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Wealth and family privilege are no match for the brutal forward march of two armies intent on eliminating each other. As a teenager, Anastasia Saporito discovered that truth as she and her family found themselves exiled, vulnerable, and no longer able to call on their social standing and accumulated riches as the Soviet and German armies converged during World War II. Saporito recounts in vivid detail the difficulties of her childhood as the daughter of White Russian aristocrats forced to flee their native Russia for refuge in Yugoslavia. In Ancient Furies Saporito skillfully depicts her family, her own struggles as a girl coming of age in war-torn central Europe, and the devastation incurred as a result of Nazi actions toward civilian populations of occupied countries. Personal recollections form the basis of this memoir, but the trials and tribulations faced by this young woman shed light on the often-hidden experiences of the once-wealthy elite of central and eastern Europe as the Nazi war machine tore much of that region asunder. Through the words of her teenage self, Saporito brings a different civilian experience of World War II into the open.

He was a graduate student, and she was recently out of medical school. In 1943, the young Jewish couple found themselves trapped in German-occupied France. They had nothing-no money, no influence, no protection. And yet, improbably, these two deprived people stood up against Nazi atrocities, risking their own lives to save others' children.

Jon Hart is not a professional athlete. His one major sports victory is a world championship in roller basketball, which is basketball on in-line skates. More than ten years ago, he started pursuing his own bucket list and embarked on a hilarious and insightful journey into the furthest reaches of the sports world.

Details the threat the American public faces from Iran's Revolutionary Guard, also known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), whose reach extends from the Middle East to Latin America and beyond; Documents that members of its proxy, Hezbollah, and covert IRGC officers prowl the streets of American cities, surveilling targets and planning terrorist attacks; Outlines the IRGC's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, with which it aims to threaten the United States directly

Of all the countries in the world that are vital to the strategic and economic interests of the United States, Saudi Arabia is the least understood by the American people. Saudi Arabia's unique place in Islam makes it indispensable to a constructive relationship between the non-Muslim West and the Muslim world. For all its wealth, the country faces daunting challenges that it lacks the tools to meet: a restless and young population, a new generation of educated women demanding opportunities in a closed society, political stagnation under an octogenarian leadership, religious extremism and intellectual backwardness, social division, chronic unemployment, shortages of food and water, and troublesome neighbors. Today's Saudi people, far better informed than all previous generations, are looking for new political institutions that will enable them to be heard, but these aspirations conflict with the kingdom's strict traditions and with the House of Saud's determination to retain all true power. Meanwhile, the country wishes to remain under the protection of American security but still clings to a system that is antithetical to American values. Basing his work on extensive interviews and field research conducted in the kingdom from 2008 through 2011 under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas W. Lippman dissects this central Saudi paradox for American readers, including diplomats, policymakers, scholars, and students of foreign policy.

Examines how insurgents fight and what motivates them; Draws lessons from six case studies of Islamist insurgencies: the British withdrawal from Iraq (1920s), the French from Algeria (1960s), the Soviets from Afghanistan (1980s), the Americans from Somalia (1990s), the Israelis from southern Lebanon (2000), and the Israelis from the Gaza Strip (2005); Provides timely, expert guidance for today's challenges in Iraq and Afghanistan

In 1950, Vin Scully broadcast his first major league baseball game for the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. Nearly sixty years later he still invites a listener to "pull up a chair," completing a record fifty-ninth consecutive year of play-by-play.

The events of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make an obvious case for expert study of the George W. Bush defense program. During the Bush administration, the rise and fall of governments, the fates of peoples, and the very definitions of "war" and "victory" were up for discussion.

The conflict in Iraq is characterized by three faces of war: interstate conflict, civil war, and insurgency. The Coalition's invasion of Iraq in March 2003 began as an interstate war. No sooner had Saddam Hussein been successfully deposed, however, than U.S.-led forces faced a lethal insurgency.

The Cold War continues to shape international relations almost twenty years after being acknowledged as the central event of the last half of the twentieth century. Interpretations of how it ended thus remain crucial to an accurate understanding of global events and foreign policy.

Provides a second helping of fun facts and amazing trivia from around the roundball world.