The decades after World War II were a golden age across much of the world. It was a time of economic miracles, an era when steady jobs were easy to find and families could see their living standards improving year after year. And then, around 1973, the good times vanished. The world economy slumped badly, then settled into the slow, erratic growth that had been the norm before the war. The result was an era of anxiety, uncertainty, and political extremism that we are still grappling with today. In An Extraordinary Time, acclaimed economic historian Marc Levinson describes how the end of the postwar boom reverberated throughout the global economy, bringing energy shortages, financial crises, soaring unemployment, and a gnawing sense of insecurity. Politicians, suddenly unable to deliver the prosperity of years past, railed haplessly against currency speculators, oil sheikhs, and other forces they could not control. From Sweden to Southern California, citizens grew suspicious of their newly ineffective governments and rebelled against the high taxes needed to support social welfare programs enacted when coffers were flush. Almost everywhere, the pendulum swung to the right, bringing politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to power. But their promise that deregulation, privatization, lower tax rates, and smaller government would restore economic security and robust growth proved unfounded. Although the guiding hand of the state could no longer deliver the steady economic performance the public had come to expect, free-market policies were equally unable to do so. The golden age would not come back again. A sweeping reappraisal of the last sixty years of world history, An Extraordinary Time forces us to come to terms with how little control we actually have over the economy.

Extraordinary Time appeals to people who have suffered serious illness or traumatic loss and are seeking a hopeful approach to healing from trauma, pain, and grief. The author recounts her harrowing one-year experience with cancer and its aftermath, the death of her spouse, and a major life transition. Extraordinary Time illustrates how a person faces significant life changes with courage and recovers through drawing on the wellsprings of faith, the love and support of community, and the full resources of the Christian spiritual tradition, including the mystics and Communion of Saints. The great themes of suffering, healing, death, and the afterlife are explored from a spiritual teacher’s deeply formed angle of vision through which a wide range of readers will find encouragement, consolation, and inspiration for dealing with their own extraordinary times.

All major religions of the world are expecting him. Christians know him as the Christ. Jews are still awaiting the Messiah. Hindus anticipate the coming of Krishna. Muslims are expecting the Imam Mahdi. And Buddhists call him the Fifth (Maitreya) Buddha. The names are all different, but many believe they all refer to the same person: a world Teacher who is among us now, and is called Maitreya. But he does not come as a religious leader. He is here as a guide for people of all religions, all countries, all societies. In this age of crisis, he is here to inspire all of us to put down the sword of religious, social, and economic strife, and to seek justice based on sharing and global cooperation of the human family. His message is that of all great teachers of the ageless wisdom: peace, love, the golden rule. Some very prominent world leaders and celebrities, and many others, are aware of Maitreya's reappearance, but are not yet prepared to go public due to the possible effect on their professional reputations/ however, many believe that it's just a matter of time before everyone will recognize that the world teacher is back, living among us. Wayne Peterson, a former American diplomat and director of the Fulbright Scholarship program, tells the story of his own extraordinary encounters with Maitreya, and why Maitreya has returned. It is a story of strange, fascinating events and penetrating wisdom and an inspirational message of hope for the future. It is a story that deals with nothing less than humanity's opportunity to redefine its institutions and beliefs based on the ancient wisdom common to all traditions. Above all, it is a story, both personal and planetary, of love, and of those extraordinary spiritual beings who embody it to the world.

Examines the distinct leadership roles of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the war years and discusses the dynamics of their marriage.

For generations, influential thinkers--often citing the tragic polarization that took place during Germany's Great Depression--have suspected that people's loyalty to democratic institutions erodes under pressure and that citizens gravitate toward antidemocratic extremes in times of political and economic crisis. But do people really defect from democracy when times get tough? Do ordinary people play a leading role in the collapse of popular government? Based on extensive research, this book overturns the common wisdom. It shows that the German experience was exceptional, that people's affinity for particular political positions are surprisingly stable, and that what is often labeled polarization is the result not of vote switching but of such factors as expansion of the franchise, elite defections, and the mobilization of new voters. Democratic collapses are caused less by changes in popular preferences than by the actions of political elites who polarize themselves and mistake the actions of a few for the preferences of the many. These conclusions are drawn from the study of twenty cases, including every democracy that collapsed in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in interwar Europe, every South American democracy that fell to the Right after the Cuban Revolution, and three democracies that avoided breakdown despite serious economic and political challenges. Unique in its historical and regional scope, this book offers unsettling but important lessons about civil society and regime change--and about the paths to democratic consolidation today.

From Nobel prize-winner Roger Penrose, this groundbreaking book is for anyone "who is interested in the world, how it works, and how it got here" (New York Journal of Books). Penrose presents a new perspective on three of cosmology’s essential questions: What came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? And what cosmic future awaits us? He shows how the expected fate of our ever-accelerating and expanding universe—heat death or ultimate entropy—can actually be reinterpreted as the conditions that will begin a new “Big Bang.” He details the basic principles beneath our universe, explaining various standard and non-standard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, the paramount significance of black holes, and other basic building blocks of contemporary physics. Intellectually thrilling and widely accessible, Cycles of Time is a welcome new contribution to our understanding of the universe from one of our greatest mathematicians and thinkers.

Time management has been redefined for the twenty-first century. Learn how to increase your productivity by mastering five choices that will leave you feeling confident, energized, and productive.