After such conflicts as World War II, Vietnam, and now the Persian Gulf, the First World War seems a distant, almost ancient event. It conjures up images of trenches, horse-drawn wagons, and old-fashioned wide-brimmed helmets--a conflict closer to the Civil War than to our own time. It hardly seems an American war at all, considering we fought for scarcely over a year in a primarily European struggle. But, as Ronald Schaffer recounts in this fascinating new book, the Great War wrought a dramatic revolution in America, wrenching a diverse, unregulated, nineteenth-century society into the modern age.
Ranging from the Oval Office to corporate boardroom, from the farmyard to the battlefield, America in the Great War details a nation reshaped by the demands of total war. Schaffer shows how the Wilson Administration used persuasion, manipulation, direct control, and the cooperation of private industries and organizations to mobilize a freewheeling, individualist country. The result was a war-welfare state, imposing the federal government on almost every aspect of American life. He describes how it spread propaganda, enforced censorship, and stifled dissent. Political radicals, religious pacifists, German-Americans, even average people who voiced honest doubts about the war suffered arrest and imprisonment. The government extended its control over most of the nation's economic life through a series of new agencies--largely filled with managers from private business, who used their new positions to eliminate competition and secure other personal and corporate gains. Schaffer also details the efforts of scholars, scientists, workers, women, African- Americans, and of social, medical, andmoral reformers, to use the war to advance their own agendas even as they contributed to the drive for victory. And not the least important is his account of how soldiers reacted to the reality of war--both at the front lines and at the rear--revealing what brought the doughboys to the battlefield, and how they went through not only horror and disillusionment but felt a fervent patriotism as well.
Some of the upheavals Schaffer describes were fleeting--as seen in the thousands of women who had to leave their wartime jobs when the boys came home--but others meant permanent change and set precedents for such future programs as the New Deal. By showing how American life would never be the same again after the Armistice, America in the Great War lays a new foundation for understanding both the First World War and twentieth-century America.

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Ronald Schaffer - America in the Great War, The R ise of the War Welfare State (1994).pdf

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Ellen Ruppel Shell - Cheap; The High Cost of Disco unt Culture (2009).jpg

How did Americans become the most voracious consumers in the world? This book unmasks the transformation of a frugal nation into one made up of the world's most notorious spendthrifts. Shell offers a historical perspective that spans the various steps of this transition at all levels of the economy from department stores to supermarkets. Lorna Raver is an apt narrator for this title because her voice has the mature quality of one who may have seen some of the events she recounts. Her dry tone conveys the sardonic subtext that runs throughout the narrative as it switches between objective and subjective accounts in equal parts. She explains with gusto the growth of the discount market in the U.S.

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Audiobook - Ellen Ruppel Shell - Cheap; The High C ost of Discount Culture (2009) Read by Lorna Raver (694m44s).mp3

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Tom Kuntz, Phil Kuntz - The Sinatra Files; The Sec ret FBI Dossier (2000).jpg

Frank Sinatra, with his mob ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, which spied on countless citizens. The Bureau's secret 1,275-page dossier on the singer was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. This compilation of excerpts, supplemented by other declassified documents and explanatory commentary, certainly shocks. Sinatra fans will be livid to learn how their idol was spied on, harassed, even smeared by the FBI over the years. Journalist brothers Tom Kuntz and Phil Kuntz (of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, respectively) present evidence that scandalmongering journalists fed the bureau unsubstantiated, damaging rumors that the FBI pursued; in exchange, the FBI occasionally doled out dirt on Sinatra to the press. Charting the crooner's metamorphosis from prominent supporter of left-leaning causes to conservative campaigner for Reagan and Nixon, this dossier reveals that for a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but came up empty-handed. The FBI documents provide many glimpses of Sinatra's associations with mobsters, his rendezvous with prostitutes, his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner (who became his second wife). Readers learn that the budding star, to get an exemption from military service, told draft-board doctors that he had an irrational fear of crowds. Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Peter Lawford, Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana and his girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire, also turn up in these memos and transcripts. The book's most explosive sections reveal the sleazy underside of Camelot.

