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Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA (Forbidden Bookshelf #11)
by Mark Crispin Miller David Macmichael Ralph W. McgeheeA veteran of two and a half decades with the Central Intelligence Agency unmasks the culture of lethal lies at its foundation in this devastating exposé, now with a new foreword by David MacMichael Ralph W. McGehee was a patriot, dedicated to the American way of life and the international fight against Communism. Following his graduation with honors from Notre Dame, McGehee was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1952 and quickly became an able and enthusiastic cold warrior. Stationed in Southeast Asia in the mid-1960s, he worked to stem the Communist tide that was sweeping through the region, first in Thailand and later in Vietnam. But despite his notable successes in reversing enemy influence among the local peasants and villagers, McGehee found himself increasingly alienated from a company culture built on deceit and wholesale manipulation of the truth. While his country was being pulled deeper and deeper into the Vietnam quagmire, McGehee awoke to a chilling reality: The CIA was not a gatherer of actual intelligence to be employed in a legitimate war against dangerous enemies, but a tool of the president's foreign-policy staff designed solely to stifle the truth and fabricate "facts" that supported the agency's often immoral agenda. With courage and candor, Ralph McGehee illuminates the CIA's dark catalog of misdeeds in his stunning, no-holds-barred memoir of a life in the service of deception. Startling, eye-opening, and infuriating, Deadly Deceits is an honest and unflinching insider's look at a toxic government agency that the author cogently argues has no useful purpose and no moral right to exist.
Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob (Forbidden Bookshelf #23)
by Mark Crispin Miller Dan E. MoldeaA “smoldering indictment” of the corrupt influences that rescued Ronald Reagan’s career, made him millions, and shaped his presidency (Library Journal). Founded in 1924, the Music Corporation of America got its start booking acts into speakeasies run by such notorious Chicago mobsters as Al Capone. How then, in only a few decades, did MCA become the driving force behind music publishing, radio, recording artists, Hollywood, and the burgeoning television industry? Enter Ronald Reagan. By the late 1950s, Reagan was a passé movie actor. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, he was also MCA’s key client. With Reagan’s help, MCA would become the most powerful entertainment conglomerate in the world. And with MCA’s help, Reagan would secure a fortune (resulting in a federal grand jury hearing), be marketed to the public as a viable politician, and ascend to the presidency of the United States. But according to reporter Dan E. Moldea, there had always been another catalyst behind MCA: Ties to organized crime that reached back to the company’s inception—and through Reagan’s Teamster-backed candidacy—had never been severed. From the author of The Hoffa Wars, this is an epic and serpentine investigation into the insidious links among Hollywood, the Mob, and politics. Based on research of six thousand pages of previously classified documents, including the entirety of Reagan’s grand jury testimony, Moldea “has, through sheer tenacity, amassed an avalanche of ominous and unnerving facts. [Dark Victory is] a book about power, ego and the American way. Moldea has shown us what we don’t want to see” (Los Angeles Times).
Betsy Ross and the Making of America
by Marla R. MillerA richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in Revolutionary War-era PhiladelphiaBetsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America's most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of "the first flag," Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes.Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller's winning narrative finally does her justice. This history of the ordinary craftspeople of the Revolutionary War and their most famous representative will be the definitive volume for years to come.
Rebecca Dickinson
by Marla R. MillerRebecca Dickinson’s powerful voice, captured through excerpts from the pages of her journal, allows colonial and revolutionary-era New England to come alive. Dickinson’s life illustrates the dilemmas faced by many Americans in the decades before, during, and after the American Revolution, as well as the paradoxes presented by an unmarried woman who earned her own living and made her own way in the small town where she was born. Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman, uses Dickinson’s world as a lens to introduce readers to the everyday experience of living in the colonial era and the social, cultural, and economic challenges faced in the transformative decades surrounding the American Revolution. About the Lives of American Women series: Selected and edited by renowned women’s historian Carol Berkin, these brief biographies are designed for use in undergraduate courses. Rather than a comprehensive approach, each biography focuses instead on a particular aspect of a women’s life that is emblematic of her time, or which made her a pivotal figure in the era. The emphasis is on a "good read,” featuring accessible writing and compelling narratives, without sacrificing sound scholarship and academic integrity. Primary sources at the end of each biography reveal the subject’s perspective in her own words. Study questions and an annotated bibliography support the student reader.
