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The Collapse - Mary Elise Sarotte - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Collapse - Mary Elise Sarotte - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

"An authoritative and fast-moving account of the events that led up to the Wall''s demise." -- Financial Times On November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall-the infamous symbol of a divided Cold War Europe--seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates was not planned by the East German ruling regime--nor was it the result of a bargain between either President Ronald Reagan or President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse , prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist''s eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, and Leipzig and on to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall

DKK 163.00
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Pricing the Future - George Szpiro - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Pricing the Future - George Szpiro - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Options have been traded for hundreds of years, but investment decisions were based on gut feelings until the Nobel Prize -- winning discovery of the Black-Scholes options pricing model in 1973 ushered in the era of the "quants." Wall Street would never be the same. In Pricing the Future , financial economist George G. Szpiro tells the fascinating stories of the pioneers of mathematical finance who conducted the search for the elusive options pricing formula. From the broker''s assistant who published the first mathematical explanation of financial markets to Albert Einstein and other scientists who looked for a way to explain the movement of atoms and molecules, Pricing the Future retraces the historical and intellectual developments that ultimately led to the widespread use of mathematical models to drive investment strategies on Wall Street.

DKK 388.00
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The Wizards Of Langley - Jeffrey T Richelson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Wizards Of Langley - Jeffrey T Richelson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

In this, the first full-length study of the Directorate of Science and Technology, Jeffrey T. Richelson walks us down the corridors of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and through the four decades of science, scientists, and managers that produced the CIA we have today. He tells a story of amazing technological innovation in service of intelligence gathering, of bitter bureaucratic infighting, and sometimes, as in the case of its "mind-control" adventure, of stunning moral failure. Based on original interviews and extensive archival research, The Wizards of Langley turns a piercing lamp on many of the agency''s activities, many never before made public.

DKK 289.00
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Alone Together - Sherry Turkle - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Alone Together - Sherry Turkle - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A groundbreaking book by one of the most important thinkers of our time shows how technology is warping our social lives and our inner ones Technology has become the architect of our intimacies. Online, we fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of Twitter and Facebook friends, and confusing tweets and wall posts with authentic communication. But this relentless connection leads to a deep solitude. MIT professor Sherry Turkle argues that as technology ramps up, our emotional lives ramp down. Based on hundreds of interviews and with a new introduction taking us to the present day, Alone Together describes changing, unsettling relationships between friends, lovers, and families.

DKK 165.00
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Tales Of The Lavender Menace - Karla Jay - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Tales Of The Lavender Menace - Karla Jay - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Karla Jay''s memoir of an age whose tumultuous social and political movements fundamentally reshaped American culture takes readers from her early days in the 1968 Columbia University student riots to her post-college involvement in New York radical women''s groups and the New York Gay Liberation Front to Southern California in the early ''70s, where she continued in the battle for gay civil rights. We see here helping to organize the takeover of The Ladies Home Journal and "ogle-ins" -- where women staked out Wall Street and whistled at the men. We follow her in the fast lane of the sexual freedom movement as she liberates sun worshippers from their bathing suits.

DKK 182.00
1

Coyote America - Dan Flores - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Coyote America - Dan Flores - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The New York Times best-selling account of how coyotes--long the target of an extermination policy--spread to every corner of the United States Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A masterly synthesis of scientific research and personal observation." - Wall Street Journal Legends don't come close to capturing the incredible story of the coyote. In the face of centuries of campaigns of annihilation employing gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Alaska to New York. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won, hands-down. Coyote America is the illuminating five-million-year biography of this extraordinary animal, from its origins to its apotheosis. It is one of the great epics of our time.

DKK 172.00
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How to Listen to Jazz - Ted Gioia - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

How to Listen to Jazz - Ted Gioia - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A "radiantly accomplished" music scholar presents an accessible introduction to the art of listening to jazz ( Wall Street Journal ) In How to Listen to Jazz , award-winning music scholar Ted Gioia presents a lively introduction to one of America''s premier art forms. He tells us what to listen for in a performance and includes a guide to today''s leading jazz musicians. From Louis Armstrong''s innovative sounds to the jazz-rock fusion of Miles Davis, Gioia covers the music''s history and reveals the building blocks of improvisation. A true love letter to jazz by a foremost expert, How to Listen to Jazz is a must-read for anyone who''s ever wanted to understand and better appreciate America''s greatest contribution to music."Mr. Gioia could not have done a better job. Through him, jazz might even find new devotees." -- Economist

