From the bestselling author of The Promise, the thrilling story of one of the most momentous contests in American history, the Battle Royale between Obama and his enemies from the 2010 midterms through the 2013 inauguration. The election of 2012 will be remembered as a hinge of history. With huge victories in the 2010 midterm elections the Republican Party had blocked President Obama at every turn and made plans to wrench the country sharply to the right. 2012 offered the GOP a clear shot at controlling all three branches of government and repealing much of the social contract dating back to the New Deal. Facing free-spending billionaires, Fox News, and a concerted effort in 19 states to tilt the election by suppressing Democratic votes, Obama repelled the assault and navigated the nation back to the center. In The Center Holds, Jonathan Alter produces the first full account of America at the crossroads. With exclusive reporting and rare historical insight, he pierces the bubble of the White House and the presidential campaigns in a landmark election that marked the return of big money and the rise of big data. He tells the epic story of an embattled president fighting back with the first campaign of the Digital Age. Alter relates the untold story behind Obama’s highs and lows, from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound to the frustration of the debt ceiling fiasco to his unexpected run-ins with black and Latino activists. There are fresh details about the Koch brothers, Grover Norquist, Roger Ailes, and the online haters who suffer from “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” Alter takes us inside Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s Boston campaign as well as Obama’s disastrous preparation for the first debate. We meet Obama’s analytics geeks working out of “The Cave” and the man who secretly videotaped Romney’s infamous comments on the “47 percent.” The Center Holds will deepen our understanding of the Obama presidency, the stakes of the 2012 election, and the future of the country.

"My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world." This is Navajo country, a land of mysterious and delicate beauty. "Stephen Strom's photographs lead you to that place," writes Joy Harjo. "The camera eye becomes a space you can move through into the powerful landscapes that he photographs. The horizon may shift and change all around you, but underneath it is the heart with which we move." Harjo's prose poems accompany these images, interpreting each photograph as a story that evokes the spirit of the Earth. Images and words harmonize to evoke the mysteries of what the Navajo call the center of the world.

In The Center Will Hold, Pemberton and Kinkead have compiled a major volume of essays on the signal issues of scholarship that have established the writing center field and that the field must successfully address in the coming decade. The new century opens with new institutional, demographic, and financial challenges, and writing centers, in order to hold and extend their contribution to research, teaching, and service, must continuously engage those challenges. Appropriately, the editors offer the work of Muriel Harris as a key pivot point in the emergence of writing centers as sites of pedagogy and research. The volume develops themes that Harris first brought to the field, and contributors here offer explicit recognition of the role that Harris has played in the development of writing center theory and practice. But they also use her work as a springboard from which to provide reflective, descriptive, and predictive looks at the field.

Long before the arrival of Western emissaries and powers, East Asian peoples and states were deeply involved in world affairs. In this sweeping account, Warren I. Cohen explores four millennia of international relations from the vantage points of China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Writing incisively and authoritatively for readers at all levels, Cohen paints a broad but revealing portrait of East Asia’s place in the world. He defines the region’s boundaries widely, looking beyond China, Japan, and Korea to include Southeast Asia, and extends the scope of international relations to consider the vital role of cultural and economic exchanges. Cohen examines the system of Chinese domination in the ancient world, the exchanges between East Asia and the Islamic world, Chinese sea voyages to Arabia and East Africa, and the emergence of a European-defined international system. He chronicles the new imperialism of the 1890s, the ascendancy of Japan, the trials of World War II, the drama of the Cold War, and the transformations of East Asian states toward the close of the twentieth century. By showing that East Asia has often been preeminent on the world stage, this book not only recasts the past but also adds crucial historical perspective on international politics today. This second edition of East Asia at the Center features new material on the first decades of the twenty-first century.

Seth Siegelaub, (b. 19412013, New York) curator, gallery owner and author is best known for his promotion of conceptual art in New York during the 1960s and 70s. Books and Ideas after Seth Siegelaub looks at the books produced by Siegelaub in the 60s and their renewed influence on artists and their publications today. Pichler, curator of the exhibition at the Center for Book Arts NY (2013), offers this catalog as a window into an ongoing conceptual discourse with Siegelaubs books as the platform. Extensive illustrations and bibliographic details are featured including Siegelaubs Xerox Book (1968), which was printed in offset but has since been xeroxed and openly reproduced by numerous artists and publishers. His publications, often taken as starting points for new projects, are substantial artworks in their own right. Also included: Siegelaubs work with the Art Workers Coalition, a draft of The Artists Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement on contemporary art and activism, and a last interview with Siegelaub by Pichler.

"For years the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities, and the Haitian Multi-Service Center in Boston have helped Haitian refugees and immigrants attain economic independence, health, security, and citizenship in the United States. In Life at the Center,Erica Caple James traces this aid work and discovers at its heart a fundamental paradox, arising from what she calls "corporate Catholicism": social assistance produces and reproduces structural inequalities between providers and recipients, which can deepen aid recipients' dependence and lead to resistance to organized benevolence. James documents how institutional financial deficits harmed clients and providers, yet also how modes of philanthropy that previously caused harm can be redeployed to repair damage and rebuild "charitable brands." The culmination of over a decade of advocacy and research on behalf of the Haitians of Boston, this groundbreaking work exposes how Catholic corporations strengthened-but also eroded-Haitians' civic power"

At a time when American political and cultural leaders asserted that the nation stood at “the center of world awareness,” thinkers and artists sought to understand and secure principles that lay at the center of things. From the onset of the Cold War in 1948 through 1963, they asked: What defined the essential character of “American culture”? Could permanent moral standards guide human conduct amid the flux and horrors of history? In what ways did a stable self emerge through the life cycle? Could scientific method rescue truth from error, illusion, and myth? Are there key elements to democracy, to the integrity of a society, to order in the world? Answers to such questions promised intellectual and moral stability in an age haunted by the memory of world war and the possibility of future devastation on an even greater scale. Yet other key figures rejected the search for a center, asserting that freedom lay in the dispersion of cultural energies and the plurality of American experiences. In probing the centering impulse of the era, At the Center offers a unique perspective on the United States at the pinnacle of its power.

Effect better outcomes with a robust coaching program The CCL Handbook of Coaching in Organizations deals with the practical, ethical, and political challenges of coaching within an organization. From coaching superiors to coaching business teams, this book outlines the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) approach to professional coaching to help readers better manage leadership development and talent management program outcomes. With expert guidance on the key functions of human resources, learning and development, and organizational development, readers will gain insight into the issues associated with coaching program implementation and management, and the use of internal versus external coaches. Coverage includes a wide range of coaching-based services used in most large organizations, with practical advice on creating the right programs for maximum impact within the available budget. Professional development is a hot topic and plays a key role in attracting and retaining the best talent. Coaching is a broad area within the field, encompassing a range of services and goals, with varied expectations and requirements. This book provides actionable guidance for those designing, initiating, and implementing coaching programs, with new approaches and techniques that drive better outcomes. Provide direct coaching within an organization Manage coaching systems and programs Initiate and lead mentoring and peer-coaching programs Manage external coaches, and deal effectively with coaching suppliers An ideal coaching program must balance need with budget and be tailored to the requirements and resources of both the organization and the participants. It's a complex undertaking, but the right strategy and planning can lead to even better than expected outcomes. For the human resources professional who wants to strengthen an organization's coaching program, CCL Handbook of Coaching in Organizations is a thoughtful reference for a specialized function.