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Showing 1 - 20 of 28 items
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Politics and government, Canadian politics and government, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
The history of the Press Gallery is rich in anecdotes and insights about the people on Parliament Hill who have… covered our leaders for more than 150 years. Mining the archives and his own interviews, former Maclean's editor-in-chief Robert Lewis turns the spotlight on the watchers, including reporters who got too close to Sir John A. Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier, and others who kept their distance from Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper. The Riel Rebellion, the Pacific scandal, two world wars, the Depression, Quebec separatism, and terrorism are all part of the sweeping background to this lively account of how the news gets made, manipulated, and, sometimes, mangled. Since Watergate, Press Gallery coverage has become more confrontational - a fact, Lewis argues, that fails Canadian democracy. 2018.
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Politics and government
Once at the center of the American conservative movement, Sykes ponders how the American conservative movement came to lose its… values. How did a movement that was defined by its belief in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, traditional values, and civility find itself embracing bigotry, political intransigence, demagoguery, and outright falsehood?
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Politics and government, Journals and memoirs
The first definitive account of Boko Haram's abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, their years in captivity, and why this story… still matters - by celebrated international journalist Isha Sesay. The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in 2014 made global headlines. From poor Nigerian families, these girls had defied the odds and pursued an education, but daring to dream resulted in one of the most high-profile abductions in modern history. Award-winning CNN anchor Isha Sesay was on the front lines as the story broke, and when 21 of the girls were released, she was the only journalist to accompany them on their dangerous journey back home. In Beneath the Tamarind Tree, having developed unprecedented access to the Chibok girls, Sesay shares an intimate account of the night Boko Haram attacked, exclusive details about their years in captivity, and their daring tales of escape. We meet Priscilla who dreamt of becoming a doctor, Saa who juggled schoolwork with family obligations, Mary who fought constant homesickness to stay in school, and Dorcas who planned to be the first in her family to get a college degree. Sesay delves into the inadequate Nigerian government response to the kidnapping, while synthesizing lessons about global national security. She also reminds us of the personal sacrifice required of journalists to bring us the truth, at a time of growing mistrust of the media. Beneath the Tamarind Tree is a gripping listen and a story of resilience with a soaring message of hope at its core, reminding us of the ever-present truth that progress for all of us hinges on unleashing the potential of women.
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Politics and government
Politico Magazine's chief political correspondent provides a rollicking insider's look at the making of the modern Republican Party-how a decade… of cultural upheaval, populist outrage, and ideological warfare made the GOP vulnerable to a hostile takeover from the unlikeliest of insurgents: Donald J. Trump. The 2016 election was a watershed for the United States. But, as Tim Alberta explains in American Carnage, to understand Trump's victory is to view him not as the creator of this era of polarization and bruising partisanship, but rather as its most manifest consequence. American Carnage is the story of a president's rise based on a country's evolution and a party's collapse. As George W. Bush left office with record-low approval ratings and Barack Obama led a Democratic takeover of Washington, Republicans faced a moment of reckoning: They had no vision, no generation of new leaders, and no energy in the party's base. Yet Obama's forceful pursuit of his progressive agenda, coupled with the nation's rapidly changing societal and demographic identity, lit a fire under the right, returning Republicans to power and inviting a bloody struggle for the party's identity in the post-Bush era. The factions that emerged-one led by absolutists like Jim Jordan and Ted Cruz, the other led by pragmatists like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell-engaged in a series of devastating internecine clashes and attempted coups for control. With the GOP's internal fissures rendering it legislatively impotent, and that impotence fueling a growing resentment toward the political class and its institutions, the stage was set for an outsider to crash the party. When Trump descended a gilded escalator to announce his run in the summer of 2015, the candidate had met the moment. Only by viewing Trump as the culmination of a decade-long civil war inside the GOP-and of the parallel sense of cultural, socioeconomic, and technological disruption during that period-can we appreciate how he won the White House and consider the fundamental questions at the center of America's current turmoil. How did a party once obsessed with national insolvency come to champion trillion-dollar deficits? How did the party of compassionate conservatism become the party of Muslim bans and family separation? How did the party of family values elect a thrice-divorced philanderer? And, most important, how long can such a party survive? Loaded with explosive original reporting and based off hundreds of exclusive interviews-including with key players such as President Trump, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Jim DeMint, and Reince Priebus, among many others-American Carnage takes us behind the scenes of this tumultuous period as we've never seen it before and establishes Tim Alberta as the premier chronicler of this political era.
