The Army of Poets and Students Fighting a Forgotten War

India’s political climate has taken a dark and dangerous turn since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, seeing a disturbing rise in the popularity of Hindu nationalism and violent hate crimes against the nation’s Muslim minority.

A Promised Land is Barack Obama’s memoir of his early political career and the first two years of his presidency. Obama takes us on his journey from relative obscurity as a biracial kid from Hawaii to becoming a transformative figure as the nation’s first African-American president. At every step of his career, Obama was guided by a deep faith in the fundamental unity of Americans; the potential and promise of America; the necessity of compromise and seeking common ground; and above all, the power of the democratic system to heal our divisions and effect real change for ordinary people.

According to Gen. H.R. McMaster, the United States views the world through a self-centered lens, assuming that its policy decisions are the main driving force behind global events. Because of this distorted perspective, the US has lost influence on the global stage at a time when authoritarian aggression is on the rise. In Battlegrounds, McMaster, who was US national security adviser in 2017-18, contends that American leaders must learn to see the world through the eyes of the US's adversaries in order to defend against foreign threats and compete in the modern global landscape.

In this guide, we’ll explore McMaster’s criticism of the assumptions driving US foreign policy, his assessment of the threats America faces, and the steps he believes the US must take. We’ll compare McMaster’s views with those of other experts on diplomacy, while placing his assessments in their larger context and updating some of his information based on events since the book’s publication.

In a world where social upheavals are both history and headline news, understanding what drives masses of people toward radical change—or radical belief—is more relevant than ever. In The True Believer, self-educated philosopher Eric Hoffer examines the psychological foundation of political, social, and religious movements and uncovers why they captivate those feeling alienated or discontented. Through observations and thorough analysis, he reveals the shared characteristics across different movements and outlines the conditions for their rise and fall.

This book not only offers a lens through which to view historical events but will also equip you with a deeper understanding relevant to today's rapidly changing global landscape. In this guide, we’ll elaborate on the psychology behind Hoffer’s analysis and supplement his discussion with historical examples that illustrate his conclusions. We’ll also provide insight on how new technology has impacted the rise and fall of mass movements.

Conventional accounts of American history tend to focus on the people at the top—presidents, generals, CEOs, and other influential figures and their struggles, ambitions, hopes, and dreams. But what about average people? The ones who had to live with the consequences of elite decisions, and who often struggled in obscurity? In A People’s History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn aims to tell their story, providing a bottom-up view of American history focusing on Indigenous people, Black Americans, women, laborers, and activists.

Our guide outlines Zinn’s interpretation of significant events, themes, and historical trends in American history. Through our commentary, we’ll provide alternative opinions on the motivations behind and consequences of historical events. We’ll also further explain Zinn’s approach to history and provide additional context for his arguments as well as his perspective on events that happened after the book’s publication.

According to Gen. H.R. McMaster, the United States views the world through a self-centered lens, assuming that its policy decisions are the main driving force behind global events. Because of this distorted perspective, the US has lost influence on the global stage at a time when authoritarian aggression is on the rise. In Battlegrounds, McMaster, who was US national security adviser in 2017-18, contends that American leaders must learn to see the world through the eyes of the US's adversaries in order to defend against foreign threats and compete in the modern global landscape.

In this guide, we’ll explore McMaster’s criticism of the assumptions driving US foreign policy, his assessment of the threats America faces, and the steps he believes the US must take. We’ll compare McMaster’s views with those of other experts on diplomacy, while placing his assessments in their larger context and updating some of his information based on events since the book’s publication.

Writing in the 1990s, venture capitalist James Davidson and banker and media consultant William Rees-Mogg predicted that the first quarter of the 21st century would bring sweeping changes to the global economy and the very structure of human civilization. In The Sovereign Individual, they explain both their predictions and the rationale behind them.

One of their most significant predictions is that nations will fragment into millions of city-states and even individual estates with sovereign-nation status. The owners of these sovereign estates are the “sovereign individuals” from whom the book draws its title.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the authors’ predictions, particularly the rise of sovereign individuals, and we’ll take stock of how close their predictions are to being fulfilled. We’ll also provide additional context and insight from books like Predictably Irrational, The 33 Strategies of War, and The Bitcoin Standard.

In 2004, General Stanley McChrystal took over as commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. The sprawling organization—encompassing strategists, analysts, and elite special forces from every branch of the U.S. military—was struggling to make headway against an unconventional enemy and environment.

In Team of Teams, McChrystal describes how he transformed the slow-moving bureaucratic task force into an agile, adaptable network of teams united by a “shared consciousness”, trust, and decentralized decision-making. After years of being outmaneuvered by Al Qaeda, the reinvented task force pulled together to eliminate terrorist leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and began winning the fight against terrorism in Iraq. These accomplishments hold lessons for all kinds of organizations struggling with unconventional challenges and environments today.

According to Gen. H.R. McMaster, the United States views the world through a self-centered lens, assuming that its policy decisions are the main driving force behind global events. Because of this distorted perspective, the US has lost influence on the global stage at a time when authoritarian aggression is on the rise. In Battlegrounds, McMaster, who was US national security adviser in 2017-18, contends that American leaders must learn to see the world through the eyes of the US's adversaries in order to defend against foreign threats and compete in the modern global landscape.

In this guide, we’ll explore McMaster’s criticism of the assumptions driving US foreign policy, his assessment of the threats America faces, and the steps he believes the US must take. We’ll compare McMaster’s views with those of other experts on diplomacy, while placing his assessments in their larger context and updating some of his information based on events since the book’s publication.

In a world where social upheavals are both history and headline news, understanding what drives masses of people toward radical change—or radical belief—is more relevant than ever. In The True Believer, self-educated philosopher Eric Hoffer examines the psychological foundation of political, social, and religious movements and uncovers why they captivate those feeling alienated or discontented. Through observations and thorough analysis, he reveals the shared characteristics across different movements and outlines the conditions for their rise and fall.

This book not only offers a lens through which to view historical events but will also equip you with a deeper understanding relevant to today's rapidly changing global landscape. In this guide, we’ll elaborate on the psychology behind Hoffer’s analysis and supplement his discussion with historical examples that illustrate his conclusions. We’ll also provide insight on how new technology has impacted the rise and fall of mass movements.