Seers and Judges

Seers and Judges PDF Author: Christine Dunn Henderson
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739103197
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville asserted that America had no truly great literature, and that American writers merely mimicked the British and European traditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This new edited collection masterfully refutes Tocqueville's monocultural myopia and reveals the distinctive role American poetry and prose have played in reflecting and passing judgment upon the core values of American democracy. The essays, profiling the work of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Updike, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Willa Cather, Walker Percy, and Tom Wolfe, reveal how America's greatest writers have acted as society's most ardent cheerleaders and its most penetrating critics. Christine Dunn Henderson's exciting new work offers literature as a portal through which to view the philosophical principles that animate America's political order and the mores which either reinforce or undermine them.

The King of Con

The King of Con PDF Author: Thomas Giacomaro
Publisher: BenBella Books
ISBN: 1944648038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
A Jersey boy with a knack for numbers, a gift for making people trust him, and an all-consuming hunger to rule the business world, Tom Giacomaro could convince anyone of anything. As a teenager, Tom Giacomaro began working in the mob-laden New Jersey trucking industry. A charming, brash-talking salesman with a genius-level IQ, he climbed the ranks and let his lust for money and relationships with New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago crime families send him spiraling into a world of drugs and violence. And that's only the beginning. In The King of Con, Tom details how he hashes out a deal with the FBI, agreeing to become a crime informant in an effort to avoid jail time—only, he continues his high-finance, white-collar scheming, luring celebrities and other high-profile contacts to invest multimillions in his new business ventures. When it all comes crashing down, Tom is thrown in prison for over a decade, yet, even behind bars, he's able to get what he wants from anyone . . . and he eventually finds a way to get released early. Cowritten by journalist Natasha Stoynoff, The King of Con is the unforgettable true story about a man who became hooked on living life to thrilling and dangerous excess, until he was humbled by the FBI, by the US Attorney, and by life itself. Now, Tom is back in his old New Jersey neighborhood. His old business cronies and mob contacts are calling, his palms are itching to make billions again, and the US Attorney's office is watching. Will he stay on the straight and narrow, or will he steal back his crown of crime as the King of Con?

King Con

King Con PDF Author: Stephen J. Cannell
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062034693
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
When it comes to creating unforgettable criminal characters, nobody does it better than Emmy Award winner Stephen J. Cannell, the force behind such acclaimed TV hits as "The Rockford Files," "The Commish," "Wiseguy," and "The A-Team." Now come Cannell's most engaging characters yet—a spirited assortment of clever con artists.King Con vs. The Don Raised in a world of flimflams, come-ons and con-jobs, Beano Bates has done so well he's earned a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. But his lucky streak vanishes after a card game in which he scams a cool eighty grand from a notorious Mafia don—who retaliates by having Beano nearly beaten to death. For the first time in his legendary career, Beano wants more than a big score—he wants justice. Aided by a beautiful, no-nonsense female prosecutor and a legion of crafty cousins, all accomplished grifters, Beano, the king of the cons, puts together the ultimate swindle—a well-planned sting of strategy, skill and deception. The target is America's most feared mob kingpin and his psychopathic brother. And in this game, winner takes all!

Of Outlaws, Con Men, Whores, Politicians, and Other Artists

Of Outlaws, Con Men, Whores, Politicians, and Other Artists PDF Author: Larry L. King
Publisher: Viking
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
King blends the personal, the political, and the picaresque.

Veritas

Veritas PDF Author: Ariel Sabar
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0525433899
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author comes the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star religion professor at Harvard, announced a breathtaking discovery just steps from the Vatican: she’d found an ancient scrap of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “my wife.” The mysterious manuscript, which King provocatively titled “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” had the power to topple the Roman Catholic Church. It threatened not just the all-male priesthood, but centuries of sacred teachings on marriage, sex, and women’s leadership, much of it premised on the hallowed tradition of a celibate Jesus. Award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar covered King’s announcement in Rome but left with a question that no one seemed able to answer: Where in the world did this history-making papyrus come from? Sabar’s dogged sleuthing led from the halls of Harvard Divinity School to the former headquarters of the East German Stasi before landing on the trail of a Florida man with an unbelievable past. Could a motorcycle-riding pornographer with a fake Egyptology degree and a prophetess wife have set in motion one of the greatest hoaxes of the century? A propulsive tale laced with twists and trapdoors, Veritas is an exhilarating, globe-straddling detective story about an Ivy League historian and a college dropout—and how they worked together to pass off an audacious forgery as a long-lost piece of the Bible.

The King of Confidence

The King of Confidence PDF Author: Miles Harvey
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316463582
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The "unputdownable" (Dave Eggers, National Book award finalist) story of the most infamous American con man you've never heard of: James Strang, self-proclaimed divine king of earth, heaven, and an island in Lake Michigan, "perfect for fans of The Devil in the White City" (Kirkus) A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for the Midland Authors Annual Literary Award A Michigan Notable Book A CrimeReads Best True Crime Book of the Year "A masterpiece." —Nathaniel Philbrick In the summer of 1843, James Strang, a charismatic young lawyer and avowed atheist, vanished from a rural town in New York. Months later he reappeared on the Midwestern frontier and converted to a burgeoning religious movement known as Mormonism. In the wake of the murder of the sect's leader, Joseph Smith, Strang unveiled a letter purportedly from the prophet naming him successor, and persuaded hundreds of fellow converts to follow him to an island in Lake Michigan, where he declared himself a divine king. From this stronghold he controlled a fourth of the state of Michigan, establishing a pirate colony where he practiced plural marriage and perpetrated thefts, corruption, and frauds of all kinds. Eventually, having run afoul of powerful enemies, including the American president, Strang was assassinated, an event that was frontpage news across the country. The King of Confidence tells this fascinating but largely forgotten story. Centering his narrative on this charlatan's turbulent twelve years in power, Miles Harvey gets to the root of a timeless American original: the Confidence Man. Full of adventure, bad behavior, and insight into a crucial period of antebellum history, The King of Confidence brings us a compulsively readable account of one of the country's boldest con men and the boisterous era that allowed him to thrive.

