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Turning Right at Hollywood and Vine
by Roger L. SimonAn Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and a mystery novelist, Roger L. Simon is the only American writer to pull off the amazing trick of being profiled positively in both Mother Jones and National Review in one lifetime. The stunning story of his political odyssey is told in this memoir, where Simon recounts his migration from financier of the Black Panther Breakfast Program to pioneer blogosphere mogul beloved by the right as a 9/11 Democrat.But Simon is beholden to neither right nor left in this tale of Hollywood chic run amuck, as he talks out of school about his adventures with, among many others, Richard Pryor, Warren Beatty, Timothy Leary, Richard Dreyfuss, Woody Allen, and Julian Semyonov, the Soviet Union's version of Robert Ludlum and also a KGB colonel who tempted Simon to join the KGB himself. Among the topics covered along the way:Is there a new blacklist in Hollywood, this one targeting conservatives?Simon's red-carpet tours of the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union with Hollywood screenwriters and famous mystery novelists.Why Al Gore's documentary on global warming didn't deserve the Oscar on artistic grounds alone; and why the Academy's voting system is so corrupt.And, as they say, there is much, much more besides.
Turning Right in the Sixties
by Mary C. BrennanIdeologically divided and disorganized in 1960, the conservative wing of the Republican Party appeared to many to be virtually obsolete. However, over the course of that decade, the Right reinvented itself and gained control of the party. In Turning Right in the Sixties, Mary Brennan describes how conservative Americans from a variety of backgrounds, feeling disfranchised and ignored, joined forces to make their voices heard and by 1968 had gained enough power within the party to play the decisive role in determining the presidential nominee. Building on Barry Goldwater's short-lived bid for the presidential nomination in 1960, Republican conservatives forged new coalitions, began to organize at the grassroots level, and gained enough support to guarantee Goldwater the nomination in 1964. Brennan argues that Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the general election has obscured the more significant fact that conservatives had wrested control of the Republican Party from the moderates who had dominated it for years. The lessons conservatives learned in that campaign, she says, aided them in 1968 and laid the groundwork for Ronald Reagan's presidential victory in 1980.
Turning South Again: Re-thinking Modernism/Re-reading Booker T.
by Houston A. Baker Jr.In Turning South Again the distinguished and award-winning essayist, poet, and scholar of African American literature Houston A. Baker, Jr. offers a revisionist account of the struggle for black modernism in the United States. With a take on the work of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute surprisingly different from that in his earlier book Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, Baker combines historical considerations with psychoanalysis, personal memoir, and whiteness studies to argue that the American South and its regulating institutions--particularly that of incarceration--have always been at the center of the African American experience. From the holds of slave ships to the peonage of Reconstruction to the contemporary prison system, incarceration has largely defined black life in the United States. Even Washington's school at Tuskegee, Baker explains, housed and regulated black bodies no longer directly controlled by slave owners. He further implicates Washington by claiming that in enacting his ideas about racial "uplift," Washington engaged in "mulatto modernism," a compromised attempt at full citizenship. Combining autobiographical prose, literary criticism, psychoanalytic writing, and, occasionally, blues lyrics and poetry, Baker meditates on the consequences of mulatto modernism for the project of black modernism, which he defines as the achievement of mobile, life-enhancing participation in the public sphere and economic solvency for the majority of African Americans. By including a section about growing up in the South, as well as his recent return to assume a professorship at Duke, Baker contributes further to one of the book's central concerns: a call to centralize the South in American cultural studies.
Turning Stones: A Caseworker's Story
by Marc ParentWhy does an infant die of malnutrition? Why does an eight-year-old hold a knife to his brother's throat? Or a mother push her cherished daughter twenty-three floors to her death? Marc Parent, a city caseworker, searched the streets--and his heart--for the answers, and shares them in this powerful, vivid, beautifully written book. WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR.
