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Books > Fiction > True stories
It started and ended with a financial catastrophe. The Darien
disaster of 1700 drove Scotland into union with England, but
spawned the institutions which transformed Edinburgh into a global
financial centre. The crash of 2008 wrecked the city's two largest
and oldest banks - and its reputation. In the three intervening
centuries, Edinburgh became a hothouse of financial innovation,
prudent banking, reliable insurance and smart investing. The face
of the city changed too as money transformed it from medieval
squalor to Georgian elegance. This is the story, not just of the
institutions which were respected worldwide, but of the
personalities too, such as the two hard-drinking Presbyterian
ministers who founded the first actuarially-based pension fund; Sir
Walter Scott, who faced financial ruin, but wrote his way out of
it; the men who financed American railways and eastern rubber
plantations with Scottish money; and Fred Goodwin, notorious CEO of
RBS, who took the bank to be the biggest in the world, but crashed
and burned in 2008.
'A darkly entertaining tale about American espionage, set in an era
when Washington's fear and skepticism about the agency resembles
our climate today.' New York Times At the end of World War II, the
United States dominated the world militarily, economically, and in
moral standing - seen as the victor over tyranny and a champion of
freedom. But it was clear - to some - that the Soviet Union was
already executing a plan to expand and foment revolution around the
world. The American government's strategy in response relied on the
secret efforts of a newly-formed CIA. The Quiet Americans
chronicles the exploits of four spies - Michael Burke, a charming
former football star fallen on hard times, Frank Wisner, the scion
of a wealthy Southern family, Peter Sichel, a sophisticated German
Jew who escaped the Nazis, and Edward Lansdale, a brilliant ad
executive. The four ran covert operations across the globe, trying
to outwit the ruthless KGB in Berlin, parachuting commandos into
Eastern Europe, plotting coups, and directing wars against
Communist insurgents in Asia. But time and again their efforts went
awry, thwarted by a combination of stupidity and ideological
rigidity at the highest levels of the government - and more
profoundly, the decision to abandon American ideals. By the
mid-1950s, the Soviet Union had a stranglehold on Eastern Europe,
the US had begun its disastrous intervention in Vietnam, and
America, the beacon of democracy, was overthrowing democratically
elected governments and earning the hatred of much of the world.
All of this culminated in an act of betrayal and cowardice that
would lock the Cold War into place for decades to come. Anderson
brings to the telling of this story all the narrative brio, deep
research, sceptical eye, and lively prose that made Lawrence in
Arabia a major international bestseller. The intertwined lives of
these men began in a common purpose of defending freedom, but the
ravages of the Cold War led them to different fates. Two would quit
the CIA in despair, stricken by the moral compromises they had to
make; one became the archetype of the duplicitous and destructive
American spy; and one would be so heartbroken he would take his own
life. Scott Anderson's The Quiet Americans is the story of these
four men. It is also the story of how the United States, at the
very pinnacle of its power, managed to permanently damage its moral
standing in the world.
A vivid recount of the little known exploits of 17 courageous
Special Operations Executive (SOE) officers in Italy during World
War II In this inspiring new study of the SOE and Italian
Resistance, 17 extraordinary stories of individual SOE officers
illustrate the many and varied tasks of SOE missions throughout the
different regions of Italy from 1943-1945. Through their gallantry,
ingenuity, and determination, a small handful of SOE missions were
able to arm and inspire thousands of Italians to fight the
occupying German army after 1943 and in the process give invaluable
support to the advancing Allied armies as they pushed north towards
Austria.
Many nefarious characters have passed through Maine on their way to
infamy, including the pirates Dixie Bull and Blackbeard (Edward
Teach), and gangster Al Brady, who was gunned down by G-men in the
streets of Bangor. The rogues and scoundrels assembled in this
book, however, are either Maine natives or notorious individuals
whose mischief, misdeeds, or mayhem were perpetrated in the Pine
Tree State.
During the last few decades, financially and technologically
corrupt practices, such as financial and technological crimes,
frauds, forgeries, scandals, and money laundering, have been
monitored in many countries around the globe. There is a general
lack of awareness regarding these issues among various stakeholders
including researchers and practitioners. Concepts, Cases, and
Regulations in Financial Fraud and Corruption considers all aspects
of financial and technological crimes, frauds, and corruption in
individual, organizational, and societal experiences. The book also
discusses the emergence and practices of financial crimes, frauds,
and corruption during the last century and especially in the
current technological advancement. Covering key topics such as
financing, ethical leadership, tax evasion, and insider trading,
this premier reference source is ideal for computer scientists,
business owners, managers, researchers, scholars, academicians,
practitioners, instructors, and students.
Sin City Gangsters: The Rise and Decline of the Mob in Las Vegas is
a fast-paced account of how the mob created and controlled Las
Vegas. It contains accounts of how the most powerful mobsters in
the country built, bought, and controlled not only gambling casinos
in Vegas, but also many important politicians, who did the mob's
bidding. Some of the more notorious mobsters were Bugsy Siegel,
Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, and Nick
Civella, as well as the men they chose to carry out their plans,
such as Tony Spilotro, Lefty Rosenthal, and Donald Angelini. Sin
City Gangsters devotes a chapter to Jimmy Hoffa, and how the
Teamsters Pension Fund financed the mob's casinos. The book also
offers fascinating accounts of the roles of Frank Sinatra and Elvis
Presley in Vegas. Another chapter is devoted to Howard Hughes, who
arrived in the dead of night in a sealed, germ-free railroad car
and did not leave his suite at the Desert Inn for years. During
that time he bought one casino after another as if playing
Monopoly. Following his exit and that of the mob, Vegas became the
domain of Jay Sarno, Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, and Sheldon
Adelson. They were visionaries who transformed Vegas into the
entertainment capital of the world by building billion-dollars-plus
resorts and hiring the most popular contemporary entertainers. Sin
City Gangsters is the only book that charts Vegas from the first
modest mob-owned casinos to the present billion-dollar-resorts; its
cast of characters is an assembly of exceedingly ambitious risk
takers who let nothing stand in their way of turning their dreams
into stunning realities.
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