of different artworks and materials; furthermore, it shows how the non-invasive analyses and the integration of diagnostic results are useful and sometimes crucial, for the overall understanding of heritage items, their conservation status, and for their correct conservation. This book is addressed at a large audience with both humanistic and scientific backgrounds, focusing the reader's attention on the information gained from multidisciplinary studies, also allowing a curious look at scientific methodologies applied to an art-historical context.Elephantine Revisited: New Insights into the Judean Community and Its Neighbors
Par Margaretha Folmer. 2022
The Judean community at Elephantine has long fascinated historians of the Persian period. This book, with its stellar assemblage of…
important scholarly voices, provides substantive new insights and approaches that will advance the study of this well-known but not entirely understood community from fifth-century BCE Egypt. Since Bezalel Porten’s pioneering Archives from Elephantine, published in 1968, the discourse on the subject of the community of Elephantine during the Persian period has changed considerably, due to new data from excavations, the discovery and publication of previously unknown texts, and original scholarly insights and avenues of inquiry. Running the gamut from archaeological to linguistic investigations and encompassing legal, literary, religious, and other aspects of life in this Judean community, this volume stands at a crossroads of research that extends from Hebrew Bible studies to the history of early Jewish communities. It also features fourteen new Aramaic ostraca from Aswan. The volume will appeal to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism, as well as to a wider audience of Egyptologists, Semitists, and specialists in ancient Near Eastern studies. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Annalisa Azzoni, Bob Becking, Alejandro F. Botta, Lester L. Grabbe, Ingo Kottsieper, Reinhard G. Kratz, André Lemaire, Hélène Nutkowicz, Beatrice von Pilgrim, Cornelius von Pilgrim, Bezalel Porten, Ada Yardeni, and Ran Zadok. Moreover, a video recording of an interview conducted with Porten on his long career in Elephantine studies accompanies the book through a link on the Eisenbrauns website.Lahav VII: Excavations in Site 1, Complex A, 1976–1979 (Lahav: Reports of the Lahav Research Project / Excavations at Tell Halif, Israel)
Par Joe D. Seger, Karen Seger. 2018
This seventh volume of final reports of the Lahav Research Project’s efforts at Tell Halif in Southern Israel focuses on…
the team’s excavations and related regional ethnographic research at adjacent Khirbet Khuweilifeh, an early twentieth-century settlement of Bedouin and Arab fellahin clients. These efforts illustrate the symbiosis between the itinerant Bedouin and their seasonal sharecropper neighbors along the northern flanks of the Negev desert during and following the First World War in southern Palestine.The stratigraphic excavation and recovery of material culture from Cave Complex A revealed a pattern of occupation dating from the late nineteenth century C.E. up to the mid-1940s and produced hundreds of artifacts and samples, giving testimony to the lifeways of the fellahin who had inhabited the complex. The associated ethnographic research with Bedouin sheikhs and Hebron-area merchant informants established that the Complex’s most recent occupants were the family of a plow maker named Khalil al-Kaayke. The studies elucidated in this volume articulate in more detail the family’s patterns of subsistence, showing the interdependence of the Bedouin and fellahin partners. Examination of the pottery remains provides a profile of the site’s Stratum I, early twentieth-century ceramic forms and also reveals earlier Islamic-period and pre-Islamic traces.Over the past century the lifeways of these early twentieth-century Bedouin and their fellahin village neighbors in southern Palestine have been rapidly disappearing. This volume serves to chronicle and preserve data on their waning history and culture.Storage jars of many shapes and sizes were in widespread use in the ancient world, transporting and storing agricultural products…
such as wine and oil, crucial to agriculture, economy, trade and subsistence. From the late 8th to the 2nd century BCE, the oval storage jars typical of Judah were often stamped or otherwise marked: in the late 8th and early 7th century BCE with lmlk stamp impressions, later in the 7th century with concentric circle incisions or rosette stamp impressions, in the 6th century, after the fall of Jerusalem, with lion stamp impressions, and in the Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid periods (late 6th–late 2nd centuries BCE) with yhwd stamp impressions. At the same time, several ad hoc systems of stamp impressions appeared: "private" stamp impressions were used on the eve of Sennacherib’s campaign, mwṣh stamp impressions after the destruction of Jerusalem, and yršlm impressions after the establishment of the Hasmonean state. While administrative systems that stamped storage jars are known elsewhere in the ancient Near East, the phenomenon in Judah is unparalleled in its scale, variety and continuity, spanning a period of some 600 years without interruption.This is the first attempt to consider the phenomenon as a whole and to develop a unified theory that would explain the function of these stamp impressions and shed new light on the history of Judah during six centuries of subjugation to the empires that ruled the region—as a vassal kingdom in the age of the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Babylonian empires and as a province under successive Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid rule.Bluecoated Terror: Jim Crow New Orleans and the Roots of Modern Police Brutality
