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The Absence of Guilt (A. Scott Fenney)
by Mark GimenezMark Gimenez, author the massive international bestseller The Colour of Law, is back as superstar lawyer Scott A. Fenney takes the stand for an impossible case.An ISIS attack on America is narrowly averted when the FBI uncovers a plot to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in Dallas, Texas during the Super Bowl.A federal grand jury indicts twenty-four co-conspirators, including Omar al Mustafa, a notorious and charismatic Muslim cleric known for his incendiary anti-American diatribes on YouTube and Fox News. His arrest is greeted with cheers around the world and relief at home. The President goes on national television and proclaims: 'We won!'There is only one problem: there is no evidence against Mustafa. That problem falls to the presiding judge, newly appointed U.S. District Judge A. Scott Fenney.If Mustafa is innocent, Scott must set the most dangerous man in Dallas free, with no idea who is really guilty.And all with just three weeks to go before the attack is due . . .
The Absent City
by Ricardo PigliaWidely acclaimed throughout Latin America after its 1992 release in Argentina, The Absent City takes the form of a futuristic detective novel. In the end, however, it is a meditation on the nature of totalitarian regimes, on the transition to democracy after the end of such regimes, and on the power of language to create and define reality. Ricardo Piglia combines his trademark avant-garde aesthetics with astute cultural and political insights into Argentina's history and contemporary condition in this conceptually daring and entertaining work. The novel follows Junior, a reporter for a daily Buenos Aires newspaper, as he attempts to locate a secret machine that contains the mind and the memory of a woman named Elena. While Elena produces stories that reflect on actual events in Argentina, the police are seeking her destruction because of the revelations of atrocities that she--the machine--is disseminating through texts and taped recordings. The book thus portrays the race to recover the history and memory of a city and a country where history has largely been obliterated by political repression. Its narratives--all part of a detective story, all part of something more--multiply as they intersect with each other, like the streets and avenues of Buenos Aires itself. The second of Piglia's novels to be translated by Duke University Press--the first was Artifical Respiration--this book continues the author's quest to portray the abuses and atrocities that characterize dictatorships as well as the difficulties associated with making the transition to democracy. Translated and with an introduction by Sergio Waisman, it includes a new afterword by the author.
The Absent State
by Neelesh MisraThe spiralling crisis in Jammu and Kashmir; the Naxalite-Maoist menace that seems to be intensifying with every passing day; the disturbing reach of proxy governments run by militant groups in Manipur and Nagaland ? today, a quarter of India is being held hostage by violence and anarchy. What has pushed the country, which has otherwise held together through seemingly insurmountable odds in the past, to the edge? Who and what is responsible for the state of affairs as it stands today? In a series of dispatches from the epicentres of what they call the country?s `battle zones?, Neelesh Misra and Rahul Pandita unveil the tensions, frustrations and heartbreaks, and the challenges and justifications, that are everyday realities in these troubled regions. Civil administrators talk about the widespread misappropriation of development funds in tribal and remote areas; security and police personnel describe extreme confrontations in the face of inadequate training and equipment; rebel ranks and former insurgents reveal how unemployment, lack of education and rampant exploitation have fuelled their defiance against the establishment and encouraged secessionist activities; self-styled vigilantes assert their need to provide what they consider `security? and `justice? in areas that have seen little of either. And, at the heart of the on-going turmoil, ordinary people mourn the loss of their loved ones ? to starvation, lack of healthcare facilities and militancy ? even as they voice their demand to be heard. The stories are many; the cast varied. Yet, collectively, they present an alarming picture of systemic failure on the part of the Indian state. A potent reminder of the mistakes that the government of India cannot afford to repeat, The Absent State is a work of great significance ? an essential read for anyone who wants to make sense of the tumult of our times.
The Absolute Violation
by Richard S. MatthewsRichard Matthews challenges the increasing acceptability of state-sponsored torture interrogation, repudiating any possible justifications. He confronts its various supporters - ticking time bomb and tragic choice theorists, utilitarians, legal scholars - and draws from philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, survivor and torturer narratives, history, feminism, the experience of working intelligence officials, anthropology, and game theory to illustrate that no moral justification for torture can be supported.
