Results 121 to 129 of 129 | « previous
- The magnificent lives of Marjorie Post : a novel / by Pataki, Allison,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. Such is Marjorie Merriweather Post's average evening. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Covered in diamonds and deemed American royalty, Marjorie nevertheless remains the product of her hardscrabble Midwestern roots and an insatiable drive to live, love, and give. A woman who has crawled through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar's treasures, who has outrun the Nazis in London, and who has sat down to dinner with everyone from the homeless during the Great Depression to Kremlin leaders, from European royalty to Hollywood stars, Marjorie lived a grand life that defies imagination. Marjorie's was a journey that began on the Great Plains, where she glued cereal boxes in her father's barn as a young girl. None could have predicted that C. W. Post's homegrown Postum Cereal Company would fundamentally reshape the American way of life and grow into the vast General Foods empire, with Marjorie as its glittering heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of coddled wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history as a leader in her family's business and a trailblazer in philanthropy and high society. Marjorie lived like an empress, worked like a titan of industry, and shaped a century. And yet Marjorie's story, though full of beauty and lived in her palatial homes like Mar-a-Lago, was equally marked by heartbreak. A wife four times over in vastly different, dramatic marriages, Marjorie sought her happily-ever-after with the blue-blooded playboy who could not outrun his demons, the charismatic financier whose charm could not conceal his betrayal, the diplomat with a dark side, and the bon vivant whose shocking secrets would shake their circles. Marjorie did everything on a grand scale, especially when it came to love"--- Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Post, Marjorie Merriweather; Heiresses;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Leadership : six studies in world strategy / by Kissinger, Henry,1923-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Henry Kissinger, consummate diplomat and statesman, examines the strategies of six great twentieth-century figures and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy "Leaders," writes Henry Kissinger in this compelling book, "think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy." In Leadership, Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls "the strategy of humility." Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by "the strategy of will." During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by "the strategy of equilibrium." After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a "strategy of transcendence." Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by "the strategy of excellence." And, though Britain was known as "the sick man of Europe" when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country's morale and international position by "the strategy of conviction." To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and-because he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes-personal knowledge. Leadership is enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make and concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability of leadership today"--- Subjects: Diplomacy; Heads of state; Political leadership; World politics;
- 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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- The good allies : how Canada and the United States fought together to defeat fascism during the Second World War / by Cook, Tim,1971-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From our country's most important war historian, a gripping account of the turbulent relationship between Canada and the US during the Second World War. The two nations entered the war amidst rivalry and mutual suspicion, but learned to fight together before emerging triumphant and bound by an alliance that has lasted to this day. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, it set in motion a deadly struggle between the Axis powers and the Allies, but also fraught negotiations between and among the allies. On questions of diplomacy, economic policy, industrial might, military capabilities, and even national sovereignty, thousands of lives and the fate of the free world depended on back-room deals and desperate trade-offs between soldiers, diplomats, and leaders. In North America, Canada and the US strained to forge a new military alliance to guard their coasts and fend off German U-boats and the menace of a Japanese invasion. Wartime economies were entwined to produce a staggering contribution of weapons to keep Britain and other allies in the war. The defence of North America against enemy threats was essential before the US and Canada could send armies, navies, and air forces overseas. In his trademark style, Tim Cook employs eyewitness accounts to vividly lay bare the brutality of combat and the courage of North Americans under fire. Behind the fighting fronts, the charged and often secret communications between national leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, and King, reveals how their personalities shaped the outcome of history's most destructive war, the fate of the British Empire, and the North American alliance that lives on to this day. The Good Allies is a masterful account of how Canadians and Americans made the transition from wary rivals to steadfast allies, and how Canada thrived in the shadow of the military and global superpower. In exploring this complex and crucial dimension of the Second World War and its legacy, Cook recounts two nations' story of cooperation, sacrifice, and of bleeding together to save the world from the fascist threat"--- Subjects: World War, 1939-1945; 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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- Pegasus : how a spy in your pocket threatens the end of privacy, dignity, and democracy / by Richard, Laurent(Journalist),author.; Maddow, Rachel,writer of introduction.; Rigaud, Sandrine,author.;
"Pegasus is widely regarded as the most effective and sought-after cyber-surveillance system on the market. The system's creator, the NSO Group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, is not shy about proclaiming its ability to thwart terrorists and criminals. "Thousands of people in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees," NSO's cofounder declared in 2019. This bold assertion may be true, at least in part, but it's by no means the whole story. NSO's Pegasus system has not been limited to catching bad guys. It's also been used to spy on hundreds, and maybe thousands, of innocent people around the world: heads of state, diplomats, human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists. This spyware is as insidious as it is invasive, capable of infecting a private cell phone without alerting the owner, and of doing its work in the background, in silence, virtually undetectable. Pegasus can track a person's daily movement in real time, gain control of the device's microphones and cameras at will, and capture all videos, photos, emails, texts, and passwords-encrypted or not. This data can be exfiltrated, stored on outside servers, and then leveraged to blackmail, intimidate, and silence the victims. Its full reach is not yet known. "If they've found a way to hack one iPhone," says Edward Snowden, "they've found a way to hack all iPhones." Pegasus is a look inside the monthslong worldwide investigation, triggered by a single spectacular leak of data, and a look at how an international consortium of reporters and editors revealed that cyber intrusion and cyber surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency across the globe, at a scale that astounds. Meticulously reported and masterfully written, Pegasus shines a light on the lives that have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat and exposes the chilling new ways authoritarian regimes are eroding key pillars of democracy: privacy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech"--- Subjects: Pegasus (Spyware); Cell phone systems; Electronic surveillance; Mobile apps.; Political corruption.; Privacy, Right of.; Spyware (Computer software);
