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Fondateur de Nike, dont il fut le P-DG de 1964 à 2004 puis le président du conseil d'administration jusqu'en 2016, Phil Knight, l'homme derrière le « swoosh », la virgule, est toujours resté dans l'ombre, et sa vie un mystère. Il raconte enfin son histoire dans une autobiographie surprenante, humble, sans concessions, drôle, inspirante, et qui passionnera aussi bien les amateurs de sport que ceux qui s'intéressent à l'économie, à l'entreprise et au management. A peine sorti de sa business school, le jeune Phil a une vision : il lancera son entreprise, et importera aux États-Unis des chaussures de sport japonaises haut de gamme, mais à bas prix. Il emprunte pour cela 50 $ à son père. Cette première année, 1963, il vend pour 800 $ de chaussures, qu'il stocke dans le coffre de sa Plymouth Vaillant. Aujourd'hui, le chiffre d'affaires annuel de Nike dépasse les 30 milliards de dollars. Nike est la référence ultime, la success-story qui inspire tous les startupers, une marque mondiale dont le logo, le fameux « swoosh », symbole de grâce et de grandeur, est l'une des rares icones que l'on reconnaît aux quatre coins de la planète. Tout commence par l'un de ces moments-charnière que connaissent beaucoup de jeunes adultes. Phil a 24 ans, part sac au dos faire le tour du monde, traverse l'Asie, l'Europe et l'Afrique, et se pose les grandes questions de son âge. Sa réponse sonne comme une évidence : il ne fera pas comme tout le monde. Tournant le dos à la voie classique de la grande entreprise, il se lancera en solo, bien décidé à créer quelque chose de nouveau, de dynamique, de différent. Rien ne va de soi, évidemment, et le parcours sera semé d'embûches. Mais la méfiance des banquiers, les moments de découragement, la férocité de ses concurrents, les trahisons et les accidents de parcours font aussi le sel et la richesse d'une aventure et d'un destin couronnés par des triomphes exceptionnels, des sauvetages sur le fil du rasoir, et sublimés par un talent hors du commun pour cultiver « l'art de la victoire ». Un talent et un art qui reposent aussi beaucoup sur l'humain : au crépuscule de cette aventure, Knight se souvient avec émotion des rencontres qui l'ont marqué, depuis Bill Bowman, son premier coach sportif en athlétisme, irascible et charismatique, et les premiers salariés de l'entreprise, un improbable rassemblement de marginaux et de scientifiques, jusqu'aux ambassadeurs qui feront rayonner la marque dans le monde, de Michael Jordan à Tiger Woods en passant par Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi et LeBron James. Ensemble, parce qu'ils croyaient dans le pouvoir du sport, ils ont transformé la vision d'un post-adolescent de 24 ans, et créé une marque et une culture dont l'influence sera mondiale. |
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Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism—an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history. The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination. |
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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times and Globe and Mail bestseller • Named a Best Book of 2024 by the Economist , Winnipeg Free Press , and Financial Times • One of Indigo's Top 100 Books of 2024 From the Pulitzer-prize winning, New York Times bestselling author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them. We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. International condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity. In this urgent treatise, which evokes George Kennan's essay calling for "containment" of the Soviet Union, Anne Applebaum calls for the democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat. |
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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spearheaded the Trump Administration’s most significant foreign policy breakthroughs. Now, he reveals how he did it, and how it could happen again. As the only four-year national security member of President Trump’s Cabinet, he worked to impose crushing pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran, avert a nuclear crisis with North Korea, deliver unmatched support for Israel, and bring peace to the Middle East. Drawing on his commitment to America’s founding principles and his Christian faith, his efforts to promote religious freedom around the world were unequaled in American diplomatic history. Most importantly, he led a much-needed generational transformation of America's relationship with China. Blending remarkable and often humorous stories of his interactions with world leaders and unmatched analysis of geopolitics, Never Give an Inch tells of how Pompeo helped the Trump Administration craft the America First approach that upended Washington's wisdom—and made him America’s enemies’ worst nightmare. It is a raw account of what it took to deliver winning outcomes, including answers to questions like: --Why Trump thought his Secretary of State was too tough on China --What he said to Kim Jong-un that set him apart from other American negotiators --How Mike Pence could have lost his spot on the 2020 ticket --Who still has him high on their list of enemies A road map of the trends and players shaping the world today, Never Give an Inch is more than a historical review of the Trump Administration's greatest victories. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenges of the future. And it is an inspirational story of leadership through dangerous times that will leave you with a greater appreciation for America. |