The Absolute Violation: Why Torture Must Be Prohibited
by Richard S. MatthewsRichard Matthews challenges the increasing acceptability of state-sponsored torture interrogation, repudiating any possible justifications. He confronts its various supporters - ticking time bomb and tragic choice theorists, utilitarians, legal scholars - and draws from philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, survivor and torturer narratives, history, feminism, the experience of working intelligence officials, anthropology, and game theory to illustrate that no moral justification for torture can be supported.
The Absolved
by Matthew BinderIt's 2036. Henri is a wealthy physician, husband, father, and serial philanderer. He is also one of the relatively few people to still have a job. Automation and other technological advances have led to unemployment so severe that many people are no longer expected to work and are now known as The Absolved. Meanwhile, it's election season, and a candidate from a radical fringe party called the Luddites is calling for an end to the Divine Rights of Machines. After Henri is displaced from his job, two Luddite sympathizers--whom Henri has befriended at his local bar--frame him for an anti-technology terrorist act. The prospect of Henri's salvation comes at the cost of foregoing his guiding principles in life. This new vision for the world, after all, just might prove better than the technological advancements that, paradoxically, have left humanity out in the cold.
The Abuse of Power
by Jack Newfield Paul A. DuBrul“This book was written as an act of gratitude and loyalty to New York City by two native sons. The only bias we admit to is a love for this city, and particularly for its neighborhoods. We were born here. We grew up in working-class families in neighborhoods called Bedford Stuyvesant and Elmhurst. The only reason we both have college educations is that the City University was free in 1956. We come from a tradition that believes in paying your debts. Our way of repaying New York City for our free college education is to try and tell the truth about what is happening now to our city. This book was born, four years ago, in our mutual recognition that something was profoundly wrong with New York and that the condition was worsening, despite decades of talk about "reform." The knowledge and the anger in these pages were nourished by day-to-day involvement with the city's small agonies. Welfare mothers with lead-poisoned children. Working-class Polish and Italian families losing their homes of a lifetime for someone else's profit. The unspeakable suffering, and the unspeakable corruption, in the nursing-home industry. A brave and difficult rent strike waged by 50,000 people in Co-op City. These are the people for whom we wrote this book, although many of them will perhaps never read it. We hope, though, that by describing the reality, by naming the names, and by proposing some remedies, we are offering a tool for others to use in liberating New York City in the future. This is the repayment of our debt.” – By Author.
The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life
by Theresa MayFormer Prime Minister Theresa May exposes the abuse of power by public institutions and politicians in a series of riveting first-hand accounts from her time in office.As Prime Minister for three years and Home Secretary for six years, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies, to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged.The Abuse of Power is a searing exposé of injustice and an impassioned call to exercise power for the greater good. Drawing on examples from domestic and international affairs she was personally involved in at the highest level, including Stop and Search and the Salisbury Poisonings, the former prime minister argues for a radical rethink in how we approach our politics and public life.(P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Limited
The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life
by Theresa MayAs Prime Minister for three years and Home Secretary for six years, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies, to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged.The Abuse of Power is a searing exposé of injustice and an impassioned call to exercise power for the greater good. Drawing on examples from domestic and international affairs she was personally involved in at the highest level, including Stop and Search and the Salisbury Poisonings, the former prime minister argues for a radical rethink in how we approach our politics and public life.
The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life
by Theresa MayAs Prime Minister for three years and Home Secretary for six years, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies, to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged.The Abuse of Power is a searing exposé of injustice and an impassioned call to exercise power for the greater good. Drawing on examples from domestic and international affairs she was personally involved in at the highest level, including Stop and Search and the Salisbury Poisonings, the former prime minister argues for a radical rethink in how we approach our politics and public life.
The Abuse of Property (Untimely Meditations #19)
by Daniel LoickA fundamental critique of the current property regime, calling for radical social and political change.In The Abuse of Property, Daniel Loick offers a multifaceted philosophical critique of the concept of property, broadly understood. He argues that property should not be the dominant framework in which human beings regulate the use of things, that property is not the same as use. Property rights, in his view, are not conditions of freedom or justice, but deficient, dysfunctional, and harmful ways of interacting with other people and the natural environment. He dissects not only the classic justifications of property (from John Locke's justification of property as a natural right based on individual freedom to Hegel's justification of property as a form of mutual recognition) but also the classic critiques of property, from Proudhon and Marx up to Adorno and Agamben.Through an innovative critical approach to legal studies, Loick demonstrates how the concept of property, historically applied to things and people and still a linchpin of our distorted relation with the world, forms a direct line from the Occupy movement to Black Lives Matter and beyond.
