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Escape From Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by Blaine HardenThe heart-wrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped North Korea's political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk. In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin's shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence--he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother. The late "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il was recognized throughout the world, but his country remains sealed as his third son and chosen heir, Kim Jong Eun, consolidates power. Few foreigners are allowed in, and few North Koreans are able to leave. North Korea is hungry, bankrupt, and armed with nuclear weapons. It is also a human rights catastrophe. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people work as slaves in its political prison camps. These camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs, yet North Korea's government denies they exist. Harden's harrowing narrative exposes this hidden dystopia, focusing on an extraordinary young man who came of age inside the highest security prison in the highest security state. Escape from Camp 14 offers an unequalled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations. It is a tale of endurance and courage, survival and hope.
Escape From China
by Zhang BoliWho can forget the searing images, telecast around the world, of the brave Chinese students facing the tanks that rolled toward them in Tiananmen Square as they rebelled against their Communist government? After a two-week standoff, the military forces charged in and brutally suppressed the revolt, killing many students and issuing a warrant for the arrest of all responsible for the insurgence. As one of the top student leaders in the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square, Zhang Boli became even more famous as he managed to evade a ruthless nationwide police manhunt. After two years as a fugitive, he was the only leader who had not been accounted for. Among the twenty-one students placed on the government's most-wanted list, Zhang knew that he would never again be able to live openly in China and that he must bid his beloved country -- as well as his wife and baby daughter -- farewell. In Escape From China, Zhang Boli tells the fascinating, inspirational story of how he avoided capture and surpassed overwhelming obstacles in his struggle to survive and ultimately find freedom in the West. Traveling across the frozen terrain of the former Soviet Union, where Russian peasants rescued him, and finding his way through the deserted lands of China's precarious borders, Zhang had little but his extraordinary will to propel him, subsisting for months at a time on the flesh of wild animals. In the course of his long ordeal, he loses his love, finding God and, eventually, freedom. Although Zhang's incredible journey was filled with many harrowing experiences, he chooses, in this gripping first-person account, to focus on the many kind people who helped him through his darkest days. A powerful memoir of great drama and historical resonance, Escape From China will not only astound you, but renew your faith in humanity and in the power of the human spirit.
Escape From Tower One: The True Story of How Vincent Borst Survived the 9/11 Attack on the World Trade Center and Led Others to Safety From the 82nd Floor of the North Tower
by Marianne MillnamowThe true story of Vinnie Borst, an employee of the Port Authority, who survived the 9/11 Attack on the World Trade Center and led others to safety from the 82nd floor of the North Tower. A compelling account of one man's heroic actions in the face of tragedy. A third of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to two funds: the Edward T. Strauss Memorial Fund (www. WithEddiesHelp. org) to assist those with disabilities and combat homelessness AND the Aspiring Kindness Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public corporation that provides financial assistance to support and enhance the abilities of emergency responders and service providers (www. aspiringkindness. org).
Escape From the Soviets
by Tatiana TchernavinEscape From the Soviets by Tatiana Tchernavin is a gripping and deeply personal memoir of survival, resilience, and courage during one of the darkest periods in Soviet history. Written with raw honesty and vivid detail, the book chronicles Tatiana and her husband Vladimir’s harrowing journey to escape the oppressive Soviet regime in the early 1930s.Tatiana recounts the couple’s experiences as they faced constant surveillance, political persecution, and the brutal realities of life under Stalin’s rule. Vladimir, a fisheries expert, becomes a target of the Soviet government’s purges, forcing the couple to make the perilous decision to flee the country. Their journey takes them through treacherous landscapes, from the frozen tundra to dense forests, as they navigate hostile terrain, evade capture, and confront the physical and emotional toll of their flight.This memoir is not only a thrilling tale of escape but also a poignant commentary on the human spirit’s ability to endure and overcome unimaginable adversity. Through Tatiana’s eyes, readers gain a firsthand perspective on the Soviet regime’s impact on individual lives, families, and communities, as well as the suffocating atmosphere of fear and repression that defined the era.Rich with suspense, heartache, and moments of hope, Escape From the Soviets offers a rare and invaluable glimpse into a world of oppression and resistance. Tatiana Tchernavin’s story stands as a testament to the strength of love, loyalty, and the indomitable will to be free.This powerful memoir is an essential read for those interested in Soviet history, personal narratives of resistance, and the enduring fight for liberty.