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Ernest Volkman - Science Goes to War; The Search f or the Ultimate Weapon, From Greek Fire to Star Wa rs (2002).jpg

"It was a thing blameworthy, shameful and barbarous, worthy of severe punishment before God and Man, to wish to bring to perfection an art damageable to one’s neighbor and destructive to the human race."
This anguished statement from the fifteenth-century Italian mathematician known as Tartaglia, who created the science of ballistics, might have come from any one of thousands of brilliant scientists who, throughout history, have applied their genius to the art of war. Every advance in weaponry from the bronze sword to the stealth bomber has been the product of science, and it is likely that without the pressure of war, science as we know it would not exist.
Science Goes to War examines the moral dilemmas, knotty technological problems, and pragmatic necessities that have punctuated the inseparable histories of science and warfare. This remarkably comprehensive volume recounts the 4,000-year quest for the ultimate weapon and reveals how this eternal arms race has both exploited and contributed to "pure" science. Highlights among the many compelling stories in Science Goes to War include:
* Archimedes and the defense of Syracuse
* Galileo and the first military R&D laboratory
* Emperor Meiji and the technological transformation of Japan
* The Manhattan Project

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Ernest Volkman - Science Goes to War; The Search f or the Ultimate Weapon, From Greek Fire to Star Wa rs (2002).pdf

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Richard J. Goldstone - For Humanity; Reflections o f a War Crimes Investigator (2000).jpg

In this stirring book Richard J. Goldstone chronicles his progression from a youthful activist opposing South Africa's racial policies to the world's first independent war crimes' prosecutor. A justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Goldstone has also served as chief prosecutor for United Nations tribunals on human rights crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. His unique firsthand experience investigating these crimes gives profound weight to his plea for a permanent international criminal court. The Castle Lectures in Ethics, Politics, and Economics

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Richard J. Goldstone - For Humanity; Reflections o f a War Crimes Investigator (2000).pdf

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Christopher Clark - Iron Kingdom; The Rise and Dow nfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (2009).jpg

Chris Clark's new history of Prussia trumps all existing accounts. It commands four centuries of complicated history with extraordinary assurance. Its clear and confident argumentation, illuminating concreteness of detail, and sheer richness of texture make it the ideal general history.

Lucid, learned, and light-touched, this comprehensive history of the Prussian state and the society it molded eclipses its rivals, both Anglo-American and German. Its well-crafted narrative form is reader-friendly, while the interpretation it offers will impress seasoned specialists with its sophistication, knowledgeability, and freedom from stereotype and ideas of predetermined destiny. It will be required reading for all students of the history of modern Germany.

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Yinan He - The Search for Reconciliation; Sino-Jap anese and German-Polish Relations since World War II (2009).jpg

Why have some former enemy countries established durable peace while others remain mired in animosity? When and how does historical memory matter in post-conflict interstate relations? Focusing on two case studies, Yinan He argues that the key to interstate reconciliation is the harmonization of national memories. Conversely, memory divergence resulting from national mythmaking harms long-term prospects for reconciliation. After WWII, Sino-Japanese and West German-Polish relations were both antagonized by the Cold War structure, and pernicious myths prevailed in national collective memory. In the 1970s, China and Japan brushed aside historical legacy for immediate diplomatic normalization. But the progress of reconciliation was soon impeded from the 1980s by elite mythmaking practices that stressed historical animosities. In contrast, from the 1970s West Germany and Poland began to de-mythify war history and narrowed their memory gap through restitution measures and textbook cooperation, paving the way for significant progress toward reconciliation after the Cold War.

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Yinan He - The Search for Reconciliation; Sino-Jap anese and German-Polish Relations since World War II (2009).pdf

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Arthu Keaveney - The Army in the Roman Revolution (2007).jpg

The Roman Revolution is one of the most momentous periods of change in history, in which an imperial but quasidemocratic power changed into an autocracy.
This book studies the way the Roman army changed in the last eighty years of the Republic, so that an army of imperial conquest became transformed into a set of rival personal armies under the control of the triumvirs. It emphasizes the development of what has often been regarded as a static monolithic institution, and its centrality to political change.

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Patrick Barclay - Football-Bloody Hell!; The Biogr aphy of Alex Ferguson (2010).jpg

Sir Alex Ferguson is without doubt the most controversial and compelling figure in football today. For many he ranks as the greatest manager of all time. He is certainly the most successful. This title reveals Ferguson to be a relentless character whose ability to intimidate, control, cajole and encourage has driven his unparalleled success.

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Patrick Barclay - Football-Bloody Hell!; The Biogr aphy of Alex Ferguson (2010).mobi

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Michael Anthony - Mass Casualties; A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in I raq (2009).jpeg

When SPC Anthony joined the Army at 18, he went in with high hopes and sterling ideals; coming from a family with a proud military background, Anthony expected to meet mentors, heroes and lifelong friends while earning money for college and becoming a man. What he discovered was a disenchanting web of mundane corruption and self-serving lies. Unlike accounts exposing the military's most shameful iniquities, Anthony's memoir focuses on an endless parade of petty offenses-the cowardice, drug addiction, thievery, adultery and rampant hypocrisy-he found while working in a base hospital. Relentlessly honest and reflective, Anthony's record communicates perfectly the stranglehold of sadness, fear and disappointment that came with his lost innocence; just as worse is his eventual acceptance of the pointless, dysfunctional bureaucracy maintaining the status quo. Avoiding the intensity of the battlefield and the OR itself, Anthony's frustrations resonate with the feelings of any young man learning about the nature of authority and his helplessness before it. Readers curious about the human side of the ongoing Iraqi conflict will be struck by Anthony's strong voice, direct storytelling and stark honesty.

