352 products in Books

“Stasiland demonstrates that great, original reporting is still possible. . . . A heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic.” — Claire Tomalin, Guardian “Books of the Year” Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction: a powerfully moving account of people who heroically resisted the communist dictatorship of East Germany, and of people who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. Anna Funder delivers a prize-winning and powerfully rendered account of the resistance against the German Democratic Republic’s communist dictatorship in these harrowing, personal tales of life behind the Iron Curtain—and, especially, of life under the iron fist of the Stasi, East Germany’s brutal state security force in one of history's most notorious surveillance states. In the tradition of Frederick Taylor’s The Berlin Wall and Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families, Funder’s Stasiland is a masterpiece of investigative reporting and a vital work of twentieth-century history, written with novelistic vividness and the compelling intensity of a universal, real-life story. Through meticulous reporting, Funder reveals the haunting reality of life in the GDR―a world of quiet heroes, conflicted enforcers, and the ghosts left behind by a fallen state. * A Chilling Surveillance State: Delve into the inner workings of the Stasi, a secret police force that used everything from collecting “smell samples” in jars to a vast network of informers to control the populace. * Unforgettable True Stories: Meet Miriam, who became an Enemy of the State at sixteen for distributing leaflets, and Frau Paul, who made an impossible choice to protect a stranger at the cost of seeing her own critically ill child. * Life Behind the Berlin Wall: Experience the strange, often absurd reality of the German Democratic Republic, a country that no longer exists but whose secrets still haunt the present day. * The Perpetrators’ Perspective: Hear directly from the men who served the regime, from professors who taught the art of recruiting informers to the officer who physically painted the line where the Wall would be built.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Everything I want in a thriller. Sexy, shocking, and tense with an ending I never saw coming. Jeneva Rose is the queen of twists."--Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author The highly anticipated new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead You've opened up your house and your heart to a total stranger ... What could possibly go wrong? Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she's pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells--and he's eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she's not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn't right with the ranch. Despite her uneasiness, the two bond and start to fall for one another. However, as her departure date nears, things change for the worse. What began as a playful romance soon turns into a complicated web of lies. Grace grows wary of Calvin as his infatuation for her seems to have morphed to obsession. Calvin fears that Grace is hiding something from him--including her reason for staying at his ranch to begin with. Vacation flings typically end in heartbreak, but for Grace and Calvin, it'll be far more destructive.

Do you think you know something about Bitcoin and Austrian Economics? If so you may be ready for Cryptoeconomics. This is not a work for the uninitiated. The content is dense – it does not repeat itself. It is not a contribution to the echo chamber, will not show you how to set up a wallet, the future price, or what to do. Cryptoeconomics applies rational economic principles to Bitcoin, demonstrating flaws and unnecessary complexities in them, and in common understandings of Bitcoin. It will improve your understanding of both. Bitcoin requires a new, rigorous, and comprehensive discipline. This is it. Bitcoin is something new. It seems to defy understanding. Has there ever been a fixed supply money? Is there another case of production cost varying directly with product price? Is there anything else with a competitive yet fixed rate of transactability? To see past the hype, understand the value proposition, security model, and economic behavior, this may be your only source. Bitcoin is economics, technology, and security. Without incorporating all of these aspects, errors will be made. Economists, technologists, security experts, and even numerologists have attempted to explain it. Each brings a limited perspective, failing to incorporate essential aspects. The author found himself uniquely qualified to integrate them. His work in Bitcoin began with a hardware wallet. He spent a year analyzing threats, working with electronics design, hardware exploitation, and state surveillance experts. He chose the Libbitcoin software library, as Satoshi’s prototype was not factored for development and was largely financed by the Bitcoin Foundation, a corporate consortium. He later dedicated himself to Libbitcoin, eventually writing or editing all of its ~500,000 lines of code. Few have comparable experience with such a comprehensive Bitcoin stack. As a combat-experienced fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy he experienced state threats. He became a highly-qualified Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor, in which his primary role was tactics analysis and threat presentation. He also advised for the Navy on the Strike Fighter Training System network, Joint Strike Fighter, early GPS weapons, and F/A-18 systems. His understanding of the physical nature of all security was enhanced by decades of training in Japanese martial arts, achieving black belt rankings in five disciplines. His degree and experience in computer science mixed with extensive business experience, founding several companies. He has worked at IBM and as a Principle Architect at Microsoft, two of the world’s largest companies. The latter purchased his first startup, and his second was acquired by Veritas Capital. He was awarded three related U.S. patents. Eventually he became an angel investor, sharing his experience with other entrepreneurs. As CTO of his first company he published three computer security advisories via Computer Emergency Response Team. Each was derived entirely from his reading of user documentation. Later he earned a seat on the DHS Open Vulnerability Assessment Language advisory board for his work on software patching. In recent years he uncovered material security flaws in each of the first three iterations of a popular “secure element” hardware wallet, again from review of user documentation. Thirty years of self-study in free market economics was reinforced by extensive global travel. In visiting over 80 countries he has interacted with people on five continents. Still often traveling on a motorcycle with only a shoulder bag, he obtains intimate understanding of global economic realities. From Zimbabwean black market currency traders, to Tanzanian coffee pickers, Venezuelan refugees, Mongolian shepherds, Okinawan jazz musicians, Lao monks, etc. – the world is not as often presented. The ability to integrate these diverse and relevant experiences led to Cryptoeconomics. This is your next stop.