Turning Texas Blue: What It Will Take to Break the GOP Grip on America's Reddest State
by Mary Beth RogersIn the 2014 midterm election, Democrats in Texas did not receive even 40 percent of the statewide vote; Republicans swept the tables both in Texas and nationally. But even after two decades of democratic losses, there is a path to turn Texas blue, argues Mary Beth Rogers - if Democrats are smart enough to see and follow it. Rogers is the last person to successfully campaign-manage a Democrat, Governor Ann Richards, to the statehouse in Austin. In a lively narrative, Rogers tells the story of how Texas moved so far to the right in such a short time and how Democrats might be able to move it back to the center. And, argues Rogers, that will mean a lot more of an effort than simply waiting for the state's demographics to shift even further towards Hispanics - a risky proposition at best. Rogers identifies a ten-point path for Texas Democrats to win at the statewide level and to build a base vote that would allow Texas to become a swing-vote player in national politics once again. One part of that shift starts with local Democratic candidates in local Republican communities making the connection between controversial local issues or problems and the statewide Republican policies that ignore or create them. For example, in a 2014 election in Denton-a Republican suburb-voters approved Texas's first ban on hydraulic fracking. The next day, though, a Republican Texas agency official announced that Texas would not honor the town's vote to ban. No democratic candidate picked up the issue. Change won't come easily, argues Rogers. But if Texas shifts to even a pale shade of purple, it changes everything in American politics today.
Turning Toward Technology: A Glimpse into the Asian Paradigm
by Alessandro TomasiWe live in an age when the dominant technologically utilitarian worldview is undergoing a transformation. To increase our awareness of this change, Turning Toward Technology introduces readers to the possibility of an alternative technological worldview by examining foundational concepts to Asian thought.The early Eastern philosophical treatment of technology was not ethical, but ontological, exhibiting sensitivity to how human existence was defined and determined in its relation to technology and to reality as a whole. Within the Eastern cultural orientation, technological development was guided by a singular aesthetic sensibility to the useful, the good, the beautiful, the true, and the holy. Instead of controlling the shape of future technology by systems of rational management, George Teschner and Alessandro Tomasi recommend a view of technology that arises from questioning fundamental assumptions within Western culture about knowledge, reality, and human nature.Turning Toward Technology aims to stimulate awareness of an alternative technological paradigm, and thus a different mode of social action that can establish an optimistic future for global civilization.
Turning the Legislative Thumbscrew
by Douglas DionThe use of filibusters in the U. S. Senate by small numbers of members to prevent legislative action apparently desired by a majority of the members--as evidenced by the battles over civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s--is legendary. Similar situations have existed in other legislative bodies over time. The fear that they will at some time be in the minority has inhibited actions by the majority groups to control the right of minority groups to block legislative action. And yet from time to time the majority in a legislative body has forced a change in the rules to control the rights of the minority. When does the majority seek to limit minority rights to obstruct legislation? Douglas Dion, in a unique study, develops a formal model to set out the conditions under which majorities will limit minority rights. He finds that when majorities are small, they will be more cohesive. This majority cohesion leads to minority obstruction, which in turn leads to majority efforts to force procedural change to control the ability of the minority to obstruct legislation. Dion then tests his findings in a rich consideration of historical cases from the nineteenth-century U. S. House of Representatives, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century U. S. Senate, the British House of Commons, and an account of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament written by Mark Twain. Turning the Legislative Thumbscrewis a work that combines formal analysis with extensive historical evidence to address an important problem in democratic theory. Specialists in legislative politics and American political development, as well as those more broadly interested in the relationship between democratic theory and institutional structure, will find the work of great interest. Douglas Dion is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan.
Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Schoolchildren
by Gina A. Oliva Linda Risser LytleBoth Gina A. Oliva and Linda Risser Lytle know what it is like to be the only deaf student in a mainstream school. Though they became successful educators, they recognize the need to research the same isolation experienced by other deaf and hard of hearing persons. In this way, they hope to improve education for current and future deaf students. Their efforts have culminated in Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Schoolchildren. Turning the Tide presents a qualitative study of deaf and hard of hearing students who attended mainstream schools. The authors conducted three focus groups in different regions in the country, enlisting six to eight participants with diverse backgrounds for each session. They also gathered information from 113 online respondents who answered the same questions used in the focus groups. The respondents discussed many issues, including the difficulties of finding friends and social access, the struggle to establish an identity, the challenges of K-12 interpreting and class placement, and the vast potential of summer and weekend programs for deaf students. Their empowering stories clearly demonstrate that no deaf or hard of hearing student should be educated alone. The authors also elicited comments on other changes that parents, advocates, and other allies could work toward to improve further the educational environment of deaf children.
