Other books that might interest you

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  Eli Whitney: The Life and Legacy...

  Charles River Editors

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  In the 1600s, cotton and silk fabrics that bore colorful and exotic printed patterns, known as “calico,” were flying off the shelves of the East India Company’s stores. The rapidly escalating demand for calico had taken a visible toll on the European textile businesses. The trend spread across Europe and North America, and picking cotton was such an arduous task that even when relying almost entirely on slave labor, it was hard to make cotton a profitable industry in North America. 
  	That all changed with Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin near the end of the 18th century. Able to more effectively separate the cotton fiber from seeds, Whitney’s cotton gin turned the cotton industry into one of the antebellum South’s biggest cash cows, and as a result, the region became even more dependent on slave labor than before. The cotton gin exponentially increased the labor output, which in turn brought an exponential increase in the number of slaves throughout the South, despite the fact the international slave trade was banned in the fledgling United States in the early 19th century. By the dawn of the Civil War, there were over 3 million slaves in the South, and cotton was so crucial to the Southern economy that the Confederacy would try to compel European countries to intervene on their side by refusing to export cotton to them.  
  	The Industrial Revolution’s changes also meant mass production was taking hold on both sides of the Atlantic, and Whitney’s principle of interchangeable parts was put to good use not only by the inventor himself, but by several other progressive business executives. After inventing the cotton gin, Whitney had won several lawsuits against farmers for non-payment by suing their states, and with an amassed figure of $90,000, he was able to start additional businesses. When war with France seemed like it was looming and the national armory could only produce 1,000 muskets in three years, Whitney intervened.

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  America’s Westward Expansion...

  Editors Charles River

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  The Lewis and Clark Expedition, notwithstanding its merits as a feat of exploration, was also the first tentative claim on the vast interior and the western seaboard of North America by the United States. It set in motion the great movement west that began almost immediately with the first commercial overland expedition funded by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company and would continue with the establishment of the Oregon Trail and California Trail.  
  The westward movement of Americans in the 19th century was one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history, and as it so happened, the paths were being formalized and coming into use right around the time gold was discovered in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country’s power centers on the East Coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War had ended, and among the very few Americans that were near the region at the time, many of them were Army soldiers who were participating in the war and garrisoned there. San Francisco was still best known for being a Spanish military and missionary outpost during the colonial era, and only a few hundred called it home. Mexico’s independence, and its possession of those lands, had come only a generation earlier. 
  The most well-known is the Oregon Trail, which was not a single trail but a network of paths that began at one of four “jumping off” points. The eastern section of the Oregon Trail, which followed the Missouri River through Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, was shared by people traveling along the California, Bozeman, and Mormon Trails. These trails branched off at various points, and the California Trail diverged from the Oregon Trail at Fort Hall in southern Idaho. From there, the Oregon Trail moved northward, along the Snake River, then through the Blue Mountains to Fort Walla Walla.

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  Unbreakable You - Create Revise...

  M.D. Jon Deam

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  Everything is riding on this decision. It has to be perfect. 
  To people on the outside looking in, your life is ideal. You’re successful. You have supportive friends and family. No one knows how frustrated you are, filled with doubt and anxiety about making the right decision—doing life right. 
  Dr. Jon Deam has spent his career helping people navigate difficult transitions. In Unbreakable You, he uses stories and analogies to make complex behavioral theories and psychological concepts accessible so you can easily apply them to your unique circumstances, improving your outlook as you decide what you really want. 
  Drawing from thousands of conversations with people who struggle with the same issues you do, Unbreakable You provides a simple, entertaining roadmap for navigating some of life’s most difficult journeys. Packed with helpful ideas, tools, and wisdom, it will help you move forward with confidence, no matter what you decide.

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  Journey of Insight Meditation -...

  Eric Lerner

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  This is an audiobook of the classic title Journey of Insight Meditation by Eric Lerner, narrated by Jonathan Nelson.
   
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  "I set out to study and practice Vipassana meditation in India fifty years ago. Then, as now, I characterized myself as both a spiritual seeker and a writer. During the six months that I sojourned in meditation centers and monasteries, observing the strict rules of retreat, I nevertheless spent several hours a day feverishly filling notebooks by lamplight with tightly packed script legible only to me, recording my internal experiences.
   
  I wanted to tell a story, because I am by nature a story teller, but on my return to America I was a bit disconcerted to find that my detailed accounts read like data recorded by a naturalist hidden in the bush observing the behavior of a strange creature in the wild, information that would have little interest to anyone except an extreme specialist in the field.
   
  Up until then my unpublished works were lightly fictionalized autobiographical accounts of my young life, but fiction wouldn’t be accurate enough to tell this tale. Instead, I created a protagonist, a bit of a hero, who was both me and not me, Eric Lerner. I re-created the external world of people and teachers and places he’d encountered, as well as ideas and beliefs adopted and discarded. In other words, a setting and a plot. All of it was real, or real enough, the product of memory and interpretation, a new veracity. A memoir."
   
  
   
  —Eric LernerItaly, March 2023

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  Battle Scars - Twenty Years...

  Chip Reid

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  The most eye-opening, and terrifying, story in Chip Reid's career as a journalist was the six weeks he spent with 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, as a correspondent for NBC News. Traveling shoulder-to-shoulder with the young Marines, he had unparalleled access, witnessing them in combat, and interviewing as many as he could persuade his bosses to put on air, allowing them to tell their war stories in their own words. 
   
   
   
  It took only twenty-two days for the Marines of 3/5 to fight their way to Baghdad, but the effects on those who fought have lasted a lifetime. They lost a number of their own in battle, and others suffered life-threatening injuries. Many have had to find their own way through survivor's guilt and the nightmare of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, with all its attendant miseries. 
   
   
   
  Twenty years on, Chip sat down with the Marines of 3/5 once more. They told Chip inspiring stories of heroism in battle, of camaraderie and comrades lost, of patriotism and belief in mission, of recovery and success in both military and civilian life, and of the new appreciation for life that results from Post-Traumatic Growth. Visceral and searingly honest, this book is a tribute to the Marines for their service, and for the many sacrifices they made then, and that many still make today. 
   
   
   
  This enhanced audiobook edition includes nearly two hours of raw and uncut interviews with Marines of 3/5 recorded in preparation for writing this book.

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  Smedley Butler - The Complete...

  Brilliant Bio

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  Discover the untold story of Smedley Butler, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history, in this gripping audiobook biography. From his daring military exploits to his shocking revelations about war and corporate corruption, Butler’s life was anything but ordinary. Listen now and uncover the truth behind the man who exposed the ‘Business Plot’—a secret coup to overthrow the U.S. government. Perfect for history buffs, military enthusiasts, and anyone who loves a real-life whistleblower story.

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