How did Americans come to elect Barack Obama—and then Donald Trump? Those choices capture what Paul Starr calls the American contradiction.The whole truth about America, Starr argues in this new history of the United States since the 1950s, has never been contained in one consistent set of values or interests. Our nation was born in the contradiction between freedom and slavery. Today it is beset by a contradiction between a changing people and a resisting nation, ...

In 1972, an intrepid group of teachers and students at New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL) formed the Center for Self-Directed Learning. Each student would design their own program instead of following the daily grind of standardized courses with off-the-shelf textbooks, canned lectures, and, of course, the all-important final exam. Approximately 600 students took the plunge into the unknown during the Center’s 10 years. Now, more than 35 Center graduates look back on their experience, ea...

Winner of the 2013 Shamus Award for Best Indie P.I. Novel!P.I. Duke Rogers finds himself in a combustible situation in this racially charged thriller. His case might have to wait…The immediate problem: getting out of South Central Los Angeles in one piece during the 1992 “Rodney King” riots and that’s just the beginning of his problems.Duke finds an old “friend” for a client. The client’s “friend,” an up and coming African-American actress, ends up ...

Bobby Saxon lives in a world that isn’t quite ready for him. He’s the only white musician in an otherwise all-black swing band at the famous Club Alabam in Los Angeles during World War II—and that isn’t the only unique thing about him...And if that isn’t enough to deal with, in order to get a permanent gig with the band, Bobby must first solve a murder that one of the band members is falsely accused of in that racially prejudiced society.Praise for THE BLUES DON’T CARE:...

The 8th Wyler Scott novel "CUFFED" opens with a subtle start that begins to build as the days drag on. A vicious serial killer from the distant past, The Screwdriver Killer is finally up for trial or is he? Then there are the gangbangers in the desert, a horrendous family murder, a high speed car chase, angry Indian Gods and surprises that will forever change the Wyler Scott landscape for longtime readers of the series. Pressure mounts on Sheriff Wyler Scott and his deputies as things pick...

In 1950, a diagnosis of cancer was all but a death sentence. Mortality rates only got worse, and as late as 1986, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine lamented: "We are losing the war against cancer." Cancer is one of humankind's oldest and most persistent enemies; it has been called the existential disease.But we are now entering a new, and more positive, phase in this long campaign. While cancer has not been cured -- and a cure may elude us for a long time y...

Raymond Charles Brickman III and Kathy Ann Erickson—two individuals who will never meet in space—by chance collide in time. Both think they’ve been wronged and plan retribution. To avenge long-held grievances originating from America’s Civil War, Brickman intends to extract concessions by threatening to destroy critical American satellites. Erickson seeks no such concession. Her family killed during the Soviet war with Afghanistan, her objective is the total annihilation of her homeland, t...

In 1889, one of the worst environmental disasters to befall the United States occurred in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. More than 2,200 people died when a poorly maintained sporting dam gave way and destroyed the town.Only minutes before the catastrophe, a nineteen-year-old girl enters a church in Johnstown, puts a letter into a bottle, and places it inside a safe. In the year 2009, that safe is unearthed. The letter reveals that the author knew of the impending flood. At the same time,...

While the storm rages over California’s notorious anti-illegal alien Proposition 187, a young woman climbs to the top of the famous Hollywood Sign—and jumps to her death. An undocumented day laborer is murdered. And a disbarred and desperate lawyer in Venice Beach places an ad in a local paper that says: “Will Do Anything For Money.”Private investigator Duke Rogers, infamous for solving the case of murdered starlet Teddie Matson, feels he must do “penance” for his inadvertent part ...

Dr. Linda Kipling has had her share of excitement working as a meteorologist with the Naval Research Laboratory. Twice in four years, she and her boss, the arrogant Dr. Victor Silverstein, have faced international crises requiring heroic action. Now, in 2011, Kipling faces her most formidable foe yet: her only remaining relatives, the Müller family.Debates about climate change continue as two researchers in Greenland mysteriously disappear. Kipling soon comes to a horrific realizat...

Dr. Victor Mark Silverstein is a Jewish African-American whose background is as unusual as his personality. He lives a privileged life as the Naval Research Laboratory's preeminent meteorologist and scientist. But beneath the facade of a self-centered, arrogant personality lies a seething, vulnerable man whose secrets have plagued his sleep since 1982. That's when he discovered the truth about what happened to his girlfriend, Sylvia.In the year 2007, his nightmares become a reality...

For the first time, a book exists that compiles all the information candidates need to apply for their first Petroleum geologists job, or to apply for a better job.What you'll find especially helpful are the worksheets. It is so much easier to write about a work experience using these outlines. It ensures that the narrative will follow a logical structure and reminds you not to leave out the most important points. With this book, you'll be able to revise your application into a muc...