DKK 163.00
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The Ledger and the Chain - Joshua D. Rothman - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Ledger and the Chain - Joshua D. Rothman - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

An award-winning historian’s “searing" ( Wall Street Journal ) account of America's internal slave trade—and its role in the making of America Slave traders are peripheral figures in most histories of American slavery. But these men—who trafficked and sold over half a million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South—were essential to slavery's expansion and fueled the growth and prosperity of the United States. In The Ledger and the Chain , acclaimed historian Joshua D. Rothman recounts the shocking story of the domestic slave trade by tracing the lives and careers of Isaac Franklin, John Armfield, and Rice Ballard, who built the largest and most powerful slave-trading operation in American history. Far from social outcasts, they were rich and widely respected businessmen, and their company sat at the center of capital flows connecting southern fields to northeastern banks. Bringing together entrepreneurial ambition and remorseless violence toward enslaved people, domestic slave traders produced an atrocity that forever transformed the nation.

DKK 172.00
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The Second World Wars - Victor Davis Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Second World Wars - Victor Davis Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A "breathtakingly magisterial" account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian ( Wall Street Journal ) World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya. The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, bestselling author Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory. An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history's deadliest conflict.

DKK 242.00
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Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid - Thor Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid - Thor Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

*A New York Times Editor's Choice pick *Shortlisted for the 2022 Pacific Northwest Book Awards A beloved natural historian explores how climate change is driving evolution In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid , biologist Thor Hanson tells the remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out. Anole lizards have grown larger toe pads, to grip more tightly in frequent hurricanes. Warm waters have caused the development of Humboldt squid to alter so dramatically that fishermen mistake them for different species. Brown pelicans have moved north, and long-spined sea urchins south, to find cooler homes. And when coral reefs sicken, they leave no territory worth fighting for, so aggressive butterfly fish transform instantly into pacifists. A story of hope, resilience, and risk, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is natural history for readers of Bernd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David Haskell. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable climate change is as it interacts with the messy lattice of life.

DKK 187.00
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The Futures - Emily Lambert - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Futures - Emily Lambert - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

In The Futures , Emily Lambert, senior writer at Forbes magazine, tells us the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, which together comprised the original, most bustling futures market in the world. She details the emergence of the futures business as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers and its subsequent transformation into a sophisticated electronic market where contracts are traded at lightning-fast speeds. Lambert also details the disastrous effects of Wall Street''s adoption of the futures contract without the rules and close-knit social bonds that had made trading it in Chicago work so well. Ultimately Lambert argues that the futures markets are the real "free" markets and that speculators, far from being mere parasites, can serve a vital economic and social function given the right architecture. The traditional futures market, she explains, because of its written and cultural limits, can serve as a useful example for how markets ought to work and become a tonic for our current financial ills.

DKK 222.00
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A New World Begins - Jeremy D. Popkin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A New World Begins - Jeremy D. Popkin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

From an award-winning historian, a “vivid” ( Wall Street Journal ) account of the revolution that created the modern world The French Revolution’s principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society—even if, after more than two hundred years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins , Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror. Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stand as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution.

DKK 184.00
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Rothstein - David Pietrusza - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Rothstein - David Pietrusza - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

History remembers Arnold Rothstein as the man who fixed the 1919 World Series, an underworld genius. The real-life model for The Great Gatsby''s Meyer Wolfsheim and Nathan Detroit from Guys and Dolls, Rothstein was much more -- and less -- than a fixer of baseball games. He was everything that made 1920s Manhattan roar. Featuring Jazz Age Broadway with its thugs, speakeasies, showgirls, political movers and shakers, and stars of the Golden Age of Sports, this is a biography of the man who dominated an age. Arnold Rothstein was a loan shark, pool shark, bookmaker, thief, fence of stolen property, political fixer, Wall Street swindler, labor racketeer, rumrunner, and mastermind of the modern drug trade. Among his monikers were "The Big Bankroll," "The Brain," and "The Man Uptown." This vivid account of Rothstein''s life is also the story of con artists, crooked cops, politicians, gang lords, newsmen, speakeasy owners, gamblers and the like. Finally unraveling the mystery of Rothstein''s November 1928 murder in a Times Square hotel room, David Pietrusza has cemented The Big Bankroll''s place among the most influential and fascinating legendary American criminals. 16 pages of black-and-white photographs are featured.