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Law and crime biography, General non-fiction, Laws and statutes, Politics and government
An intimate look at the life and career of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her own words, through an extraordinary… series of conversations with the head of the National Constitution Center. Conversations with RBG is a remarkable and unique audiobook, an informal portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, drawing on a series of her conversations with Jeffrey Rosen, starting in the 1990s and continuing through the Trump era. Rosen, a veteran legal journalist, scholar, and president of the National Constitution Center, shares with us the justice's observations on a variety of topics, and her intellect, compassion, sense of humor, and humanity shine through. The affection they have for each other as friends is apparent in their banter and in their shared love for the Constitution and for opera. With Justice Ginsburg's approval, Rosen has collected her wisdom from their many conversations in which she discusses the future of the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade, her favorite dissents, the cases she would most like to see overruled, the #MeToo movement, how to be a good listener, and how to lead a productive, compassionate life. These frank exchanges illuminate the steely determination, self-mastery, and wit that have inspired women and men of all ages to embrace the "Notorious RBG." Whatever the topic, Justice Ginsburg always has something interesting-and often surprising-to say. And while few of us will ever have the opportunity to chat with her face-to-face, Jeffrey Rosen brings us by her side as never before. Conversations with RBG is a deeply felt portrait of an American hero.
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Politics and government, History
In this timely history, the editor of the National Review chronicles the history of nationalism and its intellectual roots, revealing… how this political model-a refutation of globalism-became maligned and why it offers a viable way forward for America. In The Case for Nationalism, Rich Lowry refutes critics on the left as he argues that there is an intellectual argument for nationalism, revealing how citizens have always had to come together nationally to survive. Lowry argues that nationalism is an American tradition, one that is shared by such diverse leaders as Alexander Hamilton, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Regan. A true American nationalism should be grounded in our common citizenship, champion popular sovereignty, and exult American history, culture, and ideals. It should be the enemy of identity politics. Lowry reclaims the term "Nationalism" from those who equate it with racism and populism. Offering a sure-to-be-controversial viewpoint in the debate over the direction of our country, he explains that far from a road to disaster, nationalism is how Americans become the best version of themselves. It associates nationalism with the rise of fascism in Europe and considers any expression of it to be borderline dangerous. But if nationalism were tantamount to fascism, England and America-as Lowry explains, the countries that forged modern nationalism as we know it-would have succumbed to authoritarianism long ago. In fact, the idea that the nation belonged to the people rather than the crown led to the curtailment of monarchical power in England and its overthrow in America. According to Lowry, we must not accept globalism, for in doing so, we would sand off America's unique beliefs. Instead, we should embrace our national character, our greatness, and our mission as an example for the world to follow.
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Politics and government, Politics and government biography
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Politics and government, Journals and memoirs
As a young man, Jack Goldsmith revered his stepfather, longtime Jimmy Hoffa associate Chuckie O'Brien. But as he grew older… and pursued a career in law and government, he came to doubt and distance himself from the man long suspected by the FBI of perpetrating Hoffa's disappearance on behalf of the mob. It was only years later, when Goldsmith was serving as assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and questioning its misuse of surveillance and other powers, that he began to reconsider his stepfather, and to understand Hoffa's true legacy. In Hoffa's Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he'd disowned and then set out to unravel one of the 20th century's most persistent mysteries and Chuckie's role in it. Along the way, Goldsmith explores Hoffa's rise and fall and why the golden age of blue-collar America came to an end, while also casting new light on the century-old surveillance state, the architects of Hoffa's disappearance, and the heartrending complexities of love and loyalty.
