The cross is the both worlds' most contemptible instrument of punishment and the symbol of humanity's greatest hope. In turning this tool of torture into his followers' proudest boast, Jesus produced the most dramatic reversal the world has ever experienced. Worn around our necks, hung in our homes, carried in procession and set on mountaintops, the cross speaks to what we believe about Jesus and about how we understand our lives in relationship to him. This study plumbs the depths of Scripture for the horrible and glorious significance of the world's most beloved symbol. Ideal for Lent and Easter seasons.

Writer Barnes tells the story of a corrupt, crime-ridden city, examining events that unfolded during 1916-1955. Phenix City had been a 19th-century refuge from law enforcement for 120 years until three men in succession challenged the status quo. To reconstruct the story the author draws on notes and private papers of the principals and investigators; depositions, trial transcripts, and court records; daily newspaper coverage; and transcripts of wire-tapped recordings of the city's gamblers and politicians. No index or bibliography. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Richard Gebhart traces little-known voyages of Great Lakes ships that sailed the Atlantic beginning in the 1850s. They bore cargoes to and from the lakes and as far as Constantinople. Gebhart recovers the voices of long-ago ship captains, along with their cargo manifests and itineraries. Drawing on deep research in old newspapers and maritime archives, he traces the construction of new ships and shipyards, and the comings and goings and travails of the lakes’ workhorses. Included is a mournful visit to a boneyard where many ships’ lives ended. Among many other lost tales, Gebhart brings to light the rise of oil tankers, marking the great twentieth-century energy transition in shipping. A must-read for Great Lakes shipping fans.

Winston Churchill recounts the end of WWII and its aftermath, in the conclusion of his majestic six-volume history. In Triumph and Tragedy, British prime minister Winston Churchill provides in dramatic detail the endgame of the war and the uneasy meetings between himself, Stalin, and Truman to discuss plans for rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of devastation. Beginning with the invasion of Normandy, the heroic landing of the Allied armies and the most remarkable amphibious operation in military history, Churchill watches as the uneasy coalition that had knit itself together begins to fray at Potsdam, foreshadowing the birth of the Cold War. Triumph and Tragedy is part of the epic six-volume account of World War II told from the viewpoint of a man who led in the fight against tyranny, and enriched with extensive primary sources including memos, letters, orders, speeches, and telegrams, day-by-day accounts of reactions as the drama intensifies. Throughout these volumes, we listen as strategies and counterstrategies unfold in response to Hitler’s conquest of Europe, planned invasion of England, and assault on Russia, in a mesmerizing account of the crucial decisions made as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

From the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 the Second World War had only fourteen months to run. This final volume of the account covers events right up to the unconditional surrender of Japan.Churchill's six-volume history of World War II - the definitive work, remarkable both for its sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, universally acknowledged as a magnificent historical reconstruction and an enduring work of literature.

From the wreck of the Sparrow-Hawk in 1626 to the grounding of the Eldia in 1984, Cape Cod's outer beach--often referred to as the "Graveyard of Ships"--saw the demise of more than three thousand vessels along forty miles of shifting shoals. The October Gale of 1841 claimed the lives of fifty-seven sailors from Truro, a devastating toll for a small seaside community. Survivors from the 1896 wreck of the Monte Tabor in Provincetown were arrested for a suspected mutiny. Aboard the Castagna, which stranded off Wellfleet in 1914, several sailors froze to death in the masts, while the crew's cat survived. Local author Don Wilding revisits these and many other maritime disasters, along with the heroic, and sometimes tragic, rescue efforts of the U.S. Life-Saving Service and Coast Guard.

About the Book A CANDID ACCOUNT OF RAJIV GANDHI’S PRIME MINISTERIAL YEARS. On 21 May 1991, Wajahat Habibullah, then the commissioner of Kashmir (constituting the valley and the two districts of Ladakh), had returned home after inspecting a mysterious fire at Dalgate, Srinagar. Much to his dismay, there had been another fire, one that left him devastated: an RDX explosion in the south Indian town of Sriperumbudur had taken the life of India’s sixth prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi. My Years with Rajiv is an endearing account of a friendship that turned into an administrative partnership, one that gave Habibullah an acute insight into Rajiv Gandhi’s political life. But equally, in this lucid memoir, recounting his years in the Indian Administrative Service, particularly at the Prime Minister’s Office, he walks us through the last three decades of the twentieth century—in many ways, the most formative years of Indian history. Habibullah also seeks to demystify the workings of the Indian government and bureaucracy: the modernisation of the Nehruvian nation, the turbulence of the Khalistan years in Punjab, the introduction of grassroots policies aimed at poverty alleviation in rural India, the beginning of telecommunications services, the Shah Bano case, the opening of the locks at Babri Masjid–Ram Janmabhoomi, Indian interventions in Sri Lanka, and much else. In this, the author, a natural raconteur, is more than successful, telling the tale in his inimitably candid and self-effacing manner.