Freedom Climbers" is the multi award-winning book by Bernadette Mc Donald now available in the UK & Ireland thanks to Vertebrate Publishing. " Freedom Climbers" tells the story of the extraordinary Polish adventurers who emerged from under the blanket of oppression following the Second World War to become the world's leading Himalayan climbers. Although they lived in a war-ravaged landscape with seemingly no hope of creating a meaningful life these curious motivated & skilled mountaineers built their own free-market economy under the very noses of their Communist bosses & climbed their way to liberation. At a time when Polish citizens were locked behind the Iron Curtain these intrepid explorers found a way to travel the world in search of extreme adventure
- to Alaska South America & Europe but mostly to the highest & most inspiring mountains of the world. To this end Afghanistan India Pakistan & Nepal became their second homes as they evolved into the toughest Himalayan climbers the world has ever known. In her most engaging book to date renowned & award-winning author Bernadette Mc Donald weaves a passionate & literary tale of adventure politics suffering death &
- ultimately
- inspiration."


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As the countrys first African American military pilots the Tuskegee Airmen fought in World War II on two fronts: against the Axis powers in the skies over Europe & against Jim Crow racism & segregation at home. Although the pilots flew more than 15 000 sorties & destroyed more than 200 German aircraft their most far-reaching achievement defies quantification: delivering a powerful blow to racial inequality & discrimination in American life. In this inspiring account of the Tuskegee Airmen historian J. Todd Moye captures the challenges & triumphs of these brave pilots in their own words drawing on more than 800 interviews recorded for the National Park Services Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. Denied the right to fully participate in the U.S. war effort alongside whites at the beginning of World War II African Americans--spurred on by black newspapers & civil rights organizations such as the NAACP--compelled the prestigious Army Air Corps to open its training programs to black pilots despite the objections of its top generals. Thousands of young men came from every part of the country to Tuskegee Alabama in the heart of the segregated South to enter the program which expanded in 1943 to train multi-engine bomber pilots in addition to fighter pilots. By the end of the war Tuskegee Airfield had become a small city populated by black mechanics parachute packers doctors & nurses. Together they helped prove that racial segregation of the fighting forces was so inefficient as to be counterproductive to the nations defense. Freedom Flyers brings to life the legacy of a determined visionary cadre of African American airmen who proved their capabilities & patriotism beyond question transformed the armed forces--formerly the nations most racially polarized institution--and jump-started the modern struggle for racial equality. ...

Why do so many people around the world appear willing to give up freedoms in return for security or prosperity? For the past 60 years it had been assumed that capitalism was intertwined with liberal democracy. But what happens when both are undermined? Governments globally have drawn up a new pact with their peoples: repression is confined to the few who openly challenge the status quo. The rest of the population can enjoy freedom to live more or less as they wish & to make & spend their money. This is the difference between public freedoms & private freedoms. We choose different freedoms we are prepared to cede. We all do it. Freedom for Sale will set a new agenda. It will crucially ask why so many intelligent & ambitious citizens around the world seemed prepared to sacrifice freedom of the press & freedom of speech in their quest for wealth. ...

The secret behind successful addiction busting represents a major leap forward in the way we view & treat addictions. The new science-based in-sights it contained have already helped countless people to overcome a wide range of compulsive behaviors & take back control of their lives. ...

Between 1929 & 1945 two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression & World War II. Freedom from Fear tells the story of how Americans endured & eventually prevailed in the face of those unprecedented calamities. The Depression was both a disaster & an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929 Americas unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom & bust cycles wastefullly consuming capital & inflicting untold misery on city & countryside alike. Nor was the fabled prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared a legend portrays. Countless Americans especially if they were farmers African Americans or recent immigrants eked out thread bare lives on the margins of national life. For them the Depression was but another of the ordeals of fear & insecurity with which they were sadly familiar. Franklin Roosevelts New Deal wrung from the trauma of the 1930s a lasting legacy of economic & social reform including the Social Security Act new banking & financial laws regulatory legislation & new opportunities for organized labour. Taken together those reforms gave a measure of security to millions of Americans who had never had much of it & with a fresh sense of having a stake in their country. Freedom from Fear tells the story of the New Deals achievements without slighting its shortcomings contradictions & failures. It is a story rich in drama & peopled with unforgettable personalities including the incandescent but enigmatic figure of Roosevelt himself. Even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression a still more fearsome menace was developing abroad
- Hitlers thirst for war in Europe coupled with the imperial ambitions of Japan in Asia. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder the arms in another conflict that wreaked world wide destruction ushered in the nuclear age & forever changed their own way of life & their countrys relationship to the rest of the world. Freedom from Fear explains how the nation agonized over its role in World War II how it fought the war why the United States won & why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative Kenney analyses the determinants of American strategy the painful choices faced by commanders & statesmen & the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears & face battle as best they could. Freedom from Fear is a comprehensive & colourful account of the most convulsive period in American history excepting only the Civil War
- a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed.

