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  Alger Hiss and the Battle for...

  Susan Jacoby

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  Books on Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss abound, as countless scholars have labored to uncover the facts behind Chambers's shocking accusation before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the summer of 1948—that Alger Hiss, a former rising star in the State Department, had been a Communist and engaged in espionage. 
   
  In this highly original work, Susan Jacoby turns her attention to the Hiss case, including his trial and imprisonment for perjury, as a mirror of shifting American political views and passions. Unfettered by political ax-grinding, the author examines conflicting responses, from scholars and the media on both the Left and the Right, and the ways in which they have changed from 1948 to our present post—Cold War era. With a brisk, engaging style, Jacoby positions the case in the politics of the post—World War II era and then explores the ways in which generations of liberals and conservatives have put Chambers and Hiss to their own ideological uses. An iconic event of the McCarthy era, the case of Alger Hiss fascinates political intellectuals not only because of its historical significance but because of its timeless relevance to equally fierce debates today about the difficult balance between national security and respect for civil liberties.

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  Memoirs - Ten Years and Twenty Days

  Karl Doenitz

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  “A fascinating and detailed account of the German navy’s war, mostly covering U-boat activities” by the man who succeeded Hitler as Fuhrer (Damien Burke, author of TSR2: Britain’s Lost Bomber).   This is the story of the last world war, as told by Grand Admiral Karl Döenitz himself. His memoir covers his early career with submarines in the First World War and follows both his successes and failures through the Second World War, with great detail on the way the U-boat campaign was waged, as told by the man who invented U-boat tactics.   Döenitz includes details of the U-boat campaigns during the Second World War as well as the opinions, ideas and commentary on the period. Of particular interest are the comments regarding British and American conduct during the war. This is an important social document and an invaluable source for any student of the last war.   After becoming the last Fuhrer of Germany after Hitler’s suicide in May 1945, Karl Döenitz spent ten years and twenty days in Spandau Prison having been convicted of war crimes following a trial at Nuremberg.   “A very interesting book looking at the war in the Atlantic from the German side . . . one of the best accounts of the Battle of the Atlantic.”—UK Historian

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  Birdsplaining - A Natural History

  Jasmine Donahaye

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  Winner of the 2021 New Welsh Writing Awards: Rheidol Prize for Prose with a Welsh Theme or Setting
  'Vivid, quick and iridescent, Birdsplaining is an absolute kingfisher of a book' – Mike Parker
  A wren in the house foretells a death, while a tech-loving parrot aids a woman's recovery. Crows' misbehaviour suggests how the 'natural' order, ranked by men, may be challenged. A blur of bunting above an unassuming bog raises questions about how nature reserves were chosen. Should the oriole be named 'green' or golden? The flaws of field guides across decades prove that this is a feminist issue. A buzzard, scavenging a severed ewe's leg, teaches taboos about curiosity.
  Whose poo is the mammal scat uncovered in the attic, and should the swallows make their home inside yours? The nightjar's churring brings on unease at racism and privilege dividing nature lovers, past and present. The skin of a Palestine sunbird provokes concern at the colonial origins of ornithology. And when a sparrowhawk makes a move on a murmuration, the starlings show how threat – in the shape of flood, climate change or illness – may be faced down.
  Jasmine Donahaye is in pursuit of feeling 'sharply alive', understanding things on her own terms and undoing old lessons about how to behave. Here, she finally confronts fear: of violence and of the body's betrayals, daring at last, to 'get things wrong'.
  Roaming across Wales, Scotland and California, she is unapologetically focused on the uniqueness of women's experience of nature and the constraints placed upon it. Sometimes bristling, always ethical, Birdsplaining upends familiar ways of seeing the natural world.
  'Unusual, vivid… remarkably easy-to-read & enjoyable. Doesn't shy away from taking on difficult subjects… A means for personal reflection.' – BTO News [British Trust for Ornithology]
  'An erudite, bold, questing and valid collection of beautifully written essays. Whilst one eye stays focused on the injustices and cruelties of the world, the other gulps in its jewels and preciousness. Moving, stirring, and vital.' – Niall Griffiths
  'Superb… by turns moving, funny, illuminating… and… thought-provoking' – Katherine Stansfield
  'Upends familiar ways of seeing the natural world ― and in doing so, creates its own ecological niche' – Karen Lloyd, Caught by the River
  'A curiosity and passion so unapologetically alive that her words form wings' – Lotte Williams, Nation.Cymru
  'Neither human-centred nor its opposite. Although she explores human grief, violence and recovery, Donahaye also has a beautifully conveyed passion for the unromantic aspects of the environment… She bridges the very gap [in nature writing] that she identifies.' – Saskia McCracken, The Welsh Agenda
  'Whilst birds might not provide the answer to the meaning of life for Donahaye, they do have a part to play in finding meaning IN life, whether that be through personal symbolism and anecdotal encounters, or in larger questions about power and responsibility.' – Gwales.com
  'A fresh way of looking at nature writing, a deeply personal account that embraces its own subjectivity' – Zoe Kramer, Wales Arts Review
  'This is a beautiful collection where the nonhuman appears as a close neighbour… [and which] searches for hope and resilience in times of risk.' – Yvonne Reddick, New Welsh Reader