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Politics and government
From celebrated public intellectual and New York Times bestselling author, Stanley Fish, comes an urgent and sharply observed look at… one of the most hotly debated issues of our time: freedom of speech. How does the First Amendment really work? Is it a principle or a value? What is hate speech and should it always be banned? Are we free to declare our religious beliefs in the public square? What role, if any, should companies like Facebook play in policing the exchange of thoughts, ideas, and opinions? With clarity and power, Stanley Fish, "America's most famous professor" (BookPage), explores these complex questions in The First. From the rise of fake news, to the role of tech companies in monitoring content (including the President's tweets), to Colin Kaepernick's kneeling protest, First Amendment controversies continue to dominate the news cycle. Across America, college campus administrators are being forced to balance free speech against demands for safe spaces and trigger warnings. Ultimately, Fish argues, freedom of speech is a double-edged concept; it frees us from constraints, but it also frees us to say and do terrible things. Urgent and controversial, The First is sure to ruffle feathers, spark dialogue, and shine new light on one of America's most cherished-and debated-constitutional rights.
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Business and economics, Politics and government
This century has seen the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history-but who bears the brunt of these monster storms? Consider this:… Five of the most expensive hurricanes in history have made landfall since 2005: Katrina ($160 billion), Ike ($40 billion), Sandy ($72 billion), Harvey ($125 billion), and Maria ($90 billion). With more property than ever in harm's way, and the planet and oceans warming dangerously, it won't be long before we see a $250 billion hurricane. Why? Because Americans have built $3 trillion worth of property in some of the riskiest places on earth: barrier islands and coastal floodplains. And they have been encouraged to do so by what Gilbert M. Gaul reveals in The Geography of Risk to be a confounding array of federal subsidies, tax breaks, low-interest loans, grants, and government flood insurance that shift the risk of life at the beach from private investors to public taxpayers, radically distorting common notions of risk. These federal incentives, Gaul argues, have resulted in one of the worst planning failures in American history, and the costs to taxpayers are reaching unsustainable levels. We have become responsible for a shocking array of coastal amenities: new roads, bridges, buildings, streetlights, tennis courts, marinas, gazebos, and even spoiled food after hurricanes. The Geography of Risk will forever change the way you think about the coasts, from the clash between economic interests and nature, to the heated politics of regulators and developers.
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Business and economics, Politics and government
In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America's housing crisis… and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class-among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle. Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump looked forward to a crash: "I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy," he said. But our future president wasn't alone. While millions of Americans suffered financial loss, tycoons pounced to heartlessly seize thousands of homes-their profiteering made even easier because, as prize-winning investigative reporter Aaron Glantz reveals in Homewreckers, they often used taxpayer money-and the Obama administration's promise to cover their losses. In Homewreckers, Glantz recounts the transformation of straightforward lending into a morass of slivered and combined mortgage "products" that could be bought and sold, accompanied by a shift in priorities and a loosening of regulations and laws that made it good business to lend money to those who wouldn't be able to repay. Among the men who laughed their way to the bank: Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump pal and confidant Tom Barrack, and billionaire Republican cash cow Steve Schwarzmann. Homewreckers also brilliantly weaves together the stories of those most ravaged by the housing crisis. The result is an eye-opening expose of the greed that decimated millions and enriched a gluttonous few.
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War, Politics and government
CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent reveals the invisible fronts of twenty-first century warfare and identifies the ongoing battles being waged-often… without the public's full knowledge-from disinformation campaigns to advanced satellite weaponry. The United States is currently under attack from multiple adversaries-yet most Americans have no idea of the dangers threatening us. In this eye-opening audiobook, military and intelligence expert and seasoned reporter Jim Sciutto traces the expanding web of attacks that together amount to an undeclared but deeply dangerous war on America. With in-depth reporting from Ukraine to the South China Sea, Cuba to the earth's atmosphere, unprecedented access to America's Space Command, and new information from inside the intelligence agencies tracking election interference, Sciutto draws on his deep knowledge, high-level contacts, and personal experience as a journalist and diplomat to paint the most comprehensive and vivid picture of a nation targeted by a new and disturbing brand of warfare. America is engaged in a Shadow War on multiple fronts, with multiple enemies. The practitioners include America's most familiar adversaries: Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. But unlike conventional warfare, these conflicts are conducted in the shadows, with no formal declaration and often use multiple sources, from influential businessmen and lawyers to hackers. And it is happening today. But America is adapting and fighting back. In The Shadow War, Sciutto introduces the dizzying array of soldiers, sailors, submariners and their commanders, space engineers, computer scientists, and civilians who are on the front lines of this new kind of forever war. Intensive and disturbing, this invaluable and important work opens our eyes and makes clear that future war is here.