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Born in poverty in India Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) became a leading spiritual & philosophical thinker whose ideas continue to influence us today. George Bernard Shaw declared that he was the most beautiful human being he had ever seen & Aldous Huxley was one of his close friends. Whether debating politics with Nehru discussing theories with Rupert Sheldrake & Iris Murdoch or challenging his students not to take his words at face value Krishnamurti engaged fully with every aspect of life. He is regarded by many modern religious figures as a great teacher an extraordinary individual with revolutionary insights; Joseph Campbell Alan Watts Eckhart Tolle & Deepak Chopra are all indebted to his writings. Freedom from the Known" is one of Krishnamurtis most accessible works. Here he reveals how we can free ourselves radically & immediately from the tyranny of the expected. By changing ourselves we can alter the structure of society & our relationships. The vital need for change & the recognition of its very possibility form an essential part of this important books message." ...

In 1938 a two year old boy was recognised through a traditional process of discovery as being the reincarnation of all previous Dalai Lamas the spiritual rulers of Tibet. Taken away from his parents he was brought up in Lhasa according to a monastic regimen of rigorous austerity & in almost total isolation. Aged seven he was enthroned in the 1000-room Potala palace as the supreme spiritual leader of a nation the size of Western Europe with population of six million. & at fifteen he became head of state. With Tibet under threat from the newly Communist Chinese there followed a traumatic decade during which he became the confidant of both Chairman Mao & Jawaharal Nehru as he tried to maintain autonomy for his people. Then in 1959 he was finally forced into exile
- followed by over 100 000 destitute refugees. Here in his own words he describes what it was like to grow up revered as a deity among his people reveals his innermost feelings about his role & discusses the mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism.
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Freedom in the Air is the inspiring story of a Czech airman Vaclav Robert Bozdech & the Alsatian dog Antis that flew with him in Bomber Command during WWII. Field Marshall Wavell later pinned the ribbon of the PDSAs Dickin Medal the animals Victoria Cross to Antis collar for courage & outstanding service. The Czechoslovakian Radio Praha have recently interviewed Hamish Ross about his book Freedom in the Air published in 2007. Read the article & listen to full interview here:http://www.radio.cz/en/issue/114329 ...

John Pilger is one of the worlds pre-eminent investigative journalists & documentary film-makers. His best-selling books of reportage which include Heroes & Hidden Voices have in the words of Noam Chomsky been a beacon of light in often dark times. In Freedom Next Time he looks at five countries in each of which a long struggle for freedom has taken place; in each the people having shed blood & dreams are still waiting. In Afghanistan Iraq & South Africa there has been the promise of hope & even an official freedom but the reality of these divided societies is that they are still waiting for real freedom. In Palestine the cycle of violence continues with no resolution in sight. & the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is a microcosm of the ruthlessness of great powers. The island was sold by the British to the American military in the 1960s. The indigenous population descended from slaves were forcibly removed to the slums of Port Louis in Mauritius. They have continued to fight for the return of their homeland ever since
- three years ago the High Court granted them the right of return but this has subsequently been blocked. The island remains the USs third biggest military base; a base from which they are able to launch attacks against the Middle East. Once again John Pilger gives a voice to the people living through these momentous times & in gripping detail shows us the lives behind the headlines.
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The inhabitants of the penal planet Botany had fought a grim & dangerous war to free themselves from their Eosi overlords. Now the Eosi were gone & both Botany & Earth were free again
- free but in serious trouble as the theft of all their communications satellites by the Catteni (working for their Eosi masters) had left them isolated & in a desperate situation. Hoping that everything stolen from them would be returned they found that Catteni greed had triumphed. The merchants of Barevi refused to give up the stolen goods unless a substantial ransom was paid. Earth was in a particularly bad way: disease vandalism starvation & the breakdown of their mechanical world had left its people fighting for survival. They desperately needed the goods the Barevi were hoarding. & so Zainal Kris & a courageous team from Botany set off to try & outwit the thieving merchants. It was an expedition that led to a horrifying replay of an old nightmare for Kris
- & only Zainal could save her & the future of both Earth & Botany.

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