New Book Release: Disinformation and You

Disinformation and You: Identify Propaganda and Manipulation by Marie D. Jones

They provoke you with anger because fear-filled people are easier to manipulate. The tricks, tools and tactics used to influence you and your loved ones―along with the history of propaganda―explained and explored.

We live in an age of disinformation, misinformation, and outright lies. The modern world blasts us with information, talking points, spin, advertising, and attempts to persuade. But what are we to believe and whom should we trust?

Examining the history of propaganda and disinformation in war, politics, polling, media, entertainment, cults, advertising, science, medicine, today’s media landscape, and even in our personal interactions, Disinformation and You: Identify Propaganda and Manipulation helps you spot and counter the seductive and deceptive tactics to influence individual behavior. It provides helpful suggestions and tips for identifying disinformation and fighting back against manipulation and censorship.

Engaging and useful, this book’s helpful topics include …

the money behind politics and the media

predictive programming as a form of social engineering

advertising sales tactics

how things go viral

the power of memes and hashtags to push a story or idea

censorship in the media and on social media networks

sponsored news, fake news, and the mainstream media

cult mentality and groupthink

disinformation campaigns and false flags

how conspiracy theories work

how to identify fake news and propaganda

Disinformation and You shows you the tricks used to influence your behavior. So, get on the bandwagon with the rest of us decent folk and stop listening to fools. After all, two out of three people have seen their IQ scores rise by buying this book! Really, buy this book and be smarter (in recognizing propaganda, that is). With many photos, illustrations, and other graphics, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Serial Killers

Serial Killers: The Minds, Methods, and Mayhem of History's Most Notorious Murderers by Richard Estep

Pain, torment, and torture. Cruelty, brutality, and violence. The twisted psyches, murder. and yes, even the ability to charm people. Take a deep dive into the terrifyingly real serial murderers, spree killers, and true faces of evil!

They prey on the innocent with a malicious desire to inflict damage and harm. They hunt and stalk misfortunate victims in the dark, in broad daylight, in quiet neighborhoods, and in the local woods. Their bloodthirst isn't satisfied after their first kill. Or their second. Or third. Serial Killers: The Minds, Methods, and Mayhem of History's Most Notorious Murderers delves into the global phenomenon of serial and spree murderers.

This chilling book looks at the horrifying stories of forty malevolent killers and hundreds of innocent victims, including such notorious homicidal maniacs as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Jeffery Dahmer, but it also looks at lesser-known and overlooked murderers like Herbert Baumeister, America’s I-70 Strangler; Japan’s “Anime Killer,” Tsutomu Miyazaki; Russia’s “Rostov Ripper,” Andrei Chikatilo; the “Giggling Granny,” Nannie Doss; and many more. It journeys to 16th-century Scotland to meet a clan of cannibals whose existence is still debated by historians today, and to the fog-shrouded alleys of Whitechapel, London, where Jack the Ripper earned his grisly namesake. Along the way, we’ll meet the Dating Game Killer, the Milwaukee Cannibal, the Acid Bath Murderer, and other monsters.

Serial Killers also asks the questions …

What makes a seemingly ordinary person stalk, torture, and murder their fellow human beings?

Are serial killers born or made?

What is the difference between a serial killer and a spree killer?

What were the identities of Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer?

Was Albert DeSalvo really the Boston Strangler?

Is it possible that you could know a serial killer?

Caution is advised before entering the alarming world of twisted psychos and sociopaths! With more than 120 photos and graphics, this fright-filled tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Censoring God

Censoring God: The History of the Lost Books (and other Excluded Scriptures) by Jim Willis

Why isn't the Book of Enoch in the Holy Bible, even though Enoch is referenced multiple times? Why were texts considered sacred by many, excluded by others? Who made the decisions and why? Ordained minister and theologian Jim Willis examines the historical, political, and social climates that influenced the redactors and editors of the Bible and other sacred texts in Censoring God: The History of the Lost Books (and other Excluded Scriptures). He takes a close look at the importance of the Book of Enoch, it's disappearance, and how it was recently rediscovered in Ethiopia. He also analyzes over two dozen excluded texts and the many references to books that we know about from fragments but remain lost. We are often taught that the Bible is, in the words of many religious catechisms, 'the infallible word of faith and practice.' In reality, the Bible is as much a political document as a spiritual one. In analyzing why texts were censored, Willis uncovers sometimes surprising biases of the committees and people who made the final decisions. He also investigates enigmatic hints of Bible codes and ancient wisdom that implies a greater spiritual force might have been at work than even the original editors. Thought-provoking and provocative, Censoring God explores how sacred texts were used as a weapon against science and justified the destruction of sacred writings of conquered indigenous cultures because they did not agree with the finished version of the Bible accepted by the European establishment. This important book looks at the human frailties of interpreting God's words, and through examination it brings a deeper understanding of the power and importance of those words. With more than 100 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography provides sources for further exploration, and an extensive index adds to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Rationalism vs. Mysticism

