Download or read book Flawed Genius written by Stephen McGowan and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Rangers manager Walter Smith once put it, Scottish football supporters have always liked their footballing superstars to come complete with very human flaws. But what is it that makes the seriously flawed footballer so intriguing? From Hugh Gallacher, the Wembley Wizard who died of shame, to George Best, Hibernian's ageing lothario, to the Three Amigos - Celtic's trio of wayward overseas mercenaries - the great entertainers have always come with baggage. Never before have the individual stories of these mavericks of Scottish football's past been collated and told in one place. Flawed Genius does just that. Through the words of the men themselves - allied to testimonies from friends and close colleagues - McGowan recounts the in-depth stories of Gascoigne and Goram, Best and Baxter, Charnley and Cadette and the equally wayward figures of Paolo Di Canio, Andy Ritchie, Pierre van Hooijdonk and Willie Hamilton. Here, together for the first time, the colourful contributions of each and every player in the Scottish game's rich tapestry of flawed geniuses are brought vividly back to life.

Download or read book Billy Martin written by Bill Pennington and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2015 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an award-winning New York Times sports columnist, the definitive biography of one of baseball's most celebrated, mercurial, and misunderstood figures--legendary manager and baseball genius, Billy Martin

Download or read book The Flawed Genius of William Playfair written by David R. Bellhouse and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2023-07-26 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A product of the Scottish Enlightenment, William Playfair (1759–1823) worked as a statistician, economist, engineer, banker, land speculator, scam artist, and political propagandist. It has been claimed – erroneously – that Playfair was a spy for the British government and ran a forging operation to print the paper money of the French Revolution. The Flawed Genius of William Playfair offers a complete account of Playfair’s life, richly contextualized in the economic, political, and cultural history of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The book explores the many peaks and troughs of Playfair’s career, ranging from moderate prosperity to bankruptcy and imprisonment. Through careful analysis, David R. Bellhouse shows that Playfair was neither a spy nor a forger, but perhaps briefly a one-time courier for a government minister. Bellhouse pieces together as complete a picture as possible of the forging operations supported by the British government and illuminates Playfair’s lasting contributions in economics and statistics, where he is known as the father of statistical graphics. Disputing the misinformation about the man, The Flawed Genius of William Playfair highlights that the truth about Playfair’s life is often more intriguing than the fictions that surround him.

Download or read book MacArthur s War written by Bevin Alexander and published by Berkley. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Douglas MacArthur famously said there is no substitute for victory . . . As a United States general, he had an unparalleled genius for military strategy, and it was under his leadership that Japan was rebuilt into a democratic ally after World War II. But MacArthur carried out his zero-sum philosophy both on and off the battlefield. During the Korean War, in defiance of President Harry S. Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he pushed for an aggressive confrontation with Communist China - a position intended to provoke a wider war, regardless of the cost or consequences. MacArthur's ambition to stamp out Communism across the globe was in direct opposition to President Truman, who was much more concerned with containing the Soviet Union than confronting Red China. The infamous clash between the two leaders was not only an epic turning point in history, but the ultimate struggle between civil and military power in the United States. While other U.S. generals have challenged presidential authority - from Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War and George B. McClellan in the Civil War to General Stanley A. McChrystal in Afghanistan - no other military leader has ever so brazenly attempted to dictate national policy. In MacArthur's War, Bevin Alexander details MacArthur's military and political battles, from the alliances he made with Republican leaders to the threatening ultimatum he delivered to China against orders - the action that directly led to his dismissal on April 11, 1951. 'Bevin Alexander's MacArthur's Waris a superbly written, blow-by-blow account of the most controversial civil-military clash in American history. His riveting narrative pulls no punches as it reveals how the feisty U.S. president confronted America's most revered military hero against the backdrop of brutal Korean War combat.' Colonel Jerry D. Morelock, PhD, U.S. Army (Ret.), and editor in chief of Armchair General 'When President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of all his military commands at the height of the Korean War, it was a seminal moment in American history . . . Bevin Alexander's hard-hitting narrative captures in vivid detail the elements of that contest, as well as the chain of significant events that produced it . . . MacArthur's Waris a valuable account of a chapter in the Cold War that we must never forget.' Harry J. Middleton, founding director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library at the University of Texas, and author of LBJ- The White House Years 'Bevin Alexander has written a stirring and insightful account of General Douglas MacArthur's controversial role in the Korean War that culminated . . . Carlo D'Este, author of Patton- A Genius for War 'The last sentence of the introduction of MacArthur's War provides author Bevin Alexander's contention that 'Truman, in his quiet and unassuming way, saved the United States of America.' Thereafter the chapters build a very interesting account of Douglas MacArthur's initial brilliant Inchon assault, his strategy and tactics that led to rapid advances before his concepts for capturing and freeing North Korea collapsed in defeat, and finally his resort to political confrontation with the president. How and why he lost, tarnished his reputation, and justified the sweeping observation of Truman's impact is a fascinating, factual, and well-documented study. It is blunt, harsh, and critical of MacArthur's last year of service, more tolerant and understanding of Truman, but overall, a fair portrayal of history.' Generl Frederick J. Kroesen, former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army and commander in chief, U.S. Army Europe Includes Photographs