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Canada is known for its inclusive citizenship and multiculturalism policies that have been largely successful in integrating an increased diversity of Canadians. In contrast to the previous approach, in 2007, the Conservative government initiated a fundamental change to make citizenship more meaningful and emphasize integration in multiculturalism. Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism provides insight into the relationship between the political and bureaucratic levels through this period of intense policy renewal. The book examines, from a practitioner’s viewpoint, the political challenge to public servants’ knowledge, expertise and experience. Whether reflecting different ideological perspectives, reliance on formal evidence or extensive outreach, or contrasting perceptions of risk, the public service was confronted with a major break with previous thinking and priorities.  Drawing from a series of case studies, Griffith illustrates how public servants responded to this challenge and were forced to face the limits of their expertise and knowledge, while providing the "fearless advice and loyal implementation" expected of bureaucrats in Canada. Of interest to academics, media and policy makers, as well as those interested in citizenship and multiculturalism in general, Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias provides a unique inside view of the policy process, and the strengths and limits of policy making in citizenship and multiculturalism. …. it deserves a wider view, if only because it confirms what so many of us in Ottawa have been hearing, anecdotally, about the dispirited state of the public service in a hyper-partisan government…. If we want to know why Kenney has managed to become one of Harper’s top ministers, we should probably take a close look at what Griffith is telling us about how things unfolded in terms of citizenship and multiculturalism. Susan Delacourt, Toronto Star, The Harper government vs. the public servants |
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'The Debordian analysis of modern life resonates more deeply and darkly than perhaps even its creator thought possible...' - The New Yorker 'Never before has Debord's work seemed quite as relevant as it does now' - The Guardian 'Guy Debord is a time bomb, and a difficult one to defuse.' - Michael Löwy First published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired a cult status. The Das Kapital of the 20th century. An essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's up to the present, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life. 'In Society of the Spectacle, Debord sets out his best-known statement of how the categories of capitalism colonise everyday life to such an extent that we can barely imagine an existence beyond them.' - Sydney Review of Books 'The Society of the Spectacle [is] about not just the clamor of images but also the silence of power, a silence which, since the seventies, has become deafening.' - McKenzie Wark 'Never before has Debord's work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold? Open his book, read it, be amazed, pour yourself a glass of supermarket wine - as he would wish - and then forget all about it, which is what the Spectacle wants.' - Will Self 'In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord made plain that a 'unified critique of culture' implied a critique of the social totality. This was his practico-theoretical method throughout his career as a revolutionary: he saw no distinction between cultural work and political work.' - Bruce Russell 'I read [The Society of the Spectacle] again and I thought, "This is a fucking amazing book!" I had forgotten how terrific it was, and it was actually quite different to how I remembered it. I insist that the key chapter is not the first one, on the spectacle itself, but the second to last - the chapter on détournement. To me, that concept is the great gift of the Situationists. [They] realized that one can exploit this critically - one can copy and correct in the direction of hope.' - Los Angeles Review of Books About the author Guy Debord (1931-1994) was a Marxist theorist, writer, poet, filmmaker, hypergraphist, cultural revolutionary and a founding member of the Lettrist International and Situationist International - groups that fused avant-garde art and politics as an anti-capitalist weapon. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Debord's Society of the Spectacle, which decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism and contemporary life. |