Anarchism has been both a vision of a peaceful, cooperative society—and an ideology of revolutionary terror. Since the term itself—anarchism—is a negation, there is a great deal of disagreement on what the positive alternative would look like. The black flag comes in many colors.The Anarchist Handbook is an opportunity for all these many varied voices to speak for themselves, from across the decades. These were human beings who saw things differently from their fellow men. They fought and they loved. They lived and they died. They disagreed on much, but they all shared one vision: Freedom.

AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Never stop...Never forget...Just remember. Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They've been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning...they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love...every memory has vanished. Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be...the more they question why they were ever together to begin with. Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse. Heart-stopping and utterly captivating, the complete Never Never series, now available in one volume, will leave readers breathless and believing in the power of love. Perfect for fans of: * Verity, Too Late and The Wives * New Adult and Coming of Age stories * Angsty, romantic suspense * First loves and second chances * Colleen Hoover, Tarryn Fisher, Mia Sheridan and Lucy Score Don't miss the bestselling romantic mystery— Now available in a stunning hardcover Collector's Edition featuring nine exclusive illustrations, a foil-stamped case, beautifully sprayed edges and custom designed endpapers!

'it is only the cultivation of individuality which produces, or can produce, well developed human beings' Mill's four essays, 'On Liberty', 'Utilitarianism', 'Considerations on Representative Government', and 'The Subjection of Women' examine the most central issues that face liberal democratic regimes - whether in the nineteenth century or the twenty-first. They have formed the basis for many of the political institutions of the West since the late nineteenth century, tackling as they do the appropriate grounds for protecting individual liberty, the basic principles of ethics, the benefits and the costs of representative institutions, and the central importance of gender equality in society. These essays are central to the liberal tradition, but their interpretation and how we should understand their connection with each other are both contentious. In their introduction Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen set the essays in the context of Mill's other works, and argue that his conviction in the importance of the development of human character in its full diversity provides the core to his liberalism and to any defensible account of the value of liberalism to the modern world. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority is a composition of three essays, all written in 1867: No. 1, No. 2: The Constitution", and No. 6: "The Constitution of no Authority". No essays between No. 2 and No. 6 were ever published under the authorship of Lysander Spooner.

An inside look at modern open source software development and its influence on our online social world. Open source software, in which developers publish code that anyone can use, has long served as a bellwether for other online behavior. In the late 1990s, it provided an optimistic model for public collaboration, but in the last 20 years it’s shifted to solo operators who write and publish code that's consumed by millions. In Working in Public, Nadia Asparouhova takes an inside look at modern open source software development, its evolution over the last two decades, and its ramifications for an internet reorienting itself around individual creators. Asparouhova, who interviewed hundreds of developers while working to improve their experience at GitHub, argues that modern open source offers us a model through which to understand the challenges faced by online creators. She examines the trajectory of open source projects, including: * The GitHub platform for hosting and development * The structures, roles, incentives, and relationships involved in open source projects * The often-overlooked maintenance required of its creators * The costs of production that endure through an application’s lifetime. Asparouhova also scrutinizes the role of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram, which reduce infrastructure and distribution costs for creators but which massively increase the scope of interactions with their audience. Open source communities are increasingly centered around the work of individual developers rather than teams. Similarly, if creators, rather than discrete communities, are going to become the epicenter of our online social systems, we need to better understand how they work—and we can do so by studying what happened to open source.

