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  Murder & Mayhem in Mendon and...

  Diane Ham, Lynne Menz

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  The notorious history of two nineteenth-century hamlets in western New York, famous for an era of bustling commerce—and criminality.   The Town of Mendon and the Village of Honeoye Falls are today quiet western New York suburbs, but they weren't always so idyllic. In years past, the village was a center of commerce, manufacturing and railroads, and by the mid-nineteenth century, this prosperity brought with it an element of mayhem. Horse stealing was commonplace. Saloons and taverns were abundant. Street scuffles and barroom brawls were regular, especially on Saturday nights, after the laborers were paid. By Sunday morning, numerous drunks—like Manley Locke, who would eventually go on to kill another man in a fight—were confined to the lockup in the village hall. It was at this time that the Village of Honeoye Falls earned the name “Murderville.” As the town and village turn two hundred, join local historians Diane Ham and Lynne Menz as they explore the peaceful region’s vicious history.   Includes photos!

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  Advocate - On History's Front...

  James Hamilton, David Ignatius

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  For more than half a century, James Hamilton has been an active participant and an inside observer of some of the most consequential moments in modern US history. He has been involved in investigations concerning Watergate, the Kennedy assassination, "Debategate," the Keating Five, the Clinton impeachment, Vince Foster's suicide, the Valerie Plame affair, Benghazi, and the Major League Baseball steroids scandal. 
   
   
   
  Advocate discusses the travails of prominent politicians and other well-known individuals, focusing particularly on high-profile congressional and other investigations. Credited with developing the modern system for vetting Democratic vice-presidential candidates, Hamilton recounts his extensive vetting of vice-presidential, cabinet, and Supreme Court candidates—including Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 
   
   
   
  Much more than a memoir from a seasoned lawyer, Advocate is a richly detailed history of some of the most sensational and controversial events in Washington politics over the past fifty years. By sharing information and insights known only to him, Hamilton fills in the gaps of historical events while advising the public on lessons that can be learned from the past. Anyone interested in the uniquely American intermingling of law and politics will find this an engaging book.

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  Argentina - Historical Roots and...

  Anya Solace

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  Argentina’s economic history is deeply intertwined with its political evolution and the social transformations that have shaped its national identity. From its early days as a Spanish colony to its modern-day status as one of the largest economies in Latin America, Argentina’s economic journey reflects both its potential and its vulnerabilities. The development of Argentina’s economy has been marked by periods of prosperity, such as during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and periods of profound crisis, including the devastating economic collapse of 2001-2002. This chapter introduces the key historical milestones that have influenced the economic landscape of Argentina, providing a foundation for understanding the complex dynamics of its economic structure. 
  The story of Argentina’s economy begins with the indigenous societies that thrived on the land long before European colonization. Spanish colonization, starting in the 16th century, brought profound changes, introducing new economic systems and reshaping local trade practices. Agriculture became the dominant sector under colonial rule, with the Spanish focusing on extracting resources and establishing a trade-based economy that centered on Buenos Aires as a port for export. However, the colonial legacy of resource extraction and the absence of industrialization laid the groundwork for some of Argentina's long-standing economic challenges. 
  Upon gaining independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina faced the daunting task of creating a stable economic framework. The early post-independence years were marked by internal divisions and external conflicts, which stifled economic development. However, by the late 19th century, Argentina began to establish itself as a key global agricultural exporter. The development of railways and ports enabled the country to transport vast quantities of grain, beef, and other commodities to European markets, ushering in a period of unprecedented economic growth.

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  The US Congress - A Very Short...

  Donald A. Ritchie

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  Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for forty years, takes listeners on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol Hill, pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and translating parliamentary language into plain English. He also explores the essential necessity of compromise to accomplish anything significant in the legislative arena. However, recent events show that political polarization has hardened and produced gridlock. The 2020 election also produced a more diverse membership in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, and ideology, with primary elections resulting in the defeat of moderate candidates, making bipartisan compromise harder to achieve. 
   
   
   
  Among the most significant events, the Senate ignored President Obama's last nomination to the Supreme Court and then adopted a "nuclear option" to streamline future Supreme Court confirmations. The House also twice impeached President Trump, processes that starkly expose the differences between the majority-rule requirements of the House and the super-majority requirements of the Senate. This new edition explains how the parties have changed in light of the unprecedented politics of the past four years, culminating in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and how this development has affected both the House and the Senate.

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  How to Steal a Presidential...

  Lawrence Lessig, Matthew Seligman

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  From two distinguished experts on election law, an alarming look at how the American presidency could be stolen—by entirely legal means 
   
  Even in the fast and loose world of the Trump White House, the idea that a couple thousand disorganized protestors storming the U.S. Capitol might actually prevent a presidential succession was farfetched. Yet perfectly legal ways of overturning election results actually do exist, and they would allow a political party to install its own candidate in place of the true winner. 
   
  Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman work through every option available for subverting a presumptively legitimate result—from vice-presidential intervention to election decertification and beyond. While many strategies would never pass constitutional muster, Lessig and Seligman explain how some might. They expose correctable weaknesses in the system, including one that could be corrected only by the Supreme Court. 
   
  Any strategy aimed at hacking a presidential election is a threat to democracy. This book is a clarion call to shore up the insecure system for electing the president before American democracy is forever compromised. 
   
  Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Matthew Seligman is a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and a partner at Stris & Maher LLP.

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  The Colony - Faith and Blood in...

  Sally Denton

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  On the morning of November 4, 2019, a caravan of women and children was ambushed by masked gunmen on a desolate stretch of road in northern Mexico controlled by the Sinaloa drug cartel. Firing semi-automatic weapons, the attackers killed nine people and gravely injured five more. The victims were members of the LeBaron and La Mora communities—fundamentalist Mormons whose forebears broke from the LDS Church and settled in Mexico when their religion outlawed polygamy in the late nineteenth century. The massacre produced international headlines for weeks, and prompted President Donald Trump to threaten to send in the US Army. 
   
   
   
  In The Colony, Sally Denton delves into the complex story of the LeBaron clan. Their homestead—Colonia LeBaron—is a portal into the past, a place that offers a glimpse of life within a polygamous community on an arid and dangerous frontier in the mid-1800s, though with smartphones and machine guns. Rooting her narrative in written sources as well as interviews with anonymous women from LeBaron itself, Denton unfolds an epic, disturbing tale that spans the first polygamist emigrations to Mexico through the LeBarons' internal blood feud in the 1970s and up to the family's recent alliance with the NXIVM sex cult, whose now-imprisoned leader, Keith Raniere, may have based his practices on the society he witnessed in Colonia LeBaron.

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