Books published by Rowman & Littlefield

Reveals the candid thoughts and feelings of those most directly involved in adoptions: the adoptee, the adopters, and the birth parents.Adoption Unfiltered authors Sara Easterly (adoptee), Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard (birth parent), and Lori Holden (adoptive parent) interview more than 30 adoptees, 20 birth parents, a dozen adoptive parents, and several industry professionals¿all sharing candidly about the challenges in adoption. While finding common ground in the sometimes-contentious space of adoption may seem like a lofty goal, it reveals the authors¿ optimistic aim: working together with truth and transparency to move toward healing. Flipping the typical script, in which adoptive parents take the lion¿s share of the narrative, this book leads with adoptee stories then moves on to stories of challenges and perspectives of birth parents¿so often marginalized and silent. The third section offers narratives from adoptive parents who are working through their unique challenges. We also hear from adoption professionals, who share the challenges of operating ethically amid rampant unethical practices in the unregulated world of finding infants and children for homes. Finally, we hear from activists and adoption-competent therapists, offering their ideas to make adoption policies and practices better for all involved. Adoption is a beautiful experience but has challenges just like any other relationship or family system. The unique perspectives found here can help to smooth out the rough spots, celebrate the joys, and provide comfort and confirmation for everyone involved in the adoption journey.

In the hierarchy of British jazz musicians, the super-virtuoso guitarist, composer, and bandleader John McLaughlin holds an unassailable position at the very top.Across dozens of official studio and live albums that encompass solo acts, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Shakti, and co-headlining group projects, GRAMMY-Award winner John McLaughlin has consistently enthralled and surprised with boundary-pushing, genre-defying music. He was Miles Davis¿s guitarist of choice on epochal albums In A Silent Way, Jack Johnson, Bitches Brew, and Live Evil. Drawing on hundreds of sources and interviews with key collaborators, Matt Phillips takes us on an exciting journey through McLaughlin¿s entire career: his early years; his flirtations with the European avant-garde; groundbreaking work with Miles Davis and Tony Williams; the electrifying fusion groups The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti; special projects with the likes of Chick Corea, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, and Jeff Beck; hugely popular acoustic collaborations with Paco De Lucia, Larry Coryell, and Al Di Meola; and his 4th Dimension band. His highly virtuoso style brought about a revolution in guitar playing, carving out one of the most critic-proof and prolific careers in modern times. This is the first major book about McLaughlin to illuminate his entire output from 1980¿2020. Including never-before-seen photographs, it¿s a thrilling ride through the life of a master musician.

Scribners tells the inside story of five generations--over 150 years--at the legendary publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, beginning with its founding in an unused chapel in downtown New York through its golden era on Fifth Avenue above the famous landmark bookstore down to the present-day. The author, the fifth of the Charleses to work at that house of celebrated authors, provides here an inside view--"between the covers" of illustrious and notorious books--of the family members, editors, and authors of this colorful literary history. Among the writers who illuminate this story we find in the early years Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, John Galsworthy and the artists Charles Dana Gibson, N. C. Wyeth, and Maxfield Parrish, who illustrated Scribner's Magazine as well as Scribner books. Then with the arrival of "editor of genius" Max Perkins, the story takes off into the heights of twentieth-century fiction with Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Marcia Davenport, Alan Paton, James Jones and--above all--Ernest Hemingway, that most loyal and enduring author whose works were published by four generations of Scribners. Famous children's classics The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, and The Yearling also take their place of honor in the firm's contribution to new generations of readers.This engaging personal account of family history--both in and out of the office--includes the most colorful controversies: from Mussolini and Trotsky to Lindbergh and C. P. Snow--as well as behind-the-scenes adventures of the author's father as he navigated the seas with industry storms and publishing corsairs before finding a safe harbor at Macmillan and finally, after the demise of tycoon Robert Maxwell, Simon & Schuster. The author, an art historian, found himself for thirty years in the company of writers by "an accident of birth." But it proved an adventure beyond his reckoning, here told with the candor and informality of a family gathering, as well as with humor and affection for his father, P. D. James, Louis Auchincloss, Andrew Greeley, and other authors with whom he worked personally. As Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "If it wasn't life, it was magnificent."

Charles Baker has created what is perhaps the greatest armchair drinking book of all time.

This guide details 30 of the best day hikes in Yellowstone.

In this book, Bruce Riedel, one of Americäs leading experts on the Middle East, provides a history of US relations with the various entities of north and south Yemen, and the first in-depth review of Americäs role in the deadly Saudi directed war in the Yemens. Three Presidents¿Obama, Trump, and Biden-- have been deeply involved in this conflict. Riedel places this current war in the context of Americäs history of engaging with the Yemens. From President Kennedy¿s handling of a Soviet and Egyptian coup in Yemen in the fall of 1962 to multiple Presidents interaction with the dictator Ali Abdallah Salih who united the Yemens this is a fascinating story with a colorful cast of characters, America and the Yemens will be of interest to readers seeking to have a better understanding of Americäs role in the Middle East and the tragic encounter that has created the worst humanitarian catastrophe in our lives.

