Showing results by narrator "Michael Prichard" in All Categories

Against the backdrop of post-9/11 America, listeners are taken behind the scenes of some of the most important civil liberties cases in America. From the story of the "American Taliban" to the battle against the National Security Agency's warrantless spying program, In Defense of Our America tracks a roster of skirmishes in the larger fight for civil liberties in this country.

With wit and humor, rare candor, and a wealth of detail, Shrum vividly recounts the real personalities and real forces that shaped the outcome of the closest and most important elections of our time. We are there with him in the back rooms, on the planes, and in the motorcades with Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Twenty years ago, KGB and CIA agents worked together to bring down The Matarese, a dynasty of killers who threatened the world. But the terrifying group has regained its power. CIA officer Cameron Pryce is hot on the trail of the new Matarese alliance. His only chance to terminate its ruthless activities is to follow the trail of blood money and stone-cold killers. Then he gets a lucky break.

Filled with soldiers' letters, marked by humor, yearning, and courage, as well as Christmas poems and songs from the period, this is a tale of unabashed holiday spirit for our own divided nation.

In this revealing biography of the elder George Bush, Tom Wicker, a political correspondent for The New York Times for more than 30 years, draws a sympathetic and insightful portrait of the man at the helm of one of the most powerful families today.

Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell prided himself on being a hard-core Marinea patriotic Devil Dog on his third tour of Iraq. Then his brain was shredded with mortar shrapnel. Today, Maxwell has a large angry scar on the left side of his head. He forgets words, his wife has to read to him, and he drags one foot when he walks. Yet he works 12-hour days as commander of the Wounded Warrior Barracks at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. For these warriors, Iraq and Afghanistan will never quite be in the past.

In The Emergency State, leading global affairs commentator David C. Unger reveals the hidden costs of America's obsessive pursuit of absolute national security. In the decades since World War II, presidents from both parties have assumed broad war-making powers never intended by the Constitution and intervened abroad to preserve our credibility rather than our security, while trillions of tax dollars have been diverted from essential domestic needs to the Pentagon. Yet ironically, this pursuit has not just damaged our democracy and undermined our economic strength....

Shots ring out. A president dies. And a nation is plunged into psychosis. Don DeLillo's extraordinary Libra is a brilliant reimagining of the events and people surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Concentrating on the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald, some rogue former spooks unhappy with Kennedy's presidency, and Nicholas Branch, a CIA archivist trying to make sense of or draw inferences from the mass of information after the assassination, Libra presents an apologetically provocative picture of America.

Tyrell Hawthorne was a naval intelligence officer until his wife was murdered. Now Hawthorne has been called out of retirement for one last assignment. For he is the only man who can track down the world's most dangerous terrorist, Amaya Bajaratt, who has set in motion a chilling conspiracy that a desperate government cannot stop. Hawthorne must follow Amaya's serpentine trail to uncover the sinister network that exists to help this consummate killer.

In the annals of business trips gone horribly wrong, Evangeline Harker's journey to Romania on behalf of her employer, the popular television newsmagazine The Hour, deserves pride of place. Sent to Transylvania to scout out a possible story on a notorious Eastern European crime boss named Ion Torgu, she has found the true nature of Torgu's activities to be far more monstrous than anything her young journalist's mind could have imagined.

On May 29, 1914, after a collision in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Empress of Ireland sank in minutes, taking 1,012 passengers and crew to their deaths. The disaster shocked the world but then was forgotten with the torpedoing of the Lusitania and the engulfing cataclysm of World War I. Now, in Dark Descent, acclaimed author and diver Kevin McMurray revives the story of this forgotten maritime catastrophe.

Based on a cover story in the Harvard Business Review entitled "Maneuver Warfare", Leading to Win the Marine Corps Way shows business leaders and managers how to adopt the principles and strategies that have made the Marine Corps so successful. Written by a Wharton professor and two former marines who have now moved on to the business world, the book brings a consummate mix of business savvy and military know-how to bear on the challenges faced by today's managers.

As increasing focus is placed on fully utilizing and leveraging the value of employees, managers are finding that strong team leadership can be the answer to increasing productivity, reducing turnover, and boosting morale. Such an approach exists in today's military, where powerful leadership and effective teamwork are more than just concepts­­ - they're necessities. Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALs analyzes the leadership and team-building techniques and strategies of elite Navy SEAL units.

Still unsolved, still baffling, still claiming new victims. Here are the untold stories. A pilot reports a strange haze enveloping his plane, then disappears; 11 hours after fuel starvation, as if calling from a void, he is heard 600 miles away. He requests permission to land, then vanishes forever. A freighter steaming over placid seas disappears without a trace. A pleasure yacht ghosts past without a soul on board. A pilot calls for help because a "weird object" is harassing his plane. A jet collides with an "unknown" and is never found.

Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut. As Bill enters the world of political violence, a nightscape of Semtex explosives and hostages locked in basement rooms, Bill's dangerous passage leaves two people stranded: his brilliant, fixated assistant, Scott; and the strange young woman who is Scott's lover - and Bill's.