Escape from Democracy
by David M. Levy Peart Sandra J.The orthodox view of economic policy holds that public deliberation sets the goals or ends, and then experts select the means to implement these goals. This assumes that experts are no more than trustworthy servants of the public interest. David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart examine the historical record to consider cases in which experts were trusted with disastrous results, such as eugenics, the regulatory use of security ratings, and central economic planning. This history suggests that experts have not only the public interest but also their own interests to consider. The authors then recover and extend an alternative view of economic policy that subjects experts' proposals to further discussion, resulting in transparency and ensuring that the public obtains the best insights of experts in economics while avoiding pitfalls such as expert bias.
Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket
by Fraser MacDonaldThe long-buried truth about the dawn of the Space Age: lies, spies, socialism, and sex magick.Los Angeles, 1930s: Everyone knows that rockets are just toys, the stuff of cranks and pulp magazines. Nevertheless, an earnest engineering student named Frank Malina sets out to prove the doubters wrong. With the help of his friend Jack Parsons, a grandiose and occult-obsessed explosives enthusiast, Malina embarks on a journey that takes him from junk yards and desert lots to the heights of the military-industrial complex.Malina designs the first American rocket to reach space and establishes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But trouble soon finds him: the FBI suspects Malina of being a communist. And when some classified documents go missing, will his comrades prove as dependable as his engineering?Drawing on an astonishing array of untapped sources, including FBI documents and private archives, Escape From Earth tells the inspiring true story of Malina's achievements--and the political fear that's kept them hidden. At its heart, this is an Icarus tale: a real life fable about the miracle of human ingenuity and the frailty of dreams.
Escape from Freedom
by Erich H. FrommA classic analysis of the problem of freedom, totalitarianism and participatory democracy.
Escape from Freedom: Escape From Freedom, To Have Or To Be?, And The Anatomy Of Human Destructiveness
by Erich FrommWhy do people choose authoritarianism over freedom? The classic study of the psychological appeal of fascism by a New York Times–bestselling author. The pursuit of freedom has indelibly marked Western culture since Renaissance humanism and Protestantism began the fight for individualism and self-determination. This freedom, however, can make people feel unmoored, and is often accompanied by feelings of isolation, fear, and the loss of self, all leading to a desire for authoritarianism, conformity, or destructiveness. It is not only the question of freedom that makes Fromm&’s debut book a timeless classic. In this examination of the roots of Nazism and fascism in Europe, Fromm also explains how economic and social constraints can also lead to authoritarianism. By the author of The Sane Society and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, this is a fascinating examination of the anxiety that underlies our darkest impulses, an enlightening volume perfect for readers of Eric Hoffer or Hannah Arendt. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erich Fromm including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author&’s estate.
Escape from Lubumbashi: A Refugee’s Journey on Foot to Reunite Her Family (Routledge/UNISA Press Series)
by Estelle NeethlingThis is the true story of Adolphine, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was twenty-two when she had to flee her home in the war-ravaged DRC in 1996. She walked thousands of kilometres across Southern Africa to be reunited with her husband Sepano in Cape Town after two years of a desperate search. Her incredible journey to escape the ruinous rule of Mobutu Sese Seko was filled with many moments of terror and despair, every country having its own share of xenophobia. She told the writer – the retired national tracing coordinator of the International Red Cross’s Restoring of Family Links programme in South Africa – “I felt as if the earth had teeth, I felt its bite when I was fleeing through Africa…”. Her story is a powerful intimate account of belonging and the anguish of displacement, of settling and being uprooted and how a deeply troubled household navigates this across time and space. Her story strongly highlights the vulnerability of women and children in times of war and unrest. Print editions not for sale in Sub Saharan Africa.
