false 49305 348190 080508147X 9780805081473 8 <![CDATA[Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1190932577m/348190.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/348190.Red_Moon_Rising_Sputnik_and_the_Rivalries_that_Ignited_the_Space_Age 3.90 29 For the fiftieth anniversary of Sputnik, the behind-the-scenes story of the fierce battles on earth that launched the superpowers into space</div><div> </div><div><div>The spy planes were driving Nikita Khrushchev mad. Whenever America wanted to peer inside the Soviet Union, it launched a U-2, which flew too high to be shot down. But Sergei Korolev, Russia’s chief rocket designer, had a riposte: an artificial satellite that would orbit the earth and cross American skies at will. On October 4, 1957, the launch of Korolev’s satellite, Sputnik, stunned the world.</div><div>
In Red Moon Rising, Matthew Brzezinski takes us inside the Kremlin, the White House, secret military facilities, and the halls of Congress to bring to life the Russians and Americans who feared and distrusted their compatriots as much as their superpower rivals. Drawing on original interviews and new documentary sources from both sides of the Cold War divide, he shows how Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower were buffeted by crises of their own creation, leaving the door open to ambitious politicians and scientists to squabble over the heavens and the earth. It is a story rich in the paranoia of the time, with combatants that included two future presidents, survivors of the gulag, corporate chieftains, rehabilitated Nazis, and a general who won the day by refusing to follow orders.</div><div>
Sputnik set in motion events that led not only to the moon landing but also to cell phones, federally guaranteed student loans, and the wireless Internet. Red Moon Rising recounts the true story of the birth of the space age in dramatic detail, bringing it to life as never before.</div></div></div>]]> 49305 3.49 57 18 581319 0684869772 9780684869773 3 <![CDATA[Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175987440m/581319.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/581319.Casino_Moscow_A_Tale_of_Greed_and_Adventure_on_Capitalism_s_Wildest_Frontier 3.08 13 The New New Thing, Liar's Poker) or P.J. O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell, Parliament of Whores) had spent the 1990s in Moscow, they might have produced a book like Casino Moscow--a dizzying first-person account of the wild east and its shotgun wedding with capitalism. It begins with Matthew Brzezinski as a rookie reporter getting beaten and nearly killed by a pair of Ukrainian thugs; the rest of the book is a white-knuckle tour through a place where the line separating entrepreneurs and criminals is often impossible to discern. Brzezinski worked in the Moscow bureau of the Wall Street Journal. If his name sounds familiar, that's because he's the nephew of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security advisor. He is an ideal guide: sometimes it takes a fish-out-of-water foreigner to see the things a jaded native cannot. (Comparing the author to Alexis de Tocqueville or Gunnar Myrdal is a stretch, but it's the same idea.) Brzezinski also writes with great humor and amazing panache. Describing the parking lot of a high-class bank, he writes that it "resembled a well-stocked Mercedes dealership that specialized only in armored, navy blue 600-series sedans, or shestotki, as the top-of-the-line models were affectionately known--as in 'My shestotka's just been blown up, can I borrow yours?'" Gangsters, prostitutes, and Western investors fill these pages, all of them coming to life courtesy of Brzezinski's narrative skill.

Despite the title, Casino Moscow isn't just about Moscow--some of the best sections cover other parts of Russia: "It was heartbreaking that St. Petersburg had been so mistreated. Yet even in its state of decay, I still preferred its shabby elegance to Moscow's new-money makeover. In St. Petersburg you lived for the past; Moscow lived only for the day." At the edge of Siberia, on the Pacific coast, is Vladivostok--"five time zones ahead of the Russian capital, but a decade behind." The book is a fast-paced adventure story--and a must for readers interested in Russia as well as fans of modern-day gonzo journalism. Brzezinski is a writer to watch. --John Miller

]]> 49305 3.49 57 18 1058646 0553803662 9780553803662 2 <![CDATA[Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security --An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180627549m/1058646.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1058646.Fortress_America_On_the_Frontlines_of_Homeland_Security_An_Inside_Look_at_the_Coming_Surveillance_State 2.50 6
One of the few journalists to penetrate the new counter terror initiative, Matthew Brzezinski offers an insider’s look at the new technology, laws, tactics, and persistent vulnerabilities of the post-9/11 era. The result is this startling, sometimes controversial look at what it will take to achieve genuine homeland security and what it may be like to live inside Fortress America

Is this what a safe America will look like?

• Cameras at airport ticket counters that can tell if you are stressed

• Satellites and surveillance equipment that can see through the walls of your home

• Computer programs capable of spotting abnormal behavior

• National ID “smart” cards encoding your personal, financial, and medical information required for electronic police spot checks

In the aftermath of September 11, a massive effort has been launched to protect us from another terrorist attack. But the costs of safeguarding our country will require not only unprecedented amounts of funding, but dramatic changes in the way Americans lead their everyday lives.

Is this the new price of freedom?

• Mandatory chips installed in all cell phones and automobiles that can locate you instantly within a dozen yards
• Patriot II legislation that can arbitrarily revoke citizenship and allow terrorist sympathizers to vanish without a trace

• Transponder implants that could be injected into the bodies of prisoners, foreign nationals, and perhaps one day all US citizens…

Such high-tech measures are not the stuff of science fiction but in many cases are already being implemented. As Brzezinski discovers, similar measures have been in use for years in security states like Israel. But will Americans trade liberty for security? Will they have a choice? And can even the most radical measures insure that a 9/11 style attack won’t happen again?

From an unheeded warning six years before the WTC disaster to dramatic war-game scenarios secretly conducted at Andrews Air Force Base and chilling on-site simulations of actual attacks, Fortress America paints a sobering picture of the future of freedom…and what life may be like in a maximum security state.]]> 49305 3.49 57 18 7144701 0641769946 9780641769948 0 <![CDATA[Fortress America]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7144701-fortress-america 0.0 0 49305 3.49 57 18 6376616 4140813342 9784140813348 0 <![CDATA[レッドムーン・ショック―スプートニクと宇宙時代のはじまり]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6376616 0.0 0 2889962 0.0 0 0 49305 3.49 57 18 2889963 4.00 1 1