Par Jeffrey S. Adler. 2024
A searing chronicle of how racist violence became an ingrained facet of law enforcement in the United States. Too often,…
scholars and pundits argue either that police violence against African Americans has remained unchanged since the era of slavery or that it is a recent phenomenon and disconnected from the past. Neither view is accurate. In Bluecoated Terror, Jeffrey S. Adler draws on rich archival accounts to show, in narrative detail, how racialized police brutality is part of a larger system of state oppression with roots in the early twentieth-century South, particularly New Orleans. Wide racial differentials in the use of lethal force and beatings during arrest and interrogation emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. Adler explains how race control and crime control blended and blurred during this era, when police officers and criminal justice officials began to justify systemic violence against Black people as a crucial—and legal—tool for maintaining law and order. Bluecoated Terror explores both the rise of these law-enforcement trends and their chilling resilience, providing critical context for recent horrific police abuses as the ghost of Jim Crow law enforcement continues to haunt the nation.El Perú-Waka’: New Archaeological Perspectives on the Kingdom of the Centipede (Maya Studies)
Par Keith Eppich, Damien B. Marken, David Freidel. 2024
Recent research and discoveries at a prominent Maya rainforest city This volume presents the most current research on the…
ancient Maya city El Perú-Waka’, or “Kingdom of the Centipede.” Located in the Laguna del Tigre National Park of Guatemala, this city has been a major focus of recent archaeological inquiry, which has uncovered a long occupation at the site spanning from 300 BC to 1000 CE. The chapters in El Perú-Waka’ examine the Maya who lived here and the rainforest city they built, complete with its pyramids, palaces, temples, roads, reservoirs, and residences. Contributors reconstruct urban settlement patterns, look at health and dietary differences between elites and commoners, and analyze epigraphy and art, among other topics. The book includes a detailed discussion of the tomb of the city’s famous queen, Lady K’abel, showing that the queen’s choice to be interred within Waka’s most prominent dynastic monument demonstrates the power of Maya royal women to not only direct political discourse during their lives but also impact the reigns of their successors. The evidence in this volume indicates the city’s importance in the political and ritual landscape of the Maya Lowlands, and with the site’s long record of habitation and dense population, this book offers researchers an unmatched view of ancient life in a tropical urban environment.Contributors: Matthew C. Ricker | Damien B. Marken | Juan Carlos Pérez | Diana N. Fridberg | Olivia C. Navarro-Farr | Sarah Van Oss | David Freidel | Griselda Pérez Robles | Elsa Damaris Menéndez | Mary Kate Kelly | Erin E. Patterson | Michelle Rich | Keith Eppich A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. ChaseIndigenizing Archaeology: Putting Theory into Practice
Par Emily C. Van Alst, Carlton Shield Chief Gover. 2024
Case studies and perspectives from Indigenous scholars who are helping to transform the discipline of archaeology This book highlights…
early-career Indigenous scholars conducting research in North America who are advancing the growing paradigm of archaeological study done with, by, and for members of Native-descendant communities. Expanding on the foundational works of scholars from previous generations, this volume includes examples of Indigenous methodologies and illustrates different approaches for applying theory in various research scenarios.The contributors weave together western scientific research methods and Indigenous knowledge, ontologies, and epistemologies, demonstrating how this combination can lead to fuller interpretations of the archaeological record. Case studies describe new, culturally specific ways of establishing working relationships with descendant communities and stakeholders. The volume argues that there are many ways a collaborative method can be implemented and that Indigenous people should be involved not just as consultants but as participants and stewards of their own cultural heritage. Indigenizing Archaeology demonstrates that this approach is more than a subfield; it is the path forward for the discipline.Contributors: Emily C. Van Alst | Carlton Shield Chief Gover | Ash Boydston-Schmidt | Honey Constant-Inglis | Patrick Cruz | Lydia Curliss | Zoë Antoinette Eddy | Nicholas C. Laluk | Kay Kakendasot Mattena | S. Margaret Spivey-Faulkner | Ashleigh BigWolf Thompson | Joe WatkinsTripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age
Par Norman Ohler. 2009
The author of the New York Times bestseller Blitzed returns with a provocative new history of drugs and postwar America,…
examining the untold story of how Nazi experiments into psychedelics covertly influenced CIA research and secretly shaped the War on Drugs. Berlin 1945. Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use—long kept under control by the Nazis’ strict anti-drug laws—is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictions of each allied power—the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis’ anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove “useful” to the United States.Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis psychedelics program. Begun as an attempt to find a “truth serum” and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis coopted the drug for their mind control military research—research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century.Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, Tripped is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler’s New York Times bestseller Blitzed. Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America’s War on Drugs.Policing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Perspective
