Shocking Secrets of American History

Shocking Secrets of American History

Author: William Coate

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781567318975

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Offers historical anecdotes, little-known stories, and more than one hundred vignettes to provide an entertaining and informative look at five periods in American history.


The President's Book of Secrets

The President's Book of Secrets

Author: David Priess

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2016-03-01

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1610395964

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Every president has had a unique and complicated relationship with the intelligence community. While some have been coolly distant, even adversarial, others have found their intelligence agencies to be among the most valuable instruments of policy and power. Since John F. Kennedy's presidency, this relationship has been distilled into a personalized daily report: a short summary of what the intelligence apparatus considers the most crucial information for the president to know that day about global threats and opportunities. This top-secret document is known as the President's Daily Brief, or, within national security circles, simply "the Book." Presidents have spent anywhere from a few moments (Richard Nixon) to a healthy part of their day (George W. Bush) consumed by its contents; some (Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush) consider it far and away the most important document they saw on a regular basis while commander in chief. The details of most PDBs are highly classified, and will remain so for many years. But the process by which the intelligence community develops and presents the Book is a fascinating look into the operation of power at the highest levels. David Priess, a former intelligence officer and daily briefer, has interviewed every living president and vice president as well as more than one hundred others intimately involved with the production and delivery of the president's book of secrets. He offers an unprecedented window into the decision making of every president from Kennedy to Obama, with many character-rich stories revealed here for the first time.


Secrets of the Secret Service

Secrets of the Secret Service

Author: Gary J. Byrne

Publisher: Center Street

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1546082484

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From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller CRISIS OF CHARACTER comes an explosive new exposé of the Secret Service. The United States Secret Service is tasked with protecting our Presidents, their families, and the complex in which they live and work. Given this important mission, world stability rests upon the shoulders of its agents. In his new book, former Secret Service officer Gary Byrne takes readers behind the scenes to understand the agency's history and today's security failings that he believes put Americans at risk The American public knows the stories of Secret Service heroism, but they don't know about the hidden legacy of problems that have plagued the agency ever since its creation. Gary Byrne says that decades of catastrophic public failures, near misses, and bureaucratic and cultural rot threaten to erode this critical organization from the inside out. Today, as it works to protect President Trump, the Secret Service stands at a crossroads, and the time needed to choose the right course is running out. Agents and officers are leaving the Secret Service in droves, or they're being overworked to the point where they lose focus on the job. Management makes decisions based on politics, not the welfare of their employees. Byrne believes that this means danger for the men and women of the Secret Service, danger for the President they protect, and danger for the nation. In this book, he shares what he has witnessed and learned about the Secret Service with the hope that the problems of this most important agency can be fixed before it's too late.


American History Revised

American History Revised

Author: Seymour Morris, Jr.

Publisher: Broadway Books

Published: 2010-04-06

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0307587614

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“American History Revised is as informative as it is entertaining and humorous. Filled with irony, surprises, and long-hidden secrets, the book does more than revise American history, it reinvents it.”—James Bamford, bestselling author of The Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and The Shadow Factory This spirited reexamination of American history delves into our past to expose hundreds of startling facts that never made it into the textbooks, and highlights how little-known peopleand events played surprisingly influential roles in the great American story. We tend to think of history as settled, set in stone, but American History Revised reveals a past that is filled with ironies, surprises, and misconceptions. Living abroad for twelve years gave author Seymour Morris Jr. the opportunity to view his country as an outsider and compelled him to examine American history from a fresh perspective. As Morris colorfully illustrates through the 200 historical vignettes that make up this book, much of our nation’s past is quite different—and far more remarkable—than we thought. We discover that: • In the 1950s Ford was approached by two Japanese companies begging for a joint venture. Ford declined their offers, calling them makers of “tin cars.” The two companies were Toyota and Nissan. • Eleanor Roosevelt and most women’s groups opposed the Equal Rights Amendment forbidding gender discrimination. • The two generals who ended the Civil War weren’t Grant and Lee. • The #1 bestselling American book of all time was written in one day. • The Dutch made a bad investment buying Manhattan for $24. • Two young girls aimed someday to become First Lady—and succeeded. • Three times, a private financier saved the United States from bankruptcy. Organized into ten thematic chapters, American History Revised plumbs American history’s numerous inconsistencies, twists, and turns to make it come alive again.