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From the creator of the wildly popular blog Wait But Why, a fun and fascinating deep dive into what the hell is going on in our strange, unprecedented modern times. Between 2013 and 2016, Tim Urban became one of the world’s most popular bloggers, writing dozens of viral, long-form articles about everything from AI to colonizing Mars to procrastination. Then, he turned his attention to a new topic: the society around him. Why was everything such a mess? Why was everyone acting like such a baby? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff? This massive topic sent Tim tumbling down his deepest rabbit hole yet, through mountains of history, evolutionary psychology, political theory, neuroscience, and modern-day political movements, as he tried to figure out the answer to a simple question: What’s our problem? Six years later, he emerged from the hole holding this book. What’s Our Problem? is a deep and expansive analysis of our modern times, in the classic style of Wait But Why, packed with original concepts, sticky metaphors, and 300 drawings. The book provides an entirely new framework and language for thinking and talking about today’s complex world. Instead of focusing on the usual left-center-right horizontal political axis, which is all about what we think, the book introduces a vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups. Readers will find themselves on a delightful and fascinating journey that will ultimately change the way they see the world around them. Anyway he wanted to say a lot more about all of this but there was a word limit on this book description so just go read the book. |
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A bold book of rage, hope, and challenge exposing how the political decisions of the 1980s continue to haunt us today. In Dangerous Memory, renowned politician, author, and musician Charlie Angus undertakes a major rethink of the cultural and political shifts of the 1980s, an era that unleashed an unprecedented looting of the economy, the environment, and the common good that continues to haunt us today. Expertly weaving his story within the larger narrative of the times, Angus elucidates such key events as the Chernobyl disaster, the Digital Revolution, the AIDS epidemic, the fight against South African apartheid, the rise of neoliberalism, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the 1980s was also a time of resistance, creativity, and hope. In a world that stood on the brink of global nuclear annihilation, millions of people stepped up to save the planet and fight for human rights. As an idealistic eighteen-year-old, Charlie Angus quit school to play in a punk band and work with the homeless. Planting the seeds of change, he now challenges us to take action to confront widespread injustice and systemic inequity to create a better world. |
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Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be no "right of return." In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli War. More than seventy years later, most of their houses are long gone, but millions of their descendants are still registered as refugees, with many living in refugee camps. This group—unlike countless others that were displaced in the aftermath of World War II and other conflicts—has remained unsettled, demanding to settle in the state of Israel. Their belief in a "right of return" is one of the largest obstacles to successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region. In The War of Return , Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf—both liberal Israelis supportive of a two-state solution—reveal the origins of the idea of a right of return, and explain how UNRWA - the very agency charged with finding a solution for the refugees - gave in to Palestinian, Arab and international political pressure to create a permanent “refugee” problem. They argue that this Palestinian demand for a “right of return” has no legal or moral basis and make an impassioned plea for the US, the UN, and the EU to recognize this fact, for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike. A runaway bestseller in Israel, the first English translation of The War of Return is certain to spark lively debate throughout America and abroad. |
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. • "The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.  Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature. |
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Banni de la communauté juive à 23 ans pour hérésie, Baruch Spinoza décide de consacrer sa vie à la philosophie. Son objectif  ? Découvrir  un bien véritable qui lui  «  procurerait pour l’éternité la jouissance d’une joie suprême et incessante.  » Au cours des vingt années qui lui restent à vivre, Spinoza édifie une œuvre révolutionnaire. Comment cet homme a-t-il pu, en plein XVIIe siècle, être le précurseur des Lumières et de nos démocraties modernes  ? Le pionnier d’une lecture historique et critique de la Bible  ? Le fondateur de la psychologie des profondeurs  ? L’initiateur de la philologie, de la sociologie, et de l’éthologie  ? Et surtout, l’inventeur d’une philosophie fondée sur le désir et la joie, qui bouleverse notre conception de Dieu, de la morale et du bonheur  ?   A bien des égards, Spinoza est non seulement très en avance sur son temps, mais aussi sur le nôtre.  C’est ce que j’appelle le «  miracle  » Spinoza. F.  L. |
