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The Weimar years : rise and fall 1918-1933 / by McDonough, Frank,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Established in 1918-19, in the wake of Germany's catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. At its beginning, Weimar held out the hope that democracy, stability and prosperity would take root in Germany, but it was beset by frequent changes of government, waves of economic upheaval and spasms of violence of increasing intensity between the forces of left and right. Agitation and assassination by right-wing nationalists -- enraged by the severity of the Treaty of Versailles and the acceptance of its terms by liberal German politicians -- formed a threatening descant to the conciliatory efforts of successive coalition governments. Ultimately, the instabilities of Weimar would lead to the appointment as German Chancellor of the Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, who created a one-party dictatorship that abandoned the rule of law, democracy and civil rights. In the words of Gustav Stresemann, Germany's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929, Weimar democracy was 'dancing on a volcano'. The Weimar Years is a vivid and compelling narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature. McDonough places particular focus on the parliamentary history of Weimar, arguing that it was the failure of parliamentary democracy to bring stability that eroded public confidence and allowed the power of the elected Reichstag to gradually diminish, culminating in Hitler's accession to power in January 1933. The Weimar Years is the tragic story of a rise and fall, as well as a warning of how, under poor leadership, economic pressure and unrelenting political volatility, a democracy can drift towards a form of authoritarian rule that eventually destroys it.
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Lone wolf : walking the line between civilization and wildness / by Weymouth, Adam,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In 2011, a wolf named Slavc left his home territory of Slovenia for a wide-ranging journey across the Alps. Tracked by a GPS collar, he travelled over 1,200 miles, where he would mate with a female wolf on a walkabout of her own -- the only two wolves for hundreds of square miles -- and start the first pack to call the Italian Alps home in more than a century. A decade later and there are more than a hundred wolves in the area, the result of their remarkable meeting. Now, journalist Adam Weymouth follows Slavc's path on foot, and in doing so, interrogates the fears and realities of those living on land that is being repopulated by wolves; a metaphor for economic, political, and climate upheaval in a region that is seeing a centuries-old way of life being upended. Weymouth journeys to understand how wolves -- vilified throughout history in literature, art, and folklore -- are slowly creeping back into our forests, woods, and sometimes even our towns, and what that deep-rooted terror at the back of our minds really means. Slavc serves as the ultimate symbol for the outsider, journeying through places that are now wrestling with an influx of immigration, a resurgence of the far-right wing, and the steady decline of the environment due to the rapid advance of climate change; the question of how we see the other and treat the earth becomes paramount in everyday lives. Examining the political dimensions that this individual animal's trek brings to light, Lone Wolf tells a newly resonant story -- one less about fear and more about the courage required to seek out a new life, as well as the challenge of accepting the changing world around us. Sharply observed, searching, and written in poetic and precise prose, Lone Wolf explores the thorny connection between humans and nature, and indeed between borders themselves, and presses us to consider this much-discussed creature anew"--
Subjects: Slavc (Wolf); Weymouth, Adam; Gray wolf; Gray wolf; Human-animal relationships.; Gray wolf;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Life in two worlds : a coach's journey from the reserve to the NHL and back / by Nolan, Ted,1958-author.; Masters, Meg,author.;
"Despite the personal rivalries, lies, bad intentions, and discrimination, Ted Nolan made it from a small northern reservation to the NHL. But after he won the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the NHL, he didn't work in the NHL again for a decade. Why? Nolan's story is one of succeeding against the odds. He grew up in poverty outside Sault St. Marie, on the Garden River reserve, in a small house that had no running hot water or electricity. He made his own backyard rink and fell in love with the game. That love was enough to take him to the pros. It was the classic Canadian story: small-town kid makes it to the NHL. Nolan was drafted in 1978 by the Detroit Red Wings. But his real talent lay in coaching. Teams always got better when he was behind the bench. As a very young coach, he coached the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds to three consecutive Memorial Cup Finals. When he got his shot in the NHL, Nolan immediately turned around the Buffalo Sabres, earning them the title of "hardest-working team in professional sports." He took them deep into the playoffs. That was enough to convince the league that he was the best coach in the NHL. And yet, the Sabres failed to re-sign their star coach. In fact, Nolan didn't coach in the NHL again for an incredible ten years. This despite coaching the Moncton Wildcats to the Memorial Cup and shocking the hockey world by coaching tiny Latvia to a near-draw with mighty Team Canada. So why wasn't Nolan back behind an NHL bench? "If my skin were white," says Nolan, "I'd be coaching." This is a story then, of succeeding against the odds, and then having success stripped away. It is partly an angry story, a story of injustice, that makes this memoir a story of learning. It is a fierce look at one man's journey as he comes to know the wider world--with the courage to reach for the previously unattained, and the humility to recognize what really matters in the end."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Nolan, Ted, 1958-; Hockey coaches; Hockey players; First Nations hockey players;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Pluck : a memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist / by Morrissey, Donna,1956-author.;
