David Reynolds

From October 2008 to July 2009 David Reynolds will present a 90 part BBC Radio Four series on American history. It will be a personal interpretation, developing a broad argument about the dynamics of American history in three crucial themes: Empire, Liberty and Faith. "America: Empire of Liberty", will be the unique book that emerges from this series, and Reynolds' definitive work on the subject. The story begins in the 18th century, with an extended struggle among the rival empires of France, Britain and Spain for predominance in North America, which Britain eventually wins in the 'first world war' of 1756-63. Coming of age as a military power in its own right in World War Two, the United States establishes a global American empire while waging the Cold War and does not dismantle it thereafter.From its founding, the colonies and the new nation enjoy greater economic and political liberty than Europe, especially through cheap land. But shortage of labour (the flip side of cheap land) makes black slavery economically necessary. Liberty therefore becomes a crucial issue in the history of this nascent nation. 'Whose liberty?' is the big question in the Twentieth Century - causing often violent agitation about the rights of blacks. This debate then extends to women, homosexuals, guns, the unborn and multiculturalism. The driver behind the American way of life is so often its religious faith, derived from Calvinist Protestantism. Reynolds shows how it can be characterised by a providentialist sense of mission, so powerful in its reach it becomes the underlying evangelical ideology of America and its foreign policy, from Wilson to George W. Bush. This persuasive interpretation of the history of the superpower of our times will be required reading for years to come.

Every year, AppleWorks arrives in the hands of four million Apple iMac* and iBook* buyers--with no manual. In this book, author Jim Elferdink guides the reader through both the basics and the hidden talents of the new AppleWorks version, placing special emphasis on Version 6's enhanced word processing, Internet, and cross-platform file-exchange features.

A TELEGRAPH BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023A highly imaginative and thought-provoking way of exploring the personality of a man who, like him or loathe him, left an indelible mark on our age ADAM ZAMOYSKIWinston Churchill followed his own star. He yearned to be great, to gain historical immortality. And he did so through deeds and words: his actions as a soldier and politician, gilded by his writings as a journalist and historian.But Churchills path to greatness was also defined by the leaders he encountered along the way friends and foes, at home and abroad. Men of power such as Hitler and Mussolini, Roosevelt and Stalin, David Lloyd George, Neville Chamberlain and Charles de Gaulle. And the haunting presence of the adored father who had seen nothing of merit in his troublesome son. In these men Churchill discerned greatness, or its absence, in ways that influenced his own career.This book includes some whom Churchill would not have deemed great, but who in our own day offer alternative mirrors of what that word might mean. Mahatma Gandhi, who infuriated Churchill by exploiting the power of powerlessness. Clement Attlee, whose heretical vision of Great Britain was socialist and post-imperial. And his darling Clementine, channelling her pinko sentiments to become Winstons essential helpmate and most devoted critic.Mirrors of Greatness offers vivid new perspectives on Churchills life and work, showing how this unique man with dazzling gifts and jagged flaws learned from his great contemporaries and what they saw in him.

Hitler y Chamberlain en Munich en 1938; Roosevelt, Churchill y Stalin en Yalta en 1945; Kennedy y Jruschov en Viena en 1961; Nixon y Breznev en Moscú en 1972; Carter, Sadat y Begin en Camp David en 1978; Gorvachov y Reagan en Ginebra en 1985. Seis cumbres politicas que modelaron el siglo XX, desde el estallido de la segunda guerra mundial hasta el final de la guerra fria, pasando por la reparticion de Europa en la posguerra, la extrema tension nuclear entre las superpotencias que tuvo su punto algido en la crisis de los misiles de Cuba, y los intentos de apaciguar el polvorin de Oriente Proximo. a Seis momentos historicos trascendentales, seis escenificaciones del poder de la diplomacia que David Reynolds relata en este apasionante libro, indagando en como los lideres se enfrentaban a sus opositores, jugaban sus cartas y se veian sometidos a enormes presiones fisicas y emocionales durante unos encuentros cuyos resultados podrian significar la vida o la muerte de millones de personas. a “Un lucido y riguroso relato de las grandes gestas diplomaticas desde Munich a Camp David... Reynolds ofrece reveladores datos sobre las extravagancias y capacidades negociadoras de los grandes lideres”, Kirkus Reviews. a “Reynolds tiene la capacidad de hacer que el lec