Saw, Hostel, The Devil’s Rejects: this wave of horror movies has been classed under the disparaging label “torture porn.” Since David Edelstein coined the term for a New York magazine article a few years after 9/11, many critics have speculated that these movies simply reflect iconic images, anxieties, and sadistic fantasies that have emerged from the War on Terror. In this timely new study, Aaron Kerner challenges that interpretation, arguing that “torture porn”...

The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America’s dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war.Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring Reagan's radica...

A unique tell-all about the extravagant and dangerous reality of living at Playboy mansion from a former Playboy Playmate of Hugh Hefner.When Izabella St. James caught the eye of Hugh Hefner at an L.A. nightclub, she was looking for a fun break from studying for the bar. Becoming a Playboy Playmate started with star-ridden parties, extravagant presents, and residing at the iconic mansion, but life behind the gates quickly became anything but enjoyable. A strict cur...

The Dark Side is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made self-destructive decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world—decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In spellbinding detail, Jane Mayer relates the impact of these decisions by which key players, namely Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, exploited September 11 to further ...

From Jeannette Walls, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle, now a major motion picture, comes an incisive study of our obsession with gossip."A fascinating, dishy story." -BooklistGossip. It's more than just hearsay, society columns, and supermarket tabloids. It has, like it or not, become a mainstay of American pop culture. In Dish, industry insider Jeannette Walls gives this provocative subject its due, offering a comprehensive, serious exploration...

Two of America’s most perceptive political reporters join forces for an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the race for the White House in POLITICO’s Playbook 2012, a series of four instant digital books on the 2012 presidential election. The first edition, The Right Fights Back, follows the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.The battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination promises to be one of the most hotly conte...

A gripping insider?s look at the post-9/11 CIAIn the weeks following the attacks of 9/11, the Central Intelligence Agency received over 150,000 résumés from people wanting to serve their nation. T. J. Waters became one of more than a hundred students admitted into the CIA's Clandestine Service to become Class 11, the first post- 9/11 training class. Filled with more information about the CIA's Clandestine Service Training Program than has ever been allowed into the...

America's leading observer of the international scene on the minute-by-minute events of September 11, 2001--before, during and after .As the Foreign Affairs columnist for the The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman is in a unique position to interpret the world for American readers. Twice a week, Friedman's celebrated commentary provides the most trenchant, pithy,and illuminating perspective in journalism.Longitudes and Attitudes contains t...

They had 99 problems but Mitt Romney wasn't one.At the start of an epic election, the team trying to reelect President Obama faced a mountain of challenges: a dismal economy, the faded hopes of the first campaign, and a struggle to raise enough cash to compete. No president had risen so fast, or fallen so far, in the modern era. And no president in living memory had earned a second term in such troubled times. To resell the president, they needed to redefine the world they were liv...

Scientology's long and complex journey to recognition as a religionScientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful new religions to emerge in the past century. To its detractors, L. Ron Hubbard's space-age mysticism is a moneymaking scam and sinister brainwashing cult. But to its adherents, it is humanity's brightest hope. Few religious movements have been subject to public scrutiny like Scientology, yet much of what is written about the church is sensationa...

Can we do something about pornography without using censorship? Yes, says award-winning journalist and activist Susan G. Cole. Moving beyond the arguments that have polarized the country around this issue, she presents an argument that is original and cha

A revolutionary new way to understand America's complex cultural and political landscape, with proof that local communities have a major impact on the nation's behavior-in the voting booth and beyond.In a climate of culture wars and tremendous economic uncertainty, the media have often reduced America to a simplistic schism between red states and blue states. In response to that oversimplification, journalist Dante Chinni teamed up with political geographer James G...