Was classical piracy an earlier version of state-sponsored terrorism?
Here's the story of how almost every well-known buccaneer of the “Golden Age of Piracy” enjoyed active sponsorship from England's governors in the American colonies- setting a pattern of official disobedience to the Crown that would ultimately contribute to the American push for independence. Relying on rare primary sources discovered in government archives in England, the Carolinas, Rhode Island, Jamaica, and elsewhere, Burgess combines true tales of derring-do with groundbreaking research in this fascinating history.

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Douglas R. Burgess Jr.- The Pirates' Pact, The Sec ret Alliances Between History's Most Notorious Buc caneers and Colonial America (2008).pdf

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Sharon Davies - Rising Road, A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America (2009).jpg

This is a reverse whodunit: we know who committed the crime but not—though we can guess—whether he'll be convicted. Since it takes place in 1921 Birmingham, Ala., the story's likely to involve race, gender relations, family authority, and religion, and not to be pretty. Davies, a professor of law at Ohio State, knows her way through the thickets of criminal proceedings and the ways of adversarial attorneys. She also mines trial transcripts for all they're worth. One of the defense lawyers is none other than Hugo Black, later a Supreme Court Justice but here a supporter of the Klan, which he would soon join. When all is over, the murderer, a white Protestant, goes free after killing a Catholic priest and expressing, like most in the courtroom, just about every vulgar prejudice of the day. Davies leaves almost no detail unmentioned, when a novelist's way of letting one fact stand in for many others would have made the story move more quickly. But this is an illustrative tale about its time, well worth the telling.

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Sharon Davies - Rising Road, A True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America (2009).pdf

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Jonathan Mermin - Debating War and Peace (1999).jpg

The First Amendment ideal of an independent press allows American journalists to present critical perspectives on government policies and actions; but are the media independent of government in practice? Here Jonathan Mermin demonstrates that when it comes to military intervention, journalists over the past two decades have let the government itself set the terms and boundaries of foreign policy debate in the news. Analyzing newspaper and television reporting of U.S. intervention in Grenada and Panama, the bombing of Libya, the Gulf War, and U.S. actions in Somalia and Haiti, he shows that if there is no debate over U.S. policy in Washington, there is no debate in the news. Journalists often criticize the execution of U.S. policy, but fail to offer critical analysis of the policy itself if actors inside the government have not challenged it. Mermin ultimately offers concrete evidence of outside-Washington perspectives that could have been reported in specific cases, and explains how the press could increase its independence of Washington in reporting foreign policy news. The author constructs a new framework for thinking about press-government relations, based on the observation that bipartisan support for U.S. intervention is often best interpreted as a political phenomenon, not as evidence of the wisdom of U.S. policy. Journalists should remember that domestic political factors often influence foreign policy debate. The media, Mermin argues, should not see a Washington consensus as justification for downplaying critical perspectives.

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Eric Schickler - Disjointed Pluralism, Institution al Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Cong ress (2001).jpg

USA Books - Eric Schickler - Disjointed Pluralism, Institutional I...novation and the Development of the U.S. Congress 2001.jpg

From the 1910 overthrow of "Czar" Joseph Cannon to the reforms enacted when Republicans took over the House in 1995, institutional change within the U.S. Congress has been both a product and a shaper of congressional politics. For several decades, scholars have explained this process in terms of a particular collective interest shared by members, be it partisanship, reelection worries, or policy motivations. Eric Schickler makes the case that it is actually interplay among multiple interests that determines institutional change. In the process, he explains how congressional institutions have proved remarkably adaptable and yet consistently frustrating for members and outside observers alike. Analyzing leadership, committee, and procedural restructuring in four periods (1890-1910, 1919-1932, 1937-1952, and 1970-1989), Schickler argues that coalitions promoting a wide range of member interests drive change in both the House and Senate. He shows that multiple interests determine institutional innovation within a period; that different interests are important in different periods; and, more broadly, that changes in the salient collective interests across time do not follow a simple logical or developmental sequence. Institutional development appears disjointed, as new arrangements are layered on preexisting structures intended to serve competing interests. An epilogue assesses the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich in light of these findings.

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Eric Schickler - Disjointed Pluralism, Institution al Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Cong ress (2001).pdf

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Justin Lewis - Constructing Public Opinion (2001).jpg

Is polling a process that brings "science" into the study of society? Or are polls crude instruments that tell us little about the way people actually think? The role of public opinion polls in government and mass media has gained increasing importance with each new election or poll taken. Here Lewis presents a new look at an old tradition, the first study of opinion polls using an interdisciplinary approach combining cultural studies, sociology, political science, and mass communication. Rather than dismissing polls, he considers them to be a significant form of representation in contemporary culture; he explores how the media report on polls and, in turn, how publicized results influence the way people respond to polls. Lewis argues that the media tend to exclude the more progressive side of popular opinion from public debate. While the media's influence is limited, it works strategically to maintain the power of pro-corporate political elites.