Rebecca Dickinson
by Marla R. MillerRebecca Dickinson's powerful voice, captured through excerpts from the pages of her journal, allows colonial and revolutionary-era New England to come alive. Dickinson's life illustrates the dilemmas faced by many Americans in the decades before, during, and after the American Revolution, as well as the paradoxes presented by an unmarried woman who earned her own living and made her own way in the small town where she was born. Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman, uses Dickinson's world as a lens to introduce readers to the everyday experience of living in the colonial era and the social, cultural, and economic challenges faced in the transformative decades surrounding the American Revolution. About the Lives of American Women series:Selected and edited by renowned women's historian Carol Berkin, these brief biographies are designed for use in undergraduate courses. Rather than a comprehensive approach, each biography focuses instead on a particular aspect of a women's life that is emblematic of her time, or which made her a pivotal figure in the era. The emphasis is on a "good read," featuring accessible writing and compelling narratives, without sacrificing sound scholarship and academic integrity. Primary sources at the end of each biography reveal the subject's perspective in her own words. Study questions and an annotated bibliography support the student reader.
The Russian Revolutionary Emigres, 1825-1870 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science #104)
by Martin A. MillerOriginally published in 1986. Martin A. Miller, author of the definitive biography of the exiled revolutionary Peter Kropotkin, traces the history of the first generations of Russians who went to Western Europe to devote their lives to anti-tsarist politics. Refusing to assimilate abroad and unable to return home, the émigrés political orientations were influenced by intellectual and social currents in both Russia and Europe. Miller undertakes a major reassessment of the émigré contribution to the Russian revolutionary movement. Starting with Nikolai Turgenev, who in 1825 was declared the first "émigré" by a special act of the Russian government, the exiles formed a unique social and political group. Miller takes a biographical approach in tracing the progression from a disparate community of intellectuals, unable to act together to promote their own program for change, to a more cohesive second émigré generation that provided the foundation for collective action and the development of a revolutionary ideology. The creation of the Russian émigré press, Miller argues, gave identity and momentum to the émigrés and helped promote their program of revolution and a new social order. The Russian Revolutionary Emigres, 1825-1870 concludes with the death in 1870 of the leading émigré figure, Alexander Herzen, and with an analysis of the impact upon the émigrés of the emergence of the populist revolutionary movement within Russia. The émigrés overcame the loss of their homeland through their version of a future Russia, one transformed into a new society where their ideals could be realized. When, two generations later, Lenin returned to Russia after decades in Europe and made this vision a reality, his actions built on the foundation laid by his nineteenth-century predecessors.
Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage
by Mary MillerA &“very moving biography&” of a courageous woman who gave her life in order to stay with her orphaned students during the Nazi invasion of Hungary (Scotsman). A farmer&’s daughter from Scotland, Jane Haining went to work at the Scottish Jewish Mission School in Budapest in 1932, where she was a boarding school matron in charge of around fifty orphan girls. Jane was back in the UK on holiday when war broke out in 1939, but she immediately went back to Hungary to do all she could to protect the four hundred children at the school, most of them Jewish. She refused to leave in 1940, and again ignored orders to flee the country in March 1944 when Hungary was invaded by the Nazis. She remained with her pupils, writing &“if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness.&” Her brave persistence led to her arrest by the Gestapo in April 1944, for &“offenses&” that included spying, working with Jews, and listening to the BBC. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz just a few months later, at the age of forty-seven. This story of her courage and self-sacrifice, her choice to stay and protect the children in her care, is &“an inspiring tale of quiet heroism&” (Neil MacGregor). &“Haining&’s firm moral compass emerges clearly, making her story heroic as well as heart-rending. Materially, she may have left little behind, but her legacy is enduring.&” —Church Times
An Incautious Man: The Life of Gouveneur Morris (Lives of the Founders)
by Melanie MillerIn An Incautious Man, historian Melanie Miller provides a succinct but sophisticated recounting of the life of one of our lesser-known but most engaging Founding Fathers: Gouverneur Morris.One of George Washington's "surrogate sons," Morris played a profound role in ensuring the success of the American Revolution and the creation of the Constitution. Miller provides readers a look behind the closed doors of the Constitutional Convention, where Morris's crystalline but passionate eloquence gave the debate a vitality that remains both enthralling and keenly meaningful for those of us whose lives have been decisively shaped by the results of that deliberation. In 1792, Morris replaced Thomas Jefferson as the American minister to France. His experience there during the Terror is unparalleled in diplomatic history. As Miller tells it, Morris's time in France is a story of conspiracy to help the king escape, of friends imprisoned and murdered, of seized ships and complex problems that had no precedent in the young nation's history. Upon his return to the U.S., Morris served a brief stint in the Senate before going on to secure the building of the Erie Canal and to direct the design of the Manhattan network of streets we know today.
