Knowledge = Power

An authoritative account of five thousand years of Chinese history Many  nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China  defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's  unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has  composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and  vivid past. Keay's authoritative history examines 5,000 years in China,  from the time of the Three Dynasties through Chairman Mao and the  current economic transformation of the country. Crisp, judicious, and  engaging, China is the classic single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand the present and future of this immensely powerful nation

Seveneves

The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the acclaimed author of The Storm of War—winner of the LA Times Book prize, finalist for the Plutarch prize, winner of the Fondation Napoleon prize and a New York Times bestseller “A thrilling tale of military and political genius… Roberts is an uncommonly gifted writer.” – The Washington Post Austerlitz,  Borodino, Waterloo: his battles are among the greatest in history, but  Napoleon Bonaparte was far more than a military genius and astute leader  of men. Like George Washington and his own hero Julius Caesar, he was  one of the greatest soldier-statesmen of all times. Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon is  the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent  publication of Napoleon’s thirty-three thousand letters, which radically  transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we  see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing  to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine. Like Churchill, he  understood the strategic importance of telling his own story, and his  memoirs, dictated from exile on St. Helena, became the single  bestselling book of the nineteenth century. An award-winning  historian, Roberts traveled to fifty-three of Napoleon’s sixty battle  sites, discovered crucial new documents in archives, and even made the  long trip by boat to St. Helena. He is as acute in his understanding of  politics as he is of military history. Here at last is a biography  worthy of its subject: magisterial, insightful, beautifully written, by  one of our foremost historians.

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby (1925) - mp3

A 50th-anniversary Deluxe Edition of the incomparable 20th-century  masterpiece of satire and fantasy, in a newly revised version of the  acclaimed Pevear and Volokhonsky translation   Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. One  spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake,  weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov’s  fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two  distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other  in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary,  frightful, and wonderful characters. Written during the darkest days of  Stalin’s reign, and finally published in 1966 and 1967, The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere. This newly revised translation, by the award-winning team of Pevear and  Volokhonsky, is made from the complete and unabridged Russian text. For  more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of  classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700  titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works  throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the  series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and  notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as  up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This book is the culmination of  more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi  Germany by one of the period's most distinguished historians. The volume  brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian  Kershaw's research on the Holocaust for the first time. The writings are  arranged in three sections - Hitler and the Final Solution, popular  opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in  historiography - and Kershaw provides an introduction and a closing  section on the uniqueness of Nazism. Kershaw was a founding historian of the social history of the Third  Reich, and he has throughout his career conducted pioneering research on  the societal causes and consequences of Nazi policy. His work has  brought much to light concerning the ways in which the attitudes of the  German populace shaped and did not shape Nazi policy. This volume  presents a comprehensive, multifaceted picture both of the destructive  dynamic of the Nazi leadership and of the attitudes and behavior of  ordinary Germans as the persecution of the Jews spiraled into total  genocide.

Josef Stalin exercised supreme power in the Soviet Union from 1929  until his death in 1953. During that quarter century, by Oleg  Khlevniuk's estimate, he caused the imprisonment and execution of no  fewer than a million Soviet citizens per year. Millions more were  victims of famine directly resulting from Stalin's policies. What drove  him toward such ruthlessness? This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the  vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained  portrait of Stalin, the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin  as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous  controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while  assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports,  and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that  altered the course of world history. In brief, revealing prologues to each chapter, Khlevniuk takes his reader into Stalin's favorite dacha, where the innermost circle of Soviet leadership gathered as their vozhd lay dying. Chronological chapters then illuminate major themes:  Stalin's childhood, his involvement in the Revolution and the early  Bolshevik government under Lenin, his assumption of undivided power and  mandate for industrialization and collectivization, the Terror, World  War II, and the postwar period. At the book's conclusion, the author  presents a cogent warning against nostalgia for the Stalinist era.

A magnificent new biography that revolutionizes our understanding of Stalin and his world The product of a decade of intrepid research, Stalin is a landmark achievement. Stephen Kotkin offers a biography that, at  long last, is equal to this shrewd, sociopathic, charismatic dictator in  all his dimensions. We see a man inclined to despotism who could be  utterly charming; a pragmatic ideologue; a leader who obsessed over  slights yet was a precocious geostrategic thinker—unique among  Bolsheviks—and yet who made egregious strategic blunders. Through it  all, we see Stalin’s unflinching persistence, his sheer force of  will—perhaps the ultimate key to understanding his indelible mark on  history. Drawing on Kotkin’s exhaustive study of Soviet archival  materials as well as vast scholarly literature, Stalin recasts  the way we think about the Soviet Union, revolution, dictatorship, the  twentieth century, and indeed the art of history itself.

After interviewing 50 of the world's greatest financial minds and penning the number-one New York Times best seller Money: Master the Game,  Tony Robbins returns with a step-by-step playbook, taking you on a  journey to transform your financial life and accelerate your path to  financial freedom. No matter your salary, your stage of life, or when  you started, this book will provide the tools to help you achieve your  financial goals more rapidly than you ever thought possible. Robbins, who has coached more than 50 million people from 100  countries, is the world's number-one life and business strategist. In  this book he teams up with Peter Mallouk, the only man in history to be  ranked the number-one financial advisor in the United States for three  consecutive years by Barron's. Together they reveal how to become  unshakeable - someone who can not only maintain true peace of mind in a  world of immense uncertainty, economic volatility, and unprecedented  change but profit from the fear that immobilizes so many. Through plain  English and inspiring stories, you'll discover... How to put together a simple, actionable plan that will deliver true financial freedom Strategies from the world's top investors on how to protect  yourself and your family and maximize profit from the inevitable crashes  and corrections to come How a few simple steps can add a decade or more of additional  retirement income by discovering what your 401(k) provider doesn't want  you to know The core four principles that most of the world's greatest  financial minds utilize so that you can maximize upside and minimize  downside The fastest way to put money back in your pocket: uncover the  hidden fees and half truths of Wall Street - how the biggest firms keep  you overpaying for underperformance Master the mind-set of true wealth, and experience the fulfillment you deserve today.

In his first book in two decades, Anthony Robbins turns to the topic  that vexes us all: How to secure financial freedom for ourselves and for  our families. “If there were a Pulitzer Prize for investment books,  this one would win, hands down” (Forbes). Tony Robbins  is one of the most revered writers and thinkers of our time. People  from all over the world—from the disadvantaged to the well-heeled, from  twenty-somethings to retirees—credit him for giving them the inspiration  and the tools for transforming their lives. From diet and fitness, to  business and leadership, to relationships and self-respect, Tony  Robbins’s books have changed people in profound and lasting ways. Now,  for the first time, he has assembled an invaluable “distillation of just  about every good personal finance idea of the last forty years” (The New York Times). Based  on extensive research and interviews with some of the most legendary  investors at work today (John Bogle, Warren Buffett, Paul Tudor Jones,  Ray Dalio, Carl Icahn, and many others), Tony Robbins has created a  7-step blueprint for securing financial freedom. With advice about  taking control of your financial decisions, to setting up a savings and  investing plan, to destroying myths about what it takes to save and  invest, to setting up a “lifetime income plan,” the book brims with  advice and practices for making the financial game not only winnable—but  providing financial freedom for the rest of your life. “Put MONEY on your short list of new books to read…It’s that good” (Marketwatch.com).