Par Sanja Kutnjak Ivković, Marijana Kotlaja, Jon Maskály, Peter Neyroud. 2024
Providing a global perspective on police adaptations to the COVID-19 pandemic, this book explores the extent of police organizational and…
operational changes in a number of countries as diverse as Brazil, China, South Africa, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Bringing together a range of international experts, this book reflects on the changes in the broader social environment during the pandemic, examining the contours of police operational and organizational changes across several countries, analyzes the police enforcement of the government COVID-19 rules and regulations, explores the factors related to the COVID-19 effects on police officer wellness and safety, and studies police administrator, police officer, and citizen views about the potential consequences of organizational and operational changes on the interpersonal relations within police agencies and police–community partnerships. Policing During the COVID-19 Pandemic is essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the police organizational adaptations, particularly in the times of emergencies, and the societal, cultural, and legal impacts of such adaptations. Sanja Kutnjak Ivković is Professor at the School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, USA. She is the Co-Editor of Policing: An International Journal. She is past Chair of the Division of International Criminology, American Society of Criminology, and past Chair of the International Division, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Her co-authored and co-edited books on policing include: Exploring Contemporary Police Challenges, Police Code of Silence in the Times of Change, Police Integrity in South Africa, Exploring Police Integrity, Police Integrity across the World, Enhancing Police Integrity, Fallen Blue Knights, and The Contours of Police Integrity. Marijana Kotlaja is Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA. She is involved in evaluation research projects with many organizations, specifically focused on crime and place, and juvenile delinquency. She has led multiple international data collection efforts and has extensive knowledge of advanced quantitative methodology, including structural equation modeling, Bayesian analysis, and hierarchical linear models. She is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Division of International Criminology (American Society of Criminology), as well as the Editor of Around the Globe for the Criminologist. Jon Maskály is Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of North Dakota, USA. He won (with co-authors) the 2016 William L. Simon Outstanding Paper award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. His primary research interests revolve around issues in policing, notably police–community relations, police integrity, and police accountability. He has worked as a subject matter expert in several police reform projects around the nation. He has secured multiple contracts with police organizations to enhance their ability to make data-driven decisions. Peter Neyroud is Associate Professor in Evidence-Based Policing in the Jerry Lee Centre for Experimental Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK. He is the General Editor of the Oxford Journal Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. He set up and ran the UK National Policing Improvement Agency. He was commissioned by the UK Home Secretary to carry out a fundamental “Review of Police Leadership and Training,” which led to the establishment of the National “College of Policing.” He is the Co-Chair of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Coordinating Group.American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence
Par Thomas Gabor, Fred Guttenberg. 2023
Shooting Down Gun Violence Misinformation"Don't tell me there's no such thing as gun violence. It happened in Parkland." ―Fred Guttenberg#1…
Best Seller in School Safety, Education Policy, and Law Enforcement PoliticsFred Guttenberg, who lost his beloved daughter Jaime in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, and International gun policy consultant Thomas Gabor team up in American Carnage to dismantle some of the most common myths about guns and gun violence.A national disgrace. In America, over 40,000 die each year as a result of gun violence. Relative to other advanced countries, the U.S. has a dismal gun violence record. Gun law reforms could reduce the number of gun deaths, but many political challenges stand in the way. A widespread multi-year misinformation assault on truth by the gun lobby and gun-extremists sows doubt about the dangers of pervasive gun ownership, gun carrying, and potential effectiveness of gun laws.Debunking popular gun myths. Countering with strong evidence-based research the many slogans and myths repeated incessantly by spokespersons for the gun lobby and its surrogates is essential if we are to have a society where kids can attend school safely and people can work and enjoy life without fear of being shot. Over the last 30 years, the NRA’s campaign to achieve an armed society has succeeded in persuading many Americans that having a gun in the home or carrying a gun makes them safer. The evidence is overwhelming this is not the case. Guns in the home are far more likely to be used against a family member or in a suicide attempt than against an intruder. Tackling this and other myths is critical.Myths and slogans exposed as false in American Carnage include:Gun owners frequently use firearms to fend off attackersAn armed society is a safer societyGuns don’t kill people, people kill peopleIf you have read Trigger Points, The Violence Project, Warning Signs, or Fred Guttenberg’s Find the Helpers, American Carnage is a must read.Codeword Overlord: Axis Espionage and the D-Day Landings