Rationalism vs. Mysticism: Schisms in Traditional Judaism by R. Natan Sliflin

KNOWLEDGE Do we obtain reliable knowledge about the world from ongoing supernatural revelation, or from scientific investigation? NATURE Is it preferable to perceive God as working through nature, or through supernatural miracles? Are we surrounded by all kinds of supernatural forces and entities, such as demons and the Evil Eye? MITZVOT Do the commandments function to change our thoughts and behavior, or to manipulate mystical forces? Is Torah a Divine guide for life, or is it also a metaphysical blueprint for creation with all kinds of supernatural qualities? Rationalism vs. Mysticism is a thorough study of how these questions were answered very differently by various rabbinic scholars over history, reflecting two fundamentally different views of the nature of Judaism. Part One is an overview of many different aspects of these divergent schools of thought and their consequences, while Part Two contains in-depth studies of several topics. Rationalism vs. Mysticism will profoundly deepen your understanding of Judaism and many of the intellectual conflicts that have arisen in Jewish history.

New Book Release: Black Firsts

Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events by Jessie Carney Smith

A celebration of achievement, accomplishments, and pride!

The first African American president, U.S. senator, and the first black lawyer in the Department of Education. The first black chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first African American commissioned officer in the Marine Corps. The first black professors in a variety of fields. The first African American advertising agency. The first African American Olympian. The first black pilot for a scheduled commercial airline. The first recorded slave revolt in North America. The first African American cookbook writer.

Revel and rejoice in the renowned and lesser-known, barrier-breaking trailblazers in all fields―arts, entertainment, business, civil rights, education, government, invention, journalism, religion, science, sports, music, and more. Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events, Fourth Edition bears witness to the long and complex history of African Americans!

Expanded, updated, and revised for the first time in over eight years, Black Firsts collects more than 500 all-new achievements and previously unearthed firsts. This massive tome proves that African American accomplishments are wide-ranging and ongoing, documenting thousands of personal victories and triumphs.

Who was the first black American depicted on a postage stamp? (1940 Booker Taliaferro Washington)

Who was the first African American bookseller? (1834 David Ruggles, New York City)

Where was the first black car dealership? (1941 Edward Davis, Detroit, Studebaker)

When was the first black-owned company listed on a major stock exchange? (1971 Johnson Products)

Who was the first black U.S. senator? (1870 Hiram Rhoades [Rhodes] Revels, Mississippi)

Who was the African American columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary? (1989 Clarence Page)

Who was the U.S. Supreme Court’s first black justice? (1967 Thurgood Marshall)

Who first broke the color barrier to become a flight attendant? (1958 Ruth Carol Taylor)

Who became the first black to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point? (1877 Henry Ossian Flipper)

Which model was the first black to grace Sports Illustrated cover? (1997 Tyra Banks)

Who became the American Medical Association’s first black president? (1995 Lonnie Bristow)

What is the oldest surviving black church in America? (The African Meeting House, built in 1806 and known as the Joy Street Baptist Church, in Boston)

Who became the first black pitcher to win a World Series game? (1952 Rookie of the Year, Joe Black, of the Brooklyn Dodgers)

Who was the first regularly recognized black physician in the United States? (1780s James Durham [Derham])

Who was the first black actress to receive an Emmy Award? (1969 Gail Fisher)

Who became the first black professional football player? (1904 Charles W. Follis)

What was first short story published by a black woman in the United States? (1859 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s “The Two Offers”)

Who was the black explorer who joined the Lewis and Clark expedition? (York)

Who was the first black lawyer to argue a case before the Supreme Court? (1880 Samuel R. Lowery)

Which two songs by black Americans were the first to be send out of the solar system? (1977 Chuck Berry’s song “Johnny B. Goode” and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” on Voyager I)

What famous inventor and agronomist has a national monument named after him in Diamond, Missouri? (1960 George Washington Carver)

What movie featured the first black female lead in a Disney animated feature? (2009 “The Princess and the Frog” starred Anika Noni Rose)

Who was the first black American to win a gold medal in the women’s all-around final competition.? (2012 Gabrielle “Gabby” Christina Victoria Douglas)

Who were the Tuskegee Airmen and why are they so famous? (1941 The U.S. Congress established the first combat unit for blacks in the Army Air Corps with a training facility for black airmen, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, located at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama)

Who participated in the first armed encounter of the American Revolution and later became the first black to receive an honorary master's degree? (Lemuel Haynes)

Who was the author of a book of poetry that won the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a black American? (1950 Gwendolyn Brooks for “Annie Allen”)

What was the first black record company? (Pace Phonograph Company established 1921 by Henry Pace)

Who was the black hero who sacrificed himself at the Boston Massacre, an event that would help inspire the American Revolution? (1770 Crispus Attucks)

Who was the first black entertainer to host his own talk show on national television? (1989 Arsenio Hall)

Who was the first African American to lead the NASA space program? (2009 Charles Frank Bolden Jr.)

