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  The Rhetoric of Mao Zedong -...

  Xing Lu

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  This thorough examination of Mao’s speeches and writings and how they reshaped a nation “is critical to an understanding of modern China” (Choice).   Mao Zedong fundamentally transformed China from a Confucian society characterized by hierarchy and harmony into a socialist state guided by communist ideologies of class struggle and radicalization. It was a transformation made possible largely by Mao’s rhetorical ability to attract, persuade, and mobilize millions of Chinese people. In this book, Xing Lu analyzes Mao’s speeches and writings over a span of sixty years, tracing the sources and evolution of his discourse, analyzing his skills as an orator and mythmaker, assessing his symbolic power and continuing presence in contemporary China, and observing that Mao’s rhetorical legacy has been commoditized, culturally consumed, and politically appropriated since his death.   Applying both Western rhetorical theories and Chinese rhetorical concepts to reach a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of his rhetorical legacy, Lu shows how Mao employed a host of rhetorical appeals and strategies drawn from Chinese tradition and how he interpreted the discourse of Marxism-Leninism to serve foundational themes of his message. She traces the historical contexts in which these themes, his philosophical orientations, and his political views were formed and how they transformed China and Chinese people. Lu also examines how certain ideas are promoted, modified, and appropriated in Mao’s rhetoric. His appropriation of Marxist theory of class struggle, his campaigns of transforming common people into new communist advocates, his promotion of Chinese nationalism, and his stand on China’s foreign policy all contributed to and were responsible for reshaping Chinese thought patterns, culture, and communication behaviors.

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  Defeating Jihadist Terrorism

  Jacques Baud

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  Since the early 1990s, terrorism and its victims have increased exponentially. Without any action strategy or exit solution, through political and military incompetence, stupidity and ideological blindness, Western interventions have only contributed to its development. We eliminate terrorists, but not terrorism. The solution lies in a more holistic, more subtle, more intelligent and less dogmatic approach. Terrorism is not an ideology. It is a method that takes many forms, including jihadist terrorism. Each form of terrorism is fought with a specific strategy. Based on the original texts of jihadist strategists as well as on their own analyses of attacks in France, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States, Jacques Baud explains the reasons for Western failure. He uses the analyses of Western intelligence services to decipher the mechanisms of jihadist terrorism, in order to extract strategies of action likely to avoid it or to fight it effectively and durably. The author is a former head of Swiss strategic intelligence and former head of UN peace operations doctrine. In the course of his missions in Africa and Central Asia, the author has had several encounters with jihadists in the field. 
  This audiobook is read by a synthesized voice.

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  Has Populism Won? - The War on...

  Daniel Drache, Marc D. Froese

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  Has populism won? Two experts show us how and why this disturbing global political trend has taken root and what it will take to turn the tide
  		 
  From Trump’s America to Putin’s Russia, and from Poland to the Philippines, rapid change and rising inequality have fueled a retreat into tribalist nationalism fed by a fear of being left behind. Populist leaders tap into this fear, with empty promises of looking out for the little guy and promising a return to national greatness. This is happening in countries across the globe and the political spectrum, arising in the right and the left alike. So why are we so susceptible to this pernicious political style at this moment? How did we get here? Will we get back to more even-handed governments? And more importantly, how has the global insurgency captured high offices across the globe, winning election after election? And more importantly, if Putin is defeated in his unprovoked war on Ukraine, will vociferous publics turn against the insurgency? Liberal democracy is at a turning point, as system smashers aren’t about to go quietly into the night, and there are few viable alternatives in the wings.
  		 
  Political scientists Drache and Froese have turned original research into a compelling analysis of the rise of populism and reveal what it will take to douse the flames. This is an essential read for anyone concerned about the encroachments on freedom and the rule of law around the world.

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  The Battle for the Soul of...

  John C. Bogle

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  The legendary founder of Vanguard “presents an insider’s view of what’s wrong with corporate America and what can be done to improve it” (Burton G. Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street).New York Times-bestselling author of Enough and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing John Bogle has seen firsthand the innermost workings—and grotesque abuses—of the financial industry, and is renowned as an advocate for the small investor and for the restoration of integrity to the system. He knows that a trustworthy business and financial complex is essential to America’s continuing leadership in the world and to social and economic progress at home. In this book he reveals what went wrong and how we lost our way—and more importantly, how we can right our course. He argues for a return to a governance structure in which owners’ capital that has been put at risk is used in their interests rather than in the interests of corporate and financial managers. Given that ownership is now consolidated in the hands of relatively few large mutual and pension funds, the specific reforms Bogle details in this book are essential as well as practical—and should be considered by every investor, analyst, Wall Streeter, policy maker, and businessperson. “Deserves attention in the precincts of power.”—Publishers Weekly

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  Dreaming War - Blood for Oil and...

  Gore Vidal

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  When Gore Vidal's New York Times bestseller Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace was published, the Los Angeles Times described Vidal as the last defender of the American republic. In Dreaming War, Vidal continues this defense by confronting the Cheney-Bush junta head-on in a series of devastating essays that demolish the lies American Empire lives by, unveiling a counter-history that traces the origins of America's current imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war Truman doctrine. And now, with Cheney-Bush leading us into permanent war, Vidal asks whose interests are served by this doctrine of pre-emptive war? Was Afghanistan turned to rubble to avenge the 3,000 slaughtered on September 11? Or was "the unlovely Osama chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan?" After all, he was abruptly replaced with Saddam Hussein once the Taliban were overthrown. And while "evidence" is now being invented to connect Saddam with 9/11, the administration are not helped by "stories in the U.S. press about the vast oil wealth of Iraq which must-for the sake of the free world-be reassigned to U.S. consortiums."

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  Year One of the Russian Revolution

  Victor Serge

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  An eyewitness account of the world-changing uprising—from the author of Memoirs of a Revolutionary. “A truly remarkable individual . . . an heroic work” (Richard Allday of Counterfire).   Brimming with the honesty and passionate conviction for which he has become famous, Victor Serge’s account of the first year of the Russian Revolution—through all of its achievements and challenges—captures both the heroism of the mass upsurge that gave birth to Soviet democracy and the crippling circumstances that began to chip away at its historic gains. Year One of the Russian Revolution is Serge’s attempt to defend the early days of the revolution against those, like Stalin, who would claim its legacy as justification for the repression of dissent within Russia.  Praise for Victor Serge   “Serge is one of the most compelling of twentieth-century ethical and literary heroes.” —Susan Sontag, MacArthur Fellow and winner of the National Book Award   “His political recollections are very important, because they reflect so well the mood of this lost generation . . . His articles and books speak for themselves, and we would be poorer without them.” —Partisan Review   “I know of no other writer with whom Serge can be very usefully compared. The essence of the man and his books is to be found in his attitude to the truth.” —John Berger, Booker Prize–winning author   “The novels, poems, memoirs and other writings of Victor Serge are among the finest works of literature inspired by the October Revolution that brought the working class to power in Russia in 1917.” —Scott McLemee, writer of the weekly “Intellectual Affairs” column for Inside Higher Ed

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