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During the Cold War, stories of espionage became popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain, capturing the imagination of readers and filmgoers alike as secret police quietly engaged in surveillance under the shroud of impenetrable secrecy. And curiously, in the post¿Cold War period there are no signs of this enthusiasm diminishing. The opening of secret police archives in many Eastern European countries has provided the opportunity to excavate and narrate for the first time forgotten spy stories. Cold War Spy Stories from Eastern Europe brings together a wide range of accounts compiled from the East German Stasi, the Romanian Securitate, and the Ukrainian KGB files. The stories are a complex amalgam of fact and fiction, history and imagination, past and present. These stories of collusion and complicity, betrayal and treason, right and wrong, and good and evil cast surprising new light on the question of Cold War certainties and divides.   Purchase the audio edition.

Second edition of the profile of the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy and interrogation of the political motives and context of the event. New introduction contains interviews and new evidence.

Over the past couple of decades in America, the enduring, complicated divides of ideology, geography, party, class, religion, and race mutated into something deeper and more ominous. America now houses two distinct tribes, generally balanced in political power, fighting not just to advance their own side, but also to poke, prod, and defeat the other. The opposition between these tribes drowns out their love of country, each side scanning current events to advance their tribe¿s aims and narrative rather than the nation¿s. Recent survey data provides troubling evidence that Americans of both political parties sense the unraveling of a broadly shared consensus of American identity, and about seven in ten Republicans and Democrats fear that the United States is losing its national identity. Our country has lost its ¿story¿ ¿ the narrative that unites us around a common multi-generational project and gives an overarching sense of meaning and purpose to our history. Too often modern American history and political commentary ignores a grand narrative and instead focuses on a series of power conflicts between oppressor and oppressed. With contributions from leading thinkers drawing on expertise within their fields, Our American Story: The Search for a Shared National Narrative, edited by Joshua Claybourn, offers a series of essays providing a framework for the American story. Drawing on their backgrounds as lawyer, historians, and public officials, each contributor will approach it with a unique perspective. Our American Story seeks to feature provocative essays taking up the arduous task of weaving a new national narrative in which all Americans can see themselves.

A chronological narrative of the CIA's assassination operations during the Kennedy Administration.

Drawing on government and private World War II archives, Cartron gives the first detailed account of the only failed mission of the smuggler Charbonnier-when 29 Allied soldiers in a group of 35 were captured on their way to freedom over the French Pyrenees.

Our national security increasingly depends on access to the most sophisticated and advanced technology. Yet, the next time we set out to capture a terrorist leader we may fail. Why? The answer lies in a conflict between two ¿worlds.¿ One is the dynamic, global, commercial world with its thriving innovation landscape. The other is the world of national security, in which innovation is a matter of life or death. The conflict is about secrecy. Innovating in a Secret World is a detailed examination of the U.S. government and innovation landscapes and the current trends in national security-related research and development (R&D), so often secret. Author and researcher Srivastava evaluates whether the execution of technology innovation strategy in that world is unintentionally leaving certain innovations behind or is unintentionally precluding certain classes of innovators from participating. She identifies the unintended consequences and emergent behaviors that result. This unfolds in a complex, dynamic system that includes the legal framework in which technology innovation must exist. Srivastava suggests an emerging class of R&D strategy called open innovation¿a strategy that pertains to broadening participation in innovation beyond an individual organization or division traditionally assigned to perform R&D activities. Through compelling stories of commercial and early government applications, Srivastava shows how open technology innovation strategies are promising and potentially advantageous in enabling, accelerating, and enhancing technology innovation. If open innovation could be successfully applied to closed U.S. government R&D, the benefits to national security and global leadership would be profound.

Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr. returned to the White House on May 3, 1973, to find the Nixon administration in worse shape than he had imagined. President Richard Nixon, re-elected in an overwhelming landslide just six months earlier, had accepted the resignations of his top aides - Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman¿just three days earlier. Haldeman and Ehrlichman had enforced the president¿s will and protected him from his rivals and his worst instincts for four years. Without them, Nixon stood alone, backed by a staff that lacked gravitas and confidence in the wake of the snowballing Watergate scandal. Nixon needed a savior, someone who would lift his fortunes while keeping his White House from blowing apart. Nixon hoped that savior would be his deputy national security adviser, Alexander Haig. Nixon, for whom Haig claimed he was fighting, was undermined by the man he most counted on to help him. Haig provided little of the loyalty Nixon had received from Haldeman and Ehrlichman, and Nixon¿s presidency and legacy suffered for it. Haig¿s job was not to keep Nixon in office, it was to remove him. In Haig¿s Coup, Ray Locker uses recently declassified documents, oral histories, and a private trove of research on Nixon and Haig to tell the true story of how Haig orchestrated Nixon¿s demise, resignation, and subsequent pardon. A story of intrigues, cover-ups and treachery, Haig's Coup shows how Haig engineered what has been called the "soft coup" that removed Nixon while allowing Haig to save himself.

A Civil War-era fight between father and son, divided by the conflict, and the prison conditions of the period are investigated in relation to deep research in this return from the author of "The Confederate Dirty War".

Brooke King has been asked over and over what it¿s like to be a woman in combat, but she knows her answer is not what the public wants to hear. The answers people seek lie in the graphic details of war¿the sex, death, violence, and reality of it all as she experienced it. In her riveting memoir War Flower, King breaks her silence and reveals the truth about her experience as a soldier in Iraq. Find out what happens when the sex turns into secret affairs, the violence is turned up to eleven, and how King¿s feelings for a country she knew nothing about as a nineteen-year-old become more disturbing to her as a thirty-year-old mother writing it all down before her memories fade into oblivion. The story of a girl who went to war and returned home a woman, War Flower gathers the enduring remembrances of a soldier coming to grips with post-traumatic stress disorder. As King recalls her time in Iraq, she reflects on what violence does to a woman and how the psychic wounds of combat are unwittingly passed down from mother to children. War Flower is ultimately a profound meditation on what it means to have been a woman in a war zone and an unsettling exposé on war and its lingering aftershocks. For veterans such as King, the toughest lesson of service is that in the mind, some wars never end¿even after you come home.  Purchase the audio edition.

Bold Venture tells an important and riveting untold wartime story of the American airmen who flew combat missions over Hong Kong during the Second World War. Steven K. Bailey sheds light on a key narrative about a larger American campaign against Japanese forces throughout occupied China. Bailey begins with the discovery of an unexploded one-thousand-pound bomb in Hong Kong in 2014, which unfolds a rich history of American heavy bombers in World War II. As Bailey fills in the missing gaps of these heavy bombers¿ role in World War II, he reveals the story behind the American air raids and the airmen who were eventually shot down over Hong Kong. Bold Venture¿s exploration of World War II and its aftermath in Hong Kong goes into detail about the British civilians and soldiers who were released from prison and repatriated, and a U.S. military investigative team¿s recovery of the remains of the crew of Bold Venture, the B-25 that went down in Hong Kong in March 1945. Today unexploded aircraft bombs are unearthed with frightening regularity by construction crews in Hong Kong. Residents are eager to know where these bombs originated, who dropped them, when they dropped them, and what--or who--the targets were. Bailey¿s account helps answer some of these questions and also provides a unique historical perspective for Americans seeking to understand our contemporary military context and the complexities of foreign military involvement.

