Showing results by narrator "John Lescault" in All Categories

Why did the US intelligence services fail so spectacularly to know about the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities following World War II? As Vince Houghton, historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, shows us, that disastrous failure came just a few years after the Manhattan Project's intelligence team had penetrated the Third Reich and knew every detail of the Nazi's plan for an atomic bomb. What changed and what went wrong?

In the tradition of Boice’s expositional commentaries, Nehemiah not only explains the meaning of the text verse by verse and section by section, but it relates the concerns of the text to the world, the church, and the realities of Christian life. Pastors, Bible students, and laypersons alike will find Boice’s easy-to-digest commentary an important tool, not only in understanding the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem but also in understanding how God equips his servants for their appointed tasks.

In this powerful study of the work and attributes of God, Boice answers questions about predestination, showing what is important to the life of today’s Christian in God’s historical dealings with Jews, Gentiles, and all of creation. Includes verse-by-verse exposition, balanced explanations of difficult doctrines, and challenging applications.

Science history is chock full of world-changing innovations that initially faced skepticism and ridicule for being too unconventional: light bulbs, cars, and home computers are just a few examples. In this audiobook, we take a look at the latest out-of-the-box ideas to tackle today’s biggest challenges, including so-called sponge cities designed to combat flooding, technology that mimics photosynthesis to produce fuel, modifying bacteria’s genetic circuits to treat genetic diseases, and much more.

From Pulitzer Prize - winning book critic Michael Dirda comes a collection of his most personal and engaging essays on the literary life - the perfect companion for any lover of books. Dirda's latest volume collects fifty of his witty and wide-ranging reflections on literary journalism, book collecting, and the writers he loves. Reaching from the classics to the postmoderns, his allusions dance from Samuel Johnson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and M. F. K. Fisher to Marilynne Robinson, Hunter S. Thompson, and David Foster Wallace.

In A.D. 64, on the night of July 19, a fire began beneath the stands of Rome’s great stadium, the Circus Maximus. The fire would spread over the coming days to engulf much of the city of Rome. From this calamity, one of the ancient world’s most devastating events, legends grew: that Nero had been responsible for the fire, and fiddled while Rome burned, and that Nero blamed the Christians of Rome, burning them alive in punishment, making them the first recorded martyrs to the Christian faith at Rome.

Yellowstone Kelly is an Indian fighter and scout like no other. The devil-may-care Irishman can pick off hostiles and quote the classics with equal ease and accuracy. Even the mighty Sioux fear him - or most of them fear him. Sitting Bull's main war chief, the dreaded Gall, fears no man, and Kelly has something of his that the warrior would gladly kill to get back - his woman.

Kirby Randolph was a tough mountain man. He had promised himself he would get the wagon train to Santa Fe because Aurelie St. Clair was in one of the wagons. She was half Indian, the most beautiful and the toughest girl he had ever seen.

Churches committed to following Christ's example want this world changed for the sake of eternity. While the supernatural piece of making that happen goes without saying, how does a body of believers do its part to be in that "sweet spot" where true spiritual transformation occurs?

According to noted expositor James Montgomery Boice, the Minor Prophets particularly highlight three aspects of God’s character: his sovereignty, his holiness, and his love. The messages of the Minor Prophets and their pertinent application for our lives should not be dismissed. This is volume two of a two-volume expositional and inspirational commentary on the Minor Prophets that integrates rigorous scholarship with accessible writing.

Circling is my story and yours. We all circle, choosing a path, living it halfway through and wondering how we got here.

Lighthearted, quirky, and upbeat, this book explores the portrayal of science and technology on both the big and little screen - and how Hollywood is actually doing a better job of getting it right than ever before. Grounded in the real-word, and often cutting-edge, science and technology that inspires fictional science, the authors survey Hollywood depictions of topics such as quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and alien worlds.

Murder in the 11th House is the first novel in the mystery series that introduces a unique character in the annals of detective fiction. Astrological detective David Lowell gets involved in a new case thanks to his daughter, a young defense attorney who believes that a murder suspect is innocent. A judge has been murdered in a New York City parking garage, and Joanna “Johnny” Colbert, a tough and mouthy bartender, is accused of the crime. Lowell’s daughter, Melinda, believes that her client has been wrongly accused.

Written by the officer who became General Longstreet’s most trusted associate, this collection of firsthand accounts, memoirs, and diaries grants the listener an inside view into the workings of the Confederate army staff - the unknown soldiers, the well-known commanders, politicians, nurses, and civilians - relating the events of the Civil War as Lt. Colonel Gilbert Moxley Sorrel experienced it.

In this biography of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, Alberto Manguel examines the question of his universal appeal. Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.

History records few individuals as brilliant, powerful, and ruthless as Julius Caesar. Born into the Roman aristocracy, he surpassed the reputation of his family and altered the history of Rome and the Mediterranean world. When Caesar was born in 100 B.B., Rome was a city-state with a republican form of government. When he died in 44 B.C., Rome was on its way to becoming an empire. In those short 56 years, Caesar conquered the Gauls, began the Roman conquest of Britain, and campaigned from Spain to Egypt.

Many contemporary political thinkers are gripped by the belief that their task is to develop an ideal theory of rights or justice for guiding and judging political actions. But in Philosophy and Real Politics, Raymond Geuss argues that philosophers should first try to understand why real political actors behave as they actually do. Far from being applied ethics, politics is a skill that allows people to survive and persue their goals.

The Cotton Kingdom recounts his daily observations of the curse of slavery: the poverty it brought to both black and white people, the inadequacies of the plantation system, and the economic consequences and problems associated with America’s most “peculiar institution.” Disproving the opinion that “cotton is king”, Olmsted examined the huge differences between the economies of the northern and southern states, contrasting the more successful, wealthy, and progressive North with the South, which was stubbornly convinced of the necessity of slavery.

Someone is bumping off rock’s wrinkled royalty. After the death of the third aging rock star, lead singer Freddie Finger, astrologer-detective David Lowell takes on the case, scrutinizing suspects’ charts for any clues in the stars that could point to a killer.

One of the world's most important political philosophers, Jon Elster is a leading thinker on reason and rationality and their roles in politics and public life. In this short book, he crystallizes and advances his work, bridging the gap between philosophers who use the idea of reason to assess human behavior from a normative point of view and social scientists who use the idea of rationality to explain behavior.