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Computers and internet, Biography, Politics and government
In this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing… to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump-and how this could easily happen again in the 2020 presidential election. When Brittany Kaiser joined Cambridge Analytica-the UK-based political consulting firm funded by conservative billionaire and Donald Trump patron Robert Mercer-she was an idealistic young professional working on her fourth degree in human rights law and international relations. A veteran of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, Kaiser's goal was to utilize data for humanitarian purposes, most notably to prevent genocide and human rights abuses. But her experience inside Cambridge Analytica opened her eyes to the tremendous risks that this unregulated industry poses to privacy and democracy. Targeted is Kaiser's eyewitness chronicle of the dramatic and disturbing story of the rise and fall of Cambridge Analytica. She reveals to the public how Facebook's lax policies and lack of sufficient national laws allowed voters to be manipulated in both Britain and the United States, where personal data was weaponized to spread fake news and racist messaging during the Brexit vote and the 2016 election. But the damage isn't done Kaiser warns; the 2020 election can be compromised as well if we continue to do nothing. In the aftermath of the U.S. election, as she became aware of the horrifying reality of what Cambridge Analytica had done in support of Donald Trump, Kaiser made the difficult choice to expose the truth. Risking her career, relationships, and personal safety, she told authorities about the data industry's unethical business practices, eventually testifying before Parliament about the company's Brexit efforts and helping Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, alongside at least 10 other international investigations. Packed with never-before-publicly-told stories and insights, Targeted goes inside the secretive meetings with Trump campaign personnel and details the promises Cambridge Analytica made to win. Throughout, Kaiser makes the case for regulation, arguing that legal oversight of the data industry is not only justifiable but essential to ensuring the long-term safety of our democracy.
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Politics and government
The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar-crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist… countries around the world. Free market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism-while drinking a lot of beer.
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Politics and government
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Politics and government
Author Michael Malice takes us on an objective and unbiased tour of the New Right that elected Donald Trump-a movement… many consider a mortal threat to our democracy. In 2016, a diverse faction of conservatives, united by fierce nationalism, populism, and an acute distaste for progressivism, rallied behind a crass New York real estate mogul who had never held elected office. Thanks to the outspoken support and technical savvy of this New Right, Donald Trump bested 14 career politicians in the GOP primaries, overcame one of the most influential political machines in US history, and won the Presidency. Now in newsrooms and at dinner tables across the country, millions are asking: Who are these people, where did they come from, and what do they believe? The New Right did not emerge overnight; this movement has been quietly gathering momentum for decades. Now it has burst into the mainstream, arousing fears of a fascist takeover. In The New Right, author Michael Malice tells the story of this movement, unveiling its prime movers and providing an unbiased view of its ideological roots, political ideas, and ambitions for the future. This book is required reading for any American interested in the future of the Republican Party and American politics.
