Other books that might interest you

• 

  Tirpitz - And the Imperial...

  Patrick J. Kelly

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “A first-rate biography of this grand admiral who is better known for his political skills than his naval ones.” —US Naval Insitute Proceedings   Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930) was the principal force behind the rise of the German Imperial Navy prior to World War I, challenging Great Britain’s command of the seas. As State Secretary of the Imperial Naval Office from 1897 to 1916, Tirpitz wielded great power and influence over the national agenda during that crucial period. By the time he had risen to high office, Tirpitz was well equipped to use his position as a platform from which to dominate German defense policy. Though he was cool to the potential of the U-boat, he enthusiastically supported a torpedo boat branch of the navy and began an ambitious building program for battleships and battle cruisers. Based on exhaustive archival research, including new material from family papers, Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy is the first extended study in English of this germinal figure in the growth of the modern navy.   “Well written and based on new sources . . . allows the reader deep insights into the life of a man who played a very important role at the turn of the last century and who, like almost nobody else, shaped German policy.” —International Journal of Maritime History   “An invaluable reference work on Tirpitz, the Imperial German Navy, and on politics in Wilhelmine Germany.” —The Northern Mariner

  Show book

• 

  The Story of My Life

  Helen Keller

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." -Helen Keller Before she was two years old, scarlet fever destroyed Helen Keller's sight and hearing. At seven, alone and withdrawn, she was rescued by Anne Sullivan, her teacher and friend. She learned to read (in several different languages) and speak so well that she graduated with honors in 1904 from Radcliffe, where she authored The Story of My Life. In addition to her remarkable accomplishment of overcoming such huge disabilities, her other achievements are impressive in their own right. She published thirteen books and numerous articles; she devoted her life to social reform; and she campaigned on behalf of the handicapped in thirty-five countries, touching the faces-and hearts-of kings, presidents, and movie stars. Today the foundations she established continue to help the deaf and blind throughout the world. Enthusiastic and untiring, Helen Keller is deservedly inspirational and stands before all of us as an example of what we can accomplish, given fortitude and purpose. Most important, she demonstrates that the severely disabled have nothing to be ashamed of.

  Show book

• 

  Black first lady - conversations...

  Benjamin Bailey

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Michelle Obama legacy as FIRST LADY is sealed forever in America fabric. She exemplified strength, compassion, and beauty like any other first lady before her. When it came to social issues, people could feel her empathy and familiarity with their problems, and her honesty is what drew people to her. Michelle Obama conversations in this book show a side to the world, that I BECAME cannot compare to by any means. This book will take you higher in passion, struggle, and determination as Michelle Obama imbued for success and family. History and the future will forever respect Michelle Obama, because she may have been the FIRST BLACK LADY, but she will not be the last; and her experience and profound conduct is there for other future black women to emulate.

  Show book

• 

  Teaching the Trees - Lessons...

  Joan Maloof

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In this collection of natural-history essays, biologist Joan Maloof embarks on a series of lively, fact-filled expeditions into forests of the eastern United States. Through Maloof's engaging, conversational style, each essay offers a lesson in stewardship as it explores the interwoven connections between a tree species and the animals and insects whose lives depend on it—and who, in turn, work to ensure the tree's survival.Never really at home in a laboratory, Maloof took to the woods early in her career. Her enthusiasm for firsthand observation in the wild spills over into her writing, whether the subject is the composition of forest air, the eagle's preference for nesting in loblolly pines, the growth rings of the bald cypress, or the gray squirrel's fondness for weevil-infested acorns. With a storyteller's instinct for intriguing particulars, Maloof expands our notions about what a tree "is" through her many asides—about the six species of leafhoppers who eat only sycamore leaves or the midges who live inside holly berries and somehow prevent them from turning red.As a scientist, Maloof accepts that trees have a spiritual dimension that cannot be quantified. As an unrepentant tree hugger, she finds support in the scientific case for biodiversity. As an activist, she can't help but wonder how much time is left for our forests.

  Show book

• 

  Rags and Bones - An Exploration...

  Jeff Sellars, Kevin C. Neece

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  After performing with Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks (1957–1964), The Band (Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, and Levon Helm) eventually rose to fame in the sixties as backing musicians for Bob Dylan. This collaboration with Dylan presented the group with a chance to expand musically and strike out on their own. The Band's fusion of rock, country, soul, and blues music—all tinged with a southern flavor and musical adventurousness—created a unique soundscape. The combined use of multiple instruments, complex song structures, and poetic lyrics required attentive listening and a sophisticated interpretive framework. It is no surprise, then, that they soon grew to be one of the biggest bands of their era.In Rags and Bones: An Exploration of The Band, scholars and musicians take a broad, multidisciplinary approach to The Band and their music, allowing for examination through sociological, historical, political, religious, technological, cultural, and philosophical means. Each contributor approaches The Band from their field of interest, offering a wide range of investigations into The Band's music and influence.Commercially successful and critically lauded, The Band created a paradoxically mythic and hauntingly realistic lyrical landscape for their songs—and their musicianship enlarged this detailed landscape.

  Show book

• 

  No Angel - My Harrowing...

  Jay Dobyns, Nils Johnson-Shelton

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Getting shot in the chest as a rookie ATF agent, bartering for machine guns, throttling down the highway at 100 miles per hour, and responding to a full-scale, bloody riot between the Hells Angels and their rivals, the Mongols-these are just a few of the high-adrenaline experiences Jay Dobyns recounts in this action-packed, hard to imagine, but true story of how he infiltrated the legendary Hells Angels.Dobyns leaves no stone of his harrowing journey unturned. At runs and clubhouses, between rides and riots, Dobyns befriends bad-ass bikers, meth-fueled "old ladies," gun fetishists, psycho-killer ex-cons, and even some of the "Filthy Few"-the elite of the Hells Angels who've committed extreme violence on behalf of their club. Eventually, at parties staged behind heavily armed security, he meets legendary club members such as Chuck Zito, Johnny Angel, and the godfather of all bikers, Ralph "Sonny" Barger. To blend in with them, he gets full-arm ink; to win their respect, he vows to prove himself a stone-cold killer.Hardest of all is leading a double life, which has him torn between his devotion to his wife and children and his pledge to become the first federal agent ever to be "fully patched" into the Angels' near-impregnable ranks. His act is so convincing that he comes within a hairsbreadth of losing himself. Eventually, he realizes that just as he's been infiltrating the Hells Angels, they've been infiltrating him. And just as they're not all bad, he's not all good.Reminiscent of Donnie Brasco's uncovering of the true Mafia, this is an eye-opening portrait of the world of bikers-the most in-depth since Hunter Thompson's seminal work-one that fully describes the seductive lure criminal camaraderie has for men who would otherwise be powerless outsiders. Here is all the nihilism, hate, and intimidation, but also the freedom-and, yes, brotherhood-of the only truly American form of organized crime.

  Show book