Publisher: Crown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/09/2011
ISBN-13: 9780307451293
ISBN-10: 0307451291

In 1979, the man known as Dan Cooper parachuted away with a $200,000 ransom; the final fate and true identity of the only skyjacker never to be apprehended remain hot topics in a thriving American subculture of would-be sleuths, conspiracy theorists, amateur scientists and others. Author Geoffrey Gray reviewed FBI files in 2007 to write an article that reopened the case -- and pulled him deep into "Cooper Culture." True-crime, pop culture, and history buffs who love a mystery will enjoy Gray's sharp, engaging analysis of why Cooper's story still thrills us in this stand-out study of what really happened.

Publisher: Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/09/2011
ISBN-13: 9780307265722
ISBN-10: 0307265722

In his latest book, acclaimed author Charles C. Mann (1491) reveals that globalization's origins are as much ecological as economic. The discovery of the New World sparked an unplanned exchange of plants, animals, and diseases between Europe and the Americas that forever altered global economies, politics and culture. 1493 describes complex, surprising cause-effect scenarios -- for example, how New World crops killed the Ming Dynasty -- in an engaging, accessible style that lay readers and scholars alike will love. If you liked Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, don't miss 1493!

Publisher: Henry Holt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/19/2011
ISBN-13: 9780805089066
ISBN-10: 0805089063

With Russia's civil war fresh on their minds at the end of WWI, American authorities feared that blood-thirsty Bolsheviks lurked everywhere: African-Americans who called for equality and labor reform were seen as anarchist dissidents. At the same time, black soldiers newly returned from abroad -- and dismayed by white mobs attacking their communities -- galvanized black resistance to the violence by force of arms if needed. Red Summer describes the anti-black riots of unprecedented brutality that swept across America -- and how black civic leaders mobilized in their aftermath, launching the modern civil rights movement.

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Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/19/2011
ISBN-13: 9780385534185
ISBN-10: 0385534183

In 2007, NSA and Jordanian intelligence officials collaborated to arrest cyber-terrorist Humam Khalil al-Balawi, who recanted his jihadist views and became a valued CIA counter-terrorist operative within al-Qaeda. In 2009, al-Balawi detonated a suicide bomb in Afghanistan's CIA headquarters; his shocking triple-cross killed eight others, revealed devastating weaknesses in the agency's security and network of informants, and raised doubts about the intentions of the Jordanian officials' real intentions. Pulitzer Prize-winning former Washington Post national security reporter Joby Warrick delivers a first-rate must-read for those following current events in the Middle East.

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Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780871138545
ISBN-10: 0871138549

Author George Crile focuses on ostensibly well-meaning Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson's successful campaign to arm Afghan rebels against Soviet invasion in 1979 -- because, after all, what could be worse than the Reds? We know now: Crile demonstrates how Soviet withdrawal (and America's subsequent disinterest) left Afghanistan with a power vacuum later filled by pro-Taliban leaders, including terrorist Osama bin Laden. Charlie Wilson's War (adapted into a popular 2007 film of the same title) explores how one man's swaggering charm and political clout won the day -- but left the U.S. with a war it may never be able to end, much less to win.

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Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2009
ISBN-13: 9780393068986
ISBN-10: 0393068986

In the Graveyard of Empires is an "impressively researched" (Kirkus Reviews) look at where U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is headed. What does the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan mean for continued U.S. regional interests? Can the U.S. succeed in establishing political stability in Afghanistan, where others (like imperial Britain and Soviet Russia) have failed? Political analyst and author Seth Jones draws from his in-person interviews with present-day officials in Kabul and Washington and a wealth of historical sources to explore the sobering possibilities.

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Publisher: Presidio Press/Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2007
ISBN-13: 9780345496614
ISBN-10: 0345496612

Author Gary Schroen, a 35-year veteran of the CIA and former station chief in Pakistan, had retired shortly before 9/11. Eight tumultuous days after the tragedy, he was in Afghanistan with a hand-picked six-member paramilitary team: their mission was to contact Northern Alliance Afghan tribes who might be sympathetic to U.S. operations, to secure access for incoming Special Forces teams, and -- if at all possible -- to kill Osama bin Laden. Readers will thrill to this gripping, first-hand account of the dangerous negotiations that paved the way for the Taliban's initial defeat when the war on terror had only begun.

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Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/05/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416580515
ISBN-10: 1416580514

In the high-octane, red-alert days after 9/11, a select band of Army Special Forces soldiers deployed for their most dangerous, urgent mission yet: to take the strategic Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, without which there was little hope of defeating the Taliban. Leaving the U.S. so quickly that gear had to be bought at REI, the troops were unaware until after their arrival that their Afghan allies had only horses as transport. The story of how these 350 "Horse Soldiers" saddled up and rode to attain the U.S. forces' first crucial (if impermanent) victory in the war on terror reads like the very best epic-Western-meets-Tom-Clancy-thriller.

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