The 2020 election cycle saw not only a polarizing president run for re-election amidst a global pandemic, but also record levels of spending on campaigns for the White House and for Congress. In this volume, experts examine a wide range of topics about the financing of campaigns in 2020 and place the election in broader historical context.

The U.S. defense industrial base is not prepared for the international security environment that now exists, including to deal with China. The United States should take several steps now to strengthen the industrial base to improve deterrence and warfighting.

The way war is waged is evolving quickly¿igniting the rise of private military contractors that offer military-style services as part of their core business model. Arduino unpacks the tradeoffs involved when conflict is increasingly waged not by national armies, but by professional outfits that thrive on chaos. This book charts the rise of private military actors from Russia, China, and the Middle East using primary source data, in-person interviews, and field research amongst operations in conflict zones around the world. Individual stories narrated by mercenaries, military trainers, security businessmen, hackers, and drone pilots will be used to introduce the beginning of each chapter. The book ends by considering today¿s trajectories in the deployment of mercenaries by state, corporations, or even terrorist organizations and what it will mean for the future of conflict.The book follows private security contractors that take on missions in different countries with a variety of challenges. These include a former Singaporean commando working with a Chinese company in Kabul, a former British Royal Marine leading a Kurdish private military company in Erbil protecting BP¿s oil, and a former Russian Spetsnaz defending commercial vessels from the Somali coast to the Gulf of Guinea.Aside from the human component, the book closely follows the trends in the adoption of unmanned lethal weapons and it peeks into the future of weapons that can decide autonomously to kill humans. One chapter is dedicated to loitering munitions, better known as suicide drones, used by Israel and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard for remote-controlled assassination. ISIS¿s reengineered Chinese DJI commercial drones that are used for propaganda operations or as advanced artillery spotters complete the picture of the range of threats the world will routinely face in less than a decade. First-hand data and intimate knowledge of the actors involved in the market for force allow a fully grounded narrative with personal input. Through this prism, the reader gains an understanding of the human, security, and political risks that are part of this industry. The book specifically reveals the risk that unaccountable mercenaries pose in increasing the threshold for conflict, the threat to traditional military forces, the corruption in political circles, and the rising threat of proxy conflicts in the US rivalry with China and Russia.In a nutshell, the book gazes into the crystal ball to forecast what the future might look like in a world ruled by private armies.

This is the story of the early days at ESPN, told by one of its founders, and how a conversation over a couple of martinis in 1978 led to the creation of a broadcast juggernaut.

Since 2004, award-winning author and historian Stan Grayson has regularly contributed stories to WoodenBoat magazine about the many yachts, small craft, designers, boat builders, and sailors who have captured his imagination. This collection of twenty articles from Grayson and the pages of WoodenBoat presents a wide-ranging and insightful account of American yachting history and some of its fascinating characters.Readers will voyage back to the early days of the famous Herreshoff Manufacturing Company; experience the fascinating 1895 America's Cup race; share a morning's scalloping on Martha's Vineyard with the last of America's catboat fishermen; meet the innovative C. Raymond Hunt, who conceived the revolutionary deep-V powerboat; and gain an insightful look at Captain Jousha Slocum, the first man to sail alone around the world. In these and other pieces, Boat Crazy offers a delightful kaleidoscope of engaging stories that give readers a sense of time, place, technology, and personality. In newly written behind-the-scenes introductions for each piece, Grayson discusses why he found the topic important and shares interesting research tidbits and reader reactions.Key to Grayson's work are the primary source materials on which his writing is based. Each piece found in Boat Crazy combines Grayson's painstaking original research with the patient, step-by-step work of an experienced history detective, a journalist's curiosity, and a writer's love of language. Readers will emerge from this book with a deeper appreciation for both America's yachting past and those who are working today to preserve and interpret it.

An examination of the careers of the 50 Houston Astros players who have made the greatest impact on one of Major League Baseball's most iconic franchises. Quotes from the subjects themselves and former teammates are provided along the way, as are recaps of each player's greatest season, most memorable performances, and most notable achievements.

As with the industrial revolution and the Gilded Age it created, new digital technology has changed commerce and culture, creating great wealth in the process, while being essentially unsupervised. Wheeler calls for an era of public interest oversight that embraces new protections for consumers and competition and encourages continued innovation.

This is the go-to instructional guide for the modern rockhounder and prospector, ideal for enthusiasts at all skill levels.