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  From Warfare to Welfare -...

  Jennifer S. Light

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  This study of Cold War era urban planning explores how defense technology was employed to reshape America’s cities. 
   
  During the early decades of the Cold War, large-scale investments in American defense and aerospace research and development spawned a variety of problem-solving techniques, technologies, and institutions. From systems analysis to reconnaissance satellites to think tanks, these innovations soon found civilian applications in both the private and public sector. City planning and management were no exception. 
   
  Jennifer Light argues that the technologies and values of the Cold War fundamentally shaped the history of postwar urban America. From Warfare to Welfare documents how American intellectuals, city leaders, and the federal government chose to attack problems in the nation’s cities by borrowing techniques and technologies first designed for military engagement with foreign enemies.  
   
  Experiments in urban problem solving adapted the expertise of defense professionals to face new threats: urban chaos, blight, and social unrest. Tracing the transfer of innovations from military to city planning and management, Light reveals how a continuing source of inspiration for American city administrators lay in the nation’s preparations for war.

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  Spaceflight in the Shuttle Era...

  Valerie Neal

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  An exploration of the changing conceptions of the Space Shuttle program and a call for a new vision of spaceflight. The thirty years of Space Shuttle flights saw contrary changes in American visions of space. Valerie Neal, who has spent much of her career examining the Space Shuttle program, uses this iconic vehicle to question over four decades’ worth of thinking about, and struggling with, the meaning of human spaceflight. She examines the ideas, images, and icons that emerged as NASA, Congress, journalists, and others sought to communicate rationales for, or critiques of, the Space Shuttle missions. At times concurrently, the Space Shuttle was billed as delivery truck and orbiting science lab, near-Earth station and space explorer, costly disaster and pinnacle of engineering success. The book’s multidisciplinary approach reveals these competing depictions to examine the meaning of the spaceflight enterprise. Given the end of the Space Shuttle flights in 2011, Neal makes an appeal to reframe spaceflight once again to propel humanity forward.  “Neal may be the one person who knows the space shuttle program better than the astronauts who flew this iconic vehicle. Her book casts new light on the program, exploring its cultural significance through a thoughtful analysis. As one who lived this history, I gained much from her broader perspective and deep insights.”—Kathryn D. Sullivan, retired NASA astronaut and former Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  “A much needed look at how to create a cultural narrative for human spaceflight that resonates with millennials rather than the Apollo generation. Quite valuable.”—Marcia Smith, Editor, SpacePolicyOnline.com

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  The NHS - The Story So Far

  Ellen Welch

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  A history of Britain’s healthcare system, from the Victorian era to the post-World War II beginnings of the NHS to the Coronavirus pandemic. 
   
  The Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has changed life as we know it and thrust the NHS into the spotlight. A nation in lockdown has adorned windows with rainbows and stepped onto doorsteps every Thursday to celebrate the people who are risking their lives by turning up to work. But as the grim reports of deaths from the disease cumulate, along with stories of insufficient protective equipment for staff, there is hope that the crisis will raise awareness and bring change to the way the NHS and its people are treated. 
   
  At midnight on 5 July 1948, the National Health Service was born with the founding principal to be free at the point of use and based on clinical need rather than on a person’s ability to pay. Over seventy years since its formation, these core principals still hold true, but the world has changed. Persistent underfunding has not kept pace with increased demand for healthcare, leading to longer waiting times, staffing shortages and low morale. 
   
  This book traces the history of our health service, from Victorian healthcare and the early 20th century, through a timeline of change to the current day, comparing the problems and illnesses of 1948 to those we face today. Politics and funding are demystified and the effects of the pandemic are discussed, alongside personal stories from frontline staff and patients who have experienced our changing NHS. 
   
  “Ellen's book takes us on an emotional journey through the history of our beloved NHS. This should be compulsory reading for anyone who thinks the NHS is safe in the hands of anyone but the Labour Party. Absolutely enthralling.” —Books Monthly

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  La Brea Tar Pits The: The...

  Charles River Editors

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  Even at a distance, the acrid stench of asphalt and sulfur singes the hairs of people’s nostrils, and when the blustering winds subside, the potent miasma lingers in the air. To the untrained eye, the La Brea Tar Pits seem to be nothing more than simply pools of thick, viscous black sludge, its obsidian-like surface bestrewn with an assortment of autumn leaves and dirt. Gooey methane bubbles spurt up periodically, shattering the glassy veneer of the grease-black lakes, and the shiny bubbles swell to varying sizes and wiggle from side to side before popping, the sticky collapse almost reminiscent of cracking open a chocolate molten lava cake. 
  Technically, these lustrous lakes of ink-black, while branded “tar,” are in actuality pools of asphalt seeps that have remained in place for several millennia, gushing forth from a natural subterranean petroleum spring underneath the city of Los Angeles known as the “Salt Lake Oil Field.” Needless to say, the tar pits are a far cry from the glittering, crystalline ponds cooled by the shade of surrounding palm trees found throughout the City of Angels. Indeed, the pungent reek of asphalt, pulsing methane bubbles, and their hauntingly black surfaces, making it impossible to gauge the true depth of the asphalt abysses, should have seemingly served as clear deterrents to the animals that roamed the vicinity prior to their entrapment. Instead, judging by the treasure trove of bones and remnants that have been uncovered within the pits, the sludge seemed to have figuratively emitted a siren song that no animal, regardless of stature or physical power, could resist. 
  Evidence shows that the slow, torturous deaths of many of the creatures who became permanently ensnared in the asphalt quicksand were worsened by passing predators who essentially stumbled upon supper served on a sticky platter. Unfortunate, or rather, clumsy predators sometimes slipped, struggled, and were ultimately swallowed up themselves.

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  The Emergence of Integral...

  Ph.D. Allan Combs

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  We all sense intuitively that reality is not a jumbled assortment of unrelated parts, but a dynamic, unified whole. Yet, as fields of knowledge become increasingly complex and specialized, it's often difficult to see how all the parts of this whole truly fit together. In this dialogue with consciousness researcher Allan Combs, we explore the emergence of what he calls "Integral Consciousness."

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  The Lassa Ward - One Man's Fight...

  MPH Ross I. Donaldson MD

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  Ross Donaldson is one of just a few who have ventured into dark territory of a country ravaged by war to study one of the world's most deadly diseases. As an untried medical student studying the intersection of global health and communicable disease, Donaldson soon found himself in dangerous Sierra Leone, on the border of war-struck Liberia, where he struggled to control the spread of Lassa Fever. The words, "you know Lassa can kill you, don't you?" haunted him each day. With the country in complete upheaval and working conditions suffering, he is forced to make life-and-death decisions alone as a never-ending onslaught of contagious patients flood the hospital. Soon however, he is not only fighting for others but himself when he becomes afflicted with a life threatening disease. The Lassa Ward is more than just an adventure story about the making of a physician; it is a portrait of the Sierra Leone people and the human struggle of those risking their daily comforts and lives to aid them.

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