Escape from North Korea
by Melanie KirkpatrickFrom the world's most repressive state comes rare good news: the escape to freedom of a small number of its people. It is a crime to leave North Korea. Yet increasing numbers of North Koreans dare to flee. They go first to neighboring China, which rejects them as criminals, then on to Southeast Asia or Mongolia, and finally to South Korea, the United States, and other free countries. They travel along a secret route known as the new underground railroad.With a journalist's grasp of events and a novelist's ear for narrative, Melanie Kirkpatrick tells the story of the North Koreans' quest for liberty. Travelers on the new underground railroad include women bound to Chinese men who purchased them as brides, defectors carrying state secrets, and POWs from the Korean War held captive in the North for more than half a century. Their conductors are brokers who are in it for the money as well as Christians who are in it to serve God. The Christians see their mission as the liberation of North Korea one person at a time.Just as escaped slaves from the American South educated Americans about the evils of slavery, the North Korean fugitives are informing the world about the secretive country they fled. Escape from North Korea describes how they also are sowing the seeds for change within North Korea itself. Once they reach sanctuary, the escapees channel news back to those they left behind. In doing so, they are helping to open their information-starved homeland, exposing their countrymen to liberal ideas, and laying the intellectual groundwork for the transformation of the totalitarian regime that keeps their fellow citizens in chains.
Escape from Red China
by Humphrey Evans Robert LohThe experiences and attitudes of a man who lived under Chinese Communism, rising to a position of importance before his decision to flee to the West, whose story describes much of life and society under Maoism.Robert Loh is the first educated Chinese to give a view from the inside of life in Red China. Son of a well-to-do family who was sent to study political science in the United States during the period when the authority of the Nationalist Government was disintegrating, Loh chose to return to Shanghai to contribute what he could toward reshaping China into a major world power. Robert Loh is at pains to make clear that he could not have survived, and indeed lived a relatively privileged life in communist China without giving in to much that he hated and despised.
Escape from the Staple Trap
by Paul KelloggFrom fur and fish to oil and minerals, Canadian development has often been understood through its relationship to export staples. This understanding, argues Paul Kellogg, has led many political economists to assume that Canadian economic development has followed a path similar to those of staple-exporting economies in the Global South, ignoring a more fundamental fact: as an advanced capitalist economy, Canada sits in the core of the world system, not on the periphery or semi-periphery.In Escape from the Staple Trap, Kellogg challenges statistical and historical analyses that present Canada as weak and disempowered, lacking sovereignty and economic independence. A powerful critique of the dominant trend in Canadian political economy since the 1970s, Escape from the Staple Trap offers an important new framework for understanding the distinctive features of Canadian political economy.
Escape to Freedom (Secret of the Rose #3)
by Michael PhillipsA dramatic escape from the Iron Curtain tests the convictions of a father and daughter on the run in the Secret of the Rose series. Aided by her one-time love, the American Matthew McCallum, Sabina von Dortmann has succeeded in rescuing her father from a Russian prison where he was held by the Nazis for many years. But now Matthew and the von Dortmanns must begin the far more challenging task of escaping the Iron Curtain and eluding the Communist authorities. Once important members of an underground network dedicated to helping Jews escape the Nazi death camps, the von Dortmanns themselves must now rely on strangers in a hostile country—as well as their unwavering faith in God—to find their freedom.
