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The making of the October Crisis : Canada's long nightmare of terrorism at the hands of the FLQ / by Jenish, D'Arcy,1952-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The first bombs exploded in Montreal in the spring of 1963, and over the next seven years there were hundreds more. There were dozens of bank robberies, six murders and, in October 1970, came the kidnappings of a British diplomat and a Quebec cabinet minister. The perpetrators were members of the Front de Liberation du Quebec, dedicated to establishing a sovereign and socialist Quebec. Half a century on, we should have reached some clear understanding of what led to the October Crisis. But no--too much attention has been paid to the Crisis and not enough to the years preceding it. And most of those who have written about the FLQ have been nationalists, sovereigntists or former terrorists. They tell us that the authorities should have negotiated with the kidnappers. They contend that Jean Drapeau's administration and the governments of Robert Bourassa and Pierre Trudeau created the October Crisis, by invoking the War Measures Act and by putting soldiers on the streets and allowing the police to detain nearly 500 people without warrants. Using new research and interviews, D'Arcy Jenish tells for the first time the complete story--starting from the spring of 1963. This gripping narrative by a veteran journalist and master storyteller will change forever the way we view this dark chapter in Canadian history."--
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Munich / by Harris, Robert,1957-author.;
"Set over four days against the backdrop of the Munich Conference of September 1938, Munich follows the fortunes of two men who were friends at Oxford together in the 1920s. Guy Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving in 10 Downing Street as a private secretary to the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Guy is 34 years old, and married to the beautiful and brittle Kay. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office--and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. They have not been in contact for more than a decade. But when Guy flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and Rikard travels on Hitler's train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a collision course--with dramatic results. Munich is a spy thriller about treason and conscience, loyalty and betrayal, filled with real-life characters--Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier--and actual events."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Spy fiction.; Historical fiction.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Midnight in Moscow : a memoir from the front lines of Russia's war against the West / by Sullivan, John Joseph,1959-author.;
"For weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan was warning that it would happen. When troops finally crossed the border, he was woken in the middle of the night by an employee at Embassy Moscow with a prearranged code. The signal was even more bracing than the cold of that February night: it meant that Sullivan needed to collect his bodyguards and get to the embassy as soon as possible. The war had begun, and U.S.-Russia relations would never be the same. In Midnight in Moscow, Sullivan offers a memoir of his last post, as well as a broader argument about how our relationship with Russia has deteriorated over the past three years and where it's going. His arrival in Moscow coincided almost exactly with a dramatic series of escalations by the Kremlin. He saw firsthand how the Russian leadership repeatedly lied about their intentions to invade Ukraine in the weeks leading up to the attack -- while also devoting huge numbers of personnel and vast resources to undermining the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia. But it was not until Vladimir Putin gave the order to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 25, 2022 that Sullivan had to admit that Russia was not just at war with its neighbor: it was also at war, in a very real sense, with the United States, and with everything that it represents. Russian leaders' treachery and naked hostility, he says, is definitive proof that there can be no negotiation with Putin's regime or with the Russians at large until their government is thoroughly transformed. A unique perspective on a pivotal moment in world history, Midnight in Moscow also draws shocking historical parallels to explain why we need to stand up to Moscow -- and how far we should be prepared to go in that confrontation"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Sullivan, John Joseph, 1959-; Ambassadors; Russian Invasion of Ukraine, 2022.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Mussolini's daughter : the most dangerous woman in Europe / by Moorehead, Caroline,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Edda Mussolini was Benito's favourite child: spoiled and venal, uneducated but clever, faithless but flamboyant, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. For much of the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, she was her father's closest confidante. In 1930, at the age of nineteen, Edda married Count Galeazzo Ciano, who would become the youngest Foreign Secretary in Italian history. Acting as envoy to both Germany and Britain, Edda played a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler. During this time, the Cianos became the most celebrated and glamorous couple in elegant, vulgar Roman fascist society. Their fortunes turned in 1943, when Ciano voted against Mussolini in a plot to bring him down, and his father-in-law did not forgive him. Edda's dramatic story includes hidden diaries, her father's downfall and her husband's execution, and an escape into Switzerland followed by a period in exile. Moorehead draws a portrait of a complicated, bold, and determined woman--one who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century's defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.
