Burning the Books
Burning the Books

Author: Richard Ovenden

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0674241207

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The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia. Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point. Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process. More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.

The Ground Truth
The Ground Truth

Author: John Farmer

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2009-09-08

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1101152338

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From the senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, a mesmerizing real-time portrayal of that day, why we weren?t told the truth, and why our nation is still at risk. As one of the primary authors of the 9/11 Commission Report, John Farmer is proud of his and his colleagues? work. Yet he came away from the experience convinced that there was a further story to be told, one he was uniquely qualified to write. Now that story can be told. Tape recordings, transcripts, and contemporaneous records that had been classified have since been declassified, and the inspector general?s investigations of government conduct have been completed. Drawing on his knowledge of those sources, as well as his years as an attorney in public and private practice, Farmer reconstructs the truth of what happened on that fateful day and the disastrous circumstances that allowed it: the institutionalized disconnect between what those on the ground knew and what those in power did. He details ?terrifyingly and illuminatingly?the key moments in the years, months, weeks, and days that preceded the attacks, then descends almost in real time through the attacks themselves, portraying them as they have never before been seen. Ultimately, Farmer builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version not only is almost entirely untrue but serves to create a false impression of order and security. The ground truth that Farmer captures suggests a very different scenario?one that is doomed to be repeated unless the systemic failures he reveals are confronted and remedied.

America Is Under Attack
America Is Under Attack

Author: Don Brown

Publisher: Flash Point

Published: 2011-08-16

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 1466807954

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One of School Library Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011One of Horn Book's Best Nonfiction Books of 2011 On the ten year anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, a straightforward and sensitive book for a generation of readers too young to remember that terrible day. The events of September 11, 2001 changed the world forever. In the fourth installment of the Actual Times series, Don Brown narrates the events of the day in a way that is both accessible and understandable for young readers. Straightforward and honest, this account moves chronologically through the morning, from the terrorist plane hijackings to the crashes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania; from the rescue operations at the WTC site in New York City to the collapse of the buildings. Vivid watercolor illustrations capture the emotion and pathos of the tragedy making this an important book about an unforgettable day in American history.

Under Attack, Fighting Back
Under Attack, Fighting Back

Author: Mimi Abramovitz

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2000-03

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1583670084

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Abramovitz argues that welfare reform has penalized single motherhood; exposed poor women to the risks of hunger, hopelessness, and male violence: swept them into low paid jobs, and left many former recipients unable to make ends meet.".

Under Attack
Under Attack

Author: The World's Leading Experts

Publisher:

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780996688703

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The wording "Under Attack" implies a dangerous situation - one that signifies we are currently under assault. In this book, the Celebrity Experts(r) showcased are in the vanguard of protecting data and sensitive information under threat - the threat of digital information being made available to unscrupulous sources, and at times just pure vandalism. There are very few businesses, organizations or even individuals left in this country that don't use electronics today. The Electronic Revolution has been all-encompassing. Remaining vestiges of 'old world' practices - like manually writing or recording transactions or events, or the time-honored tradition of 'hiding money under the mattress' - have all but disappeared. So, along with the use of bows and arrows and pony dispatch riders, these are becoming historical markers strewn along the path of progress. The Celebrity Experts(r) in this book are people who are in business to protect digital information. In addition to unscrupulous sources that wish to profit from competitive information, businesses also have to deal with governmental regulations that ensure both consumers privacy as well as organizational transparency as well. Penalties for not adopting legislated governmental requirements in medical, financial and various other industries are severe. The information herein highlights the usefulness and ability of these experts - and their expertise is varied. We should not be surprised that electronic systems are "Under Attack," and also, that these Celebrity Experts(r) are not merely qualified, but more importantly, experienced in helping stave off the inevitable attacks that businesses, governments and organizations face daily. Using such expertise is a form of insurance, without which the cost of remediation can be devastatin

Learning from the Germans
Learning from the Germans

Author: Susan Neiman

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2019-08-27

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0374715521

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As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.

Pearl Harbor Betrayed
Pearl Harbor Betrayed

Author: Michael Gannon

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 146686818X

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A naval historian draws on newly revealed primary documents to shed light on the tragic errors that led to the devastating attack, Washington's role, and the man who took the fall for the Japanese tactical victory. Michael Gannon begins his authoritative account of the "impossible to forget" attack with the essential background story of Japan's imperialist mission and the United States' uncertain responses--especially two lost chances of delaying the inevitable attack until the military was prepared to defend Pearl Harbor. Gannon disproves two Pearl Harbor legends: first, that there was a conspiracy to withhold intelligence from the Pacific Commander in order to force a Pacific war, and second, that Admiral Kimmel was informed but failed to act. Instead, Gannon points to two critical factors ignored by others: that information about the attack gleaned from the "Magic" code intercepts was not sent to Admiral Kimmel, and that there was no possibility that Kimmel could have defended Pearl Harbor because the Japanese were militarily far superior to the American forces in December of 1941. Gannon has divided the story into three parts: the background, eyewitness accounts of the stunning Japanese tactical victory, and the aftermath, which focuses on the Commander, who was blamed for the biggest military disaster in American history. Pearl Harbor Betrayed sheds new light on a crucial and infamous moment in history.

Cross Channel Attack
Cross Channel Attack

Author: Gordon A. Harrison

Publisher: BDD Promotional Books Company

Published: 1993-12

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9780792458562

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Discusses the Allied invasion of Normandy, with extensive details about the planning stage, called Operation Overlord, as well as the fighting on Utah and Omaha Beaches.