Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Politics & Government

In the secret world of spies and covert operations, no other intelligence service continues to be surrounded by myth and mystery as does the Mossad. Created in 1951 to ensure the future of an embattled Israel, Mossad is responsible for the most audacious and thrilling feats of espionage, counterterrorism, and assassination. To some, Mossad is the precise and at times lethal instrument of Israel's will, a fiercely dedicated group of men and women: an elite intelligence arm.

In his teens, Jim Carroll roamed the streets of New York, shooting baskets with some of New York's best "playground" stars, and shooting heroin with some of the city's most memorable street characters. The Basketball Diaries is his chronicle of those years. Written while in his teens, it is a literary tour-de-force and a stunning portrait of contemporary urban street life. The characters and incidents are moving and funny and sad, but always very real.

On July 19, 2001, Jeffrey Archer—politician and international best-selling author—was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury. He became Prisoner FF8282 and spent the first three weeks of his sentence in a high-security prison that housed some of Britain's most violent criminals. He was moved to the Lifer's wing—because of the security it provided—where he became a trusted confidant to fellow convicts. Prisoners and guards alike asked for his autograph and sought his advice—though one cellmate sold a story about Archer to the British tabloids.

For over fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover was the most powerful lawman in America. He was also the country's most controversial and feared public servant. His career as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation spanned nine different presidential administrations and survived a dozen attempts to sweep him from office.

Hazardous Duty is a real-life, hard-hitting nonfiction thriller set in the ruins of Bosnia and the sands of Saudi Arabia, the deadly alleys of Mogadishu and the teeming streets of Port-au-Prince. Colonel Hackworth returns from these new American battlefields to report that the Pentagon is wasting hundred of billions of dollars gearing up to fight the wrong kind of wars, and offers a tough-love critique of American military leadership, interpreting the new post-Cold War conflicts.

Expanded from the original, Yes We Can! offers highlights from speeches by Barack Obama and includes his entire inaugural address as an added bonus. For this collection, speeches were chosen to showcase President Obama's powerful, inspiring rhetoric of hope and change and to represent his stands on issues such as climate, energy, service, and the Iraq war.

In the same vivid, eloquent style that earned Ronald Reagan the designation "the Great Communicator," Peggy Noonan delivers a candid portrait of the Reagan White House in this stylish, sensitive memoir that pursues the question, "Who's running things here anyway?"

Optimistic about America's future? Don't be. In his New York Times best seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western world. In After America Steyn asserts that the United States, like Europe, is on the great rush to self-destruction. It's not just one cause—such as financial collapse, citizens who think the government will solve every problem, or America's eclipse as a world power—no, it's all this and more that spells one word for the United States: Armageddon.

Born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, the Honorable Diana Frances Spencer attained wealth, power, and title with her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales. But her ultimate triumph owed nothing to those circumstances and everything to her inner qualities: to an innate ability to understand and connect with ordinary people, especially the desperately sick, the rejected, the "unloved."

The Governor provides the most comprehensive look to date at the life of a twice-elected public official in the notoriously complicated world of Illinois politics. We take a tour through the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago, a city of great ethnic diversity, and see firsthand how those divides can evolve into cabals that rival anything found on the national political scene.

In Stupid Black Men, Larry Elder takes on the mind-set of those people who always capture the most media attention - as well as masses of public money - people who say that racism is the root of all problems and who end up hurting precisely those they claim to be helping.

Twenty-five years after the existence of Nixon's secret White House recordings became known, the tapes were released. These tapes dominated the final two years of Nixon's presidency and almost single-handedly forced his resignation. In Abuse of Power, the listener is invited into the Oval Office with Nixon and the White House staff as they try to distance themselves from the firestorm of allegations being leveled at them. Packed with revelations, these recordings offer a spellbinding portrait of raw power and a Shakespearean depiction of a king and his court.

Russell Means was the most controversial American Indian leader of our time, and in Where White Men Fear to Tread, he recounts pivotal moments of his life. Means did everything possible to dramatize and justify the American Indian aim of self-determination — from storming Mount Rushmore and seizing Plymouth Rock to running for President in 1988. Perhaps most notoriously, in 1973, Means led a 71-day takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

In brave and unforgettable terms, Al Gore, the passionate and lifelong defender of the environment, describes how human actions and decisions can endanger or safeguard the vulnerable ecosystem that sustains us.

Following an unprecedented, relentless four-year investigation, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr delivered 36 boxes of evidence against then-President Bill Clinton to the House of Representatives on September 9, 1998. Dubbed “The Starr Report,” the documents alleged—in lurid detail—that Clinton lied under oath in a sworn deposition about his affair with an intern. This became the prime piece of evidence in the subsequent impeachment hearings.

More than 40 speeches - considered among the greatest of all time - comprise this marvelous collection. All the works you'll hear are unabridged, and the most contemporary are live recordings. Included are speeches by Susan B. Anthony, Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Jefferson Davis, Amelia Earhart, and John F. Kennedy.

Ryan was a typical 13-year-old when it was discovered that he had contracted AIDS through tainted blood products he had been given for his hemophilia. Denied the right to return to school, he went to court. Newspaper headlines followed the many legal battles and although Ryan won the court case, his own fight had just begun. In this personal account, Ryan tells about his struggle.

Blanche Wiesen Cook recreates Eleanor Roosevelt in all of her roles -- as a visionary, an activist, a political wife, and a woman far more independent than we knew. No other First Lady has had a greater influence in the course of democracy in this century, and no other book about Eleanor Roosevelt captures the complexity of her character - her wit, her passion, her boldness, and her commitment to greater dignity and security for all women and men.

If the Watergate scandal was a national nightmare, then maybe the Clinton scandal was a national wet dream, and who better to narrate it than the screenwriter Joe Eszterhas? In American Rhapsody, Eszterhas, whose credits include Basic Instinct and Showgirls, takes us through the events that threatened to topple a president. From scandalmongers Matt Drudge and Ken Starr, to his final, unimpeachable witness, Willard - none other than President Clinton's talking penis - Eszterhas gives us the goods.

In 1996, deaths by gun violence in the United States totaled roughly 14,000. With so many casualties—along with an astounding rise of armed militias and the discovery of huge caches of weapons stockpiled in private residences—Americans were forced to re-examine what it meant to have the "right to bear arms." The scrutinizing public eye wasted no time in looking for answers from the National Rifle Association, a group whose foundation and lifeblood is founded in the Second Amendment. Famed muckraker Jack Anderson went behind the scenes of the NRA to produce this blistering expose.