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True crime, Politics and government, History
A David-and-Goliath story for our times: the riveting account of the heroes who are fighting a rising tide of wrongdoing… by the powerful, and showing us the path forward. We are living in a time of mind-boggling corruption, but we are also, as it happens, living in a golden age of whistleblowing. Over the past two decades, the brave insiders who decide to expose wrongdoing have gained unprecedented legal and social stature, emerging as the government's best weapon against corporate misconduct--and the citizenry's best defense against government gone bad. They are also forcing us to consider fundamental questions about our democracy, especially the proper balance between free speech and state secrecy, and between individual rights and corporate power. Drawing on relentless original research, including in-depth interviews with more than 200 whistleblowers and the elite coterie of legal trailblazers who have armed them for battle--plus scores of politicians, intelligence analysts, government watchdogs, cognitive scientists, and other experts--Crisis of Conscience is a modern-day David-and-Goliath saga, told through a series of riveting cases drawn from Big Pharma, the military, and beyond. Whistleblowers are not only heroes who expose and anatomize corruption and ensure that it is punished--usually at enormous cost to themselves--Mueller shows they are also the freethinking citizens on whom our republic was conceived, models we all must think and act more like if our democracy is to survive.
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United States history, Nature, Politics and government
A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil-an epic story of a people's defiance of nature and… the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. This is a heartfelt, beautifully written book about the land and the people who have worked it-from gold miners to wheat ranchers to small fruit farmers and today's Big Ag. Since the beginning, Californians have redirected rivers, drilled ever-deeper wells and built higher dams, pushing the water supply past its limit. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers-the nut king, grape king and citrus queen-tell their story here for the first time. This is a tale of politics and hubris in the arid West, of imported workers left behind in the sun and the fatigued earth that is made to give more even while it keeps sinking. But when drought turns to flood once again, all is forgotten as the farmers plant more nuts and the developers build more houses. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.
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United States history, Politics and government, Journals and memoirs
Tom Brokaw recounts the endgame of the Watergate scandal and the Nixon presidency in real time, from his perspective in… the press corps as a young White House correspondent for NBC News. The last year of the Nixon presidency was filled with power politics, legal jiu-jitsu and high-stakes showdowns, with head-shaking surprises every day. Tom Brokaw, the NBC News White House correspondent during the final year of Watergate, gives us a close-up, personal account of the players, the strategies, and the highs and lows of the scandal that brought down a president. Brokaw writes, "Even now, almost half a century later, I am astonished by what the country went through, and I wanted to share press stories from the inside looking out-what it was like to be on call 24/7, the twists and turns, the laughs and tensions during this historic time."
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Death and bereavement, Politics and government, Journals and memoirs
The funny, sad, super-honest, all-true story of Chelsea Handler's year of self-discovery-featuring a nerdily brilliant psychiatrist, a shaman, four Chow… Chows, some well-placed security cameras, various family members (living and departed), friends, assistants, and a lot of edibles "This will be one of your favorite books of all time."-Amy Schumer In a haze of vape smoke on a rare windy night in L.A. in the fall of 2016, Chelsea Handler daydreams about what life will be like with a woman in the White House. And then Donald Trump happens. In a torpor of despair, she decides that she's had enough of the privileged bubble she's lived in-a bubble within a bubble-and that it's time to make some changes, both in her personal life and in the world at large. At home, she embarks on a year of self-sufficiency-learning how to work the remote, how to pick up dog shit, where to find the toaster. She meets her match in an earnest, brainy psychiatrist and enters into therapy, prepared to do the heavy lifting required to look within and make sense of a childhood marked by love and loss and to figure out why people are afraid of her. She becomes politically active-finding her voice as an advocate for change, having difficult conversations, and energizing her base. In the process, she develops a healthy fixation on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and, through unflinching self-reflection and psychological excavation, unearths some glittering truths that light up the road ahead. Thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny, Chelsea Handler's memoir keeps readers laughing, even as it inspires us to look within and ask ourselves what really matters in our own lives. Advance praise for Life Will Be the Death of Me "You thought you knew Chelsea Handler-and she thought she knew herself-but in her new book, she discovers that true progress lies in the direction we haven't been."-Gloria Steinem "I always wondered what it would be like to watch Chelsea Handler in session with her therapist. Now I know."-Ellen DeGeneres "I love this book not just because it made me laugh or because I learned that I feel the same way about certain people in politics as Chelsea does. I love this book because I feel like I finally really got to know Chelsea Handler after all these years. Thank you for sharing, Chelsea!"-Tiffany Haddish