Civilian Warriors

Civilian Warriors PDF Author: Erik Prince
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591847451
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
The founder of Blackwater offers the gripping true story of the world’s most controversial military contractor. In 1997, former Navy SEAL Erik Prince started a business that would recruit civilians for the riskiest security jobs in the world. As Blackwater’s reputation grew, demand for its services escalated, and its men eventually completed nearly 100,000 missions for both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was a huge success except for one problem: Blackwater was demonized around the world. Its employees were smeared as mercenaries, profiteers, or worse. And because of the secrecy requirements of its contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA, Prince was unable to correct false information. But now he’s finally able to tell the full story about some of the biggest controversies of the War on Terror, in a memoir that reads like a thriller.

Unsung Heroes of American Industry

Unsung Heroes of American Industry PDF Author: Mark Jude Poirier
Publisher: Miramax
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Presents five short stories about American entrepreneurs in the diverse fields of worm farming, pearl button making, chicken processing, pornography, and beauty pageantry.

Civilian Warriors

Civilian Warriors PDF Author: Erik Prince
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591847451
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
The founder of Blackwater offers the gripping true story of the world’s most controversial military contractor. In 1997, former Navy SEAL Erik Prince started a business that would recruit civilians for the riskiest security jobs in the world. As Blackwater’s reputation grew, demand for its services escalated, and its men eventually completed nearly 100,000 missions for both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was a huge success except for one problem: Blackwater was demonized around the world. Its employees were smeared as mercenaries, profiteers, or worse. And because of the secrecy requirements of its contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA, Prince was unable to correct false information. But now he’s finally able to tell the full story about some of the biggest controversies of the War on Terror, in a memoir that reads like a thriller.

Invisibles

Invisibles PDF Author: David Zweig
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101620242
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
An inspiring look at the hidden stars in every field who perform essential work without recognition In a culture where so many strive for praise and glory, what kind of person finds the greatest reward in anonymous work? Expanding from his acclaimed Atlantic article, "What Do Fact-Checkers and Anesthesiologists Have in Common?" David Zweig explores what we can all learn from a modest group he calls "Invisibles." Their careers require expertise, skill, and dedication, yet they receive little or no public credit. And that's just fine with them. Zweig met with a wide range of Invisibles to discover first hand what motivates them and how they define success and satisfaction. His fascinating subjects include: * a virtuoso cinematographer for major films. * the lead engineer on some of the world's tallest skyscrapers. * a high-end perfume maker. * an elite interpreter at the United Nations. Despite the diversity of their careers, Zweig found that all Invisibles embody the same core traits. And he shows why the rest of us might be more fulfilled if we followed their example.

Songs of the Unsung

Songs of the Unsung PDF Author: Horace Tapscott
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822383187
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Despite his importance and influence, jazz musician, educator, and community leader Horace Tapscott remains relatively unknown to most Americans. In Songs of the Unsung Tapscott shares his life story, recalling his childhood in Houston, moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1943, learning music, and his early professional career. He describes forming the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1961 and later the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension to preserve African American music and serve the community. Tapscott also recounts his interactions with the Black Panthers and law enforcement, the Watts riots, his work in Hollywood movie studios, and stories about his famous musician-activist friends. Songs of the Unsung is the captivating story of one of America’s most unassuming heroes as well as the story of L.A.'s cultural and political evolution over the last half of the twentieth century.

Blue Rhythm Fantasy

Blue Rhythm Fantasy PDF Author: John Wriggle
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 025209882X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Behind the iconic jazz orchestras, vocalists, and stage productions of the Swing Era lay the talents of popular music's unsung heroes: the arrangers. John Wriggle takes you behind the scenes of New York City's vibrant entertainment industry of the 1930s and 1940s to uncover the lives and work of jazz arrangers, both black and white, who left an indelible mark on American music and culture. Blue Rhythm Fantasy traces the extraordinary career of arranger Chappie Willet--a collaborator of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Gene Krupa, and many others--to revisit legendary Swing Era venues and performers from Harlem to Times Square. Wriggle's insightful music analyses of big band arranging techniques explore representations of cultural modernism, discourses on art and commercialism, conceptions of race and cultural identity, music industry marketing strategies, and stage entertainment variety genres. Drawing on archives, obscure recordings, untapped sources in the African American press, and interviews with participants, Blue Rhythm Fantasy is a long-overdue study of the arranger during this dynamic era of American music history.

