Jonathan Yen

Chronicles the story of the Reconstruction-era Secret Service and its battle against the KKK's effort to suppress the emancipated African-American vote, sharing particular insights into the career of controversial Secret Service chief, Hiram C. Whitley. In the years following the Civil War, a new battle began. Newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates...

"Life is boring: filled with meetings and traffic, errands and emails. Nothing we'd ever call fun. But what if we've gotten fun wrong? In Play Anything, visionary game designer and philosopher Ian Bogost shows how we can overcome our daily anxiety; transforming the boring, ordinary world around us into one of endless, playful possibilities. The key to this playful mindset lies in discovering the secret truth of fun and games. Play Anything, reveals...

"A literary history of the Federal Writers Project"-- Provided by publisher.

"The Starbucks Experience contains a robust blend of home-brewed ingenuity and people-driven philosophies that have made Starbucks one of the world's "most admired" companies, according to Fortune magazine. With unique access to Starbucks personnel and resources, Joseph Michelli discovered that the success of Starbucks is driven by the people who work there - the "partners"--And the special experience they create for each customer. Filled with real-life...

"A handy reference to the awesome forces of nature we witness every day. For anyone who is dazzled by dramatic displays of wind, thunder, and lightning, Weather For Dummies is an indispensable guide to the basic science behind these daily phenomena. From frontal systems to jet streams, this book gives you the tools you need to understand the climate around you. It includes: explanations for the hottest weather topics including El Nino, global warming,...

In “The Tyranny of Experts”, renowned economist William Easterly examines our failing efforts to fight global poverty, and argues that the "expert approved" top-down approach to development has not only made little lasting progress, but has proven a convenient rationale for decades of human rights violations perpetrated by colonialists, postcolonial dictators, and US and UK foreign policymakers seeking autocratic allies. Demonstrating how our...

Let the one and only Dr. Joe battle pseudoscience and cast a life preserver out to all those drowning in a sea of misinformation. We are in a crisis. A tsunami of misinformation and disinformation is threatening to engulf evidence-based science. While quackery-loosely defined as the spread of false "knowledge," often accompanied by various versions of "snake oil"-is not a novel phenomenon, it has never posed as great a threat to public health as today....

"Search human history and you'll quickly conclude that we've been enamored of blue at least since the pharaohs. So, it's startling to turn to the realms of nature and discover that "true" blue is truly rare. From the rain forest's morpho butterfly to the blue jay flitting past your window, few living things are blue--and most that appear so are performing sleight of hand with physics or chemistry. Cornflowers use the pigment found in red roses to...

Why did Thomas Jefferson write that he would be happy if all dogs went extinct? What economic opportunity did attorney John Lord Hayes envision for the newly emancipated during Reconstruction? What American workers were mocked by Theodore Roosevelt as "morose, melancholy men"? What problems with revenue collection did Congressman James Beauchamp Clark mention when proposing an income tax? Why did Harley O. Gable of Armour & Company recommend that...

Noah Weisbord is associate professor of law at Queen's University in Canada and served on the International Criminal Court's working group that drafted the crime of aggression. He lives in Kingston, Ontario. A gripping behind-the-scenes account of the dramatic legal fight to hold leaders personally responsible for aggressive war On July 17, 2018, starting an unjust war became a prosecutable international crime alongside genocide, crimes against...