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The great degeneration: how institutions decay and economies die
By Niall Ferguson. 2013
An examination of institutional dysfunction in the Western world argues that such values as a free market and representative government…
are being compromised while future generations are inheriting unmanageable levels of debt. 2013.The girls of Atomic City: the untold story of the women who helped win World War II
By Denise Kiernan. 2013
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents. But to most of the…
world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians—many of them young women from small towns across the South—were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war—when Oak Ridge’s fateful secret was revealed. Bestseller. 2013.The generals: the Canadian army's senior commanders in the Second World War
By J. L Granatstein. 1993
Granatstein's study of life at the top during the Second World War centres on the most senior ranks in the…
Canadian Army. Men like Andrew McNaughton, Harold Crerar, Thomas Burns and Guy Simonds had not only to win military campaigns, but also command the sympathies of bureaucrats and powerful politicians. None, however, forgot they were fighting a war, and that their decisions directly affected the lives of Canadian soldiers. 1993.The great fire
By Jim Murphy. 1995
An account of the conflagration that levelled much of Chicago in 1871. Chronicles events from the fire's outbreak and rapid…
spread to its extinguishment by rain, as reported by survivors and in documents of the period. Examines the origins, circumstances, and official failures that contributed to the disaster. Grades 5-8. A 1996 Newbery Honor Book. c1995.The frackers: the outrageous inside story of the new billionaire wildcatters
By Gregory Zuckerman. 2014
In five years, the United States has seen a historic burst of oil and natural gas production, easing our insatiable…
hunger for energy. A new drilling process called fracking has made us the world's fastest growing energy power, on track to pass Saudi Arabia by 2020. But despite headlines and controversy, no previous book has shown how the revolution really happened. The Frackers tells the dramatic tale of how a group of ambitious and headstrong wildcatters ignored the ridicule of experts and derision of colleagues to pursue massive, long-overlooked deposits. Against all odds, they changed the world- and made astonishing fortunes in the process. Zuckerman's exclusive access enabled him to get close to men like George Mitchell, who developed a new way to drill for gas in shale rock; Harold Hamm, who discovered so much oil he's now worth more than the estate of Steve Jobs; and Aubrey McClendon, who lost more than billion on a misguided gambit. Zuckerman shows how the frackers are now using their wealth to shake up Hollywood, education, politics, sports, and other fields, much like the Rockefellers and Gettys before them. He also explores the debate over the environmental risks of fracking, and whether those risks are worth it for the United States to achieve energy independence and for the rest of the world to follow. 2014.Discusses the 1507 Waldseemüller map - the first to designate America - which is in the collections of and displayed…
by the Library of Congress. Traces the overlapping voyages, some geographical and some intellectual, that brought about the map’s revolutionary depiction of the world. 2009.The flight of the patriot: escape from revolutionary Iran
By Yadi Sharifirad. 2010
Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s, saved by a group of local Kurds, and…
eventually returned to Iran where he became a national hero. The Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché, but when he returned to Teheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Upon his release, despite constant surveillance, he resolved to smuggle his family out of the country. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2010.The forgotten heroes: the story of the Buffalo Soldiers
By Clinton Cox. 1993
Relates the history of the 9th and 10th Cavalry--the "Buffalo Soldiers"--from 1867 to 1898. The units, composed of emancipated slaves,…
were used to subjugate and remove Native Americans onto reservations and for other hazardous duties in the American west. Junior and Senior High. c1993.The forgotten man: a new history of the Great Depression
By Amity Shlaes. 2007
Economics reporter analyzes the Great Depression era in the United States and posits that federal intervention in the economy lengthened…
its duration. Considers economic plans from members of Franklin Roosevelt's brain trust and alternate solutions of outsiders such as African American Father Divine and Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson. 2007.The fighters
By C. J Chivers. 2018
Almost 2.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001. C.J. Chivers has reported from both…