Turning the Tide: Real Hope, Real Change
by Charles F. StanleyNew York Times bestselling author Charles Stanley shares a thought-provoking, inspirational book on how prayer and civic involvement can turn the tide of events presently befalling our nation. Stanley intelligently walks readers through the state of our nation, then aptly offers the most practical action step of all--prayer. With spiritual wisdom and astute knowledge, he shares . . . 1. The Story of Our Storm--Including information on "The Anatomy of Our Failure," "The Downward Spiral of Socialism in America," and "The Eroding Banks of Personal Freedom." 2. Stand Up and Speak Out--Instructing readers on how to "Boldly Hold Our Leaders Accountable" and "Refuse to Tolerate the Flood of Immorality." 3. Turning the Tide--Offering inspirational ways for ordinary citizens to make a difference through "The Power of Speaking the Truth Boldly" and "The Power of Wisdom." 4. The Pathway to Real Change--Outlining a comprehensive, twenty-week prayer guide to help readers take the next step in praying for our country, asking God to hear our pleas and help our nation. *** There is a tidal wave threatening our nation, and its unrelenting surge is changing American life as we've known it . . . and as our Founding Fathers intended it to be. In the midst of the politically charged atmosphere in our country, Dr. Charles Stanley stands tall with a refreshingly calm yet bold call to action. For those who are tired of the rhetoric and are eager to see real change, Pastor Charles Stanley offers a conservative perspective on the state of our nation and what we can do to redirect it. Devoid of the hysteria that normally accompanies national commentary, Dr. Stanley instead offers a balanced, inspirational message for our troubled times. Insisting we can make a difference, Dr. Stanley makes a passionate plea for Christians to get on their knees to pray, and then stand up and become involved. With wisdom and biblical teaching, he insists that if we will turn to God and obey Him, we can: * Reverse the course of our financial troubles * Stop the onslaught of increasingly burdensome taxation * Halt the advancement of socialism in public policy * Return respect for the sanctity of life to the national discourse In this revolutionary book, bestselling author Dr. Charles Stanley also offers a step-by-step twenty-week prayer guide to help Christians pray for real change. It's time, Dr. Stanley says, for us to take responsibility for the direction of our country and become involved both at the civic level and through fervent prayer.
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace (Debate Ser.)
by Noam ChomskyThe renowned activist examines the brutal reality of America&’s Cold War era foreign policy across Central America—with a new preface by the author. First published in 1986, Turning the Tide presents Noam Chomsky&’s expert analysis of three interrelated questions: What was the aim and impact of the US Central American policy? What factors in US society supported and opposed that policy? And how can concerned citizens affect future policy? Chomsky demonstrates how US Central American policies implemented broader US economic, military, and social aims—while claiming a supposedly positive impact on the lives of people in Central America. A particularly revealing focus of Chomsky's argument is the world of US academia and media, which Chomsky analyzes in detail to explain why the US public is so misinformed about our government's policies.
Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism
by Marc SagemanWhat motivates those who commit violence in the name of political beliefs? Terrorism today is not solely the preserve of Islam, nor is it a new phenomenon. It emerges from social processes and conditions common to societies throughout modern history, and the story of its origins spans centuries, encompassing numerous radical and revolutionary movements.Marc Sageman is a forensic psychiatrist and government counterterrorism consultant whose bestselling books Understanding Terror Networks and Leaderless Jihad provide a detailed, damning corrective to commonplace yet simplistic notions of Islamist terrorism. In a comprehensive new book, Turning to Political Violence, Sageman examines the history and theory of political violence in the West. He excavates primary sources surrounding key instances of modern political violence, looking for patterns across a range of case studies spanning the French Revolution, through late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century revolutionaries and anarchists in Russia and the United States, to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the start of World War I. In contrast to one-dimensional portraits of terrorist "monsters" offered by governments and media throughout history, these accounts offer complex and intricate portraits of individuals engaged in struggles with identity, injustice, and revenge who may be empowered by a sense of love and self-sacrifice.Arguing against easy assumptions that attribute terrorism to extremist ideology, and counter to mainstream academic explanations such as rational choice theory, Sageman develops a theoretical model based on the concept of social identity. His analysis focuses on the complex dynamic between the state and disaffected citizens that leads some to disillusionment and moral outrage—and a few to mass murder. Sageman's account offers a paradigm-shifting perspective on terrorism that yields counterintuitive implications for the ways liberal democracies can and should confront political violence.
Turnout!: Mobilizing Voters in an Emergency (Universalizing Resistance)
by Noam Chomsky Charles Derber Medea Benjamin Annie Leonard Aimee Allison Anat Shenker-Osorio Saru Jayaraman Steve Israel Ian Haney López Bill McKibben Katherine Adam Matt Nelson Jeff Merkley Suren Moodliar Cliff Albright Karthik Balasubramanian Mandela Barnes Nikki Fortunato Bas Josh Behrens LaTosha Brown Lydia Camarillo Debra Cleaver Michael Clingman Jennifer Epps-Addison Dana Fisher Helen Gym Debi Klebansky Maria Teresa Kumar Winona LaDuke Ben Manski Kira Moodliar Stephanie Nakajima National Elections Turnout Working Group Wilnelia Rivera Nancy TreviñoTurnout! offers strategies for "emergency elections," like the 2020 races, and addresses the nuts-and-bolts for civic groups and individuals to effectively turn out the vote. Indeed, few elections in recent history represent the kind of apocalyptic turning point for our planet and democracy as the present one. Turnout! is both a creative work of political vision combined with a detailed manual for turning out millions of new voters.Participation at local, state, and federal levels will have an outsized impact on the future of democracy and life itself. The elections also provide an opportunity to power-up social movements that can re-frame and re-define civic participation in an age of extreme inequality, climate change, and pandemics. Contributors include powerful movement leaders Maria Teresa Kumar (Voto Latino), Aimee Allison (She the People), Winona LaDuke (Honor the Earth), and Matt Nelson (Presente.org); leading public officials advocating greater voter engagement like Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, and councilors Helen Gym and Nikki Fortunato Bas. Turnout! reveals strategies and real-world tactics to mobilize millions of discouraged, apathetic, or suppressed voters, including women, low-income, Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQIA+, student and youth, and working-class voters.
Turnout: Making Minnesota the State that Votes
by Joan Anderson GroweHigh voter turnout in Minnesota is no accident. It arose from the traditions of this state's early Yankee and northern European immigrants, and it has been sustained by wisely chosen election policies. Many of these policies were designed and implemented during the twenty-four-year tenure of Minnesota Secretary of State Joan Anderson Growe. In inspiring and often funny prose, Growe recounts the events that framed her life and changed the state's voting practices. She grew up in a household that never missed an election. After an astounding grassroots feminist campaign, she was elected to the state legislature in 1972; two years later, she was elected secretary of state, the state';s chief elections administrator. As one of the nation's leading advocates for reliable elections and convenient voting, Growe worked with county officials to secure Election Day registration (used for the first time in 1974) as a Minnesota norm. She brought new technology into elections administration and promoted "motor voter" registration. And as an ardent feminist, she has encouraged and inspired scores of other women to run for office. Part political history and part memoir, this book is a reminder to Minnesotans to cherish and protect their tradition of clean, open elections.