Download or read book Einstein s Greatest Mistake written by David Bodanis and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-09-29 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely considered the greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos with his general theory of relativity and helped to lead us into the atomic age. Yet in the final decades of his life he was also ignored by most working scientists, his ideas opposed by even his closest friends. This stunning downfall can be traced to Einstein's earliest successes and to personal qualities that were at first his best assets. Einstein's imagination and self-confidence served him well as he sought to reveal the universe's structure, but when it came to newer revelations in the field of quantum mechanics, these same traits undermined his quest for the ultimate truth. David Bodanis traces the arc of Einstein's intellectual development across his professional and personal life, showing how Einstein's confidence in his own powers of intuition proved to be both his greatest strength and his ultimate undoing. He was a fallible genius. An intimate and enlightening biography of the celebrated physicist, Einstein's Greatest Mistake reveals how much we owe Einstein today - and how much more he might have achieved if not for his all-too-human flaws.

Download or read book First Transplant Surgeon The The Flawed Genius Of Nobel Prize Winner Alexis Carrel written by David Hamilton and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2016-09-14 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a new account, of how, in the early 1900s, the French-born surgeon Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) set the groundwork for the later success in human organ transplantation, and gained America's first Nobel Prize in 1912. His other contributions were the first operations on the heart, and the first cell culture methods. He was prominent in military surgery in WW1, and in the 1930s, gained further fame when collaborating with the aviator Charles Lindbergh on an organ perfusion pump.But controversy followed his every move, including concerns over scientific misconduct, notably his claim to have obtained 'immortal' heart cells, now shown to be fraudulent. In 1934, he authored a best-selling book Man, the Unknown based on his strongly-held conservative, spiritual, political and eugenic views, adding a belief in faith healing and parapsychology. He settled in Paris in WW2 under the German occupation, believing that the conditions would allow him to refashion the degenerate Western civilization. His extremist views re-emerged in the 1990s when they proved interesting to right-wing politicians, and in a bizarre twist, jihadist Islamists now laud his criticisms of the West.

Download or read book A Flawed Genius written by Marcel Stein and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walter Model ranks among the foremost commanders of the German Wehrmacht during WWII. This book describes the stages of his career, beginning with his youth and ending with his suicide on April 21, 1945, when he finally woke up to his errors, dissolved his Army Group in the Ruhr Pocket and told his soldiers that they were free to go home.

Download or read book The German Genius written by Peter Watson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-16 with total page 846 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the end of the Baroque age and the death of Bach in 1750 to the rise of Hitler in 1933, Germany was transformed from a poor relation among western nations into a dominant intellectual and cultural force more influential than France, Britain, Italy, Holland, and the United States. In the early decades of the 20th century, German artists, writers, philosophers, scientists, and engineers were leading their freshly-unified country to new and undreamed of heights, and by 1933, they had won more Nobel prizes than anyone else and more than the British and Americans combined. But this genius was cut down in its prime with the rise and subsequent fall of Adolf Hitler and his fascist Third Reich-a legacy of evil that has overshadowed the nation's contributions ever since. Yet how did the Germans achieve their pre-eminence beginning in the mid-18th century? In this fascinating cultural history, Peter Watson goes back through time to explore the origins of the German genius, how it flourished and shaped our lives, and, most importantly, to reveal how it continues to shape our world. As he convincingly demonstarates, while we may hold other European cultures in higher esteem, it was German thinking-from Bach to Nietzsche to Freud-that actually shaped modern America and Britain in ways that resonate today.

