Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Speechwriter - A Brief...

  Barton Swaim

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  Everyone knows this kind of politician: a charismatic maverick who goes up against the system and its ways, but thinks he doesn't have to live by the rules. Using his experience as a speechwriter, Barton Swaim tells the story of a band of believers who attach themselves to this sort of ambitious narcissist-what makes them invest in these leaders, how these leaders do provide moments of inspiration, and then how they let them down.The Speechwriter is a funny and candid introduction to the world of politics, where press statements are purposefully nonsensical, grammatical errors are intentional, and better copy means more words. Through his three years in the office of a controversial governor, Swaim paints a portrait of a man so principled he'd rather sweat than use state money to pay for air conditioning, so oblivious he'd wear the same stained shirt for two weeks, so egotistical he'd belittle his staffers to make himself feel better, and so self-absorbed he never once apologized to his staff for making his administration the laughing stock of the country. On the surface, this is the story of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's rise and fall. But in the end, it's an account of the very human staffers who go into politics out of conviction and learn to survive a broken heart.

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  Mads Øvlisen

  Mads Øvlisen

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  Experience a first-hand interview with the legendary Mads Øvlisen, Chairman of LEGO and fmr. CEO and Chairman of Novo Nordisk and The Royal Danish Theatre. The modern business topics discussed in each chapter of The Mind of a Leader: Legends are closely related to the issues raised in Niccolò Machiavelli's controversial strategic masterpiece “The Prince”.  The Mind of a Leader: Legends is an outstanding training and development tool offering practical hands-on advice in regards to both individual and organizational success. A fascinating journey to the inside of successful modern organizations and leadership minds.

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  Prisoner of the State - The...

  Renee Chiang, Adi Ignatius, Bao Pu

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  How often can you peek behind the curtains of one of the most secretive governments in the world? Prisoner of the State is the first book to give listeners a front row seat to the secret inner workings of China's government. It is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to that nation and who, at the height of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, tried to stop the massacre and was dethroned for his efforts.When China's army moved in, killing hundreds of students and other demonstrators, Zhao was placed under house arrest at his home on a quiet alley in Beijing. China's most promising change agent had been disgraced, along with the policies he stood for. The premier spent the last sixteen years of his life, up until his death in 2005, in seclusion. An occasional detail about his life would slip out: reports of a golf excursion, a photo of his aging visage, a leaked letter to China's leaders. But China scholars often lamented that Zhao never had his final say.As it turns out, Zhao did produce a memoir in complete secrecy. He methodically recorded his thoughts and recollections on what had happened behind the scenes during many of modern China's most critical moments. The tapes he produced were smuggled out of the country and form the basis for Prisoner of the State. In this audio journal, Zhao provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown, describes the ploys and double-crosses China's top leaders use to gain advantage over one another, and talks about the necessity for China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability.The China that Zhao portrays is not some long-lost dynasty. It is today's China, where the nation's leaders accept economic freedom but continue to resist political change. If Zhao had survived-that is, if the hard-line hadn't prevailed during Tiananmen-he might have been able to steer China's political system toward more openness and tolerance. Zhao's call to begin lifting the party's control over China's life-to let a little freedom into the public square-is remarkable coming from a man who had once dominated that square. Although Zhao now speaks from the grave in this moving and riveting memoir, his voice has the moral power to make China sit up and listen.

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  Bomber Boys - Dramatic and True...

  Mel Rolfe

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  “Expertly researched . . . 20 different narratives in which these heroes venture out night after night on sorties throughout World War II Europe.” —Plane and Pilot  Three weeks after Stirling air gunner Doug Fry was reported missing over Germany his mother was still clinging to the vain hope that he was alive. Then a neighbor said she had seen him in the cinema just down the road. The airman and his crew had been filmed for a Bomber Command documentary shortly before they took off from Mildenhall to attack Remscheid. Three hours later four of the crew were killed, but it was another two months after she had also seen the poignant film that widowed mother of eight Winnie Fry knew her nineteen-year-old son, though wounded, was still alive. Lancaster pilot Victor Wood’s aircraft arrived too early over Gelsenkirchen when the target was shrouded in darkness and the Main Force was miles behind. His 12 Squadron bomber was suddenly struck with terrifying force by flak and turned upside-down. An engine was on fire, the unconscious mid-upper gunner, slumped in his turret, was being sprayed with petrol and their bomb-load had been struck by shrapnel. Could Vic Wood get his crew back to base safely? These are just two of twenty dramatic Bomber Command stories in Bomber Boys. Night after night, the young men, some just out of school, went off on sorties, having pushed to the back of their minds the unpalatable awareness that they might never see another dawn. If death did not find them on the first few terrifying sorties they grew up very quickly in order to fight another day.

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  The Diary of William Young of...

  Kevin Last

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  William Young was the son of gentleman farmer Henry Young who owned Cotchford Farm in the mid-nineteenth century. At the age of just twenty-three William left the farm for what we might now term a 'gap year' working in Canada. This book, based on his own diary from 1854/5, tells the fascinating story of his journey via Liverpool and onwards on a three-masted schooner to New York, Buffalo and eventually Lake Erie. The voyage had its own perils, a long way from transatlantic travel today. Unbeknown to our diarist, the ship he travelled on was part of a criminal enterprise and eventually suffered both mutiny and wreck. In the mill towns on Lake Erie Young proves an indispensable worker both on crops and stonework. Just as he is about to return to England he is beset with difficulties..... His is a young, clear voice on life a hundred and sixty years ago.

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  Pathfinder Pioneer - The Memoir...

  Raymond E. Brim

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  In this engaging book we see how an eighteen-year-old miner shoveling ore from deep in the ground in Utah suddenly found himself, only two years later, 30,000 feet in the air over Nazi Germany, piloting a Flying Fortress in the first wave of America's air counteroffensive in Europe.Like thousands of other young Americans, Ray Brim was plucked by the U.S. Army to be a combat flyer, and was quickly pitted against the hardened veterans of the Luftwaffe. Brim turned out to have a natural knack for flying, however, and was assigned to the select squadron developing lead Pathfinder techniques, while experimenting with radar. He was among the first to test the teeth of the Luftwaffe's defenses, and once those techniques had been honed, thousands of other bomber crews would follow into the maelstrom, from which 80,000 never returned.Pathfinder Pioneer gives us vivid insights into the genesis of the American air campaign, told with the humor, attention to detail, and humility that captures the heart and soul of our "Greatest Generation."

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