What do Texans' pastimes and recreations say about their characters? Looking at Texas history from a new angle, David McComb starts from the premise that how people spend their leisure time may well reveal more about their true natures and interests than the work they do or their family connections. In this innovative book, McComb traces the history of various types of recreation in Texas, gathering significant insights into the characters of Texans from the pleasures they have pursued. Reflecting the frontier origins of Texas, McComb starts with the recreations that were most popular with men in a crude, still-developing society--drinking, gambling, and whoring. He goes on to show how, as Texas became more civilized, so did its diversions. He describes how Texans have connected with nature in parks and zoos; watched football and baseball in great stadiums such as the Astrodome and Cotton Bowl; discovered the pleasure of reading in public and university libraries; and enjoyed radio, TV, movies, and live theater in places such as Houston's Alley Theatre. This recreational history reveals that Texans are open-minded and generous; that they respect the land; oppose prostitution but indulge in gambling and drinking; support racial and gender rights; love zoos; champion libraries; take pride in theatrical productions; and adore sports.

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David G. McComb - Spare Time in Texas, Recreation and History in the Lone Star State (2008).pdf

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Diane Ravitch - The Death and Life of the Great Am erican School System, How Testing and Choice Are U ndermining Education (2010).jpg

USA Books1 - Diane Ravitch - The Death and Life of the Great Ameri...How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education 2010.jpg

As an education historian and former assistant secretary of education, Ravitch has witnessed the trends in public education over the past 40 years and has herself swung from public-school advocate to market-driven accountability and choice supporter back to public-school advocate. With passion and insight, she analyzes research and draws on interviews with educators, philanthropists, and business executives to question the current direction of reform of public education. In the mid-1990s, the movement to boost educational standards failed on political concerns; next came the emphasis on accountability with its reliance on standardized testing. Now educators are worried that the No Child Left Behind mandate that all students meet proficiency standards by 2014 will result in the dismantling of public schools across the nation. Ravitch analyzes the impact of choice on public schools, attempts to quantify quality teaching, and describes the data wars with advocates for charter and traditional public schools. Ravitch also critiques the continued reliance on a corporate model for school reform and the continued failure of such efforts to emphasize curriculum. Conceding that there is no single solution, Ravitch concludes by advocating for strong educational values and revival of strong neighborhood public schools. For readers on all sides of the school-reform debate, this is a very important book.

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Diane Ravitch - The Death and Life of the Great Am erican School System, How Testing and Choice Are U ndermining Education (2010).pdf

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Gene Klann - Crisis Leadership, Using Military Les sons, Organizational Experiences, and the Power of Influence to Lessen the Impact of Chaos on the Pe ople You Lead (2003).jpg

USA Books1 - Gene Klann - Crisis Leadership, Using Military Lessons...essen the Impact of Chaos on the People You Lead 2003.jpg

Crisis Leadership: Using Military Lessons, Organizational Experiences, and the Power of Influence to Lessen the Impact of Chaos on the People You Lead (CCL, 2003), by Gene Klann, Ph.D., a member of the Center for Creative Leadership’s training faculty.
Crisis Leadership is designed to help leaders assess their strengths and weaknesses, learn new competencies and prepare for events that are as unpredictable as they are unavoidable. It draws not only on Klann’s experiences at CCL with executives from around the globe, but also on his U.S. Army career, where he advised a South Vietnamese infantry unit during the Vietnam War and commanded a battalion of 600 paratroopers during the first Gulf War.

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Gene Klann - Crisis Leadership, Using Military Les sons, Organizational Experiences, and the Power of Influence to Lessen the Impact of Chaos on the Pe ople You Lead (2003).chm

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James M. McPherson - The Atlas Of The Civil War (2 005).jpg

Here is the definitive reference to the battles of the Civil War, written by America's leading military historians and edited by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War expert James M. McPherson. This authoritative volume includes gripping eyewitness accounts plus 200 specially commissioned, full-color maps that detail all of the major campaigns and many of the smaller skirmishes of the war between the states. Maps provide a superb visual reference to troop movement, battlefield terrain, and communication lines. Dynamic reconstructions depict battles fought on land, river, and ocean, and time-line descriptions provide play-by-play commentary of the action. With more than 200 photographs and many personal accounts that vividly recount the experiences of soldiers in the fields, this book brings to life the human drama that pitted the north against the south.