DKK 276.00
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The End of Everything - Victor D Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The End of Everything - Victor D Hanson - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

An instant New York Times bestseller, this “profound book” ( Wall Street Journal ) charts how and why some societies chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. In The End of Everything , now with an extended conclusion, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again.

DKK 184.00
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The Affirmative Action Myth - Jason L Riley - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Affirmative Action Myth - Jason L Riley - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

From Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason L. Riley, a "clear, concise, and humane account" (Christina Hoff Sommers) of how racial preferences have done more harm than good for black Americans After the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the use of race in college admissions was unconstitutional, many predicted that the black middle class was doomed. One byproduct of a half century of affirmative action is that it has given people the impression that blacks can’t advance without special treatment. In The Affirmative Action Myth , Jason L. Riley details the neglected history of black achievement without government intervention. Using empirical data, Riley shows how black families lifted themselves out of poverty prior to the racial preference policies of the 1960s and 1970s. Black incomes, homeownership, and educational attainment were all on the rise in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and began to stagnate only after affirmative action became the law of the land, tainting black achievement with suspicions of unfair advantage. Countering thinkers who blame white supremacy and systemic racism for today’s racial gaps, Riley offers a more optimistic story of black success without racial favoritism.

DKK 225.00
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A Time to Build - Yuval Levin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A Time to Build - Yuval Levin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

“A moving call to recommit to the great project of our common life.” ( Wall Street Journal ) Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics are polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campuses, social media, and sometimes in the streets and public squares. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities. Left and right alike have responded with anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cancelling, defunding, draining the swamp. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription, rooted in a defective diagnosis. The social crisis we confront is defined not by an oppressive presence but by a debilitating absence of the forces that unite us and militate against alienation. In A Time to Build , now updated with a new epilogue, Levin argues that today is not a time to tear down, but rather to build and rebuild by committing ourselves to the institutions around us. From the military to churches, from families to schools, these institutions provide the forms and structures we need to be free. By taking concrete steps to help them be more trustworthy, we can renew the ties that bind Americans to one another.

DKK 165.00
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Blood Brothers - Randy Roberts - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Blood Brothers - Randy Roberts - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

An “engrossing and important book" ( Wall Street Journal ) that brings to life the fateful friendship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X, the most famous minister in the Nation of Islam, saw the potential in Clay, not just for boxing greatness, but as a means of spreading the Nation’s message. The two became fast friends, keeping their interactions secret from the press for fear of jeopardizing Clay’s career. Clay began living a double life—a patriotic “good negro” in public, and a radical reformer behind the scenes. Soon, however, their friendship would sour, with disastrous and far-reaching consequences. Based on previously untapped sources, from Malcolm’s personal papers to FBI records, Blood Brothers is the first book to offer an in-depth portrait of this complex bond. An extraordinary narrative of love and deep affection, as well as deceit, betrayal, and violence, this story is a window into the public and private lives of two of our greatest national icons, and the tumultuous period in American history that they helped to shape.

DKK 161.00
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South to Freedom - Alice L. Baumgartner - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

South to Freedom - Alice L. Baumgartner - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A “gripping and poignant” ( Wall Street Journal ) account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837. In South to Freedom , prize-winning historian Alice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery’s future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is an essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War. Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Winner of the California Book Award for Nonfiction Winner of the Caughey Western History Prize Winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prize Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Nonfiction Finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize Finalist for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Golden Poppy Award

DKK 163.00
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A History of American Sports in 100 Objects - Cait Murphy - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

