Security State

The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.

Adam Russell Taylor reimagines a contemporary version of the beloved community that will inspire and unite Americans across generations, geographic and class divides, racial and gender differences, faith traditions, and ideological leanings. In the beloved community, neither privilege nor punishment is tied to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status, and everyone is able to realize their full potential and thrive.

In The Rise of the American Corporate Security State, Beatrice Edwards examines the real reasons to be afraid in twenty-first-century America, and outlines how we can address them. Our first steps in the right direction may be small, but they are important. They are based on the principle that we have a right to know what our government is doing and to speak openly about it.

When the United States government passed the Bill of Rights in 1791, its uncompromising protection of speech and of the press were unlike anything the world had ever seen before. But by 1798, the once-dazzling young republic of the United States was on the verge of collapse. Suddenly, the First Amendment, which protected harsh commentary of the weak government, no longer seemed as practical. So that July, President John Adams and the Federalists in control of Congress passed an extreme piece of legislation that made criticism of the government and its leaders a crime.

Our surveillance state was born in the brain of Admiral John Poindexter in 1983. Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan's national security adviser, realized that the United States might have prevented the terrorist massacre of 241 Marines in Beirut if only intelligence agencies had been able to analyze in real time data they had on the attackers. Poindexter poured government know-how and funds into his dream---a system that would sift reams of data for signs of terrorist activity.

Profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-born scholar Vali Nasr has become one of America's leading commentators on current events in the Middle East, admired and welcomed by both media and government for his "concise and coherent" analysis (Wall Street Journal). In this "smart, clear and timely" book (Washington Post), Nasr brilliantly dissects the political and theological antagonisms within Islam. He provides a unique and objective understanding of the 1,400-year bitter struggle between Shias and Sunnis, and sheds crucial light on its modern-day consequences—from the nuclear posturing of Iran's President Ahmadinejad to the recent U.S.-enabled shift toward Shia power in Iraq and Hezbollah's continued dominance in Lebanon.

Will he outwit his blackmailer or prioritize his heart’s desire? NYC billionaire, Daniel Dufort, is being blackmailed into marriage. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his family dynasty but not that and he’s not about to be coerced into it. While in Hawaii on business, he meets Harper, and what starts as a sexy distraction soon ends with him questioning his priorities. Bestselling author Harper Kane is in Oahu where her steamy romance is being made into a movie. Nursing a broken heart, she has no interest in her own love story, especially not with the wealthy, arrogant, and—damn...

Luther Meyers lost everything the night a drunk driver hit the car his wife was driving. His wife and his child both gone in the blink of an eye. It changed everything. Five years later, he’s working a respectable job with Two Bears Security, protecting people where he once wouldn’t have thought twice about breaking into one of these rich people’s homes and robbing them blind. But he promised his wife once that he’d get out of the business, and that’s what he’s done. The only problem is, the job wants him back. The art-loving mob boss he once worked for is looking for him, ...

The Pentagon, unsentimental and politically conservative, might not seem likely to be worried about climate change - still linked, for many people, with polar bears and coral reefs. Yet, of all the major institutions in American society, none take climate change as seriously as the US military. Drawing on previously obscure reports and government documents, renowned security expert Michael Klare shows that the US military sees the climate threat as imperiling the country on several fronts at once.

"Bloody Sunday" - March 7, 1965 - was a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle. The national outrage generated by scenes of Alabama state troopers attacking peaceful demonstrators fueled the drive toward the passage of the Voting Rights Acts later that year. But why were hundreds of activists marching from Selma to Montgomery that afternoon?

On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro", and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event.

The two most important words in the lives of the American people for the past 60 years have been national security. The term has transformed American society for the worse. It has warped the morals and values of the American people. It has stultified conscience. It has altered the constitutional order. It has produced a democratically elected government that wields totalitarian powers.

The life story of the most controversial, volatile, misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights. At a time of increasing gun violence in America, Waldman's book provoked a wide range of discussion. This book looks at history to provide some surprising, illuminating answers. The Amendment was written to calm public fear that the new national government would crush the state militias made up of all (white) adult men - who were required to own a gun to serve. Waldman recounts the raucous public debate that has surrounded the amendment from its inception to the present.

Bodyguards probably shouldn’t bake or have existential crises. Ezra Blumetti used to like being the exception to the rule. Now he’d like the rulebook back. That is, until his next job crash-lands onto his lap. Erin Miyaki. Brilliant, beautiful, on-top-of-the-world Erin. His old nemesis, always ready to call him on said BS. Not only is she in danger; she might be more of a mess than he is. Stuck together, he gets to call all the shots as her bodyguard. Which means payback. Erin should hate him all the more. Instead, they’re getting along. A little too well. As though Ezra’s existence...

On the night of September 11, 2012, scores of heavily-armed Islamic terrorists attack two United States government outposts in Benghazi, Libya. When the battle is over, four Americans are murdered, including the U.S. Ambassador; two are severely wounded. The terrorists destroy the two facilities, seize intelligence and other U.S. property, and chase America out of eastern Libya. This book tells the true story of why these Americans are there, how they fight for their lives, and how their government abandons them. It also explains how the Obama administration misleads and covers up what ...

With relentless media coverage, breathtaking events, and extraordinary congressional and independent investigations, it is hard to believe that we still might not know some of the most significant facts about the presidency of George W. Bush. Yet beneath the surface events of the Bush presidency lies a secret history, a series of hidden events that makes a mockery of current debate.

An acclaimed chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement, Peniel Joseph presents this sweeping overview of a key component of the struggle for racial equality: the Black Power movement. This is the story of the men and women who sacrificed so much to begin a more vocal and radical push for social change in the 1960s and 1970s.

Richard Gergel’s Unexampled Courage details the impact of the blinding of Sergeant Woodard on the racial awakening of President Truman and Judge Waring and traces their influential roles in changing the course of America’s civil rights history.

On September 15, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, was bombed, killing four young girls. Who were the perpetrators? Due to reluctant witnesses and racial prejudice, the FBI closed the case without any indictments. But as Martin Luther King, Jr., claimed, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Bending Toward Justice is a detailed account of this key moment in our national struggle for equality and the long road to prosecuting those responsible for the tragedy, related by an author who played a major role in the investigation.

As the daughter of a billionaire business mogul, Stella Brookshire has always lived an easy life, until a suspicious accident ends her blossoming career as a professional cyclist. Determined to get back on the bike, Stella ignores her parents’ pleas to find a safer hobby to pursue. Her father, though, wants to ensure her safety, and hires a bodyguard to go out with Stella on her bike rides. The bodyguard doesn’t last long, though, and neither does the one after him. No one seems to be a match for Stella’s sharp tongue or her vicious wit. But that’s all about to change when Cole ...