The Abyss of Representation: Marxism and the Postmodern Sublime
by George HartleyFrom the Copernican revolution of Immanuel Kant to the cognitive mapping of Fredric Jameson to the postcolonial politics of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, representation has been posed as both indispensable and impossible. In his pathbreaking work, The Abyss of Representation, George Hartley traces the development of this impossible necessity from its German Idealist roots through Marxist theories of postmodernism, arguing that in this period of skepticism and globalization we are still grappling with issues brought forth during the age of romanticism and revolution. Hartley shows how the modern problem of representation--the inability of a figure to do justice to its object--still haunts today's postmodern philosophy and politics. He reveals the ways the sublime abyss that opened up in Idealist epistemology and aesthetics resurfaces in recent theories of ideology and subjectivity. Hartley describes how modern theory from Kant through Lacan attempts to come to terms with the sublime limits of representation and how ideas developed with the Marxist tradition--such as Marx's theory of value, Althusser's theory of structural causality, or Zizek's theory of ideological enjoyment--can be seen as variants of the sublime object. Representation, he argues, is ultimately a political problem. Whether that problem be a Marxist representation of global capitalism, a deconstructive representation of subaltern women, or a Chicano self-representation opposing Anglo-American images of Mexican Americans, it is only through this grappling with the negative, Hartley explains, that a Marxist theory of postmodernism can begin to address the challenges of global capitalism and resurgent imperialism.
The Abyss: A Novel
by Fernando VallejoFinally, the Colombian Fernando Vallejo’s masterpiece, The Abyss, is available in English in a stunning translation by Yvette Siegert Winner of the Rómulo Gallego Prize, The Abyss is a caustic masterwork of incredible power and force, an unforgettable autobiographical work of queer fiction. The novel tells about the demise of a crumbling house in Medellín, Colombia. Fernando, a writer, visits his brother Darío, who is dying of AIDS. Recounting their wild philandering and trying to come to terms with his beloved brother’s inevitable death, Fernando rants against the political forces that cause so much suffering. Vallejo is the heir to Céline, Thomas Paine, and Machado de Assis. He hurls vitriolic, savagely funny insults at his country (“I wipe my ass with the new Constitution of Colombia”) and at his mother (“the Crazy Bitch”) who has given birth to him and his many siblings. Within this firestorm of pain, Fernando manages to get across much beauty and truth: that all love is painful and washed in pure sorrow. He loves his sick brother and the family’s Santa Anita farm (the lost paradise of his childhood where azaleas bloomed); and he even loves his country, now torn to shreds. Always, in this savage masterpiece about loss—as if in the eye of Vallejo’s hurricane of talent—we are in the curiously comforting workings of memory and of the writing process itself, as, recollecting time, it offers immortality.
The Academic Trumpists: Radicals Against Liberal Diversity
by David L. SwartzThere has been an outpouring of research on populist conservatism since the advent of the Trump presidency and extreme right movements in Europe. Much less studied, however, is the growing political conservatism in the American academy and how it relates to populist sentiment. The Academic Trumpists addresses a gap in the research literature by looking at the impact of Trumpism on conservative faculty. It compares 109 professors who publicly support Trump to 89 conservative professors who oppose Trump. All 198 function as public intellectuals who advocated publicly their views.Drawing on recent research in the sociology of intellectuals and Pierre Bourdieu’s analytical field perspective, this book offers a fielding political identities and practices framework to show how these two groups of professors (Trumpists and anti-Trumpists) differ in where they teach, their intellectual orientations, their scholarly productivity, their political rationales, where they network with think tanks, scholarly professional associations, and government agencies, and their stances on key controversies surrounding the Trump presidency (Covid-19, the two impeachments, the November 2020 election lost, and the January 6 mob assault on the United States Capitol). The academic Trumpists embrace the right-wing populist wave mobilized by Trump and the conservative critics resist this move. This polarization of views between these two groups of conservative professors is enduring and rooted in two distinct social networks that connect their positions in the academic field to affiliations with conservative think tanks that reinforce their respective political identities and radical right-wing anti-establishment thinking in America more generally.This book will appeal to readers interested in the politics of higher education, the sociology of intellectuals, political sociology, and research on conservative and right-wing populism politics in America today.