Download or read book Shane Warne written by Simon Wilde and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shane Warne was the most glamorous and, arguably the best cricketer in the world for over ten years. He won a generation of followers by showing the fun to be had in bamboozling opponents. From the so-called 'ball of the century' that bowled Mike Gatting in 1993, to his single-handed defiance against England in the 2005 Ashes series and his key role in the 2006/7 whitewash. He is an enigma, a showman and a genius, but he is also a very human character with human frailties. Warne loves the limelight, but the limelight has also burned him. He's been in trouble over drugs, extra-marital affairs, and taking money from dodgy bookmakers, all of which have soured relations with his family and with his homeland. Ironically he is perhaps more loved by cricket fans in England than in his native Australia. This fascinating and well-researched biography draws on interviews with Warne and many of his teammates and opponents. On the heels of Warne's retirement from Test cricket with a record 706 victims to his name, this unique retrospective tells, for the first time, the whole story behind cricket's most flawed genius.

Download or read book When Genius Failed written by Roger Lowenstein and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2001-10-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting account that reaches beyond the market landscape to say something universal about risk and triumph, about hubris and failure.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUSINESSWEEK In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall. When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself. The dramatic story of Long-Term’s fall is now a chilling harbinger of the crisis that would strike all of Wall Street, from Lehman Brothers to AIG, a decade later. In his new Afterword, Lowenstein shows that LTCM’s implosion should be seen not as a one-off drama but as a template for market meltdowns in an age of instability—and as a wake-up call that Wall Street and government alike tragically ignored. Praise for When Genius Failed “[Roger] Lowenstein has written a squalid and fascinating tale of world-class greed and, above all, hubris.”—BusinessWeek “Compelling . . . The fund was long cloaked in secrecy, making the story of its rise . . . and its ultimate destruction that much more fascinating.”—The Washington Post “Story-telling journalism at its best.”—The Economist

Download or read book Genius written by Hans Jurgen Eysenck and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents a theory of genius and creativity, based on the personality characteristics of creative persons and geniuses. It uses modern research into the causes of cognitive over-inclusiveness to suggest possible applications of these theories to c

Download or read book The Genius written by Eliyahu Stern and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIV Elijah ben Solomon, the "Genius of Vilna,” was perhaps the best-known and most understudied figure in modern Jewish history. This book offers a new narrative of Jewish modernity based on Elijah's life and influence. While the experience of Jews in modernity has often been described as a process of Western European secularization—with Jews becoming citizens of Western nation-states, congregants of reformed synagogues, and assimilated members of society—Stern uses Elijah’s story to highlight a different theory of modernization for European life. Religious movements such as Hasidism and anti-secular institutions such as the yeshiva emerged from the same democratization of knowledge and privatization of religion that gave rise to secular and universal movements and institutions. Claimed by traditionalists, enlighteners, Zionists, and the Orthodox, Elijah’s genius and its afterlife capture an all-embracing interpretation of the modern Jewish experience. Through the story of the “Vilna Gaon,” Stern presents a new model for understanding modern Jewish history and more generally the place of traditionalism and religious radicalism in modern Western life and thought. /div

