The Great Rift is a sweeping history of the intertwined careers of Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, whose rivalry and conflicting views of U.S. national security color our political debate to this day. Dick Cheney and Colin Powell emerged on the national scene more than thirty years ago, and it is easy to forget that they were once allies. The two men collaborated closely in the successful American wars in Panama and Iraq during the presidency of George H. W. Bush--but from this pinnacle, conflicts of ideology and sensibility drove them apart. Returning to government service under George W. Bush in 2001, they (and their respective allies within the administration) fell into ever-deepening antagonism over the role America should play in a world marked by terrorism and other nontraditional threats. In a wide-ranging, deeply researched, and dramatic narrative, James Mann explores each man’s biography and philosophical predispositions to show how and why this deep and permanent rupture occurred. Through dozens of original interviews and surprising revelations from presidential archives, he brings to life the very human story of how this influential friendship turned so sour and how the enmity of these two powerful men colored the way America acts in the world.

A day-by-day photographic journal of the annual migration path taken by the animals of the Serengeti Plain as they follow the cycle of the rains.

The flora and fauna of one of Africa's most spectacular regions is documented in 202 photographs, from snow-topped mountains to heat-blasted salt flats.

In a pictorial journey across the length and breadth of the East African section of the Great Rift Valley, award-winning wildlife photographers Anup and Manoj Shah explore the diversity of habitats created by this great fissure in the Earth

The Great Rift Valley, which runs some three thousand miles from Syria to Mozambique, is one of the earth's most extraordinary geological features. The result of Syria's split from the African continent fifteen million years ago, this great "crack in the earth" crosses Jordan, Syria, Israel, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In 2004, Israeli journalist Haim Watzman set out to explore the northern part of the Rift Valley, where he had lived for nearly two and a half decades. He interviewed a number of scientific experts: a zoologist fascinated by the behavioral patterns of indigenous birds; an archaeologist trying to re-create the standing stone formations left to us by ancient cultures; a geologist speculating on the valley's origins. Watzman raises provocative questions about the nature of this massive feature in the earth's crust: where it comes from, how it has developed, and how human civilization has fared on its shores. "Humankind has overlaid the geology not just with cities, dams, fields, and roads," he writes, "but also with history and biography and meanings."

Five years ago, young sorcerer Dante Galand and his friend Blays averted war against their new home, the city of Narashtovik. Ever since, they've been repaying their debts, arming and training the nomadic norren people in preparation for rebellion against the empire that enslaves them. When Dante hears a nearby norren clan is in possession of the Quivering Bow-a legendary artifact that can strike down walls with a single arrow-his course is clear. With such a weapon, he can secure independence for both the norren and Narashtovik. But the bow has been taken by the enemy. Following a trail of pirates and slavers, Dante, Blays, and a clan of norren warriors strike deep into enemy lands. Until now, their rebellion's been kept secret. But their quest for the bow leads Dante and Blays to an all-out assault on the personal manor of powerful lord Cassinder. Enraged, Cassinder will have his revenge on norren and Narashtovik alike-and this time, there will be no stopping the engines of war.