A bold and eye-opening exposé on how power and propaganda distort the news, now more relevant than ever • With an updated introduction “[A] compelling indictment of the news media’s role in covering up errors and deceptions in American foreign policy.”—The New York Times Book Review Renowned scholars Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky reveal how U.S. news media, far from being independent watchdogs, often function as tools of elite influence. With probing analysis, they present their Propaganda Model, a framework that explains how systemic bias shapes the stories we’re told, the voices we hear, and the truths that remain hidden. Through deeply researched case studies, from the Vietnam War to coverage of “worthy” vs. “unworthy” victims, Manufacturing Consent exposes the structural forces that drive news organizations to reinforce power rather than question it. It’s a sobering portrait of a media system more interested in maintaining order than informing the public. This edition includes an introduction updating key examples and expanding the Propaganda Model’s relevance to issues like the coverage of NAFTA, the media’s treatment of global protests, and environmental regulation. Manufacturing Consent is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way. Whether you’re a student, activist, or citizen looking to see beyond the headlines, this book will transform how you understand the media—and the world around you.

Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes. Now in a striking new hardcover edition, Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about business and the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb–veteran trader, renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan–has written a modern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luck and skill. This book is about luck–or more precisely, about how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill–the world of trading–Fooled by Randomness provides captivating insight into one of the least understood factors in all our lives. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the author tackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation of the influence of happenstance on our lives. The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: the baseball legend Yogi Berra; the philosopher of knowledge Karl Popper; the ancient world’s wisest man, Solon; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Odysseus. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life but falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness. However, the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed–the lucky fool who happens to be in the right place at the right time–he embodies the “survival of the least fit.” Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru’s insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained by chance. Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events? It may be impossible to guard ourselves against the vagaries of the goddess Fortuna, but after reading Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared. PRAISE FOR FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: Named by Fortune One of the Smartest Books of All Time A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year “[Fooled by Randomness] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses were to the Catholic Church.” –Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink “The book that rolled down Wall Street like a hand grenade.” –Maggie Mahar, author of Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982—1999 “Fascinating . . . Taleb will grab you.” –Peter L. Bernstein, author of Capital Ideas Evolving “Recalls the best of scientist/essayists like Richard Dawkins . . . and Stephen Jay Gould.” –Michael Schrage, author of Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate “We need a book like this. . . . Fun to read, refreshingly independent-minded.” –Robert J. Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance “Powerful . . . loaded with crackling little insights [and] extreme brilliance.” –National Review

Privacy is a puzzling concept. From the backyard to the bedroom, everyday life gives rise to an abundance of privacy claims. In the legal sphere, privacy is invoked with respect to issues including abortion, marriage, and sexuality. Yet privacy is surrounded by a mire of theoretical debate. Certain philosophers argue that privacy is neither conceptually nor morally distinct from other interests, while numerous legal scholars point to the apparently disparate interests involved in constitutional and tort privacy law. By arguing that intimacy is the core of privacy, including privacy law, Inness undermines privacy skepticism, providing a strong theoretical foundation for many of our everyday and legal privacy claims, including the controversial constitutional right to privacy.

Economist Bryan Caplan makes a bold case for unrestricted immigration in this fact-filled graphic nonfiction. American policy-makers have long been locked in a heated battle over whether, how many, and what kind of immigrants to allow to live and work in the country. Those in favor of welcoming more immigrants often cite humanitarian reasons, while those in favor of more restrictive laws argue the need to protect native citizens. But economist Bryan Caplan adds a new, compelling perspective to the immigration debate: He argues that opening all borders could eliminate absolute poverty worldwide and usher in a booming worldwide economy―greatly benefiting humanity. With a clear and conversational tone, exhaustive research, and vibrant illustrations by Zach Weinersmith, Open Borders makes the case for unrestricted immigration easy to follow and hard to deny.