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the #1 bestselling author of 'Indian' in the Cabinet , a groundbreaking and accessible roadmap to advancing true reconciliation across Canada. There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? It is clear that people from all over the country want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. We just need to know how to get started. This book provides that next step. For Wilson-Raybould, what individuals and organizations need to do to advance true reconciliation is self-evident, accessible, and achievable. True Reconciliation is broken down into three core practices—Learn, Understand, and Act—that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments. The practices are based not only on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization, but also on the deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. Fundamental to a shared way of thinking is an understanding of the Indigenous experience throughout the story of Canada. In a manner that reflects how work is done in the Big House, True Reconciliation features an “oral” history of these lands, told through Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices from our past and present. The ultimate and attainable goal of True Reconciliation is to break down the silos we’ve created that prevent meaningful change, to be empowered to increasingly act as “inbetweeners,” and to take full advantage of this moment in our history to positively transform the country into a place we can all be proud of. |
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B******t isn’t what it used to be.   Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data.   “A modern classic . . . a straight-talking survival guide to the mean streets of a dying democracy and a global pandemic.”— Wired Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates b******t to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school b******t that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school b******t presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In  Calling B******t,  Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern b******t. We have always needed people who call b******t when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that b******t has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism. |
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From bestselling author, CNN+ host of No Mercy, No Malice , and NYU business school professor Scott Galloway comes an urgent examination of the future of our nation – and how we got here. We are only just beginning to reckon with our post-pandemic future. As political extremism intensifies, the great resignation affects businesses everywhere, and supply chain issues crush bottom lines, we’re faced with daunting questions – is our democracy under threat? How will Big Tech change our lives? What does job security look like for me? America is on the brink of massive change – change that will disrupt the workings of our economy and drastically impact the financial backbone of our nation: the middle class.   In  Adrift , Galloway looks to the past – from 1945 to present day – to explain just how America arrived at this precipice. Telling the story of our nation through 100 charts, Galloway demonstrates how crises such as Jim Crow, World War II, and the Stock Market Crash of 2008, as well as the escalating power of technology, an entrenched white patriarchy, and the socio-economic effects of the pandemic, created today’s perfect storm.  Adrift  attempts to make sense of it all, and offers Galloway’s unique take on where we’re headed and who we’ll become, touching on topics as wide-ranging as online dating to minimum wage to the American dream.   Just as in 1945 and 1980, America is once again a nation at a crossroads. This time, what will it take for our nation to keep up with the fast and violent changes to our new world? |
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The National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller that became a guide and balm for a country struggling to understand the election of Donald Trump "A generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party. . . . This is a smart, respectful and compelling book." —Jason DeParle, The New York Times Book Review When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, a bewildered nation turned to Strangers in Their Own Land to understand what Trump voters were thinking when they cast their ballots. Arlie Hochschild, one of the most influential sociologists of her generation, had spent the preceding five years immersed in the community around Lake Charles, Louisiana, a Tea Party stronghold. As Jedediah Purdy put it in the New Republic, "Hochschild is fascinated by how people make sense of their lives. . . . [Her] attentive, detailed portraits . . . reveal a gulf between Hochchild's 'strangers in their own land' and a new elite." Already a favorite common read book in communities and on campuses across the country and called "humble and important" by David Brooks and "masterly" by Atul Gawande, Hochschild's book has been lauded by Noam Chomsky, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, and countless others. The paperback edition features a new afterword by the author reflecting on the election of Donald Trump and the other events that have unfolded both in Louisiana and around the country since the hardcover edition was published, and also includes a readers' group guide at the back of the book. |