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62,8 MB
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James M. McPherson - The Atlas Of The Civil War (2 005).pdf

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Jeremy Black - Altered States, America Since the S ixties (2006).jpg

Black works from the startling premise that the United States is a continent pretending to be a country. He examines the cultural clashes—and the tense harmony—between the numerous regional cultures uneasily contained within the United States’ wide bounds. Suburban sprawl, the triumph of consumerism, the war over health care, immigration, and Christian evangelicalism all play a part in these pages, as Black unravels the tangled web of American life during the past forty-five years. He locates such tensions in the tug-of-war between the unitary and divisive pressures that have always defined the character of American government, and in the alternating rise and fall of individualism and conformity in American society as well. Black also has some telling new reflections on America’s role abroad, from Nixon’s Vietnam to George W. Bush's Iraq.

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Jeremy Black - Altered States, America Since the S ixties (2006).pdf

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Vincent J. Cannato - American Passage, The History of Ellis Island (2010).jpg

Starred Review. Using a variety of primary sources, Cannato (The Ungovernable City) describes Ellis Island as a place and as an experience for the approximately 12 million immigrants who passed through it from 1892 to 1924. He follows its reincarnation as a detention center for wartime aliens and as a monument and museum, which he admits may celebrate uncritically "ethnic triumphalism" and upward mobility. Cannato writes that understaffing resulted in only perfunctory screening for mental, physical, and moral traits that might have made newcomers public charges, and he disabuses readers of the fallacy that examiners, rather than steamship officials or immigrants bent on assimilation, changed entrants' last names. With a focus on how "actual people created, interpreted, and executed immigration laws," Cannato maintains that regulation, which sometimes degraded into restriction, formed part of Progressive era reform and growing federal involvement to safeguard what was deemed the public interest. This measured book helps to place in perspective discussions—sure to matter to genealogists and those engaged in political discourse—of Ellis Island and the idea of immigration as a privilege rather than a right. Essential reading.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress

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Bill Harvey - Texas Cemeteries, The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting T exans (2003).jpg

USA Books1 - Bill Harvey - Texas Cemeteries, The Resting Places of ...ous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting Texans 2003.jpg

From the simplest slab of weathered stone to the most imposing mausoleum, every marker in a Texas cemetery bears witness to a life that--in ways small or large--helped shape the history and culture of the state. Telling the stories of some of these significant lives is the purpose of this book. Within its pages, you'll meet not only the heroes of the Texas Revolution, for example, but also one of the great African American cowboys of the traildriving era (Bose Ikard) and the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office (Annie Webb Blanton). Visiting cemeteries from every era and all regions of the state, Bill Harvey recounts the histories of famous, infamous, and just plain interesting Texans who lie at rest in Texas cemeteries. The book is organized alphabetically by city for easy reference. For each city, Harvey lists one or more cemeteries, giving their location and history, if significant. At the heart of the book are his profiles of the noteworthy people buried in each cemetery. They include not only famous but also lesser-known and even unknown Texans who made important contributions to the state in the arts, sports, business, military service, politics--truly every area of communal life. For those who want to visit these resting places, Harvey also includes tips on finding cemeteries, locating gravesites, and taking good photographs. Spend time with him in the graveyards of Texas, and you'll soon appreciate what fascinating stories the silent stones can tell.

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Bill Harvey - Texas Cemeteries, The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting T exans (2003).pdf

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Michael Patrick MacDonald - All Souls, A Family St ory from Southie (1999).jpg

This searing coming-of-age memoir is set in "Southie" where gangster Whitey Bulger runs the drug business, and class and racial violence erupt in response to forced busing in the 1970s. MacDonald loses four siblings to drugs, poverty, and violence, and eventually attempts to transcend his grief as he becomes an activist in the Southie he can't help but love.