Shattered Minds is the first book to investigate how American military bureaucracies have let our troops down by failing to upgrade one of the most important pieces of personal safety equipment - the combat helmet. Two longtime employees of North Dakota defense contractor Sioux Manufacturing discovered that the required density of the Kevlar material woven into netting of combat helmets was being shorted. After bringing their discovery to the attention of management, rather than cleaning up the illegal practice, their boss accused them of stealing company secrets and having an adulterous affair. Both employees were fired, leading to a lawsuit and a judgment they won in court which eventually brought the company¿s bad faith practices to light. Around the same time, a separate whistleblower, retired Navy doctor Robert Meaders, was pulled into a bizarre and irrational struggle with Army and Marine bureaucracies when he found out from his Marine grandson that the protective webbing inside the military helmets provided to troops was inadequate. Why was the military so resistant to upgrading its combat equipment, the most essential gear used to protect from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) that plagues soldiers long after their days of combat? By interweaving these two sets of whistleblowers¿ stories, authors Robert Bauman and Dina Rasor explain why the military, despite news coverage with revelations about these whistleblowers' personal efforts, continued to do the indefensible. Using their combined 85 years of knowledge covering and investigating the Pentagon, the authors try to explain why such a betrayal of our troops has persisted. They also offer information on how the public, press, and military departments can fix the problem and give U.S. troops a better helmet that will help them survive their service to the United States of America.

On August 6, 1974, a bomb exploded at Los Angeles International Airport, killing three people and injuring thirty-five others. It was the first time an airport had been bombed anywhere in the world. A few days later, police recovered a cassette tape containing a chilling message: “This first bomb was marked with the letter A, which stands for Airport,” said a voice. “The second bomb will be associated with the letter L, the third with the letter I, etc., until our name has been written on the face of this nation in blood.” In The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Terrorist Ahead of His Time, internationally renowned terrorism expert Jeffrey D. Simon tells the gripping tale of Muharem Kurbegovic, a bright but emotionally disturbed Yugoslav immigrant who single-handedly brought Los Angeles to a standstill during the summer of 1974. He had conjured up the fictitious group “Aliens of America,” but it was soon discovered that he acted alone in a one-man war against government and society. The story of the Alphabet Bomber is about an extraordinary manhunt to find an elusive killer, a dogged prosecutor determined to bring him to justice, a pioneering female judge, and a devious mastermind whose heinous crimes foreshadowed the ominous threats we face today from lone wolf terrorists.

Common Cause provides a nuanced look at the home-front atmosphere that existed in parts of the United States before and during the Great War, exploring themes of patriotism, jingoism, and exclusion. An introduction and explanatory notes by John Maxwell Hamilton and Amy Solomon Whitehead provide context.

Between the grinding battles of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa and the finality of the atomic bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. Air Force conducted a bombing campaign against the Japanese home islands that escalated to new levels of destruction. Burning Japan is an investigation of how and why the air force shifted its tactics against Japan from a precision bombing strategy to area attacks. The guiding doctrine of the 1930s and 1940s called for focused attacks on specific targets deep behind enemy lines. Eager to prove itself, the nascent Army Air Force at first lauded the indispensability of strategic bombardment in areas otherwise unreachable by the army or navy. But when strategic bombing failed to yield the desired results in Europe and in initial efforts against Japan, the United States switched tactics, a shift that culminated in the area firebombing of nearly every major Japanese metropolis and the burning of sixty-six cities to the ground.  Daniel T. Schwabe closely examines the planning and implementation of these incendiary missions to determine how an organization dedicated to precision decided on such a dramatic change in tactics. Ultimately, Schwabe maintains, this strategic reimagining helped create a comprehensive offensive strategy that did immense amounts of destruction which crippled Japan and brought an end to World War II.

World War I has long captured the macabre imagination for the seemingly willful manner in which nations sent their young men to die in droves while fighting over essentially the same patch of land for four long years.

