Security State

In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays about landmark cases in the organization’s 100-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in - Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona - need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now.

There’s no reason for a paleontologist to have a bodyguard. Unless you’re Dr. Rhea Blumetti—who accidentally caused an international incident in South America. As though it’s not bad enough being the baby of a family in the bodyguard business, now Finn Mabrey has been assigned as her permanent solo detail. Her crush for, oh, forever, now stuck protecting her ass from herself and the bad guys she ticked off. In the five years since they met, and their, uh, interesting first meeting, Finn has tried to keep his distance from Rhea. Too many years, too many scars. But Rhea is keeping ...

Emmy’s a good girl who lives a quiet life and always does the right thing. Unlike her twin sister, Isa, a famous DJ who lives life on her own terms. But when Isa vanishes one night before a big show, Emmy’s orderly life is thrown into disarray as she embarks on a search to find out just what happened to her sister. Jason Armstrong is a security guard working at the club the night Isa disappears. As one of the last people to see her, he feels personally responsible. Jason is still trying to come to terms with a troubling incident that occurred a few years ago, something he has had ...

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was not trying to start a movement. She was simply tired of the social injustice. Yet her simple act of courage started a chain of events that forever shaped the landscape of American race relations. Now, decades after her quiet defiance inspired the modern civil rights movement, Mrs. Parks' own words tell of her courageous life, her passion for freedom and equality, and her strong faith.

Mitchell Welles spent thirteen years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Exonerated, he returns to a world he no longer fully understands and the absence of the friends and family who once were the bedrock of his existence. For the first year, he is focused on the lawsuit he and his lawyers take out against the city and police department that put him in jail in the first place, but once that is settled, there is little to fill his days. Feeling lost without some kind of purpose, he allows his friend, Alyxis, to talk him into taking a job with new security firm, Two Bears Security.

Kemp Byler, the quiet, unassuming owner of Two Bears Security, has a warrant out for his arrest on drug possession with intent to sell. Everyone knows Kemp was set up by city councilman Timothy Van Cleave, but knowing and proving are two very different things. To keep his freedom, Kemp knows that he has to prove that Van Cleave is behind the charges, and the only way he knows how to do that is to go back to his past. Van Cleave is afraid of Kemp because he knows that Kemp will not stop trying to learn the identity of the man who murdered two young women, and one of those young women just ...

Arrested in 1962 as South Africa's apartheid regime intensified its brutal campaign against political opponents, 44-year-old lawyer and African National Congress activist Nelson Mandela had no idea that he would spend the next 27 years in jail. During his 10,052 days of incarceration, Mandela wrote hundreds of letters to unyielding prison authorities, fellow activists, government officials, and, most memorably, his courageous wife, Winnie, and his five children. Now, 255 of these letters, a majority of which were previously unpublished, provide the most intimate portrait of Mandela since Long Walk to Freedom.

In The United States of Anonymous, Jeff Kosseff explores how the right to anonymity has shaped American values, politics, business, security, and discourse, particularly as technology has enabled people to separate their identities from their communications.

In The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, award-winning author and constitutional scholar Linda R. Monk explores the remarkable history of the Bill of Rights amendment by amendment, the Supreme Court's interpretation of each right, and the power of citizens to enforce those rights. Stories of the ordinary people who made the Bill of Rights come alive are featured throughout.

In this powerful and timely book, civil rights historian and political analyst Juan Williams denounces Donald Trump for intentionally twisting history to fuel racial tensions for his political advantage. In Williams's lifetime, crusaders for civil rights have braved hatred, violence, and imprisonment. Remarkably, all this progress suddenly seems to have been forgotten - or worse, undone. The stirring history of hard-fought and heroic battles for voting rights, integrated schools, and more is under direct threat from an administration dedicated to restricting these basic freedoms.

Thatcher Stibler lived on the wild side in his younger days, drinking and partying every chance he got. But when a woman dies as a direct result of Thatcher’s irresponsible behavior, he puts himself on a path to the straight and narrow. But sometimes the past has a way of coming back. A few days after the funeral for his adoptive mother, Thatcher takes on a case for Two Bears Security that reunites him with the younger sister of a woman he once dated. Amused by her disapproval, he finds himself in a complicated situation when he learns that his past behavior had more consequences than ...

Through vivid histories drawn from virtually every continent, A World Divided describes how, since the 18th century, nationalists have struggled to establish their own states that grant human rights to some people. At the same time, they have excluded others through forced assimilation, ethnic cleansing, or even genocide. From Greek rebels, American settlers, and Brazilian abolitionists in the 19th century to anticolonial Africans and Zionists in the 20th, nationalists have confronted a crucial question: Who has the "right to have rights?"

In Institution Building in Weak States, Andrew Radin argues that the international community's approach to building state institutions needs its own reform. This innovative book proposes a new strategy, rooted in a rigorous analysis of recent missions.

In a world where oil-rich states are more likely to start war than their oil-dependent counterparts, it's surprising how little attention is still paid to these so-called petrostates. These states' wealth props up the global arms trade, provides diplomatic leverage, and allows them to support violent and nonviolent proxies. In Oil, the State, and War, Emma Ashford explores the many potential links between domestic oil production and foreign policy behavior and how oil production influences global politics.

Brandon Walsh has a complicated relationship with his father. They’re close, closer than a traditional father and son. They essentially grew up together, rescuing each other from their bad choices on a regular basis. Unfortunately, rescuing his father became such a habit for Brandon that he managed to destroy his career and his reputation in one fell swoop by attempting to bribe a sitting judge as an assistant district attorney. Four years later, Brandon is still dusting himself off, trying to put his life back together, when he finds himself working security for Two Bears Security. ...

I would protect Ava Wells with my life. My best friend's kid sister is all grown up. I had one job: keep Ava safe from the stalker making threats against her life. The last thing I expected was the need to keep her safe from me.

Howard G. Buffett has seen first-hand the devastating impact of cheap Mexican heroin and other opiate cocktails across America. Mexican cartels have grown astonishingly powerful by exploiting both the gaps in our border security strategy and the desperation of migrants - all while profiting enormously off America's growing addiction to drugs. The solution isn't a wall. In this groundbreaking book, Buffett outlines a realistic, effective, and bi-partisan approach to fighting cartels, strengthening our national security, and tackling the roots of the chaos below the border.

A number one New York Times best-selling author, Harvard Law School professor, and tireless defender of civil liberties unearths a little-known letter by his hero, Thomas Jefferson, and shares its secrets. The letter illuminates Jefferson’s views on freedom of speech in a way that has important implications for the country today, particularly in the struggle against terrorism. This book is about the remarkable letter Alan Dershowitz found, how he found it, and why it matters not only to him, but to us today.

Who fires the woman who saved his life? Roman Cafaro. Harlow has had the gamut of crappy bosses and pretentious men. But she never knew bone-deep, satisfying, and real hatred until him. Only, Harlow can’t help herself from helping him. And it lands her in more danger than she realizes. Right in the line of fire of the man who paid for the match to be lit, who has been waiting for a chance to take down the Cafaros. Now Roman might end up paying Harlow back sooner than either of them expected. It will be a miracle if they both survive this, since they might kill each other first. Or fall in...

While the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, it is also a source of great controversy. It establishes the fundamental framework of our system of government, while differences in how to understand and interpret it often divide people. The United States Constitution: A History takes a fresh look at the Constitution, its origins, and controversies, from the founding of the country and its creation at the Constitutional Convention to the present. It examines the various controversies that divided the convention.