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Unbroken Spirit: The true story of a girl's struggle to break free
by Ferzanna RileyThis is the incredible true story of Ferzanna Riley, a Pakistani Muslim who could not be broken, despite an abusive family and their brutal efforts to enslave her. Her violent childhood, during which she was beaten on an almost daily basis, transformed her into a desperate and suicidal teenager, and led her to question the faith and culture she had been born into. After starting a new life in London, a shocking turn of events led Ferzanna and her younger sister to be tricked by their family into going into Pakistan, where they were held captive. Inspiring and moving, this astonishing story paints a picture of an amazing woman who broke the cycle of abuse and survived against all the odds.
Martin Luther King (Famous People, Great Events #6)
by Verna WilkinsMartin is a clever, happy child born in the south of the United States of America. As he grows up he becomes angry at the way black people are treated. Find out all about Martin Luther King and his "I have a dream" speech in Washington DC in 1963 with this story that is packed with all the facts and colourful pictures.This book is part of a series of picture books, Famous People, Great Events, which are suitable for ages 6-12. They tell the stories of famous men and women and great events in history and can be used to study the primary history curriculum. Written by successful authors, they are enjoyable reads which are packed with facts and colourful illustrations.Each book includes a timeline of key dates, a quiz and index.
Intellectuals and Society
by Thomas SowellHow intellectuals as a class affect modern societies by shaping the climate of opinion in which official policies develop--on issues ranging from economics to law to war and peace
Harold Macmillan
by Lord Charles WilliamsA masterly biography of a great Conservative Prime Minister (and publisher) - Harold Macmillan (1894-1986).Harold Macmillan was a figure of paradox. Outwardly, it was Edwardian elegance and civilised urbanity. Inwardly, it was emotional damage from his wife's open adultery and his progressive perplexity at the onward march of time.The First World War showed the courageous soldier. From then on, it was politics, rather than the family business of publishing, which was to be his future. Nevertheless, although he supported Churchill in the 1930s he was deemed boring - and certainly not ministerial material.All changed with the Second World War. Appointed Minister in Residence in North Africa, Macmillan's career flowered. After the War he became indispensable to Conservative Cabinets and as Churchill's Minister of Housing in the early 1950s he achieved the target, against all expectations, of 300,000 houses annually. Thereafter, he was Eden's Foreign Secretary and Chancellor but by then Macmillan had become openly ambitious. Over the Suez affair in 1956 he played a difficult - and somewhat devious - hand. Eden's resignation left him as the clear choice of his Cabinet colleagues to become Prime Minister.From 1957 to 1962, Macmillan was a good - some would say a great - Prime Minister. By 1962, however, his government was looking tired. The Profumo affair in 1963 was particularly damaging, and in the autumn of 1963 his health forced him to retire.
Letters to a Young Lawyer
by Alan M. DershowitzAs defender of both the righteous and the questionable, Alan Dershowitz has become perhaps the most famous and outspoken attorney in the land. Whether or not they agree with his legal tactics, most people would agree that he possesses a powerful and profound sense of justice. In this meditation on his profession, Dershowitz writes about life, law, and the opportunities that young lawyers have to do good and do well at the same time.We live in an age of growing dissatisfaction with law as a career, which ironically comes at a time of unprecedented wealth for many lawyers. Dershowitz addresses this paradox, as well as the uncomfortable reality of working hard for clients who are often without many redeeming qualities. He writes about the lure of money, fame, and power, as well as about the seduction of success. In the process, he conveys some of the "tricks of the trade" that have helped him win cases and become successful at the art and practice of "lawyering."
Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II
by Madhusree MukerjeeA dogged enemy of Hitler, resolute ally of the Americans, and inspiring leader through World War II, Winston Churchill is venerated as one of the truly great statesmen of the last century. But while he has been widely extolled for his achievements, parts of Churchill's record have gone woefully unexamined. As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with a fierce resolve to crush its freedom movement and a profound contempt for native lives. A series of Churchill's decisions between 1940 and 1944 directly and inevitably led to the deaths of some three million Indians. The streets of eastern Indian cities were lined with corpses, yet instead of sending emergency food shipments Churchill used the wheat and ships at his disposal to build stockpiles for feeding postwar Britain and Europe.Combining meticulous research with a vivid narrative, and riveting accounts of personality and policy clashes within and without the British War Cabinet, Churchill's Secret War places this oft-overlooked tragedy into the larger context of World War II, India's fight for freedom, and Churchill's enduring legacy. Winston Churchill may have found victory in Europe, but, as this groundbreaking historical investigation reveals, his mismanagement--facilitated by dubious advice from scientist and eugenicist Lord Cherwell--devastated India and set the stage for the massive bloodletting that accompanied independence.
