We have for years needed a serious, scholarly, readable work on the Confederate nation that rounds up modem scholarship and offers a fresh and detached view of the whole subject. This work fills that order admirably ... [Thomas] sensibly and deftly integrates the course of Southern military fortunes with the concerns that shaped them and were shaped by them. In doing so he also manages to convey a sense of how the war itself deteriorated from something spirited and gallant to something base and mean and modern on both sides.

The intriguing, never-before-fully-told story of how Theodore Roosevelt helped tosave the game that would become America's most popular sport.In its infancy during the late nineteenth century,the game of football was still a work in progress thatonly remotely resembled the sport millions followtoday. There was no common agreement about many ofthe game's basic rules, and it was incredibly violent andextremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, thisnew game grew popular even as the number of casualtiesrose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozensdied playing football in highly publicized incidents, oftenat America's top prep schools and colleges.Objecting to the sport's brutality, a movement ofproto-Progressives led by Harvard University presidentCharles W. Eliot tried to abolish the game. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt, a vocal advocate of the strenuouslife and a proponent of risk, acknowledged football's dangers but admired its potential for building character. A longtime fan of the game who purposely recruited menwith college football experience for his Rough Riders,Roosevelt fought to preserve the game's manly essence,even as he understood the need for reform.In 1905, he summoned the coaches of Harvard, Yale,and Princeton to the White House and urged them to act.The result was the establishment of the National CollegiateAthletic Association, as well as a series of rule changes including the advent of the forward pass that ultimatelysaved football and transformed it into the quintessentialAmerican game. The Big Scrum reveals for the first timethe fascinating details of this little-known story of sportshistory.

Football games aren’t won on Sundays in the fall. They’re won on draft day in the spring—in the war room. In this landmark book, New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley takes readers behind the scenes of three contending National Football League teams and into the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his two former protégés Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli. Holley masterfully shows how a single idea conceived by Belichick in 1991—how to build the perfect team—triggered a journey filled with miraculous finishes, heartbreaking losses, broken relationships, and Super Bowl championships. Readers are given unprecedented access—from the draft room to the locker room to the sidelines—and insights into why Belichick is considered to be the NFL’s best coach and premier strategist. Before he achieved success, though, Belichick was barely surviving as a coach. War Room opens in Cleveland, where Belichick, a young head coach, worked in an office with two employees in their late twenties: Pioli, a low-paid scouting assistant, and Dimitroff, a groundskeeper and part-time scout. After Belichick was fired by the Browns in 1996, the three men were in separate cities and seemingly a lifetime away from being recognized as leaders and champions. But soon they were reunited in New England, where they refined and burnished Belichick’s method for constructing a winning team, overseeing one of the greatest franchises in modern NFL history. These three master strategists are now competitors. Belichick continues at the helm of the New England Patriots, while Pioli is now in charge of the Kansas City Chiefs and Dimitroff is running the Atlanta Falcons. And even though they no longer work for the same franchise, they do have a common goal: building the perfect team, one draft pick and one trade at a time. War Room is their unique and often astonishing story. It is packed with never-been-told anecdotes and new observations from team officials, players, coaches, and scouts, all leading to surprising and groundbreaking insights into the art of building a champion.

Have iPads replaced conversation at the dinner tableWhat do infants observe when their parents are on their smartphonesShould you be your child's Facebook friendAs the focus of family has turned to the glow of the screen children constantly texting their friends, parents working online around the clock everyday life is undergoing a massive transformation. Easy availability to the Internet and social media has erased the boundaries that protect children from the unsavory aspects of adult life. Parents often feel they are losing a meaningful connection with their children. Children are feeling lonely and alienated. The digital world is here to stay, but what are families losing with technology's gain?As renowned clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair explains, families are in crisis around this issue, and even more so than they realize. Not only do chronic tech distractions have deep and lasting effects, but children desperately need parents to provide what tech cannot: close, significant interactions with the adults in their lives. Drawing on real-life stories from her clinical work with children and parents, and her consulting work with educators and experts across the country, Steiner-Adair offers insights and advice that can help parents achieve greater under-standing, authority, and confidence as they come up against the tech revolution unfolding in their living rooms.We all know that deep connection with the people we love means everything to us. It's time to look with fresh eyes and an open mind at the disconnection we are experiencing from our extreme device dependence. It's never too late to put down the iPad and come to the dinner table.

