"Beautifully researched and deeply moving, [this book] brought me to tears more than once" -- John Simpson, The Guardian
"First-class...exhaustively researched and sensitively written" -- The Times
The extraordinary true story of the Afghans who risked their lives for us
The sudden withdrawal of British and American troops from Afghanistan in 2021, ended the 20 year war on terror, yet it also left Afghanistan to be reconquered by the Taliban. As violence and religious fundamentalism once again overwhelmed the region, thousands of Afghans who loyally served the British and American armies were left behind.
This is the story of what happened to them when the West left
The Gardener of Lashkar Gah follows the extraordinary journey of Shaista Gul, a kind former-policeman who built a beautiful garden inside a military base in Helmand Province that became famous as a calm oasis for soldiers with troubled minds.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781399411028
|
Hardcover
Guns, Girls, and Greed
By Lerette, Morgan
Guns, Girls, and Greed is an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes, tell-all account of the scathing and dangerous life of mercenaries at war in Iraq.. Experience the world of private contractors conducting high-threat missions for a nascent Iraqi government in the hopes of rebuilding after the fall of Saddam Hussein. With limited support, the men of Blackwater protected US diplomats as the country descended into sectarian violence. It was a hazardous mission complete with rockets, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and not knowing who or where the enemy was. Morgan Lerette's irreverently honest memoir shows the good and bad of injecting private armies into active combat zones in the name of diplomacy and digs deep into the bonds of brotherhood created by war.
Publisher: n/a
|
9798888450888
|
Hardcover
Kingdom on Fire
By Howard-cooper, Scott
In the tradition of Blood in the Garden and Three-Ring Circus comes a bold narrative history of the iconic UCLA Bruins championship teams led by legendary coach John Wooden - an incredible true story about the messy, never-easy pursuit of perfection set against the turmoil of American culture in the 1960s and 70s. . Few basketball dynasties have reigned supreme like the UCLA Bruins did over college basketball from 1965-1975 (seven consecutive titles, three perfect records, an eighty-eight-game winning streak that remains unmatched) . At the center of this legendary franchise were the now-iconic players Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton, naturally reserved personalities who became outspoken giants when it came to race and the Vietnam War. These generational talents were led byJohn Wooden, a conservative counterweight to his star players whose leadership skills would transcend the game after his retirement.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781668020494
|
Hardcover
Revolutions in American Music
By Broyles, Michael
The story of how unexpected connections between music, technology, and race across three tumultuous decades changed American culture.How did a European social dance craze become part of an American presidential election? Why did the recording industry become racially divided? Where did rock 'n' roll really come from? And how do all these things continue to reverberate in today's world?In Revolutions in American Music, award-winning author Michael Broyles shows the surprising ways in which three key decades -- the 1840s, the 1920s, and the 1950s -- shaped America's musical future. Drawing connections between new styles of music like the minstrel show, jazz, and rock 'n' roll, and emerging technologies like the locomotive, the first music recordings, and the transistor radio, Broyles argues that these decades fundamentally remade our cultural landscape in enduring ways.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780393634204
|
Hardcover
She's a Badass
By Taylor, Katherine Yeske
Feminism has always been a complex and controversial topic, as female rock musicians know especially well. When they've stayed true to their own vision, these artists have alternately been adored as role models or denounced as bad influences. Either way, they're asked to cope with certain pressures that their male counterparts haven't faced. With each successive feminism movement since the 1960s, women in rock have been prominent proponents of progress as they've increasingly taken control of their own music, message, and image. This, in its way, is just as revolutionary as any protest demonstration.In She's a Badass, music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews twenty significant women in rock, devoting an entire chapter to each one, taking an in-depth look at the incredible talent, determination - and, often, humor - they needed to succeed in their careers (and life) .