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Peter Schwartz - The Long Boom, A Vision for the Coming Age of Prosperity (2000).jpg

How converging technological, economic, political, and social forces are shaping our world and our future-and how our choices today can lead to a new age of prosperity.The Long Boom argues that we are on the verge of an unprecedented global economic expansion and that the choices we make today will determine whether worldwide prosperity will indeed be realized. Analyzing economic, political, technological, and socio-cultural trends that began in the early 1980s, the authors offer a compelling scenario for how the next twenty years are likely to unfold and tell us how we can take an active role in creating a sustainable global society.

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Peter Schwartz - The Long Boom, A Vision for the Coming Age of Prosperity (2000).pdf

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Larry Tye - SATCHEL, The Life and Times of an Amer ican Legend (2009).jpg

Tye, a Boston Globe reporter and author of The Father of Spin, offers the first biography on Satchel Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues. Having interviewed more than 200 veteran fellow players of the Negro and Major Leagues, he is able to flesh out the Satchel Paige persona. Through PaigeÖs hardscrabble years in Jim Crow Alabama to his time with the all-black Monarchs, one of the powerhouses in segregated colored ball, Tye dissects SatchelÖs mastery of pitching, his accuracy, power and velocity, and signature pitch, the sizzler. Satchel was among the peerless Negro Leaguers, who beat the white big leaguers more than 60% of the time; he struck out some of the biggest sluggers, like Ralph Kiner, Rogers Hornsby and even Joe DiMaggio, who got one hit off of Satchel and was signed by the Yankees immediately. He became one of four black athletes signed up in the late 1940s, with the Cleveland Indians, three years after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers (the two men were bitter rivals). This is the definitive biography of a black showman-athlete, and as Tye makes the case, one of the finest pitchers ever, who finally was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.

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Michael D. Bordo, Barry Eichengreen - A Retrospect ive on the Bretton Woods System, Lessons for Inter national Monetary Reform (1993).jpg

USA Books1 - Michael D. Bordo, Barry Eichengreen - A Retrospective...ystem, Lessons for International Monetary Reform 1993.jpg

At the close of the Second World War, when industrialized nations faced serious trade and financial imbalances, delegates from forty-four countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in order to reconstruct the international monetary system. In this volume, three generations of scholars and policy makers, some of whom participated in the 1944 conference, consider how the Bretton Woods System contributed to unprecedented economic stability and rapid growth for 25 years and discuss the problems that plagued the system and led to its eventual collapse in 1971.

The contributors explore adjustment, liquidity, and transmission under the System; the way it affected developing countries; and the role of the International Monetary Fund in maintaining a stable rate. The authors examine the reasons for the System's success and eventual collapse, compare it to subsequent monetary regimes, such as the European Monetary System, and address the possibility of a new fixed exchange rate for today's world.

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Mary Jo Devaland - China's Economic Policy Impact on the United States (2008).jpg