Seers and Judges

Seers and Judges PDF Author: Christine Dunn Henderson
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739103197
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville asserted that America had no truly great literature, and that American writers merely mimicked the British and European traditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This new edited collection masterfully refutes Tocqueville's monocultural myopia and reveals the distinctive role American poetry and prose have played in reflecting and passing judgment upon the core values of American democracy. The essays, profiling the work of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Updike, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Willa Cather, Walker Percy, and Tom Wolfe, reveal how America's greatest writers have acted as society's most ardent cheerleaders and its most penetrating critics. Christine Dunn Henderson's exciting new work offers literature as a portal through which to view the philosophical principles that animate America's political order and the mores which either reinforce or undermine them.

Danger: Truth at Work

Danger: Truth at Work PDF Author: Osho
Publisher: Osho Media International
ISBN: 0880507640
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Danger: Truth at Work goes to the heart of our most fundamental human issues. Why can’t we just live happily and be content? While we seem to have all the knowledge we need to solve our problems, we haven't. In this timely book, Osho explains that religious conditioning has held us back. Each chapter covers a different aspect of this conditioning, and, in gentle but persuasive language, shows readers how to transcend it. Individual chapters cover such subjects as The Nuclear Family: The Imminent Meltdown; Pseudo-Religion: The Stick-on Soul; They Say Believe, I Say Explore; and Ecstasy Is Now: Why Wait? and others. The enclosed DVD gives a firsthand experience of the process of spiritual renewal, which Osho calls a "dry cleaning of the mind." While Osho passed away in 1990, he left a rich legacy of video recordings that form the basis of this important book and video.

Priests and Politicians

Priests and Politicians PDF Author: Osho
Publisher: Osho Media International
ISBN: 0880500700
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
"For five thousand years the politician and the priest have been in the same business." In this provocative volume, Osho invites us to look through his microscope and examine not only the profound influence of religion and politics in society, but also its influence in our inner world. To the extent we have internalized and adopted as our own the values and belief systems of the “powers that be,” he says, we have boxed ourselves in, imprisoned ourselves, and tragically crippled our vision of what is possible. From Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring, from the election of the first Black president in the United States to the appointment of a new pope who promises to use St. Francis of Assisi as a role model (following endless scandals involving child abuse) the roles of priests and politicians in our public life have recently captured the attention of our times, often just initiating another round of hope and subsequent disillusionment. In other words, wittingly or unwittingly, we keep digging ourselves deeper into the mess we are in. A new kind of world is possible — but only if we understand clearly how the old has functioned up to now. And, based on that understanding, take the responsibility and the courage to become a new kind of human being. "You have to be aware who the real criminals are. The problem is that those criminals are thought to be great leaders, sages, saints, mahatmas. So I have to expose all these people because they are the causes. For example, it is easier to understand that perhaps politicians are the causes of many problems: wars, murders, massacres, burning people. It is more difficult when it comes to religious leaders, because nobody has raised his hand against them. They have remained respectable for centuries, and as time goes on their respectability goes on growing. The most difficult job for me is to make you aware that these people — knowingly or unknowingly, that does not matter — have created this world."

As It Was Told To Me

As It Was Told To Me PDF Author: Ted Theodore
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462895808
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
The Holy Bible contains God and his promises to every believer. Through the Holy Spirit, by divine revelations, we get to know and understand God words to us. Author Ted Theodore shares wisdom and divine insight about God's word to every reader, especially devout Christians, in his book, As It Was Told To Me. "When God promises, rather when God speaks, His Word is certain. It is definite. It is truth. It is life. When Jesus said, The words that I speak are spirit and life', He was referring to the spiritual creation of the Word and the eventual physical manifestation. It is this certainty that makes the concordance meaning of the word promise', in the New Testament, come alive," the author stated. In As It Was Told To Me, Theodore offers a deeper understanding of the scriptures found in the books of the Holy Bible. He captures truths that help readers understand about God, his absolute power, eternal presence, the value of faith, the lessons found in the Book of Genesis, the importance of prayer, and inspires readers to re-examine their beliefs, and their spiritual journey. This book will open readers' eyes to the truth of God's words providing a deeper and greater understanding of the Bible, which will eventually help them to in their spiritually growth and walk with God.

American Tricksters

American Tricksters PDF Author: William J. Jackson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1625647905
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Tricksters are known by their deeds. Obviously not all the examples in American Tricksters are full-blown mythological tricksters like Coyote, Raven, or the Two Brothers found in Native American stories, or superhuman figures like the larger-than-life Davy Crockett of nineteenth-century tales. Newer expressions of trickiness do share some qualities with the Trickster archetype seen in myths. Rock stars who break taboos and get away with it, heroes who overcome monstrous circumstances, crafty folk who find a way to survive and thrive when the odds are against them, men making spectacles of themselves by feeding their astounding appetites in public--all have some trickster qualities. Each person, every living creature who ever faced an obstacle and needed to get around it, has found the built-in trickster impulse. Impasses turn the trickster gene on, or stimulate the trick-performing imagination--that's life. To explore the ways and means of trickster maneuvers can alert us to pitfalls, help us appreciate tricks that are entertaining, and aid us in fending off ploys which drain our resources and ruin our lives. Knowing more about the Trickster archetype in our psyches helps us be more self-aware.