A History of American Sports in 100 Objects - Cait Murphy - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Beautifully designed and carefully curated, a fascinating collection of the things that shaped the way we live and play in America What artifact best captures the spirit of American sports? The bat Babe Ruth used to hit his allegedly called shot, or the ball on which Pete Rose wrote, "I''m sorry I bet on baseball"? Could it be Lance Armstrong''s red-white-and-blue bike, now tarnished by doping and hubris? Or perhaps its ancestor, the nineteenth-century safety bicycle that opened an avenue of previously unknown freedom to women? The jerseys of rivals Larry Bird and Magic Johnson? Or the handball that Abraham Lincoln threw against a wall as he waited for news of his presidential nomination?From nearly forgotten heroes like Tad Lucas (rodeo) and Tommy Kono (weightlifting) to celebrities like Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Phelps, Cait Murphy tells the stories of the people, events, and things that have forged the epic of American sports, in both its splendor and its squalor. Stories of heroism and triumph rub up against tales of discrimination and cheating. These objects tell much more than just stories about great games-they tell the story of the nation. Eye-opening and exuberant, A History of American Sports in 100 Objects shows how the games Americans play are woven into the gloriously infuriating fabric of America itself.

DKK 268.00
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The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings - Thomas Maier - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings - Thomas Maier - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Meticulously researched both here and abroad, The Kennedys examines the Kennedy''s as exemplars of the Irish Catholic experience. Beginning with Patrick Kennedy''s arrival in the Brahmin world of Boston in 1848, Maier delves into the deeper currents of the often spectacular Kennedy story, and the ways in which their immigrant background shaped their values-and in turn twentieth-century America-for over five generations. As the first and only Roman Catholic ever elected to high national office in this country, JFK''s pioneering campaign for president rested on a tradition of navigating a cultural divide that began when Joseph Kennedy shed the brogues of the old country in order to get ahead on Wall Street. Whether studied exercise in cultural self-denial or sheer pragmatism, their movements mirror that of countless of other, albeit less storied, American families. But as much as the Kennedys distanced themselves from their religion and ethnic heritage on the public stage, Maier shows how Irish Catholicism informed many of their most well-known political decisions and stances. From their support of civil rights, to Joe Kennedy''s tight relationship with Pope Pius XII and FDR, the impact of their personal family history on the national scene is without question-and makes for an immensely compelling narrative. Bringing together extensive new research in both Ireland and the United States, several exclusive interviews, as well as his own perspective as an Irish-American, Maier''s original approach to the Kennedy era brilliantly illustrates the defining role of the immigrant experience for the country''s foremost political dynasty.

DKK 353.00
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The Rational Animal - Vladas Griskevicius - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Rational Animal - Vladas Griskevicius - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard -- only to give their hard-earned money away? When it comes to making decisions, the classic view is that humans are eminently rational. But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right -- or is there another possibility? In this animated tour of the inner workings of the mind, psychologist Douglas T. Kenrick and business professor Vladas Griskevicius challenge the prevailing views of decision making, and present a new alternative grounded in evolutionary science. By connecting our modern behaviors to their ancestral roots, they reveal that underneath our seemingly foolish tendencies is an exceptionally wise system of decision making. From investing money to choosing a job, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, our choices are driven by deep-seated evolutionary goals. Because each of us has multiple evolutionary goals, though, new research reveals something radical -- there''s more than one "you" making decisions. Although it feels as if there is just one single "self" inside your head, your mind actually contains several different subselves , each one steering you in a different direction when it takes its turn at the controls. The Rational Animal will transform the way you think about decision making. And along the way, you''ll discover the intimate connections between ovulating strippers, Wall Street financiers, testosterone-crazed skateboarders, Steve Jobs, Elvis Presley, and you.

DKK 284.00
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The Vanished Kingdom - James Roy - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

The Vanished Kingdom - James Roy - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Twice in this century, Germany initiated wars of unimagined terror and destruction. In both cases, defense of the "Prussian" realm, the German homeland, was the perceived and vilified perpetrator. Few today understand with any precision what "Prussia" means, either geographically or nationalistically, but neither would they deny the psychic resonance of the single word. To most, it means unbridled aggression, the image of the goose-stepping Junker .But what was once Prussia is now a significant portion of Eastern Europe, a contested homeland first won by Christian knights of the Teutonic Order. For centuries thereafter its terrain has been crisscrossed by war and partitioned by barbed wire. In its final catastrophe of 1945, nearly two million German refugees fled the region as Russian armies broke the eastern front, perhaps the greatest dislocation of a civilian population at any time during World War II. With the Berlin Wall now a memory and the Soviet Union in a state of collapse, this remains a geography in shambles. Modern travelers can now, for the first time in decades, see and ponder for themselves what Prussia really was and now is. James Charles Roy and Amos Elon, two writers noted for their inquisitive natures, have gone to search through the rubble themselves. They intermingle present-day observations with moving vignettes from the German and Prussian past, sketching a portrait of the Europe we know today. The story is spiced with interviews and reminiscences, unforgettable in their sadness, of people looking back at a life now gone, a life full of turmoil and heartache, memories both fond and tragic. The final result: a far deeper understanding of the tattered lands of today''s Eastern Europe.

