Politik

"This is the book The West Wing deserves." Allison Janney"A joy and a MUST READ for all the Wingnuts out there!" Brad WhitfordA behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of The West Wing as told by cast members Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, with compelling insights from cast and crew exploring what made the show what it was and how its impassioned commitment to service has made the series and relationships behind it endure. Includes an exclusive foreword by showrunner Aaron Sorkin and introduction by cast member Allison Janney.Step back inside the world of President Jed Bartlet's Oval Office with Fitzgerald and McCormack as they reunite the West Wing cast and crew in a lively and colourful "backstage pass" to the timeless series. This intimate, in-depth reflection reveals how The West Wing was conceived, and spotlights the army of people it took to produce it, the lifelong friendships it forged, and the service it inspired.From cast member origin stories to the collective cathartic farewell on the show's final night of filming, What's Next will delight readers with on-set and off-camera anecdotes that even West Wing super fans have never heard. Meanwhile, a deeper analysis of the show's legacy through American culture, service, government, and civic life underscores how the series envisaged an American politics of decency and honour, creating an aspirational White House beyond the bounds of fictional television. What's Next revisits beloved episodes with fresh, untold commentary; compiles poignant and hilarious stories from the show's production; highlights initiatives supported by the cast, crew, and creators; and makes a powerful case for competent, empathetic leadership, hope, and optimism for whatever lies ahead."What's Next is the highest level of access you can get to The West Wing without a background check." Josh Malina"What's Next is the book we all need right now." Dulé Hill"Any West Wing fan will adore this book, as will anyone who admires brilliant television and all that it takes to make it. Run and buy What's Next for all the West Wingers in your life!" Janel Moloney

1670, Kyiv. A German convert to Russian Orthodoxy is writing history. Not merely a book about history: he believes that his work will save his beloved Kyiv from the scourge of Catholicism. Innokenty Gizel has never been to Moscow, but he wants to create the illusion that Kyiv shares a common history with the seat of the Orthodox Church. The story he comes up with - a fantasy - pleases Moscow's rulers so much that it will remain their official line all the way into the 21st century.1990, Dnipropetrovsk. Twelve-year-old Volodymyr Zelensky is fixated on a group of Ukrainian students. They are participants in KVN , the most-watched program in the Soviet Union. It is a sketch sketch comedy show. In their most memorable routine, the Ukrainian team replaces the chorus of a Soviet pop song with one of Lenin's aphorisms: "Better less, but better." The subtext is clear: the Soviet empire is too big.One year later, it will dissolve. Pioneering journalist Mikhail Zygar embarks on a hypnotic and revelatory quest through the myths and stories that motivate Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and traces the eerie ways in which the career of a jobbing comedian of no exceptional ability exploited and subverted them at every turn, from his own first appearance on KVN to his defiant refusal to leave Kyiv as Russian columns approached, in real life now playing a role that he first assumed as a joke. What will be the price of not taking Russia seriously? And what might be the prize?

For the first time in history, the globe is dominated by one economic system. Capitalism prevails because it delivers prosperity and meets desires for autonomy. But it also is unstable and morally defective. Surveying the varieties and futures of capitalism, Branko Milanovic offers creative solutions to improve a system that isn't going anywhere.

The third installment in the bestselling series-now featuring live-action video content."The first volume in the 100 Deadly Skills series delivered clandestine hacks to help you escape and evade threats at home and abroad. The second book, Survival Edition, provided a blueprint for surviving fatal disasters. Now, with the Combat Edition, I've created the most comprehensive on-the-ground combat manual ever assembled-helping good people defeat evil, fight for their lives, and survive another day."-Clint EmersonCreated by a retired Navy SEAL, this illustrated manual presents one hundred skills from some of the deadliest characters on Earth. Special ops. Outlaw bikers. Martial artists. Professional fighters. Drawn from an elite cadre of experts, each technique is broken down step by step to radically improve your chances of coming out on top-whether you're facing an active shooter or going toe to toe with a belligerent prick. Embedded videos let you visualize the skills and practice them in real time.These one hundred deadly skills include:· Weaponizing your non-violent posture· Delivering damaging body strikes· Accurately throwing a knife· Quick drawing and shooting a handgun· Tactically deceiving your enemy· Surviving a multi-threat ambush· Understanding non-lethal and lethal optionsClint Emerson, retired Navy SEAL, spent twenty years conducting special ops all over the world while attached to SEAL Team Three, the National Security Agency (NSA), and a Special Mission Unit. Tom Mandrake has created and illustrated books, comics and graphic novels for over 40 years. Some of the titles he has worked on include Batman, The Spectre, The Martian Manhunter, The Punisher, The New Mutants, The X-Files, Creeps, To Hell You Ride and Kros: Hallowed Ground.H. Keith Melton, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and author of many spy books, is an intelligence historian and a specialist in clandestine technology, espionage, and tradecraft.

