Central Kansas Library System

Trained by the top Israeli Defense Forces' instructors, Gershon Ben Keren is one of the foremost experts on the martial art of Krav Magra. In his third book, Ben Keren explains how to survive life-threatening real-world offenses-terrorists, active shooters, carjackers, home invaders-and demonstrates how Krav Maga can be employed to respond to them. Each section of Extreme Survival provides detailed instructions alongside a series of photographs that...

"November, 2001: in the wake of 9/11, Paris is living in a state of heightened fear, with constant bomb alerts and heightened ethnic tension. For Aimě Leduc, November is bittersweet: the anniversary of her father's death and her daughter's third birthday fall on the same day. A gathering for family and friends is disrupted when a bomb goes off at the police laboratory-and Boris Viard, the partner of Aimě's friend Michou, is found unconscious at...

What impact does 40 years of war, violence, and military intervention have on a country and its people? Modern Afghanistan is a collection of the work of interdisciplinary scholars, aid workers, and citizens to assess the impact of this prolonged conflict on Afghanistan. Nearly all of the people in Afghan society have been affected by persistent violent conflict. Issues considered in this volume include social and political dynamics, issues of gender,...

A path-breaking history of how the United States superseded Great Britain as the preeminent power in the Middle East, with urgent lessons for the present day We usually assume that Arab nationalism brought about the end of the British Empire in the Middle East--that Gamal Abdel Nasser and other Arab leaders led popular uprisings against colonial rule that forced the overstretched British from the region. In Lords of the Desert, historian James Barr...

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Osama bin Laden is still a vivid symbol of outrage and tragedy in the American imagination. One of the most-recognized faces of terror, bin Laden has presented himself to the world as a paragon of ascetic virtue. Journalist Adam Robinson tells a far different story. This authoritative biography lifts bin Laden's mask of moral purity as it recounts his transformation...

For General Michael Hayden, playing to the edge means playing so close to the line that you get chalk dust on your cleats. Otherwise, by playing back, you may protect yourself, but you will be less successful in protecting America. "Play to the edge" was Hayden's guiding principle when he ran the National Security Agency, and it remained so when he ran CIA. How did American intelligence respond to terrorism, a major war and the most sweeping technological...

Do recent changes in the Middle East signal peace? One Arab country after another is signing historic, game-changing peace, trade, investment, and tourism deals with Israel. At the same time, Russia, Iran, and Turkey are forming a highly dangerous alliance that could threaten the Western powers. Meanwhile, the U.S. is drawing down its military forces in the Mideast and focusing on matters closer to home. Where's it all heading? One Arab country after...

Looks at thirty-one special operations missions throughout history, including the battle of Tora Bora, the Falklands War, the raid on Entebbe, and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Remember and honor the events of 9/11 and celebrate how hope appears in the midst of hardship. The Survivor Tree found at Ground Zero was rescued, rehabilitated, and then replanted at the 9/11 Memorial site in 2011. This is its story.

When Scarpetta examines a young man's body, she discovers stunning indications that he may have been alive when he was zipped inside a pouch and locked inside the cooler of her new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts. Various 3-D radiology scans reveal more shocking details about internal injuries unlike any Scarpetta has ever seen. These suggest the possibility of a conspiracy to cause mass casualties, and she races against time to discover...