Results 231 to 240 of 263 | « previous | next »
- The last politician : inside Joe Biden's White House and the struggle for America's future / by Foer, Franklin,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-397) and index."On January 20, 2021, standing where only two weeks earlier police officers had battled with right-wing paramilitaries, Joe Biden took his oath of office. The American people were still sick with COVID-19, his economists were already warning him of an imminent financial crisis, and his party, the Democrats, had the barest of majorities in the Senate. Yet, faced with an unprecedented set of crises, Joe Biden decided he would not play defense. Instead, he set out to transform the nation. He proposed the most ambitious domestic spending bills since the 1960s and vowed to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, ending the nation's longest war and reorienting it toward a looming competition with China. With unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades, Franklin Foer dramatizes in forensic detail the first two years of the Biden presidency, concluding with the historic midterm elections. The result is a gripping and high-definition portrait of a major president at a time when democracy itself seems imperiled. With his back to the wall, Biden resorted to old-fashioned politics: deal-making and compromise. It was a gamble that seemed at first disastrously anachronistic, as he struggled to rally even the support of his own party. Yet, as the midterms drew near, via a series of bills with banal names, Biden somehow found a way to invest trillions of dollars in clean energy, the domestic semiconductor industry, and new infrastructure. Had he done the impossible-breaking decisively with the old Washington consensus to achieve progressive goals? The Last Politician is a landmark work of political reporting-which includes thrilling, blow-by-blow insider reports of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the White House's swift response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine-that is destined to shape history's view of a president in the eye of the storm."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Political culture; Presidents;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Outrage machine : how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy--and what we can do about it / by Rose-Stockwell, Tobias,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Over the last two decades, there has been an inescapable rise of anger and aggression across our planet. Hate speech has become increasingly prevalent online, Western governments are turning towards authoritarianism and populism, and extremist groups are rising across both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. Every day, it seems, we're hearing more angry voices and fearful opinions, we're seeing more threats and frightening news, and we're reacting faster and less rationally. The cause is hidden in plain sight: for the first time, almost all of the information we consume as a species is being controlled and curated by algorithms designed to capture our emotional attention. This, media researcher and strategic advisor Tobias Rose-Stockwell argues, is the outrage machine. It is the wide-cast net of social media that is propelled by tech, has been exploited by all of us, and which has been allowed to steadily replace our newspapers, emergency communication systems, town halls, churches, and more. In the vein of The Righteous Mind and Factfulness, Outrage Machine is a big-think book that explores the unintended consequences of this alarming shift in today's smartphone era--and shows us how to navigate the world we now live in. First, he explains how and why we've become addicted to not just technology, but outrage itself. Since social media algorithms now favor the most inflammatory content because it gets the highest engagement, the levels of righteousness, certainty, and extreme judgment in our daily interactions have increased as well. Next, he shows us why we're more prone to panic, and how the immediate dispersion of our panic can be more dangerous than the threat itself-and can bypass necessary confirmation of the accuracy and potential harm of this information. Rose-Stockwell also explores how the original intent of many of our social tools has been compromised, from improving click-through rates for charitable causes to catalyzing our current culture of click-baiting and sensationalism on an unparalleled scale. Fortunately, Outrage Machine is not just a warning--it's also a critical guide that clearly explains the underlying machinery that has come to control us, and a compass to help guide people toward reflection rather than reaction. The culmination of 15 years of research and inquiry, this book gives readers a language with which to comprehend what is happening to society, and offers new mental models for how to manage our time, our technology, and our attention. It also offers big-picture recommendations for how to redesign these platforms, as well as methods for fixing this broken system before it "fixes" us"--