"A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour. When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels. In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language. Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become. An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Morrissey, Donna, 1956-; Anxiety disorders; Brothers; Novelists, Canadian (English);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Chastise : the Dambusters story 1943 / by Hastings, Max,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in northwest Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who led the raid. In the 21st Century, however, he urges that we should see the dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was entirely real, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the ‘bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised as ruthlessly as they did about the entire bomber offensive. Some 1,400 civilians perished in the biblical floods that swept through the Mohne valley, more than half of them Russian and Polish women, slave labourers. Hastings vividly describes the evolution of Wallis' bomb, and of the squadron which broke the dams. But he also portrays in harrowing detail those swept away by the torrents. He argues that what modern Germans call the Mohnekatastrophe imposed on the Nazi war machine temporary disruption, rather than a crippling blow. Ironically, Air Marshal Sir Arthur ‘Bomber' Harris gained much of the public credit, though he bitterly opposed Chastise as a distraction from his city-burning blitz. Harris also made perhaps the operation's biggest mistake-- failure to launch a conventional attack on the huge post-raid repair operation which could have transformed the impact of the dam breaches on Ruhr industry. Here once again is a dramatic retake on familiar history by a master of the art. Hastings sets the Dams Raid in the big picture of the bomber offensive and of the Second World War, with moving portraits of the young airmen, so many of whom died; of Barnes Wallis; the monstrous Harris; the tragic Guy Gibson, together with superb narrative of the action of one of the most extraordinary episodes in British history.
Subjects: Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Squadron, 617; Dams; Operation Chastise, 1943.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The last good year : seven games that ended an era / by Cox, Damien,1961-author.;
"Twenty-five years later, it's still the most talked-about NHL playoff series ever played. We may never again see a series like it. Before Gary Bettman, the lockouts, and the explosion of salaries. Before all the NHL's old barns were torn down to make way for bigger, glitzier rinks. Before expansion and parity across the league, just about anything could happen on the ice, and often did. It was an era when huge personalities dominated the sport, and willpower was often enough to win games. And in the spring of 1993, some of the biggest talents and biggest personalities were on a collision course. The Cinderella Maple Leafs had somehow beaten the mighty Red Wings and then, just as improbably, the St. Louis Blues. Wayne Gretzky's Kings had just torn through the Oilers and the Flames. When they faced each other in the conference final, the result would be the series Gretzky called the best he ever played--a series that fans still talk about passionately 25 years later. Told through the stories of seven central characters, The Last Good Year gives an intimate account not just of an era-defining seven games, but of what the series meant to the men who were changed by it: Marty McSorley, the tough guy who took his whole team on his shoulders; Doug Gilmour, the emerging superstar; celebrity owner Bruce McNall; Bill Berg, best-known checking winger in the world; Kelly Hrudy, the Kings' goalie who would go on to become a Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster; Kerry Fraser, who would become the game's most infamous referee; and two very different captains, Toronto's bull in a china shop, Wendel Clark, and the immortal Wayne Gretzky. Taking us back to that feverish spring, Damien Cox also takes us behind the scenes and into the lives of those who shone brightest during those two weeks: players who made Herculean efforts to spur on the team, from dropping the gloves to spectacular goals and saves when they were most needed, and the referee whose view of one play changed history for a generation of fans. Fast-paced, authoritative, and galvanized by the same love of the game that made the series so unforgettable, The Last Good Year is a glorious testament to a moment hockey fans will never forget."--
Subjects: National Hockey League; Toronto Maple Leafs (Hockey team); Los Angeles Kings (Hockey team);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Long Island Compromise A Novel [electronic resource] : by Brodesser-Akner, Taffy.aut; cloudLibrary;
An exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble “A big, juicy, wickedly funny social satire . . . probably the funniest book ever about generational family trauma.”—Oprah Daily “Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?” In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety. But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures. Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Family Life; Satire;
© 2024., Random House Publishing Group,
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To speak for the trees : my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest / by Beresford-Kroeger, Diana,1944-author.;
"Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked a quiet revolution in how we understand our relationship to forests. Now, in a captivating account of how her life led her to these illuminating and crucial ideas, she shows us how forests can not only heal us but save the planet. When Diana Beresford-Kroeger-- whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and whose mother was an O'Donoghue, one of the stronghold families who carried on the ancient Celtic traditions-- was orphaned as a child, she could have been sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Instead, the O'Donoghue elders, most of them scholars and freehold farmers in the Lisheens valley in County Cork, took her under their wing. Diana became the last ward under the Brehon Law. Over the course of three summers, she was taught the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Already a precociously gifted scholar, Diana found that her grounding in the ancient ways led her to fresh scientific concepts. Out of that huge and holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release and that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can actively regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate. This book is not only the story of a remarkable scientist and her ideas, it harvests all of her powerful knowledge about why trees matter, and why trees are a viable, achievable solution to climate change. Diana eloquently shows us that if we can understand the intricate ways in which the health and welfare of every living creature is connected to the global forest, and strengthen those connections, we will still have time to mend the self-destructive ways that are leading to drastic fires, droughts and floods."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, 1944-; Botanists; Biochemists; Celts; Forest ecology.; Forests and forestry; Trees; Trees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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10/7 : 100 human stories / by Yaron, Lee,author.; Cohen, Joshua,writer of afterword.;
