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  The History of Venezuela -...

  Anya Solace

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  Venezuela’s economic history is deeply intertwined with its political and social landscape, shaped by cycles of prosperity and crisis. While the country has vast natural resources, particularly oil, mismanagement, external pressures, and political instability have contributed to its economic troubles. Understanding the roots of these challenges requires examining Venezuela’s early economic foundations, the role of oil in its development, and the influence of political decisions on its financial stability.  
  In its early history, Venezuela’s economy was primarily based on agriculture and trade. Before the discovery of oil in the early 20th century, the country relied on exports of coffee, cocoa, and other agricultural products. While these industries provided some level of economic growth, wealth distribution remained highly uneven, favoring a small elite class while the majority of the population struggled with poverty. The transition from an agrarian economy to an oil-driven one dramatically altered Venezuela’s financial structure, offering immense opportunities but also creating long-term vulnerabilities.  
  The discovery of vast oil reserves in the early 20th century transformed Venezuela into one of the world’s leading oil producers. By the mid-20th century, petroleum had become the backbone of the national economy, contributing to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and infrastructure development. The influx of oil wealth led to economic booms and improved social programs, but it also fostered dependence on a single commodity. This overreliance on oil made Venezuela’s economy highly sensitive to fluctuations in global oil prices. Whenever oil prices soared, the government expanded public spending and welfare programs, but during downturns, the country faced severe financial instability. 

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  Teaching of the Heart The:...

  Zinovya Dushkova

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  The Teaching of the Heart has been given to Mankind as a Great Revelation of the Cosmic Light Forces standing guard over not only the planet Earth, but the entire Solar System too. The Messengers of Distant Worlds and unknown star systems, the Masers of Wisdom have Revealed the secret Treasures of Shambhala to you that store secret scrolls since time immemorial. And when the Dates are imminent, Mankind is endowed with the wise knowledge that Their chosen Messenger begins to spread around the world, putting them into the form of the Teachings of Light. Previous Doctrines focused mostly on the mental body — the human mind. But at the junction of two epochs, a Terrible Hour came for the Earth, the position of the heavenly bodies changed, energies of unprecedented Strength are directed towards our planet. The most powerful streams of Fire are pouring out of the unknown depths of the Universe, threatening to incinerate all life on our long–suffering earth. And only a loving human Heart, which keeps a spark of Divine Light and performs Service of the Forces of Good, can accept and assimilate those healing currents. 
  	The Call of the Heart is a book that opens like a Royal Gateway, inviting you to step into other spheres where Just Cosmic Laws rule. Those who have managed to ascend the steps of Transfiguration and become truly Godlike already live in this world! The currents of Immortality are embedded in each line of the Teaching of the Heart, in every book, all of which are united by an invisible Fiery thread. Nevertheless, your kind hearts, like priceless diamonds, will begin to acquire new Luminous facets after reading and listening to these books, and — what is the most important — after applying the Advices given by the Greatest Masters of Mankind. 
  	Good luck on the Way of the Heart! And blessed be those who hear the Call of the Heart of the Creator!

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  Operation Dragoon: The History...

  Editors Charles River

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  While D-Day is one of the most famous events of the war, it is widely overlooked that about two months after the landings in Normandy, there was a second Allied landing in France. On August 15, 1944, a combined US-French force landed in southern France on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur as part of Operation Dragoon. In just over four weeks of fighting, the Allied landing led to the liberation of most of southern France and to one of the most audacious and successful Allied operations of World War II.  
  	However, the planning that led to Operation Dragoon (originally named Operation Anvil) was anything but settled. The idea for a landing in the south of France had been raised by senior commanders as early as 1942, and at one time it was intended to be a concurrent operation with the Overlord landings in Normandy. However, the spectacular failure of the American landing at Anzio in Italy earlier in the year and an increase in the size of forces for Overlord meant there simply weren’t resources to spare for a second simultaneous landing in France. Thus, Operation Anvil was canceled. 
  	With less a one month to complete the planning and preparation of a major amphibious operation, many on the Allied side were skeptical of the chances of success for this operation. However, the supply situation in northern France and growing political pressures within the Allies meant it simply had to go ahead. With that, on the morning of August 15, 1944, Allied troops began landing on the beaches of the Côte d'Azur. What followed remains a controversial part of the end of the war in Europe. 