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Badanie kultury; Elementy teorii antropologicznej (2005).jpg

Zbiór najbardziej znaczących dla współczesnej antropologii społecznej i kulturowej tekstów, prezentujących podstawowe pojęcia, założenia, problemy i kontrowersje tej dyscypliny.
Książka powstała z myślą o studentach socjologii, etnologii, antropologii, kulturoznawstwa i nauk społecznych. Prezentowany materiał został ułożony w 5 działów odpowiadających najważniejszym kierunkom zainteresowań teoretycznych i przedmiotowych współczesnej antropologii. Teksty napisali wybitni współcześni antropolodzy: Raymond Firth, Clifford Geertz, Tim Ingold, Victor Turner, Sherry Ortner, Marshall Sahlins, Mary Douglas, Marilyn Strathern, Anthony Cohen, Igor Kopytoff, Henrietta Moore, Maurice Bloch, Jonathan Parry, Signe Howell i Marit Melhuus. Pozycję dopełniają: wstęp Mariana Kempnego i Ewy Nowickiej porządkujący tematykę antologii, bibliografia, noty o autorach oraz indeks osób.

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Igor Kopytoff - Kulturowa biografia rzeczy; utowar owienie jako proces (Badanie kultury; Elementy teo rii antropologicznej).rar

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Cooper Lawrence - The Cult of Celebrity; What Our Fascination with the Stars Reveals About Us (2009).jpg

America’s fast-growing religion is—let’s face it—celebrity worship. From gossip magazines to entertainment TV, from blogs to ads featuring famous faces, the stars are our new gods and goddesses. Their lives often seem as (or more) important than our own. But why are we so quick to put them on pedestals? Why are we even more spellbound when they topple back down to earth? And why do so many of us, on an unprecedented scale, think we could—and should—be celebrities, too?

In The Cult of Celebrity, psychology expert and nationally syndicated talk-show host Cooper Lawrence tells us why we do it and points both to the benefits and dangers of celebrity worship not only to society but also to us—our spending habits, health, social awareness, attitude toward personal failure and toward relationships, and above all, our self-image.

Drawing on the latest research as well as interviews with fans, entertainment industry insiders, and celebrities (Fran Drescher, Kevin Federline, Edwin McCain, and Marcia Gay Harden, to name but a few), The Cult of Celebrity is as accessible and sassy as it is thought-provoking. Frequent “reality checks” offer practical ways to gauge whether you or someone close to you has an unhealthy attitude to celebrity worship. In addition to providing clear steps to tackle the problem, this book offers the many among us who are interested in celebrities for harmless “entertainment-social” reasons tips to keep our interest under control, including danger signs to watch for.

Every bit as addictive as its subject, The Cult of Celebrity is a must for all the smart celeb hounds out there, as well as the parents and friends of those who've gone over the edge.

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Cooper Lawrence - The Cult of Celebrity; What Our Fascination with the Stars Reveals About Us (2009).pdf

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Chris Rojek - Celebrity (2004).jpg

In contemporary society, the cult of celebrity is inescapable. Anyone can be turned into a celebrity, and anything can be made into a celebrity event. Celebrity has become a part of everyday life, a common reference point. But how have people like Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Bill Clinton or Princess Diana impressed themselves so powerfully on the public mind? Do they have unique qualities, or have their images been constructed by the media? And what of the dark side of celebrity – why is the hunger to be in the public eye so great that people are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve it, as numerous mass murderers and serial killers have done.
Chris Rojek brings together celebrated figures from the arts, sports, politics and other public spheres, from O.J. Simpson and Marilyn Monroe to Hitler and David Bowie, and touches on many movements and fads, including punk, rock-and-roll and fashion. Rojek analyzes the difference between ascribed celebrity, which derives from bloodline, and achieved celebrity, which follows on from personal achievement - the difference between Princess Margaret and, say, Woody Allen. He also shows how there is no parallel in history to today's ubiquitous "living" form of celebrity, powered by newspapers, PR departments, magazines and electronic mass media.

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Chris Rojek - Celebrity (2004).pdf

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Stephen Fortescue - Russia's Oil Barons and Metal Magnates; Oligarchs and the State in Transition (2 007).jpg

Russian politics have been dominated over the last decade by the relationship between the oligarchs and the state. The existing literature is damning of the oligarchs, on two major grounds: they won their wealth and power corruptly, and rapaciously stripped the assets they had so dubiously obtained. This book contains a critical analysis of each of the claims made against them. In doing so it presents a detailed analysis of the place of the oligarchs in the Russian political economy.

