In Destiny's Consul: America's Greatest Presidents, presidential scholar Michael P. Riccards provides a concise introduction to the lives, presidencies, and personal qualities of ten great individuals whom Riccards argues are our greatest presidents. It will be of interest to anyone interested in the presidency of American history.

This revised edition of the standard history of Guam is intended for general readers and students of the history, politics, and government of the Pacific region. Its narrative spans more than 450 years, beginning with the initial written records of Guam by members of Magellan 1521 expedition and concluding with the impact of the recent global recession on Guam’s fragile economy.

This fascinating study sheds new light on antebellum America's notorious "filibusters--the freebooters and adventurers who organized or participated in armed invasions of nations with whom the United States was formally at peace. Offering the first full-scale analysis of the filibustering movement, Robert May relates the often-tragic stories of illegal expeditions into Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries and details surprising numbers of aborted plots, as well. May investigates why thousands of men joined filibustering expeditions, how they were financed, and why the U.S. government had little success in curtailing them. Surveying antebellum popular media, he shows how the filibustering phenomenon infiltrated the American psyche in newspapers, theater, music, advertising, and literature. Condemned abroad as pirates, frequently in language strikingly similar to modern American denunciations of foreign terrorists, the filibusters were often celebrated at home as heroes who epitomized the spirit of Manifest Destiny. May concludes by exploring the national consequences of filibustering, arguing that the practice inflicted lasting damage on U.S. relations with foreign countries and contributed to the North-South division over slavery that culminated in the Civil War.

Destiny's Game" started as a will. "I didn't have the life of a typical 15-year old, not only me but a lot of young people," recalls Reza. With no idea what would happen to him next, Reza began documenting the events and circumstances surrounding him. This collection of personal memoirs and travels begins in his native country of Iran and takes readers along on his twenty-five-year journey through Turkey, Eastern Europe and the United States. In "Destiny's Game," Reza uses his unique perspective to talk about his family in Iran and the Iranian social and political situation, including the revolution of 1979 and the start of the Iraq-Iran war in September 1980. "They (the Iranian people) were doing the wrong things for the right reasons. People didn't know what the Islamic republic meant," says Reza. It created dangerous socio-political turbulence that forced thousands of Iranian families to flee the country with their young sons and daughters. "Imagine you're sitting in Jr. High or High School and they (the revolutionary guards, Islamic fundamentalists) come to your class and say, "Who wants to go to heaven?" And, all the kids raise their hands and want the opportunity. It's a quick ticket, a short-cut. All they have to do is walk on an Iraqi mine field," explains Reza. He talks about foreign hypocrisy and, how his views evolved as he witnessed non-Iranian governments' manipulative efforts to exploit socio-political, cultural and economic affairs of Iran. Through this book, Reza hopes to inspire optimism and national unity, and promote fine moral etiquette and improved human rights. According the Reza, these are important fundamental qualities that the Iranian society and mainstream international governing bodies seriously lack.

When the Wall Street banker takes the side of the indebted developing countries in his feature articles reviewing the impact of the global sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s in the Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad, it is time to leave banking. He is attracted to Unicef's vision and goal of Health for All and its tireless pursuit of structural economic adjustment programmes with a human face. In Africa, Boudewijn Mohr jumps into Unicef's hands-on work in the field. He spearheads the clearing of landmines in Unicef project areas in Mozambique, and engages with children throughout his travels on the continent. Thus he can be found playing football with former child soldiers in Monrovia; touring Nouakchott with street children who show him the tricks of pick pocketing; or gate crashing a diamond mine that exploits child labour near Kenema in the rebel-infested east of Sierra Leone. His stories are both an adventure and the search of fulfilment but at the same time a call to all those who want to do more and are uncertain of what the world holds. Part of the proceeds of this book are going to 'Hands-Up Foundation', a British charity working with Syrian doctors and nurses in Syria under harsh circumstances.