Subjects: Biographies.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa; Statesmen's spouses;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lilac girls : a novel / by Kelly, Martha Hall,author.;
"On a September day in Manhattan in 1939, twenty-something Caroline Ferriday is consumed by her efforts to secure the perfect boutonniere for an important French diplomat and resisting the romantic advances of a married actor. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish Catholic teenager, is nervously anticipating the changes that are sure to come since Germany has declared war on Poland. As tensions rise abroad - and in her personal life - Caroline's interest in aiding the war effort in France grows and she eventually comes to hear about the dire situation at the Ravensbruck all-female concentration camp. At the same time, Kasia's carefree youth is quickly slipping away, only to be replaced by a fervor for the Polish resistance movement. Through Ravensbruck - and the horrific atrocities taking place there told in part by an infamous German surgeon, Herta Oberheuser - the two women's lives will converge in unprecedented ways and a novel of redemption and hope emerges that is breathtaking in scope and depth"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Ravensbrück (Concentration camp); Nazis; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The orphan girl : a novel / by Palka, Kurt,1941-author.;
"London, 1944-1945. Kate Henderson is an energetic and spirited young woman. As a trained paramedic and ambulance driver she does her work courageously and with determination, even though underneath she is still wrestling with grief after witnessing the shooting death of her diplomat father seven years earlier. Her father's murder was never properly investigated and it remains unsolved. Kate's life is drastically interrupted once more when she wakes up one night to the sound of the air raid alarm and the terror whistles of a bomb's stabilizers screaming toward the roof of her house. In the explosion, her mother and her aunt die; Kate survives, but she is injured. Her house is gone as well, and after her time in the hospital, Claire Giroux, a kind doctor and family friend, invites Kate to live with her as she recuperates. This arrangement works well for them until a few months later when Claire's husband comes home from the war. Within days the lives of both women are drastically changed, and events are set in motion, both in England and in Canada, that challenge Kate and Claire to their limits. The Orphan Girl is a moving and powerful story about friendship and courage, and about promises made and kept"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Allied health personnel; Fathers; Female friendship; Women ambulance drivers; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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That Churchill woman : a novel / by Barron, Stephanie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The Paris Wife meets PBS's Victoria in this enthralling novel of the life and loves of one of history's most remarkable women: Winston Churchill's scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome. Wealthy, privileged, and fiercely independent New Yorker Jennie Jerome took Victorian England by storm when she landed on its shores. As Lady Randolph Churchill, she gave birth to a man who defined the twentieth century: her son Winston. But Jennie--reared in the luxury of Gilded Age Newport and the Paris of the Second Empire--lived an outrageously modern life all her own, filled with controversy, passion, tragedy, and triumph. When the nineteen-year-old beauty agrees to marry the son of a duke she has known only three days, she's instantly swept up in a whirlwind of British politics and the breathless social climbing of the Marlborough House Set, the reckless men who surround Bertie, Prince of Wales. Raised to think for herself and careless of English society rules, the new Lady Randolph Churchill quickly becomes a London sensation: adored by some, despised by others. Artistically gifted and politically shrewd, she shapes her husband's rise in Parliament and her young son's difficult passage through boyhood. But as the family's influence soars, scandals explode and tragedy befalls the Churchills. Jennie is inescapably drawn to the brilliant and seductive Count Charles Kinsky--diplomat, skilled horse-racer, deeply passionate lover. Their impossible affair only intensifies as Randolph Churchill's sanity frays, and Jennie--a woman whose every move on the public stage is judged--must walk a tightrope between duty and desire. Forced to decide where her heart truly belongs, Jennie risks everything--even her son--and disrupts lives, including her own, on both sides of the Atlantic. Breathing new life into Jennie's legacy and the gilded world over which she reigned, That Churchill Woman paints a portrait of the difficult--and sometimes impossible--balance between love, freedom, and obligation, while capturing the spiritof an unforgettable woman, one who altered the course of history"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Churchill, Randolph Spencer, Lady, 1854-1921; Aristocracy (Social class); Americans;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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JFK. by Logevall, Fredrik,1963-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War era. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had ascended the ranks of Boston's labyrinthine political machine, Kennedy was bred for government, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest president ever cemented his status as one of the most mythologized political figures in American history. And yet, in the decades since his untimely death, hagiographic portrayals of his dazzling charisma, reports of his extramarital affairs, and disagreements over his political legacy have made our 35th president more mysterious than ever--a problem further exacerbated by the fact that no genuinely comprehensive account of his life has yet been attempted. Beckoned by this gap in our historical knowledge, Fredrik Logevall has spent seven years searching for the "real" JFK. The result of this prodigious effort is a sweeping two-volume biography that, for the first time, properly contextualizes Kennedy amidst the roiling American Century. Beginning with the three generations of Kennedy men and women who transformed the clan from working-class Irish immigrants to members of Boston's political elite, Volume One spans the first thirty-nine years of JFK's life, from sickly second son to restless Harvard undergraduate and World War II hero, through his ascendance on Capitol Hill and, finally, his decision to run for president. In chronicling Kennedy's extraordinary life and times, Logevall offers the clearest portrait we have of an iconic, yet still elusive, American president."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963; United States. Congress. Senate; Legislators; Presidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The hardest job in the world : the American presidency / by Dickerson, John,1968-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Imagine you have just been elected president. You are now commander-in-chief, chief executive, chief diplomat, chief legislator, chief of party, chief voice of the people, first responder, chief priest, and world leader. You're expected to fulfill your campaign promises, but you're also expected to solve the urgent crises of the day. What's on your to-do list? Where would you even start? The American presidency is in trouble. It has become overburdened, misunderstood, almost impossible to do. "The problems in the job unfolded before Donald Trump was elected, and the challenges of governing today will confront his successors," writes John Dickerson. After all, the founders never intended for our system of checks and balances to have one superior Chief Magistrate, with Congress demoted to "the little brother who can't keep up." In this eye-opening book, John Dickerson draws on history and contemporary times to show why we need to reevaluate how we view the presidency, how we choose our presidents, and what we expect from them once they are in office. Think of the presidential campaign as a job interview. Are we asking the right questions? Are we looking for good campaigners, or good presidents? Once a candidate gets the job, what can they do to thrive? Drawing on research and interviews with current and former White House staffers, Dickerson defines what the job of president actually entails, identifies the things that only the President can do, and analyzes how presidents in history have managed the burden. What qualities make for a good president? Who did it well? Why did Bill Clinton call the White House "the crown jewel in the American penal system"? And what lessons can we draw from past successes and failures? Ultimately, in order to evaluate candidates properly for the job, we need to adjust our expectations, and be more realistic about the goals, the requirements, and the limitations of the office."--
Subjects: Trump, Donald, 1946-; Presidents; Executive power;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Death in focus / by Perry, Anne,author.;
"In the start of an all-new mystery series set in pre-World War II Europe, an intrepid young photographer carries her imperiled lover's final, urgent message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler ascends to power. On vacation from London on the beautiful Italian coast, twenty-eight-year-old Elena Standish and her older sister Margot have finally been able to forget some of the lasting trauma of the Great War. Touring with her camera in hand, Elena has found new inspiration in the striking Italian landscape, and she's met an equally striking man named Ian. Not ready to part from one another, she and Ian share a train trip home to England. But a shocking murder disrupts their agenda, forcing Elena to personally deliver a message to Berlin that could change the fate of Europe. Back home, Elena's diplomat father and secretive grandfather--the former head of MI6, unbeknownst to his family--are involved in their own international machinations. Working behind the scenes as Elena tries to complete her mission on the ground, they interfere with a crucial political rally for one of Germany's most outspoken fascists. With Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich on the rise, and Elena caught in the middle of an international incident, anyone she encounters might be part of a deadly plot. In the first novel of a riveting new series by bestselling author Anne Perry, family secrets merge with suspense on the world stage, and Elena learns that, in these complicated times, no one can be trusted, and she must learn to rely only on herself"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Women photographers; Murder;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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