fronts from the beginning, walking side by side with combatants for more than a dozen years. He describes the experience of war today as it is endured by those most at risk-the camaraderie and profound sense of purpose, alongside courage, frustration, and moral confusion mixed with technical precision. In these remote places where the reason for their presence is sometimes not clear, these young men kill or are killed, facing palpable and often constant threat of ambush or hidden bombs. They repeatedly return, rushing toward danger, often to rescue the wounded in wars that escalate around them as the Pentagon changes doctrines and plans. Weaving a history of the war through troops' experiences, the characters in The Fighters climb into an F-14 cockpit for the opening strikes after the attacks of 9/11, hunt for Osama bin Laden along the Pakistani border, chase insurgent rocket teams with helicopters alongside American bases, face snipers in a hostile city in Anbar Province in Iraq, and engage in deadly counterguerilla warfare in the soaring mountains of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Some suffer terribly. All are changed. They return home, uncertain of their place in the world and what their wars have achieved. 2018.The far west and the great plains in transition, 1859-1900
By Rodman W Paul. 1988
The author looks at the development of the mining industry in the West which he believes was the primary factor…
in encouraging settlement. Cities and improvements in transportation and agriculture are viewed as responses to the needs of the miners. 1988.Ranging from the late-eighteenth century to the present, a narrative history reveals how the boundaries and borders that formed both…
states and the nation as a whole created a sense of identity that is central to defining American character. 2007.The end of growth
By Jeff Rubin. 2012
Economist and resource analyst Jeff Rubin is certain that the world's governments are getting it wrong - instead of moving…
us toward economic recovery, measures being taken around the globe right now are digging us into a deeper hole. Both politicians and economists are missing the fact that the real engine of economic growth has always been cheap, abundant fuel and resources, but that era is over. The end of cheap oil signals the end of growth - and the end of easy answers to renewing prosperity. c2012.The chosen ones: Canada's test pilots in action
By Sean Rossiter. 2002
From the dawn of aviation, Canada has produced intrepid pilots of renown. Learning their craft in some of the most…
difficult conditions anywhere, many of these flyers became expert pilots, navigators and mechanics. These great Canadians pilots were among the highest-scoring Allied aces of both world wars. 2002.The Hitler I knew: the memoirs of the Third Reich's press chief
By Otto Dietrich. 2010
When Otto Dietrich was invited in 1933 to become Adolf Hitler's press chief, he accepted with the simple uncritical conviction…
that Adolf Hitler was a great man, dedicated to promoting peace and welfare for the German people. At the end of the war, imprisoned and disillusioned, Otto Dietrich sat down to write what he had seen and heard in twelve years of the closest association with Hitler. c2010. Uniform title: 12 Jahre mit Hitler.The Harvey girls: women who opened the West
By Lesley Poling-Kempes. 1989
From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa…
Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. Winner of the 1991 New Mexico PressWomen's ZIA award. 1989.The great stain: witnessing American slavery
By Noel Rae. 2018
Rae exposes the commerce and culture of slavery, not only from an economic or moral standpoint but also through multitudinous…
perspectives within it: a young girl is beaten after being accused of stealing a piece of candy, a slave ship's surgeon recounts brutal treatment and squalid conditions, an Englishman visiting Haiti observes as violent uprisings break out. So many viewpoints ensure that no historical blind spot will leave the picture of an era incomplete. 2018.The Grey Fox: the true story of Bill Miner, last of the old-time bandits
By John Boessenecker, Mark Dugan. 1992
Between the years 1860 and 1911, Bill Miner's criminal career included stagecoach and train robberies. A gentleman robber who never…
killed, Miner believed that railroad companies robbed the public and he therefore had a right to rob them back. 1992.The greatest generation
By Tom Brokaw. 1998
Recalling his coverage of the fortieth anniversary of D-Day in 1984, reporter Brokaw describes World War II veterans as "the…
greatest generation any society has produced." Profiles individuals who sacrificed for their country, including Thomas Broderick--who founded the Blinded Veterans Association--and businessman Bob Bush, who lost an eye in a heroic rescue mission. Bestseller. 1998.The ecology of commerce: a declaration of sustainability
By Paul Hawken. 1993
Provides a blueprint for a marketplace where businesses and environmentalists work together, showing companies how to redesign and manufacture products…
in innovative ways, re-educate customers, and work closely with government toward a profitable, productive, and ecologically sound future. 2005, c1993.