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From a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist specializing in the Middle East, this groundbreaking account of the Syrian Civil War reveals the never-before-published true story of a 21st-century humanitarian disaster. In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising -- an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis. Assad or We Burn the Country examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged in Bashar's bloody quest to preserve his father's inheritance. By drawing on his own reporting experience in Damascus and exclusive interviews with Tlass, Dagher takes readers within palace walls to reveal the family behind the destruction of a country and the chaos of an entire region. Dagher shows how one of the world's most vicious police states came to be and explains how a regional conflict extended globally, engulfing the Middle East and pitting the United States and Russia against one another. Timely, propulsive, and expertly reported, Assad or We Burn the Country is the definitive account of this global crisis, going far beyond the news story that has dominated headlines for years. |
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An “essential and riveting” (Jonathan Haidt) analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of power and influence, revealing how the machinery that powered the Big Lie works to create bespoke realities revolutionizing politics, culture, and society. Renée DiResta’s powerful, original investigation into the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed reveals how a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists increasingly shapes public opinion. While propagandists position themselves as trustworthy Davids, their reach, influence, and economics make them classic Goliaths—invisible rulers who create bespoke realities to revolutionize politics, culture, and society. Their work is driven by a simple maxim: if you make it trend, you make it true.   By revealing the machinery and dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta vividly illustrates the way propagandists deliberately undermine belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make society work. This alternate system for shaping public opinion, unexamined until now, is rewriting the relationship between the people and their government in profound ways. It has become a force so shockingly effective that its destructive power seems limitless. Scientific proof is powerless in front of it. Democratic validity is bulldozed by it. Leaders are humiliated by it. But they need not be.   With its deep insight into the power of propagandists to drive online crowds into battle—while bearing no responsibility for the consequences— Invisible Rulers not only predicts those consequences but offers ways for leaders to rapidly adapt and fight back.     |
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"A much needed wake-up call that China assumes that it is open season on Americans." —Victor Davis Hanson "There is a Red Storm rising in the East—and America is already under assault from the Chinese Communist Party." —Lou Dobbs “THE EAST IS RISING AND THE WEST IS DECLINING” —Xi Jinping, 2020 Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chairman of the Central Military Commission and the president of the People's Republic of China, wants to shape the world in China’s image, and in his conception of the world there is no place for the United States or even the current international order. Noted China analyst Gordon G. Chang warns that Xi Jinping believes he must destroy America to accomplish his objectives. And that Xi already has a plan to do it! Xi reveres Mao and is marching China back to Maoism. He is reinstituting totalitarian social controls, demanding absolute political obedience from everyone, and cutting foreign links. Closing China off from the world is an essential element of his plan to save the communist system. His isolationism and xenophobia evoke policies from the earliest years of the People’s Republic and during the two millennia of imperial rule. And Xi can’t stop talking about war. More significantly, he is implementing the largest military buildup since the Second World War, he is trying to sanctions-proof the Chinese regime, he is stockpiling grain and other commodities, he is surveying America for strikes and sabotage, he is mobilizing China’s civilians for battle, and he is purging China’s military of officers opposed to going to war. While America’s elite thinks their country is at peace, China’s regime is waging its brand of war. The Chinese regime has deliberately killed Americans in great numbers this century—with disease and in other ways—and it has a plan to destroy America. The communist party-state in fact believes it must eliminate the United States to ensure its own survival. And to accomplish its goals, the regime is now fast mobilizing to go to war. China is preparing to plunge the world into conflict. In PLAN RED: China's Project to Destroy America, Chang argues: China’s campaign against America excludes nothing and uses every point of contact with American society to destroy it. China has been attacking America from inside America! China’s penetration of American society has been so thorough that the Communist Party has been able to kill Americans with impunity Xi turned an in-country epidemic into a once-in-a-century pandemic. This is the first time in history that one nation has attacked all the others. The Communist Party is using all its resources to support criminal activity in America, and Americans are dying as a direct result of those activities. Xi Jinping’s China is preparing