The Highly Civilized Man: Richard Burton and the Victorian World
by Dane KennedyRichard Burton was one of Victorian Britain's most protean figures. A soldier, explorer, ethnographer, and polyglot of rare power, as well as a poet, travel writer, and translator of the tales of the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, Burton exercised his abundant talents in a diverse array of endeavors. Though best remembered as an adventurer who entered Mecca in disguise and sought the source of the White Nile, Burton traveled so widely, wrote so prolifically, and contributed so forcefully to his generation's most contentious debates that he provides us with a singularly panoramic perspective on the world of the Victorians. One of the great challenges confronting the British in the nineteenth century was to make sense of the multiplicity of peoples and cultures they encountered in their imperial march around the globe. Burton played an important role in this mission. Drawing on his wide-ranging experiences in other lands and intense curiosity about their inhabitants, he conducted an intellectually ambitious, highly provocative inquiry into racial, religious, and sexual differences that exposed his own society's norms to scrutiny. Dane Kennedy offers a fresh and compelling examination of Burton and his contribution to the widening world of the Victorians. He advances the view that the Victorians' efforts to attach meaning to the differences they observed among other peoples had a profound influence on their own sense of self, destabilizing identities and reshaping consciousness. Engagingly written and vigorously argued, The Highly Civilized Man is an important contribution to our understanding of a remarkable man and a crucial era.
Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary
by Rachel Jones Arnold Thackray David C. BrockOur world today--from the phone in your pocket to the car that you drive, the allure of social media to the strategy of the Pentagon--has been shaped irrevocably by the technology of silicon transistors. Year after year, for half a century, these tiny switches have enabled ever-more startling capabilities. Their incredible proliferation has altered the course of human history as dramatically as any political or social revolution. At the heart of it all has been one quiet Californian: Gordon Moore. At Fairchild Semiconductor, his seminal Silicon Valley startup, Moore--a young chemist turned electronics entrepreneur--had the defining insight: silicon transistors, and microchips made of them, could make electronics profoundly cheap and immensely powerful. Microchips could double in power, then redouble again in clockwork fashion. History has borne out this insight, which we now call "Moore’s Law”, and Moore himself, having recognized it, worked endlessly to realize his vision. With Moore’s technological leadership at Fairchild and then at his second start-up, the Intel Corporation, the law has held for fifty years. The result is profound: from the days of enormous, clunky computers of limited capability to our new era, in which computers are placed everywhere from inside of our bodies to the surface of Mars. Moore led nothing short of a revolution. In Moore’s Law, Arnold Thackray, David C. Brock, and Rachel Jones give the authoritative account of Gordon Moore’s life and his role in the development both of Silicon Valley and the transformative technologies developed there. Told by a team of writers with unparalleled access to Moore, his family, and his contemporaries, this is the human story of man and a career that have had almost superhuman effects. The history of twentieth-century technology is littered with overblown "revolutions. ” Moore’s Law is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn what a real revolution looks like.
Second Wind: One Woman's Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents
by Cami OstmanSecond Wind is the story of an unlikely athlete and an unlikely heroine: Cami Ostman, a woman edging toward midlife who decides to take on a challenge that stretches her way outside of her comfort zone. That challenge presents itself when an old friend suggests she go for a run to distract her from the grief of her recent divorce. Excited by the clarity of mind and breathing space running offers her, she keeps it up - albeit slowly - and she decides to run seven marathons on seven continents; this becomes Ostman's vision quest, the thing she turns to during the ups and downs of a new romance and during the hard months and years of redefining herself in the aftermath of the very restrictive, religious-based marriage and life she led up until her divorce. Insightful and uplifting, Second Wind carries the reader along for the ride as Ostman runs her way out of compliance with the patriarchal rules about "being a woman" that long held her captive and into authenticity and self-love. Her adventures - and the personal revelations that accompany them - inspire readers to take chances, find truth in their lives, and learn to listen to the voice inside them that's been there all along.