Tuscan Countess: The Life and Extraordinary Times of Matilda of Canossa
by Michele K. Spike&“[This] marvelous biography peels back layer upon layer of previous myth to render a startling new portrait of the countess. . . . Absorbing.&” —Publishers Weekly Tuscan Countess is a fast-paced and colorful exploration of the life of Matilda of Canossa (c. 1046–1115), a woman who loved a pope and was loved by him, successfully defied the Holy Roman Emperor, and changed the map of Europe. Matilda of Canossa, the &“Great Countess,&” was a remarkable woman. Her personal power was so extraordinary that even centuries after her death she became the first woman to be interred in St. Peter's Basilica. She is best remembered for her role in the conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman emperor, the climax of which took place at her castle of Canossa. This unique biography is also a journal of the author's travels through contemporary Tuscany as she explores the palaces where Matilda held court, the blood-stained plains on which her soldiers battled, the churches and cathedrals she endowed, and the fortified aeries where she sought refuge. Readers will be swept along on this engrossing journey retracing the steps of a courageous and brilliant woman.
Tuscany in the Age of Empire (I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history)
by Brian BregeA new history explores how one of Renaissance Italy’s leading cities maintained its influence in an era of global exploration, trade, and empire. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was not an imperial power, but it did harbor global ambitions. After abortive attempts at overseas colonization and direct commercial expansion, as Brian Brege shows, Tuscany followed a different path, one that allowed it to participate in Europe’s new age of empire without establishing an empire of its own. The first history of its kind, Tuscany in the Age of Empire offers a fresh appraisal of one of the foremost cities of the Italian Renaissance, as it sought knowledge, fortune, and power throughout Asia, the Americas, and beyond. How did Tuscany, which could not compete directly with the growing empires of other European states, establish a global presence? First, Brege shows, Tuscany partnered with larger European powers. The duchy sought to obtain trade rights within their empires and even manage portions of other states’ overseas territories. Second, Tuscans invested in cultural, intellectual, and commercial institutions at home, which attracted the knowledge and wealth generated by Europe’s imperial expansions. Finally, Tuscans built effective coalitions with other regional powers in the Mediterranean and the Islamic world, which secured the duchy’s access to global products and empowered the Tuscan monarchy in foreign affairs. These strategies allowed Tuscany to punch well above its weight in a world where power was equated with the sort of imperial possessions it lacked. By finding areas of common interest with stronger neighbors and forming alliances with other marginal polities, a small state was able to protect its own security while carving out a space as a diplomatic and intellectual hub in a globalizing Europe.
Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of the Boy-King
by Christine El MahdyWhen Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1922, even the most experienced archaeologists joined the international community in marveling at the incredible wealth--and seemingly bizarre rituals--of ancient Egypt. What kind of society could produce such spectacular treasures only to bury them forever?Lost in a frenzy of speculation--anthropological, scientific, and commercial--was Tutankhamen himself. Thirty-five hundred years ago, the mightiest empire on Earth crowned a boy as its king, then worshipped him as a god. Nine years later, he was dead. Despite the young monarch's almost universal recognition in death, Egyptologists know very little about his life. Traditional histories, founded on incomplete investigation and academic dogma, shed almost no light on the details of a life as complicated and as fascinating as it was short.In Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of the Boy-King, Christine El Mahdy finally delivers a coherent portrait of King Tut's life and its historical significance. Based on stunning tomb records, lost since their discovery, this revolutionary biography begins to answer one of the twentieth century's most compelling archaeological mysteries: Who was Tutankhamen?
Tutankhamón y su tumba
by José Miguel ParraJosé Miguel Parra redescubre en este texto el misterio de la arqueología más importante hasta la fecha: la tumba de Tutankhamón. Hace 100 años, el arqueólogo Howard Carter descubría en el Valle de los Reyes la tumba KV62, perteneciente a Tutankhamón. Era un hallazgo insólito, pues había permanecido totalmente intacta durante más de tres milenios. Si ahora escuchamos el nombre de Tutankhamón, lo más probable es que nuestra mente lo asocie de forma inmediata a las pirámides de Egipto y a los faraones. Incluso quizás alguien lo asocie con Indiana Jones. Pero, más allá del mito, ¿hasta qué punto conocemos su historia? José Miguel Parra, eminente historiador especializado en el Reino Antiguo, presenta en este texto todas las claves para comprender la figura de uno de los faraones más importantes de todos los siglos. En él podremos conocer las luchas internas de las dinastías por la sucesión al trono, la representación artística de los líderes del antiguo Egipto o la drástica evolución del culto religioso. Y, por supuesto, una de las partes más emocionantes de este texto: el misterio (aún sin resolver) que engloba la prematura muerte del faraón. Tutankhamón y su tumba es un texto ágil e iniciático que invita a disipar todas las dudas alrededor del descubrimiento arqueológico más importante de la historia.