The Academy of Fisticuffs: Political Economy and Commercial Society in Enlightenment Italy
by Sophus A. ReinertThe Italian Enlightenment, no less than the Scottish, was central to the emergence of political economy and creation of market societies. Sophus Reinert turns to Milan in the late 1700s to recover early socialists’ preoccupations with the often lethal tension among states, markets, and human welfare, and the policies these ideas informed.
The Acceptance and Expression of Prejudice during the Trump Era (Elements in American Politics)
by Brian F. SchaffnerWhat are the consequences when politicians make prejudiced statements? Theories about the suppression of prejudice argue that people are likely to express more prejudice when they believe that norms are more permissive than they may have otherwise assumed. Using a series of experiments carried out during and since the 2016 campaign, Brian Schaffner shows that being exposed to Donald Trump's prejudiced rhetoric causes people to express more prejudice themselves. Notably, this is not merely a 'Trump Effect;' people's commitment to anti-prejudice norms is undermined even when exposed to prejudiced rhetoric attributed to unnamed politicians. These findings are consequential; if politicians increasingly feel at liberty to express explicit prejudice, then the mass public is likely to take cues from such behavior, leading them to express more prejudice themselves. This may lead to increasingly heightened inter-group tensions which could pose a threat to political and social stability in the United States.
The Accessible Federalist: A Modern English Translation of 16 Key Federalist Papers
by S. Adam SeagraveThis modern English version of sixteen of Publius' most important essays is designed to set forth their argument in the clearest terms: the promise of the U.S. Constitution. Though The Federalist was itself written for the same purpose, the complexity of its prose and the meaning of several of its key terms have now passed out of currency—with the result that the original texts are now less able to communicate effectively to the uninitiated than they were when the first essays were published in 1787. Faithfully re-phrased for modern readers by an established and respected scholar of American political thought—and supplemented by quotations from the original texts—the selected essays included here offer today’s readers a judicious and effective first approach to The Federalist's most important ideas.
The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay after College
by Jessi StreibA startling discovery—that job market success after college is largely random—forces a reappraisal of education, opportunity, and the American dream. As a gateway to economic opportunity, a college degree is viewed by many as America’s great equalizer. And it’s true: wealthier, more connected, and seemingly better-qualified students earn exactly the same pay as their less privileged peers. Yet, the reasons why may have little to do with bootstraps or self-improvement—it might just be dumb luck. That’s what sociologist Jessi Streib proposes in The Accidental Equalizer, a conclusion she reaches after interviewing dozens of hiring agents and job-seeking graduates. Streib finds that luck shapes the hiring process from start to finish in a way that limits class privilege in the job market. Employers hide information about how to get ahead and force students to guess which jobs pay the most and how best to obtain them. Without clear routes to success, graduates from all class backgrounds face the same odds at high pay. The Accidental Equalizer is a frank appraisal of how this “luckocracy” works and its implications for the future of higher education and the middle class. Although this system is far from eliminating American inequality, Streib shows that it may just be the best opportunity structure we have—for better and for worse.