DKK 219.00
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Maverick - Jason L. Riley - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Maverick - Jason L. Riley - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Thomas Sowell has an almost godlike status amongst conservative intellectuals. "It''s a scandal that economist Sowell has not been awarded the Nobel Prize," wrote a reviewer in Forbes . A profile in the Wall Street Journal described him as "one of America''s great sages." His writing on politics, economics, and social issues have prompted both contempt and praise. In Maverick , Jason Riley explores the life and ideas of Thomas Sowell, one of America''s most important Black intellectuals.A bright student with a tumultuous home life, Sowell was admitted to one of New York''s most competitive high schools but dropped out at age 16. He left home a year later and moved into a shelter in the Bronx for homeless boys where he kept a knife under his pillow for protection. Years later, the G.I. bill enabled him to enroll in night school at Howard University and after his freshman year, he transferred to Harvard. By 1968, Sowell received his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, his dissertation written under the guidance of future Nobel economists Milton Friedman and George Stigler. Maverick follows Sowell from the University of Chicago to his early critiques of the Civil Rights moment. In the 60s and 70s, Sowell accepted teaching positions at Howard, Cornell, UCLA, and elsewhere -- but the campus turmoil of the era clashed with Sowell''s principles and he refused to bend. He turned his attention to writing.Over the past fifty tears, Sowell has written over thirty books and countless columns and media appearances. Riley offers an introduction to Sowell''s ideas, from race and inequality to economics and education. Riley considers how Sowell''s own history alongside the moments and movements that shaped his thinking to offer a nuanced portrait of one of America''s leading conservative intellectuals. Maverick explores the extraordinary scope and depth of arguably the most influential and trenchant Black social critics alive in America today - one whose contributions have been underacknowledged because they do not align with progressive ideas about race.

DKK 229.00
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Learning From the Octopus - Rafe Sagarin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Learning From the Octopus - Rafe Sagarin - Bog - Basic Books - Plusbog.dk

Despite the billions of dollars we''ve poured into foreign wars, homeland security, and disaster response, we are fundamentally no better prepared for the next terrorist attack or unprecedented flood than we were in 2001. Our response to catastrophe remains unchanged: add another step to airport security, another meter to the levee wall. This approach has proved totally ineffective: reacting to past threats and trying to predict future risks will only waste resources in our increasingly unpredictable world.In Learning from the Octopus , ecologist and security expert Rafe Sagarin rethinks the seemingly intractable problem of security by drawing inspiration from a surprising source: nature. Biological organisms have been living -- and thriving -- on a risk-filled planet for billions of years. Remarkably, they have done it without planning, predicting, or trying to perfect their responses to complex threats. Rather, they simply adapt to solve the challenges they continually face.Military leaders, public health officials, and business professionals would all like to be more adaptable, but few have figured out how. Sagarinargues that we can learn from observing how nature is organized, how organisms learn, how they create partnerships, and how life continually diversifies on this unpredictable planet.As soon as we dip our toes into a cold Pacific tidepool and watch what we thought was a rock turn into an octopus, jetting away in a cloud of ink, we can begin to see the how human adaptability can mimic natural adaptation. The same mechanisms that enabled the octopus''s escape also allow our immune system to ward off new infectious diseases, helped soldiers in Iraq to recognize the threat of IEDs, and aided Google in developing faster ways to detect flu outbreaks. While we will never be able to predict the next earthquake, terrorist attack, or market fluctuation, nature can guide us in developing security systems that are not purely reactive but proactive, holistic, and adaptable. From the tidepools of Monterey to the mountains of Kazakhstan, Sagarin takes us on an eye-opening tour of the security challenges we face, and shows us how we might learn to respond more effectively to the unknown threats lurking in our future.

DKK 400.00
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