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  Exploring the Poles: The History...

  Editors Charles River

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  Exploration of Earth’s wilderness areas became an international obsession in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as economically advantaged nations, in particular European powers and the United States were well equipped to mount exhaustive expeditions. From previously inaccessible forests and jungle country to the world’s great mountain ranges, adventurers sought out the greatest extremes of climate and terrain in a race to plant the first flag where humanity struggled to survive. 
  	An earlier wave of explorers led to the opening of the New World, and early polar expeditions saw ancient ships of various nations sail along the coastlines of Greenland and within reach of the Arctic and Antarctic continents. Many 19th century figures approached the polar region with an eye to traversing it. Most notable among them was British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, who took the Erebus and the HMS Terror to the southernmost coastlines of the planet. Ross is probably the first explorer to realize that Antarctica was a continent and not just a large chain of islands, and he discovered the section of the shelf that was to become the Victoria Barrier. Asian nations also took part in Antarctic exploration when Nobu Shirase of Japan mounted his 1911 expedition, while Sir Edgeworth David, a Welsh-Australian, was the first person to successfully reach the summit of Mt. Erebus. Richard Evelyn Byrd is believed to be the first pilot to cross the Antarctic continent, and even well past the era of great polar expeditions, British figures such as Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest, made several expeditions to the South Pole. 
  	Nevertheless, the golden age of polar exploration of the furthermost continents did not reach its zenith until the turn of the 20th century, and national rivalries abounded between the major seafaring nations of the world.

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  Mothers and Other Fictional...

  Nicole Graev Lipson

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  In this intimate and riveting memoir, Best American Essayist Nicole Graev Lipson breaks through the ready-made stories of womanhood, rescuing truth from the fiction that infiltrates our lives. 
    
  What does it take to escape the plotlines mapped onto us? Searching for clues in the work of her literary foremothers, Lipson untangles what it means to be a girl, a woman, a lover, a partner, a daughter, and a mother in a world all too ready to reduce us to stock characters. Whether she’s testing the fragile borders of fidelity, embracing the taboo power of female friendship, escaping her family for the solitude of the mountains, grappling with what to do with her frozen embryos, or letting go of the children she imagined for the ones she’s raising, Lipson pushes beyond the easy, surface stories we tell about ourselves to brave less certain territory.  
    
  As Lipson journeys through this thorny terrain, literature becomes her lodestar. Kate Chopin’s erotic story “The Storm” helps her reckon with the longings stirring below the surface of her marriage. Watching her son absorb the stifling codes of manhood, she finds unlikely parenting inspiration in Philip Roth’s most cartoonish overbearing mother. Summoning Gwendolyn Brooks, she asks, Can destroying one’s frozen embryos be understood as a maternal act? And accompanied by Shakespeare’s gender-bending heroine Rosalind, she seizes on the truest meaning of loving her oldest child.  
    
  Risky and revealing, nourishing and affirming, rigorous and sexy, Mothers and Other Fictional Characters is a shimmering love letter to our forgotten selves—and the ones we’re still becoming. 
    
  “Sensitive, searingly intelligent, and beautifully written.”—Claire Dederer, author of Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma

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  Bully Able Leader - The Story of...

  George G Loving

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  This USAF pilot’s memoir “masterfully describes the progress of the war . . . [and] superbly chronicles the many close-support and interdiction missions.” —Air & Space Power Journal    This action-packed account by an American pilot and squadron commander in the Korean War reveals just what it was like to fly the F-80 Shooting Star against MiGs and ground targets. Using the radio call sign of “Bully Able Leader,” Lieutenant General George G. Loving flew 112 combat missions in five major campaigns from 1950–1951.  This well-written, first-hand account of life in the cockpit of a USAF fighter jet will appeal to aviation enthusiasts and military history buffs alike.   “Valuable insights of the flying environment that earmarked this first war of extensive use of jet combat aircraft.” —Col. Joe McCue, USAF (Ret.), Air Power History

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