Augustine: Conversions To Confessions
by Robin Lane FoxSaint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first thirty years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism--all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed. In Augustine, the acclaimed historian Robin Lane Fox re-creates Augustine’s early life with unparalleled insight, showing how Augustine’s quest for knowledge and faith finally brought him to Christianity and a life of celibacy. Augustine’s Confessions, a vivid description of his journey toward conversion and baptism, still serves as a model of spirituality for Christians around the world. Magisterial and beautifully written, Augustine will be the definitive biography of this colossal figure for decades to come.
Nansen: The Explorer as Hero
by Roland HuntfordBehind the great polar explorers of the early twentieth century - Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott in the South and Peary in the North - looms the spirit of Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), the mentor of them all. He was the father of modern polar exploration, the last act of territorial discovery before the leap into space began.Nansen was a prime illustration of Carlyle's dictum that 'the history of the world is but the biography of great men'. He was not merely a pioneer in the wildly diverse fields of oceanography and skiing, but one of the founders of neurology. A restless, unquiet Faustian spirit, Nansen was a Renaissance Man born out of his time into the new Norway of Ibsen and Grieg. He was an artist and historian, a diplomat who had dealings with Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, and played a part in the Versailles Peace Conference, where he helped the Americans in their efforts to contain the Bolsheviks. He also undertook famine relief in Russia. Finally, working for the League of Nations as both High Commissioner for Refugees and High Commissioner for the Repatriation of Prisoners of War, he became the first of the modern media-conscious international civil servants.
Pippa Funnell: The Autobiography
by Pippa FunnellPippa Funnell is the golden girl of the British equestrian scene - but it hasn't always been so. She seemed doomed to be a 'misser' in the really big competitions, lacking that special ingredient that makes a true champion. Everything began to change for her in 1999 when her results, including her first European title, were excellent, but it was at the Sydney Olympics that she really came of age, winning a silver medal.Since Sydney, Pippa went from strength to strength. She completed the double of European Championships in 2001, she won Badminton in 2002, and in 2003 won the Rolex Grand Slam and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year by the Sunday Times.In 2004 Pippa was a double Olympic medallist in Athens, and this autobiography includes her Olympic diary, as she records the ups and downs of the competition, the triumph of the dressage, her cross-country round and the showjump down that cost her a gold medal. As if all this were not enough, there was the controversy of the medals being reallocated on appeal, meaning Pippa won both a silver and a bronze.
Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass
by Jes BakerBy the author of Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls and a heroine of the body image movement, an intimate, gutsy memoir about being a fat womanJes Baker burst onto the body positivity scene when she created her own ads mocking Abercrombie & Fitch for discriminating against all body types--a move that landed her on the Today Show and garnered a loyal following for her raw, honest, and attitude-filled blog missives. Building on the manifesta power of Things, this memoir goes deeply into Jes's inner life, from growing up a fat girl to dating while fat. With material that will have readers laughing and crying along with Jes's experience, this new book is a natural fit with her irreverent, open-book style. A deeply personal take, Landwhale is a glimpse at life as a fat woman today, but it's also a reflection of the unforgiving ways our culture still treats fatness, all with Jes's biting voice as the guide.
27: Brian Jones (The 27 Club Series)
by Chris SalewiczBrian Jones, multi-instrumentalist, visionary and the 'golden boy of the '60s', was, at the age of 27, the first rock casualty of his generation.A strange, somewhat impenetrable character, Brian Jones was a founding member and guiding spirit of The Rolling Stones. Adored and misunderstood in equal measure, Jones was perhaps the most creatively ambitious cultural force of his time, an artist whose commitment to the experimental and exotic remains profoundly influential.Always unconventional, Jones's voracious appetite for life's extremes led to unparalleled debauchery, drug and alcohol fuelled paranoia, and ultimately personal ruin.27: Brian Jones is the third in a series of exclusive music ebooks, an ambitious project examining the perils of genius, celebrity and excess. Other titles in the series include 27: Amy Winehouse, 27: Jimi Hendrix, 27: Jim Morrison and 27: Kurt Cobain.
King John: And the Road to Magna Carta
by Stephen ChurchKing John has long been dubbed one of the "vilest” of English kings. He was brutish, untrustworthy, and ruled as a virtual tyrant--and yet his reign changed the course of English history. As renowned medieval historian Stephen Church argues, John’s importance has for too long been overshadowed by more heroic family members like Richard the Lionhearted and Eleanor of Aquitaine. John was a skilled political manipulator, but his traditional belief in the unchecked power of the sovereign became increasingly unpopular during his reign, leading to frequent confrontations between the king and his barons. In 1215, a group of barons rebelled in response to John’s repressive fiscal policies. The peace treaty that resulted was the Magna Carta, which enshrined the king’s obligation to rule within the framework of the law. King John offers an authoritative portrait of King John and the moment that signaled the end of the age of absolute monarchy and the dawn of constitutional law.
