Old Political

Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

As one of just a few judges licensed to try murder cases at the Old Bailey, the author has presided over many of the high-profile cases that all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines—for every unlawful death tells a story. But, unlike most of us, a judge doesn't get to turn the page and move on. Nor does the defendant, or the family of the victim, nor the many other people who populate the court room. Peeling apart six dramatic murder and manslaughter cases, Unlawful Killings removes this distinction between 'them' and 'us'.

Paul Samson is living in London and picking up some extra work for a private security company when he is almost killed by a thuggish assassin while tailing a mysterious and gifted young employee of a powerful environmental NGO. The murder of legendary spy Robert Harland, the poisoning of billionaire philanthropist Denis Hisami with a neurotoxin in the United States House of Representatives, and a second attempt on Samson's own life send him on the run to Estonia to figure out who is trying to kill him, and why.

Long before the United States had presidents from the world of movies and reality TV, we had scores of politicians with connections to country music. In I'd Fight the World, Peter La Chapelle traces the deep bonds between country music and politics. These performers and politicians both rode and resisted cultural waves: some advocated for the poor and dispossessed, and others voiced religious and racial anger, but they all walked the line between exploiting their celebrity and righteously taking on the world.

Donald Trump's insurgent candidacy and subsequent presidency are larger than the man. He has ridden a wave of populist anger, conservatism, and fervor for reform that is aimed directly at The Swamp: the entrenched powers-that-be in Washington and elsewhere, the Old Order of an elite government-media-academia triad.

Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining thousands of acres of their homeland in what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Their success rested partly on their roles as sellers of natural resources and buyers of trade goods, which made them key players in the political economy of plunder that drove white settlement and US development in the Old Northwest. But, as Michael Witgen demonstrates, the credit for Native persistence rested with the Anishinaabeg themselves.

An examination of a world increasingly defined by disorder and a United States unable to shape the world in its image, from the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. The rules, policies, and institutions that have guided the world since World War II have largely run their course. Respect for sovereignty alone cannot uphold order in an age defined by global challenges from terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons to climate change and cyberspace. Meanwhile, great power rivalry is returning.

Ruari, son of Irish media owner J J Breslin, is in desperate danger, at the mercy of ruthless kidnappers making impossible demands. His terrified mother contacts the only person she knows can help her son: Harry Jones, her former lover, who she walked out on many years ago. Now memories of their passionate affair, the guilt, hurt, anger, and humiliation come flooding back.

Colin Kahl and Thomas Wright's Aftershocks offers a riveting and comprehensive account of one of the strangest and most consequential years on record. Drawing on interviews with officials from around the world and extensive research, the authors tell the story of how nationalism and major power rivalries constrained the response to the worst pandemic in a century. They demonstrate the myriad ways in which the crisis exposed the limits of the old international order and how the reverberations from COVID-19 will be felt for years to come.

It’s no secret that our country has a serious problem when it comes to wealth inequality–and systemic racism and patriarchy have only exacerbated the advantages of wealthy white men. Over the past three decades, America’s richest white men have only become richer, while those suffering in poverty have only gotten poorer. The divide may seem too great to bridge, but Rich White Men exposes the hidden and insidious ways that white male elites inherit, increase, and preserve their status—and, in this book, we get clear on how to uproot their monopoly on power.

It didn't begin with Donald Trump. Since the time of FDR, the Republican Party has been home to conspiracy thinking, including a belief that lost elections were rigged. And when Republicans later won the White House, the party elevated their presidents to heroic status—a predisposition that eventually posed a threat to democracy. John Kenneth White proposes to explain why this happened—not just the election of Trump, but the authoritarian shift in the party as a whole that led to the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and its aftermath.

Political Research Design and the Science of Politics offers listeners detailed information about the basic principles and nuances of developing empirical research design procedures to predict and describe political phenomena. In chronicling the predominant approaches used in empirical political research, the strengths and limitations of various research strategies are contrasted. Major controversies in contemporary political science are discussed.

In November 1956, a unified Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh came into being. In February 2014, Parliament bifurcated it to create two Telugu-speaking states: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Old History, New Geography provides the context, text and subtext to the bifurcation, which continues to be contentious and controversial.

Royal protocol dictated that the king exit the car last. But as the important man was about to emerge, a hail of gunfire erupted, spraying the royal Hummer. Alone, in a foreign city, he seeks temporary refuge in the Good Burger diner. Here he meets Lom, a crazy Korean War vet, who misses his old life of danger and intrigue.

Old Silk Road is a prescient, powerful novel of the Afghan war by someone who's been there. Norman "Doc" Rodgers suspects he won't make it out of this one alive. He's a young combat medic in Afghanistan, eager to avenge his father's death in the World Trade Center and make sense of a new world that feels like it's fallen to pieces. Haunted by hallucinatory encounters, his only solace is a barely concealed addiction to the precious opiates he's supposed to dole out sparingly to those beyond aid.

The Old Man and His Mango Tree: Deep Roots is a profound, relevant, and heart-felt tale about a man named Mr. Munoz who refused to allow the last remaining mango tree of his beloved country to be uprooted, as had already been done with much of the country’s cultural identity in the mission to erase their entire heritage. Much like the deeply rooted, blooming mango tree, he stood rooted, firm and unmovable. Inspired by Mr. Munoz’s tenacity and outraged at the adversary’s audacity, his nephew hatches what just might be a solution to the depressing invasion on their nation.

In The Grouchy Historian, Ed Asner leads the charge for liberals to reclaim the Constitution from the right-wingers who use it as their justification for doing whatever terrible thing they want to do, which is usually to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. It's about time someone gave them hell and explained that Progressives can read, too.

2016 has been one of the most unusual election years, and nothing represents the unprecedented nature more than the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, which featured more than 15 candidates. As with most years, several candidates with various political experience, from former and current governors to Congressmen and Senators, ran, but the race also featured a number of political novices, one of whom became the party’s nominee.

Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and James Monroe were in the vanguard of revolutionary ideas in the 18th century. As founding fathers, they risked their lives for American independence, but they also wanted more. Each wished for profound changes in the political and social fabric of pre-1776 America and hoped that the American Revolution would spark republican and egalitarian revolutions throughout Europe, sweeping away the old aristocratic order. Ultimately, each rejoiced at the opportunity to be a part of the French Revolution, a cause that became increasingly untenable as idealism gave way to the bloody terror.

In cultures that champion the individual, guilt is advertised as the cornerstone of conscience. Yet while guilt holds individuals to personal standards, it proves impotent in the face of corrupt corporate policies. In recent yearswe have been asked to assuage our guilt about these problems as consumers by buying organic foods or fair-trade products, for example. Yet unless nearly everyone participates, the impact of individual consumer consciousness is microscopic.