Michael Kerrigan
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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001-the worst ever on U.S. soil-highlighted a dangerous vulnerability in America's protection strategies. The big question everyone was asking was how could a country with the world's most formidable armed forces have found itself so defenseless against determined-but relatively poorly equipped-enemies? Formed in direct response to the 2001 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was intended to make sure...
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No nation in history has valued individual freedom more highly than the United States of America. Its people's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the Constitution. But even the most free, democratic society cannot allow its members to do entirely as they want. Every civilization has had its code of values, its system of laws––and each has defended that system by punishing wrongdoers. America has led the world...
3) Chernobyl
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On 26 April 1986, the unthinkable happened near the Ukrainian town of Pripyat: two massive steam explosions ruptured No. 4 Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, immediately killing 30 people and setting off the worst nuclear accident in history. The explosions were followed by an open-air reactor core fire that released huge amounts of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere for the next nine days, spreading across the Soviet Union,...
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Artist, soldier, politician, madman? We know the headlines, we know about the atrocities, but what do we really know of the man at the heart of it all? Hitler looks behind the image of the dictator and explores his childhood, his military service during World War I, his artistic aspirations, the formation of his political and religious views, his troubled love life, his rise to power and his life as dictator. From an ordinary background, Adolf Hitler...
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From around 750BC to 12BC, the Celts were the most powerful people in central and northern Europe. With the expansion of the Roman Empire and the later Christianization of these lands, they were pushed to the fringes of north-western Spain, France and the British Isles. But there the mythology of these peoples held strong.
The tales from Celtic myth were noted down and also absorbed into other cultures. From Roman and Christian scribes we know of...
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From monarchy to the world's first socialist state, from Communism to Capitalism, from mass poverty to Europe's new super rich, Russia has seen immense revolutions in just the past century, including purges, poisonings, famines, assassinations and massacres. In that time, it has also endured civil war, world war and the Cold War. But the extremes of Russian history are not restricted to the past 100 years. When Napoleon invaded in 1812, the Russians...
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Five of the first eleven emperors of Rome were assassinated and another two killed themselves rather than face the fury of their subjects. Nero sang while Rome burned. Caligula proclaimed himself a god. If not mad enough already, he also gave one of his horses a place on the senate. Rome rejoiced when many emperors died, only to find that they hated the next one just as much. From the death of Julius Caesar in 44BC to the fall of Rome in 476AD, Dark...
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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...
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Crime drains our society of billions of dollars every year and takes an appalling toll in terms of death and fear. Eliminating crime entirely is not possible, but prevention is. Police officers bravely patrol our cities and towns to keep us safe. But they cannot do it alone. There are many things we can do to help protect ourselves against crime. Under the expert guidance of police forces, ordinary citizens throughout the United States have come together...
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The Templars, the Knights Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights – the chivalric orders founded during the Crusades evoke romantic images of warrior monks who were fierce but spiritual, chaste and pious yet battle-ready. But what were they really like? How did their organisations form, rise and decline? And how much of what we think about them is myth? The Knights Templar tells the stories of the major and minor military orders from the 11th century...
11) Dark History of the Catholic Church: Schisms, wars, inquisitions, witch hunts, scandals, corruption
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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...
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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,...
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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,...
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'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...
15) The War on Drugs
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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...
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Of all the threats to peace and democracy in the world today, few are more disturbing than that of biological or chemical warfare. These weapons are cheap to make and easy to use, which has made them the ideal choice for a new and sinister breed of terrorists. Protecting against Biological and Chemical Attack is a fascinating introduction to the main types of biological and chemical weapons, including their history, applications, and limitations....
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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,...