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  George Soros - A Life In Full

  Peter L. W. Osnos

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  The name George Soros is recognized around the world. Universally known for his decades of philanthropy, progressive politics, and investment success, he is equally well known as the nemesis of the far right—the target of sustained attacks from nationalists, populists, authoritarian regimes, and anti-Semites—because of his commitment to open society, freedom of the press, and liberal democracy. At age ninety-one, Soros still looms large on the global stage, and yet the man himself is surprisingly little understood. 
   
   
   
  Biographers have attempted to tell the story of George Soros, but no single account of his life can capture his extraordinary, multifaceted character. Now, in this ambitious and revealing new book, Soros's longtime publisher, Peter L. W. Osnos, has assembled an intriguing set of contributors from a variety of different perspectives—public intellectuals (Eva Hoffman, Michael Ignatieff), journalists (Sebastian Mallaby, Orville Schell), scholars (Leon Botstein, Ivan Krastev), and nonprofit leaders (Gara LaMarche, Darren Walker)—to paint a full picture of the man beyond the media portrayals. 
   
    
   
  Through this kaleidoscope of viewpoints emerges a vivid and compelling portrait of this remarkable man's unique and consequential impact. It has truly been a life in full.

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  Not A Real Enemy - The True...

  Robert Wolf, Janice Harper

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  Hungary, 1944. Almost half a million Jewish Hungarians are deported to Auschwitz. Among the few surviving Hungarian Jews from this era were young men who, like Ervin Wolf, were forced into the brutal Labor Service where they were cut off from the outside world and forced to endure inhumane brutalities and servitude. Once freed, a new oppression took hold as communist rule under Stalin turned friends to foes, enveloped the nation in fear and suspicion, and tested everyone’s character and strength. 
  This is the true story of Ervin Wolf and his family as the fascist tide of Eastern Europe takes hold of Hungary. From the Wolfs’ comfortable upper-class life to imprisonment, daring escapes, tragic deaths, cloak-and-dagger adventures, and Ervin’s final escape to freedom in the dead of night, Not a Real Enemy is a page-turning tale of suspense, tragedy, comedy, and ultimately, triumph.

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  Guns of Outlaws - Weapons of the...

  Gerry Souter, Janet Souter

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  “Chronicles the misdeeds of many of America’s worst miscreants, with special emphasis on the tools of the outlaw trade.” —American Rifleman 
   
  From colonial-era rifles carried on the “Owlhoot Trail” to John Dillinger’s Colt pistols, the history of the American outlaw is told in guns—weapons that became each man’s personal signature. Authors Gerry and Janet Souter peer into these criminals’ choices of derringers, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, and curious hybrids, giving us a glimpse into the minds behind the trigger fingers. With over 200 illustrations, Guns of Outlaws gives a unique look at the lives and the hardware of the most infamous outlaws in American history, and of the law enforcement officers who hunted them. 
   
  As settlers moved further west, away from authority and soft city life into the Great Plains, the push for survival through the endless prairies and jagged isolating mountain ranges bred ruthless men. Most outlaws were technology freaks who seized upon the latest weapon innovations developed in the industrious East to provide an edge in the life-and-death cosmos of the Wild West. By the late 1930s and early 1940s, outlaws on horseback had given way to marauding bank robbers. Using fast cars and faster guns, they became folk heroes of the Great Depression, even as the law was hard on their tails. 
   
  “Historians Gerry and Janet Souter take the reader back to a time between 1840 and 1940 when . . . outlaws and man hunters lived bold and died hard . . . [The] book show[s] actual tools of the trade wielded during a violent century, bound up in a mix of hard truths and mythology.” —Ammoland.com

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