Escape to Perdition: A Gripping international Thriller (The Prague Thrillers #1)
by James SilvesterA secret agent in Prague faces love, death, and a crisis of conscience in this gripping international thriller.Herbert Biely, aged hero of the Prague Spring, stands poised to reunite the Czech and Slovak Republics years after the Velvet Revolution. But other parties have their own agendas and plans for the fate of the region. A shadowy collective exists that will do anything to preserve the status quo. Peter Lowe’s mission is to prevent reunification by any means possible. But Peter is not all that he seems. A troubled man desperate to escape the past, he’s beginning to question the cause, his assignment, his superiors, and himself. And when he falls in love with his intended target, the danger escalates. As alliances shift and the body count rises, Prague becomes the focal point for intrigue on an international scale.
Escape: Our journey home through war-torn Germany
by Barbie Probert-WrightTwo sisters.One extraordinary true story.Germany, 1945. Trapped between advancing armies, stranded hundreds of miles from their mother, and with their father missing in action, sisters Barbie and Eva were confronted with an impossible choice.Should they stay and face invasion or risk their lives to find their mother?Together, they set out on a perilous three-hundred mile journey on foot across a country ravaged by war. Fuelled by courage and love, Eva and seven-year-old Barbie encounter incredible hardship, extraordinary bravery, and overwhelming generosity.Against all odds, they both survived.But neither sister came out of the journey unscathed . . .This is the powerful true story of their escape.(Previously published as Little Girl Lost)
Escaping Dystopia: Rebuilding a Public Domain
by Stephen McBrideMultiple crises have led many to conclude that the current economic and political system is broken. The present and future look increasingly precarious – if not outright dystopian Stephen McBride calls for radical solutions to these crises to provide a more rational and sustainable future. He critiques other potential responses which would further curtail democracy and increase the inequalities associated with neoliberal globalism. Demonstrating how mainstream ideas, powerful interests and political institutions face major challenges but block progressive alternatives, he argues that for radical transformation to succeed, institutional changes are necessary.
Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age
by Lori GarverA former NASA deputy administrator recounts how she battled greed and corruption to revolutionize the agency and usher in a new space age.Escaping Gravity is former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver’s firsthand account of how a handful of revolutionaries overcame the political patronage and bureaucracy that threatened the space agency. The success of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, and countless other commercial space efforts were preceded by decades of work by a group of people Garver calls “space pirates.” Their quest to transform NASA put Garver in the crosshairs of Congress, the aerospace industry, and hero-astronauts trying to protect their own profits and mythology within a system that had held power since the 1950s.As the head of the NASA transition team for President-elect Barack Obama and second-in-command of the agency, Garver drove policies and funding that enabled commercial competition just as the capabilities and resources of the private sector began to mature. She was determined to deliver more valuable programs, which required breaking the self-interested space-industrial cycle that, like the military, preferred to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on programs aimed to sustain jobs and contracts in key congressional districts. The result: more efficiency and greater progress.Including insider NASA conversations and insights on how the US space industry has been transformed to become the envy of the world and is ushering in a new space age, Escaping Gravity offers a blueprint for how to drive productive and meaningful change.Praise for Escaping Gravity“Former NASA official Lori Garver offers a front-row seat to the decades-long struggles within and among space bureaucrats and space billionaires. Bring popcorn, as you bear witness to an untold slice of space history.” —Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and author of Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier“We are living at the most exciting time in space exploration since the Apollo era, in part because the world’s largest space agency, NASA, got around to trying something new, the funding of commercial crews. Lori Garver tells it like it is . . . or was for a woman effecting change at NASA despite men of the military industrial complex—and their cost-plus contracts. It wasn’t rocket science, it was much harder than that. Don’t take my word(s) for it; read this book.” —Bill Nye, CEO, The Planetary Society“A scathing memoir that shows the ugly side of NASA while offering hope for a better future for the space agency.” —Kirkus Reviews
Escaping Jurassic Government: How to Recover America's Lost Commitment to Competence
by Donald F. KettlWhy big government is not the problem. The Progressive government movement, founded on support from Republicans and Democrats alike, reined in corporate trusts and improved the lives of sweatshop workers. It created modern government, from the Federal Reserve to the nation's budgetary and civil service policies, and most of the programs on which we depend. Ask Americans today and they will tell you that our government has hit a wall of low performance and high distrust, with huge implications for governance in the country. Instead of a focus on government effectiveness, the movement that spawned the idea of government for the people has become known for creating a big government disconnected from citizens. Donald F. Kettl finds that both political parties have contributed to the decline of the Progressive ideal of a commitment to competence. They have both fed gridlock and created a government that does not work the way citizens expect and deserve. Kettl argues for a rebirth of the original Progressive spirit, not in pursuit of bigger government but with a bipartisan dedication to better government, one that works on behalf of all citizens and that delivers services effectively. He outlines the problems in today's government, including political pressures, proxy tools, and managerial failures. Escaping Jurassic Government details the strategies, evidence, and people that can strengthen governmental effectiveness and shut down gridlock.