Since the initiation of economic reforms in 1979, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing economies. From 1979 to 2007 China's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of 9.8%. Real GDP grew 11.4% in 2007 (the fastest annual growth since 1994). While China is expected to continue to enjoy rapid economic growth in the years ahead and could become the world's largest economy within a decade or so, it faces a number of challenges, including widespread corruption, an inefficient banking system, over-dependence on exports and fixed investment for growth, pollution, widening income disparities, and growing inflationary pressures. The Chinese government has indicated that it intends, over the coming years, to create a 'harmonious society' that would promote more balanced economic growth and address a number of economic and social issues. Trade and foreign investment continues to play a major role in China's booming economy. From 2004 to 2007, the value of total Chinese merchandise trade nearly doubled. In 2007, China's exports (at $1,218 billion) exceeded U.S. exports (1,162 billion) for the first time. China's imports were $956 billion and its trade surplus was $262 billion (a historic high). Well over half of China's trade is conducted by foreign firms operating in China. The combination of large trade surpluses, foreign direct investment flows, and large-scale purchases of foreign currency have helped make China the world's largest holder of foreign exchange reserves at $1.5 trillion at the end 2007. China's economy continues to be a concern to many U.S. policymakers. On the one hand, U.S. consumers, exporters, and investors have greatly benefited from China's rapid economic and trade growth. On the other hand, the surge in Chinese exports to the United States has put competitive pressures on various U.S. industries. Many U.S. policymakers have argued that China often does not play by the rules when it comes to trade and they have called for greater efforts to pressure China to fully implement its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments and to change various economic policies deemed harmful to U.S. economic interests, such as its currency policy, its use of subsidies to support state-owned firms, trade and investment barriers to U.S. goods and services, and failure to ensure the safety of its exports to the United States. Concerns have also been raised over China's rising demand for energy and raw materials, its impact on world prices for such commodities, increased pollution levels, and efforts China has made to invest in energy and raw materials around the world, including countries (such as Iran, North Korea, and Sudan) where the United States has political and human rights concerns. This book provides an overview of China's economic development, challenges China faces to maintain growth, and the implications of China's rise as a major economic power for the United States.

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Mary Jo Devaland - China's Economic Policy Impact on the United States (2008).pdf

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Ann V. Millard, Jorge Chapa - Apple Pie and Enchil adas, Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest (2004).jpg

The sudden influx of significant numbers of Latinos to the rural Midwest stems from the recruitment of workers by food processing plants and small factories springing up in rural areas. Mostly they work at back-breaking jobs that local residents are not willing to take because of the low wages and few benefits. The region has become the scene of dramatic change involving major issues facing our country--the intertwining of ethnic differences, prejudice, and poverty; the social impact of a low-wage workforce resulting from corporate transformations; and public policy questions dealing with economic development, taxation, and welfare payments. In this thorough multidisciplinary study, the authors explore both sides of this ethnic divide and provide the first volume to focus comprehensively on Latinos in the region by linking demographic and qualitative analysis to describe what brings Latinos to the area and how they are being accommodated in their new communities. The fact is that many Midwestern communities would be losing population and facing a dearth of workers if not for Latino newcomers. This finding adds another layer of social and economic complexity to the region's changing place in the global economy. The authors look at how Latinos fit into an already fractured social landscape with tensions among townspeople, farmers, and others. The authors also reveal the optimism that lies in the opposition of many Anglos to ethnic prejudice and racism.

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Ann V. Millard, Jorge Chapa - Apple Pie and Enchil adas, Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest (2004).pdf

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Scott C. Monje - The Central Intelligence Agency, A Documentary History (2008).jpg

The Central Intelligence Agency's relative transparency makes it unique among the world's espionage operations. Over the past few decades it has released over 31 million pages of previously classified documents, including, most recently, the so-called Family Jewels, a special collection of records on a series of operations from the 1950s to the 1970s that violated the agency's own legislative charter. Taken together, these papers permit a partial glimpse inside the CIA's clandestine world: how it operates; how it views the outside world; how it gets things right; and, all too often, how it gets them wrong. The documentary selections assembled here, carefully analyzed for content, consistency, and context, guide readers through the CIA's shrouded history and allow readers to sift the evidence for themselves.

The principal theme of this new documentary history of the Central Intelligence Agency is the dilemma of maintaining a secret organization in an open society. A democracy rests on accountability, and accountability requires transparency: the people cannot hold their government to account if they do not know what it is doing in their name. At the same time, an intelligence agency lives in a world of shadows. It cannot function if it is not able to keep its sources, its methods, and many of its operations secret. The resulting tension-and the constant temptation to take advantage of the impunity that secrecy allows-has shaped the CIA's history from its beginnings.