Manufacturing Independence

Manufacturing Independence PDF Author: Robert F. Smith (Military historian)
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
ISBN: 9781594162473
Category : Industrial revolution
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Untold Story of the Industrial Revolution and the American Victory in the War for Independence Benjamin Franklin was serious when he suggested the colonists arm themselves with the longbow. The American colonies were not logistically prepared for the revolution and this became painfully obvious in war's first years. Trade networks were destroyed, inflation undermined the economy, and American artisans could not produce or repair enough weapons to keep the Continental Army in the field. The Continental Congress responded to this crisis by mobilizing the nation's manufacturing sector for war. With information obtained from Europe through both commercial exchange and French military networks, Congress became familiar with the latest manufacturing techniques and processes of the nascent European industrial revolution. They therefore initiated an innovative program of munitions manufacturing under the Department of the Commissary General of Military Stores. The department gathered craftsmen and workers into three national arsenals where they were trained for the large-scale production of weapons. The department also engaged private manufacturers, providing them with materials and worker training, and instituting a program of inspecting their finished products. As historian Robert F. Smith relates in Manufacturing Independence: Industrial Innovation in the American Revolution, the colonies were able to provide their military with the arms it needed to fight, survive, and outlast the enemy--supplying weapons for the victory at Saratoga, rearming their armies in the South on three different occasions, and providing munitions to sustain the siege at Yorktown. But this manufacturing system not only successfully supported the Continental Army, it also demonstrated new production ideas to the nation. Through this system, the government went on to promote domestic manufacturing after the war, becoming a model for how the nation could produce goods for its own needs. The War for Independence was not just a political revolution, it was an integral part of the Industrial Revolution in America.

On Her Own Terms

On Her Own Terms PDF Author: Barbara R. Stein
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520227263
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Publisher Fact Sheet The life of an explorer, amateur naturalist, philanthropist, & pioneer in the field of science.

We are Your Sisters

We are Your Sisters PDF Author: Dorothy Sterling
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393316292
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
Contains 1000 oral interviews with American black women who lived between 1800 and the 1880s.

Goats

Goats PDF Author: Mark Poirier
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408847752
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
'A sly and wonderful novel ... Poirier fights deliberately shy of delivering a familiar coming-of-age story. Instead, Ellis and Goat Man's journey turns out to be as comically tricky as every other subtly sketched event and relationship' The Times 'Poirier is as on the ball as Salinger, as clued in as Hunter S. Thompson, and acutely tuned to right here, right now' Scotsman Ellis is fourteen. His parents have split up - Mom's gone New Age in Tucson with some asshole abstract artist; and Dad - Fucker Frank, is sporting nerdy glasses and retailing Mexican knick-knacks to Washington wannabes. Ellis is about to start at a squaresville boarding-school. It's your standard dysfunctional family thing ... except that Ellis has been hitting the bong since he was eleven, has a goat-man for a guru, and a weed-wisdom beyond his years. Goats is an extra-mellow coming-of-age tale - quirky, touching and very funny. It's about growing up and getting your shit together.

The Lou Conter Story

The Lou Conter Story PDF Author: Louis A. Conter
Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.
ISBN: 1627878602
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The Lou Conter Story: From USS Arizona Survivor to Unsung American Hero tells the incredible story of one of the last remaining survivors of the USS Arizona. More than just a recollection of the events that transpired in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, this book also records the author's memorable experiences before and after the Day of Infamy. Conter was on the USS Arizona deck when a Japanese armor-piercing bomb hit one million pounds of gunpowder stored in the ship's hull. He helped rescue crewmen following the explosion and dove into the wreckage to recover bodies in the days after. In 1942, Conter went to flight school where he earned his wings and became a VP-11 Black Cat pilot. He helped rescue over two hundred Australian Coastwatchers stranded in northern New Guinea and was shot down twice -- once swimming with his crew while sharks circled. Conter also helped rescue over two hundred Australian shore watchers up the Sepik River in New Guinea. After World War II, he became an intelligence officer, flew combat in Korea, created the Navy's first SERE program (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape), and served as a military advisor to presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Lou Conter shares his Pearl Harbor experiences with high school students throughout Northern California, and he returns to the USS Arizona every December to take part in National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day activities to honor and remember the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. In 2019, Conter was one of only three remaining crew members out of the 335 who had survived the attack on the USS Arizona. He was the only survivor able to attend the memorial event.