Michael Hirsh

An inside look at the Air Force's pararescue operations in Afghanistan chronicles the exploits of the 71st Rescue Squadron as the PJs rescue the crew of a crashed plane from a site 10,000 feet in the Hindu Kush mountains, make a nighttime parachute jump into the heart of an Afghan minefield, and take part in Operation Anaconda. Reprint.

U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen in the War on Terrorism

None Braver

America's witnesses to the Holocaust

The liberators

At last, the everyday fighting men who were the first Americans to know the full and horrifying truth about the Holocaust share their astonishing stories. Rich with powerful never-before-published details from the author’s interviews with more than 150 U.S. soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camps, The Liberators is an essential addition to the literature of World War II—and a stirring testament to Allied courage in the face of inconceivable atrocities. Taking us from the beginnings of the liberators’ final march across Germany to V-E Day and beyond, Michael Hirsh allows us to walk in their footsteps, experiencing the journey as they themselves experienced it. But this book is more than just an in-depth account of the liberation. It reveals how profoundly these young men were affected by what they saw—the unbelievable horror and pathos they felt upon seeing “stacks of bodies like cordwood” and “skeletonlike survivors” in camp after camp. That life-altering experience has stayed with them to this very day. It’s been well over half a century since the end of World War II, and they still haven’t forgotten what the camps looked like, how they smelled, what the inmates looked like, and how it made them feel. Many of the liberators suffer from what’s now called post-traumatic stress disorder and still experience Holocaust-related nightmares. Here we meet the brave souls who—now in their eighties and nineties—have chosen at last to share their stories. Corporal Forrest Robinson saw masses of dead bodies at Nordhausen and was so horrified that he lost his memory for the next two weeks. Melvin Waters, a 4-F volunteer civilian ambulance driver, recalls that a woman at Bergen-Belsen “fought us like a cat because she thought we were taking her to the crematory.” Private Don Timmer used his high school German to interpret for General Dwight Eisenhower during the supreme Allied commander’s visit to Ohrdruf, the first camp liberated by the Americans. And Phyllis Lamont Law, an army nurse at Mauthausen-Gusen, recalls the shock and, ultimately, “the hope” that “you can save a few.” From Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany to Mauthausen in Austria, The Liberators offers readers an intense and unforgettable look at the Nazi death machine through the eyes of the men and women who were our country’s witnesses to the Holocaust. The liberators’ recollections are historically important, vivid, riveting, heartbreaking, and, on rare occasions, joyous and uplifting. This book is their opportunity, perhaps for the last time, to tell the world.

America's Witnesses to the Holocaust

The Liberators

Why every president from Reagan through Obama has put Wall Street before Main Street Over the last few decades, Washington’s firmly held belief that if you make investors happy, a booming economy will follow has caused an economic crisis in Asia, hardship in Latin America, and now a severe recession in America and Europe. How did the best and brightest of our time allow this to happen? Why have these disasters done nothing to change the free-market mantra of the Washington faithful? The answer has nothing to do with lobbyists and everything to do with ideology. In Capital Offense, veteran Newsweek reporter Michael Hirsh gives us a colorful narrative history of the era he calls the Age of Capital, telling the story through the eyes of its key players, from Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman through Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner. • Based on the solid research and skilled reporting of Newsweek Senior Editor Michael Hirsh • Takes you inside high-level, closed-door conversations of top White House advisers and administration officials such as Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Paul O’Neill, and others • Illuminates key figures and lively interpersonal clashes, including the conflict between Larry Summers and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz • Offers crucial insights on why President Obama took so long to work on the economy—and why he may not be going far enough • Catalogs the missteps of three decades of fiscal, regulatory, and financial recklessness, including the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act, the S&L debacle, Enron, and the subprime mortgage meltdown As we struggle to emerge from the financial crisis, one thing seems certain: Wall Street’s continued dominance of the global economy. Propelled into the lead by a generation of Washington policy-makers, Wall Street will continue to stay ahead of them.

How Washington's Wise Men Turned America's Future Over to Wall Street

Capital Offense

Michael Schiavo

Terri Schiavo's husband describes his wife's collapse, the years of care for her up to her death, the reasons why he fought for her right to die, and how he felt justified in having two children with another woman while Terri was still alive.

The Truth

Terri

Terry McKnight

Rear Admiral Terry McKnight, USN (Ret.) served as Commander, Counter-Piracy Task Force-Gulf of Aden. He wrote the first draft of the Navy’s handbook on fighting piracy while serving as the initial commander of Combined Task Force 151, an international effort to deploy naval vessels from several nations in a manner designed to prevent piracy in the Gulf of Aden and farther out into the Indian Ocean. McKnight personally commanded operations that disrupted several hijackings in progress, and resulted in the capture of sixteen Somali pirates. That’s when he ran head-on into the bizarre U.S. policy of catch-and-release, and realized that there’s a lot more to fighting piracy than just catching some skinny youngsters armed with AK-47s and RPGs. After his tour in the waters off the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, he retired from the Navy and began seriously researching the subject. As a result, he and his co-author, journalist Michael Hirsh, have put together a very readable book that serves as a comprehensive introductory course on the subject. Pirate Alley includes a behind-the-scenes look at the SEAL Team 6 takedown of the pirates who had kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama. It also reveals what a young Ph.D. candidate from Duke University found during three months on the ground in Somali pirate villages. Pirate Alley explores every aspect of Somali piracy, from how the pirates operate to how the actions of a relative handful of youthful criminals and their bosses have impacted the world economy. The book examines various answers to the question “How do you solve a problem like Somalia?” It explores the debate over the recently adopted practice of putting armed guards aboard merchant ships, and focuses on the best management practices that are changing the ways that ships are outfitted for travel through what’s known as the High Risk Area. Readers will learn that the consequence of protecting high quality targets such as container ships and crude oil carriers may be that pirates turn to crime on land, such as the kidnapping of foreigners. The work also focuses on the worldwide economic impact of piracy, noting that despite claims that piracy is costing as much as $13 billion a year, one of the largest commercial shipping companies argues that over-reaching national and international shipping regulations have a significantly greater negative effect on the world’s economy than does piracy. In the book’s conclusion, McKnight contends that, in the interest of justice, nations need to beef up their ability to prosecute and imprison captured pirates. And that the United States has no choice but to continue to hew to a policy that was first stated in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution: The Congress shall have Power…to define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations.

Commanding Task Force 151 Off Somalia

Pirate Alley

Mike Hirsh

Meet volunteer sheriff's deputy Paul "Fly" Moscone and his buddy Jinx--a recovering journalist. When Hurricane Charley whacks Punta Gorda upside the head and wealthy John Catlett is found dead in his penthouse condo, it looks like an accident. But Fly isn't so sure. The guy was an art collector and an original Picasso is missing from this wall. Did someone use the hurricane as cover to off Catlett? Meanwhile, who the heck is shooting at all the insurance adjusters swarming through town? And whatever happened to the free chips and salsa at Dean's? With Fly and Jinx busting each other's chops and battling it out to narrate the story, Fly has an existential crisis. Turns out life is made up of shades of gray...even when driving a black-and-white. With a jigger of Carl Hiaasen, a snort of Robert Crais, and perhaps a shot or two of Jimmy Buffett, Fly on the Wall is a fun Florida mystery. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll run to make sure your homeowner's insurance premium is paid.

Michael Hirsh

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