Downfall and Rise

Downfall and Rise PDF Author: Nathan A Thompson
Publisher: Challenger's Call
ISBN: 9780578346168
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Damaged. Disgraced. Dishonored. And the only hero who can save seven worlds. When a freak accident ruins his body and his memory, Wes Malcolm loses his scholarship and his place in the world. Every treatment has failed, save one: a fully immersive VR game, designed by his late, disgraced father, that mimics the condition his body used to possess. To everyone's disbelief, his body and mind slowly improve, bit by bit, but it's still not enough. Then one night, he wakes up in a world just like the game his father designed. Here, he can grow, learn, and thrive. But this world and all its sister planets are under assault from nightmare creatures, supernatural storms, and a host of other cataclysms. The strange, beautiful steward of these worlds offers him a deal: Save her planets, and he can take the power he gains back to his original body on Earth. It's the best chance he's ever been offered. But will his determination be enough, both for himself and the worlds now depending on him? Come and find out.

Downfall and Rise

Downfall and Rise PDF Author: Nathan A Thompson
Publisher: Challenger's Call
ISBN: 9780578346168
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Damaged. Disgraced. Dishonored. And the only hero who can save seven worlds. When a freak accident ruins his body and his memory, Wes Malcolm loses his scholarship and his place in the world. Every treatment has failed, save one: a fully immersive VR game, designed by his late, disgraced father, that mimics the condition his body used to possess. To everyone's disbelief, his body and mind slowly improve, bit by bit, but it's still not enough. Then one night, he wakes up in a world just like the game his father designed. Here, he can grow, learn, and thrive. But this world and all its sister planets are under assault from nightmare creatures, supernatural storms, and a host of other cataclysms. The strange, beautiful steward of these worlds offers him a deal: Save her planets, and he can take the power he gains back to his original body on Earth. It's the best chance he's ever been offered. But will his determination be enough, both for himself and the worlds now depending on him? Come and find out.

When Genius Failed

When Genius Failed PDF Author: Roger Lowenstein
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0375758259
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“A riveting account that reaches beyond the market landscape to say something universal about risk and triumph, about hubris and failure.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUSINESSWEEK In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall. When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself. The dramatic story of Long-Term’s fall is now a chilling harbinger of the crisis that would strike all of Wall Street, from Lehman Brothers to AIG, a decade later. In his new Afterword, Lowenstein shows that LTCM’s implosion should be seen not as a one-off drama but as a template for market meltdowns in an age of instability—and as a wake-up call that Wall Street and government alike tragically ignored. Praise for When Genius Failed “[Roger] Lowenstein has written a squalid and fascinating tale of world-class greed and, above all, hubris.”—BusinessWeek “Compelling . . . The fund was long cloaked in secrecy, making the story of its rise . . . and its ultimate destruction that much more fascinating.”—The Washington Post “Story-telling journalism at its best.”—The Economist

Iron Kingdom

Iron Kingdom PDF Author: Christopher Clark
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 014190402X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
'Of the "Great Powers" that dominated Europe from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, Prussia is the only one to have vanished ... Iron Kingdom is not just good: it is everything a history book ought to be ... The nemesis of Prussia has cast such a long shadow that German historians have tiptoed around the subject. Thus it was left to an Englishman to write what is surely the best history of Prussia in any language' Sunday Telegraph

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of a Man

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of a Man PDF Author: Brian Sanborn
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
ISBN: 1662423519
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
This book is the story of a boy growing up to be a man and the events that led him to make the career choice he did. It is an account of the challenges he faced, his successes, and some of the devastating losses he suffered along the way. The book contains a description of how after a memorable thirty-two-year career, the man threw away his legacy, his reputation, and his community by making a series of bad choices. These pages contain an account of the ramifications of these choices—ramifications that still exist years later. Finally, this script describes this man’s struggle against these ramifications and his attempts to rebuild a devastated life. Some major life topics within the context of this story that are discussed give food for thought. Why some relationships, even those that occur at a young age, can lead to life-altering decisions. How the growth that comes through experience and a consistent positive work ethic can convert a subpar worker into a master craftsman. How personal loss not resolved can result in devastating consequences years later. How our world’s reliance on credit scores and background checks make it nearly impossible for a person to rise up again after a transgression. The fairness of the tendency of today’s world to completely judge a person based on the single worst event in their life. The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of a Man is a worthy read for those who want to be entertained, for those who wish to examine some major topics inherent in each person’s life, and for those who wish to examine the direction in which society is currently headed. Is there room in our society for the idea of a second chance?

