Publisher: Sovereign
Utopia is a frame narrative depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs, a work of fiction and political philosophy. Concerning the Highest State of the Republic and the New Island Utopia.
A selection of fascinating extracts from notes and digital recordings made by Peter Hain during his twelve years serving in government, The Hain Diaries offers an invaluable insight into the workings and workers of the New Labour Cabinet. Providing a unique record of the ups and downs of ministerial life, informed and enhanced by Peter's experiences before and outside politics, the diaries form a compilation of candid and thoughtful reflections on parliament, power and problem-solving. Peter's career in government was marked by daily struggles to reconcile rival interests and individuals in bold attempts to resolve some of the most historically sensitive political issues of the time - from Iraq to Northern Ireland to Europe - and it is these events that provide the backdrop to his writings. However, although he was a figure who achieved senior office and was directly involved in key Cabinet decisions, Hain fell into neither the Blair nor Brown camps and is therefore perfectly placed to offer a rare non-sectarian perspective of New Labour in power. Serving as a brilliant complement to his memoir Outside In (Biteback Publishing), this collection documents Peter's successes and failures - as well as the lessons learned from them - and makes absorbing reading for anybody interested in a genuinely personal account of government life.Show book
A panoramic history of 9/11 capturing voices from the front lines: “This is history at its most immediate and moving . . . A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, were a traumatic turning point in American history. In The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff tells the story of that terrible day through the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff paints a comprehensive yet strikingly human portrait of the events as they unfolded. Beginning in the predawn hours, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York, first responders confront unimaginable horrors at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker under the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard unarmed fighter jets, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United 93 make the ultimate sacrifice. Then, as flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama.Show book
Even if we live within sight of the sea, it is easy to forget that our world is an ocean world. The open ocean spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche explores this ocean world and the enterprises--licit and illicit—that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons. Forty-three thousand gargantuan ships ply the open ocean, carrying nearly all the raw materials and products on which our lives are built. Many are owned or managed by one-ship companies so ghostly that they exist only on paper. They are the embodiment of modern global capital and the most independent objects on earth—many of them without allegiances of any kind, changing identity and nationality at will. Here is free enterprise at it freest, opportunity taken to extremes. But its efficiencies are accompanied by global problems—shipwrecks and pollution, the hard lives and deaths of the crews, and the growth of two perfectly adapted pathogens: a modern and sophisticated strain of piracy and its close cousin, the maritime form of the new stateless terrorism.This is the outlaw sea—perennially defiant and untamable—that Langewiesche brings startlingly into view. The ocean is our world, he reminds us, and it is wild.A Macmillan Audio production.Show book
With this follow-up to her New York Times best seller Because They Hate, Brigitte Gabriel delves deeply into Islam — a religion rooted in the seventh century, with teachings that are absolutely opposed to democracy and equality — and its spread across the U.S. and Europe.Gabriel brings an experienced and populist voice to topics that continue to be in the forefront of our world. Her dynamic personality, personal experience, and international expertise made Because They Hate a publishing phenomenon and propelled her into the spotlight as one of the most sought-after terrorism experts in the media. A wide and diverse audience is taking Brigitte Gabriel's passionate warnings to heart.They Must Be Stopped is a call to action, encouraging mobilization to combat radical Islamofascism and its goal of world domination. Gabriel addresses the historical and religious basis of radical Islam, its encroachment into societies around the world, its challenges to our basic freedoms and rights, and its abuses of democracy in the name of religion.A Macmillan Audio production.Show book
“A Preface to Democratic Theory is well worth the devoted attention of anyone who cares about democracy.” —Political Science Quarterly This book by Robert Dahl helped launch democratic theory sixty years ago as a new area of study in political science, and it remains the standard introduction to the field. Exploring problems that had been left unsolved by traditional thought on democracy, Dahl here examines two influential models—the Madisonian, which represents prevailing American doctrine, and its recurring challenger, populist theory—arguing that they do not accurately portray how modern democracies operate. He then constructs a model more consistent with how contemporary democracies actually function, and, in doing so, develops some original views of popular sovereignty and the American constitutional system. For this edition, Dahl has written an extensive new afterword that reevaluates Madisonian theory in light of recent research. And in a new foreword, he reflects back on his influential volume and the ways his views have evolved since he wrote it. For any student or scholar of political science, this new material is an essential update on a gold standard in the evolving field of democratic theory.Show book
In 1999’s Everyday Stalinism, historian Sheila Fitzpatrick rejects the common practice of simplistically treating the Soviet Union as a totalitarian government that tightly controlled its citizens. She takes advantage of vast archives that were released after the Cold War to examine Soviet society “from below”—looking at how ordinary citizens coped with shortages and the general sense of fear created by the state. Despite government efforts to mold its citizens into perfect reflections of communist ideology, in practice everyday people found ways to live everyday lives. Their coping mechanisms played an important role in how major events unfolded, including forced industrialization and the Great Purge, in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed by the state. Fitzpatrick’s influence on our modern understanding of Soviet society goes beyond her own works. Everyday Stalinism has inspired younger historians to dig deeper into Soviet social life, exploring the mindset of average citizens as they tried to lead ordinary lives in what were undoubtedly extraordinary times.Show book