On November 28, 1979, squadron commander and Navy pilot Peter Rodrick died when his plane crashed in the Indian Ocean. He was just thirty-six and had been the commanding officer of his squadron for 127 days. Eight thousand miles away on Whidbey Island, near Seattle, he left behind a grief-stricken wife, two daughters, and a thirteenyear-old son who would grow up to be a writer one who was drawn, perhaps inevitably, to write about his father, his family, and the devastating consequences of military service.In The Magical Stranger, Stephen Rodrick explores the life and death of the man who indelibly shaped his life, even as he remained a mystery: brilliant but unknowable, sacred but absent an apparition gone 200 days of the year for much of his young son's life a born leader who gave his son little direction. Through adolescence and into adulthood, Rodrick struggled to grasp fully the reality of his father's death and its permanence. Peter's picture and memory haunted the family home, but his name was rarely mentioned.To better understand his father and his own experience growing up without him, Rodrick turned to today's members of his father's former squadron, spending nearly two years with VAQ-135, the World-Famous Black Ravens.His travels take him around the world, from Okinawa and Hawaii to Bahrain and the Persian Gulf but always back to Whidbey Island, the setting of his family's own story. As he learns more about his father, he also uncovers the layers of these sailors' lives: their brides and girlfriends, friendships, dreams, disappointments and the consequences of their choices on those they leave behind.A penetrating, thoughtful blend of memoir and reportage, The Magical Stranger is a moving reflection on the meaning of service and the power of a father's legacy.

In politics, finding the dirt is a multimillion-dollar business.It’s called opposition research oppo” to insiders. Few Americans are aware of its existence, yet oppo has become an integral part of the campaign process, hastening the implosion of countless office-seekers around the country.For nearly two decades, former journalists Alan Huffman and Michael Rejebian have been uncovering the buried truths about political candidates, from presidential appointees all the way down to local school-board hopefuls. We’re with Nobody is the eye-opening account of their life as opposition researchers a remarkable adventure across the American political landscape and through the often seamy underbelly of U.S. politics. From doing battle with reluctant, sometimes purposefully misleading bureaucrats to arriving in an unmarked police car for a clandestine meeting on the New Jersey waterfront, We’re with Nobody offers readers a revealing slice of national and political life: a close-up look at today’s political process, the fallible men and women we often choose to represent us and the little-understood industry of trying to bring candidates’ weaknesses to light.

A revised edition of the first book of poems by Stephen Mitchell, the renowned translator of Rilke's poetry, The Book of Job, and the Tao Te Ching. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Evidence of the Afterlife shares the firsthand accounts of people who have died and lived to tell about it. Through their work at the Near Death Experience Research Foundation, radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long and his wife, Jody, have gathered thousands of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) from all over the world. In addition to sharing the personal narrative of their experiences, visitors to the website are asked to fill out a one hundred item questionnaire designed to isolate specific elements of the experience and to flag counterfeit accounts.The website has become the largest NDE research database in the world, containing over 1,600 NDE accounts. The people whose stories are captured in the database span all age groups, races, and religious affiliations and come from all over the world, yet the similarities in their stories are as awe-inspiring as they are revealing. Using this treasure trove of data, Dr. Long explains how medical evidence fails to explain these reports and why there is only one plausible explanation that people have survived death and traveled to another dimension.

Intended as a comprehensive resource for designers, creative professionals, marketers, and retailers, The Big Book of Packaging contains 384 pages of the most innovative packaging designs from around the world. With over 500 featured designs and profiles of twelve of the world's leading designers, the book is a must-have resource for anyone interested in the future of packaging and design. In light of the recent lift in environmental consciousness, this volume of the Big Book Series will devote one third of its content to the increasingly important subject of green packaging-showing designers and retailers how to package their products creatively, responsibly, and at low cost, factors that will be reflected in the books own packaging/binding as well.The Big Book of Packaging will appeal to designers, students, marketers, retailers, and aesthetes alike, providing a thorough look at what goes into building an effective package and how to think "outside the box."

