For fourteen years he has kept the demons at bay. The former SAS sergeant from Ulster has renounced the gun. With help from the bottle and a village girl, he devotes his life to others in war-torn Mozambique. But as the terror spreads, he must fight again. Plunged into the savage cauldron of Africa's killing fields, he confronts two very different but equally implacable enemies.
He pays his debts with hot lead! This is the story of a kid who turns killer, a boy who grows to manhood long before his time. Seeing no justice in the land, he takes the law into his own lightning swift hands.The legend that grows around Billy Bascom is born the day they planted the cross that read: 'Here lie Ben Ober and Jim Boone; hanged for cattle rustling May 14, 1880.'There should have been a third name on that board: that of Billy Bascom. But the kid had been rescued from Jason Ryan's lynch party just in time. The thirst to avenge the death of his friends, and the murder of his saviour, has changed Billy into New Mexico's most ruthless gunslinger.And no man is going to be his undoing.
In this epochal historical novel, Professor Modey takes another look at both the European slave trade to Africa and plantation slavery in the New World, both are old subjects. He dramatizes an imaginary journey of apology and shows how a delegation from fundamentalist groups from the former Old South traveled to Africa to show genuine remorse, make atonement and ask for reconciliation from the chiefs. He points out how the Europeans and Americans, who had the lions share of the trade and made tons of wealth from it, must go past the sugar coated words of apology---make atonement for the profane past and ask for final reconciliation. He points out in the book that regardless of what people think, Africans did not invite the Europeans to their shores to buy their blood brothers and sisters. The Oburonis just showed up in Africa, but claimed that they just stumbled upon the continent. They imposed the slave trade on the African people using their guns and cannons to force the chiefs to exchange prisoners of war for guns, broadcloth and rum. So he said Africans are the victims and should not be going around doing all the apologizing and performing atonement rituals. The opposition to the slave trade from the African chiefs and kings is well-dramatized in the historical novel. He discusses the physical and demographic effects of the mfecane in detail. He demonstrated that the most lasting impacts are the psychological scars---inferiority complex in Africans everywhere and institutionalized racism across the globe. Hence the struggles to overcome the forces---betrayal, disunity, distrust and, unlike the recent economic success of Asian nations, the African leaders inability to experience similar success in the modern global economy effectively, he blames on the Americans and Europeans because of the stigma. He discusses efforts to apologize for the slave trade---the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Southern Baptists, the USA Congress and Senate, several American states such as Virginia, North Carolina and New Jersey. But Professor Modey points out that, instead of sweet sugar-coated words of apologies, the African leaders need atonement---help for Africa to heal from the lingering effects of the notorious slave trade. But he wants the Europeans and Americans to put Africa back where it once was before their ancestors came and decimated the continent with the wicked trade and destroyed the continent at iconoclastic proportions. Though the setting of the book is the Panfest festival at Cape Coast, Ghana, highlighting the dungeons, the Palaver Hall, the Portuguese chapels, the cannons, the lighthouse and the Shrine of Music, the author uses Memphis, Tennessee to demonstrate the lingering impact of plantation slavery on the Africans in the Diaspora. The author dramatizes how time is running out for atonement and present scenarios of remarkable disastrous consequences if the descendants of the former slave trades and plantation slave owners refuse to atone for the profane past. In spite of his drama of disasters and turmoil emanating from the restless souls of the dearly departed, the book, however, ends on a note of optimism about the future---Africa shall rise and the world would eventual emerge from the ashes of the greatest calamity in global history.
The National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller that became a guide and balm for a country struggling to understand the election of Donald Trump "A generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party. . . . This is a smart, respectful and compelling book." —Jason DeParle, The New York Times Book Review When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, a bewildered nation turned to Strangers in Their Own Land to understand what Trump voters were thinking when they cast their ballots. Arlie Hochschild, one of the most influential sociologists of her generation, had spent the preceding five years immersed in the community around Lake Charles, Louisiana, a Tea Party stronghold. As Jedediah Purdy put it in the New Republic, "Hochschild is fascinated by how people make sense of their lives. . . . [Her] attentive, detailed portraits . . . reveal a gulf between Hochchild's 'strangers in their own land' and a new elite." Already a favorite common read book in communities and on campuses across the country and called "humble and important" by David Brooks and "masterly" by Atul Gawande, Hochschild's book has been lauded by Noam Chomsky, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, and countless others. The paperback edition features a new afterword by the author reflecting on the election of Donald Trump and the other events that have unfolded both in Louisiana and around the country since the hardcover edition was published, and also includes a readers' group guide at the back of the book.
This fascinating book is a travelog written by W. S. C. Russell. He managed to successfully explore nearly all parts of Iceland on horseback. Amongst the places he visited were the following: Faroe, Reykjavik, Gullfoss, Thingvellir, and Hekla.
This book examines the dynamics that lead to anger in individuals, within groups, and between groups; identifies the role of the media in angry group behavior; and offers solutions for dealing with angry groups and channeling that negative energy in positive ways. In today's society, we see angry groups in many forms—from animal rights and climate crisis activists to citizens opposed to allowing more immigrants of certain ethnicities or religions into the country, militia groups frustrated by acts of domestic terrorism and legislation that limits gun ownership and the ability to carry weapons in public, and those outraged by what they see as police brutality or the unnecessary use of deadly force against people of color. More than just evidence of civil unrest in society, angry groups across history and nations often ultimately affect our politics and our government, for better or worse, and sometimes result in injury, bloodshed, or financial costs that hit otherwise-uninvolved taxpayers. This book demonstrates how people across our nation are involved in, affected by, or harmed by angry groups; covers historical and modern perspectives on angry groups; ands offers suggestions for predicting and influencing the expression of angry group behavior. It provides readers with an understanding of such conflicts and of their origins and dynamics that may offer insights to successful resolution, and it identifies strategies that can reduce the suffering that comes from such conflicts.
Based on the latest scholarship by experts in the field, this work provides an accessible guide to the Crusades fought for the liberation and defense of the Holy Land—one of the most enduring and consequential conflicts of the medieval world. The Crusades to the Holy Land were one of the most important religious and social movements to emerge over the course of the Middle Ages. The warfare of the Crusades affected nearly all of Western Europe and involved members of social groups from kings and knights down to serfs and paupers. The memory of this epic long-ago conflict affects relations between the Western and Islamic worlds in the present day. The Crusades to the Holy Land: The Essential Reference Guide provides almost 90 A–Z entries that detail the history of the Crusades launched from Western Europe for the liberation or defense of the Holy Land, covering the inception of the movement by Pope Urban II in 1095 up to the early 14th century. This concise single-volume work provides accessible articles and perspective essays on the main Crusade expeditions as well as the important crusaders, countries, places, and institutions involved. Each entry is accompanied by references for further reading. Readers will follow the career of Saladin from humble beginnings to becoming ruler of Syria and Egypt and reconquering almost all of the Holy Land from its Christian rulers; learn about the main sites and characteristics of the castles that were crucial to the Christian domination of the Holy Land; and understand the key aspects of crusading, from motivation and recruitment to practicalities of finance and transport. The reference guide also includes survey articles that provide readers with an overview of the original source materials written in Latin, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian, and Syriac.