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Yahia Abdul-Rahman - The Art of Islamic Banking an d Finance, Tools and Techniques for Community-Base d Banking (2010).jpg

USA Books - Yahia Abdul-Rahman - The Art of Islamic Banking and Fi...Tools and Techniques for Community-Based Banking 2010.jpg

A detailed look at the fast–growing field of Islamic banking and finance The Art of Islamic Banking and Finance is a modern American take on what it means to incorporate Islamic finance principles into everyday banking and investment techniques by introducing a new brand of banking for all people of all faiths: The Riba–Free (RF) banking.

The author is considered the father of RF (Islamic) banking in America. He has been a banker and an Imam/scholar for over 40 years in America since 1968. He started the tedious process with a finance company, LARIBA, in Pasadena, California in 1987. This is the first book ever in the field to trace the origins of prohibiting the renting of money at a price called interest rate and over–indulging in debt. The book reviews in great details the theological foundations of prohibiting interest in the Jewish Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Qur′aan. The author then discusses money and how fiat money is created, the role of the Federal Reserve, and the banking system in America. The book also discusses for the first time ever how to include an important aspect of RF (Islamic) finance using commodity indexation and marking the items to be financed to market in order to avoid participating in economic "bubbles." The author discusses how these rules work, how they affect consumer behavior, and how they change the role of the banker/financier.

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Yahia Abdul-Rahman - The Art of Islamic Banking an d Finance, Tools and Techniques for Community-Base d Banking (2010).pdf

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Aerofax Datagraph 04 - Kenneth Peoples - Bell AH-1 Cobra Variants (1988).jpg

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Aerofax Datagraph 04 - Kenneth Peoples - Bell AH-1 Cobra Variants (1988).pdf

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Maria Elena Cepeda - Musical ImagiNation, U.S. - C olombian Identity and the Latin Music Boom (2010).jpg

Long associated with the pejorative clichés of the drug-trafficking trade and political violence, contemporary Colombia has been unfairly stigmatized. In this pioneering study of the Miami music industry and Miami’s growing Colombian community, María Elena Cepeda boldly asserts that popular music provides an alternative common space for imagining and enacting Colombian identity. Using an interdisciplinary analysis of popular media, music, and music video, Cepeda teases out issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and transnational identity in the Latino/a music industry and among its most renowned rock en español, pop, and vallenato stars.
Musical ImagiNation provides an overview of the ongoing Colombian political and economic crisis and the dynamics of Colombian immigration to metropolitan Miami. More notably, placed in this context, the book discusses the creative work and media personas of talented Colombian artists Shakira, Andrea Echeverri of Aterciopelados, and Carlos Vives. In her examination of the transnational figures and music that illuminate the recent shifts in the meanings attached to Colombian identity both in the United States and Latin America, Cepeda argues that music is a powerful arbitrator of memory and transnational identity.

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Maria Elena Cepeda - Musical ImagiNation, U.S. - C olombian Identity and the Latin Music Boom (2010).pdf

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Jon Pahl - Empire of Sacrifice, The Religious Orig ins of American Violence (2010).jpg

“Pahl exquisitely illumines the pathway by which religion has made possible American empire and poignantly sketches those who have had to sacrifice to create the superpower we know today. Empire of Sacrifice is an admirable experiment in pulling back the curtain on the religious and cultural mechanisms that are often lost in what Pahl calls our national obsession with ‘innocent domination.’ His case studies are finely tuned windows into the ways in which religion has both abused and freed Americans along lines of gender, race, and class. This book acts as a clarion call for us to think twice when we are called upon to ‘sacrifice’ in the name of God—a strategy that all too often hides our violence in the cloak of religion.”
- James K. Wellman, Jr., author of Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest

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Jon Pahl - Empire of Sacrifice, The Religious Orig ins of American Violence (2010).pdf

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Osprey - Essential Histories 55 - Alastair Finlan - The Gulf War 1991 (2003).jpg

The Gulf War of 1991 heralded a new type of warfare - one dominated by speed and high technology, that yielded a remarkably low level of casualties among the Allied forces. Just under a million Allied troops were deployed to the Gulf region, where they faced not only the extreme heat, but also biological, chemical and suspected nuclear threats. This book assesses both Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield, examining each forces strategies, and the political and military figures who were involved on both sides. The operational side of Desert Shield is also detailed in full.

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National Research Council - Firearms and Violence, A Critical Review (2004).jpg

For years proposals for gun control and the ownership of firearms have been among the most contentious issues in American politics. For public authorities to make reasonable decisions on these matters, they must take into account facts about the relationship between guns and violence as well as conflicting constitutional claims and divided public opinion. In performing these tasks, legislators need adequate data and research to judge both the effects of firearms on violence and the effects of different violence control policies. Readers of the research literature on firearms may sometimes find themselves unable to distinguish scholarship from advocacy. Given the importance of this issue, there is a pressing need for a clear and unbiased assessment of the existing portfolio of data and research. "Firearms and Violence" uses conventional standards of science to examine three major themes - firearms and violence, the quality of research, and the quality of data available. The book assesses the strengths and limitations of current databases, examining current research studies on firearm use and the efforts to reduce unjustified firearm use and suggests ways in which they can be improved.

