Meet Edward Rollins, scion of one of Boston's more notable families. A diligent but uninspired employee at one of the city's finest investment houses, he is a man of means -- and of secrets. Each night, armed with a hand-held tape recorder, he randomly picks a car and follows it to a destination, cataloging the habits and peculiarities of its driver. A harmless obsession.But one night changes everything. Trailing a car to a remote suburb, Rollins follows it to a house that, he eeri...

The last words of Major General John Sedgwick as he strode in front of his men in the open at Spotsylvania were, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? Why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."In an instant, he was struck down by a Confederate sharpshooter from 1,000 yards.Much loved by his men and his comrades in arms, even Robert E. Lee expressed sorrow at th...

Tom Piscitelli and John Sedgwick have a combined eighty-plus years of experience in business and sales, and if they’ve learned one thing, it’s that you need to know your customer. Proposition Selling is all about how to sell with the customer in mind. It’s about selling where the salesperson begins by analyzing his or her territory to identify the best opportunities for growth. That requires the salesperson to understand each customer individually and find out how each customer wants his b...

A provocative and penetrating investigation into the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, whose infamous duel left the Founding Father dead and turned a sitting Vice President into a fugitive.In the summer of 1804, two of America’s most eminent statesmen squared off, pistols raised, on a bluff along the Hudson River. Why would two such men risk not only their lives but the stability of the young country they helped forge?In War of Two...

A dead body floating by a pier. An elderly woman curled up on a bed in a department store. A psychiatrist searching for her own identity. These are the pieces of the puzzle that, in John Sedgwick's masterful novel of psychological suspense, begin to come into focus when Madeline Bemis is referred to the treatment of Dr. Alice Matthews at Montrose Psychiatric Hospital.Mrs. Bemis's treatment gradually peels back the layers of a disturbing past whose shameful secrets and hidden sorrow...

While working on his second novel, John Sedgwick spiraled into a depression so profound that it very nearly resulted in suicide. An author acclaimed for his intimate literary excursions into the rarified, moneyed enclave of Brahmin Boston, he decided to search for the roots of his malaise in the history of his own storied family—one of America's oldest and most notable. Following a bloodline that travels from Theodore Sedgwick, compatriot of George Washington and John Adams, to Edie Sedgwi...

One of the nation's top divorce lawyers opens his case files to share true stories that rival the most outrageous fictionGerald Nissenbaum knows everything about his clients-how much is in their bank accounts, what kind of sex their spouses like, if they married for money or power, and who cheated with whom. For the first time in his long career, Nissenbaum gives the lowdown on all the antics he's experienced in dealing with clients who have money to burn.F...

This book examines the economic circumstances in which films were produced, distributed, exhibited, and consumed during the spoken era of film production until 1970. The periodisation covers the years between the onset of sound and the demise of the phased distribution of films.Films are generally appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. But they are also commodities. This work of economic history presents a new approach, considering consumption behaviour as significant as supply...

The economics of the movie industry has been curiously neglected by scholars, especially given the material circumstances in which film has been produced, distributed and exhibited in capitalist economies and its central importance in the lives of the huge numbers attracted to it as a commodity.This book provides an economic framework for understanding developments in film history. Film is a peculiar commodity with a unique set of characteristics. The topic hence is interesting and...

“Riveting...A great read, full of colorful characters and outrageous confrontations back when the west was still wild.” —George R.R. MartinA propulsive and panoramic history of one of the most dramatic stories never told—the greatest railroad war of all time, fought by the daring leaders of the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande to seize, control, and create the American West.It is difficult to imagine now, but for all its gorgeous scenery, the Am...

An astonishing untold story from the nineteenth century—a “riveting…engrossing…‘American Epic’” (The Wall Street Journal) and necessary work of history that reads like Gone with the Wind for the Cherokee.“A vigorous, well-written book that distills a complex history to a clash between two men without oversimplifying” (Kirkus Reviews), Blood Moon is the story of the feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of th...

In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the Transcontinental Railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. Once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, America’s railways soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by a pageant of speculators, crooks, and visionaries. The vicious competition between empire builders such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, J. P. Morgan, and E. H. Harriman sparked stock market frenzies, panics, and crashes; provoked strikes that upended th...