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Red Summer
- The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings.
After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War.
Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings swept the country for eight months. From April to November of 1919, the racial unrest rolled across the South into the North and the Midwest, even to the nation's capital. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost. Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before.
Red Summer is the first narrative history about this epic encounter. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings - including those in Chicago, Washington, DC, Charleston, Omaha, and Knoxville - Cameron McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society 40 years later.
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- JAS
- 03-27-19
Better Understand 2019 by Looking Closely at 1919
Anyone looking for a clearer understanding of how America has struggled with race relations would benefit from this book. It's sobering, tragic and, at times, almost unbelievable. However, in today's social climate, Red Summer helps shed a huge light on how we got to where we are today.
Cameron McWhirter is, of course, a top tier reporter, and his experience and curiosity matches well with this nearly-forgotten chapter in American history. I was intellectually stimulated and emotionally wrung-out by this treasure trove. Packed with exhaustive research, countless interviews, and insightful historical perspective, Red Summer is a book that delivers more than I could have imagined.
As an audiobook, I must say that I have a few misgivings. I often felt the tone of the narrator was at odds with the book. The 'read' is a little smug, frankly. I felt a more matter-of-fact reading would have benefited the listening experience. Furthermore, there are many audible 'breaths' in this recording, and that's distracting. Not sure why those weren't edited out or toned down. Lastly, at almost exactly the 8 hour mark, I noticed that there was some technical issue - like an interruption or something...right when the book discusses a gentleman whose fear for his own life is sadly justified.
I would still highly recommend Red Summer, in any form. America would learn a lot about 2019 by looking at 1919.
Point of information: Some years ago I knew Cam a bit, and have always followed and enjoyed his work.
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12 people found this helpful
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- deb
- 02-18-19
Strongly recommended!
Cameron McWhirter masterfully ties many events that lead to gossip and riots throughout the summer of 1919 in so many locations across the USA on the heels of the Great War. So many black citizens were blamed for crimes and attacked and killed by mobs, and even the court cases were far less than fair justice.. Chances are many readers have not heard of more than a handful of these events. There is a thread of a story that runs through the book that offers a hopeful conclusion. Do consider the possibility of getting younger people (students) connected with this book. Excellent work by this author.
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- Mr. Williams
- 10-20-19
another heart-stopping story
I never knew America had so much hidden racism.
and after listening to this audio I have realized not much has changed in the last one hundred years.
but understand your future burying the past.
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4 people found this helpful
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- HERBERT PEEPLES
- 06-16-21
So Glad His Death was NOT in Vain!!
It was an interesting read, but the way it continuously jumped around made it difficult to follow!!! I had to listen to different chapters over again in order to see the author's connections. Being an audible book made it easy & convenient to go back and redo chapters or portions of them.
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- Chris Hummel
- 01-03-21
Excellent Account of a Pivotal Year
McWhirter does an excellent job bringing to life a pivotal year in American race relations. With more lynchings (in the south as well as in northern cities like Omaha) than any succeeding year in American history, and an intensely violent wave of white initiated race riots, it is a year generally understood in tragic terms. While fully acknowledging, in addition to carefully delineating this violence, despite often biased or incomplete accounts in the mainstream white press, the author makes an effective argument that 1919 also marked a turning point in African-American responses to it. African-Americans, many of them WW1 veterans, fought back against violent white attacks, meeting fire with fire, while also strengthening social and political organization through groups like the NAACP. The author mainly finds the shift in race-related attitudes and reforms after 1919 a positive one, linking it with (and ending with) the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The work being several years old, the audio book version produced in 2019, the events of 2020 may have provided another context in which to view 1919. What struck me was the way the press and politicians present events and protests, though it has changed, still often lack balance and accuracy and continue to represent themes now at least a century old. Any attack or criticism of the existing racial order is identified as associated with dangerous radicalism with appeals to law and order often used to crush out calls for reform. Despite perhaps demonstrating a tendency to assign revolutionary status to the black response to the Red Summer of 1919 rather than seeing it as an intensification and continuation of earlier trends and drawing overly positive conclusions, this is a worthy work deserving of attention. Reading it certainly provides additional context to the history of race in America. The narrator does a solid job, and it may be that critics listening to him at 1.25 speed, which I found to be the pre-set. At standard speed, the tone and inflection better match the material.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-06-23
Heartbreaking truth
Just a sheer brutality and senseless violence committed on A people who want nothing more than to live the American Dream . leave me emotionally drained. i had to stop reading for days . on several occasions because of my emotions. Would not allow me to continue. But officially I made it through, and i'm better for it. just thinking about these people and where their families would have been if not for segregation and Jim Crowe could have changed the To Trajectory of a whole nation of people.
