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The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole: True Confessions Of Adrian Albert Mole, Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years, And Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (The\adrian Mole Ser. #3)
by Sue TownsendCelebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the third book in his diaries, as 16-year-old Adrian navigates his way into adulthood Monday June 13th I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike. Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . . Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer's daughter from Grantham. 'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times 'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran
Parting Shots
by Matthew ParrisWhen leaving a foreign posting, Britain's ambassadors were encouraged to write a valedictory despatch until the practice was abolished in 2006. Unlike the usual style of the diplomatic bag, these last reports from foreign posts were unbuttoned, indiscreet and often very funny. There was much settling of scores, some poking fun of foreigners, a degree of moaning about the privations of Embassy life - and sometimes a bit of serious analysis too.Based on a very successful BBC radio series, Matthew Parris, who once worked for the Foreign Office and had the task of distributing the despatches, and Andrew Bryson have compiled an always entertaining and frequently hilarious volume of the best of them.
The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier
by Imtiaz GulThe tribal region located on the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the centre of terrorist activity in the world today. Since 2001, Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped here, using its mountainous terrain as a safe haven in which to train, plan major terror attacks, send insurgents to Afghanistan, and recruit ever-younger fighters. In this essential book Imtiaz Gul follows the trail of militancy to show how a fatal mix of ultra-conservatism, economic under-development and an absence of law and order have radicalized a region and its people, with grave consequences for the stability of Pakistan. Using a wealth of local knowledge, and interviews with officials, militant leaders and followers, this is the definitive account of the place that poses an international security risk unlike any other.
The Evils of Revolution
by Edmund BurkeWritten at a time when most of Europe supported the French Revolution, Edmund Burke’s prescient and, at the time, controversial denunciation of its mob rule predicted the Terror, began the modern conservative tradition and still serves as a warning to those who seek to reshape societies through violence. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe (Penguin Great Ideas Ser.)
by Leon TrotskyWhether calling for an end to the capitalist system, addressing the crowds after the Russian Revolution, or attacking Stalin during his years of exile, Trotsky’s speeches give an extraordinary insight into a man whose words and actions determined the fates of millions. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Armed Madhouse: Undercover Dispatches from a Dying Regime
by Greg Palast‘Razor sharp research … shows why every US citizen should be quaking in their boots’ Metro, Books of the Year ‘Bill Hicks with a press pass’ The ListAward-winning guerrilla journalist Greg Palast has gone where most have been too scared to unearth the ugly truth about the haves and have-mores who rule our world … America. Here he reports from behind enemy lines to reveal just how bad it’s got in a dangerous regime: how elections are bought and free speech comes at a price. How citizens are ruled by fear. And how our brave new globalized world means the poor get hammered, while corporations silently buy up the planet. It’s not pretty – but it’s all true … ‘Palast is one of the few journalists writing who has both the anger and the wit to offer himself up as a persuasive – and more importantly, readable – voice of the left’ Observer‘A rollercoaster ride from Baghdad to New Orleans and Osama bin Laden’s cave to the back rooms of the Pentagon’ Big Issue ‘Very funny … For anyone who thinks that no-one from the US knows what’s going on, Palast is the perfect riposte’ Guardian
Civilization and its Discontents (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Sigmund FreudThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
Of Man: Thi Life Of Man, Solitary, Poore, Nasty, Brutish And Short (Penguin Great Ideas Ser. #Vol. 31)
by Thomas HobbesThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.The founding father of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes, living in an era of horrific violence, saw human life as meaningless and cruel; here, he argues the only way to escape this brutality is for all to accept a 'social contract' that acknowledges the greater authority of a Sovereign leader.
On the Nature of War (Penguin Great Ideas Ser. #Vol. 35)
by Carl Von ClausewitzThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
How to Achieve True Greatness (Penguin Great Ideas Ser.)
by Baldesar CastiglioneThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Wasters
by Nick Webb Shane RossDuring the years when all seemed well with the Irish economy, a scandal bloomed in front of our faces but went mostly unnoticed: the scandal of public waste. Vast overspending on infrastructure (including a number of white elephants), extravagant use of overpriced consultants, the creation of dozens of quangos whose primary purpose seemed to be jobs for the boys, the culture of junketry that took hold in the semi-state sector and the Oireachtas - these and other dubious practices flourished during the years when the state's coffers were overflowing. The insiders benefited; the rest of us got ripped off. Now, as the state scrambles to bail out the banks and to bring order to the shattered public finances by taking money out of the pockets of ordinary working people, Shane Ross and Nick Webb tell the story of the wasters: the people who perfected and benefited from the culture of cronyism and waste. Thanks in large part to Ross and Webb's journalism in the Sunday Independent exposing scandals in FAS and CIE, we already know part of this story. In Wasters, the authors show how wide and how deep the rot runs, and they show that every scandal has one thing in common: insiders profiting at the expense of ordinary people.
