Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Best Gun in the World -...

  Robert S. Seigler

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  A thoroughly researched account of weapons innovation and industrialization in South Carolina during the Civil War and the man who made it happen. 
   
  A year after seceding from the Union, South Carolina and the Confederate States government faced the daunting challenge of equipping soldiers with weapons, ammunition, and other military implements during the American Civil War. In The Best Gun in the World, Robert S. Seigler explains how South Carolina created its own armory and then enlisted the help of a weapons technology inventor to meet the demand. Seigler mined state and federal factory records, national and state archives, and US patents for detailed information on weapons production, the salaries and status of free and enslaved employees, and other financial records to reveal an interesting, distinctive story of technological innovation and industrialization in South Carolina. 
   
  George Woodward Morse, originally from New Hampshire, was a machinist and firearms innovator, who settled in Louisiana in the 1840s. He invented a reliable breechloading firearm in the mid-1850s to replace muzzleloaders that were ubiquitous throughout the world. Essential to the successful operation of any breechloader was its ammunition, and Morse perfected the first metallic, center-fire, pre-primed cartridge, his most notable contribution to the development of modern firearms. 
   
  The US War Department tested Morse rifles and cartridges prior to the beginning of the Civil War and contracted with the inventor to produce the weapons at Harpers Ferry Armory. However, when the war began, Morse, a slave-holding plantation owner, determined that he could sell more of his guns in the South. The South Carolina State Military Works originally designed to cast cannon, produced Morse’s carbine and modified muskets, brass cartridges, cartridge boxes, and other military accoutrements. The armory ultimately produced only about 1,350 Morse firearms. For the next twenty years, Morse sought to regain his legacy as the inventor of the center-fire brass cartridges that are today standard ammunition for military and sporting firearms. 
   
  “Does justice to one of the greatest stories in American firearms history. If George Woodward Morse had not sided with the Confederacy, his name might be as famous today as Colt or Winchester.” —Gordon L. Jones, Atlanta History Center  
   
  “Excellent and well-researched.” —Patrick McCawley, South Carolina Department of Archives and History 
   
  “For connoisseurs and scholars of military history (especially Civil War), history of technology, or Southern/South Carolina history, this is a must-read and reference volume pertaining to a previously little-known aspect of the nineteenth century that had a far-reaching impact in the manner wars would be fought by soldiers decades later.” —Barry L. Stiefel, College of Charleston

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  Freezing Cold Takes - NFL...

  Fred Segal

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  Since 2015, Fred Segal has chronicled "unprophetic" sports predictions on the internet. His Freezing Cold Takes social media pages feature quotes and predictions from members of the sports world that have aged poorly or were, in hindsight, flat-out wrong. The pages have become a guilty pleasure for hundreds of thousands of sports fans who love to see sports media's infamous "hot takes" that went cold. Segal focuses on the NFL, and provides a vast collection of poorly aged predictions and analysis from NFL media members and personalities about some of the most famous teams and players in the league's history. He also explores ill-fated commentary related to draft picks, hiring decisions, and some of the NFL's most notable games. But this book is not simply a list of quotes. It delves through content mined from internet archives and original interviews with media, players, and coaches. Segal provides important background surrounding each featured mistake to offer essential context as to why the ill-fated prediction was made as well as why the personality who made the prediction is eating their words.Together, the fourteen chapters—each spotlighting Freezing Cold Takes about a specific team or topic within a certain defined period—create a wholly unique and endlessly entertaining lens through which to explore NFL history.

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  Harry Oppenheimer - Diamonds...

  Michael Card

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  This book will surely be the most readable, best informed, most complete account of Harry Oppenheimer's life there is ever likely to be.' – Bill Nasson, historian and author
  As chairman of Anglo American and De Beers, Harry Oppenheimer held sway over his family's gold and diamond empire for a quarter of a century. He combined a passion for commerce with a streak of creative genius.
  In this, the first comprehensive biography of Oppenheimer, Michael Cardo has produced a vivid portrait based on unrestricted access to his subject's private papers and interviews with Oppenheimer's relatives and associates.
  Cardo brings to life the places, people and events that shaped Oppenheimer's career at the intersection of business and politics. From the diamond fields of Kimberley, where his father, Ernest, arrived to seek his fortune in 1902, through his long apprenticeship as heir apparent, to Harry Oppenheimer's emergence on the world stage as a magnate and monarch in his own right – the 'King of Diamonds' and the man with the Midas touch – Cardo tells the story of a dynasty.
  As a financier, philanthropist and public figure, Oppenheimer straddles the history of 20th-century South Africa. In the 1950s the National Party regarded him as a threat to Afrikanerdom, the sinister embodiment of English 'money power'. Forty years later, Nelson Mandela praised Oppenheimer as a nation-builder, a key figure in South Africa's transition to democracy. Yet nowadays, Oppenheimer is demonised in some quarters as the archetype of 'white monopoly capital' and blamed, in part, for democracy's disappointing dividends.
  Meticulously researched and superbly written, this authoritative work sheds new light on the multifaceted legacy of a renowned South African industrialist.

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  Uncanny Valley - A Memoir

  Anna Wiener

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  The prescient account of a journey in Silicon Valley: a defining memoir of our digital ageIn her mid-20s, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener — stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial — left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress.Anna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building.Part coming-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener’s memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart, Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.Unsparing and incisive, Uncanny Valley is a cautionary tale, and a revelatory interrogation of a world reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning to understand.

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  The Way of Perfection

  Teresa of Avila

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  El Camino de Perfección (trans.: The Way of Perfection) is a method for making progress in the contemplative life written by St. Teresa of Ávila for the sisters of her reformed convent of the Carmelite Order (Discalced). St. Teresa was a major figure of the Catholic Reformation in 16th Century Spain. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

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  A Doctor's Stories

  Dr. John McGeehan

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  Has COVID changed the way we think about ethics? Do our dogs deserve better end-of-life options than people? Is there magic behind the door when a doctor sees a patient? How can we all pay it forward? These and many other issues are part of the message of the many stories. This book is a physician’s reflection on his 40-plus years of interactions with family, friends, patients, medical students, and residents. The short stories are meant to show how humanism, professionalism, and ethical behavior can enrich one’s life and that of others. The path leading to the insights is laid out for the reader using humor and reflection. All the stories are true and arranged to show how we all grow in our approach to life. Every moment in our life is worth experiencing and each opens an often unexpected door for us. The collection began as a method for the author to regain his memory after a serious illness. The impact of this is made clear and lays out how he became the person and physician he is, as well as the importance of sharing stories with others to allow them to reflect on their own path.

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