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How can you achieve victory in war if you don't have a clear idea of your political objectives and a vision of what victory means? In this provocative challenge to US policy and strategy, Donald Stoker argues that America endures endless wars because its leaders no longer know how to think about war, particularly limited wars.

When Columbus triumphantly returned from America to Spain in 1493, his discoveries inflamed an already smoldering conflict between Spain's renowned monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Portugal's João II. Which nation was to control the world's oceans? To quell the argument, Pope Alexander VI issued a proclamation laying the foundation for the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, an edict that created an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean dividing the entire known (and unknown) world between Spain and Portugal.

Identity Crisis takes listeners from the bruising primaries to an election night whose outcome defied the predictions of the pollsters and pundits. The book shows how fundamental characteristics of the nation and its politics - the state of the economy, the Obama presidency, and the demographics of the political parties - combined with the candidates' personalities and rhetoric to produce one of the most unexpected presidencies in history.

In a career defined by an allegiance to the truth, Charles Bowden's reporting continually unearthed the gritty realities behind high-profile hype, including the doomed war on drugs. His daring expeditions to Ciudad Juárez, which resulted in such books as his best-seller Murder City, left him with haunting images of ruthless drug lords and their prey. In Jericho, an unpublished work brought to light after Bowden's death in 2014, he captures the monumental corruption and addiction to power that fuel Mexico's drug cartels.

As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn't seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer's greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge, and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood.

The celebrated author of over twenty-five books, Vollmann's equally ambitious and prolific career as a photographer, printmaker, and painter reflects the artist's deep interest in people existing on the margins, a profound empathy for his subjects, and the humility and generosity to meet them on their terms. In Shadows of Love, Shadows of Loneliness, a series of essays commissioned especially for this book lays out Vollmann's views on what photographs can and should say.

After barely making it out of their latest task alive, Noah, Ben, and the rest of Head Case’s crew are ready for a break. The Warden has other ideas. He orders them to another random planet to complete another random task, and while it’s easier than the one they just finished, it’s not going to get them any closer to going home. But things have changed. Armed with new capabilities, the team hatches a plan to both satisfy the Warden and make their first move to break free of his grip. When new revelations spiral into a deal with the devil, it may cost Noah much more than his soul…

Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans—black and white—responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the quest of emancipated slaves’ searching for economic autonomy and equal citizenship, and describes the remodeling of Southern society; the evolution of racial attitudes and patterns of race relations; and the emergence of a national state possessing vastly expanded authority and one committed, for a time, to the principle of equal rights for all Americans.

For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants, and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These "agents of inequality" are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01 percent.

Marine Lieutenant Jacob Brown was on borrowed time, and he knew it. He was a rogue element, disobeying orders and pursuing mission goals of his own. His Scout Team had been burned, disavowed by his chain of command and the owner of the stolen ship he was flying was after them to get it back. To make matters even more complicated, the man Jacob had stolen the ship from is an infamous outlaw and mercenary named Jason Burke...his father.

There is a fine line between right and wrong, good and evil. For years Jason Burke has straddled that line as best he can, always convinced that despite the violence carried out by him and his team they were firmly on the right side of that line. But as he reflects on his time with Omega Force, he begins to have his doubts. When strange happenings from the mysterious Avarian Empire cross the expanse and Jason and Omega Force are pulled into the conflict, they must pick sides between two superpowers

Marine First Lieutenant Jacob Brown is bored. For months he's been sitting around on an alien planet, waiting for command to recall his scout team so they could rest and be re-outfitted. When command finally does reach out, however, it isn't to order Obsidian home for some much needed r&r. Instead, they are being reactivated and sent out into the contested space of the recently conquered Eshquarian Empire to track down a single Terran cruiser called the Eagle's Talon.

First, do no harm - doctors, nurses, and clinicians swear by this code of conduct. Yet in hospitals and doctors' offices across the country, errors are made every single day - avoidable, simple mistakes that often cost lives. Inspired by two medical mistakes that not only ended in unnecessary deaths but hit close to home, Dr. Peter Pronovost made it his personal mission to improve patient safety and make preventable deaths a thing of the past, one hospital at a time.

Alien tech discovered. The race to claim it could spark a new kind of War. When a derelict alien starship appears in the solar system and crash-lands on Mars, it ignites a desperate race to be the first to reach the Red Planet to claim the mysterious technological treasures of the Visitor. Space Force General Tom Bradstreet, ace Air Force fighter pilot and the only active-duty officer with actual space combat experience, is given control of the Morrigan, the first manned mission to Mars—and the first space warship.

After the daring rescue of a political dissident, Omega Force is contracted to investigate a rash of violent attacks on civilian shipping lanes within a group of star systems known as the Concordian Cluster. It seems a simple enough job with a huge payday at the end, and it's exactly what the ragtag group of mercenaries needs in order to keep their ship flying and to stay one step ahead of those hunting them.

Jason Burke is a broken man. The loss of his friend and crewmate on an ill-fated mission to a Pillar World has left him in a downward spiral of rage and self-destruction. But what if Lucky hadn’t actually died on that planet? While Omega Force tries to pull itself together for the sake of their friend, they also learn that a ruthless new faction has seized control of the ConFed Council and now threatens the stability of the entire quadrant. To make matters worse, the rise of this new regime might be their fault.

Mercenary life is hard. No home. No family. Always looking over your shoulder, likely for the rest of your life. When you find a crew that you can trust, you do anything for them. Jason Burke has a crew like that. He would kill for them...and he would die for them. Right now, they need his help, and it will take all of his cunning and skill to bring them home safely. He is alone, without his powerful ship, the Phoenix, and the criminal cartels he’s going up against are some of the most ruthless in the galaxy. For Captain Burke it’s all or nothing: bring his friends home safe...or die trying.

Rumors have swirled around about the demise of the ConFed for as long as Jason Burke had been in space, a lone human among countless alien species. He largely ignored them...until now. For the first time since any of the members of Omega Force can remember, someone may have figured out how to destroy the ConFed without directly engaging its powerful military. As one crewmember's past seems connected to the current trouble, Jason must decide what side of the fight he's on....

Trapped on the other side of the galaxy, Ben, Noah, and their companions are dragged into the midst of war by the mysterious Warden. Relentlessly hunted, they must choose the best of bad options and learn the ultimate lesson to prevail.

Although there are many kinds of love, erotic love has been celebrated in art and poetry as life's most rewarding and exalting experience, worth living and dying for and bringing out the best in ourselves. And yet it has excused, and even been thought to justify, the most reprehensible crimes.