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National Research Council - Firearms and Violence, A Critical Review (2004).pdf

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James L. Peacock - The American South in a Global World (2005).jpg

Looking beyond broad theories of globalization, this volume examines the specific effects of globalizing forces on the southern United States. Eighteen essays approach globalization from a variety of perspectives, addressing relations between global and local communities; immigration, particularly of Latinos and Asians; local industry in a time of globalization; power and confrontation between rural and urban worlds; race, ethnicity, and organizing for social justice; and the assimilation of foreign-born professionals. From portraits of the political and economic positions of Latinos in Miami and Houston to the effects of mountaintop removal on West Virginia communities, these snapshots of globalization across a broad southern ground help redirect the study of the South in response to how the South itself is being reshaped by globalization in the twenty-first century.

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James L. Peacock - The American South in a Global World (2005).pdf

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Louis C. Gapenski - Fundamentals of Healthcare Fin ance (2009).jpg

Ideal for those new to healthcare finance, this book begins with an overview of the role of finance in healthcare organizations and an uncomplicated explanation of the legal and reimbursement issues faced by providers. The rest of the chapters walk you through the basics of managerial accounting and financial management, including estimating costs and profits, planning and budgeting, making capital investment decisions, monitoring operations with metrics, and reading financial statements. Learning tools and online resources To assist the learning process, the book includes critical concepts, real-world scenarios, self-test questions, industry practices, and a running glossary. A companion website includes four additional chapters that cover financial markets and securities; lease financing and business valuation; distributions to owners; and capitation, rate setting, and risk sharing. Appendixes of financial and operational ratios and their definitions are also available online.

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Louis C. Gapenski - Fundamentals of Healthcare Fin ance (2009).pdf

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David V. Moskowitz - Caribbean Popular Music, An E ncyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, an d Dancehall (2005).jpg

USA Books - David V. Moskowitz - Caribbean Popular Music, An Encyc...f Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall 2005.jpg

Caribbean Popular Music provides insight into the lives of Caribbean musicians and the styles they have created over the last 50 years, focusing primarily on the music and musicians of Jamaica. Although the island nation is best known for reggae music, its musicians have created and been influenced by many other styles. Some styles were homegrown, like ska and mento, and some imported from the U.S., such as jazz and rhythm and blues.
Arranged alphabetically, entries are generally two to four short paragraphs in length, with the exception of a three-page entry for reggae artist Bob Marley, whose influence on music of the Caribbean and carryover popularity into the U.S. have made his name almost synonymous with reggae music. Most of the musical styles mentioned in this book have upbeat sounds, with humor an often-used tool. Even the artists' names are entertaining, such as Count Sticky, Fathead, and Eek-A-Mouse. In addition to musicians, this work sheds light on terms and styles unknown to many of us. For example, Toasting means talking very fast over the beat of the music either with words or nonsense syllables, akin to but distinct from rap. Entries for producers and record labels that influenced musical developments in Jamaica and the region are also included, as are more than 200 black-and-white photos of artists.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, v.2 (1998), covers South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, but its main focus is on the history, culture, and styles of the various regions and not on individual artists. Garland is considered an essential reference set, with 10 volumes and CDs accompanying each, but reference books such as Caribbean Popular Music serve as complementary works. Written in authoritative yet readable prose, Moskowitz's volume is appropriate for public and academic library collections.

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David V. Moskowitz - Caribbean Popular Music, An E ncyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, an d Dancehall (2005).pdf

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Gary Schmitt - Of Men and Materiel, The Crisis in Defense Spending (2007).jpg

The U.S. defense budget has grown appreciably since 9/11. But too little of the increase has gone to purchase new equipment or to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps. The result has been a hollow buildup that makes it increasingly difficult for the U.S. military to carry out its part of America's national security strategy. The global nature of the national security strategy requires significant amounts of defense expenditures and troop levels. In this book, Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt, along with experts of each military branch, discuss the necessity of maintaining a larger, better equipped military.

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Gary Schmitt - Of Men and Materiel, The Crisis in Defense Spending (2007).pdf

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Karl Samson - Frommer's Seattle 2010 (2009).jpg

* Completely updated every year, Frommer's Seattle features 16 pages of gorgeous color photos of the sights and experiences that await you.
* Our expert author has combed the city looking for the best hotels, restaurants, shops, and nightlife spots, and has created detailed walking tours to take you through some of the city’s most famous neighborhoods.
* Extensive side-trip information takes you through the San Juan Islands, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, and more.
* Frommer's Seattle also includes a color photo insert and fold-out map.

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Robert P. George - In Defense of Natural Law (2001 ).jpg

In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his critique of liberalism, and also goes beyond it to show how contemporary natural law theory provides a superior way of thinking about basic problems of justice and political morality. Students as well as scholars in law, political science, and philosophy will find George's arguments stimulating, challenging, and compelling.

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