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Stephen Fortescue - Russia's Oil Barons and Metal Magnates; Oligarchs and the State in Transition (2 007).pdf

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Addison Wiggin, Kate Incontrera - I.O.U.S.A.; One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt (2008).jpg

The United States has been spending its way deeper and deeper into the red, and saddling future generations with the mess—but who's paying attention? To answer that question, the companion book to the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A. talks with some of the most revered voices in the nation, including Warren Buffett; former Treasury Secretaries Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin; Pete Peterson, CEO of The Blackstone Group; Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas); and bestselling Empire of Debt author Bill Bonner. Armed with these interviews, historical references, and damning statistics, the book takes a lively and entertaining romp through the four deficits the nation faces: the budget deficit, the personal savings deficit, the trade deficit—and what former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, who resigned abruptly in 2008 over Congress’s lack of action, calls the “leadership deficit” in Washington. Defiantly non-partisan, the empowering solutions outlined in these pages are a must-read for any American who wants to help change “business-as-usual” in Washington as a new administration heads towards the Oval Office. “We the People” can get our politicians to stop spending, promote responsible economic programs, and hand our children and grandchildren the secure future they deserve.

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Addison Wiggin, Kate Incontrera - I.O.U.S.A.; One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt (2008).epub

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Spotkanie z dr Sławomirem Cenckiewiczem autorem ks iążki '' Sprawa Lecha Wałęsy '' (94m9s).mp3

Ponad 800 osób przyszło na spotkanie z dr Sławomirem Cenckiewiczem autorem książki " Sprawa Lecha Wałęsy " zorganizowane przez klub krakowski " Gazety Polskiej ".

Spotkanie poprowadzili : poseł Zbigniew Wassermann , prof. Andrzej Zybertowicz i prof. Andrzej Nowak .

Postać Lecha Wałęsy stała się pretekstem do pokazania szerszego tła ostatniej historii Polski , najważniejszym elementem tej książki jest to co stało się za sprawą Lecha Wałęsy w latach 90 , moment w którym prezydentem zostaje człowiek uwikłany we współpracę z SB na początku lat 70 , który najwyższą godność prezydenta wykorzystuje do zatarcia śladów swojej kompromitującej przeszłości .

Oczywiście Wałęsa nie mógł zrobić tego sam , prezydent nie schodził do archiwum UOP w Gdańsku , czy do MSW w Warszawie i nie szukał materiałów na swój temat i nie wyrywał tam kartek dotyczących materiałów agenturalnych " Bolka ", pomagali mu w tym ministrowie , ta książka tę patologię odsłania - stwierdził Sławomir Cenckiewicz ...

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Ronald Bruce St.John - Historical Dictionary of Li bya (2000).jpg

The Historical Dictionary of Libya is the one-hundredth book in the Jon Woronoff-edited series of historical dictionaries of Africa that began in 1974. A well-established and independent Libyan-focused scholar, Ronald Bruce. St. John provides a historical backdrop to present-day Libya with the intent of shedding light on the cultural context from which Muammar alQadhafi pulls his unique ruling style. At roughly the same length as the Third edition, this Fourth edition is a very concise consolidation of topics relevant to the politics of revolutionary Libya, with only a few entries pertinent to pre-colonial histories of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and the Fezzan.

The 288 pages of dictionary entries have been significantly revised and updated since the previous edition, accounting for the many changes in both Libyan domestic and foreign policies since the late 1990s. A majority of entries are defined as they pertain to Libya in its current form under Qadhafi. The somewhat scant information about members of the Libyan ruling class reflects the relative secrecy that continues to surround that country's high-level governance. Nevertheless, the comprehensive list of entries yields enough information for readers to thoroughly analyze decisions and dimensions of the modern Libyan state. Additionally, the appendices that directly follow the dictionary entries act as a good quick-reference guide for everything from governing elites to economic sanctions.

This edition also contains several smaller sections that complement the entries. A short series of maps illustrating territorial disputes between Libya and Chad and Libya and Tunisia helps readers visualize the roots of Libya's first two major legal interactions with the international community. The Chronology outlines major developments in Libya since the beginning of the Karamanli Dynasty in the 19th century with particular focus on Libya's foreign affairs since the One September Revolution. The Glossary and List of Abbreviations are sound collections of terms useful for clarifying some dictionary entries as well as scholarly articles pertaining to North Africa and Islam in general. The Bibliography is by far the most valuable aspect of this edition. It is divided into eight separate categories, each of which is further divided into several category-specific subjects, and is preceded by an introduction that takes the form of an annotated bibliography of other bibliographic sources appropriate for Libyan studies.

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