MARK HERTSGAARD

Whistleblowers pay with their lives to save ours. When insiders like former NSA analyst Edward Snowden or ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley or Big Tobacco truth-teller Jeffrey Wigand blow the whistle on high-level lying, lawbreaking or other wrongdoingwhether its government spying, corporate murder or scientific scandalthe public benefits enormously. Wars are ended, deadly products are taken off the market, white-collar criminals are sent to jail. The whistleblowers themselves, however, generally end up ruined. Nearly all of them lose their jobsand in many cases their marriages and their healthas they refuse to back down in the face of increasingly ferocious official retaliation. That moral stubbornness despite terrible personal cost is the defining DNA of whistleblowers. The public owes them more than we know. In Bravehearts, Hertsgaard tells the gripping, sometimes darkly comic and ultimately inspiring stories of the unsung heroes of our time. A deeply reported, impassioned polemic, Bravehearts is a book for citizens everywhereespecially students, teachers, activists and anyone who wants to make a difference in the world around them.

Los estadounidenses apenas pensaban en el mundo exterior. La nación más poderosa de la historia podía hacer lo que le viniera en gana. Los americanos aprendieron, pagando un doloroso precio, que su relacion con otros paises es importante y que incide directamente en su seguridad nacional. El dia en que se dejo sentir el impacto del terror, el 11 de septiembre de 2001, el autor, Mark Hertsgaard, estaba realizando un viaje alrededor del mundo en el que recogia la percepcion que tenian de Estados Unidos personas de quince paises. Ya fueran sofisticados directivos de empresa, adolescentes soñadores o integristas islamicos, sus entrevistados sentian tanto admiracion como incomodidad ante Estados Unidos; se sentian, a un tiempo, encantados y desconcertados; les invadia la consternacion y la envidia por igual.

The moving story of a New Orleans woman who fought for justice and her community even amidst one of the citys darkest moments.Mark Hertsgaard and Deborah Cotton were strangers to one another, united only by a love of jazz and New Orleans distinctive Second Line tradition. And then, during a Mothers Day parade, they were thrown together when two gunmen fired into the crowd Deborah Cottonknown to all as Big Redwas among the most grievously injured. She is the driving force of this deeply reported parable of two of Americas most deeply rooted issues. A racial justice activist in her forties who was born to a Black father and a white mother, Cotton was one of twenty peopleincluding the authorshot in the biggest mass shooting in the modern history of New Orleans. Once one of the largest slave ports, the city has long been a vortex of violence and racism. From her apparent deathbed, Big Red shocked observers by urging mercy for two young Black men accused of the attack. Racism can kill Black people even when a Black finger pulls the trigger, she tells Hertsgaard, who, she later said, is called to investigate what actually happened, and why. Charismatic, complicated, and struck down in her prime, Big Red and her heroic life will captivate readers. In the wake of the shooting, she never stopped fighting as she sought to get to the core of this uniquely American maelstrom. Big Reds Mercy is an illuminating narrative that provides a human and unflinching look at modern America.

Durante más de tres décadas, los secretos detrás de la evolución artística de uno de los grupos musicales de mayor talento de este siglo estuvieron sellados tras las puertas de los archivos musicales del estudio londinense de Abbey Road. Mark Hertsgaard, el unico periodista que ha tenido acceso a esos valiosos archivos, ofrece en este libro una vision nueva de la musica y el arte de los Beatles, y revela como estos cuatro chicos supieron fusionar su genio en una sola fuerza creativa y transformar asi el panorama musical para siempre. Este libro introduce a los lectores dentro del mismisimo proceso creativo de los Beatles y muestra como su audaz habilidad para reinventarse a si mismos imprimio a cada uno de sus albumes un caracter unico. Pero tambien explica la historia detras de la musica. Mucho se ha dicho sobre los Beatles; sobre los motivos de su separacion, la influencia de las drogas en su musica y el papel del productor George Martin. Herstgaard separa rigurosamente los hechos de la ficcion para ofrecer un retrato lucido y preciso de las influencias personales y profesionales que conformaron la musica de los Beatles. Encuadernacion: Rustica con solapas.

Like many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in Earth Odyssey, he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it.From the gilded boardrooms of Paris to the traffic-clogged streets of Bangkok, we travel from the deep human past to our still unfolding future. Much of the story revolves around people like Zhenbing, Hertsgaards charismatic interpreter in China, whose desire to escape poverty leaves him indifferent to his countrys horrific air and water pollution. We also meet Garang, a proud Dinka tribesman whose response to Sudans famine shows the difficulty of building an environmentally sustainable future without bridging the gap between rich and poor. Drawing on interviews with Vaclav Havel, Al Gore, Jacques Cousteau, and numerous other prominent figures, Hertsgaard offers fresh insight into such complex issues as humanitys growing addiction to the automobile, the insidious spread of nuclear technology, and the inevitable tension between unfettered capitalism and the health of the biosphere.Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one mans journey around the world in search of the answer to the most important question of our time: Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.