Other books that might interest you

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  Scars on the Land - An...

  David Silkenat

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  Scars on the Land is the first comprehensive history of American slavery to examine how the environment fundamentally formed enslaved people's lives and how slavery remade the Southern landscape. Over two centuries, from the establishment of slavery in the Chesapeake to the Civil War, one simple calculation had profound consequences: rather than measuring productivity based on outputs per acre, Southern planters sought to maximize how much labor they could extract from their enslaved workforce. They saw the landscape as disposable, relocating to more fertile prospects once they had leached the soils and cut down the forests. On the leading edge of the frontier, slavery laid waste to fragile ecosystems, draining swamps, clearing forests to plant crops and fuel steamships, and introducing devastating invasive species. On its trailing edge, slavery left eroded hillsides, rivers clogged with sterile soil, and the extinction of native species. While environmental destruction fueled slavery's expansion, no environment could long survive intensive slave labor. The scars manifested themselves in different ways, but the land too fell victim to the slave owner's lash.

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  Fire in Paradise

  Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano

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  The harrowing story of the most destructive American wildfire in a century. 
   
  There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018, 
  the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85 
  people. The catastrophe seared the American imagination, taking the front page of every major national newspaper and top billing on 
  the news networks. It displaced tens of thousands of people, yielding a refugee crisis that continues to unfold. 
   
  Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, 
  firefighters and police officers, and scientific experts. Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano are California-based journalists who have 
  reported on Paradise since the day the fire began. Together they reveal the heroics of the first responders, the miraculous escapes of 
  those who got out of Paradise, and the horrors experienced by those who were trapped. Their accounts are intimate and unforgettable, 
  including the local who left her home on foot as fire approached while her 82-year-old father stayed to battle it; the firefighter who 
  drove into the heart of the inferno in his bulldozer; the police officer who switched on his body camera to record what he thought 
  would be his final moments as the flames closed in; and the mother who, less than 12 hours after giving birth in the local hospital, 
  thought she would die in the chaotic evacuation with her baby in her lap. Gee and Anguiano also explain the science of wildfires, write 
  powerfully about the role of the power company PG&E in the blaze, and describe the poignant efforts to raise Paradise from the ruins. 
   
  This is the story of a town at the forefront of a devastating global shift—of a remarkable landscape sucked ever drier of moisture 
  and becoming inhospitable even to trees, now dying in their tens of millions and turning to kindling. It is also the story of a lost 
  community, one that epitomized a provincial, affordable kind of Californian existence that is increasingly unattainable. It is, finally, a 
  story of a new kind of fire behavior that firefighters have never witnessed before and barely know how to handle. What happened in 
  Paradise was unprecedented in America. Yet according to climate scientists and fire experts, it will surely happen again

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  Maori and Social Issues

  Tracey McIntosh, Malcolm Mulholland

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  Maori and Social Issues is a collection of essays by experts in various fields of social sciences which collectively act as a snapshot of where Maori currently sit in relation to contemporary New Zealand society as a whole. The book is the first of a series to be published on research into the state of New Zealand's institutions and sectors of endeavour. This first book in the series focusses on Maori and social issues; the second will focus on Maori and educational endeavour. Each essay tackles the subject as it impacts on Maori now with perspectives on likely effects and solutions into the future: Maori demographics; smoking rates; educational achievement; incarceration; parenting; mental health; obesity and poverty are analysed in detail. Key statistics, past and future trends, opinion and fact are brought together in one volume to act as a reference for students, academics and others interested in New Zealand social sciences.

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  The Other Side of Normal - How...

  Jordan Smoller

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  A Harvard psychiatrist uses biology, genetics, psychology, and advances in molecular neuroscience and neuroimaging to examine what it means to be normal. 
   
