In the past few years, the need for prison reform in America has reached the level of a consensus. We agree that many prison terms are too long, especially for nonviolent drug offenders; that long-term isolation is a bad idea; and that basic psychiatric and medical care in prisons is woefully inadequate. Some people believe that contracting out prison services to for-profit companies is a recipe for mistreatment. Robert Ferguson argues that these reforms barely scratch the surface of what ...

With more people living alone today than at any time in U.S. history, Ferguson investigates loneliness in American fiction, from its mythological beginnings in Rip Van Winkle to the postmodern terrors of 9/11. At issue is the dark side of a trumpeted American individualism. Ferguson shows that we can learn, from our literature, how to live alone.

America’s criminal justice system is broken. The United States punishes at a higher per capita rate than any other country in the world. In the last twenty years, incarceration rates have risen 500 percent. Sentences are harsh, prisons are overcrowded, life inside is dangerous, and rehabilitation programs are ineffective. Police and prosecutors operate in the dark shadows of the legal process—sometimes resigning themselves to the status quo, sometimes turning a profit from it. The courts d...

The America of the early republic was built on an experiment, a hopeful prophecy that would only be fulfilled if an enlightened people could find its way through its past and into a future. Americans recognized that its promises would only be fully redeemed at a future date. In Revolutionary Prophecies, renowned historians Robert M. S. McDonald and Peter S. Onuf summon a diverse cast of characters from the founding generation—all of whom, in different ways, reveal how their unders...

**DETECTIVE HOLE IS NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES**'Nesbo deserves to be crowned the king of all crime thriller writers' Sunday Express'Hooks you in immediately' Independent'Twisty' SunThe hunt is on to catch an unstoppable killer.When a small-time crook is shot down in the streets of Minneapolis, all signs point to a lone wolf, a sniper who has...

Places and books like Rosslyn Chapel and The Da Vinci Code have focused attention on Scotland's Knights Templar. Who they were and what they did has been touched upon, but never properly explored until now. They were close advisors to Scotland's early kings; they were major property owners and respected landlords in a harsh and unforgiving time; and they were secretive and arrogant. But did they really flee from France to Scotland just prior to their arrest in 130...

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.This book also contains several accounts of previously untold paranormal events and encounters that have taken place, and it suggests where to find potentially paranormally active and ‘haunted’ locations.It also documents a ground-breaking ufo sighting, which is extremely rare. This is because, before the encounter, a wide array of scientific testing and measuring equipment had been deployed for an entirely diff...

The skeleton is a contemporary lifetime, from boyhood to old age. Organs are represented by particular events, personal, national and global – non-experience of an earthquake, loss and change in libraries, the first ascent of Everest, holidays in Cornwall and Yorkshire, Brexit and the invasion of the Ukraine - and the onward creep of infirmity at head and feet. Months, seasons and their various characteristic weather and activities contribute the flesh and muscles; and a variety of formats...

A comprehensive and thrilling history of the Vikings for fans of the History Channel seriesFrom Harald Bluetooth to Cnut the Great, the feared seamen and plunderers of the Viking Age ruled Norway, Sweden, and Denmark but roamed as far as Byzantium, Greenland, and America. Raiders and traders, settlers and craftsmen, the medieval Scandinavians who have become familiar to history as Vikings never lose their capacity to fascinate, from their ingeniously designed longb...

**From “one of today’s most interesting thriller writers” (Lee Child) comes an immersive, propulsive novel in which a detective and a crime writer conduct parallel investigations, six years apart, into a series of puzzling murders.“[Nesbo] can heighten suspense with a single word and wrong-foot the most attentive customer.” —Wall Street Journal**Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun dealer is shot down in the street, all ...

The Scandinavians are regarded as Europe's most tolerant and peace-loving people. So how was it that one of the worst acts of political terror ever witnessed on this continent was committed by a Norwegian – against his fellow countrymen?Scandinavia is the epitome of cool: we fill our homes with cheap but stylish Nordic furniture; we envy their health-giving outdoor lifestyle; we glut ourselves on their crime fiction; even their strangely attractive melancholia seems to express a st...

In "Surnames as a Science," Robert Ferguson presents a meticulous exploration of the significance and evolution of surnames. Through a blend of historical analysis and linguistic inquiry, Ferguson examines the origins, meanings, and societal implications of family names, situating them within a broader context of social identity and heritage. His scholarly work employs a clear and engaging narrative style, drawing upon diverse sources, from etymological research to sociocultural studies, m...