In the wake of 9/11, policy analysts, journalists, and academics have tried to make sense of the rise of militant Islam, particularly its role as a motivating and legitimating force for violence against the United States. The general perception is that Islam is more violence-prone than other religions and that scripture and beliefs within the faith, such as the doctrines of jihad and martyrdom, demonstrate the inherently violent nature of Islam. Here, however, Heather Selma Gregg draws comparisons across religious traditions to investigate common causes of religious violence. The author sets side-by-side examples of current and historic Islamic violence with similar acts by Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu adherents. Based on her findings, Gregg challenges the assumption that religious violence stems from a faith's scriptures. Instead, Gregg argues that religious violence is the result of interpretations of a religion's beliefs and scriptures. Interpretations calling for violence in the name of a faith are the product of individuals, but it is important to understand the conditions under which these violent interpretations of a religion occur. These conditions must be considered by identifying who is interpreting the religion and by what authority; the social, political, and economic circumstances surrounding these violent interpretations; and the believability of these interpretations by members of religious communities.

Since the age of Alexander the Great, waves of foreign armies have invaded the Middle East and South Asia to plunder their vast treasures. In Imperial Designs, Deepak Tripathi offers a powerful and unique analysis of how this volatile region has endured the manipulation and humiliation of such wars. He argues that these foreign invasions to gain access to others' wealth and the consequent ignominy of the defeated peoples of the regions have had far-reaching consequences. Over the centuries, again and again, the conquered peoples have been left helpless, their shame on display. The victims' collective frustration has strengthened their will to resist and avenge the wrongs done to them--all according to their own values and in their own time. Displaying a keen awareness of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, Tripathi argues that this enduring theme resonates throughout the region's history and informs the present. Referring to declassified official documents and scholarly works, Imperial Designs offers an authoritative analysis of Middle Eastern history since World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Scholars, policymakers, and concerned citizens should read this book, for it tells us how the shame of defeat radicalizes nations and societies, and often makes future conflict inevitable.

Since the founding of professional baseball, few teams have risen above years of mediocrity only to see their fortunes interrupted by war and tragedy. In the early twentieth century, one team rallied to claim first place and then won a world's championship in a most spectacular style that has yet to be replicated.

All over the world, soccer is known as "the Beautiful Game" and is the most popular sport. But in the United States, professional soccer still has a hard time catching on. It has had some successes here.

This first-ever anthology of the war reporting and commentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg is drawn from more than four decades of reporting at home and abroad for the New York Times, Newsday, the Village Voice, and various magazines.

Evolution has long shaped human behavior. Yet just recently have we learned that evolution based on natural selection is not the continuous process Darwin assumed. It is instead a two-part process of change and stability called punctuated equilibrium, with natural selection operating mainly on the frontiers of change.

Tall, handsome, charming Col. Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967) was an acclaimed British war hero, a secret agent, and a dean of international ornithology. His exploits inspired three biographies, movies have been based on his life, and a square in Jerusalem is dedicated to his memory.

One failure of 9/11 that has not received the attention it deserves is the inadequacy of the US and international network of financial transparency reporting requirements to detect terrorist finance. This book provides an insight into the workings of the intelligence and law enforcement communities.

Given recent experiences with terrorism, clearly even the most democratic societies have a legitimate need for secrecy. This secrecy has often been abused, however, and strong oversight systems are necessary to protect individual liberties.

John M. Collins has distilled the wisdom of history's great military minds to tutor readers on the necessary intellectual skills to win not only battles but also wars. He illuminates practices that worked well or poorly in the past, together with reasons why.

Cybersexism is rampant and can exact an astonishingly high cost. In some cases, the final result is suicide. Bullying, stalking, and trolling are just the beginning. Extreme examples such as GamerGate get publicized, but otherwise the online abuse of women is largely underreported. Haters combines a history of online sexism with suggestions for solutions. Using current events and the latest available research into cybersexism, Bailey Poland questions the motivations behind cybersexist activities and explores methods to reduce footprints of Internet misogyny, drawing parallels between online and offline abuse. By exploring the cases of Alyssa Funke, Rehtaeh Parsons, Audrie Pott, Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and others, and her personal experiences with sexism, Poland develops a compelling method of combating sexism online.