Ike the Soldier
by Merle MillerFrom the bestselling author of Plain Speaking and Lyndon comes this &“vivid and consistently absorbing record of Dwight D. Eisenhower&’s military career&” (Kirkus Reviews). Bringing together thousands of hours of interviews with the men and women who were closest to him, Merle Miller has constructed a revealing and personal biography of the man who would become the supreme commander. From his childhood in Kansas to West Point, World War I, and Europe where he led the Allied Forces to a hard-won victory in World War II, Ike the Soldier goes behind the historic battles and into the heart and mind of Ike Eisenhower. Miller has crafted the defining biography on the life of the thirty-fourth president, bringing more depth to the man many thought they knew. His strained relationships with his father, brothers, and son are brought into focus; as well as his love affair with his wife Mamie, and his relationship with Kay Summersby—his driver turned companion and confidante during WWII. &“An informed and balanced tribute to a world-class leader whose remarkable character gains greater luster with the passage of time.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“This is a highly enjoyable look at Ike&’s personal and official relationships with the people most important to him during the first 55 years of his life, including family, Army and Allied colleagues and heads of state.&” —Publishers Weekly
Lyndon: An Oral Biography
by Merle MillerThe bestselling author of Plain Speaking crafts a candid portrait of one of the most complex, fascinating, difficult, and colorful American presidents. From his birth in 1908 to his death in 1973, the story of Lyndon B. Johnson is told without sparing his personal excesses and contentious public image—while also highlighting the strength of his greatest accomplishments in Washington. Interlaced with interviews from Lady Bird Johnson, John Kenneth Galbraith, J. William Fulbright, Larry O&’Brien, Hubert H. Humphrey, and hundreds of others, Miller provides an extensive and objective image of the life of LBJ. &“No secret remains. This is Lyndon Johnson true, lunging through life, pouring &‘every ounce of his energy&’ into whatever he did, ranting, raving, shouting, &‘screaming at the universe,&’ flogging system, staff and self to achieve what others pronounced unachievable . . . Miller allows his posse of turncoats—336 in all, myself among them—to lead him to the Johnson few ever knew: at his best, magnificent; at his worst, outrageous.&” —Horace Busby, The Washington Post &“The domestic triumphs and the Johnson style come across like the Fourth of July . . . page-by-page, this is the low-down up to the Presidency—and one long book that never flags.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman
by Merle Miller"Based on interviews conducted in the early 1960s for an ill-fated television project, Plain Speaking was not published until more than a decade later, in the year after Harry Truman's death--a year in which the headlines were dominated by the tawdry dishonesties of the Watergate scandal. The memory of Truman, [Merle] Miller comments at the outset, "has never been sharper, never brighter than it is now, a time when menacing, shadowy men are everywhere among us." Certainly the thirty-second president's legacy is honored in the chapters that follow Miller's opening remark, for the book is largely composed in Truman's own words and the words of his friends." From the Forward
Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman
by Merle Miller&“Never has a President of the United States, or any head of state for that matter, been so totally revealed, so completely documented&” (Robert A. Arthur). Plain Speaking is the bestselling book based on conversations between Merle Miller and the thirty-third President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. From these interviews, as well as others who knew him over the years, Miller transcribes Truman&’s feisty takes on everything from his personal life, military service, and political career to the challenges he faced in taking the office during the final days of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Using a series of taped discussions from 1962 that never aired on television, Plain Speaking takes an opportunity to deliver exactly how Mr. Truman felt about the presidency, and his thoughts in his later years on his accomplishments and the legacy he left behind. &“The values of Plain Speaking, on the whole, are those of the highest form of political communication: the bull session. As with all good bull sessions, what is said here ranges widely in quality and seriousness, as one should expect when dealing with a complex man.&” —The New York Times &“Plain Speaking has a nostalgic, downhome quality of good friends gossiping over the back fence, or saying their piece of a twilight eve rocking on the porch—and if those fellas back in Washington have their secret machines running, well, they won&’t like what they overhear. Not one little bit.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Belonging: A Daughter's Search for Identity Through Loss and Love
