It?s been two years since fifteen-year-old Roberto was kidnapped and forced to work in a German labor camp. After finally escaping, he?s made his way back to Italy. Roberto is desperate to return to the safety of his family, but how can he turn his back on the war while so many people are suffering? Roberto joins the resistance movement, and smuggles guns and secret information to rebel fighters. Every mission takes him closer to home, but every mission is even more dangerous than the last. Will Roberto survive and make his way home?

Fire on the Hills is the remarkable story of Rochunga Pudaite, founder of Partnership Ministries, who has built scores of Christian schools in his native India, planted over 300 churches, started a hospital, a Bible college, and a soon-to-be opened seminary.

Flame and Fortune in the American West creatively and meticulously investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire—in terms of structures lost—in California history. More than 3,000 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland and Berkeley, others like it sear through landscapes in California and the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas historically prone to fire. Simon skillfully blends techniques from environmental history, political ecology, and science studies to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural-resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees as an exotic lure for homeowners and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue—decisions that produced communities with increased vulnerability to fire. Simon demonstrates how in Oakland a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, Flame and Fortune in the American West illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. These risky yet profitable developments (what the author refers to as the Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold global applicability within hazard-prone areas.

Once vital to fire prevention and detection, most of the Black Hills National Forest historic lookout towers now serve primarily as hiking destinations. The first crude lookout structures were built at Custer Peak and Harney Peak in 1911. Since that time, more than 20 towers have been constructed in the area. The first lookout towers were built of wood, most replaced by steel or stone. The Civilian Conservation Corps was instrumental in constructing fire towers during the 1930s and 1940s. One of the most famous and architecturally and aesthetically valued towers is the Harney Peak Fire Lookout--situated on the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains. Harney Peak is among a number of Black Hills towers listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. Over 200 vintage images tell the story of not only the historic fire towers but those who manned them. Perched atop high peaks in remote locations, fire lookout personnel spent countless hours scanning the forest, pinpointing dangers, often experiencing the powerful wrath of lightning strong enough to jolt them off their lightning stools.

In 1918 in the hills of eastern Oklahoma, sixteen-year-old Hallie faces many changes in her life after her mother dies and she takes over caring for the family.