The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narratives of the Undesigned and Unplanned
by Daniel CampoThe Accidental Playground explores the remarkable landscape created by individuals and small groups who occupied and rebuilt an abandoned Brooklyn waterfront. While local residents, activists, garbage haulers, real estate developers, speculators, and two city administrations fought over the fate of the former Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal (BEDT), others simply took to this decaying edge, transforming it into a unique venue for leisure, creative, and everyday practices. These occupiers and do-it-yourself builders created their own waterfront parks and civic spaces absent every resource needed for successful urban development, including plans, designs, capital, professional assistance, consensus, and permission from the waterfront’s owners. Amid trash, ruins, weeds, homeless encampments, and the operation of an active garbage transfer station, they inadvertently created the “Brooklyn Riviera” and made this waterfront a destination that offered much more than its panoramic vistas of the Manhattan skyline. The terminal evolved into the home turf for unusual and sometimes spectacular recreational, social, and creative subcultures, including the skateboarders who built a short-lived but nationally renowned skatepark, a twenty-five-piece “public” marching band, fire performance troupes, artists, photographers, and filmmakers. At the same time it served the basic recreational needs of local residents. Collapsing piers became great places to catch fish, sunbathe, or take in the views; the foundation of a demolished warehouse became an ideal place to picnic, practice music, or do an art project; rubble-strewn earth became a compelling setting for film and fashion shoots; a broken bulkhead became a beach; and thick patches of weeds dotted by ailanthus trees became a jungle. These reclamations, all but ignored by city and state governments and property interests that were set to transform this waterfront, momentarily added to the distinctive cultural landscape of the city’s most bohemian and rapidly changing neighborhood.Drawing on a rich mix of documentary strategies, including observation, ethnography, photography, and first-person narrative, Daniel Campo probes this accidental playground, allowing those who created it to share and examine their own narratives, perspectives, and conflicts. The multiple constituencies of this waterfront were surprisingly diverse, their stories colorful and provocative. When taken together, Campo argues, they suggest a radical reimagining of urban parks and public spaces, and the practices by which they are created and maintained. The Accidental Playground, which treats readers to an utterly compelling story, is an exciting and distinctive contribution to the growing literature on unplanned spaces and practices in cities today.
The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir
by Fernando Henrique CardosoFernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha. This was just one of the turns in a largely unscripted and sometimes unwanted political career. In exile during the harshest period of the junta that ruled Brazil for twenty years, Cardoso started his political life with a tentative run for the Federal Senate in 1978. Within fifteen years, and despite himself, this former sociologist was running the country. And what a country! Brazil, it is often said, is on the edge of modernity, striding with one foot in mid-air towards the future, the other still rooted deep in a traditional past. It is a land of sophisticated music and brutal gold-digging, of the next global superpower and the last old-time coffee plantations. It is gloriously ungovernable, irrepressibly attractive, and home to the family, friends and extraordinary life of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. This is his story and his love song to his country.
The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
by A. J. Baime<P>The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman’s first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and through courage and a dash of luck, cement their place in history. Chosen as FDR’s fourth term Vice President for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman--a Midwesterner who had no college degree and had never had the money to buy his own home--was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR’s sudden death. <P>During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. The first four months of Truman’s administration saw the founding of the United Nations, the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, firebombings of Tokyo, the first atomic explosion, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, the mass starvation of Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the controversial decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of Imperial Japan, and finally, the end of World War II and the rise of the Cold War. No other president had ever faced so much in such a short period of time. <P>Tightly focused, meticulously researched, rendered with vivid detail and narrative verve, THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher. The result is narrative history of the highest order and a compelling look at a presidency with great relevance to our times.
The Accidental Prime Minister
by Annika SmethurstNine months after the spill that catapulted him to the prime ministership, Scott Morrison won the 2019 election, shocking politicians and political pundits (and, quite possibly, himself). Yet, unlike his predecessors, little was really known about the former marketing man whose hard-nosed political instincts and 'daggy dad persona' saw him become the 30th Prime Minister of Australia. Voters knew what he allowed them to see - a policy embrace of slogans like 'Stop the Boats'; his deft rebuttal of media enquiries; his love for Jen and his two daughters; that he liked to cook a curry on Saturday nights; and that his faith and the Cronulla Sharks were a big part of his life. But a man is more than sound bites and social media posts. So who the bloody hell is Scott Morrison?In this revealing biography, political journalist Annika Smethurst uncovers the man behind the headlines and slogans to show us what makes Scott Morrison tick. Taking us from his childhood, as the son of a local policeman, to a meeting that would lead to marriage to his teenage sweetheart, The Accidental PM will tell the personal and the political. There are questions about Morrison's early business career and his preselection that, when answered, will paint a clearer picture of the man leading our country and give greater insight into how he won the 'miracle' election. Whether Morrison's ego and temperament will see him falter in hard times or whether he will use the lessons of his life to end the revolving door of PMs to become one of Australia's best prime ministers is still to be discovered. But knowing the man will allow us all to know the path he will lead us on.
