On 9 July 1755 amid the wilderness of North America, Britain suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in her history. General Braddock’s army, a mixture of British regulars and American militia, was shattered, losing over 900 men from a force of 1,300. Braddock was killed and the remnants of his army rescued by his aide, Colonel George Washington. The origins of this defeat can be traced back to the death of a junior French officer little more than a year before in a relatively minor skirmish with a party of Virginian militia commanded by the same George Washington. René Chartrand examines the subsequent chain of events that ultimately sparked a world war.

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Richard Munson - From Edison to Enron, The Busines s of Power and What It Means for the Future of Ele ctricity (2005).jpg

USA Books - Richard Munson - From Edison to Enron, The Business of...r and What It Means for the Future of Electricity 2005.jpg

The blackout of 2003 illuminated just how dependent America is on electricity. It was not just that some 50 million people in eight states and Ontario were cut off from their televisions, microwaves, ATMs, and email. Without the electrical juice to keep their sockets alive, factory managers were forced to close production lines, city managers shut down water deliveries, grocery store clerks watched their frozen inventory slowly melt away. Economists estimated that the blackout cost Americans $5 billion even as energy analysts were predicting that a similar blackout could happen again. The catastrophe forced us to marvel at the unusual ability of sub-microscopic particles to move like waves inside a wire and cause bulbs to glow. It highlighted the complex requirements for managing the massive generators, transformers, transmission lines, and switch boxes needed to tap and deliver flowing electrons. It encouraged us to recognize the profound impact of electricity on all aspects of commerce and culture. Such events as the blackout, the Enron debacle, and the California "brownouts" also reveal the cracks in a 100-year-old industry structure that have been building ever since Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their contemporaries first managed to harness electricity and make it available to the masses, and tycoons, such as Sam Insull and George Norris, began to concentrate financial control and political influence. From Edison to Enron traces the controversial history of this $210 billion industry--the nation's largest--showcasing the key individuals, technological innovations, corporate machinations, and political battles that have been waged over its domination. Munson maintains that today's technological and regulatory infrastructure, as a function of its history, is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness; he points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost, that Americans pay roughly $100 billion too much each year for heat and power, and that environmentally unfriendly generators are the nation's largest polluters. Meanwhile, innovations in technology and business models are being blocked by entrenched monopolies. Ultimately, Munson argues that current policies and practices, including those favored by the Bush Administration, are preventing entrepreneurs from producing more efficient, healthy, and sustainable power supplies. Moreover, he presents an agenda for business and policy reforms that will stimulate economic development in the United States and around the world.

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Richard Munson - From Edison to Enron, The Busines s of Power and What It Means for the Future of Ele ctricity (2005).pdf

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Ronald Weitzer - Sex for Sale, Prostitution, Porno graphy, and the Sex Industry (2009).jpg

Money, Sex, Danger and Power, it's all in a day's work for the typical sex worker. Sex for Sale provides a window into the world of sex workers, their customers, and the growing sex industry--in America and abroad.
A major contribution to our understanding of the sex industry, Sex for Sale is a collection of original essays on sex work, its risks, and its political implications. Covering areas not commonly researched, the book includes studies on telephone sex workers, gay pornography, Nevada's legal brothels, prostitute's customers, police vice squads, actors in the porn industry, lap dancing in strip clubs, and street prostitution. It includes discussion of violence, HIV infection, and drug addiction, as well as legalization, commercialization and criminalization. A unique addition to the literature, Sex for Sale examones all sides of the sex industry--both positive and negative--and will change the way we understand the sex industry.

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Stephanie Macceca - George Washington Carver, Agri culture Pioneer (2008).jpg

George Washington Carver was born a slave, but he became an important scientist and teacher. He experimented with soil and became famous for his work as a botanist. He used peanuts and other plants to make new products. Before Carvers research, plants were only used for food and clothing. His creative approach to agriculture taught people that plants could be used to make many products, like rubber, ink, fuel, and paper, to name a few.

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Stephanie Macceca - George Washington Carver, Agri culture Pioneer (2008).pdf

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Thomas Austin, Martin Barker - Contemporary Hollyw ood Stardom (2003).jpg

This book offers a reappraisal of star studies in light of the arrival of the internet and the explosion in materials such as glossy magazines and merchandise meaning that stars are visible as never before. It explores the political economy of stardom, questions of performance, the effect on stardom of convergence between the film industry and other leisure industries, and the role of audiences.

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Thomas M. Shapiro - The Hidden Cost of Being Afric an American, How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality (20 04).jpg

Over the past three decades, racial prejudice in America has declined significantly and many African American families have seen a steady rise in employment and annual income. But alongside these encouraging signs, Thomas Shapiro argues in The Hidden Cost of Being African American, fundamental levels of racial inequality persist, particularly in the area of asset accumulation--inheritance, savings accounts, stocks, bonds, home equity, and other investments-. Shapiro reveals how the lack of these family assets along with continuing racial discrimination in crucial areas like homeownership dramatically impact the everyday lives of many black families, reversing gains earned in schools and on jobs, and perpetuating the cycle of poverty in which far too many find themselves trapped. Shapiro uses a combination of in-depth interviews with almost 200 families from Los Angeles, Boston, and St. Louis, and national survey data with 10,000 families to show how racial inequality is transmitted across generations. We see how those families with private wealth are able to move up from generation to generation, relocating to safer communities with better schools and passing along the accompanying advantages to their children. At the same time those without significant wealth remain trapped in communities that don't allow them to move up, no matter how hard they work. Shapiro challenges white middle class families to consider how the privileges that wealth brings not only improve their own chances but also hold back people who don't have them. This "wealthfare" is a legacy of inequality that, if unchanged, will project social injustice far into the future. Showing that over half of black families fall below the asset poverty line at the beginning of the new century, The Hidden Cost of Being African American will challenge all Americans to reconsider what must be done to end racial inequality.

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Thomas M. Shapiro - The Hidden Cost of Being Afric an American, How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality (20 04).pdf

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Tim McNeese - The Labor Movement, Unionizing Ameri ca (2007).jpg

The labor movement espoused social equality and honest labor through the formation of labor unions. Although groups such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, both of which represented skilled laborers, began to figure prominently in industry in the late 1800s, labor unions that represented unskilled workers did not gain influence until the early 1900s. By the 1930s, labor unions were becoming more accepted, thanks in part to the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers the right to establish unions without interference from their employers. Crisply written and illustrated with compelling photographs and sidebars, "The Labor Movement" is a thorough look at the movement that has had a profound effect on how industry operates in the United States.

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Tim McNeese - The Labor Movement, Unionizing Ameri ca (2007).pdf

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Who Wrote That - Dennis Abrams - David ''Dav'' Pil key (2010).jpg

David "Dav" Pilkey (born March 4, 1966), is a popular children's author and artist. Dav Pilkey is best known as the author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants book series. He lives near Seattle, Washington with his wife, Sayuri.

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Who Wrote That - Dennis Abrams - David ''Dav'' Pil key (2010).pdf

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Louis J., Jr. Palmer - Encyclopedia of Capitol Pun ishment in the United States (2008).jpg

The primary purpose of this volume is to provide a comprehensive source of information on the legal, social, and political history and present status of capital punishment in the U.S. The encyclopedia accomplishes this through the use of A-Z entries, both brief and extensive, covering almost every capital punishment opinion issued by the U.S. Supreme Court through 1999. In addition there are entries covering each jurisdiction in the U.S. that summarize the relevant death penalty laws as well as provide information on the judicial structure of each jurisdiction. There are also entries for the status of capital punishment in other nations of the world; famous capital prosecutions; organizations that are either pro- or anti-capital punishment; capital punishment in the military; and the impact of capital punishment on minority groups in the U.S.
There is a wealth of statistical data and tables presented within the entries. For instance, in Actual innocence claim, a table shows death row inmates released after proving their innocence, giving name, year convicted, year released, and the state in which they were convicted. The entry Women and capital punishment is also interesting, with charts showing that since 1932 only 35 women have been executed on death row, versus 4,418 men. This entry also discusses the controversy over gender discrimination in capital prosecutions.
A major proportion of the essays deal with Supreme Court death penalty decisions, and each entry for a Supreme Court case follows a prescribed format. The first paragraph provides a case citation, issue presented, and case holding; the second section provides factual and procedural background on the case; the final section provides the opinion of the Court.
Cross-references are used liberally to help the nonspecialist gain access to the many legal issues and terminology. An index also helps to provide access via terms, names, and cases. A two-page bibliography provides sources for additional research and reading.
The author, an attorney and writer on the death penalty, has done an admirable job of documenting a complex and emotional topic. This volume will help public and academic library users cope knowledgeably with the history of and legal issues surrounding capital punishment in America.

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Louis J., Jr. Palmer - Encyclopedia of Capitol Pun ishment in the United States (2008).pdf

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Amy Chua - Day of Empire, How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall (2007).jpg

Chua (World on Fire), a Yale law professor and daughter of immigrants, examines a number of world-dominant powers—a none too rigorously defined group that lumps together the Persian, Roman, Mongol and British empires with the contemporary United States—and argues that tolerance and multiculturalism are indispensable features of global economic and military success. Such hyperpowers rise, Chua argues, because their tolerance of minority cultures and religions, their receptivity to foreign ideas and their willingness to absorb and empower talented provincials and immigrants lets them harness the world's human capital. Conversely, hyperpowers decline when their assimilative capacities falter and they lapse into intolerance and exclusion. The sexy concept of a world-dominant hyperpower, in addition to being somewhat erratic—the smallish Dutch Republic makes the cut, while the far-flung (but inconveniently intolerant) Spanish empire doesn't—is doubtful when examining an America that can hardly dominate Baghdad and not much more convincing when applied to earlier hegemons. Chua does offer an illuminating survey of the benefits of tolerance and pluralism, often as a tacit brief for maintaining America's generous immigration policies.

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Andrew Jon Rotter - Hiroshima, The World's Bomb (2 009).jpg

"Given the number of tomes on the atomic bomb, one might be forgiven for asking whether we need another one. In the case of Andrew J. Rotter's Hiroshima, the answer is definitely yes.... The author is to be commended not only for having succeeded at that task, but also for providing a valuable teaching volume and a creative reflection of interest to the specialist."--Michael D. Gordin, The Journal of Military History

"A comprehensive account of the development of nuclear weapons from the early 20th century through the current concerns about terrorist attacks.... Rotter writes beautifully, using telling anecdotes with great skill.... This is the best relatively brief and readable study of this important and still timely topic. Highly recommended."--A.O. Edmonds, CHOICE

"Present[s] a new perspective and challenging insights...Rotter provides a context that makes the atomic bombing of Japan seem far from inevitable. [H]e has not only created an accessible work for students but also added significantly to the literature about the Gadget and about Fat Man and Little Boy." -- Technology and Culture

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Anna Magnusson - Quarriers Story, One Man's Vision That Gave 7,000 Children a New Life in Canada (20 06).jpg

In 1878, Glasgow shoemaker William Quarrier founded an organization that offered help to the thousands of desperate, poverty-stricken children in Glasgow's infamous slums. A few years later Quarrier's Village was opened, providing a refuge for the abandoned and the orphaned in the rolling fields of Renfrewshire. Since these beginnings, Quarriers has cared for more than 40,000 children in need. It now runs a diverse range of support and care programs for children, adults, and families in 85 projects across Britain.
In this book, Anna Magnusson explores the stories of the many people, both past and present, who have helped make Quarriers what it is today and celebrates the achievements of the charity over the past century. The result is a detailed record of the organizationís evolution and an inspiring story of one manís legacy.

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Anna Magnusson - Quarriers Story, One Man's Vision That Gave 7,000 Children a New Life in Canada (20 06).pdf

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Brereton Greenhous, W. A. B. Douglas - Out of the Shadows (1996).jpg

First published in 1977 this accessible general overview of Canada's contribution to the Second World War and of the war's effect on Canada's evolution. This revised edition incorporates new information, particularly in the realms of intelligence and cipher, allowing new interpretations of policies and operations. It also makes new judgements on Canadian generalship. W.A.B. (Alec) Douglas was the official historian of the Canadian Armed Forces from 1973 to 1994. He is the author of the second volume of the official history of the RCAF, The Creation of a National Air Force published in 1996, and has published many articles on naval and aviation history in Canadian, American and British journals. Brereton (Ben) Greenhous was born in England and served in the British army, with the Malayan police, and in the Canadian army. He is the principal author of the third volume of the RCAF history, The Crucible of War 1939 - 1945 published in 1993. He is also the author of Dragoon: The Centennial History of the Royal Canadian Dragoons (1983), Guarding the Goldfields: The Story of the Yukon Field Force (1987), Historic Sites of Canada (1990), Canada and It's People (1988) Dieppe, Dieppe (1993) and The Battle of Vimy Ridge (1992).

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Brereton Greenhous, W. A. B. Douglas - Out of the Shadows (1996).pdf

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Cathy J. Cohen - Democracy Remixed, Black Youth an d the Future of American Politics (2010).jpg

While Barack Obama's victory led many to believe that America's racial divide had significantly narrowed, the lived experience of many black youth belie this. Young black Americans today continue to be plagued by low levels of employment, high levels of incarceration, and a profound lack of trust in the government and broader political community. Yet discussions of why this is have been largely anecdotal, often putting the blame on black
youth themselves--even when the commentators are also black. Think of the criticisms that Bill Cosby has leveled, for example.

In Democracy Remixed, award-winning scholar Cathy J. Cohen offers an authoritative analysis of the state of black youth in America today. Utilizing the results from the Black Youth Project, a groundbreaking national survey, Cohen focuses on what young black Americans actually experience and think--and underscores the political repercussions. Featuring their stories, she reveals that black youth largely want what most Americans want--a good job, a fulfilling life, safety, respect, and equality. But while members of this generation have much in common with the rest of America, they also believe that equality does not yet exist, at least not in their lives. Many believe that they are treated as second-class citizens. Also, for a significant number the future seems bleak when they look at their neighborhoods, their schools, and even their own lives and choices. Through their words, these young people provide a complex and balanced picture of the intersection of opportunity and discrimination in their lives.

Democracy Remixed provides the insight and information necessary to help us reshape the future of both young black Americans and American democracy.

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Cathy J. Cohen - Democracy Remixed, Black Youth an d the Future of American Politics (2010).pdf

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Henry G. Gole - General William E. DePuy, Preparin g the Army for Modern War (2008).jpg

From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the United States Army was a demoralized institution in a country in the midst of a social revolution. The war in Vietnam had gone badly and public attitudes about it shifted from indifference, to acceptance, to protest. Army Chief of Staff General Creighton Abrams directed a major reorganization of the Army and appointed William E. DePuy (1919--1992) commander of the newly established Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), in 1973. DePuy already had a distinguished record in positions of trust and high responsibility: successful infantry battalion command and division G-3 in World War II by the age of twenty-five; Assistant Military AttachÃ© in Hungary; detail to CIA in the Korean War; alternating tours on the Army Staff and in command of troops. As a general officer he was General Westmoreland's operations officer in Saigon; commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam; Special Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, Army. But it was as TRADOC Commander that DePuy made his major contribution in integrating training, doctrine, combat developments, and management in the U.S. Army. He regenerated a deflated post-Vietnam Army, effectively cultivating a military force prepared to fight and win in modern war. General William E. DePuy: Preparing the Army for Modern War is the first full-length biography of this key figure in the history of the U.S. Army in the twentieth century. Author Henry G. Gole mined secondary and primary sources, including DePuy's personal papers and extensive archival material, and he interviewed peers, subordinates, family members, and close observers to describe and analyze DePuy's unique contributions to the Army and nation. Gole guides the reader from DePuy's boyhood and college days in South Dakota through the major events and achievements of his life. DePuy was commissioned from the ROTC six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, witnessed poor training and leadership in a mobilizing Army, and served in the 357th Infantry Regiment in Europe -- from the bloody fighting in Normandy until victory in May 1945, when DePuy was stationed in Czechoslovakia. Gole covers both major events and interesting asides: DePuy was asked by George Patton to serve as his aide; he supervised clandestine operations in China; he served in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff during the debate over "massive retaliation" vs. "flexible response"; he was instrumental in establishing Special Forces in Vietnam; he briefed President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House. DePuy fixed a broken Army. In the process his intensity and forcefulness made him a contentious figure, admired by some and feared by others. He lived long enough to see his efforts produce American victory in the Gulf War of 1991. In General William E. DePuy, Gole presents the accomplishments of this important military figure and explores how he helped shape the most potent military force in the history of the world.

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Henry G. Gole - General William E. DePuy, Preparin g the Army for Modern War (2008).pdf

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Joe Scarborough - Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day, The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Oth er Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America ( 2004).jpg

USA Books - Joe Scarborough - Rome Wasnt Burnt in a Day, The Real ...er Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America 2004.jpg

Here's the Real Deal! The same Washington politicians who took control of Congress by promising to balance the federal budget are now bankrupting America by launching the biggest spending spree in the history of the United States.
With big-spending Democrats at their side, President George Bush and his "conservative" Republican Congress have controlled the government's checkbook while the national debt has skyrocketed past seven trillion dollars. That's right, $7,000,000,000,000. How has the party of Reagan become the party of big- government spending?
Now former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough delivers a scathing indictment of Republicans and Democrats alike in the same informed, hard-hitting, and entertaining style fans of Scarborough Country have come to admire. Having had a ringside seat during his four terms in the House of Representatives, Scarborough gives the inside scoop on how Washington really works and on the spending orgy the Republicans have fueled the last ten years.
The story begins with Newt Gingrich's Contract with America and the Republicans promising to balance the budget and reform Washington. It culminates with a Republican president continually rubber-stamping pork-filled appropriations bills that squander taxpayer dollars. That is, unless you think it's necessary to spend millions of dollars on research into "alternative salmon products" in Alaska, or the study of crickets in Utah, or of sea turtles in Hawaii.#160;Sadly, these instances merely hint at the gross spending by Congress.

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Lawrence Culver - The Frontier of Leisure, Souther n California and the Shaping of Modern America (20 10).jpg

Southern California has long been promoted as the playground of the world, the home of resort-style living, backyard swimming pools, and year-round suntans. Tracing the history of Southern California from the late nineteenth century through the late twentieth century, The Frontier of Leisure reveals how this region did much more than just create lavish resorts like Santa Catalina Island and Palm Springs--it literally remade American attitudes towards leisure. Lawrence Culver shows how this "culture of leisure" gradually took hold with an increasingly broad group of Americans, and ultimately manifested itself in suburban developments throughout the Sunbelt and across the United States. He further shows that as Southern Californians promoted resort-style living, they also encouraged people to turn inward, away from public spaces and toward their private homes and communities. Impressively researched, a fascinating and lively read, this finely nuanced history connects Southern Californian recreation and leisure to larger historical themes, including regional development, architecture and urban planning, race relations, Indian policy, politics, suburbanization, and changing perceptions of nature.

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Lawrence Culver - The Frontier of Leisure, Souther n California and the Shaping of Modern America (20 10).pdf

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Paul F. Campos - Jurismania, The Madness of Americ an Law (1999).jpg

In Jurismania, Paul Campos asserts that our legal system is beginning to exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness. Trials and appeals that stretch out for years and cost millions, 100 page appellate court opinions, 1,000 page statutes before which even lawyers tremble with fear, and a public that grows more litigious every day all testify to a judicial overkill that borders on obsessive-compulsive disorder. Campos locates the source of such madness, paradoxically, in our worship of reason and the resulting belief that all problems are amenable to legal solutions.
With insightful discussions of a wide range of cases, from NCAA regulations of student-athletes to the Simpson trial, Campos shows that the mania for more law exacerbates the very problems it seeks to remedy. Clearly written and laced with a delicious wit, Jurismania gives us a CAT-scan of the American legal mind at work.

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