"The definitive account of the 10/7 attacks through the stories of its victims and the communities they called home. On October 7, 2023 -- the Sabbath and the final day of the holiday of Sukkot-the Gaza -- based terror group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on the people of Israel. Crashing through the border, attacking from the sea and air, militants indiscriminately massacred civilians in what became one of the worst terror attacks in modern history, and the most lethal day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. A radically passionate work of investigative journalism and political critique by acclaimed Haaretz reporter Lee Yaron, 10/7 chronicles the massacre that ignited a war through the stories of more than 100 civilians. These stories are the products of extensive interviews with survivors, the bereaved, and first responders in Israel and beyond. The victims run the gamut from left-wing kibbutzniks and Burning Man-esque partiers to radical right-wingers, from Bedouins and Israeli Arabs to Thai and Nepalese guest workers, peace activists, elderly Holocaust survivors, refugees from Ukraine and Russia, pregnant women, and babies. At a time when people are seeking a deeper understanding of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how internal political turmoil in Israel has affected it, they predominantly encounter perspectives from the powerful-from politicians and military officers. 10/7 takes a fresh approach, offering answers through the stories of everyday people, those who lived tenuously on the border with Gaza. Yaron profiles victims from a wide range of communities-depicting the fullness of their lives, not just their final moments-to honor their memories and reveal the way the attack ripped open Israeli society and put the entire Middle East on the precipice of disaster. Each chapter begins with a portrait of a community, interweaving history with broader political analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to provide context for the narratives that follow. Ultimately, 10/7 shows that the tragedy is much greater than the violence of the attacks, and in fact extends back through the entire Netanyahu era, which propagated a false image of Israel as a technologically advanced, militarily formidable powerhouse so essential to the region that it could continue to ignore and undermine Palestinian statehood indefinitely"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmīyah.; Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmīyah.; Arab-Israeli conflict; Israelis; Jews; October 7 Hamas Attack, Israel, 2023.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The mistresses of Cliveden : three centuries of scandal, power, and intrigue in an English stately home / by Livingstone, Natalie,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For fans of Downton Abbey comes an immersive historical epic about a lavish English manor and a dynasty of rich and powerful women who ruled the estate over three centuries of misbehavior, scandal, intrigue, and passion. Five miles from Windsor Castle, home of the royal family, sits the Cliveden estate. Overlooking the Thames, the mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens. Throughout its storied history, Cliveden has been a setting for misbehavior, intrigue, and passion--from its salacious, deadly beginnings in the seventeenth century to the 1960s Profumo Affair, the sex scandal that toppled the British government. Now, in this immersive chronicle, the manor's current mistress, Natalie Livingstone, opens the doors to this prominent house and lets the walls do the talking. Built during the reign of Charles II by the Duke of Buckingham, Cliveden attracted notoriety as a luxurious retreat in which the duke could conduct his scandalous affair with the ambitious courtesan Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury. In 1668, Anna Maria's cuckolded husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, challenged Buckingham to a duel. Buckingham killed Shrewsbury and claimed Anna Maria as his prize, making her the first mistress of Cliveden. Through the centuries, other enigmatic and indomitable women would assume stewardship over the estate, including Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney and illicit lover of William III, who became one of England's wealthiest women; Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the queen that Britain was promised and then denied; Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, confidante of Queen Victoria and a glittering society hostess turned political activist; and the American-born Nancy Astor, the first female member of Parliament, who described herself as an 'ardent feminist' and welcomed controversy. Though their privileges were extraordinary, in Livingstone's hands, their struggles and sacrifices are universal. Cliveden weathered renovation and restoration, world conflicts and cold wars, societal shifts and technological advances. Rich in historical and architectural detail, The Mistresses of Cliveden is a tale of sex and power, and of the exceptional women who evaded, exploited, and confronted the expectations of their times; Praise for The Mistresses of Cliveden: 'An utterly fascinating and completely beguiling account of three centuries of high living, high politics, and high drama at one of Britain's most famous stately homes."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Augusta, Princess of Wales, 1719-1772.; Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess, 1879-1964.; Shrewsbury, Anna Maria Brudenell Talbot, Countess of, 1642-1702.; Sutherland, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson-Gower, Duchess of, 1806-1868.; Villiers, Elizabeth, Countess of Orkney, 1657?-1733.; Cliveden (England); Cliveden (England); Nobility; Rich people; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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