Publisher: n/a
|
9781493072545
|
Hardcover
What Iranians Want
By Azizi, Arash
The first major book on the new Iranian revolution. On Tuesday 13 September 2022, all Mahsa Amini has planned is a day shopping in Tehran. Her birthday is next week. But she is arrested as she comes out of the subway - the Guidance Patrol deem her hijab inadequate. On Friday she is pronounced dead. By Sunday, women have taken to the streets across Iran, setting their headscarves on fire and cursing the Supreme Leader. Months later, workers down their tools and businesses close. The battle cry everywhere: Women, Life, Freedom. This isn't a passing protest wave; something has changed irrevocably. Arash Azizi guides us through Iran ablaze, history being made in real time. From an International Women's Day celebrated inside Iran's most notorious prison to mass strikes in Kurdistan, ordinary Iranians are taking risks to fight for a better future.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780861547111
|
Hardcover
The Witch of New York
By Hortis, Alex
Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony - before even Lizzie Borden - there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation's debut media circus.. On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their home - and then covered up the crime with hellfire. When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin's sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new "penny press" explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: she's a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery, and has had multiple abortions.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781639363919
|
Hardcover
The Bishop and the Butterfly
By Wolraich, Michael
The riveting story of how the murder of femme fatale Vivian Gordon in 1931 brought about the downfall of the mayor of New York City and led to the end of Tammany Hall's dominance. Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names - businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine - the infamous Tammany Hall.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781454948025
|
Hardcover
A Great Disorder
By Slotkin, Richard
As culture wars pit us against each other, A Great Disorder looks to the myths that have shaped American identity and reveals how they have brought us to the brink of an existential crisis.. Red America and Blue America are so divided they could be two different countries, with wildly diverging views of why government exists and who counts as American. Their ideologies are grounded in different versions of American history, endorsing irreconcilable visions of patriotism and national identity.. A Great Disorder is a bold, urgent work that helps us make sense of today's culture wars through a brilliant reconsideration of America's foundational myths and their use in contemporary politics. Famous for his trilogy on the Myth of the Frontier, Richard Slotkin identifies five myths, born of different eras, that have shaped our conception of what it means to be American: the myths of the Frontier, the Founding, the Civil War (which he breaks into two opposing camps, Emancipation and the Lost Cause) , and the Good War, embodied by the multiethnic platoon fighting for freedom.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780674292383
|
Hardcover
Remembering Peasants
By Joyce, Patrick
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice* A landmark new history of the peasant experience, exploring a now neglected way of life that once encompassed most of humanity but is vanishing in our time.. "What the skeleton is to anatomy, the peasant is to history, its essential hidden support." For over the past century and a half, and still more rapidly in the last seventy years, the world has become increasingly urban, and the peasant way of life - the dominant way of life for humanity since agriculture began well over 6,000 years ago - is disappearing. In this new history of peasantry, social historian Patrick Joyce aims to tell the story of this lost world and its people, and how we can commemorate their way of life. In one sense, this is a global history, ambitious in scope, taking us from the urbanization of the early 19th century to the present day.
The Gardener of Lashkar Gah
By Brown, Larisa
"Beautifully researched and deeply moving, [this book] brought me to tears more than once" -- John Simpson, The Guardian "First-class...exhaustively researched and sensitively written" -- The Times The extraordinary true story of the Afghans who risked their lives for us The sudden withdrawal of British and American troops from Afghanistan in 2021, ended the 20 year war on terror, yet it also left Afghanistan to be reconquered by the Taliban. As violence and religious fundamentalism once again overwhelmed the region, thousands of Afghans who loyally served the British and American armies were left behind. This is the story of what happened to them when the West left The Gardener of Lashkar Gah follows the extraordinary journey of Shaista Gul, a kind former-policeman who built a beautiful garden inside a military base in Helmand Province that became famous as a calm oasis for soldiers with troubled minds.
Guns, Girls, and Greed
By Lerette, Morgan
Guns, Girls, and Greed is an unvarnished, behind-the-scenes, tell-all account of the scathing and dangerous life of mercenaries at war in Iraq.. Experience the world of private contractors conducting high-threat missions for a nascent Iraqi government in the hopes of rebuilding after the fall of Saddam Hussein. With limited support, the men of Blackwater protected US diplomats as the country descended into sectarian violence. It was a hazardous mission complete with rockets, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and not knowing who or where the enemy was. Morgan Lerette's irreverently honest memoir shows the good and bad of injecting private armies into active combat zones in the name of diplomacy and digs deep into the bonds of brotherhood created by war.
Kingdom on Fire
By Howard-cooper, Scott
In the tradition of Blood in the Garden and Three-Ring Circus comes a bold narrative history of the iconic UCLA Bruins championship teams led by legendary coach John Wooden - an incredible true story about the messy, never-easy pursuit of perfection set against the turmoil of American culture in the 1960s and 70s. . Few basketball dynasties have reigned supreme like the UCLA Bruins did over college basketball from 1965-1975 (seven consecutive titles, three perfect records, an eighty-eight-game winning streak that remains unmatched) . At the center of this legendary franchise were the now-iconic players Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton, naturally reserved personalities who became outspoken giants when it came to race and the Vietnam War. These generational talents were led byJohn Wooden, a conservative counterweight to his star players whose leadership skills would transcend the game after his retirement.