to go to war. Not just “unrestricted war” or political war but “hot war” or “kinetic war,” in other words, war as Americans see it in the movies. And China’s regime is planning to kill Americans in even greater numbers. It is marching the country to war. Americans, in the triumphalist mood after the fall of the Soviet Union, thought they should establish contacts with China. Now, the Chinese regime uses every point of contact against America, and at the moment the regime is overwhelming American institutions. The FBI is being overwhelmed, local law enforcement is being overwhelmed, governments at all levels are being overwhelmed, and private organizations are being overwhelmed. After more than three decades of intensive “engagement,” it is clear Washington’s generous approach has failed. America has not changed China, as everyone now realizes; China has changed America. Chang believes it is time to take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook and work to bring down the enemy: the Communist Party. The Communist Party often talks about “win-win” solutions, but as its actions make clear, it believes there can be only one survivor, either the People’s Republic of China or the United... |
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“Immigration is now front-page news, and to grasp the background of current issues this is the book to read.” —David Reimers, author of Unwanted Strangers: American Identity and the Turn Against Immigration As renowned historian Roger Daniels shows in this brilliant new work, America’s inconsistent, often illogical, and always cumbersome immigration policy has profoundly affected our recent past. The federal government’s efforts to pick and choose among the multitude of immigrants seeking to enter the United States began with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Conceived in ignorance and falsely presented to the public, it had undreamt of consequences, and this pattern has been rarely deviated from since. Immigration policy in Daniels’ skilled hands shows Americans at their best and worst, from the nativist violence that forced Theodore Roosevelt’s 1907 “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japan to the generous refugee policies adopted after World War Two and throughout the Cold War. And in a conclusion drawn from today’s headlines, Daniels makes clear how far ignorance, partisan politics, and unintended consequences have overtaken immigration policy. Irreverent, deeply informed, and authoritative, Guarding the Golden Door presents an unforgettable interpretation of modern American history. “Engaging and lively.” — Publishers Weekly “As Americans continue to debate immigration in a world divided by international terrorism, few books offer a fuller context for the key issues.” — Booklist “A powerful and provocative argument about why the United States has remained an immigrant country—and why it should stay one for its own benefit.” —Eric Rauchway, author of Murdering McKinley |
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Todd McGowan forges a new theory of capitalism as a system based on the production of more than what we need: pure excess. He argues that the promise of more —more wealth, more enjoyment, more opportunity, without requiring any sacrifice—is the essence of capitalism. Previous socioeconomic systems set up some form of the social good as their focus. Capitalism, however, represents a revolutionary turn away from the good and the useful toward excessive growth, which now threatens the habitability of the planet. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, McGowan shows how the production of commodities explains the role of excess in the workings of capitalism. Capitalism and the commodity ensnare us with the image of the constant fulfillment of our desires—the seductive but unattainable promise of satisfying a longing that has no end. To challenge this system, McGowan turns to art, arguing that it can expose the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate capitalist society and reveal the need for limits. Featuring lively writing and engaging examples from film, literature, and popular culture, Pure Excess uncovers the hidden logic of capitalism—and helps us envision a noncapitalist life in a noncapitalist society. |
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Political Chaos delves into the many different elements that make up a successful Presidency, and details the many failures we are seeing today. We look into the core issues, showcase how decision making, policy, and image all add or subtract from the polling numbers a President is given. Political Chaos, Creation of Disaster, tears open the veil of secrecy that is designed to hide the truth, and misinform the masses. Political Chaos is designed to inform the reader, enlighten all levels of political interest, and leave a wider perspective. A straight forward read that highlights where we have come off the tracks, and are headed for a bigger disaster than originally created. The reader will be taken on an informative journey, and in the end, be shown how in so many ways we are chasing chaos. |
