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How wars end. They end in peace. It's not clear from Rose's title or from anything I read about this book beforehand, but this is a history of American grand strategy in the 20th century. Grand strategy is the direction steered in to enable you to win the stable peace you desire when the fighting ends. So this is a history of how America has achieved its brand of peace during the last century. It tells how political and military leaders have handled the endgame of war in making force serve politics as each war ended. Generally our leaders at each war's end have learned the most from the previous wars and base their reactions on it, and that's why Rose says we always fight the last battle.The author's perspective on some of these issues is fresh to me. So I read with interest his explanation of how Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points were designed to prevent a harsh punishment of Germany and Austria to forestall the bitterness that could lead to another war. But his naivete and good-heartedness ran against the grain of British and French desire for retribution. We know what happened. I read how the decision to use the A-bombs on Japan was more of a decision dictated by the fact that we'd developed the weapon and not to use it would've been political suicide because every American death after its availability would have been blamed on the decision. The peace talks to end the Korean War were stalled until Eisenhower, the new president, threatened to expand the war with atomic weapons. Nixon, his vice-president, learned how toughness could produce results and tried the same tactics in Vietnam, without results. What Rose writes about Vietnam fits my own understanding. For this reason I thought his analysis of how Nixon and Kissinger got us out of the war the most comprehensive and clearly explained I've ever read. Rose explains how we screwed up the endgame in both wars in Iraq. Both in the Gulf War and in 2003 we failed by not having a clear policy and organization to meet the political realities once the military was finished. Both times we created a mess, adversely affecting American prestige and long-term strategic interests.The conclusions Rose comes to about the endgames of these wars and the results achieved amounts to a kind of wisdom. Obviously he comes to his conclusions through hindsight. It's true what they say about hindsight, that it's 20/20. But hindsight is also true.Rose tells a history based on pragmatism, a realpolitik though it's seasoned liberally with morality. In a section headed "The Strong Do What They Can" he explains that only the strongest nations can be geopolitically proactive, a conviction first expressed by the Greek historian Thucydides in the 4th century BC and still believed to be applicable today. Weak nations can only react to immediate developments. Those nations who're global leaders can project policy aimed at the future and potential problems. This is how he sees Iraq at the time of 9/11. Following the attack on New York and Washington, the U. S. had several options on how to use its power, wealth, and influence, including developing alternatives to fossil fuels which would free the west from dependence on the Middle East, or work toward the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Regime change in Iraq to produce a more stabilized Middle East was seen as one of the options and was the one chosen. It's emphasized that a team other than Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld would have chosen differently. Or the same team, given different circumstances, could have chosen differently. The strong do what they can, Rose insists. They're able to project, and Iraq was going to have to be dealt with sooner or later. Rose sees 9/11 as having the same importance and influence as the 1950 Communist invasion of South Korea, that is as a catalyst bringing about a new phase of international politics, this one characterized by American unilateral activity.Many people would object to Rose's conclusions. He's forgiving of American policies. He sees all of America's actions in the light of grand strategy--how do you win the peace and ensure the greatest economic and military security for the nation? One way is to use conflict to create and maintain stability. For this reason Rose doesn't look at the horrors of the nightly news. He looks at American foreign policy as that which projects American security. It's hard to find fault with the rationale for that security. Without being cynical, without seeing instances of flagrant imperialism, he sees America using its great strength to secure peace for Americans and to ensure stability in those areas of strategic importance. He describes American grand strategy as trying to pacify the world piece by piece. Few people, especially our leaders, articulate it in such grandiose fashion precisely because it sounds grandiose. If you look away from the hypnotic pull of television news and newspapers with their gloomy sense of western decline and economic doom, Rose sees promise. Sometimes we're clumsy, sometimes we stumble, but we're getting it right.

"You'll not only break the ice, you'll melt it away with your new skills." -- Larry King"The lost art of verbal communication may be revitalized by Leil Lowndes." -- Harvey McKay, author of "How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive"What is that magic quality makes some people instantly loved and respected? Everyone wants to be their friend (or, if single, their lover!) In business, they rise swiftly to the top of the corporate ladder. What is their "Midas touch?"What it boils down to is a more skillful way of dealing with people.The author has spent her career teaching people how to communicate for success. In her book How to Talk to Anyone (Contemporary Books, October 2003) Lowndes offers 92 easy and effective sure-fire success techniques-- she takes the reader from first meeting all the way up to sophisticated techniques used by the big winners in life. In this information-packed book you'll find:9 ways to make a dynamite first impression 14 ways to master small talk, "big talk," and body language 14 ways to walk and talk like a VIP or celebrity 6 ways to sound like an insider in any crowd 7 ways to establish deep subliminal rapport with anyone 9 ways to feed someone's ego (and know when NOT to!) 11 ways to make your phone a powerful communications tool 15 ways to work a party like a politician works a room 7 ways to talk with tigers and not get eaten aliveIn her trademark entertaining and straight-shooting style, Leil gives the techniques catchy names so you'll remember them when you really need them, including: "Rubberneck the Room," "Be a Copyclass," "Come Hither Hands," "Bare Their Hot Button," "The Great Scorecard in the Sky," and "Play the Tombstone Game," for big success in your social life, romance, and business.How to Talk to Anyone, which is an update of her popular book, Talking the Winner's Way (see the 5-star reviews of the latter) is based on solid research about techniques that work!By the way, don't confuse How to Talk to Anyone with one of Leil's previous books, How to Talk to Anybody About Anything. This one is completely different!

To call this a "book of essays" is a bit generous. It's really a self-published booklet that reads like a collection of blog posts. That said, the author writes well, with enough humor and wisdom and personality to make me glad to have engaged with her thoughts. Each of her "essays" is a bite-sized mix of aphorism, metaphor, anecdote, and common sense in which she riffs fluidly on big and small questions about life and how we live it. This author writes from the perspective of a woman who is introverted and imperfectly mindful, who has both an adventurous intellect and a zest for quiet rituals, who loves humanity and hates crowds, who loves books and coffee, who gingerly yet bravely embraces vulnerability and spontaneity. Depending on how well you connect with such an author, your mileage may vary.

Alternate cover edition of this book.Madman, tyrant, animal—history has given Adolf Hitler many names. In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), often called the Nazi bible, Hitler describes his life, frustrations, ideals, and dreams. Born to an impoverished couple in a small town in Austria, the young Adolf grew up with the fervent desire to become a painter. The death of his parents and outright rejection from art schools in Vienna forced him into underpaid work as a laborer. During the First World War, Hitler served in the infantry and was decorated for bravery. After the war, he became actively involved with socialist political groups and quickly rose to power, establishing himself as Chairman of the National Socialist German Worker's party. In 1924, Hitler led a coalition of nationalist groups in a bid to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. The infamous Munich "Beer-hall putsch" was unsuccessful, and Hitler was arrested. During the nine months he was in prison, an embittered and frustrated Hitler dictated a personal manifesto to his loyal follower Rudolph Hess. He vented his sentiments against communism and the Jewish people in this document, which was to become Mein Kampf, the controversial book that is seen as the blue-print for Hitler's political and military campaign. In Mein Kampf, Hitler describes his strategy for rebuilding Germany and conquering Europe. It is a glimpse into the mind of a man who destabilized world peace and pursued the genocide now known as the Holocaust.

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