- Subjects: Democracy.; Information society.; Social media; Social media.; Hate;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Woodstock [videorecording] : three days that defined a generation / by Ephron, Jamila,television producer.; Goodman, Barak,television producer,screenwriter,television director.; Kleszy, Don,screenwriter.; Samels, Mark,television producer.; Ark Media (Firm),production company.; PBS Distribution (Firm),publisher.; Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.),broadcaster.;
In August 1969, nearly half a million people gathered at a farm in upstate New York to hear music. What happened over the next three days, however, was far more than a concert. It would become a legendary event, one that would define a generation and mark the end of one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. Occurring just weeks after an American set foot on the moon, the Woodstock music festival took place against a backdrop of a nation in conflict over sexual politics, civil rights and the Vietnam War. A sense of an America in transition -- a handoff of the country between generations with far different values and ideals -- was tangibly present at what promoters billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music." Woodstock turns the lens back at the audience, at the swarming, impromptu city that grew up overnight on a few acres of farm land. What took place in that teaming mass of humanity -- the rain-soaked, starving, tripping, half-a-million strong throng of young people -- was nothing less than a miracle of teamwork, a manifestation of the "peace and love" the festival had touted and a validation of the counter-culture's promise to the world. Who were these kids? What experiences and stories did they carry with them to Bethel, New York that weekend, and how were they changed by three days in the muck and mire of Yasgur's farm?E.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
- Subjects: Nonfiction television programs.; Documentary television programs.; Historical television programs.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Woodstock Festival (1969 : Bethel, N.Y.); Rock music; Rock music festivals; Rock music;
- For private home use only.
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Sisters in resistance : how a German spy, a banker's wife, and Mussolini's daughter outwitted the Nazis / by Mazzeo, Tilar J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1944, the war had reached its climax in continental Europe. News of secret diaries kept by Italy's former Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, had permeated public consciousness. What wasn't reported, however, was how three women-a Fascist's daughter, a German spy, and an American socialite-risked their lives to ensure the diaries would reach the Allied forces, who would use the papers as key evidence against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. Just a year earlier, Edda Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's daughter, had given Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's journals to the press. Knowing the diaries will expose Nazi lies and create a foundation for a criminal war crimes prosecution, Hitler and Mussolini vow to do everything in their power to see the diaries destroyed-even if it means liquidating Mussolini's daughter. To do this, they ordered Hilde Beetz, a German spy, to seduce Ciano in prison in order to learn the diaries' location. As the seducer becomes the seduced, however, Hilde shifts her loyalties and becomes a double agent, joining forces with Edda to save Ciano from execution. When this fails, Edda flees to Switzerland with Hilde's daring assistance to keep Ciano's final wish: to see the diaries published for use by the Allies. When the head of United States' intelligence, Alan Dulles, learns of Edda's escape, he sends in socialite Frances De Chollet, an "accidental" spy, assigned by chance to a mission that would change her life. Her task is to find Edda, gain her trust, and, crucially, hand the diaries over to the Americans. Against all expectations, what develops is a rich and humanizing friendship between the two women. One step ahead of the Gestapo agents who are hunting Edda, together they succeed in preserving one of the most important historic documents of the Second World War. Drawing from in-depth research and first-person interviews with people who witnessed parts of this true story, Mazzeo gives readers a riveting look into this little-known moment in cultural history and shows how, without Edda, Hilde, and Frances's involvement, certain convictions would never have been possible at Nuremberg. Sisters in Resistance is a powerful look at women's intelligence work during WWII, a moving story of unlikely wartime friendships, and an inspirational investigation into three people who, navigated the place where truth, loyalty, justice, and betrayal collide"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ciano, Edda Mussolini, Contessa.; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944; Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944.; Purwin, Hilde, 1919-2010.; Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel. Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Amt VI.; Espionage, German; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Canada's main street : the epic story of the Trans-Canada Highway / by Baird, Craig,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Much has been written about the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first major transportation network that bound Canada coast to coast, but almost nothing about The Trans-Canada Highway, even though more people use it regularly, it's at least as vital to the nation's business, and its story is every bit as fascinating as the CPR's. Prior to the Second World War, only an adventurer would have driven cross-country on Canada's haphazard network of highways, gravel roads, single lanes paths, open fields, and ferries. An act of Parliament in 1949 kicked off the ambitious building of a modern two-lane coast-to-coast highway. Stretching from Victoria to St. John's and winding through the diverse cultures, landscapes, and history of all ten provinces, the Trans-Canada opened in 1960 and has been a centerpiece of the Canadian experience ever since ... the route of countless road trips, holidays, migrations, and, of course, Terry Fox's magnificent Marathon of Hope. Now, for the first time, Craig Baird, host of Canadian History Ehx, the number one history podcast in Canada, tells the epic story of the Trans-Canada from conception to completion. Canada's Main Street is an absorbing tale of the political intrigue, budgetary disasters, and heroic innovation that created our 7000-kilometre national lifeline."--
- Subjects: Automobile travel; Roads;
- Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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- The bookshop [videorecording] / by Banacolocha, Jaume,film producer.; Coixet, Isabel,film director,screenwriter.; Kneafsey, Honor,actor.; Mortimer, Emily,actor.; Nighy, Bill,1949-actor.; Tremayne, Hunter,actor.; Greenwich Entertainment (Firm),production company.; Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (Firm),film distributor.;
Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, Hunter Tremayne, Honor Kneafsey, Michael Fitzgerald, Frances Barber, James Lance.England, 1959. Free-spirited widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer, Mary Poppins Returns) follows her lifelong dream by opening a bookshop in a conservative coastal town. While bringing about a cultural awakening through works by Ray Bradbury and Vladimir Nabokov, she earns the polite but ruthless opposition of a local grand dame (Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects) and the support of a reclusive, book-loving widower (Bill Nighy, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). As Florence's obstacles amass, she reminds herself that a town without a bookshop is no town at all. Based on Penelope Fitzgerald's acclaimed novel, The Bookshop is an elegant rendering of personal resolve and the battle for the soul of a community.Canadian Home Video Rating: PG.MPAA rating: PG; for some thematic elements, language, and brief smoking.DVD ; widescreen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
- Subjects: Fiction films.; Feature films.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Booksellers and bookselling; Bookstores; Widows; Women in the book industries and trade;
- For private home use only.
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Invisible Prisons Jack Whalen's Tireless Fight for Justice [electronic resource] : by Moore, Lisa.aut; Whalen, Jack.aut; cloudLibrary;
Riveting nonfiction from multi-award-winning author Lisa Moore, based on the shocking true story of a teenaged boy who endured abuse and solitary confinement at a reform school in Newfoundland, but survived through grit and redemptive love. Invisible Prisons is an extraordinary, empathetic collaboration between the magnificent writer Lisa Moore, best-known for her award-winning fiction, and a man named Jack Whalen, who as a child was held for four years at a reform school for boys in St John’s, where he suffered jaw-dropping abuses and deprivations. Despite the odds stacked against him, he found love on the other side, and managed to turn his life around as a husband and father. His daughter, Brittany, vowed at a young age to become a lawyer so that she could seek justice for him. Today, that is exactly what she is doing—and Jack's case is part of a lawsuit currently before the courts. The story has parallels with Unholy Orders by Michael Harris about the Mount Cashel orphanage, and with the many horrific stories about residential schools—all of which expose a paternalistic state causing harm and a larger society looking away. Yet two powerful qualities set this story apart. As much as it is about an abusive system preying on children, it is also a tender tale of love between Jack and his wife Glennis, who saw the good man inside a damaged person and believed in him. And it is written in a novelistic way by the great Lisa Moore, who makes vividly real every moment and character in these pages.