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- M. D. Mccullen
- 02-20-20
A must read
An insightful and informative chronicle of a pivotal period in this country's development and it's impact on our history.
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- Jarucia Jaycox
- 02-27-23
Necessary history
If you’re like me, an entire lifetime of learning in the American education system means you never heard of the summer of 1919 as an interconnected collection of events.
Many of the bits and pieces have made isolated appearances in my lifetime of learning, but this comprehensive look is imperative in shrinking any American’s knowledge gap of US history.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-15-22
Mike
Quite informative. An exceptional and granular look at a horrible time period. I learned so
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- Buretto
- 04-25-22
Document of a heinous history
There is no such thing as a "balanced" account of historical events. There is only the truth of what happened, perhaps with occasional information gaps which rely on perspective to fill out. Listening to this report of the deplorable activity of 1919, coupled with corroborating histories and my own experience, leaves no doubt at the causes and motivations for these atrocities.
On the one hand, there are people, historically oppressed, enslaved, harassed and disenfranchised, seeking merely to live free and share in the promise of a nation. On the other, there are people who enjoy that freedom, yet feel constantly threatened by the specter of having to stand on an equal footing with the former group. Who is more justified in resorting to violence to achieve their ends? The answer seems simple, yet invariably it is the second group who instigate the violence and perpetrate crimes against the former. Ethnic identities were consciously omitted in those last sentences, because it's clear to anyone reading who is whom. And it's just as clear, at least for me as someone old enough to have known family members old enough to have lived in that time, that the attitudes evinced by the latter group are absolutely recognizable in family history.
The greatest shame is that, even with the advancements detailed over the subsequent half century, there has been a regression in thought for the children and grandchildren of that latter group, to an archaic tribalistic distrust. To the extent that it's become impossible for some of them to even acknowledge that certain lives matter, choosing instead to engage in puerile games of semantics to conceal their bigotry. And I don't doubt that many of them would have visited the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Oh, but merely as tourists. They, like their ancestors, believe they can lie with impunity, because after all, they feel it's not their privilege, but their right. An excellent book, unfortunately all too relatable over a century later.
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Story
Margaret A. Burnham challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in harrowing cases between 1920 and 1960. From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system of the mid-twentieth-century South, and traces the line from slavery to the legal structures of this period—and through to today.
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Heartbreaking
- By sharon on 11-24-22
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Europe's Last Summer
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The early summer of 1914 was the most glorious Europeans could remember. But, behind the scenes, the most destructive war the world had yet known was moving inexorably into being, a war that would continue to resonate into the 21st century. The question of how the Great War of 1914 began has long vexed historians. In a gripping narrative, Fromkin shows that hostilities were started deliberately and that two wars were waged, one serving as pretext for the other.
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A different take on the events leading to the Great War
- By Chris on 09-04-20
By: David Fromkin
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Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
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Balanced readable narrative about the Opium Wars
- By Carl A. Gallozzi on 09-05-18
By: Stephen R. Platt
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The Big House
- A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
- By: George Howe Colt
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent 42 summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the 11-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers.
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The narrator needs some coaching about Boston!
- By Mcm on 05-10-22
By: George Howe Colt
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Conquistadores
- A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest
- By: Fernando Cervantes
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers who took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares.
