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"Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience, behavioral economic, and social psychology research, acclaimed author, former Harvard professor, and think tank founder Todd Rose reveals how so much of our thinking about each other is informed by false assumptions that drive bad decisions that make us dangerously mistrustful as a society and hopelessly unhappy as individuals. The desire to fit in is one of the most powerful, least understood forces in a society. Todd Rose believes that as human beings we continually act against our own best interests out of our brains' misunderstanding of what we think others believe. A complicated set of illusions driven by conformity bias distorts how we see the world around us. From toilet paper shortages to kidneys that get thrown away rather than used for desperately needed organ transplants, from racial segregation to the perceived "electability" of women for political office, from bottled water to "cancel culture," we routinely copy others, lie about what we believe, cling to tribes, and silence others. We are so profoundly social that when we are incongruent with the group that we do lasting damage to our self-worth, diminish our well-being and never realize our full potential. It's why we all too often chase the familiar trappings of money, fame, and success that leave us feeling empty even when we do achieve them. It's why we'll blindly espouse a viewpoint we don't necessarily believe in so that we blend in with the group. We trap ourselves in prisons of our own making that prevent us from living the happy, fulfilled lives we envision. The question is, Why do we keep believing the lies and hurting ourselves? Todd Rose reveals the answer is deeply hard-wired in our DNA, with brains that are more socially dependent than we realize or dare to accept. Most of us would rather be fully in sync with the social norms of our respective groups than true to who we are. Using originally researched data, Collective Illusions shows us where we get things wrong and just as important, how we can be authentic in forming our opinions while valuing truth. Rose offers a counterintuitive, empowering, and hopeful explanation for how we can bridge the inference gap, make decisions with a newfound clarity, and achieve fulfillment. Only then can we transform ourselves, and ultimately, society"--

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: people around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. We don't usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So then what is a "drug?" And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs -- opium, caffeine, and mescaline -- and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and such fraught feelings? A unique blend of history, science, memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively -- as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that's one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay written more than 25 years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world"--

"One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the ever looming absence of her incarcerated father and the path we must take to both honor and overcome our origins. For as long as she could remember, Ashley has put her father on a pedestal. Despite having only vague memories of seeing him face-to-face, she believes he's the only person in the entire world who understands her. She thinks she understands him too. He's sensitive like her, an artist, and maybe even just as afraid of the dark. She's certain that one day they'll be reunited again, and she'll finally feel complete. There are just a few problems: he's in prison, and she doesn't know what he did to end up there. Through poverty, puberty, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley returns to her image of her father for hope and encouragement. She doesn't know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates; when the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley finally finds out why her father is in prison. And that's where the story really begins. Somebody's Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she provides a poignant coming-of-age recollection that speaks to finding the threads between who you are and what you were born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them. "Ashley Ford's prose is glass-so clear, sharp and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, her complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. The gravity and urgency of Somebody's Daughter anchored me to my chair and slowed my heartbeat-like no book has since Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Ashley Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody's Daughter will be a book of the year." -- Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed and founder of Together Rising"--

"Based in the author's personal experience, over 30 years of clinical practice, knowledge from leading marriage and remarriage researchers, and 100 in-depth interviews of remarried people, the author offers 10 essential steps to a successful remarriage: Step One: Build a Culture of Appreciation, Respect, and Tolerance. Negativity is toxic to a remarriage. Personal growth and love are possible when partners are nonjudgmental and express tenderness and appreciation through positive words and actions. Step Two: Make Your Remarriage a Top Priority. Never underestimate the power of intentional time with your partner to increase physical and emotional intimacy. Step Three: Ditch the Baggage from Your First Marriage. Learn ways to be more reflective and less reactive to triggers that hit raw spots or vulnerabilities stemming from prior relationships. Step Four: Don't Keep Secrets About Money. Make full disclosure of finances a must, early on in your remarriage. Remarried couples face complicated financial issues such as unequal assets, child support, alimony, and who will pay for a child and/or stepchild's educational expenses. Couples may feel stress related to deciding whether to keep their finances together or separate. Honesty about finances is key to having a successful remarriage. Step Five: Don't Let Mistrust Stop You from Being Vulnerable and Emotionally Intimate. Learn that vulnerability and trust go hand in hand and the steps you can take to be authentic and intimate with your partner so you can achieve long-lasting love. Step Six: Get Sexy and Fall in Love All Over Again. Given the stressors of a second marriage, it can be particularly challenging to stay sexually intimate. Yet moments of connection, such as touching, talking, or having sex, are all part of the glue that holds a second marriage together. Step Seven: Don't Make a Big Deal About Nothing...But Do Deal with Important Issues. Differences in beliefs, expectations, and conversational styles can cause you to blow things out of proportion and tune each other out. Learning how to communicate more effectively will help you overcome these types of misunderstandings and enable you to approach difficult topics calmly and non-defensively. Step Eight: Manage the Flames of Conflict. There are always going to be disagreements. You can't avoid them entirely. What you can do, however, is learn how to manage them successfully to avoid the "blame game" so that they can nourish rather than drain your remarri ...

"How human technological interventions into death and the dead body since the nineteenth century have had a profound impact on today's (and future) end-of-life and human mortality realities. As Director of the Centre for Death and Society, the world's only interdisciplinary studies centre dedicated to researching death, dying, and the dead body, and the son of an American Funeral Director who grew up in the funeral industry, I am uniquely positioned to author a new book on the human corpse and technology. Death and the dead body are both extremely popular topics, and the books being currently published are tapping into that popular appeal. Most of these books, however, cover topics that remain perennially discussed. Indeed, it is striking how so many of the current books on death and dying reflect the same issues raised during the 1970's, a decade during which Publisher's Weekly enthusiastically told its readers "Death is now selling books!" A quick snapshot of some current(ish) death, dying, and dead body books includes, but is certainly not limited to: Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, which was published in 2003 but remains widely read thirteen-years later; more recent books, such as Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and Brandy Schillace's Death's Summer Coat have all tapped into this popular genre. Books by academic authors such as Margaret Schwartz's Dead Matter and Thomas Laqueur's The Work of the Dead present historical and cultural contexts that are equally important. My listing of texts could exceed several pages but what is important about most contemporary death books is that the texts rarely give the history of publishing books on death much analysis. If any death-topic authors' names appear they are usually Jessica Mitford, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, and Ernest Becker. Sigmund Freud sometimes appears (in connection to Becker) but on the whole these specific authors represent a fraction of the 'death canon.' What I am writing improves on these texts by presenting readers with a more complex and interesting history than most books on death, dying, and the dead body currently pursue. In a nutshell I present a longer view on how human technological interventions into death and the dead body since the nineteenth century have had a profound impact on today's (and future) end-of-life and human mortality realities. It is too easy to sum up most current books on death, dying, and the dead body ...

"A bracing assessment of U.S. foreign policy and world disorder over the past two decades, anchored by a major new Pentagon-commissioned essay about changing power dynamics among China, Eurasia, and America--from the renowned geopolitical analyst and bestselling author of The Revenge of Geography and The Coming Anarchy. In the late thirteenth century, Marco Polo began a decades-long trek from Venice to China. The strength of that Silk Road--the trade route between Europe and Asia--was a foundation of Kublai Khan's sprawling empire. Now, in the early twenty-first century, the Chinese regime has proposed a land-and-maritime Silk Road that duplicates exactly the route Marco Polo traveled. In the major lead essay, recently released by the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment, Robert D. Kaplan lays out a blueprint of the world's changing power politics that recalls the late thirteenth century. As Europe fractures from changes in culture and migration, Eurasia coheres into a single conflict system. China is constructing a land bridge to Europe. Iran and India are trying to link the oil fields of Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. America's ability to influence the power balance in Eurasia is declining. This is Kaplan's first collection of essays since his classic The Coming Anarchy was published in 2000. Drawing on decades of firsthand experience as a foreign correspondent and military embed for The Atlantic, as well as encounters with preeminent realist thinkers, Kaplan outlines the timeless principles that should shape America's role in a turbulent world: a respect for the limits of Western-style democracy; a delineation between American interests and American values; an awareness of the psychological toll of warfare; a projection of power via a strong navy; and more. From Kaplan's immediate thoughts on President Trump ("On Foreign Policy, Donald Trump Is No Realist," 2016) to a frank examination of what will happen in the event of war with North Korea ("When North Korea Falls," 2006), The Return of Marco Polo's World is a vigorous and honest reckoning with the difficult choices the United States will face in the years ahead. "These essays constitute a truly pathbreaking, brilliant synthesis and analysis of geographic, political, technological, and economic trends with far-reaching consequences. The Return of Marco Polo's World is another work by Robert D. Kaplan that will be regarded as a classic."--General David Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.)"--

"An intimate, news-making look at the men who are first in line to the most powerful office in the world--the vice presidents of the modern era--from Richard Nixon and LBJ to Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, and Mike Pence. Bestselling author Kate Andersen Brower took us inside the lives of the White House staff in The Residence. She followed that with an in-depth look at the modern first ladies in First Women. Now, in her signature style, she introduces us to the second-most-powerful men in the world, exploring the lives and roles of thirteen modern vice presidents--eight Republicans and five Democrats. In interviews with more than two hundred people, including all six living former vice presidents, their family members, insiders, and confidants, Brower pulls back the curtain to reveal the sometimes close, often chilly, and always complicated relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents.^. - And she shares surprising revelations about the relationship between former vice president Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama, and how Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump interact behind closed doors. As Brower reveals, the president and the vice president, whether they began as allies or rivals, share a very tangible sense of admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment even when the relationship appears to be ideal. Vice presidents owe their position to the president--a connection that affects not only how they are perceived but also their possible future as a presidential candidate, which is tied, for better or worse, to the president they serve. George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had a famously prickly relationship during the 1980 primary, yet Bush would not have been elected president in 1988 without Reagan's high approval rating.^. - Al Gore's 2000 loss, conversely, could partly be attributed to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Bill Clinton's impeachment. Current vice president Mike Pence is walking a high-stakes political tightrope as he tries to reassure anxious Republicans while staying on his boss's good side. The rich dynamic between the president and the vice president has never been fully explored or understood--until now. Compelling and rigorously reported, grounded in history and politics, and full of deeply personal stories told here for the first time, First in Line lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding this historic political office to offer us a spellbinding portrait of what it is truly like to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world."--Jacket

"A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary inner lives of America's most obsessive sports fans. There are fans, and then there are fanatics. In this wondrously immersive look at American sports fandom, George Dohrmann travels the country to find out what distinguishes an ordinary, everyday enthusiast from that special breed of supporter known as the superfan. In Minnesota, Dohrmann meets newly minted generals of the Viking World Order, a Minnesota Vikings affinity group organized along military lines. In Oregon, he shares a few beers with a determined soccer fan who amassed--almost singlehandedly--a four-thousand-strong cheering section for the fledgling Portland Timbers. In Illinois, he talks with the parents of a five-year-old boy whose intense hatred of Tom Brady went viral on YouTube. Through these and other intimate profiles, Dohrmann shows us the human faces behind the colored face paint, the real people inside the elaborate costumes who prowl the stands and parking lots at stadiums from coast to coast. In addition to the fans themselves, Dohrmann also talks with the experts who study them. He uses the latest thinking in sports psychology--some of it learned during a spirited round of miniature golf with a group of professors at the annual Sports Psychology Forum--to unravel the answers to such burning questions as: How does fandom begin? What are its effects on everyday life? When does it go too far? For everyone who's ever body-painted their torso with the team colors of their alma mater before heading off to a sports bar--or even just screamed at their television during the final minute of an NBA Finals game, Superfans offers an entertaining and insightful exploration of the many ways human beings find meaning in something bigger than themselves. PRAISE FOR GEORGE DOHRMANN'S PLAY THEIR HEARTS OUT Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting Winner of the Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Youth Sports "A tour de force of reporting, filled with deft storytelling and vivid character studies."--The Washington Post "Often heartbreaking, always riveting."--The New York Times Book Review "One of the finest sports books of all time."--Harper's Magazine "Amazing stuff. the Friday Night Lights of youth basketball."--Leigh Montville, author of Sting Like a Bee "A landmark achievement in basketball journalism."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Tremendous."--The Plain Dealer "Indispen ...

"Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of presidents including, besides Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. He writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women's rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson's crusade to finish the fight against Jim Crow. In each of these dramatic, crucial turning points, the battle to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear, was joined, even as it is today. While the American story has not always been heroic, and the outcome of our battles never certain, in this inspiring book Meacham reassures us,"the good news is that we have come through darkness before"--as, time and again, Lincoln's better angels have found a way to prevail. Advance praise for The Soul of America "This is a brilliant, fascinating, timely, and above all profoundly important book. Jon Meacham explores the extremism and racism that have infected our politics, and he draws enlightening lessons from the knowledge that we've faced such trials before."--Walter Isaacson "Jon Meacham has done it again, this time with a historically rich and gracefully written account of America's long struggle with division in our immigrant nation and the heroic efforts to heal the wounds. It should be in every home and on every student's desk."--Tom Brokaw"--

Machine generated contents note: -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author -- Introduction -- A History of Respectable Fears -- Estimating the Number of Gangs, Gang Members, and Gang Crimes -- Chapter 1. Early Research and Perspectives -- 18th- and 19th-Century Gangs -- Thrasher: The First Gang Researcher -- Gangs as Delinquent Subcultures -- Differential Opportunity Theory -- Lower-Class Culture and Adolescence -- Gangs as Near-Group -- Group Process and Gang Delinquency -- Roles within Gangs: Keiser and the Vice Lords -- Street Gangs and Street Workers -- Chapter 2. Definitions, Daily Life, Dynamics, and Risk Factors -- Sociological Definitions -- Legal Definitions -- What Gangs Are Not -- A Structured Typology -- Daily Life -- Positive and Negative Aspects -- Interrelated Dynamics -- Membership -- Organization -- Subgroups -- Intensity -- The Causes and Correlates Studies -- Protective Factors -- Chapter 3. Race, Migration, and Immigration -- A Brief Note on Race Relations in American History -- Black Gangs -- The Crips and Bloods -- Latino Gangs -- The People Nation and the Folks Nation -- A Typology of Mexican American Gangs -- Asian and Asian Pacific Islander Gangs -- Chinese Gangs -- Southeast Asian Gangs -- Filipino Gangs -- Native American Gangs -- White Gangs -- Skinheads -- Skinheads as Gangs -- Nazi Low Riders -- Chapter 4. Females -- Early Studies and Stereotypes -- Increases in Female Arrests and Incarceration -- Further Developments in Female Gang Research -- Differences and Similarities between Gang Females and Males -- The Number of Female Gangs and Gang Members -- Different Types of Female Gangs -- Female Gang Violence -- Sexual Victimization -- Identity, Femininity, Sexuality, and Respect -- Pregnancy and Motherhood -- Prosocial Functions and Post-Gang Lives -- Chapter 5. Drug Use and Sales -- Substance Use Patterns -- Alcohol -- Marijuana -- Other Illicit Drugs -- Attitudes about Hard Drug Use -- Drug Addiction -- Drug Selling -- Myths ab --- "Gangs: An Introduction provides a wide-ranging overview ideal for courses on gangs. Opening with a discussion of early research and perspectives from the late 1920s until the early 1970s, the book then moves on to cover sociological and legal definitions of gangs; daily life and risk and protective factors; race and immigration; female gang members; drug use and selling; violence and victimization; the cultural criminology of gangs; theories on gangs and gang behaviors; desistance; suppression, intervention, and prevention; and more. FEATURES * A focus on theories of gangs, rather than on criminological theories * Original contributions to the gang literature * An emphasis on evidence-based practices * Examples of real-life court cases * Interview excerpts from gang members, drawn from the author's research *Media Check! sections in each chapter featuring examples from movies, documentaries, TV shows, and music"--- "This is a textbook for undergraduate majors and non-majors in an introductory Juvenile Delinquency course or course on Gangs"--

"Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian, one of the world's most influential economic thinkers and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When Markets Collide, has written a roadmap to what lies ahead and the decisions we must make now to stave off the next global economic and financial crisis. Our current economic path is coming to an end. The signposts are all around us: sluggish growth, rising inequality, stubbornly high pockets of unemployment, and jittery financial markets, to name a few. Soon we will reach a fork in the road: One path leads to renewed growth, prosperity, and financial stability, the other to recession and market disorder. In The Only Game in Town, El-Erian casts his gaze toward the future of the global economy and markets, outlining the choices we face both individually and collectively in an era of economic uncertainty and financial insecurity. Beginning with their response to the 2008 global crisis, El-Erian explains how and why our central banks became the critical policy actors--and, most important, why they cannot continue is this role alone. They saved the financial system from collapse in 2008 and a multiyear economic depression, but lack the tools to enable a return to high inclusive growth and durable financial stability. The time has come for a policy handoff, from a prolonged period of monetary policy experimentation to a strategy that better targets what ails economies and distorts the financial sector--before we stumble into another crisis. The future, critically, is not predestined. It is up to us to decide where we will go from here as households, investors, companies, and governments. Using a mix of insights from economics, finance, and behavioral science, this book gives us the tools we need to properly understand this turning point, prepare for it, and come out of it stronger. A comprehensive, controversial look at the realities of our global economy and markets, The Only Game in Town is required reading for investors, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future. Advance praise for The Only Game in Town "Mohamed El-Erian has had an extraordinary career as an investment analyst, investor, and market commentator. His 'new normal' concept was prescient, provocative, and has proven out. Agree or disagree, his go-forward thoughts contained in this bracing book are well worth considering."--Lawrence H. Summers, former secretary of the U.S. Treasury "Achieves the nearly impossible: It takes complex f ...

""Mel Goodman has spent the last few decades telling us what's gone wrong with American intelligence and the American military. he is also telling us how to save ourselves."--Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker "Whistleblower at the CIA offers a fascinating glimpse into the secret, behind-the-scenes world of U.S. intelligence. Melvin A. Goodman's first-person account of the systematic manipulation of intelligence at the CIA underscores why whistleblowing is so important, and why the institutional obstacles to it are so intense. At its core it's an invaluable historical expose, a testimony to integrity and conscience, and a call for the U.S. intelligence community to keep its top leaders in check. Urgent, timely, and deeply recommended."--Daniel Ellsberg "In this fascinating and candid account of his years as a senior CIA analyst, Mel Goodman shows how the worst enemies of high quality intelligence can come from our own midst, and how the politicization of intelligence estimates can cause more damage to American security than its professed enemies. Whistleblower at the CIA is a must-read for anyone interested in the intricate web of intelligence-policymaking relations."--Uri Bar-Joseph, author of The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel Melvin Goodman's long career as a respected intelligence analyst at the CIA, specializing in US/Soviet relations, ended abruptly. In 1990, after twenty-four years of service, Goodman resigned when he could no longer tolerate the corruption he witnessed at the highest levels of the Agency. In 1991 he went public, blowing the whistle on top-level officials and leading the opposition against the appointment of Robert Gates as CIA director. In the widely covered Senate hearings, Goodman charged that Gates and others had subverted "the process and the ethics of intelligence" by deliberately misinforming the White House about major world events and covert operations. In this breathtaking expose, Goodman tells the whole story. Retracing his career with the Central Intelligence Agency, he presents a rare insider's account of the inner workings of America's intelligence community, and the corruption, intimidation, and misinformation that lead to disastrous foreign interventions. An invaluable and historic look into one of the most secretive and influential agencies of US government--and a wake-up call for the need to reform its practices. Melvin A. Goodman served as a senior analyst and Division Chief at the CIA from 1966 to 1990. ...

"A timely, counterintuitive defense of Wall Street and the big banks as the invisible--albeit flawed--engines that power our ideas, and should be made to work better for all of us Maybe you think the banks should be broken up and the bankers should be held accountable for the financial crisis in 2008. Maybe you hate the greed of Wall Street but know that it's important to the proper functioning of the world economy. Maybe you don't really understand Wall Street, and phrases such as "credit default swap" make your eyes glaze over. Maybe you are utterly confused by the fact that after attacking Wall Street mercilessly during his campaign, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with Wall Street veterans. But if you like your smart phone or your widescreen TV, your car or your morning bacon, your pension or your 401(k), then--whether you know it or not--you are a fan of Wall Street. William D. Cohan is no knee-jerk advocate for Wall Street and the big banks. He's one of America's most respected financial journalists and the progressive bestselling author of House of Cards. He has long been critical of the bad behavior that plagued much of Wall Street in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, and because he spent seventeen years as an investment banker on Wall Street, he is an expert on its inner workings as well. But in recent years he's become alarmed by the cheap shots and ceaseless vitriol directed at Wall Street's bankers, traders, and executives--the people whose job it is to provide capital to those who need it, the grease that keeps our economy humming. In this brisk, no-nonsense narrative, Cohan reminds us of the good these institutions do--and the dire consequences for us all if the essential role they play in making our lives better is carelessly curtailed. Praise for William D. Cohan "Cohan writes with an insider's knowledge of the workings of Wall Street, a reporter's investigative instincts and a natural storyteller's narrative command."--The New York Times "[Cohan is] one of our most able financial journalists."--Los Angeles Times "A former Wall Street man and a talented writer, [Cohan] has the rare gift not only of understanding the fiendishly complicated goings-on, but also of being able to explain them in terms the lay reader can grasp." - The Observer (London)

