Michael Kerrigan

No greater threat faces America today than that posed by illicit drugs––and this despite the well-publicized menace of international terrorism. Rather than destroy us from the outside, the war on drugs corrodes society from within. In many of our cities, drugs have transformed whole neighborhoods into lost places of criminality and despair. In order to assure a final victory, we must understand the complexity of the challenge. Each drug has a...

'Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.' The Lord's words to Cain, Book of Genesis Human sacrifice, floods, plagues, murders, massacres, betrayal, wars, incest, sea monsters and dragons — how well do we really remember the stories we learnt in school scripture lessons? From Genesis to the Book of Revelation, Dark History of The Bible explores some of the oldest stories in the world. Whether we are believers...

Capital punishment––the ultimate penalty––is one of the most controversial aspects of America's criminal justice system. Its inclusion in the U.S. constitution sparks heated debate with opponents claiming that it is incompatible with the principles on which the world's greatest democracy stands. Although the death penalty has been around for thousands of years, modern America has changed it in fundamental ways. These days no criminal is put...

America has always been a nation of immigrants. In addition to the approximately 1 million immigrants who enter the United States legally each year, millions more enter without documentation or overstay their visas. It is the job of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to help hard working immigrants in search of a better life to enter the U.S. legally while keeping out terrorists and other foreign nationals who would seek to harm the nation. CBP,...

The world's largest Christian organization with 1.2 billion members, the Catholic Church is one of the world's oldest institutions and has played a crucial part in the development of Western civilization. But in its rise from a Jewish sect to global faith, it has been both the persecuted and the persecutors; it has become powerful but guilty of corruption; it has preached moral purity but has been marred by abuse scandals. From the persecution of...

This book honors the ordinary Americans who have sworn to defend their country as members of the National Guard. The role of the "citizen-soldier" is enshrined in U.S. tradition, dating back to the militias first formed by settlers in the 17th century. That same spirit of community self-defense would inspire the Minutemen, who, more than 100 years later, would rise up against the British to help establish the world's greatest democracy. Since then,...

The office of the American President has evolved dramatically over the last 200 years, from George Washington's heroic posturing as leader of a renegade nation, to calculated cunning as commander of a nuclear superpower. This colourful inventory of presidential transgressions reveals that every modern scandal is the descendant of remarkably similar predecessors. Detailing the disgraces of all forty-four Presidents, from sexual skirmishes to CIA cover-ups,...

"Offers insight into ancient times through the words of its peoples, featuring some of the most important written records from ancient Mesopotamia, including: the Sumerian King List, the Code of Hammurabi, the Hittite-Egyptian treaty of Kadesh, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, with examples of scripts carved into clay tablets and pillars using cuneiform letters"--Provided by publisher.

Best-kept Secrets of Hawaii presents this stunning American state, which sits in splendid isolation in the middle of the Pacific, well over 3,000 km (2,000 miles) from its nearest neighbour, in easily digestible sections, taking you on a trip around the key windward islands of the group - from verdant Kauai ('The Garden Isle'), mountainous Maui ('The Valley Isle') and the big island of Hawaii ('The Orchid Isle'), to sublime O'ahu ('The Gathering Place'),...