A collection of eighty all new poems, Acolytes is distinctly Nikki Giovanni, but different. Not softened, but more inspired by love, celebration, memories and even nostalgia. She aims her intimate and sparing words at family and friends, the deaths of heroes and friends, favorite meals and candy, nature, libraries, and theatre. But in between, the deep and edgy conscience that has defined her for decades shines through when she writes about Rosa Parks, hurricane Katrina, and Emmett Till's disappearance, leaving no doubt that Nikki has not traded one approach for another, but simply made room for both.

On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. Lincoln's murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. His final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry him home on the 1,600-mile trip to Springfield. Along the way, more than a million Americans looked upon their martyr's face, and several million watched the funeral train roll by. It was the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history.To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor. He became a murderer, a wanted man with a $100,000 bounty on his head. Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause. The saga that began with Manhunt continues with the suspenseful and electrifying Bloody Crimes. James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

A stirring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of music, Violins of Hope tells the remarkable stories of violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust and of the Israeli violinmaker dedicated to bringing these inspirational instruments back to life.The violin has formed an important aspect of Jewish culture for centuries, both as a popular instrument with Jewish classical musicians and as a central part of social life, as in the Klezmer tradition. But during the Holocaust, the violin assumed extraordinary roles within the Jewish community. For some musicians, the instrument was a liberator; for others, it was a savior that spared their lives. For many, the violin provided comfort in mankind's darkest hour, and, in at least one case, a violin helped avenge murdered family members. Above all, the violins of the Holocaust represented strength and optimism for the future.Today, these instruments serve as powerful reminders of an unimaginable experience they are memorials to those who perished and testaments to those who survived. In this spirit, renowned Israeli violinmaker Amnon Weinstein has devoted the past twenty years to restoring the violins of the Holocaust as a tribute to those who were lost, including four hundred of his own relatives. Behind each of these violins is a uniquely fascinating and inspiring story. Juxtaposing these narratives against one man's harrowing struggle to reconcile his own family's history and the history of his people, this insightful, moving, and achingly human book presents a new way of understanding the Holocaust.

From Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate charles simic comes a dazzling collection of poems as original, meditative, and humorous as the poet himselfThis latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic, one of America's most celebrated poets, demonstrates his revered signature style a mix of wry melancholy and sardonic wit. These seventy luminous poems range in subject from mortality to personal ads, from the simple wonders of nature to his childhood in war-torn Yugoslavia.For more than fifty years, Simic has delighted readers with his innovative form, quiet humor, and his rare ability to limn our interior life and concisely capture the depth of human emotion. These stunning, succinct poems validate and reinforce Simic's importance and relevance in modern poetry.

Alana Stewart and Farrah Fawcett went through it all together. Friends for thirty years, they were an essential part of each other's lives since first meeting at a dinner party in the 1970s. During that time, they supported each other through the trials of Hollywood life while also raising their families, keeping in close contact. But in the fall of 2006, a test of their friendship arose unlike any other they'd faced: Farrah was diagnosed with aggressive rectal cancer. She was determined to fight, and Alana was determined to help her. Together, they were relentless in their pursuit of a cure, traveling halfway around the world as they sought every mainstream, alternative, and experimental therapy available. In all, they spent the better part of the next three years together - Alana by her friend's side as they struggled hand in hand with the unknown. Now, in these intimate and personal diaries, Alana shares her thoughts on the events of the last three years, documenting the journey she and Farrah embarked on as they prayed for a miracle. Reflecting back on the three decades they shared, Alana details what she's learned about her friend and herself as they battled through the trials of this illness. From the importance of selflessness, to the undeniable value of faith, to the remarkable resilience of the human spirit, Alana's day-to-day entries reveal a side of these two friends that the world has never seen. Even in the face of this debilitating disease, Farrah's courage and determination continues to teach us about life . . . and love. Writing candidly about aging, marriage, motherhood, and faith--all topics she and Farrah dealt with together over the years - Alana provides a moving tribute to a woman, once Hollywood's golden girl, and an inspiring celebration of life. My Journey with Farrah is the story of two courageous women who stood by each other through good times, bad times, and now the most trying of times. It is a book that will make people laugh, cry, and rejoice in the power of friendship.

"By the time you finish this book, there will be nothing holding you back." from the Introduction Most people have a vision for their lives that they're not pursuing, half-heartedly pursuing, or pursuing with all their might yet somehow falling short. This vision can be modest or grand. It may involve breaking free of a destructive habit or finding a truly healthy relationship. It might have to do with making a real difference in the world or helping to lead a company to extraordinary success. In The One Thing Holding You Back, Raphael Cushnir, a leading voice in the world of personal and professional development, reveals that whenever people aren't living their dreams it's because they're not yet willing and able to feel specific emotions related to those dreams. Once we access and understand these emotions, our dreams can and will come true.Cushnir asserts that mere emotional awareness, commonly referred to as emotional intelligence, is not enough. For maximum benefit we must directly and consistently connect with our emotions. In particular, we need to connect with the emotions we routinely avoid, resist, or attempt to dismiss. It's these emotions that possess the key to our greatest goals. And learning to connect with them is another rarely taught but essential skill.The One Thing Holding You Back provides real solutions that can be implemented immediately and without external support and includes true stories of people who have put Cushnir's process to work and transformed their lives. Delivering a step-by-step program in accessible language, this landmark book will turn the obstacles in front of us into tremendous opportunities for achieving the life we always wanted.

You are a good person. You are one of the 84 million Americans who volunteer with a charity. You are part of a national donor pool that contributes nearly $200 billion to good causes every year. But you wonder: Why don't your efforts seem to make a differenceFifteen years ago, Robert Egger asked himself this same question as he reluctantly climbed aboard a food service truck for a night of volunteering to help serve meals to the homeless. He wondered why there were still people waiting in line for soup in this day and age. Where were the drug counselors, the job trainers, and the support team to help these men and women get off the streetsWhy were volunteers buying supplies from grocery stores when restaurants were throwing away unused fresh food every nightWhy had politicians, citizens, and local businesses allowed charity to become an end in itselfWhy wasn't there an efficient way to solve the problemRobert knew there had to be a better way. In 1989, he started the D.C. Central Kitchen by collecting unused food from local restaurants, caterers, and hotels and bringing it back to a central location where hot, nutritious meals were prepared and distributed to agencies around the city. Since then, the D.C. Central Kitchen has been named one of President Bush Sr.'s Thousand Points of Light and has become one of the most respected and emulated nonprofit agencies in the world, producing and distributing more than 4,000 meals a day. Its highly successful 12-week job-training program equips former homeless transients and drug addicts with culinary and life skills to gain employment in the restaurant business. In Begging for Change, Robert Egger looks back on his experience and exposes the startling lack of logic, waste, and ineffectiveness he has encountered during his years in the nonprofit sector, and calls for reform of this $800 billion industry from the inside out. In his entertaining and inimitable way, he weaves stories from his days in music, when he encountered legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, and Iggy Pop, together with stories from his experiences in the hunger movement -- and recently as volunteer interim director to help clean up the beleaguered United Way National Capital Area. He asks for nonprofits to be more innovative and results-driven, for corporate and nonprofit leaders to be more focused and responsible, and for citizens who contribute their time and money to be smarter and more demanding of nonprofits and what they provide in return. Robert's appeal to common sense will resonate with readers who are tired of hearing the same nonprofit fund-raising appeals and pity-based messages. Instead of asking the "who" and "what" of giving, he leads the way in asking the "how" and "why" in order to move beyond our 19th-century concept of charity, and usher in a 21st-century model of change and reform for nonprofits. Enlightening and provocative, engaging and moving, this book is essential reading for nonprofit managers, corporate leaders, and, most of all, any citizen who has ever cared enough to give of themselves to a worthy cause.

