The Ruffians are a legendary canine neighborhood watch group. They patrol the streets at night and keep the neighborhood safe from unsavory characters. There’s something fishy going on by the duck pond in the park. The squirrels are eating all their nuts plus all the nuts stored up for the winter’s supply. Mystified by this discovery, The Ruffians realize that unless they can solve this unusual development by the time winter arrives, there won’t be any squirrels left at the park with nuts. The Ruffians investigation into the matter is stymied by the unexpected invasion of Russian terrorists in the neighborhood. Forced into an uneasy alliance with their arch-nemesis, The Godfather, and his career criminal counterparts, The Fang Mafia, Butch, Jim, Dandy, Empty, and Mixer are in for the battle of their lives. Betrayal and deceit abound as a sinister force plots the complete and total destruction of the very existence of The Ruffians. The Ruffians are drawn into a final and epic confrontation that will forever shape the animal kingdom. However, there’s Butch. Don’t ever forget about Butch. That would be nuts!

True to his word, Mayor Harper has brought in a Marshall to get rid of ‘Lonesome’, thrown in jail by a repentant sheriff. But it takes more than that to stop the lone rider in his quest for revenge, and he is soon back on the trail of Markham, the mad preacher. When a band of Ruffians – pro-slavery vigilantes and sworn enemies of Markham – intercept our hero, an unexpected encounter will provide him with an opportunity to learn more about the mysterious figures pulling all the strings ...

Violence and democracy may seem fundamentally incompatible, but the two have often been intimately and inextricably linked. In Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists, Eiko Maruko Siniawer argues that violence has been embedded in the practice of modern Japanese politics from the very inception of the country's experiment with democracy. As soon as the parliament opened its doors in 1890, brawls, fistfights, vandalism, threats, and intimidation quickly became a fixture in Japanese politics, from campaigns and elections to legislative debates. Most of this physical force was wielded by what Siniawer calls "violence specialists": ruffians and yakuza. Their systemic and enduring political violence-in the streets, in the halls of parliament, during popular protests, and amid labor strife-ultimately compromised party politics in Japan and contributed to the rise of militarism in the 1930s. For the post-World War II years, Siniawer illustrates how the Japanese developed a preference for money over violence as a political tool of choice. This change in tactics signaled a political shift, but not necessarily an evolution, as corruption and bribery were in some ways more insidious, exclusionary, and undemocratic than violence. Siniawer demonstrates that the practice of politics in Japan has been dangerous, chaotic, and far more violent than previously thought. Additionally, crime has been more political. Throughout the book, Siniawer makes clear that certain yakuza groups were ideological in nature, contrary to the common understanding of organized crime as nonideological. Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists is essential reading for anyone wanting to comprehend the role of violence in the formation of modern nation-states and its place in both democratic and fascist movements.

In his extraordinary debut, veteran Atlanta Falcons defensive end and first-round draft pick Tim Green captures the violence and tension of a season in professional football.

Drawing on advice from the world’s leading experts on conflict and communication—from relationship scientists to hostage negotiators to diplomats—Ian Leslie, a columnist for the New Statesman, shows us how to transform the heat of conflict, disagreement and argument into the light of insight, creativity and connection, in a book with vital lessons for the home, workplace, and public arena. For most people, conflict triggers a fight or flight response. Disagreeing productively is a hard skill for which neither evolution or society has equipped us. It’s a skill we urgently need to acquire; otherwise, our increasingly vociferous disagreements are destined to tear us apart. Productive disagreement is a way of thinking, perhaps the best one we have. It makes us smarter and more creative, and it can even bring us closer together. It’s critical to the success of any shared enterprise, from a marriage, to a business, to a democracy. Isn’t it time we gave more thought to how to do it well? In an increasingly polarized world, our only chance for coming together and moving forward is to learn from those who have mastered the art and science of disagreement. In this book, we’ll learn from experts who are highly skilled at getting the most out of highly charged encounters: interrogators, cops, divorce mediators, therapists, diplomats, psychologists. These professionals know how to get something valuable – information, insight, ideas—from the toughest, most antagonistic conversations. They are brilliant communicators: masters at shaping the conversation beneath the conversation. They know how to turn the heat of conflict into the light of creativity, connection, and insight. In this much-need book, Ian Leslie explores what happens to us when we argue, why disagreement makes us stressed, and why we get angry. He explains why we urgently need to transform the way we think about conflict and how having better disagreements can make us more successful. By drawing together the lessons he learns from different experts, he proposes a series of clear principles that we can all use to make our most difficult dialogues more productive—and our increasingly acrimonious world a better place.