Escaping Perfect
by Emma HarrisonGone Girl meets the TV show Nashville in this sultry summer read about a girl who runs away from her high-profile past to live the normal life she's always wanted.Cecilia Montgomery has been America's sweetheart since the day she was born. A member of the prestigious Montgomery family--the US equivalent of royalty--her childhood was cut short after she was nearly kidnapped. Since then, Cecilia has been hidden away, her adolescence spent at an exclusive boarding school. Her dreams of becoming a professional violinist--dashed. Her desire to be a normal teenager--not possible. Her relationship with her once-loving parents--bitter and strained. Nothing about Cecilia's life is what she would have planned for herself. So when an opportune moment presents itself, Cecilia seizes the chance to become someone else. To escape. To disappear. To have the life she always dreamed about, far away from her mother's biting remarks and her sheltered upbringing. Cecilia says goodbye to the Montgomery name and legacy to become Lia Washington: relaxed, wild, in love, free, and living on her own terms for the very first time. But being on your own isn't always as easy as it seems...
Escaping Plato's Cave: How America's Blindness to the Rest of the World Threatens Our Survival
by Mort RosenblumCave BlindnessLike Plato's cave-dwellers who only saw inaccurate reflections of reality on the wall, America has been blinded to dangerous realities inside and outside our borders, argues award-winning journalist Mort Rosenblum. Our ignorance is not just deplorable, it is literally killing us—and others. Rosenblum—who has reported from more than one hundred countries, many of which he has outlived—explains how we all can and must learn more about what's really happening in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, in matters of war, peace, business, the environment, and education. This cri de coeur by one of our planet's most eloquent journalists is a must-read for anyone concerned about what they don't see in the newspaper or on TV. Escaping Plato's Cave offers both insight and practical ways for Americans to get out of the cave and see what's really going on around us.
Escaping Stigma and Neglect: People with Disabilities in Sierra Leone
by Mirey Ovadiya Giuseppe ZampaglionePeople with disabilities in Sierra Leone are disadvantaged in regards to their access to social services and the economic opportunities available to them. Oftentimes, they are marginalized and their rights are ignored. The government of Sierra Leone is taking measures to improve the social and economic situation of people with disabilities in the country. The objective of this note on people with disabilities in Sierra Leone is to: (i) provide a diagnosis on the scale and nature of the problem, (ii) analyze current public policies in support of people with disabilities, (iii) review public and private programs, and (iv) propose policy options to policy makers and development partners. It is meant for policy makers and practitioners in Sierra Leone as well as all those interested in the subject.