Download or read book Freelance Heroics written by Stephen Gee and published by . This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life as a freelancer is hard. Doubly so when your job is kicking ass, taking names, and saving innocent lives from horrifying monsters. It's been a month since Mazik, Gavi, and Raedren-disaffected wage slaves turned magick-slinging adventurers-put a stop to the Cult of Amougourest and saved the city of Houk. You would think slaying a living god would be enough to make their new careers easy, with accolades all around and quests coming in without end. You would, of course, be wrong. The guilds are rejecting them. Quest givers won't listen to them. Their newfound fame is soon forgotten. If they're going to get their careers off the ground, they're going to have to work hard-and there are no big, flashy quests to help them this time. From a high-stakes tournament and an orck invasion to a worker's revolt and a mystery in a hidden village, follow these three friends as they travel across the continent, saving lives, vanquishing villains, and building their professional reputations. Not all adventures are glamorous, but it's the small jobs upon which a freelancing life is built. FREELANCE HEROICS is the sequel to WAGE SLAVE REBELLION, and Book 2 in the exciting FIRESIGN series. It's medieval sword & sorcery meets urban high fantasy, in a series of adventures about making your own way in the world, never giving up, and searching for true love as only a hopeless romantic can. WHO SHOULDN'T READ THIS BOOK: Anyone who doesn't enjoy stories with drinking, cussing, fighting, or killing likely won't enjoy this book. The main characters are adults, and they live in a dangerous world; they act accordingly. Anyone who prefers their books serious or grimdark may be disappointed. This book has adult themes and situations, but above all else it's intended to be fun. If that doesn't sound like something you would enjoy, this book may not be for you. WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: Anyone looking for an action-packed, fun-filled fantasy adventure. If you enjoy friendly banter, thrilling heroics, and tons of explosions, this book is for you. If you like stories with a certain lightness of tone which eschew angst in favor of punching problems in the face, this book is definitely for you. And if you like big, exciting fantasy series with rising stakes and beloved characters you can revisit time and time again, make sure you've read WAGE SLAVE REBELLION and then dive right in. Want behind-the-scenes info, sneak peeks, and to be the first to learn about sequel announcements? Sign up for the author's email list at www.stephenwgee.com. You'll get a free prequel short story when you sign up.

Download or read book Sudden Genius written by Andrew Robinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-16 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genius and breakthroughs appear to involve something magical. Andrew Robinson looks at what science does, and does not, know about exceptional creativity, and applied it to the stories of ten breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, including Curie's discovery of radium and Mozart's composing of The Marriage of Figaro.

Download or read book I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President written by Josh Lieb and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Family Guy meets Election in this hilarious young adult debut! Twelve-year-old Oliver Watson’s got the IQ of a grilled cheese sandwich. Or so everyone in Omaha thinks. In reality, Oliver’s a mad evil genius on his way to world domination, and he’s used his great brain to make himself the third-richest person on earth! Then Oliver’s father—and archnemesis—makes a crack about the upcoming middle school election, and Oliver takes it as a personal challenge. He’ll run, and he’ll win! Turns out, though, that overthrowing foreign dictators is actually way easier than getting kids to like you. . . Can this evil genius win the class presidency and keep his true identity a secret, all in time to impress his dad?

Download or read book Not Quite a Genius written by Nate Dern and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Highly recommended reading for those hungry for surprise” (A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author)—a rollicking collection of personal stories and essays on relationships, technology, and contemporary society from the news editor at Funny or Die and former artistic director at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. This hilarious collection of essays spans a wide variety of topics. There’s the open letter to Charles Manson, a brave archeologist’s journey into a suburban man cave, and a long overdue, sternly worded letter from Leif Erikson to Christopher Columbus. Walt Whitman even teaches a spin class. Nate Dern’s razor-sharp eye examines modern society and technology, man buns, dating apps, and juicing crazes. Anyone who’s ever scrunched their eyes at WiFi Terms & Conditions, listened to the reasons that led a vegetarian to give up meat, or looked on in horror at the evolving audacity of reality TV will appreciate Dern’s wicked and funny take on modern life. Not Quite a Genius is fun, and funny, “a breath of fresh air that you can eat up bit by bit or all at once” (Abbi Jacobson, cocreator and star of Broad City).

Download or read book Darwin written by Paul Johnson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eminent historian Paul Johnson provides a rich, succinct portrait of Charles Darwin Charles Darwin is arguably the most influential scientist of all time. His Origin of Species forever changed our concept of the world’s creation. Darwin’s revolutionary career is the perfect vehicle for historian Paul Johnson. Marked by the insightful observation, spectacular wit, and highly readable prose for which Johnson is so well regarded, Darwin brings the gentleman-scientist and his times brilliantly into focus. From Darwin’s birth into great fortune to his voyage aboard the Beagle, to the long-delayed publication of his masterpiece, Johnson delves into what made this Victorian gentleman into a visionary scientist—and into the tragic flaws that later led Darwin to support the burgeoning eugenics movement. Johnson’s many admirers as well as history and science buffs will be grateful for this superb account of Darwin and the everlasting impact of his discoveries.