All the Rave

All the Rave PDF Author: Joseph Menn
Publisher: Crown Business
ISBN: 1400050065
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
At age seventeen, Shawn Fanning designed a computer program that transformed the Internet into an unlimited library of free music. Tens of millions of young people quickly signed on, Time magazine put Fanning on its cover, and his company, Napster, became a household name. It did not take long for the music industry to declare war, one that has now engulfed the biggest entertainment and technology companies on the planet. For All the Rave, top cyberculture journalist Joseph Menn gained unprecedented access to Fanning, other key Napster and music executives, reams of internal e-mails, unpublished court records, and other resources. The result is the definitive account of the Napster saga, for the first time revealing secret take-over and settlement talks, the unseen role of Shawn’s uncle in controlling Napster, and hidden agendas and infighting from Napster’s trenches to the top ranks of the German media giant Bertelsmann. All the Rave is a riveting account of genius and greed, visionary leaps and disastrous business decisions, and the clash of the hacker and investor cultures with that of the copyright establishment. Napster left a generation of music fans feeling that paying the recording industry close to twenty dollars for a CD was a foolish and unnecessary extravagance, which provoked a still-growing backlash against digital media consumers that might leave them with less control than ever. Here is the inside story of the young visionary and the company that made it happen. From the Hardcover edition.

Billion Dollar Loser

Billion Dollar Loser PDF Author: Reeves Wiedeman
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316461342
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller: This "vivid" inside story of WeWork and its CEO tells the remarkable saga of one of the most audacious, and improbable, rises and falls in American business history (Ken Auletta). Christened a potential savior of Silicon Valley's startup culture, Adam Neumann was set to take WeWork, his office share company disrupting the commercial real estate market, public, cash out on the company's forty-seven billion dollar valuation, and break the string of major startups unable to deliver to shareholders. But as employees knew, and investors soon found out, WeWork's capital was built on promises that the company was more than a real estate purveyor, that in fact it was a transformational technology company. Veteran journalist Reeves Weideman dives deep into WeWork and it CEO's astronomical rise, from the marijuana and tequila-filled board rooms to cult-like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis. Billion Dollar Loser is a character-driven business narrative that captures, through the fascinating psyche of a billionaire founder and his wife and co-founder, the slippery state of global capitalism. A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller “Vivid, carefully reported drama that readers will gulp down as if it were a fast-paced novel” (Ken Auletta)

The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again

The Rise and Fall...and Rise Again PDF Author: Gerald Ratner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1906465290
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
In 1991, Gerald Ratner made a landmark speech to the Institute of Directors After over 25 years in the jewellery trade, Gerald Ratner was one of the most well-known and successful retailers of his generation. He had built up a highly profitable, multi-million pound international business, including household names like Ratners, H Samuel, Ernest Jones, Watches of Switzerland, as well as over one thousand stores in the US. Being asked to give the keynote address at the Institute of Directors' annual conference at The Royal Albert Hall was a great honour and should have been the crowning glory on two decades of empire building. Gerald's speech was seized upon by the media after he included jokes about the quality of some of the shops' products. But the far-reaching impact that these jokes would have no one could have predicted. "Even though I had once had my name above hundreds of shops up and down the country, it had become more famous as a byword for crap. It took several years to realise just what an impact the speech had had on every aspect of my life." Press coverage of hardback version: "... a rollicking good read" —Michael Skapinker, The FT "Most business autobiographies are so overlaid with ghost-writerly blandness that the character of the subject is lost. Mr Ratner had help with this one, but fortunately he is still there: obsessive, funny and a bit of a scoundrel - the last mitigated by how well he knows it." —The FT "self-effacing, revealing and human" —Luke Johnson, FT Business Life "A few ill-chosen words to a well-heeled audience 16 years ago reduced Britain's biggest jeweller to poverty. Now he reveals how he bounced back" —Jewish Chronicle "...contains lessons for us all" —Management Today "...worth its weight in gold" —The Independent Amazon reviews "Everyone knows the story of Gerald's rise and fall - what an amazing story and well worth reading.... I couldn't put it down, totally gripping and inspiring stuff, you really couldn't see this coming from such an energetic, passionate man" "I have read many bio's from business leaders and most are boring 'how to get rich' or 'let me tell you a long list of not very interesting stories with all the good bits missed out'. Gerald's book is very different it is a great read, I could not put it down" "Sobering and enlightening at the same time. A great read and a morality tale of our time."