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The secret history of the Five Eyes : the untold story of the international spy network / by Kerbaj, Richard,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The Secret History of The Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network, is a riveting and exclusive narrative of the most powerful and least understood intelligence alliance, which has been steeped in secrecy since its formation in 1956. Richard Kerbaj, an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker, bypasses the usual censorship channels to tell the definitive account of authoritative but unauthorised stories of the Western world's most powerful but least known intelligence alliance made up of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. As Kerbaj shows, spy stories are never better than when they are true-and these span from 1930s Nazi spy rings to the most recent developments in Ukraine and China. Through personal interviews with world leaders-including British Prime Ministers Theresa May and David Cameron-and more than 100 intelligence officials, this book explores the complex personalities who helped shape the Five Eyes. They include a Scotland Yard detective who became a spymaster and inspired the first exchanges between MI5 and the FBI. An American home economics teacher who helped create one of the most effective programmes to counter Soviet espionage. The CIA's lone officer in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. GCHQ's chief during the Edward Snowden intelligence leak. And the Australian politician turned diplomat whose tip-off to the FBI instigated the inquiry into Russia's meddling in the US presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Richard Kerbaj is able to draw from deep inside the secret corridors of power and his unparalleled access spans all 5 countries. Some of the people he has interviewed include former GCHQ director Sir Iain Lobban, CIA director General David Petraeus, MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers, British National Security Advisor Kim Darroch, ASIO chief Mike Burgess, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's chief Richard Fadden, and Ciaran Martin, the official who oversaw Britain's assessments on whether the Chinese telecoms firm, Huawei, should have had a role in the creation of the UK's 5G network"--Publisher's description.- Subjects: Five Eyes (Alliance); Cold War.; Intelligence service; Intelligence service; World politics.; World politics;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The rebel and the kingdom : the true story of the secret mission to overthrow the North Korean regime / by Hope, Bradley,author.;
"A gripping account of an Ivy League activist-turned-fugitive and his clandestine effort to subvert the North Korean regime, a heart-pounding tale of a self-taught operative and his high-stakes attempt to change the world. In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it. What began as a trip down the safe and well-worn path of organizing soon morphed into something more dangerous. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. Meanwhile, Hong's secret organization, Cheollima Civil Defense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean government's activities, and its volatile third-generation ruler, Kim Jong Un. Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for a government-in-exile. After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong Nam, the dictator's older brother, Hong, along with Marine veteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Nam's family to safety. Then Hong took the group a step further. He initiated a series of high-stakes direct actions, culminating in an armed raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid-an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world's most unlikely fugitives. In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo-to instead live boldly by his principles. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope-who broke numerous details of Hong's operations in The Wall Street Journal-now reveals the full contours of this remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world's most mysterious and unsettling nation"--- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Hong, Adrian.; Asian American political activists; Human rights workers; Human rights;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Saving Sam : the true story of an American's disappearance in Syria and his family's extraordinary fight to bring him home / by Goodwin, Sam,1989-author.;
"What would you do if your son suddenly disappeared in Syria, and you had no idea what had happened to him? Would you contact the FBI? The State Department? Pray? Would you Google "What to do if your son disappears in Syria"? When the unthinkable happened, the answer, in the case of Ann Goodwin and her husband Tag, was: all of the above. Their 30-year-old son Sam, who was attempting to become one of the few people in history to travel to every single country on the planet, vanished in a supposed safe-zone run by the Kurds on the Turkish border. At first, they didn't even realize he had been abducted: maybe the phone reception had gone down, they told themselves, as had happened plenty of times before when Sam was in an off-the-beaten-path place. Just wait, he'll call back soon. But Sam never did call back, and over the coming days, the horror of their situation quickly bore down on the Goodwins, a devout Catholic family of seven living a middle-class suburban lifestyle in St. Louis, Missouri. Frustrated and increasingly terrified, the Goodwins came to realize that they couldn't rely on their government to save Sam. They were going to have to do it themselves. This is the extraordinary story of Sam's abduction by the Syrian regime, who threatened to hand him over to ISIS for beheading if he did not confess to being a CIA spy. It's also the story of a Midwestern American family who transformed themselves into their own detective agency, building up a network of journalists, hostage negotiators, Middle East experts, Russian diplomats, Vatican envoys, and shady mercenaries, until eventually -- by nothing short of a miracle -- they found a secret backdoor into the heart of the Syrian intelligence service itself. Through multiple first-person narrators, Saving Sam recounts an inspiring and unforgettable saga that includes a travel journey to every country in the world, famous celebrities, heads of state, high-stakes diplomacy and critical life lessons around curiosity, uncertainty, prayer and what it ultimately means to be free. In a genuine, straightforward and sometimes humorous style, Sam draws on his experience as a hostage to demonstrate how we can all turn our own adversities into assets, whether it be in our personal, professional or spiritual lives"--- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Goodwin, Sam, 1989-; Prisoners; Prisoners; Travelers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 121 to 129 of 129 | « previous