- Subjects: Electronic books.; Cultural Heritage; Social Activists; Human Rights;
- © 2024., Knopf Canada,
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- Y2K : how the 2000s became everything : (essays on the future that never was) / by Shade, Colette,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-229)."Y2K is a delightfully nostalgic and bitingly told exploration about how the early 2000s forever changed us and the world we live in. THE EARLY 2000s conjures images of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans. It was a new millennium and the future looked bright, promising prosperity for all. The internet had arrived, and technology was shiny and fun. For many, it felt like the end of history: no more wars, racism, or sexism. But then history kept happening. Twenty-five years after the ball dropped on December 31st, 1999, we are still living in the shadows of the Y2K Era. In Y2K, one of our most brilliant young critics Colette Shade offers a darkly funny meditation on everything from the pop culture to the political economy of the period. By close reading Y2K artifacts like the Hummer H2, Smash Mouth's "All Star," body glitter, AOL chatrooms, Total Request Live, and early internet porn, Shade produces an affectionate yet searing critique of a decade that started with a boom and ended with a crash. In one essay Colette unpacks how hearing Ludacris's hit song "What's Your Fantasy" shaped a generation's sexual awakening; in another she interrogates how her eating disorder developed as rail-thin models from the collapsed USSR flooded the pages of Vogue; in another she reveals how the McMansion became an ominous symbol of the housing collapse."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Essays.; Personal narratives.; Shade, Colette.; Popular culture; Popular culture; Two thousand, A.D.; Two thousands (Decade); Year 2000 date conversion (Computer systems); Two thousands (Decade);
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Mediocre : the dangerous legacy of white male America / by Oluo, Ijeoma,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-306) and index."In her new book, rather than tear down the statues of certain white men, Ijeoma Oluo casts her eye on the long view of a nation that, as a whole, has built a dominant identity for white men. Her book challenges what we value most in America, during a tumultuous time of upheaval as we painfully strive toward a more perfect union. With her signature sharp wit, Oluo exposes how white male identity not only blatantly marks our divided culture today, from presidential politics to popular culture, but it is insidiously embedded even in the history of apparent progress, from women entering the workforce, to rising access to higher education, to the work of white civil rights advocates and male feminists. Oluo relates the glorification of White male aggression behind Western Expansion, the disdain of women workers strengthening the Great Depression, the fear of racial integration driving the Great Migration, and more examples of how White male America was forged and reinforced-at a devastating cost. Far from arguing that all white men are mediocre, Oluo instead challenges a national narrative that for generations has defined success exclusively around white men. Status for white men is granted only in relation to others, and is separated from actual achievement. This is not a benign mediocrity; it is brutal for everyone who is erased. Deeply researched, passionate, and revelatory, Oluo's Mediocre argues that if we wish to move beyond the rancorous politics where only white men are created equal, if we wish to write better stories for the next generation of Americans, we first need upend everything we thought we knew about our founding stories"--
- Subjects: Male domination (Social structure); Men, White;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- White Balls on Walls. by Vos, Sarah,film director.; Icarus Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Icarus Films in 2022.The slogan “Meet the Icons of Modern Art” needs to be scraped off the glass wall of the Stedelijk, Amsterdam’s Museum of Modern Art. Because precisely who these icons of modern art are is very much the question.Who gets to decide? And who loses out? In 2019, as director Sarah Vos started shooting her documentary, more than 90 percent of the art at the Stedelijk was made by white men. That must change, the museum’s director Rein Wolfs believes. But it’s easier said than done—as becomes clear when the film’s director Sarah Vos follows Wolfs and his team as they strive for greater diversity in the collection, as well as among their staff.It was a brave move by the Stedelijk to allow a camera behind the scenes of a process that raises uncomfortable and awkward questions. Can a painting still be entitled “The Prostitutes”? When you appraise art, should you also take the skin color or gender of the artist into account? And how is one to engage with visitors who find all this “too politically correct”?This film is more than a look behind the scenes at a museum: as well as presenting a new perspective on art history, it magnificently encapsulates the struggles that are engaging many historical and cultural institutions.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- Subjects: Documentary films.; Enthnology.; Social sciences.; Business.; Sociology.; Documentary films.; Ethnicity.;
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