Tutu: Authorized
by Mpho TutuCommemorating Desmond Tutu's eightieth birthday, this stirring biography commemorates the life, philosophy, faith, and achievements of one of the greatest moral heroes of our time. Written by Allister Sparks, Tutu: Authorized featuring contributions from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela, as well as interviews given by Reverend Mpho Tutu, Desmond Tutu’s daughter, to world leaders and public figures including Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Bono, Richard Branson, and F.W. de Klerk. A stirring exploration and graphically rich presentation of one of the world’s most inspirational and altruistic figures, Tutu: Authorized overflows with illuminating revelations about Tutu’s life and resonates with insights into how we can each work to improve peace, fairness, and happiness in the world around us.
Tweet Land of Liberty
by Elinor LipmanElinor Lipman (@elinorlipman) chronicles the 2012 election season with a poem a day--all in 140 characters or less.Judy Blume "It's nice to see that Lipman's wit has escaped the hell of Twitter and collected itself in a book." --Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom "A devotion of fearless, sassy, sublime insights, that should be carried into the voting booth of our daily lives--each poem read again and again--before any lever is pulled." --Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry "So it has come to this! Of thee I zing. I love it." --Lois Lowry "The only sane, smart and witty thing to come out of the Republican primaries." --Stephen McCauley "Jon Stewart in 140 characters -- and in the morning. What could be better?" --Stacy Schiff "Winsome, witty and winning! I don't know how she does it!! " --Anita Shreve "Elinor Lipman tweets like a nightingale with an eagle eye." --Cathleen Schine "Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, Calvin Trillin, and Elinor Lipman!!" --Mameve Medwed "Elinor Lipman is to tweets what Shakespeare is to sonnets." --Firoozeh Dumas "There once was a Lipman on Twitter, who made every liberal titter." --Michael Lowenthal "I'm beset with Lipmania." --Henry Alford "Wise and sassy and too fun to miss!" --Jill McCorkle
Tweeting Brexit: Social Media and the Aftermath of the EU Referendum (Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics)
by Maja ŠimunjakTweeting Brexit presents the most thorough examination of the role that the most political social network, Twitter, played in creating, negotiating and challenging Brexit narratives during the process of UK’s exiting of the European Union. Working with multiple methods, from digital media analysis to interviews, and a wide variety of data, the book offers scrutiny of Brexit-related tweets and discourses they promote, and gives voice to key actors - UK citizens, political and media actors - to explain why and how they’ve used Twitter to talk about Brexit and with what outcomes. In doing so, the author engages with, and enhances, a range of theoretical discussions central to our understanding of the role of social media in politics, from permanent campaigning on social media to social media journalism. With a reach far beyond the central Brexit case study, the book discusses new trends and practices in political communication and contextualises them with reference to empirical evidence. The book is key reading for all students and researchers in digital media and politics, digital methods and related areas, as well as anyone interested in developing their understanding of the role that Twitter plays in political communications.
Twelve African Writers (Routledge Revivals)
by Gerald MooreOriginally published in 1980, this book introduces the student to twelve of the most exciting and significant African authors of the 20th Century, whose work represents Anglophone and Francophone writing (with translation) drawn from West, East and Southern Africa. Twelve African Writers was a revised, updated and extended edition of the pioneering Seven African Writers which did so much to make students aware of African literature. The book also contains an extensive bibliography of the works not just of the selected writers, but other important African authors and recommendations of further critical works.