Who was the first black American to win the Nobel Peace Prize? (1944 Ralph Johnson Bunche)

Who was the first black American athlete to win an Olympic gold medal? (1908 John Baxter “Doc” Taylor Jr. winner of the 4 X 400-meter relay in London)

Which inventor had the first patent granted an African American? (1872 Elijah McCoy)

Who was the first African American to win a Grammy Award? (1959 Count [William] Basie)

Who is thought to be the United States’ first black millionaire? (1890 Thomy Lafon, New Orleans real estate speculator and moneylender)

Who was the first black named Association of College and Research Librarian of the Year? (1985 Jessie Carney Smith)

Which black first sang a principal role with the Metropolitan Opera? (1955 Marian Anderson)

When was the first black judge appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals? (1966 Spottswood Robinson)

Which black artist was the first to be featured in a solo exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art? (1937 William Edmondson)

When was the first black mayor of Dallas elected? (1995 Ron Kirk)

Who was the first elected black chairman of Republican National Convention? (1884 John Roy Lynch)

Who was the first known black to graduate from an American college? (1823 Alexander Lucius Twilight received a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont)

With more than 350 photos and illustrations, this information-rich book also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. This vital collection will appeal to anyone interested in America’s amazing history and resilient people.

New Book Release: Maimonides the Universalist

Maimonides the Universalist: The Ethical Horizons of the Mishneh Torah by Menachem Kellner and David Gillis

Maimonides ends each book of his legal code the Mishneh torah with a moral or philosophical reflection, in which he lifts his eyes, as it were, from purely halakhic concerns and surveys broader horizons. Menachem Kellner and David Gillis analyze these concluding paragraphs, examining their verbal and thematic echoes, their adaptation of rabbinic sources, and the way in which they coordinate with the Mishneh torah's underlying structures, in order to understand how they might influence our interpretation of the code as a whole - and indeed our view of Maimonides himself and his philosophy.

Taking this unusual cross-section of the work, Kellner and Gillis conclude that the Mishneh torah presents not only a system of law, but also a system of universal values. They show how Maimonides fashions Jewish law and ritual as a program for attaining ethical and intellectual ends that are accessible to all human beings, who are created equally in the image of God.

Many reject the presentation of Maimonides as a universalist. The Mishneh torah especially is widely seen as a particularist sanctuary. This study shows how profoundly that view must be revised.

New Book Release: Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses

Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 by Heather E. Quinlan

It can come in waves―like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives.

Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts. Most, but not all, bacteria are good for us. Some are truly horrific, including those that caused the bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic plagues. And viruses and bacteria are always morphing, evolving, and changing, making them hard to treat. Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 is an enlightening, and sometimes frightening, recounting of the destruction wrought by disease, but it also looks at what man has done and can do to overcome even the deadliest and bleakest of contagions.

More than two years in the making, author Heather E. Quinlan was deep into her research and writing when COVID hit. She quickly saw the similarities to plagues from the past. Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to Covid 19 not only covers the history, causes, medical treatments, human responses, and aftermath of the world’s biggest pandemics, but it also draws parallels to the present. It chronicles the diseases that have inflicted man throughout the millennia, including …

The differences (and similarities) between COVID-19 and other coronaviruses

The bubonic plague/black plague, which wiped out 30% to 60% of Europe’s population

The devastation to the indigenous population during the European colonization of the Americas

The 1918 Spanish Flu, which did not come from Spain

How disease “inspired” The Canterbury Tales, Wuthering Heights, the pop art of Keith Haring, and other art and literature

AIDS’ “patient zero”

How climate change will affect future pandemics

The aftermath of various pandemics

Several modern diseases making a comeback

… and much, much more.

Along with investigating some of history’s most notorious pandemics and diseases, Plagues, Pandemics, and Viruses takes a look at human resilience and what we’ve learned from the past. It looks at how science, the medical community, and governments have conquered or mitigated most epidemics even before they can turn into pandemics. It reviews the science of pandemics, preventative measures, and medical interventions and it includes an exclusive interview with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as other experts in the medical community. Richly illustrated, it also has a helpful bibliography and extensive index. This invaluable resource is designed to help you understand, and protect you from, plagues, pandemics, epidemics, viruses, and disease!