This novel permits insight into the strange and horrific civil war that erupted in Sierra Leone in the 1990s in the twilight of the Cold War, leading ultimately to a UN War Crimes Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity. It captures the toxic brew of forces that ultimately unleashed a conflagration in this small West African nation––Big Oil, Big Diamonds, competing external powers, foreign mercenaries, and the local dominant Lebanese trading community– –all pillaging and degrading the African population’s assets and destroying its chances for development until, not surprisingly, a brutal insurrection breaks out. The protagonist, Richard White, is an African-American international lawyer who first arrives in Sierra Leone during the Cold War on a mission to collect a forty million dollar oil debt owed by the local Freetown refinery. He returns a second time, post-Cold War, representing Lebanese interests in the largely illicit diamond trade, only to be kidnapped and held for ransom by Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front. Where Witch Birds Fly is also––and not less so––an illuminated portrayal of White’s process of loss and redemption. An outwardly successful man,White is in actuality seeking to come to terms with the personal malaise brought about by his rejection of family and ethnic heritage. He travels through life with all the accoutrements that demonstrate his professional success––sharp clothes, fast cars, and flashy white women––but inside, he feels troubled and alone. Long-term psychoanalysis does little to alleviate his malaise. White’s road to peace lies through the maelstrom. Harkins projects the deadly social forces at play in Sierra Leone over a decade with the socio-political acumen and high moral vision of John Le Carre in The Constant Gardner.
This novel permits insight into the strange and horrific civil war that erupted in Sierra Leone in the 1990s in the twilight of the Cold War, leading ultimately to a UN War Crimes Tribunal for Crimes Against Humanity. It captures the toxic brew of forces that ultimately unleashed a conflagration in this small West African nation––Big Oil, Big Diamonds, competing external powers, foreign mercenaries, and the local dominant Lebanese trading community– –all pillaging and degrading the African population’s assets and destroying its chances for development until, not surprisingly, a brutal insurrection breaks out. The protagonist, Richard White, is an African-American international lawyer who first arrives in Sierra Leone during the Cold War on a mission to collect a forty million dollar oil debt owed by the local Freetown refinery. He returns a second time, post-Cold War, representing Lebanese interests in the largely illicit diamond trade, only to be kidnapped and held for ransom by Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front. Where Witch Birds Fly is also––and not less so––an illuminated portrayal of White’s process of loss and redemption. An outwardly successful man,White is in actuality seeking to come to terms with the personal malaise brought about by his rejection of family and ethnic heritage. He travels through life with all the accoutrements that demonstrate his professional success––sharp clothes, fast cars, and flashy white women––but inside, he feels troubled and alone. Long-term psychoanalysis does little to alleviate his malaise. White’s road to peace lies through the maelstrom. Harkins projects the deadly social forces at play in Sierra Leone over a decade with the socio-political acumen and high moral vision of John Le Carre in The Constant Gardner.
The book titled 'Six Gun Justice' is a fictional account of the life of the main character, Jim Vogt. The story begins with Jim and his father are off hunting and a tragedy happens to his mother and brother. A group of evil men rapes and murders the mother and takes Jim's young brother Peter off to sell into slavery. Jim is sent to his uncle Martin to live, while the father tries to track down the evil men. Fifteen years later, while living in Texas, tragedy again strikes Jim's loved ones. His pregnant wife is raped and murdered and he sets out on a trail of revenge. It takes a long time, but he tracks down the criminals and metes out his own brand of justice on them. On his travels he meets and falls in love, and meets someone who knows his brother. He settles down with his new wife and one day his long lost brother appears at his door. He stays with Jim for a period of time. He then sets out on his own and marries. He takes on the job of sheriff. He has some trouble with a local rancher and calls on Jim for help. Peter and his wife then travel to California. At this time Jim receives a letter from his long missing father, who happens to live in California. Jim is able to contact both his father and brother and arranges for them to return back to his ranch. The family is reunited and a new generation of'Vogts' is started.
