Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy
Where did this powerful institution come from? How did it get so much power? In Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy, author Ted Nace probes the roots of corporate power, finding answers in surprising places.
A key revelation of the book is the wariness of the Founding Fathers toward corporations. That wariness was shaped by rampant abuses on the part of British corporations such as the Virginia Company, whose ill-treatment killed thousands of women and children on forced-labor tobacco plantations, and the East India Company, whose attempt to monopolize American commodities led to the merchant-led rebellion known as the Boston Tea Party.
Ted Nace worked as a researcher on electric utility policy for the Environmental Defense Fund and as staff director of the Dakota Resource Council, a grassroots group seeking to protect farms and ranches from strip mines and other energy projects. In 1985, he founded Peachpit Press, the world’s leading publisher of books on computer graphics and desktop publishing. After selling Peachpit Press to British publishing conglomerate Pearson, Nace felt driven to understand the historical roots of corporate political power. Gangs of America, the result of that quest, features Nace’s engaging, personal, and complex voicethat of a writer, a businessman, and an activist.

From one of the leading international experts on life-long learning, "Power Up Your Mind" will revolutionize our understanding of how our brains are pre-wired to learn and the practical steps we can take to prepare ourselves (emotionally and physically) to participate fully in the process.
Diagnostic tools, activities, and stories demonstrate the power of esteem, confidence, and motivation on effective learning, describe the role creativity, aging, and emotional readiness play in the learning process, and help readers create a personal action plan for life-long learning.

TTC -  War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500–2000
Taught by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
 Course No. 8820
36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture

For much of the past five centuries, the history of the European continent has been a history of chaos, its civilization thrown into turmoil by ferocious wars or bitter religious conflicts—sometimes in combination—that have made and remade borders, created and eliminated entire nations, and left a legacy that is still influencing our world.

 

The Reign of Cleopatra by Stanley M. Burstein
Book Description
Ambitious, intelligent, and desired by men and Emperors, Cleopatra VII came to power at a time when Roman and Egyptian interests increasingly tended to concern the same object: the Egyptian Empire itself. Cleopatra lived her whole life at the center of this complex and persistent power struggle, and her death simultaneously heralded the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the loss of Egyptian political independence, and the beginning of Caesar Augustus's Roman rule in Egypt. Cleopatra's legacy has since lost much of its former political significance, as she has come to symbolize instead the potent force of female sexuality and power. In this engaging and multifaceted account, however, Stanley M. Burstein displays Cleopatra in the full manifold brilliance of the several cultures, countries, and people that surrounded her throughout her compelling life, and in so doing develops a stunning picture of a legendary Queen, and a deeply historic reign. Designed as an accessible introduction to Cleopatra VII and her time, this book offers readers and researchers an appealing mix of descriptive chapters, biographical sketches, and annotated primary documents. An overview of the Ptolemaic Dynasty is presented in the introduction, and is followed by chapters on Cleopatra's life, the reality of Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra's multicultural Egyptian society, and Alexandria's culture and conflicts. The narrative chapters conclude with a section discussing Cleopatra's significance as a person, a queen, and a symbol. An annotated bibliography and index are also included in this work.