Revolutions in American Music
By Broyles, Michael
The story of how unexpected connections between music, technology, and race across three tumultuous decades changed American culture.How did a European social dance craze become part of an American presidential election? Why did the recording industry become racially divided? Where did rock 'n' roll really come from? And how do all these things continue to reverberate in today's world?In Revolutions in American Music, award-winning author Michael Broyles shows the surprising ways in which three key decades -- the 1840s, the 1920s, and the 1950s -- shaped America's musical future. Drawing connections between new styles of music like the minstrel show, jazz, and rock 'n' roll, and emerging technologies like the locomotive, the first music recordings, and the transistor radio, Broyles argues that these decades fundamentally remade our cultural landscape in enduring ways.
She's a Badass
By Taylor, Katherine Yeske
Feminism has always been a complex and controversial topic, as female rock musicians know especially well. When they've stayed true to their own vision, these artists have alternately been adored as role models or denounced as bad influences. Either way, they're asked to cope with certain pressures that their male counterparts haven't faced. With each successive feminism movement since the 1960s, women in rock have been prominent proponents of progress as they've increasingly taken control of their own music, message, and image. This, in its way, is just as revolutionary as any protest demonstration.In She's a Badass, music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews twenty significant women in rock, devoting an entire chapter to each one, taking an in-depth look at the incredible talent, determination - and, often, humor - they needed to succeed in their careers (and life) .
What Iranians Want
By Azizi, Arash
The first major book on the new Iranian revolution. On Tuesday 13 September 2022, all Mahsa Amini has planned is a day shopping in Tehran. Her birthday is next week. But she is arrested as she comes out of the subway - the Guidance Patrol deem her hijab inadequate. On Friday she is pronounced dead. By Sunday, women have taken to the streets across Iran, setting their headscarves on fire and cursing the Supreme Leader. Months later, workers down their tools and businesses close. The battle cry everywhere: Women, Life, Freedom. This isn't a passing protest wave; something has changed irrevocably. Arash Azizi guides us through Iran ablaze, history being made in real time. From an International Women's Day celebrated inside Iran's most notorious prison to mass strikes in Kurdistan, ordinary Iranians are taking risks to fight for a better future.
The Witch of New York
By Hortis, Alex
Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony - before even Lizzie Borden - there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation's debut media circus.. On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their home - and then covered up the crime with hellfire. When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin's sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new "penny press" explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: she's a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery, and has had multiple abortions.
The Bishop and the Butterfly
By Wolraich, Michael
The riveting story of how the murder of femme fatale Vivian Gordon in 1931 brought about the downfall of the mayor of New York City and led to the end of Tammany Hall's dominance. Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names - businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine - the infamous Tammany Hall.
A Great Disorder
By Slotkin, Richard
As culture wars pit us against each other, A Great Disorder looks to the myths that have shaped American identity and reveals how they have brought us to the brink of an existential crisis.. Red America and Blue America are so divided they could be two different countries, with wildly diverging views of why government exists and who counts as American. Their ideologies are grounded in different versions of American history, endorsing irreconcilable visions of patriotism and national identity.. A Great Disorder is a bold, urgent work that helps us make sense of today's culture wars through a brilliant reconsideration of America's foundational myths and their use in contemporary politics. Famous for his trilogy on the Myth of the Frontier, Richard Slotkin identifies five myths, born of different eras, that have shaped our conception of what it means to be American: the myths of the Frontier, the Founding, the Civil War (which he breaks into two opposing camps, Emancipation and the Lost Cause) , and the Good War, embodied by the multiethnic platoon fighting for freedom.
Remembering Peasants
By Joyce, Patrick
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice* A landmark new history of the peasant experience, exploring a now neglected way of life that once encompassed most of humanity but is vanishing in our time.. "What the skeleton is to anatomy, the peasant is to history, its essential hidden support." For over the past century and a half, and still more rapidly in the last seventy years, the world has become increasingly urban, and the peasant way of life - the dominant way of life for humanity since agriculture began well over 6,000 years ago - is disappearing. In this new history of peasantry, social historian Patrick Joyce aims to tell the story of this lost world and its people, and how we can commemorate their way of life. In one sense, this is a global history, ambitious in scope, taking us from the urbanization of the early 19th century to the present day.