The Rise and Fall of Prussia

The Rise and Fall of Prussia PDF Author: Sebastian Haffner
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Sebastian Haffner regarded himself as “a Prussian with a British passport.” In this overview of Prussia’s 170-year history as an independent state, he depicts Prussia’s evolution from a sensational 18th century success story – “a state based on law, one of the first in Europe” – to its absorption into the Third Reich where “the rule of law was the first thing that Hitler abolished.” In this succinct and readable book, Haffner argues that Hitler’s racial and nationality policy was the opposite of Prussia’s and Hitler’s political style, the very opposite of Prussian. “In his short book The Rise and Fall of Prussia Haffner combines a critical examination with a declaration of love for a state which always lived beyond its means ... but which managed to combine material poverty with intellectual grandeur.” — Michael Stürmer,Welt am Sonntag “Haffner sees Prussia’s history as the 'tragedy of a purely rational state'. An agglomeration of arbitrary territories, it made a virtue of its artificiality, adapting to the enlightenment and then to romanticism, but finally also to nationalism, betraying the basis of its statehood and leading to its ultimate destruction.” — Chrisian Roth,Akademische Blätter “Haffner long regarded himself as a 'Prussian with a British passport'. He identified with Prussia and its achievements: general compulsory schooling (1717), the abolition of torture (1740), the establishment of religious toleration (1740), Bismarck’s welfare state (1883), the medical giants Virchow, Koch, von Behring, the intellectual giants Kant, von Humboldt and von Schlegel, and much more. At the end of his book he recounted the (often-ignored) expulsion of millions of Prussians from their homeland in 1945. 'It was an atrocity, the final atrocity of a war which had more than its share in atrocities, admittedly begun by Germany under Hitler.' His message is very relevant today, when he praises those expelled for rejecting revenge and having the courage to say, 'This is enough.'” — David Childs, The Independent

The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709-1876

The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709-1876 PDF Author: Scott C. Levi
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822983214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This book analyzes how Central Asians actively engaged with the rapidly globalizing world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In presenting the first English-language history of the Khanate of Khoqand (1709–1876), Scott C. Levi examines the rise of that extraordinarily dynamic state in the Ferghana Valley. Levi reveals the many ways in which the Khanate’s integration with globalizing forces shaped political, economic, demographic, and environmental developments in the region, and he illustrates how these same forces contributed to the downfall of Khoqand. To demonstrate the major historical significance of this vibrant state and region, too often relegated to the periphery of early modern Eurasian history, Levi applies a “connected history” methodology showing in great detail how Central Asians actively influenced policies among their larger imperial neighbors—notably tsarist Russia and Qing China. This original study will appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience, including scholars and students of Central Asian, Russian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, and world history, as well as the study of comparative empire and the history of globalization.

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler PDF Author: William L. Shirer
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795326130
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
A concise and timely account of Hitler’s—and fascism’s—rise to power and ultimate defeat, from one of America’s most famous journalists. American journalist and author William L. Shirer was a correspondent for six years in Nazi Germany—and had a front-row seat to Hitler’s mounting influence. His most definitive work on the subject, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is a riveting account defined by first-person experience interviewing Hitler, watching his impassioned speeches, and living in a country transformed by war and dictatorship. Shirer was originally commissioned to write The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler for a young adult audience. This account loses none of the immediacy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—capturing Hitler’s ascendence from obscurity, the horror of Nazi Germany’s mass killings, and the paranoia and insanity that marked the führer’s downfall. This book is by no means simplified—and is sure to appeal to adults as well as young people with an interest in World War II history. “For nearly 100 years William L Shirer has spoken to us of fascism, Nazis, and Hitler . . . [He] tells the unvarnished truth as he experienced it . . . I figured this school-type book wasn’t going to tell me anything new. But when I started reading, I realized that I wasn’t reading for the facts anymore. I listened to his story and heard the urgency in his voice: a voice from nearly 60 years ago telling us the truth about today.” —Daily Kos