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Scott C. Monje - The Central Intelligence Agency, A Documentary History (2008).pdf

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Steven Mintz - Huck's Raft, A History of American Childhood (2004).jpg

Like Huck's raft, the experience of American childhood has been both adventurous and terrifying. For more than three centuries, adults have agonized over raising children while children have followed their own paths to development and expression. Now, Steven Mintz gives us the first comprehensive history of American childhood encompassing both the child's and the adult's tumultuous early years of life.

Underscoring diversity through time and across regions, Mintz traces the transformation of children from the sinful creatures perceived by Puritans to the productive workers of nineteenth-century farms and factories, from the cosseted cherubs of the Victorian era to the confident consumers of our own. He explores their role in revolutionary upheaval, westward expansion, industrial growth, wartime mobilization, and the modern welfare state. Revealing the harsh realities of children's lives through history--the rigors of physical labor, the fear of chronic ailments, the heartbreak of premature death--he also acknowledges the freedom children once possessed to discover their world as well as themselves.

Whether at work or play, at home or school, the transition from childhood to adulthood has required generations of Americans to tackle tremendously difficult challenges. Today, adults impose ever-increasing demands on the young for self-discipline, cognitive development, and academic achievement, even as the influence of the mass media and consumer culture has grown. With a nod to the past, Mintz revisits an alternative to the goal-driven realities of contemporary childhood. An odyssey of psychological self-discovery and growth, this book suggests a vision of childhood that embraces risk and freedom--like the daring adventure on Huck's raft.

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Steven Mintz - Huck's Raft, A History of American Childhood (2004).pdf

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John Bresnan - From Dominoes to Dynamos, The Trans formation of Southeast Asia (1994).jpg

Bresnan's volume, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, is the most thoughtful, comprehensive, and insightful recommendation yet on the adjustment needed for U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. No serious reader can put this book down without harboring deep concern about the ability of the American political system to rise to the occasion. In the areas of security, economics, and human rights, the challenges are formidable.

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John Bresnan - From Dominoes to Dynamos, The Trans formation of Southeast Asia (1994).pdf

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The Military Machine - Jochen Vollert - ''Dragon W agon'' Pacific Car and Foundry TR-1, M25 Tank Tran sporter (1998).jpg

USA Books1 - The Military Machine - Jochen Vollert - Dragon Wagon P...cific Car and Foundry TR-1, M25 Tank Transporter 1998.jpg

The M25 Tank Transporter was a heavy tank transporter and tank recovery vehicle used in World War II and beyond by the US Army.

Nicknamed the Dragon Wagon, the M25 was composed of a 6x6 armored tractor (M26) and 40-ton trailer (M15).

Development

In 1942 a new 40 ton semi-trailer tank transporter was required. This was to offer better off-road performance than the M9 24-small-wheel trailer, and greater capacity than the 30 ton 8-large-wheel Shelvoke and Drewry semi-trailers, then in use with the Diamond T tractor unit. This new trailer was designed by the Fruehauf Trailer Company (based in Detroit, MI). A new tractor unit was required, as this heavier trailer was more than the Diamond T could cope with.

The M26 tractor was designed by the San Francisco-based Knuckey Truck Company. When Knuckey's production capacity proved insufficient the army awarded production to the Pacific Car & Foundry Co. of Seattle, Washington.

Designated TR-1 by Pacific Car, the 12-ton 6x6 M26 tractor was powered by a Type 440 240 bhp 6-cylinder gasoline engine developed exclusively for it by Hall-Scott (although also used to uprate the Diamond T). Some 2,100 Type 440s were built.[clarification needed] Baxter notes "over 1,300" M26 and M26A1 being built.

Unusually, the tractor unit was fitted with both an armoured cab and two winches with a combined pull of 60 tons. The intention was that as well as hauling the tank transporter semi-trailer, the tractor unit could itself be used for battlefield light recovery work.

A later unarmoured version of the M26 tractor was designated the M26A1. An experimental ballast tractor conversion was experimented with by the British FVPE

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