   
   
  “Move over Oliver Sacks—I couldn’t put this fascinating book down! Path-breaking and witty, as entertaining as it is informative, The Other Side of Normal is filled with insights into why we behave as we do and how biology determines so much of our emotional makeup.” —Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and New York Times–bestselling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother 
   
   
   
  Psychiatry has ignored the normal. The focus on defining abnormal behavior has obscured what turns out to be a more fundamental question—how does the biology of the brain give rise to the mind, which in turn gives rise to everything we care about: thoughts, feelings, desires, and relationships? 
   
   
   
  In The Other Side of Normal, Harvard psychiatrist Jordan Smoller shows us that understanding what the mind was designed to do in the first place demystifies mental illness and builds a new foundation for defining psychiatric disorders—from autism to depression. Smoller argues there are no bright lines between normal and abnormal. Psychiatric disorders are variations of the same brain systems that evolved to help us solve the challenges of everyday life. Smoller explains where our personalities come from and how the temperaments we had as infants actually stay with us into adulthood. Why do we choose to date, love, and marry the people we do? Why do some of us form healthy relationships while others form unstable ones? 
   
   
   
  Based on the author’s groundbreaking research and personal experiences treating psychological disorders, The Other Side of Normal changes the way we think about the human condition. 
   
   
   
  “Exciting . . . provocative . . . Clearly and articulately, he ties evolutionary psychology, biological psychiatry, animal behavior, and related fields into a package of rare coherence.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) 
   
   
   
  “Highly interesting and accessible study of brain science and behavior. . . . This thoroughly documented work provides enough information to satisfy the science-savvy without leaving the rest of us behind. . . . Readers will be fascinated.” —Library Journal 
   
   
   
  “An informative overview of research in neuroscience that provides a scientific foundation for understanding mental disorders.” —Kirkus Reviews

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  In the Shadow of Diagnosis -...

  Regina Kunzel

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  A look at the history of psychiatry’s foundational impact on the lives of queer and gender-variant people. 
    
  In the mid-twentieth century, American psychiatrists proclaimed homosexuality a mental disorder, one that was treatable and amenable to cure. Drawing on a collection of previously unexamined case files from St. Elizabeths Hospital, In the Shadow of Diagnosis explores the encounter between psychiatry and queer and gender-variant people in the mid- to late-twentieth-century United States. It examines psychiatrists’ investments in understanding homosexuality as a dire psychiatric condition, a judgment that garnered them tremendous power and authority at a time that historians have characterized as psychiatry’s “golden age.” That stigmatizing diagnosis made a deep and lasting impact, too, on queer people, shaping gay life and politics in indelible ways. In the Shadow of Diagnosis helps us understand the adhesive and ongoing connection between queerness and sickness.

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  The Super Connector's Playbook -...

  Lirone Glikman

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  Use the power of connections to achieve your professional goals: land a job you love, gain clients, secure investors, or connect with influential mentors. 
  Just meeting people isn’t enough. What enables highly successful people to stand out, seize opportunities, and turn every relationship into a catalyst for success is building authentic, strategic connections. That means making lasting impressions, creating meaningful interactions, and planning ahead with a clear goal in mind. 
  Whether you’re a professional, entrepreneur, or executive, mastering the art of business relationships can unlock doors you never imagined and skyrocket your professional success. 
  In The Super Connector’s Playbook, Lirone Glikman, a global leader in business relationships and personal branding, reveals her proven, research-backed strategies for harnessing your communication skills and personal brand as your ultimate superpower to success. With decades of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, policymakers, and top executives, Glikman developed and perfected the Human Factor Method, a step-by-step system to help you create, maintain, and leverage powerful relationships with confidence and ease. 
  In the book you’ll learn how to:Forge meaningful connections with almost anyone, anywhereFuel your success with an authentic, high-impact networkMaintain strong relationships over timeAuthentically and unapologetically ask for what you need and get resultsSupercharge your connections with AI tools 
  With hands-on strategies, real-world exercises, and actionable techniques, The Super Connector’s Playbook will show you how to build powerful business relationships that will open doors to new opportunities and long-term success.

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