by Michelle MillerNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"[An] outstanding debut."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)The award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Saturday Morning tells the candid, and deeply personal story of her mother’s abandonment and how the search for answers forced her to reckon with her own identity and the secrets that shaped her family for five decades.Though Michelle Miller was an award-winning broadcast journalist for CBS News, few people in her life knew the painful secret she carried: her mother had abandoned her at birth. Los Angeles in 1967 was deeply segregated, and her mother—a Chicana hospital administrator who presented as white, had kept her affair with Michelle’s father, Dr. Ross Miller, a married trauma surgeon and Compton’s first Black city councilman—hidden, along with the unplanned pregnancy. Raised largely by her father and her paternal grandmother, Michelle had no knowledge of the woman whose genes she shared. Then, fate intervened when Michelle was twenty-two. As her father lay stricken with cancer, he told her, “Go and find your mother.”Belonging is the chronicle of Michelle’s decades-long quest to connect with the woman who gave her life, to confront her past, and ultimately, to find her voice as a journalist, a wife, and a mother. Michelle traces the years spent trying to make sense of her mixed-race heritage and her place in white-dominated world. From the wealthy white schools where she was bussed to integrate, to the newsrooms filled with white, largely male faces, she revisits the emotional turmoil of her formative years and how the enigma of her mother and her rejection shaped Michelle’s understanding of herself and her own Blackness.As she charts her personal journey, Michelle looks back on her decades on the ground reporting painful events, from the beating of Rodney King to the death of George Floyd, revealing how her struggle to understand her racial identity coincides with the nation’s own ongoing and imperfect racial reckoning. What emerges is an intimate family story about secrets—secrets we keep, secrets we share, and the secrets that make us who we are.
But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People's Lives (Gender and Culture Series)
by Nancy K. MillerIn her latest work of personal criticism, Nancy K. Miller tells the story of how a girl who grew up in the 1950s and got lost in the 1960s became a feminist critic in the 1970s. As in her previous books, Miller interweaves pieces of her autobiography with the memoirs of contemporaries in order to explore the unexpected ways that the stories of other people's lives give meaning to our own. The evolution she chronicles was lived by a generation of literary girls who came of age in the midst of profound social change and, buoyed by the energy of second-wave feminism, became writers, academics, and activists. Miller's recollections form one woman's installment in a collective memoir that is still unfolding, an intimate page of a group portrait in process.
My Brilliant Friends: Our Lives in Feminism (Gender and Culture Series)
by Nancy K. MillerMy Brilliant Friends is a group biography of three women’s friendships forged in second-wave feminism. Poignant and politically charged, the book is a captivating personal account of the complexities of women’s bonds.Nancy K. Miller describes her friendships with three well-known scholars and literary critics: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor. Their relationships were simultaneously intimate and professional, emotional and intellectual, animated by the ferment of the women’s movement. Friendships like these sustained the generation of women whose entrance into male-dominated professions is still reshaping American society. The stories of their intertwined lives and books embody feminism’s belief in the political importance of personal experience. Reflecting on aging and loss, ambition and rivalry, competition and collaboration, Miller shows why and how friendship’s ties matter in the worlds of work and love. Inspired in part by the portraits of the intensely enmeshed lives in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, My Brilliant Friends provides a passionate and timely vision of friendship between women.
Reaching New Heights: The Kelly Clark Story (ZonderKidz Biography)
by Natalie Davis MillerReaching New Heights Snowboarder and Olympic Gold Medalist Kelly Clark had accomplished her life’s goals by the age of 18. Yet, success didn’t leave her feeling fulfilled. Two years later, at an event in Salt Lake City, Kelly stood at the bottom of the pipe, listening to one snowboarder console another who had just crashed: “It’s alright. God still loves you.” These words led Kelly on a new journey from an Olympian snowboarder into an awesome relationship with Jesus. This story of one of the world’s greatest snowboarders will encourage readers young and old to reach for the next level, knowing that God will be with them, win or lose.
Swimming with Faith: The Missy Franklin Story (ZonderKidz Biography)
by Natalie Davis MillerMissy Franklin is one of the most talented swimmers in the world. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist and currently holds the world record in the 200-meter backstroke and American records in both the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. She was Swimming World’s World Swimmer of the Year and was awarded the American Swimmer of the Year award in 2012. Swimming with Faith: The Missy Franklin Story details her rise in fame as a swimmer and humbleness in the sport and in her personal life.