The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream (P. S. Series)
by Christina LambIn the last decades of the British Empire, Stewart Gore-Brown build himself a feudal paradise in Northern Rhodesia; a sprawling country estate modelled on the finest homes of England, complete with uniformed servants, daily muster parades and rose gardens. He wanted to share it with the love of his life, the beautiful unconventional Ethel Locke King, one of the first women to drive and fly. She, however, was nearly twenty years his senior, married and his aunt. Lorna, the only other woman he had ever cared for, had married another many years earlier. Then he met Lorna's orphaned daughter, so like her mother that he thought he had seen a ghost. It seemed he had found companionship and maybe love - but the Africa house was his dream and it would be a hard one to share.
Washington: A Life (Playaway Adult Nonfiction Ser.)
by Ron ChernowThe celebrated Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of America. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life, he carries the reader through Washington's troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian Wars, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention and his magnificent performance as America's first president.Despite the reverence his name inspires Washington remains a waxwork to many readers, worthy but dull, a laconic man of remarkable self-control. But in this groundbreaking work Chernow revises forever the uninspiring stereotype. He portrays Washington as a strapping, celebrated horseman, elegant dancer and tireless hunter, who guarded his emotional life with intriguing ferocity. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, he orchestrated their actions to help realise his vision for the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency. Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. This is a magisterial work from one of America's foremost writers and historians.
Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What it Means to Be Human
by Scott AtranTalking to the Enemy is an intellectually and personally courageous exploration of one of the most contentious issues of modern times. Scott Atran has spent years talking to terrorists - from Gaza and Afghanistan, to Indonesia and Europe - in order to help us understand and mitigate the rise of religious violence. Here he argues persuasively that we need to consider terrorists' close relationships, with family and friends, as much as the causes they espouse, and delivers a fascinating journey into the mindsets of radicalised people in the twenty-first century. Along the way, he also provides deep insights into the history of all religions, and into their evolutionary origins. He shows us, above all, how we have come to be human.More than any other book, Talking to the Enemy invites us to empathise; it is itself the best possible example of how to do it.
The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
by Baltasar GraciánWritten over 350 years ago, The Pocket Oracle and the Art of Prudence is a charming collection of 300 witty and thought-provoking aphorisms. From the art of being lucky to the healthy use of caution, these elegant maxims were created as a guide to life, with further suggestions given on cultivating good taste, knowing how to refuse, the foolishness of complaining and the wisdom of controlling one's passions. Baltasar Gracian intended that these ingenious aphorisms would encourage each reader to challenge themselves both in understanding and applying each axiom.
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
by Manning MarableConstantly rewriting his own story, Malcolm X became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and eventually an icon, assassinated at the age of 39. The details of his life have long since calcified into a familiar narrative: his early years as a vagabond in Boston and New York, his conversion to Islam and subsequent rise to prominence as a militant advocate for black rights, his acrimonious split with the Nation of Islam, and ultimately his violent death at their hands. Yet this story, told and retold to various ends by writers, historians, and filmmakers, captures only a snapshot, a fraction of the man in full. Manning Marable's new biography is a stunning achievement, filled with new information and shocking revelations that will reframe the way we understand his life and work. Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of the darkest days of racial unrest, from the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement, examining his engagement with the Nation of Islam, and the romantic relationships whose energy alternately drained him and pushed him to unimagined heights. Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth century, a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.
The Communist Manifesto: A Revolutionary Edition (Mobi Classics Series)
by Friedrich Engels Karl MarxThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire and Resistance (City Lights Open Media Ser.)
by Noam ChomskyIn Making the Future, Noam Chomsky takes on a wide range of hot-button issues including the ongoing financial crisis, Obama's presidency, the limits of the two-party system, nuclear Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, corporate power, and the future of American politics. Laced throughout his critiques are expressions of commitment to democracy and the power of popular struggles. 'Progressive legislation and social welfare,' writes Chomsky, 'have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from above. Those struggles follow a cycle of success and setback. They must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from the voting booth to the workplace.'Making the Future offers fierce, accessible, timely, gloves-off political writing by one of the world's foremost intellectual and political dissidents.
