Showing results by narrator "Bob Johnson" in All Categories

Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. 

Hezbollah is the first thorough examination of Hezbollah's covert activities beyond Lebanon's borders, including its financial and logistical support networks and its criminal and terrorist operations worldwide.

The common perception of a CIA officer is someone who collects secret intelligence abroad-a spy. However, the critical link between secrets and policy is the intelligence analyst. The CIA Intelligence Analyst brings to light the vital, but often-unseen, work of these officers.

In the early days of the Cold War, the United States faced a crisis in intelligence analysis. A series of intelligence failures in 1949 and 1950, including the failure to warn about the North Korean invasion of South Korea, made it clear that gut instinct and traditional practices were no longer sufficient for intelligence analysis in the nuclear age. The new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Walter Bedell Smith, had a mandate to reform it.

Rogue Elephant traces the radicalization of the Republican Party over the past 50 years, arguing that its subordination to Donald Trump was not an anomaly, but rather the culmination of processes at work for decades. Providing a new perspective on figures from Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush to the Tea Party and Donald Trump, it shows that the party's lurch to the far right was the product of a volatile mix of a disorganized party structure and a divided and fractious class of American business owners.

This audiobook covers a variety of topics regarding ISTJs (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging) and explains why they are such loyal and dependable people. ISTJs make up one of the largest personality types in the general population and are known for their high integrity, logic, and commitment to tradition.

Financial market bubbles are recurring, often painful, reminders of the costs and benefits of capitalism. While many books have studied financial manias and crises, most fail to compare times of turmoil with times of stability. In Bubbles and Crashes, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch give us new insights into the causes of speculative booms and busts. They identify a class of assets - major technological innovations - that can, but does not necessarily, produce bubbles.

In Age of Invisible Machines, Robb Wilson delivers an eye-opening and startlingly insightful blueprint for leveraging conversational AI in order to make your organization self-driving—with a growing ecosystem of interconnected automations accelerating all aspects of your business.

Power Boating For Dummies, Second Edition teaches you everything you need to know about buying, choosing, operating, maintaining, and enjoying a power boat, and provides expert guidance for new boaters. This is also a fantastic book for experienced boaters, because it's full of tips and ideas on improving boating skills and getting the most out of water-time with the latest tech. With this guide, you can ace your boating pilot's exam and master the techniques you'll need to stay safe and have fun out there.

Living Lies is an enthralling story about espionage, human frailty, and loyalty. The plot focuses on a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program, as written by a senior CIA operations officer whose career was devoted to battling the spread of weapons of mass destruction. He also led the CIA team which disrupted the deadliest nuclear weapons network in history. This is the first installment of a series of espionage thrillers.

Zack and his two corgis take on their most difficult case yet: to learn what happened to Zack's late wife Samantha. Was it a car accident, as everyone had originally believed? Could it be murder, as suggested by a mystery caller in the middle of the night? Accompanied by his new girlfriend Jillian Cooper and good friend detective Vance Samuelson, Zack begins his investigation in his hometown of Phoenix, only to learn that what they uncover could simply be the largest cover-up anyone has ever seen.

Dual Momentum Investing details the author's own momentum investing method that combines US stock, non-US stock, and aggregate bond indices—in a formula proven to dramatically increase profits while lowering risk. Antonacci reveals how momentum investors could have achieved long-run returns nearly twice as high as the stock market over the past forty years, while avoiding or minimizing bear market losses—and he provides the information and insight investors need to achieve such success going forward. 

Long at the forefront of a movement advocating for gun reform as a matter of public health, Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl has been on constant media call in the aftermath of fatal shootings. But the 2018 Nashville killings led him on a path toward recognizing the limitations of biomedical frameworks for fully diagnosing or treating the impassioned complexities of American gun politics. As he came to understand it, public health is a harder sell in a nation that fundamentally disagrees about what it means to be safe, healthy, or free.

A US Marshal puts in an appearance in Pomme Valley, Oregon, searching for a fugitive rumored to be hiding in the area. Meanwhile, Detective Vance Samuelson manages to convince his friends, Zack Anderson and Harry Watt, to join an adventure-seeking thrill club, the Dysfunctional Daredevils, in an effort to prove they're all still young at heart. And, as luck would have it, the US Marshal believes his missing fugitive just might be among the Daredevils, hiding in plain sight.

She thought they were her siblings. By the time she realized they weren’t, one of them was dead. Doctor Emma Kerr had no right counseling them. Adopted and her birth records lost, she believed she was born a McKinney. Her face, intelligence, and depression resembled theirs. For years people mistook her for their sister. So she devised a plan. What begins as a scheme to counsel the McKinney family and determine if they are blood relatives, quickly causes Emma to wonder if she had truly done the manipulating. Is someone following her?

When Nick Miles is traded from Buffalo to Philadelphia, he's thrilled - having spent most of his career in the AHL, Nick is looking forward to playing full-time in the majors...even if it is for the worst team in the National Hockey League. Upon arriving in Philly, Nick learns he'll be sharing a house with Everett Sparrow, the popular forward from Buffalo's NHL team who isn't quite as excited about the trade as Nick. v

Software was supposed to radically improve society. Outdated mechanical systems would be easily replaced; social media platforms like Facebook would bring people together; and generative AI would solve the world’s greatest ills. Yet in practice, few of the systems we looked to with such high hopes have lived up to their fundamental mandate. In fact, in too many cases they've made things worse. How did we get to this point? In Fatal Abstraction, Darryl Campbell explains that the problem is "managerial software".

The Real RFK Jr. is an intimate biographical portrait examining the controversial activist's journey from anguish and addiction to becoming the country's leading environmental champion fighting government corruption, corporate greed, and a captured media. Written by his longtime colleague Dick Russell, the biography also exposes the misconceptions and explains the rationale behind Kennedy's campaign to protect public health.

Never before has anyone explored the mind, soul, and heart of Ronald Reagan. The Search for Reagan explores the challenges and controversies in Reagan's life and how he successfully dealt with each, depicting a man who was never as conservative as some conservatives wanted him to be, but rather as conservative as he was comfortable being—a man who wanted to win on his own terms and integrity.

Trying to outwit the market is a bad gamble. If you're serious about investing for the long run, you have to take a no-nonsense, businesslike approach to your portfolio. In addition to covering all the basics, this new edition of All About Asset Allocation includes timely advice on learning which investments work well together and why, selecting the right mutual funds and ETFs, creating an asset allocation that's right for your needs, knowing how and when to change an allocation, and understanding target-date mutual funds.