The Accidental Prime Minister The Making And Unmaking Of Manmohan Singh
by Sanjaya BaruIn 2004 Sanjaya Baru left a successful career as chief editor of the Financial Express to join Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his media adviser in UPA 1. Singh offered him the job with the words, 'Sitting here, I know I will be isolated from the outside world. I want you to be my eyes and ears. Tell me what you think I should know, without fear or favour. ' The Accidental Prime Minister is Baru's account of what it was like to 'manage' public opinion for Singh while giving us a riveting look at Indian politics as it happened behind the scenes. As Singh's spin doctor and trusted aide for four years, Baru observed up close Singh's often troubled relations with his ministers, his cautious equation with Sonia Gandhi and how he handled the big crises from managing the Left to pushing through the nuclear deal. In this book he tells all and draws for the first time a revelatory picture of what it was like for Singh to work in a government that had two centres of power. Insightful, acute and packed with political gossip, The Accidental Prime Minister is one of the great insider accounts of Indian political life and a superb portrait of the Manmohan Singh era. 'You see, you must understand one thing. I have come to terms with this. There cannot be two Centres of power. ' Manmohan Singh
The Accidental Prime Minister: द ॲक्सिडेन्टल प्राइम मिनिस्टर
by Sanjay Baru२००४ मध्ये संजय बारु यांनी ‘फायनान्शियल एक्स्प्रेस’ या दैनिकाचा मुख्य संपादक म्हणून आपली कारकिर्द मागे सोडून युपीए-१ मध्ये पंतप्रधान मनमोहन सिंग यांचे ‘माध्यम सल्लागार’ म्हणून रुजू होण्याचा निर्णय घेतला. सिंग यांनी त्यांना ही नोकरी देताना असं म्हटलं होतं, ‘‘या कार्यालयात बसून माझा बाहेरच्या जगाशी फारसा संबंध येणार नाही. तुम्ही माझे डोळे आणि कान व्हावं, अशी माझी इच्छा आहे. माझ्या जे काही कानावर पडावं, असं तुम्हाला वाटत असेल, ते अजिबात न घाबरता, नि:पक्षपाती वृत्तीनं जसं असेल तसं मला सांगा!’’ ‘द अॅक्सिडेन्टल प्राइम मिनिस्टर’ या पुस्तकामध्ये डॉ. सिंग यांच्याविषयीचं जनमत बनवणं हा अनुभव काय होता, हे त्यांनी सांगितलं आहे. पडद्यामागे घडणा-या भारतीय राजकारणाची नवीन दृष्टी त्यांनी आपल्या खिळवून टाकणा-या शैलीत वाचकाला दिली आहे. डॉ. सिंग यांचे ‘स्पिन डॉक्टर’ आणि चार वर्षं खास त्यांच्या विश्वासातले असलेल्या संजय बारु यांनी डॉ. सिंग यांचे त्यांच्या मंत्र्यांशी असलेले तणावपूर्ण संबंध, सोनिया गांधी यांच्याबरोबर असलेलं त्यांचं सावध समीकरण अगदी जवळून पाहिलं आहे. डाव्या पक्षांना हाताळतानाचं आणि अणुकराराचा पाठपुरावा करतानाचं डॉ. सिंग यांचं कौशल्यही त्यांनी पाहिलं आहे. ज्या सरकारमध्ये दोन सत्ताकेंद्रं होती, अशा सरकारमध्ये काम करणं, डॉ. सिंग यांच्यासाठी किती कठीण काम होतं, याचं समग्र दर्शन या पुस्तकातून संजय बारु यांनी घडवलं आहे. वाचकाला एक नवी दृष्टी देणारं संजय बारु यांचं हे पुस्तक, भारतीय राजकारणातील ‘आतल्या गोटातील’ माहिती सांगणारं आहे. हे पुस्तक डॉ. मनमोहन सिंग यांच्या युगाचा एक सुंदर आलेख आपल्यासमोर ठेवतं.
The Accidental Prince
by Michelle WillinghamHis runaway princessPrincess Serena of Badenstein intends to flee-from her violent father and from the man to whom she's been pledged in a political marriage of convenience.Karl von Lohenberg is without a country, a title-and a bride if he lets Serena get away. A ruthless man, he takes her to a secluded island, hell-bent on seduction. Only, he discovers a broken woman behind the prim princess facade. The time they spend together mends her spirit and touches his soul, but how will she react when she finds out how he's deceived her?