The Political Economies of Turkey and Greece: Crisis and Change (International Political Economy Series)
by Mustafa KutlayThe economic policies of reactive states such as Turkey and Greece, both of which have shown limited ability to implement institutional reforms in recent years, have paved the way for deep crises. The crises are devastating for both societies’ social fabric, but they also open up the opportunity to introduce new economic regimes. They do, however, not always invite changes in dominant paradigms. Despite weak state capacity and deep economic crisis in both cases, substantial reforms were initiated in Turkey whilst an opposite trend prevailed in Greece. Drawing on field research, this book develops a political economy framework that explains reform cycles and post-crisis outcomes in reactive states.
The Political Economies of Turkey and Greece: Crisis and Change (International Political Economy Series)
by Mustafa KutlayThe economic policies of reactive states such as Turkey and Greece, both of which have shown limited ability to implement institutional reforms in recent years, have paved the way for deep crises. The crises are devastating for both societies’ social fabric, but they also open up the opportunity to introduce new economic regimes. They do, however, not always invite changes in dominant paradigms. Despite weak state capacity and deep economic crisis in both cases, substantial reforms were initiated in Turkey whilst an opposite trend prevailed in Greece. Drawing on field research, this book develops a political economy framework that explains reform cycles and post-crisis outcomes in reactive states.
Management Worldwide: Distinctive Styles Among Globalization
by David J. Hickson Derek S. PughBusinesses today need employees who can operate on a global stage, whether as international managers, technical specialists, expatriates or 'parachutists' who make occasional troubleshooting trips abroad. Yet cultural misunderstandings in the workplace can complicate even the simplest tasks. Something that sounds like a 'Yes' to a foreigner may actually be a polite way of saying 'No'. Fully updated and expanded for this second edition, Management Worldwide is essential for managers, students ofmanagement and organizations who want to know how managers operate and business is conducted in different societies. It is essential reading in a global economy where cultural differences can still mean make or break.
The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse
by Geoffrey Robertson QcTHE CASE OF THE POPE delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world.Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law?Geoffrey Robertson QC, a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights.
The End of the Party: The Rise And Fall Of New Labour
by Andrew RawnsleyAndrew Rawnsley's bestselling book lifts the lid on the second half of New Labour's spell in office, with riveting inside accounts of all the key events from 9/11 and the Iraq War to the financial crisis and the parliamentary expenses scandal; and entertaining portraits of the main players as Rawnsley takes us through the triumphs and tribulations of New Labour as well as the astonishing feuds and reconciliations between Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson.This paperback edition contains two revealing new chapters on the extraordinary events surrounding the 2010 General Election and its aftermath.
Anglo Republic: Inside the bank that broke Ireland
by Simon CarswellAs late as 2007, Anglo Irish Bank was a darling of the markets, internationally recognized as one of the fastest growing financial institutions in the world. By 2008, it was bust. The Irish government's hopeless attempts to save Anglo have led the state to ruin - culminating in a punitive IMF bailout in late 2010 and threatening the future of the euro.Now, for the first time, the full story of the Anglo disaster is being told - by the journalist who has led the way in coverage of the bank and its many secrets. Drawing on his unmatched sources in and around Anglo, Simon Carswell of the Irish Times shows how the business model that brought Anglo twenty years of spectacular growth was also at the heart of its - and Ireland's - downfall. He paints a vivid and disturbing picture of life inside Anglo - the credit committee meetings, the lightning-quick negotiations with property developers, the culture of lavish entertainment for politicians and regulators - and of the men who presided over its dizzying rise and fall: Sean FitzPatrick, David Drumm, Willie McAteer and many others. This is not only the first full account of the Anglo disaster; it will also be the definitive one.
From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia
by Pankaj MishraFrom Pankaj Mishra, author the successful Temptations of the West and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, comes a provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image.SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire, burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, or humiliated the bankrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire, it was clear that for Asia to recover a vast intellectual effort would be required.Pankaj Mishra's fascinating, highly entertaining new book tells the story of a remarkable group of men from across the continent who met the challenge of the West. Incessantly travelling, questioning and agonising, they both hated the West and recognised that an Asian renaissance needed to be fuelled in part by engagement with the enemy. Through many setbacks and wrong turns, a powerful, contradictory and ultimately unstoppable series of ideas were created that now lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to Al Qaeda, from Indian nationalism to the Muslim Brotherhood.Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia and created the ideas which lie behind the powerful Asian nations of the twenty-first century.