Twelve Against the Gods: The Story of Adventure
by William BolithoAn instant bestseller when first published in 1929—biographies of twelve bold individuals from history and what they did to separate themselves from the pack. In his trademark journalist style, author William Bolitho details the lives of twelve great adventurers—Alexander the Great, Casanova, Christopher Columbus, Mahomet, Lola Montez, Cagliostro (and Seraphina), Charles XII of Sweden, Napoleon I, Lucius Sergius Catiline, Napoleon III, Isadora Duncan, and Woodrow Wilson. Bolitho elucidates both the struggles and successes that made these figures so iconic, and demonstrates how they all battled convention and conformity to achieve enduring fame and notoriety. &“We are born adventurers,&” Bolitho writes, &“and the love of adventures never leaves us till we are very old; old, timid men, in whose interest it is that adventure should quite die out. This is why all the poets are on one side, and all the laws on the other; for laws are made by, and usually for, old men.&” Though his essays are nearly one hundred years old, they encompass the timeless values of perseverance, bravery, and strength of spirit that have proven to resonate with the pioneers and thought leaders of today.&“It&’s really quite good.&” —Elon Musk&“Twelve Against the Gods provides an interesting perspective on what drove and impeded this group of adventurers . . . A good read for anyone who&’s interested in history or looking to find some motivation to switch things up and break the rules.&” —Áine Cain, Business Insider&“I think Twelve Against the Gods is also very appropriate for this day and age. We need adventurers, and there still are a lot of adventurers.&” —China Ryall, daughter of William Bolitho
Twelve Cries from Home: In Search of Sri Lanka's Disappeared
by Minoli SalgadoTwelve Cries from Home speaks out against Sri Lanka&’s official silencing of war crimes, reclaiming the stories of survivors who insist on being heard.Since August 2020, the intimidation of witnesses and journalists has surged in Sri Lanka. Twelve Cries from Home navigates the memories and stories of twelve war survivors, mostly women and relatives of the disappeared, who wished to have their stories retold so that a permanent record might be made, and so that those outside the country might understand their experiences. The outcome of a journey across the island in late 2018 by writer and Professor of Literature Minoli Salgado, who was revisiting her ancestral home, Twelve Cries from Home is deeply-layered and localised work of travelling witness. It returns to the concept of home as a place of belonging and security, which is a lost ideal for most, and uses a Sri Lankan measure of distance – the call, or hoowa – to ask how we might attend to stories that are difficult to tell and to hear.Exploring the bitter complexity of war by presenting stories from four regions of Sri Lanka, it reveals the complex network of relationships between the agents of conflict and their victims, as well as the blurred boundary between victims and perpetrators, the role of informers and the process of ethical repair after traumatic experience. Twelve Cries from Home offers a rare glimpse into a country subject to enforced self-censorship, allowing us to take stock of social and political developments in Sri Lanka and what has and has not been achieved in light of the transitional justice mechanisms promised to the UN.
Twelve Days: Revolution 1956. How the Hungarians tried to topple their Soviet masters
by Victor SebestyenThe defining moment of the Cold War: 'The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.' (Richard Nixon)The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world's superpowers. The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades.The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa's Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom.
Twelve Feminist Lessons of War
by Cynthia EnloeRenowned scholar-activist Cynthia Enloe lays out the lessons that women activists have drawn from their immediate experiences of war. Twelve Feminist Lessons of War draws on firsthand experiences of war from women in places as diverse as Ukraine, Myanmar, Somalia, Vietnam, Rwanda, Algeria, Syria, and Northern Ireland to show how women's wars are not men's wars. With her engaging trademark style, Cynthia Enloe demonstrates how patriarchy and militarism have embedded themselves in our institutions and our personal lives. Enloe reveals how the social and political influences that shape war—from military recruitment and economic collapse to sexual assault and reproductive rights (and their denial)—are deeply gendered and pervade women's lives before, during, and in the aftermath of war. Her razor-sharp analysis, at once accessible and provocative, highlights how women's emotional and physical labor is used to support government policies and how women's rights activists—against all odds—remain committed in the midst of armed violence. Twelve Feminist Lessons of War is the gritty and grounded book we need to understand what is happening to our world.