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'David Omand is exactly the man you need in a crisis' RORY STEWART From the former Director of GCHQ comes a guide to surviving crises using the latest intelligence strategies War, terrorism, cyberattack, climate change, the threat of AI: it has never been more important to be prepared for the crises that await us. In How to Survive a Crisis , Professor Sir David Omand draws on his experience in defence, security and intelligence, including as Director of GCHQ and UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, to show how you can detect a looming crisis and extinguish it (or at least survive it with minimum loss). Using gripping real-world examples from Omand's storied career, and drawing lessons from historic catastrophes such as Chernobyl, 9/11, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, this empowering book is filled with practical advice on how to survive the multiplying crises of the future. Not every crisis need tip into disaster, if we have invested in we are prepared for it. 'This book is the instruction manual we all need' SIR ALEX YOUNGER, CHIEF OF MI6 UPDATED WITH A NEW FOREWORD |
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« L’État islamique, qui terrorise l’Orient et menace l’Occident, est la créature de Bachar al Assad, son meilleur allié, son alibi auprès de la communauté internationale. Celui utilisé pour martyriser tout un peuple. » Après plus de trois ans d’enquête en Syrie, depuis le 15 mars 2011 et le début de la révolte pacifique syrienne, c’est la conclusion à laquelle est arrivée Sofia Amara, l’une des seules journalistes à avoir pu pénétrer dans le pays à cette période. Très vite, elle comprend l’ampleur du désastre qui est en train de se jouer. Des actes de torture les plus ignobles à la djihadisation de la rébellion, grâce à ce récit haletant, Sofia Amara nous aide à mieux comprendre les enjeux de la guerre civile syrienne et espère alerter l’opinion internationale sur la plus sanguinaire des révolutions du Printemps arabe. |
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"Of all the books on democracy in recent years one of the best is James Miller’s Can Democracy Work? . . . Miller provides an intelligent journey through the turbulent past of this great human experiment in whether we can actually govern ourselves." —David Blight, The Guardian A new history of the world’s most embattled idea Today, democracy is the world’s only broadly accepted political system, and yet it has become synonymous with disappointment and crisis. How did it come to this? In Can Democracy Work? James Miller, the author of the classic history of 1960s protest Democracy Is in the Streets , offers a lively, surprising, and urgent history of the democratic idea from its first stirrings to the present. As he shows, democracy has always been rife with inner tensions. The ancient Greeks preferred to choose leaders by lottery and regarded elections as inherently corrupt and undemocratic. The French revolutionaries sought to incarnate the popular will, but many of them came to see the people as the enemy. And in the United States, the franchise would be extended to some even as it was taken from others. Amid the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century, communists, liberals, and nationalists all sought to claim the ideals of democracy for themselves—even as they manifestly failed to realize them. Ranging from the theaters of Athens to the tents of Occupy Wall Street, Can Democracy Work? is an entertaining and insightful guide to our most cherished—and vexed—ideal. |
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The knockdown, drag-out, untold story of the other scandal that rocked Nixon’s White House, and reset the rules for crooked presidents to come—with new reporting that expands on Rachel Maddow’s Peabody Award–nominated podcast “Both a thriller and a history book, Bag Man is a triumph of storytelling.”—Preet Bharara, New York Times bestselling author of Doing Justice and host of the podcast Stay Tuned with Preet Is it possible for a sitting vice president to direct a vast criminal enterprise within the halls of the White House? To have one of the most brazen corruption scandals in American history play out while nobody’s paying attention? And for that scandal to be all but forgotten decades later? The year was 1973, and Spiro T. Agnew, the former governor of Maryland, was Richard Nixon’s second-in-command. Long on firebrand rhetoric and short on political experience, Agnew had carried out a bribery and extortion ring in office for years, when—at the height of Watergate—three young federal prosecutors discovered his crimes and launched a mission to take him down before it was too late, before Nixon’s impending downfall elevated Agnew to the presidency. The self-described “counterpuncher” vice president did everything he could to bury their investigation: dismissing it as a “witch hunt,” riling up his partisan base, making the press the enemy, and, with a crumbling circle of loyalists, scheming to obstruct justice in order to survive. In this blockbuster account, Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz detail the investigation that exposed Agnew’s crimes, the attempts at a cover-up—which involved future president George H. W. Bush—and the backroom bargain that forced Agnew’s resignation but also spared him years in federal prison. Based on the award-winning hit podcast, Bag Man expands and deepens the story of Spiro Agnew’s scandal and its lasting influence on our politics, our media, and our understanding of what it takes to confront a criminal in the White House. |
