Like a character in a Hitchcock movie, Dave McOmie travels the country breaking into bank vaults, cracking jewelry store safes, and decoding unbreakable codes secured deep in government facilities. He's never been arrested or charged with a crime, because -- it's his job! Safecracker reveals a shadowy world where tumblers are twirled, skeletons ......
Utilizing overlooked resources, Arrested Adolescence offers insight and nuance into the mind of Nathan Leopold, a man who committed cold-blooded murder as a teenager and then convinced the world to believe in rehabilitation that he never experienced.
The Con Man's Formula: Hope + Fear = Desperation From the Gilded Age, through WWII, America was rife with ne'er-do-wells with their never-ending search for the next Big Score. Between 1850, and 1950 lawlessness melded with ingenuity, fueled by optimism and ruthlessness: America was dangerous, and buzzing, and where opportunity came to take ......
What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence
From respected thinker and public intellectual David Dark comes We Become What We Normalize, both a cultural critique and a robust summons to resist complicity when it comes to conversations on politics, religion, and media. Dark offers a spirited call to witness to ethics, community, and change for ourselves and the worlds we inhabit.
She might be one of the greatest con artists of all time. Cassie Chadwick conned millions of dollars out of banks by claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie. It was a simple but brilliant con that reflects the ethos and the high-flying greed of the Gilded Age.
David Dark, one of today's most respected thinkers and cultural critics at the intersection of faith and culture, returns to his classic text to bring us a revised, expanded, and reframed edition. With the same keen observation and candor, he reveals that religion is witness to everything we're up to, for better or worse.
Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in
The untold account of the countless Americans who believe in, or personally experience, paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and psychics Given the popularity of television shows such as Finding Bigfoot, Ghost Hunters, Supernatural, and American Horror Story, there seems to be an insatiable public hunger for mystical happenings. But ......
How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine
The brainchild of an obscure Yugoslav physician, Krebiozen emerged in 1951 as an alleged cancer treatment. Andrew Ivy, a University of Illinois vice president and a famed physiologist dubbed "the conscience of U.S. science," wholeheartedly embraced Krebiozen. Ivy's impeccable credentials and reputation made the treatment seem like another ......
How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine
The brainchild of an obscure Yugoslav physician, Krebiozen emerged in 1951 as an alleged cancer treatment. Andrew Ivy, a University of Illinois vice president and a famed physiologist dubbed "the conscience of U.S. science," wholeheartedly embraced Krebiozen. Ivy's impeccable credentials and reputation made the treatment seem like another ......
An inside look at the unique balance the Amish strike between tradition and the demands of the modern world. From technology to social forces, the Amish face an evolving modern world. Their facility in determining whether to accept, reject, or bargain with the options that challenge them allows for measured change that sustains their social ......
Greed in the Gilded Age is a Gatsby-esque tale of mystery, money, sex, and scandal. 'Millionaire' had just entered the American lexicon and Cassie Chadwick was front page news, becoming a media sensation before mass media, even eclipsing President Roosevelt's inauguration. Using these newspaper articles, Hazelgrove tells the story of one of the ......
"[P]rovides a treasure trove of information that will engage readers intrigued by but new to the subject of art forgery as well as those with an art or art history background." Booklist, Starred Review Forgery is a provocative presence in the art world that captures attention in the press and inspires books about the exploits of famous fraudsters ......
In a society of strangers, there develops what can be called crimes of mobility -- forms of criminality rare in traditional societies: bigamy, the confidence game, and blackmail, for example. What they have in common is a kind of fraudulent role-playing, which the new society makes possible. This book explores the social and legal consequences of ......
The Art Dealers Apprentice tells the story of how the author moved to New York in 1989 as a young Midwesterner, found a job at an Upper East Side gallery, and became the protege of Carla Panicali, an Italian countess and major international art world figure.
In a society of strangers, there develops what can be called crimes of mobility -- forms of criminality rare in traditional societies: bigamy, the confidence game, and blackmail, for example. What they have in common is a kind of fraudulent role-playing, which the new society makes possible.
Creating Effective and Trustworthy Regulation in an Age of Doubt
Why the public has lost faith in government and how it can be restored In 1964, over three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time. By 1980, that number had plummeted to 26 percent, and Ronald Reagan won a sweeping victory for the presidency while proclaiming that government was not the ......
Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in
The untold account of the countless Americans who believe in, or personally experience, paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and psychics Given the popularity of television shows such as Finding Bigfoot, Ghost Hunters, Supernatural, and American Horror Story, there seems to be an insatiable public hunger for mystical happenings. But ......
This guide to more than 2,500 Texas roadside markers features historical events; famous and infamous Texans; origins of towns, churches, and organizations; battles, skirmishes, and gunfights; and settlers, pioneers, Indians, and outlaws. With the most up-to-date records available, this sixth edition includes more than 100 new historical roadside ......
Includes stories on the female stranger of Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, the mysterious stone showers in Newport, the ghost hound of the Blue Ridge, Mad Lucy of Williamsburg, and the spirits of native sons Thomas Jefferson, Robert E Lee, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Myths of Origins in the History of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Conflict
The Eve of Spain demonstrates how the telling and retelling of Spain's founding myth played a central role in the formation of that country's national identity. King Roderick, the last Visigoth king of Spain, rapes (or seduces) La Cava, the daughter of his friend and counselor, Count Julian. The count returns to Africa, gathers an army of Moors, ......
Norman Austin has organized his analysis of classical Greek myths around Lacan's dichotomy between (ineffable) Being and the meanings imposed upon Being by culturally determined signifiers. The primary signifiers in myth (the gods), as projections of contradictory meanings, impel human consciousness in contradictory directions: toward heroic ......
Does Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, "The Last Supper", contain a hidden code about a precious secret? "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown has stirred the popular imagination by cleverly interweaving such theories and more. This book examines the creative uses of history in Brown's novel, showing that the facts behind the novel are fascinating.
A collection of articles which explores pseudoscience and strange religious beliefs. This book covers a range of topics - including UFOs, rainmaking, ghosts, the Big Bang, ESP, Oral Roberts, as well as the early history of spiritualism and bizarre 'trance channelling' cults.
Best known for his many popular books about science and mathematics, the author demonstrates that his interests encompass nearly everything else as well.
Looks at science as a dogmatic attempt to explain phenomena in prefabricated and often constrictive terms. This title intends to recount hundreds of strange situations that the author felt eluded scientific explanation - from black rain to six-legged lambs - many of which were reported in mainstream scientific publications.
Fear and ignorance have run rampant throughout human history. This book aims to expose the roots of such mental maladies as witchcraft and its persecution, asceticism, and unbridled hedonism, the crusades and millenarianism, nazism's monumental conceit, and the tactics of McCarthyism, as well as the belief in nostrum vendors and bogus messiahs.