Not by Chance Alone: My Life as a Social Psychologist
by Elliot AronsonHow does a boy from a financially and intellectually impoverished background grow up to become a Harvard researcher, win international acclaim for his groundbreaking work, and catch fire as a pioneering psychologist? As the only person in the history of the American Psychological Association to have won all three of its highest honors--for distinguished research, teaching, and writing-- Elliot Aronson is living proof that humans are capable of capturing the power of the situation and conquering the prison of personality. A personal and compelling look into Aronson’s profound contributions to the field of social psychology, Not by Chance Alone is a lifelong story of human potential and the power of social change.
My Brother John: The Abbeylara story of depression, loss and a sister's quest for justice
by Marie CarthyJohn Carthy was an average guy, a hard-working young man devoted to his mother and sister, who also happened to suffer from depression - in common with one in four Irish people today. But in April 2001, in the grip of a bi-polar episode, John was shot dead by gardai after emerging from his home in Abbeylara after a 25-hour stand-off. It was a shooting that could have been avoided. What had begun as a private family happening in a small Irish town had quickly turned into a national media event, with journalists given more access to the scene than ultimately even his own sister was allowed. In the wake of his death Marie Carthy fought relentlessly for an independent inquiry into her brother's shooting, withstanding personal humiliation and attempts to discredit her along the way. Six years on she and her mother Rose found themselves vindicated by the findings of the Barr Tribunal. Yet nothing can ever bring John back. My Brother John is a tribute to a beloved brother and son. From their carefree childhood as inseparable siblings to the untimely death of their father when they were teenagers, it describes the onset of John's depression and how he learned to cope with his illness. It also tells the family's story in the grim aftermath of his death, and how their pledge for justice in his name kept them fighting throughout the darkest of days.
The Green Marine: An Irishman's War in Iraq
by Neil Fetherstonhaugh Graham DaleDubliner Graham Dale, an IT specialist living in Texas, was working as a volunteer with a fire department when he heard that an airplane had hit the World Trade Centre in New York. As the tragic events unfolded before his eyes, he suddenly realised that he could no longer remain a spectator in the face of this appalling atrocity. There and then he made a decision that was to affect the rest of his life; he drove to the nearest Military Recruitment Centre and enlisted in the US Marines.After surviving months of 'constant mental and physical torture' in the notoriously tough 'Marine Boot Camp' in San Diego, he joined the ranks of one of the most elite branches of the United States military and two years later found himself patrolling the dangerous wastes of the western desert in war-torn Iraq. Throughout his deployment in Iraq, Dale kept a daily journal to give us an astonishing, true account of one man's fight in the frontline of America's 'War on Terror'. Told with brutal honesty, he gives us a unique and rare insight from an Irishman, fighting for a foreign military in a very foreign land.
Tears of the Desert: One woman's true story of surviving the horrors of Darfur
by Halima BashirHalima Bashir was born into the remote western deserts of Sudan. She grew up in a wonderfully rich environment and later went on to study medicine. At the age of twenty-four she returned to her tribe and began practising as their first ever qualified doctor. But then a dark cloud descended upon her people... Janjaweed Arab militias began savagely assaulting her people. At first, Halima tried not to get involved. But in January 2004 they attacked people in her village. Halima treated the traumatised victims and was sickened by what she saw. She decided to speak out in a Sudanese newspaper and to the UN charities. Then the secret police came for her. For days Halima was interrogated and subjected to unspeakable torture. She finally escaped but the nightmare just seemed to follow her... This inspiring story tells of one woman's determination to survive and her passion to defend her people. For the first time, we can truly understand the personal horrors of Darfur from someone who lived through it.
What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
by Adam BeckerThe untold story of the heretical thinkers who dared to question the nature of our quantum universeEvery physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo long meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists like John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth.