Examining the origins of the First World War has been called "the ultimate who dunnit". In his book, published on the anniversary of the assassination said to have triggered it, John Zametica, focusing on the Habsburg Empire and the Balkans, re-examines the evidence. This leads to a number of radical new interpretations and some remarkable revelations about the events that in 1914 led to the outbreak of the First World War. The centenary of WW1 has spawned many new books on the subject. Utilizing a wide range of Serbo-Croat and German-language sources, the author overturns most of what we have been led to believe about the respective culpability of Austria-Hungary and Serbia for the outbreak of war. He also re-examines the role of Russia and Germany in this. The reader is left to conclude that Britain was drawn reluctantly into the war in defence of two small countries, one on each side of Europe, which had been attacked simultaneously by Austria-Hungary and Germany without provocation. In Folly and Malice John Zametica reveals that: The First World War was kick-started by an ailing Austria-Hungary which believed that waging a successful war was the only way it could remain a Great Power; This empire, with its eleven squabbling nations, and with its statesmen unwilling to contemplate any meaningful internal reform, was the real powder keg of Europe; Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Heir to the Throne normally portrayed as a likely enlightened reformer of the Empire, was actually seeking to destroy the Dualist political compromise between Austria and Hungary and replace it with his own centralist autocracy; Serious antagonism between Austria-Hungary and Serbia really only began as late as 1906 and had on the whole almost nothing to do with the supposedly crucial 'South Slav' question; Gavrilo Princip, Franz Ferdinand's assassin, was impelled to do his deed by a Yugoslav ideology conceived and propagated from within Habsburg Croatia, not independent Serbia; The notorious Black Hand, the secret Serbian officers' organisation, far from planning to assassinate Franz Ferdinand during his visit to Bosnia, was in May-June 1914 busy plotting to overthrow civilian rule in Serbia and replace it with a military-led dictatorship; The famous Serbian warning to Vienna, intended to thwart Franz Ferdinand's assassination, was the work of Lieutenant-Colonel Apis, the leader of the Black Hand; In July 1914, Vienna also wanted its 'good' war against Serbia so as to dislo ...

""At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself." - Maya Angelou We've all seen the ads on TV and in magazines-"50 is the new 30!" or "60 is the new 40!" A nice sentiment to be sure, but Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP and author of Disrupt Aging, disagrees. 50 is 50 and she, for one, likes the look of it. People 50-plus today face distinct challenges and have different goals than people in their 30s and 40s. They're at a different place in their lives and are motivated by different things. They see the world through a lens that is shaped by the ups and downs of life, by the wisdom gained from those experiences, and by the comfort that comes from having a better understanding of who they are as individuals and what they want from life. We are living decades longer than our grandparents-how will we spend those years? Disrupt Aging sets out to change the current conversation about what it means to get older. In it, Jenkins chronicles her own journey, as well as those of others who are making their mark as disrupters, to show readers how we can all be active, financially unburdened, and happy as we get older. It's an engaging narrative that touches on all the important issues facing people 50+ today, from caregiving and mindful living to building age-friendly communities and attaining financial freedom. Jenkins also tackles the new myths about aging, including: We Are All Living Longer: Today's economic and cultural forces benefit some but not all, and we need to change that; The Baby Boomers are a Drag on the Economy: The Boomers are consumers, spending $4.6 trillion annually on goods and services--we just have to learn how to best reach them Aging is a Problem to be Solved: Aging is not a problem any more than living is-it's a part of the human experience, and our job is to get the absolute most out of it. This is a book for all the makers and doers who have a desire to continue exploring their possibilities, to celebrate discovery over decline, and to seek out opportunities to live the best life. Our ability to live longer, healthier lives is one of mankind's greatest accomplishments. It's time we treat it as such, and this book will show readers how. "--