An American son and his immigrant father search for belonging - in post-Trump America, and in their relationship with each other

For nearly ten years, Ben Rhodes was at the centre of the Obama Administration - first as a speechwriter, then a policymaker, and finally a multi-purpose aide and close collaborator. Rhodes puts us in the room at the most tense and poignant moments in recent history: starting every morning with Obama in the Daily Briefing;

Has liberalism failed because it has succeeded?

In his major New York Times bestseller, Jimmy Carter looks back from ninety years of age.

** THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ** A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR **'Visionary ... buy or borrow this book, read it, take it to heart' OBSERVER'Everyone who cares about freedom should read this book' ANNE APPLEBAUM'Passionate, intimate, compelling - a clarion call' PHILIPPE SANDSA brilliant exploration of freedom - what it is, how it's been misunderstood, and why it's our only chance for survival from the acclaimed, bestselling author of On Tyranny Freedom is our great commitment, but we have lost sight of what it means - leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state power: we think we're free if we can do and say as we please. But true freedom isn't so much freedom from, as freedom to - the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers and his own experiences, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. Intimate yet ambitious, this book forges a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity and grace.On Tyranny inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom; On Freedom helps us see exactly what we're fighting for. It is a thrilling intellectual journey and a tour de force of political philosophy.'In these hard times for liberty, On Freedom makes the case that freedom, once explored and understood, is the way forward' PRESIDENT ZELENSKY*New York Times bestseller list, 6 Oct 24*.

When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's youngest billionaire and crypto's Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own-until it all came undone.

There is no green energy. Nor pink, nor black. Nor clean nor dirty, for that matter. In this intelligent, eye-opening and witty bestseller, an eminent climate scientist takes a graphic novelist on a journey to understand the profound changes that our planet is experiencing. The scientist, Jean-Marc Jancovici, explains the workings of superpowers and history; oil and climate; ecology, economics and energy flows. He describes, in short, the world we live in today-a world whose future is deeply uncertain. The artist, Christophe Blain, intently listens and draws.As the pair come face to face with global warming, they - along with Mother Nature, Iron Man and Popeye, among others - create a picture of what the solution to our predicament actually looks like. It's not just about switching to renewable energy sources, they show. It's about rethinking everything: our energy supply, our economies and our whole world. We're left with a vision of the future in which nuclear power, food, education, housing, transport and communities - in other words all of us - work together to create a world without end.

'A characteristically radical re-reading of history that places the social and political experiments of pirates at the heart of the European Enlightenment. A brilliant companion volume to the best-selling Dawn of Everything' Amitav GhoshThe Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Its true origins lie thousands of miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. This was the Golden Age of Piracy, a period of violent buccaneering and rollicking legends - but it was also, argues anthropologist David Graeber, a brief window of radical democracy, as the pirate settlers attempted to apply the egalitarian principles of their ships to a new society on land.For Graeber, Madagascar's lost pirate utopia represents some of the first stirrings of Enlightenment political thought. In this jewel of a book, he offers a way to 'decolonize the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its actors were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice by Western revolutionary regimes a century later.Pirate Enlightenment playfully dismantles the central myths of the Enlightenment. In their place comes a story about the magic, sea battles, purloined princesses, manhunts, make-believe kingdoms, fraudulent ambassadors, spies, jewel thieves, poisoners and devil worship that lie at the origins of modern freedom.