Designer Dogs, Awkward Hugs, And A Pigeon: Veterinary Tales, Again
by P. J. MillerDr. P. J. Miller is back! Following his first installment, Cute Poodles, Sweet Old Ladies & Hugs, Dr. Miller has compiled another volume of truly awesome veterinary tales. Come along for the ride again as Dr. Miller delivers stories that feature colorful clients, endearing pets, his own beloved bulldog, and a hurricane. All the sassy hospital staff that readers came to love are back, including that special staff member who seems to work by her own particular standards of professionalism (you know the one). In Designer Dogs, Awkward Hugs & Pigeons, Dr. Miller goes behind the scenes of his veterinary practice to provide a true insider’s view into life as an animal doctor. Dr. Miller employs the same unique style of humorous storytelling that readers loved in his first novel. Hidden behind the humor, Dr. Miller gives a deeper glimpse into how emotional and strong the human-animal bond can be. A must read for any aspiring veterinary professional or animal lover.
The Hole Story of the Doughnut
by Pat MillerA colorful look at the true story behind one sea captain&’s scrumptious legacy that has become one of our favorite snacks.In 1843, fourteen-year-old Hanson Gregory left his family home in Rockport, Maine, and set sail as a cabin boy on the schooner Achorn, looking for high-stakes adventure on the high seas. Little did he know that a boatload of hungry sailors, coupled with his knack for creative problem-solving, would yield one of the world&’s most prized and beloved pastries.Lively and inventive cut-paper illustrations add a taste of whimsy to this sweet, fact-filled story that includes an extensive bibliography, author's note, and timeline.&“A lively offering for reading and sharing that will encourage the youngest of researchers to wonder and learn about other everyday items in their world.&”—School Library Journal
The Quickest Kid in Clarksville
by Pat Zietlow MillerIt's the day before the big parade. Alta can only think about one thing: Wilma Rudolph, three-time Olympic gold medalist. She'll be riding on a float tomorrow. See, Alta is the quickest kid in Clarksville, Tennessee, just like Wilma once was. It doesn't matter that Alta's shoes have holes because Wilma came from hard times, too. But what happens when a new girl with shiny new shoes comes along and challenges Alta to a race? Will she still be the quickest kid? The Quickest Kid in Clarksville is a timeless story of dreams, determination, and the power of friendship. Plus, this is the fixed-format version, which looks almost identical to the print edition!
Roger Williams
by Perry MillerBiography focusing on the impact of the individual on the American tradition.
Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice, and Observations
by Peter MillerA love letter to the small shop, and shop owners everywhere, by beloved bookseller Peter Miller.For more than four decades, Peter Miller has run a design bookshop that shares his name in Seattle. He has also written three of his own books, manuals about cooking and about food and about eating together. In Shopkeeping, Miller writes for the first time about his other love: shopkeeping."There is a tradition of shopkeeping, a tradition of codes, etiquette, and customs. For the most part, it is an oral history, passed along, person to person. You learn to be a retailer—not by going to college, but by going to work. You learn from people who have learned how to run a shop." [from the Introduction]Over ten chapters, Miller crafts stories from the bookshop floor with wry humor and skillful storytelling. Readers will laugh out loud as they come to understand along the way that small shops characterize our towns and cities, making them unique, special, and worth visiting and living near. An essay collection for book and bookshop lovers, small business owners, and Seattle natives, transplants, and visitors, Shopkeeping captures the art and heart of running a local shop cherished by the community that surrounds it.
Against the Tide: Women Reformers in American Society
by Randall M. Miller Paul A. CimbalaAgainst the Tide is a collection of in-depth biographical essays on the most important women reformers in American history. This reader will be useful in any history course that deals with the important contributions made by women to the development of our government and society from the early republic to today. The volume combines scholarly vitality with readability, making it appropriate for all levels of students.
Harry the K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas
by Randy MillerTo Philadelphia Phillies fans, he was the soundtrack of summer. To millions of football fans across America, he was the “Voice of the NFL. ” And as open and giving as Harry Kalas was throughout his professional and personal life, there are countless layers of the man that have remained unknown . . . until now. Author Randy Miller interviewed more than 160 people—including all of Harry’s surviving family, many of his close friends from childhood to present, numerous colleagues from baseball and the NFL, and even Harry’s longtime personal psychologist—to craft a loving and shockingly honest portrayal of one of the most celebrated broadcasters in the history of sports. With incredible details from all phases of his life—from his upbringing in the Chicago suburbs, to his Hall of Fame broadcasting career in baseball, to his ubiquitous voiceover work with the NFL, to his personal vices for drinking and women, to his legendary friendship with Richie “Whitey” Ashburn, to his ongoing feud with on-air partner Chris Wheeler—Harry the K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas will surprise, delight, and enlighten all fans of the man they called “Harry the K. ”