Hard America

In 1836, two missionaries and their wives were among the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon on what would become the Oregon Trail. Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding were headed to present-day Washington state and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. Both would fail spectacularly as missionaries.

The State of Jones is a true story about the South during the Civil War, the real South. Not the South that has been mythologized in novels and movies, but an authentic, hardscrabble place where poor men were forced to fight a rich man's war for slavery and cotton. In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black alike, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War.

Tip the Empire State Building onto its side and you’ll have a sense of the length of the United States Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the most powerful in the world: the USS John F. Kennedy. Weighing 100,000 tons, Kennedy features the most futuristic technology ever put to sea, making it the most agile and lethal global weapon of war.

Chicago may be the city of broad shoulders, but its political law is "Pay to Play." Money changes hands in the middle of the night, and by morning, buildings and parks are replaced by billion-dollar projects. Chicago PI V. I. Warshawski gets pulled into one of these clandestine deals through her impetuous goddaughter, Bernie Fouchard. Bernie tries to rescue Lydia Zamir, a famed singer-songwriter now living on the streets; Zamir’s life fell apart when her lover was murdered next to her in a mass shooting at an outdoor concert.

This collection of stories focuses on the thoughts, passions, hardships, and tragedies of often overlooked Americans: the average working people who toil in the margins of society. Readers may recognize many of the characters in these tales, whose storylines play out in every corner of the country.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed.

Available once again for a new generation of audiences, the second volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and the fulfillment of this legendary sports star and global activist’s lifelong dream.

In 1949, Aloysius Archer arrives in the dusty Southern town of Poca City. He has nothing but a handful of dollars, the clothes he’s wearing and an appointment with his new parole officer. After his wartime experiences in Italy and a prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, Archer is looking for a fresh start and a peaceful life. On his first night of freedom, Archer meets local business tycoon Hank Pittleman, who promises Archer handsome compensation to work as his debt collector.

In the ever-evolving world of business, decisions often require a blend of experience, innovation, and a sharp eye for detail. How to Succeed in Business While Trying Really Hard offers readers an unparalleled window into the mindsets of three unique thinkers. Drawing from the depths of wisdom accumulated from a lifetime in corporate America and entrepreneurship, two seasoned professionals share their insights on a gamut of questions posed weekly by a freshly minted graduate, working in technology sales after majoring in journalism. Each week's query dives into essential topics, unraveling ...

Jack Whittaker was a construction businessman in Putnam County, WV; he was known as the winner of a lottery jackpot of $315 Millions USD in the Powerball in 2002. It shows that he was a millionaire already with a net worth of $17 M even before winning; in a word, a millionaire won a huge lottery. He must be the luckiest guy on Earth, right? Wrong! Strangely, a series of unfortunate events happened to him for no apparent reason after winning. First of all, a boy named Jesse Tribble, who was the boyfriend of Whittaker's granddaughter Brandi Bragg, was found dead from drug overdose in ...

America is a land in which extremism no longer belongs to the country's shadowy fringes, but comfortably exists in the national mainstream. That is the alarming conclusion by intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson, an expert on domestic extremism with more than 25 years of experience tracking radicalized groups for the US government. In this book, Johnson dissects the rapidly expanding forms of American hatred and radicalization, including white nationalists, antigovernment militias, antifascists (Antifa), militant black nationalists, and extremist Islamic groups.

What Can We Learn from the Great Depression? draws on the voices of individual working people to tell the stories left out of standard histories of that era, and helps us imagine how to address our own failed economy, and how to imagine and build movements challenging it that do not themselves replicate racism and patriarchy.

Ay Yi Yai Yi! It’s halftime, America! Welcome to the intermission of empire, featuring interpretive dances by decaying institutions choreographed by lobbyists holding MBAs in short-termism. Like the infamous Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy, today's techno-totems—quantum AI supremacy, sovereign digital currencies, and China's Belt-and-Data colonialism—have crash-landed onto our meticulously manicured lawns. Initially celebrated as symbols of progress, these shiny artifacts now function as civilization’s Rorschach tests, exposing strategic confusion and institutional amnesia as ...

From the age of seven Ryan Richmond dreamed about going to Space. Now Ryan Richmond has $3 billion to play with, he is in his forties; and still wants to go to space. His only enemy; the U.S. Government who doesn't have its own space program-and wants his new spaceship; AMERICA ONE. He sold his first company at 19 and employed the remnants of the Russian Space Program; a couple of the best Russian space brains in the world.

Ecuador, 1969: An American expatriate, Fay Fern, sits in the corner of a restaurant, she and her young son, Wright, turned away from the television where Vincent Kahn becomes the first man to walk on the moon. Years earlier, Fay and Vincent meet at a pilots’ bar in the Mojave Desert. Both seemed poised for reinvention - the married test pilot, Vincent, as an astronaut; the spurned child of privilege, Fay, as an activist. Their casual affair ends quickly, but its consequences linger.

The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region became the "arsenal of democracy" - the greatest manufacturing center in the world-in the years during and after World War II, thanks to natural advantages and a welcoming culture. Decades of unprecedented prosperity followed, memorably punctuated by riots, strikes, burning rivers, and oil embargoes. A vibrant, quintessentially American character bloomed in the region's cities, suburbs, and backwaters.

The world thought he was dead...Living in the underbelly of New York City, James Stone has mastered the art of anonymity. A forgotten fugitive, Stone lives a quiet life as bodyguard to Luca O'Driscoll, the son of a powerful crime syndicate boss. But when disaster strikes, and Luca is taken hostage by an unknown foe with a score to settle against Stone's employer, James finds himself thrust into a deadly game of survival. As old wounds reopen, and secrets threaten to unravel, Stone has one final chance to find Luca before the world learns the truth, and his status atop the Most Wanted list ...

For most of the twentieth century, America didn’t just lead the world—it defined it. From Hollywood blockbusters and blue jeans to democracy promotion and elite universities, U.S. influence radiated through culture, diplomacy, and credibility. This was soft power: the ability to shape global behavior not by coercion, but by example. And it worked—until it didn’t. Soft Power: America’s Greatest Asset—And How We’re Throwing It Away is a razor-sharp, thirty-chapter examination of how the United States built unrivaled global influence—and how it's now dismantling it in real time...

“…could come straight from today’s headlines.” Kirkus Reviews As NatGov was poised to arrest Dr. Dar Lumbre for performing illegal genetic experiments, he vanished like a will-o'-the-wisp. Fifty years later, Dr. Lumbre’s followers proclaim his imminent return as a unifying force between science, religion, and politics. Geneticists Crane and Annie are drawn into the fracas by the failure of DL-666, the synthetic heart tissue developed by Dr. Lumbre before his disappearance. While attempting to solve the problem, they wish for the enigmatic doctor’s return. If he reappears, will ...

Shadows of the Multiverse: Quantum Whispers 🌌 The boundaries of science, secrecy, and the cosmos are about to collide. In the cutting-edge labs of Q-Tech, Nolan Reyes, a brilliant quantum AI engineer, stands at the forefront of humanity’s next great leap. Tasked with perfecting Argus, a revolutionary artificial intelligence capable of tapping into the power of parallel dimensions, Nolan’s work promises to redefine what’s possible. But his discoveries reveal something far more chilling: anomalies in Argus’s data streams—signals that suggest Earth is not alone. 🚨 As global ...