Thanks to its exquisite pictorial material, this book familiarizes the reader with the logic and golden rules of art. It enables an understanding, on the one hand, of the keys to appreciating the works of the great masters, and on the other, of how to apply these rules to the practice of one's own creative activities.The work begins with a number of basic explanations on how to represent and interrelate the different parts of the human body. The introduction is followed by chapters on the various possibilities for representing male and female nudes, and mythological and biblical figures, dressed and contextualized. Finally it looks at quadruped animals and birds.

"Everyone gets dressed and getting dressed affects everything." —Bobbie Thomas, the TODAY show style editor Beyond understanding your best colors and figure-flattering clothes, Bobbie takes a unique step back in this inspiring guide to empower you to feel stylish, smart, sexy, and satisfied—with a look that's uniquely your own… You can't live life naked, so after you brush your teeth in the morning, you put "something" on. It's the first decision of your day, but have you ever considered that it's also one of the most importantStyle goes far beyond fashion and beauty and is a powerful way to say who we are and get what we want. Your "style speak" comes through in a louder "voice" than anything you might scream from a rooftop. But often, there is so much focus on the outside that we forget to step back and understand that style really starts inside. From your love life to your career, and the less obvious moments in between, the way people see you will filter your opportunities. Ultimately, what they see is what you get. In part I of this must-have style guide, Bobbie Thomas will help you identify what you'd like others to see and boost your confidence, and in part II , she'll show you how to find your best colors and cuts, edit your closet, and more, so you can build a better, more useful wardrobe.

The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling phenomenon The Daring Book for Girls is an even more daring guide to everything from making a raft to learning how to play football to the art of the Japanese Tea ceremony. This second volume, with all new original material, promises to be even more of a daring adventure than the first. Girls will learn how to surf, get horseback riding tips, make a labyrinth, find out about April Fool's Day history and pranks, how to organize a croquet tournament, find out about cowgirls, the Nobel Prize, being a detective and much more! Just as packed with creative and exciting material as the original, but twice as fun, this book will be beloved by all Daring fans everywhere!

An eye-opening look at the winners and losers in the high-stakes story of Arctic transformation, from nations to natives to animals to the very landscape itself The Arctic like the canary in the coal mine has reacted more quickly and dramatically to global warming than many had anticipated. Hundreds of scientists are urgently trying to predict just how the Arctic will change and how those changes will in turn affect the rest of the planet. But plenty of other people, driven by profit rather than data, are interested as well. The riches of the world’s last virgin territory have spurred the reawakening of old geopolitical rivalries. The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, and the Danish territory of Greenland all control areas around the Arctic Ocean. We face a new era of oil rigs and drill ships, of tankers taking shortcuts from Yokohama to Rotterdam, as well as a potential fight over the Arctic’s treasures.Alongside the winners from an open Arctic sea are the many losers, from the nomadic reindeer herders of Siberia and Scandinavia to the Inuit hunters of Alaska, Greenland, and Canada. Other creatures that rely on the vast expanses of sea ice, including seals, birds, and whales and the ecosystems within which they live may disappear to be replaced by different creatures. Combining science, business, politics, and adven-ture, Alun Anderson takes the reader to the ends of the earth for what may be the last narrative portrait of this rapidly changing land of unparalleled global significance.

The popular TODAY financial editor Jean Chatzky helps you navigate through the critical challenges and potential catastrophes of personal finance.You've just lost your job. You've got a baby on the way. Your parent has had a stroke. Most people seek financial help not because they're planning for the future but because they need it . . . right now! If you have money problems or are seeking immediate help to solve a dire, unanticipated financial emergency, then you need Money 911. In this invaluable guidebook, financial expert Jean Chatzky provides answers to today's most pressing financial questions and concerns, including: How do I get out of debtHow do I avoid foreclosureHow do I set up a monthly budgetHow can I improve my credit scoreHow do I get my health insurance to pay a claimWhat should I do when I lose a parentWith Money 911, you can prepare for retirement, buy or sell a home, pick up the pieces of your personal finances, and get back on your feet and stay there!