American Arsenal examines the United States' transformation from isolationist state to military superpower by means of sixteen vignettes, each focusing upon an inventor and his contribution to the cause.
Some of the saints of old we know little about and others we know much. But, we do know that the high esteem in which these men and women were held by their contemporaries and in which they have been held down to the present day, attests to the heroic quality of their saintliness. We can learn something from their lives.
In Cathedrals of Science, Patrick Coffey describes how chemistry got its modern footing-how thirteen brilliant men and one woman struggled with the laws of the universe and with each other. They wanted to discover how the world worked, but they also wanted credit for making those discoveries, and their personalities often affected how that credit was assigned. Gilbert Lewis, for example, could be reclusive and resentful, and his enmity with Walther Nernst may have cost him the Nobel Prize; Irving Langmuir, gregarious and charming, "rediscovered" Lewis's theory of the chemical bond and received much of the credit for it. Langmuir's personality smoothed his path to the Nobel Prize over Lewis. Coffey deals with moral and societal issues as well. These same scientists were the first to be seen by their countries as military assets. Fritz Haber, dubbed the "father of chemical warfare," pioneered the use of poison gas in World War I-vividly described-and Glenn Seaborg and Harold Urey were leaders in World War II's Manhattan Project; Urey and Linus Pauling worked for nuclear disarmament after the war. Science was not always fair, and many were excluded. The Nazis pushed Jewish scientists like Haber from their posts in the 1930s. Anti-Semitism was also a force in American chemistry, and few women were allowed in; Pauling, for example, used his influence to cut off the funding and block the publications of his rival, Dorothy Wrinch. Cathedrals of Science paints a colorful portrait of the building of modern chemistry from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.
What if something that you have always taken for granted turned out to be something so wrong that it shook you to your very foundation. Something your parents would never allow you to question while you grew up. That is the case in which attorney Donegan Coffey found himself after being raised in a devout Irish catholic family. Coffey's mother died three days after he finished the bar exam. His mother's death put him in a tail spin for about eleven years. Coffey self medicated on alcohol while building his legal practice until he finally started coming out of it after moving out of the neighborhood parish in which he was raised. His father remained in the family homestead and got older and required the assistance of Coffey and his seven brothers and sisters. They all banded together to care for their father as the neighborhood around him changed. All tried to keep him safe until one night the parish priest was found murdered in the alley outside of the rectory. As this only happened three blocks from his father's house, Coffey felt compelled to look into the circumstances of Father Mike's murder who had been a close family friend for some thirty years. As Coffey investigates the murder, he uncovers a past that calls into question all the religious beliefs that his parents had drilled into his head while growing up. The final outcome makes Coffey question everything about his mother's beliefs, the church and the parish in which he was raised.
This thesis addresses the evolution of integrated close air support (CAS) from its birth to the present. By comparing three air arms' development of CAS, it provides a historical bedrock for the controversies and discord that surround debate regarding the tactic. Viewing CAS's air-ground synergy is a key design of the thesis, as many in the past have viewed it from only one side of the argument. The introduction defines and considers both the air and ground elements as essential to integrated CAS. Chapters One through Three outline the detailed histories of the tactic's development by three air arms. Based on in-depth research, the conclusion emerges that the German Luftwaffe, the US Marine Corps, and the US Army Air Forces all conceived of the tactic concurrently, but evolved it through different priorities, pressures, and personalities.Historical chronology serves as a primary scaffold for the thesis, while the leadership of men in three separate air arms provides a secondary construct. Wolfram von Richthofen, Keith McCutcheon, and Elwood "Pete" Quesada were military leaders and innovators from different backgrounds. Their commonalities included dedicated, forceful leadership, tactical and operational prowess, and a focus on air-ground synergy. The thesis continues with the first year of US involvement in the Korean Conflict as a cautionary tale for integrated CAS. Many of the insights from late stage World War II CAS had to be relearned by the USAF during the Korean CAS Controversy. The thesis concludes with a review and then supposition based upon the glide-path established by nearly 100 years of CAS. The thesis ends with integrated CAS's effects on the enemies of 3rd Battalion /1st Marines during the Second Battle of Fallujah. This section views the art and science of CAS in modern high intensity urban combat. With the promise of precision guided munitions finally met, the potential for integrated CAS' effects on current and future battlefields is truly awe-inspiring. The hope that drove this work is that future US infantrymen will never advance without the pinnacle of the tactic at their beck and call.
Confession is a history of penance as a virtue and a sacrament in the United States from about 1634, when Catholicism arrived in Maryland, to 2015, fifty years after the major theological and disciplinary changes initiated by the Second Vatican Council. Patrick W. Carey argues that the Catholic theology and practice of penance, so much opposed by the inheritors of the Protestant Reformation, kept alive the biblical penitential language in the United States at least until the mid-1960s when Catholic penitential discipline changed. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American Catholics created institutions that emphasized, in opposition to Protestant culture, confession to a priest as the normal and almost exclusive means of obtaining forgiveness. Preaching, teaching, catechesis, and parish revival-type missions stressed sacramental confession and the practice became a widespread routine in American Catholic life. After the Second Vatican Council, the practice of sacramental confession declined suddenly. The post-Vatican II history of penance, influenced by the Council's reforms and by changing American moral and cultural values, reveals a major shift in penitential theology; moving from an emphasis on confession to emphasis on reconciliation. Catholics make up about a quarter of the American population, and thus changes in the practice of penance had an impact on the wider society. In the fifty years since the Council, penitential language has been overshadowed increasingly by the language of conflict and controversy. In today's social and political climate, Confession may help Americans understand how far their society has departed from the penitential language of the earlier American tradition, and consider the advantages and disadvantages of such a departure.
Circle of Greed is the epic story of the rise and fall of Bill Lerach, once the leading class action lawyer in America and now a convicted felon. For more than two decades, Lerach threatened, shook down and sued top Fortune 500 companies, including Disney, Apple, Time Warner, and—most famously—Enron. Now, the man who brought corporate moguls to their knees has fallen prey to the same corrupt impulses of his enemies, and is paying the price by serving time in federal prison. If there was ever a modern Greek tragedy about a man and his times, about corporate arrogance and illusions and the scorched-earth tactics to not only counteract corporate America but to beat it at its own game, Bill Lerach's story is it.
As Seen On Discovery Channel's "Street Justice: The Bronx" 2,000 arrests. 100 off-duty arrests. 6,000 assists. 15 shootings. 8 shot. 4 kills. These are not the performance statistics of an entire NYPD unit. They are the record that makes Detective 2nd Grade Ralph Friedman a legend. Friedman was arguably the toughest cop ever to wear the shield and was the most decorated detective in the NYPD’s 170-year history. Stationed at the South Bronx’s notorious 41 Precinct, known by its nickname “Fort Apache,” Friedman served during one of the city’s most dire times: the 1970s and ‘80s, when fiscal crisis, political disillusionment, an out-of-control welfare system, and surging crime and drug use were just a few of its problems. Street Warrior tells an unvarnished story of harrowing vice and heroic grit, including Friedman’s reflections on racial profiling, confrontations with the citizens he swore to protect, and the use of deadly force.
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