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  Bullsh*t Comparisons - A Field...

  Andrew Brooks

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  Bullshit Comparisons will challenge the way you think about rankings, charts, and other marketing and political tools designed to create odious and dangerous comparisons.Is Boris Johnson really like Winston Churchill? Are electric cars actually greener than petrol ones? Which is the world's most successful university? Is Lisbon the new Barcelona? Should we compare the achievements of younger and older siblings even when we know it damages their self-worth? We make comparisons every day, but how helpful are they?Looking across a dazzling range of situations both familiar and unfamiliar, Bullshit Comparisons is a groundbreaking examination of the role of comparison in modern society, illuminated by examples spanning from the FIFA World Footballer of the year, to wine-tasting in London, hospital care in Sierra Leone, and avocado farming in Colombia.Challenging us to think critically about the use of comparison through accessible, personal, and often amusing research, Andrew Brooks reveals the uses and abuses of comparisons in a book that isn't like anything else.

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  Six - The Real James Bonds...

  Michael Smith

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  The first part of acclaimed author Mick Smith's epic, completely unauthorised history of Britain s external intelligence community. Six tells the complete story of the service's birth and early years, including the tragic, untold tale of what happened to Britain's extensive networks in Soviet Russia between the wars. It reveals for the first time how the playwright and MI6 agent Harley Granville Barker bribed the Daily News to keep Arthur Ransome in Russia, and the real reason Paul Dukes returned there.
  It shows development of tradecraft and the great personal risk officers and their agents took, far from home and unprotected. In Salonika, for example, Lieutenant Norman Dewhurst realised it was time to leave when he opened his door to find one of his agents hanging dismembered in a sack.
  This first part of Six takes us up to the eve of the conflict, using hundreds of previously classified files and interviews with key players to show how one of the world's most secretive of secret agencies originated and developed into something like the MI6 we know today.

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  Target London - Bombing the...

  Peter Rees

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  London was a target for Zeppelins and bombers during the First World War, for bombers, V1s and rockets in the Second, and for Cold War missiles and for terrorists in more recent times, yet rarely has the history of twentieth-century attacks on the capital been studied as a whole. Peter Reese, in this thought-provoking account, vividly describes how the destructive potential of aerial bombing and terrorist actions has increased and how Londoners have struggled to protect themselves and their city.He looks at the strategic aims of the bombing campaigns  panic, devastation, paralysis of communications and the collapse of morale - and contrasts them with the actual responses of Londoners  of civilians  who faced this new form of indiscriminate warfare. As he traces the developing theory and practice of air power, he dispels myths and misunderstandings that still surround the subject.His narrative follows the story from the commencement of the First World War when the development of aircraft accelerated and the possibilities of aerial warfare came to be appreciated  and feared. There are graphic accounts of the German raids on the city in the First World War, of the intense interwar debate about the impact of bombing, and of the ordeal that followed - the Blitz and the V1 and V2 campaigns.He also considers in the concluding chapters more recent threats to the capital which come, not from aircraft and missiles, but from the bombing tactics adopted by terrorists, and the need for appropriate responses.

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  Executive Secrets - Covert...

  William J. Daugherty

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  “Clears up some common misconceptions of the CIA . . . an insider’s perspective on how covert action really works, or fails” (Savannah Morning News).   Covert action has been used as an instrument of statecraft by America’s leaders since its earliest days. Some presidents have used it wisely, contributing to our success and security. Others have used it poorly, not understanding its limitations and weaknesses, with disastrous results. Surrounded by secrecy as it is, it’s not surprising that covert action can provoke confusion, ambivalence, and strong feelings among the citizens of a democracy.  Executive Secrets shines a light on the development and execution of foreign policy and the role covert action has played—forging a deeper and more nuanced understanding of both its value and its drawbacks in the ongoing project of keeping the United States safe from its adversaries and respected by its allies.   “A most informative study of covert action. . . . A valuable work that will be treasured by scholars and professionals in the field. Highly recommended.” —Choice   “Daugherty has done us all a tremendous service by attempting to rescue the Agency from the myths, both well-meaning and malevolent, that shape our understanding of it. . . . This book ought to dispel some of the fog that obscures our understanding of the C.I.A. and that prompts the gigantic mood swings in our attitude toward intelligence gathering and covert actions.” —Mark Bowden, from the forewordA History Book Club Selection

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  George Washington's War - In...

  Kenneth Baker

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  A Revolutionary War history told through eighteenth-century illustrations: “Utterly absorbing” (The Times, London).   Americans are steeped in the history of the American Revolution, but often the fog of myth shrouds the reality. In these pages, the path to war is starkly documented by British caricatures of politicians and generals—for the most part favorable to the Colonists. For George III, Lord North, and Britain, the war was a disaster that need not have happened. The problems of coping with a country five thousand miles away with a tradition of representative government, a free press, and a spirit of independence were just too much. But they, together with Generals Howe, Burgoyne, Cornwallis, and others, were mercilessly lampooned. Washington, the hero, is spared, although there are surprising and dark elements to the American victory illustrated here.   Using prints and caricatures from the period—some never before published—and drawing on his own experience in politics, Kenneth Baker provides vivid and memorable images that illustrate these extraordinary historical events.

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  Somewhere Inside - One Sister's...

  Laura Ling, Lisa Ling

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  Somewhere Inside is the electrifying, never-before-told story of Laura Ling’s capture by the North Koreans in March 2009, and the efforts of her sister, journalist Lisa Ling, to secure Laura’s release by former President Bill Clinton. This riveting true account of the first ever trial of an American citizen in North Korea’s highest court carries readers deep inside the world’s most secretive nation while it poignantly explores the powerful, inspiring bonds of sisterly love.

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