Finest Hour: The bestselling story of the Battle of Britain (Extraordinary Lives, Extraordinary Stories of World War Two #3)
by Phil Craig Tim ClaytonSeventy years ago, Europe lay at Hitler's feet. Britain faced its darkest hour - outnumbered and friendless as the German army continued its advance. Defeat or capitulation seemed inevitable. But instead a legend was born. Taking its readers on a breathtaking journey from open lifeboats in Atlantic gales to the cockpits of burning fighter-planes, and through cities devastated by the Blitz, FINEST HOUR recreates the terror, the tragedy and the triumph of the Battle of Britain. This powerful account of the events of 1940 is told through the voices, diaries, letters and memoirs of the men and women who lived, loved, fought and died during this terrible yet inspiring year. FINEST HOUR blends original historical research with the experiences of ordinary people in desperate times. Cutting through the nostalgic haze, this book enables readers to experience a time - still within living memory - when a nations's darkest hour became its finest.
Everybody Matters: A Memoir
by Mary RobinsonShortlisted for the Political Book Awards 2013 Political Book of the YearThe first woman President of Ireland, who became UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson has spent her life in pursuit of a fairer world.Now, for the first time, she reveals what lies behind the vision, strength and determination that has helped her to achieve so much for human rights around the globe.She describes the upbringing which gave her her strong sense of values and how she came into painful conflict with her parents - marrying against their wishes and, later, helping to legalise contraception in a deeply Catholic Ireland.As a barrister she won landmark cases advancing the causes of women and the marginalised against the prejudices of the day. When - to the surprise of many - she became the first woman President of Ireland in 1990, she put Ireland firmly on the international stage.Accepting the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 1997 was her biggest challenge and here she describes the huge political difficulties she encountered among the many triumphs. Subsequently, based in New York, she led Realizing Rights for eight years, pioneering how to implement in practice economic and social rights: working in African countries on health, decent work, corporate responsibility and women's empowerment in peace and security. Now heading her own Climate Justice foundation she has succeeded in finding the independence she needs to work effectively on behalf of the millions of poor around the world most affected by climate change. Told with the same calm conviction and modest pride that has guided her life, Everybody Matters will inspire everyone who reads it with the belief that each of us can, in our own way, help to change the world for the better.
Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
by Leslie BrodyIn this inspiring biography, discover the true story of Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh -- and learn about the woman behind one of literature's most beloved heroines.Harriet the Spy, first published in 1964, has mesmerized generations of readers and launched a million diarists. Its beloved antiheroine, Harriet, is erratic, unsentimental, and endearing-very much like the woman who created her, Louise Fitzhugh.Born in 1928, Fitzhugh was raised in segregated Memphis, but she soon escaped her cloistered world and headed for New York, where her expanded milieu stretched from the lesbian bars of Greenwich Village to the art world of postwar Europe, and her circle of friends included members of the avant-garde like Maurice Sendak and Lorraine Hansberry. Fitzhugh's novels, written in an era of political defiance, are full of resistance: to authority, to conformity, and even -- radically, for a children's author -- to make-believe.As a children's author and a lesbian, Fitzhugh was often pressured to disguise her true nature. Sometimes You Have to Lie tells the story of her hidden life and of the creation of her masterpiece, which remains long after her death as a testament to the complicated relationship between truth, secrecy, and individualism.
Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth
by Roland HuntfordAt the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who dies along with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache of supplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who not only beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largely forgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highly readable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carrying them out.THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogy of polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject in the English language based on the original Norwegian sources, to which Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.
The Winning Touch: My Autobiography
by Stevie Chalmers Graham McCollOne of Celtic's greatest ever strikers, Stevie Chalmers epitomised the exciting attacking football with which Celtic took Europe by storm during the 1960s. It was Stevie who scored the golden goal in the 1967 European Cup final that clinched the great trophy for Celtic and that saw him and his team-mates immortalised as the Lisbon Lions. Stevie was the Glasgow club's leading scorer in that amazing 1966-67 season, when they became the first British club to reign as champions of Europe and in which they scooped up every trophy at home. He was also the club's most prolific striker during the 1960s, becoming leading goalscorer for Celtic four times during that decade. It was appropriate, then, that it should be Stevie Chalmers who should nip in ahead of everyone five minutes from time in Lisbon to finish off, with finesse, the challenge of Internazionale of Milan, the richest and most successful club in the world. It was the most magical moment in Celtic's history and Stevie describes here, in fascinating detail, just how he came to be in the right place at the right time to write himself into history. Here for the first time Stevie relates key inside details of Celtic's path to glory, his own enormous personal battle to overcome a near-fatal illness to become a footballer and his sometimes uneasy relationship with Jock Stein, the Celtic manager. It all underlines the momentousness of his being there to accomplish that match-winning feat on Celtic's greatest-ever day.