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A fresh mature perspective on the Spanish conquest
- By Chencheno111 on 03-19-22
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Everybody Behaves Badly
- The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises
- By: Lesley Blume
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway and a clique of raucous companions traveled to Pamplona, Spain, for the town's infamous running of the bulls. Then, over the next six weeks, he channeled that trip's maelstrom of drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals, and midday hangovers into his groundbreaking novel The Sun Also Rises. This revolutionary work redefined modern literature as much as it did his peers, who would forever after be called the Lost Generation.
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Great Author, Terrible Friend
- By Jeno B on 09-16-16
By: Lesley Blume
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By Hands Now Known
- Jim Crow's Legal Executioners
- By: Margaret A. Burnham
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Margaret A. Burnham challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in harrowing cases between 1920 and 1960. From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system of the mid-twentieth-century South, and traces the line from slavery to the legal structures of this period—and through to today.
-
-
Heartbreaking
- By sharon on 11-24-22
-
Europe's Last Summer
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The early summer of 1914 was the most glorious Europeans could remember. But, behind the scenes, the most destructive war the world had yet known was moving inexorably into being, a war that would continue to resonate into the 21st century. The question of how the Great War of 1914 began has long vexed historians. In a gripping narrative, Fromkin shows that hostilities were started deliberately and that two wars were waged, one serving as pretext for the other.
-
-
A different take on the events leading to the Great War
- By Chris on 09-04-20
By: David Fromkin
-
Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
-
-
Balanced readable narrative about the Opium Wars
- By Carl A. Gallozzi on 09-05-18
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
The Big House
- A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
- By: George Howe Colt
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent 42 summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the 11-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers.
-
-
The narrator needs some coaching about Boston!
- By Mcm on 05-10-22
By: George Howe Colt
-
Conquistadores
- A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest
- By: Fernando Cervantes
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers who took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares.
-
-
A fresh mature perspective on the Spanish conquest
- By Chencheno111 on 03-19-22
-
The Other Side of Prospect
- A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City
- By: Nicholas Dawidoff
- Narrated by: Diontae Black
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One New Haven summer evening in 2006, a retired grandfather was shot point-blank by a young stranger. A hasty police investigation culminated in innocent sixteen-year-old Bobby being sentenced to prison for thirty-eight years. New Haven native Nicholas Dawidoff returned home and spent eight years reporting the deeper story of this injustice, and what it reveals about the enduring legacies of social and economic disparity. In The Other Side of Prospect, he has produced an immersive portrait of a seminal community in an old American city now beset by division and gun violence.
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compelling story; narrator comically bad
- By Fala Roosevelt on 12-23-22
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Into the Storm
- Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival
- By: Tristram Korten
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.
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Just average
- By Rickmeister on 03-13-20
By: Tristram Korten
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The Spinning Magnet
- The Electromagnetic Force that Created the Modern World - and Could Destroy It
- By: Alanna Mitchell
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A cataclysmic planetary phenomenon is gathering force deep within the Earth. The magnetic North Pole will eventually trade places with the South Pole. Satellite evidence suggests to some scientists that the move has already begun, but most still think it won't happen for many decades. All agree that it has happened many times before and will happen again. But this time it will be different. It will be a very bad day for modern civilization.
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Important topic, not what I was looking for
- By Ramona on 03-28-21
By: Alanna Mitchell
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Africa Is Not a Country
- Notes on a Bright Continent
- By: Dipo Faloyin
- Narrated by: Dipo Faloyin
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
So often, Africa has been depicted simplistically as a uniform land of famines and safaris, poverty and strife, stripped of all nuance. In this bold and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective, weaving a vibrant tapestry of stories that bring to life Africa's rich diversity, communities, and histories. Starting with an immersive description of the lively and complex urban life of Lagos, Faloyin unearths surprising truths about many African countries' colonial heritage and tells the story of the continent's struggles with democracy through seven dictatorships.
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Brilliant!
- By Jane on 01-26-23
By: Dipo Faloyin
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The First Wave
- The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day’s most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond.