In this World War II military history, Rommel's army is a day from Cairo, a week from Tel Aviv, and the SS is ready for action. Espionage brought the Nazis this far, but espionage can stop them―if Washington wakes up to the danger. As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led his Axis army swiftly and terrifyingly toward Alexandria, with the goal of overrunning the entire Middle East. Each step was informed by detailed updates on British positions. The Nazis, somehow, had a source for the Allies' greatest secrets. Yet the Axis powers were not the only ones with intelligence. Brilliant Allied cryptographers worked relentlessly at Bletchley Park, breaking down the extraordinarily complex Nazi code Enigma. From decoded German messages, they discovered that the enemy had a wealth of inside information. On the brink of disaster, a fevered and high-stakes search for the source be
The Civil War may have ended on the battlefield, but the fight over democracy never did.In 1865, the Confederacy was comprehensively militarily defeated, its economy shattered, its leaders in exile or in jail. Yet in the years that followed, Lincoln’s vision of a genuinely united country never took root. Apart from a few brief months, when the presence of the Union army in the South proved liberating for newly freed Black Americans, the victory was squandered. Old white supremacist habits returned, more ferocious than before.In Civil War by Other Means, Jeremi Suri shows how resistance to a more equal Union began immediately. From the first postwar riots to the return of Confederate exiles to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson to the highly contested and consequential election of 1876, Suri explores the conflicts and questions Americans wrestled with as competing visions of democracy, race, and freedom came to a vicious breaking point. What emerges is a vivid, and at times unsettling, p
A professor of law and technology at the University of San Diego offers a contrarian and optimistic argument that AI, robotics, and digital platforms can be used as a tool to help achieve equality. The Equality Machine ignites a deeply informed, aggressively researched conversation about the path to digital era equality. From closing the gender pay gap to exposing and correcting biases in hiring and marketing, tracking and preventing workplace harassment and diversifying the cultural images and voices we see and hear online, to increasing the privacy and safety of women and girls, artificial intelligence, big data, and digital platforms can offer a positive path towards a better future. This book presents a vision, a blueprint, and a call to action: despite its risks and flaws, digitization can and must become a powerful force for good -- for fairness, inclusion, and equality. Through wise implementation of new technology, we can implement a more equal market. This book offers new insi
The future of the American economy is hiding in an unlikely place: a new, reinvented manufacturing sector.It's easy to name the companies that have dominated the stock market over the past ten years. Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook--these are all among the best-performing stocks over a decade or more. But here's a company that has performed just as well: HEICO. Or what about Trex? Ever heard of Casella? Or Graco?These lesser known companies are all part of a sector known as industrial tech, and together they offer a surprisingly bright future not just to investors but to workers as well as our broader communities. Their products include aerospace parts, color enamels, and recycled plastic lumber; things consumers don't necessarily buy but which we all rely on for the functioning of our economy. And it turns out it's a booming business.In The Titanium Economy, McKinsey partners Asutosh Padhi, Gaurav Batra, and Nick Santhanam reveal this little-understood, under-appreciated and
A call-to-arms about the broken nature of artificial intelligence, and the powerful corporations that are turning the human-machine relationship on its head. We like to think that we are in control of
A creative and fun smorgasbord of economics through the lens of food from one of today’s foremost thinkerWhat can the anchovy tell us about industrialization? How can we understand inequality through chicken or the welfare state through rye? In Edible Economics, leading economist Ha-Joon Chang uses everyday food and ingredients to teach us about the most important economic issues of our time. Through familiar foods, from pasta to Coca-Cola to coffee, Chang weaves together impressive arguments and adds needed clarity to describe how our economies function and falter. With each ingredient, condiment or beverage, he constructs a vivid narrative that grapples with the most pressing concerns of our global markets, supply systems, and more. Through rich anecdotes and surprising histories, Chang shows us how acorns can prove that culture is not as important as we think in determining economic outcomes or how milk contradicts the notion that competition is the only way to ensure economic
The beloved author of The Revenge of Analog lays out a case for a human future--not the false technological utopia we've been living.For years, consumers have been promised a simple, carefree digital future. We could live, work, learn, and play from the comforts of our homes, and have whatever we desire brought to our door with the flick of a finger. Instant communication would bring us together. Technological convenience would give us more time to focus on what really mattered.When the pandemic hit, that future transformed into the present, almost overnight. And the reviews aren't great. It turns out that leaving the house is underrated, instant communication spreads anger better than joy, and convenience takes away time rather than giving it to us. Oops.But as David Sax argues in this insightful book, we've also had our eyes opened. There is nothing about the future that has to be digital, and embracing the reality of human experience doesn't mean resisting change. In chapters explor
The first investigative look into the medical miracle that has also become an unregulated, lucrative industry patronized by desperate would-be parents--by a journalist who has experienced first-hand b
David Hoffman, former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post, sheds light onto the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs. Focusing on six of these ruthless men Hoffman
Delivers a gripping history of the world's most pilfered masterpiece--Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Alterpiece," treasured for its central panel, "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"--which has been looted in t
Alzheimer's Disease is the second most-feared illness in America, following cancer. It affects as many as 5 million Americans, a number that could soar to 16 million by 2050. It is estimated that, unl
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of a transport revolution that would forever transform the way we live. Blood, Iron, and Gold takes us on a journey en
Everywhere in America, the forces of digitization, innovation, and personalization are expanding our options and bettering the way we live. Everywhere, that is, except in our politics. There we are h
It may "take a village to raise a child," but most American families are struggling, with diminishing social support, to do the job on their own. While parents work longer hours for less and the cost
Airpower, more than any other factor, has shaped war in the twentieth century. In this fascinating narrative history, Martin van Creveld vividly portrays the rise of the plane as a tool of war and th
The 1970s were a theme park of mass paranoia. Strange Days Indeed tells the story of the decade when a distinctive “paranoid style” emerged and seemed to infect all areas of both private
In early 2009, many economists, financiers, and media pundits were confidently predicting the end of the American-led capitalism that has shaped history and economics for the past 100 years. Yet the
In this newly updated book, C-SPAN provides a comprehensive guide to the final resting places of our nation’s presidents. As much about the presidents' lives as it is about their burial sites and how
At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. An