Par Nigel West. 2022
It was inevitable that the Allies would invade France in the summer of 1944: the Nazis just had to figure…
out where and when. This job fell to the Abwehr and several other German intelligence services. Between them they put over 30,000 personnel to work studying British and American signals traffic, and achieved considerable success in intercepting and decrypting enemy messages. They also sent agents to England – but they weren’t to know that none of them would be successful.Until now, the Nazi intelligence community has been disparaged by historians as incompetent and corrupt, but newly released declassified documents suggest this wasn’t the case – and that they had a highly sophisticated system that concentrated on the threat of an Allied invasion. Written by acclaimed espionage historian Nigel West, Codeword Overlord is a vital reassessment of Axis behaviour in one of the most dramatic episodes of the twentieth century.G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner): J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
Par Beverly Gage. 2022
Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in BiographyWinner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, the 2023 Bancroft…
Prize in American History and Diplomacy, and the 43rd LA Times Book Prize in Biography | Finalist for the 2023 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for BiographyNamed a Best Book of 2022 by The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Smithsonian Magazine and a New York Times Top 100 Notable Books of 2022 &“Masterful…This book is an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography [that] now becomes the definitive work&”—The Washington Post&“A nuanced portrait in a league with the best of Ron Chernow and David McCullough.&”—The Wall Street JournalA major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.We remember him as a bulldog--squat frame, bulging wide-set eyes, fearsome jowls--but in 1924, when he became director of the FBI, he had been the trim, dazzling wunderkind of the administrative state, buzzing with energy and big ideas for reform. He transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater, riddled with scandal, into a modern machine. He believed in the power of the federal government to do great things for the nation and its citizens. He also believed that certain people--many of them communists or racial minorities or both-- did not deserve to be included in that American project. Hoover rose to power and then stayed there, decade after decade, using the tools of state to create a personal fiefdom unrivaled in U.S. history. Beverly Gage&’s monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover&’s life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party.G-Man places Hoover back where he once stood in American political history--not at the fringes, but at the center--and uses his story to explain the trajectories of governance, policing, race, ideology, political culture, and federal power as they evolved over the course of the 20th century.Luck of the Devil: The Story of Operation Valkyrie
Par Ian Kershaw. 2009
'It is now time that something was done. But the man who has the courage to do something must do…
it in the knowledge that he will go down in German history as a traitor. If he does not, however, he will be a traitor to his own conscience' Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, July 1944The July 1944 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler was a desperate attempt by a group of senior officers to redeem Germany's honour and end the Second World War. They were heroic because they knew their chances of success were slight and that the result of their failure would undoubtedly be a terrible death. They wanted to leave a message for later generations: that there were Germans who understood the evils of Nazism and were willing to act against it. This extraordinary story is the basis for Bryan Singer's major new film Valkyrie, due to be released in February 2009. Published for the first time as a separate book, Luck of the Devil is taken from Ian Kershaw's bestselling Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis and is a brilliant account of just what happened in those fateful days at Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters, when his opponents came so astonishingly close to assassinating what is one of the modern era's most terrible figures.Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory
Par Francis Pryor. 2014
In Home Francis Pryor, author of The Making of the British Landscape, archaeologist and broadcaster, takes us on his lifetime's…
quest: to discover the origins of family life in prehistoric BritainFrancis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.'Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today . . . Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' - Guardian Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent over thirty years studying our prehistory. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of The Making of the British Landscape, Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.