John Eugene Rodriguez’s Spanish New Orleans is the first comprehensive academic analysis of how Spain governed the largest imperial city in its North American empire. Rodriguez suggests that the Spanish empire was, at least on the northern edge, slipping into economic and perhaps political independence a decade before the overthrow of its Bourbon Spanish rulers in 1808. His work questions that of earlier historians, who argued that Latin America was fundamentally conservative and complaisant under Bourbon rule. Instead, Spanish New Orleans shows that in the capital of Louisiana, Spanish rulers were slowly losing control of three interwoven aspects of the city: demography, trade, and political discourse. Rodriguez demonstrates how the multiethnic, multilingual population of the city played a central role in encouraging trans-imperial free trade and especially trade with the United States, to the point of economic dependence. This dependence in turn prompted the Bourbon governors in New Orleans to negotiate both economic and political discourse in a city that was steadily moving closer in every way to the United States. Far from being a peripheral city in a peripheral colony, by 1803 New Orleans was reshaping the Spanish empire beyond the comprehension of the Spanish king. Chapters on the city’s foundational merchants, literacy, and the judicial system all point to the unique character of this imperial city on the American periphery. This study marks new methodological paths for historians of Latin America and early U.S. history by making use of enormous data compilations on population, ethnicity, and economics. Rodriguez also analyzes previously ignored eighteenth-century Spanish-language documents, including petitions, postal records, and military rosters, and engages underutilized tools such as signature analysis. Through his use of original sources and innovative methodologies, Rodriguez makes new and intriguing comparisons between New Orleans and other contemporary Spanish imperial cities as well as cities in the then-expanding United States. In Spanish New Orleans, Rodriguez goes beyond simply positioning New Orleans within Spanish imperial history. Taking a broader view, he considers what Spanish New Orleans reveals about the challenges and opportunities faced by the Spanish Bourbon empire, and he sheds light on how a new North American empire could so quickly and easily absorb a Spanish city.
This book provides an accessible overview of US defense politics for upper-level students. This new edition has been updated and revised, with new material on the Trump Administration and Space Force. Analyzing the ways in which the United States prepares for war, the authors demonstrate how political and organizational interests determine US defense policy and warn against over-emphasis on planning, centralization, and technocracy. Focusing on the process of defense policy-making rather than just the outcomes of that process, US Defense Politics departs from the traditional style of many textbooks. Designed to help students understand the practical side of American national security policy, the book examines the following key themes: US grand strategy; the roles of the president and the Congress in controlling the military; organizational interests and civil-military relations; who joins America's military; what happens to veterans after wars; how and why weapons are bought; the management of defense and intra- and inter-service relations; public attitudes toward the military; homeland security and the intelligence community. The fourth edition will be essential reading for students of US defense politics, national security policy, and homeland security, and highly recommended for students of US foreign policy, public policy, and public administration.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1875. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.
Electronics has become the largest industry, surpassing agriCUlture, auto. and heavy metal industries. It has become the industry of choice for a country to prosper, already having given rise to the phenomenal prosperity of Japan. Korea. Singapore. Hong Kong. and Ireland among others. At the current growth rate, total worldwide semiconductor sales will reach $300B by the year 2000. The key electronic technologies responsible for the growth of the industry include semiconductors. the packaging of semiconductors for systems use in auto, telecom, computer, consumer, aerospace, and medical industries. displays. magnetic, and optical storage as well as software and system technologies. There has been a paradigm shift, however, in these technologies. from mainframe and supercomputer applications at any cost. to consumer applications at approximately one-tenth the cost and size. Personal computers are a good example. going from $500IMIP when products were first introduced in 1981, to a projected $lIMIP within 10 years. Thin. light portable. user friendly and very low-cost are. therefore. the attributes of tomorrow's computing and communications systems. Electronic packaging is defined as interconnection. powering, cool ing, and protecting semiconductor chips for reliable systems. It is a key enabling technology achieving the requirements for reducing the size and cost at the system and product level.
The meteoric rise of Las Vegas from a remote Mormon outpost to an international entertainment center was never a sure thing. In its first decades, the town languished, but when Nevada legalized casino gambling in 1931, Las Vegas met its destiny. This act—combined with the growing popularity of the automobile, cheap land and electricity, and changing national attitudes toward gambling—led to the fantastic casinos and opulent resorts that became the trademark industry of the city and created the ambiance that has made Las Vegas an icon of pleasure. This volume celebrates the city’s unparalleled growth, examining both the development of its gaming industry and the creation of an urban complex that over two million people proudly call home. Here are the colorful characters who shaped the city as well as the political, business, and civic decisions that influenced its growth. The story extends chronologically from the first Paiute people to the construction of the latest megaresorts, and geographically far beyond the original township to include the several municipalities that make up today’s vast metropolitan Las Vegas area.
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