In this shocking exposé, two government fraud experts reveal how private contractors have put the lives of countless American soldiers on the line while damaging our strategic interests and our image abroad. From the shameful war profiteering of companies like Halliburton/KBR to the sinister influence that corporate lobbyists have on American foreign policy, Dina Rasor and Robert H. Bauman paint a disturbing picture. Here they give the inside story on troops forced to subsist on little food and contaminated water, on officers afraid to lodge complaints because of Halliburton's political clout, on millions of dollars in contractors' bogus claims that are funded by American taxpayers. Drawing on exclusive sources within government and the military, the authors show how money and power have conspired to undermine our fighting forces and threaten the security of our country.

Shattered Minds is the first book to investigate how American military bureaucracies have let our troops down by failing to upgrade one of the most important pieces of personal safety equipment: the combat helmet. Two longtime employees of North Dakota defense contractor Sioux Manufacturing discovered that the required density of the Kevlar material woven into the netting of combat helmets was being shorted. After bringing their discovery to the attention of management, their boss, rather than cleaning up the illegal practice, accused them of having an adulterous affair. Both employees were fired, leading to a lawsuit and a court judgment in their favor that eventually brought the company's bad-faith practices to light. Around the same time, a separate whistleblower, a retired Navy doctor, was pulled into a bizarre struggle with Army and Marine bureaucracies when he discovered from his Marine grandson that the protective webbing inside the military helmets was inadequate. Why was the military so resistant to upgrading the most essential piece of gear to protect soldiers from traumatic brain injury? Interweaving these two whistleblower stories, Robert H. Bauman and Dina Rasor explain why the military, despite news coverage and congressional hearings on the faulty helmet, continued to do the indefensible. They also suggest how the public, the press, and military institutions can remedy the problem to give U.S. troops effective helmets when serving to protect their country.

A blistering critique of the gulf between America's soldiers and the society that sends them off to war. As war has become normalized, armed conflict has become an "abstraction" and military service "something for other people to do." Bacevich takes stock of a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory.

The Impact of 9/11 on Business and Economics is the second volume of the six-volume series The Day that Changed Everything? edited by Matthew J. Morgan. The series brings together from a broad spectrum of disciplines the leading thinkers of our time to reflect on one of the most significant events of our time.

Herbert Hoover's "magnum opus"—at last published nearly fifty years after its completion—offers a revisionist reexamination of World War II and its cold war aftermath and a sweeping indictment of the "lost statesmanship" of Franklin Roosevelt. Hoover offers his frank evaluation of Roosevelt's foreign policies before Pearl Harbor and policies during the war, as well as an examination of the war's consequences, including the expansion of the Soviet empire at war's end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists.

Shattered Minds is the first book to investigate how American military bureaucracies have let our troops down by failing to upgrade one of the most important pieces of personal safety equipment: the combat helmet. Two longtime employees of North Dakota defense contractor Sioux Manufacturing discovered that the required density of the Kevlar material woven into the netting of combat helmets was being shorted. After bringing their discovery to the attention of management, their boss, rather than cleaning up the illegal practice, accused them of having an adulterous affair. Both employees were fired, leading to a lawsuit and a court judgment in their favor that eventually brought the company’s bad-faith practices to light. Around the same time, a separate whistleblower, a retired Navy doctor, was pulled into a bizarre struggle with Army and Marine bureaucracies when he discovered from his Marine grandson that the protective webbing inside the military helmets was inadequate. Why was the military so resistant to upgrading the most essential piece of gear to protect soldiers from traumatic brain injury? Interweaving these two whistleblower stories, Robert H. Bauman and Dina Rasor explain why the military, despite news coverage and congressional hearings on the faulty helmet, continued to do the indefensible. They also suggest how the public, the press, and military institutions can remedy the problem to give U.S. troops effective helmets when serving to protect their country.

Fighting to reclaim the French crown for the Bourbons, the duchesse de Berry faces betrayal at the hands of one of her closest advisors in this dramatic history of power and revolution. The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry -- the mother of the eleven-year-old heir to the throne -- hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi. The betrayal became a cause célèbre for Bourbon loyalists and ignited a firestorm of hate against France's Jews. By blaming an entire people for the actions of a single man, the duchess's supporters set the terms for the century of antisemitism that followed. Brimming with intrigue and lush detail, The Betrayal of the Duchess is the riveting story of a high-spirited woman, the charming but volatile young man who double-crossed her, and the birth of one of the modern world's most deadly forms of hatred. !--EndFragment--

Conservative columnist West uncovers how and when America gave up its core ideals and began the march toward socialism. She digs into the modern political landscape, dominated by President Barack Obama, to ask how it is that America turned its back on its basic beliefs.

esistance capabilities of US adversaries.