Escaping Thucydides’s Trap: Dialogue with Graham Allison on China–US Relations
by Huiyao WangThe book raised the question of how relations between the US and China will unfold is one of the most consequential of the 21st century. In the past decade, perhaps no thinker has had a greater influence on how this question is understood in both the US and China than eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison, who developed the idea of the Thucydides Trap to warn of the risk of war erupting between a rising power and a ruling power in the power transition process.This book presents a comprehensive collection of Allison’s views and writings on US-China relations from 2017 to 2022, covering a range of topics including the balance of power between the two sides, where the relationship is headed, and lessons from history on how conflict can be avoided.The book is presented in an accessible Q&A format and draws on interviews, articles, and reports, as well as dialogues between Professor Allison and Dr. Huiyao Wang from the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a non-governmental think tank based in Beijing. The book also includes an introduction and afterword by Dr. Huiyao Wang, CCG president and editor of this volume.
Escaping the Dark, Gray City: Fear and Hope in Progressive-Era Conservation
by Benjamin Heber JohnsonA compelling and long-overdue exploration of the Progressive-era conservation movement, and its lasting effects on American culture, politics, and contemporary environmentalism The turn of the twentieth century caught America at a crossroads, shaking the dust from a bygone era and hurtling toward the promises of modernity. Factories, railroads, banks, and oil fields—all reshaped the American landscape and people. In the gulf between growing wealth and the ills of an urbanizing nation, the spirit of Progressivism emerged. Promising a return to democracy and a check on concentrated wealth, Progressives confronted this changing relationship to the environment—not only in the countryside but also in dense industrial cities and leafy suburbs. Drawing on extensive work in urban history and Progressive politics, Benjamin Heber Johnson weaves together environmental history, material culture, and politics to reveal the successes and failures of the conservation movement and its lasting legacy. By following the efforts of a broad range of people and groups—women’s clubs, labor advocates, architects, and politicians—Johnson shows how conservation embodied the ideals of Progressivism, ultimately becoming one of its most important legacies.
Escaping the Deadly Embrace: How Encirclement Causes Major Wars (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Andrea BartolettiEncirclement, Andrea Bartoletti argues, is an essential strategic possibility of the international system and a key trigger of major war. Using historical case studies, Escaping the Deadly Embrace examines how great powers try to escape the two-front war problem and seek to preserve their security. Encirclement is a geographic variable that occurs in the presence of one or two great powers on two different borders of the surrounded great power. The surrounding great powers may not have the capacity to initiate a joint invasion. Yet their threatening presence triggers a double security dilemma for the encircled great power, which has to disperse its army to secure its borders. When the surrounding great powers become capable of launching a two-front attack, the encircled great power initiates war. This situation, disastrous in itself, can also lead to war contagion when other great powers intervene in the new conflict owing to the rival-based network of alliances. Combining archival work and historiographical analysis, Escaping the Deadly Embrace demonstrates the efficacy of this by assessing three major wars: the Italian Wars, the Thirty Years' War, and World War I. These findings, Bartoletti shows, have important implications for future major wars. Challenging the current focus on the US-China rivalry, he argues that the most concerning strategic scenario is the encirclement of China by India and Russia.
Escaping the Energy Poverty Trap: When and How Governments Power the Lives of the Poor (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Johannes Urpelainen Michael Aklin Patrick Bayer S.P. HarishThe first comprehensive political science account of energy poverty, arguing that governments can improve energy access for their citizens through appropriate policy design.In today's industrialized world, almost everything we do consumes energy. While industrialized countries enjoy all the amenities of modern energy, more than a billion people in the developing world still lack energy access. Why is energy poverty persistent in some countries and not in others? Offering the first comprehensive political science account of energy poverty, Escaping the Energy Poverty Trap explores why governments have or have not been able to lead in providing modern energy to their least advantaged citizens. Focusing on access to modern cooking fuels and household electrification, the authors develop a new political-economic theory that introduces government interest, institutional capacity, and local accountability as key determinants of energy access. They draw on case studies from India, East Asia, Africa, and Latin America to offer the optimistic conclusion that governments can improve institutional capacity and local accountability through appropriate policy design. Energy poverty is a policy problem, the authors assert, and engaging with it as such offers new opportunities not only for ensuring equal energy access, but also for political, economic, and environmental development.