Undertaking a Big Year requires a more extreme version of planning than what is needed to bird in a typical year. In a Big Year a birder is trying to see or hear new birds every day, day after day, throughout the whole year. The first woman to complete a North American Big Year (continental United States and Canada) and identify over 700 species, Lynn E. Barber clocked more than 175,000 miles and ticked off a then record setting 723 species over twelve months in 2008. Yet even as an anomaly—a female birder in the then male-dominated world of competitive birding—she took the initiative to reimagine the whole idea of a Big Year in the two biggest states in the country. At home in both Texas and Alaska, Barber offers an inside look into how to plan, execute, and thoroughly enjoy a year of finding the birds that inhabit two of the nation’s most diverse landscapes. The drastic differences between the climate, geography, plant life, and habitat at the far northern and southern edges of the US mainland mean seeing a distinct number of birds in each state that are not found in the other. Yet as states with both coastal and international boundaries, Texas and Alaska provide countless opportunities to see the most seasonally varied, far flying, and specifically adapted birds in the world. As Barber chronicles her travels throughout the Texan and Alaskan landscapes, serious and casual birders alike will appreciate her lively and informative prose and commitment to her distinct approach to the Big Year challenge.

"At home in both Texas and Alaska, Barber offers here an inside look into how to plan, execute, and thoroughly enjoy a year of finding the birds that inhabit the nation's most diverse and in many ways most opposite landscapes"--

Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.

On the trail to America's signature spirit! The definitive field guide to the American Whiskey Trail! Big Whiskey features profiles of distilleries new and old, interviews with distillers and blenders, cocktail recipes, tasting notes, food pairings, and rare bottles. Discover the storied history and renaissance of America's premier whiskey region with this definitive field guide to its signature spirit. Devoted entirely to the quintessential American whiskeys of Kentucky and Tennessee, Big Whiskey takes you behind the scenes at distilleries throughout both states. This book is bursting with in-depth, up-to-date profiles from esteemed heritage brands to distilleries whose first barrels are still aging. This elegant book includes: *fascinating interviews with Master Distillers, *profiles on 80 distilleries and even more labels, *incredible histories and facts about North America's most influential whiskey region, *stunning, original photography from the trails. Whether you're a seasoned connoisseur or are simply looking to discover the difference between bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, Big Whiskey is your essential guide to America's whiskey trails.

At its formation in 1901, the United States Steel Corporation was the earth's biggest industrial corporation, a wonder of the manufacturing world. Immediately it produced two thirds of America's raw steel and thirty percent of the steel made worldwide. The behemoth company would go on to support the manufacturing superstructure of practically every other industry in America. It would create and sustain the economies of many industrial communities, especially Pittsburgh, employing more than a million people over the course of the century. A hundred years later, the U.S. Steel Group of USX makes scarcely ten percent of the steel in the United States and just over one and a half percent of global output. Far from the biggest, the company is now considered the most efficient steel producer in the world. What happened between then and now, and why, is the subject of Big Steel, the first comprehensive history of the company at the center of America's twentieth-century industrial life.Granted privileged and unprecedented access to the U.S. Steel archives, Kenneth Warren has sifted through a long, complex business history to tell a compelling story. Its preeminent size was supposed to confer many advantages to U.S. Steel—economies of scale, monopolies of talent, etc. Yet in practice, many of those advantages proved illusory. Warren shows how, even in its early years, the company was out-maneuvered by smaller competitors and how, over the century, U.S. Steel's share of the industry, by every measure, steadily declined. Warren's subtle analysis of years of internal decision making reveals that the company's size and clumsy hierarchical structure made it uniquely difficult to direct and manage. He profiles the chairmen who grappled with this "lumbering giant," paying particular attention to those who long ago created its enduring corporate culture—Charles M. Schwab, Elbert H. Gary, and Myron C. Taylor.Warren points to the way U.S. Steel's dominating size exposed it to public scrutiny and government oversight—a cautionary force. He analyzes the ways that labor relations affected company management and strategy. And he demonstrates how U.S. Steel suffered gradually, steadily, from its paradoxical ability to make high profits while failing to keep pace with the best practices. Only after the drastic pruning late in the century—when U.S. Steel reduced its capacity by two-thirds—did the company become a world leader in steel-making efficiency, rather than merely in size. These lessons, drawn from the history of an extraordinary company, will enrich the scholarship of industry and inform the practice of business in the twenty-first century.