A Cruel and Shocking Act

A Cruel and Shocking Act

Author: Philip Shenon

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 641

ISBN-13: 0805094202

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"Groundbreaking new history of the Kennedy assassination, investigative reporter and bestselling author Phil Shenon writes the ultimate inside account of what has become the most controversial murder investigation of the 20th century, the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Based on groundbreaking research, deep reporting, and unprecedented access, the book is character driven, dialogue rich, with facts and incidents that will stun and surprise."--


Shortfall

Shortfall

Author: Alice Echols

Publisher: The New Press

Published: 2017-10-03

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1620973049

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The rollicking true story of a 1930s version of Bernie Madoff—and the building and loan crash he helped precipitate—in a wonderful work of narrative nonfiction by the Gustavus Myers book award winner Shortfall opens with a surprise discovery in an attic—boxes filled with letters and documents hidden for more than seventy years—and launches into a fast-paced story that uncovers the dark secrets in Echols's family—an upside-down version of the building and loan story at the center of Frank Capra's 1946 movie, It's a Wonderful Life. In a narrative filled with colorful characters and profound insights into the American past, Shortfall is also the essential backstory to more recent financial crises, from the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s and 1990s to the subprime collapse of 2008. Shortfall chronicles the collapse of the building and loan industry during the Great Depression—a story told in microcosm through the firestorm that erupted in one hard-hit American city during the early 1930s. Over a six-month period in 1932, all four of the building and loan associations in Colorado Springs, Colorado, crashed in an awful domino-like fashion, leaving some of the town's citizens destitute. The largest of these associations was owned by author Alice Echols's grandfather, Walter Davis, who absconded with millions of dollars in a case that riveted the national media. This book tells the dramatic story of his rise and shocking fall.


Secret Lives of the Civil War

Secret Lives of the Civil War

Author: Cormac O'Brien

Publisher: Quirk Books

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9781594741388

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Provides the birth and death dates, astrological sign, nicknames, famous words, and little-known or bizarre facts about the lives of over twenty-five people on the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War.


Secret Lives of the First Ladies

Secret Lives of the First Ladies

Author: Cormac O'Brien

Publisher: Quirk Books

Published: 2010-07-01

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 1594744785

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These collected biographies on the wacky secrets and scandals of the first ladies of the United States casts American history in a whole new light Whether she’s a leading lady, loyal spouse, or lightning rod for scandal, the First Lady of the United States has always been in the spotlight—and in 2017 that was truer than ever. This revised and expanded edition from Quirk’s best-selling Secret Lives series features outrageous and uncensored profiles of the women of the White House, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump, it comes complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts. Did you know that: • Dolley Madison loved to chew tobacco • Mary Todd Lincoln conducted séances on a regular basis • Eleanor Roosevelt and Ellen Wilson both carried guns • Jacqueline Kennedy spent $121,000 on her wardrobe in a single year • Betty Ford liked to chat on CB radios—her handle was “First Mama” With chapters on every woman who’s ever made it to the White House, Secret Lives of the First Ladies tackles all the tough questions that other history books are afraid to ask: How many of these women owned slaves? Which ones were cheating on their husbands? And why was Eleanor Roosevelt serving hot dogs to the King and Queen of England? American history was never this much fun in school!


Enemies

Enemies

Author: Bill Gertz

Publisher: Forum Books

Published: 2006-09-19

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0307381110

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It’s the great untold story of the war on terror. Taking advantage of gaping holes in America’s defenses, terrorist organizations and enemy nations like Communist China, North Korea, Russia, and Cuba—not to mention some so-called friends—are infiltrating the U.S. government to steal our most vital secrets and use them against us. And most astonishing of all, our leaders are letting it happen. In the explosive new book Enemies, acclaimed investigative reporter Bill Gertz uncovers the truth about this grave threat to our national security and America’s harrowing failures to address the danger. Gertz’s unrivaled access to the U.S. intelligence and defense communities allows him to tell the whole shocking story, based on previously unpublished classified documents and dozens of exclusive interviews with senior government and intelligence officials. He takes us deep inside the dark world of intelligence and counterintelligence—a world filled with lies and betrayal, spies sleeping with enemy spies, and moles burrowing within the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, and even the White House. Enemies stunningly reveals: • The untold story of one of the most damaging enemy spy penetrations in U.S. history—and how the FBI bungled the investigation • How Communist China’s intelligence and influence operations may have reached the highest levels of the U.S. government • Why Russia has as many spies in America today as it did at the height of the Cold War • How al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups use official identification, uniforms, and vehicles to infiltrate secure areas and carry out attacks • How some thirty-five terrorist groups are targeting the United States through espionage • A startling account of the many enemy spies the U.S. has let get away • How a Cuban mole operated high up in the Pentagon for sixteen years • The gross ineptness that led U.S. officials to hound an innocent man while the real mole operated right under their noses • Why aggressive counterintelligence represents the only real defense against terrorists and enemy spies—and why the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy resists it Delivering the kind of shocking new information that led Washington Monthly magazine to declare him “legendary among national security reporters,” Bill Gertz opens our eyes as never before to deadly threats and counterintelligence failures that place every American at risk. America’s enemies, including terrorist organizations, are stealing our most vital secrets to use against us—and the U.S. government makes it shockingly easy for them to do so. Filled with headline-making revelations from acclaimed reporter Bill Gertz, Enemies reveals the frightening untold story of the War on Terror. Also available as an eBook