Free and Bargain Non-Fiction in March 2014

[koland]

A thread for March.

We point out free and bargain Non-Fiction titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books*, and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.

In case no retailer is specifically mentioned in a post, it is safe to assume it's for Amazon US.

Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day, so grab them fast!

*Unless you have read them yourself, think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way.
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Some history and biography repeats from Charles River Editors:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?rh=n:154606...r%20editors%22

[koland]

Arab Women Rising by Knowledge@Wharton

Recent decades have seen greatly expanded opportunities for women throughout the Arab world, leveling the playing field as never before.
In Arab Women Rising, Knowledge@Wharton contributors Nafeesa Syeed and Rahilla Zafar share the entrepreneurial journeys of 35 women, from a flower farmer tending her fields in the Tunisian countryside to a Saudi royal advocating for expanded women's rights throughout the kingdom.
This Knowledge@Wharton collection tells the stories of:
Pioneers who are establishing exciting technology companies in a region where mobile usage is on the upswing
Small and midsize business owners who started enterprises specializing in everything from public relations to the arts
Innovators who have rolled out new products, revamped fashions, and integrated new services into their industries
Visionaries tapping the big-picture potential the region holds in such growing fields as entertainment and science
Women effectively spearheading change in their communities by starting social enterprises

Inspiring and powerful, Arab Women Rising is a guide to understanding the modern business environment created and led by a new generation of women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa.

http://www.amazon.com/Arab-Women-Ris...dp/B00IN7BFZG/

[slex]

Economics for Humans by Julie A. Nelson is the free ebook of the month by the University of Chicago Press.

[rjmac]

The following book is available free on Amazon.

Spies of the First World War: WWI, Fleming, MI5, Ace of Spies, Mata Hari, Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Ernst, Redl, Lody, Wassmuss, Cavell, Landau, Kell, Casement, Burnham [Kindle Edition]

Spies of the First World War

Contents

Introduction
Before the War
Spying for the Kaiser
On His Majesty’s Secret Service
Allied Spies

The use of spies during war has a very long history, no doubt going back to the beginnings of warfare itself. In The Art of War, which is believed to have been written in the sixth century BCE, the Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu wrote about the advantages to be gained from knowing your enemy and in the final chapter of the book stressed the importance of cultivating those people who were in a position to spy on them. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that spying has sometimes been called the second oldest profession, even if, for most of its history, it has been conducted by amateurs. What might now be thought of as espionage - state intelligence agencies employing professional secret agents – only began to emerge during the latter part of the 19th century and then developed during World War I into some of the institutions which, in some cases at least, still exist today.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spies-First-...rds=free+books

[Froide]

Originally Posted by rjmac

The following book is available free on Amazon.

Spies of the First World War: WWI, Fleming, MI5, Ace of Spies, Mata Hari, Churchill, Lawrence of Arabia, Ernst, Redl, Lody, Wassmuss, Cavell, Landau, Kell, Casement, Burnham [Kindle Edition]

Spies of the First World War

Contents

Introduction
Before the War
Spying for the Kaiser
On His Majesty’s Secret Service
Allied Spies

The use of spies during war has a very long history, no doubt going back to the beginnings of warfare itself. In The Art of War, which is believed to have been written in the sixth century BCE, the Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu wrote about the advantages to be gained from knowing your enemy and in the final chapter of the book stressed the importance of cultivating those people who were in a position to spy on them. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that spying has sometimes been called the second oldest profession, even if, for most of its history, it has been conducted by amateurs. What might now be thought of as espionage - state intelligence agencies employing professional secret agents – only began to emerge during the latter part of the 19th century and then developed during World War I into some of the institutions which, in some cases at least, still exist today.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spies-First-...rds=free+books

$0.99 in the US at http://www.amazon.com/Spies-First-Wo.../dp/B00FOCSGSM

[avantman42]

Yom Kippur War: Syrians at the Border: Strategies-Tactics-Battles, Israel's Northern Command-1973 (Military History)

Saturday, 1973, the Day of Atonement – the most holy day of the year for the Jewish people – became the Harbinger of Doom for the Congregations of Israel. At 13:55 hours that day rolling Syrian cannon thunder was heard all along the front on the Golan Heights, and dense, black smoke shrouded it completely.

Many accounts of the Yom Kippur War have been written. But this is the first behind-the-scenes look at the Northern Command preparations for war during that fateful summer, when the Syrian army in the north, together with the Egyptian army in the south, coordinated a blitzkrieg offensive against Israel. The book offers fresh insight into the pre-war debate that raged between the Northern Command and the Intelligence Branch that believed Syria was not looking for war. For the first time, the reader will be privy to the decision-making details that threatened to overpower the IDF Command. The Generals, who were in command, describe in their own words the pivotal battles that changed the course of the war, as well as the disastrous effects of the “hindsight evaluation” after the war was won reverberated throughout the corridors of power.
The four contributors of this book were assisted by a team of researchers and other army commanders, under the direction and coordination of Military Historian, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr Dani Asher.

Contributors
Major General (res.) Yitzhak Hofi, “Haka”, the Northern Commander in Chief, Maj. Gen. (res.) Uri Simchoni, Head of Command Operations, Brig. Gen. (res.) Avraham Bar David, Head of Artillery, and Col. (res.) Hagai Mann, the command’s Intelligence officer, have combined their knowledge of the day-to-day events to recount the preparations and management of the war, its success and failures, and its repercussions that resonate even today.

Amazon UK / Amazon.com

[GtrsRGr8]

America's Women (P.S.). Gail Collins. Rated 4 1/2 stars out of 5 out of 58 customer reviews at this moment. Print List Price $15.99. Kindle Price $1.99. 596 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Women...n+gail+collins

America's Women tells the story of more than four centuries of history. It features a stunning array of personalities, from the women peering worriedly over the side of the Mayflower to feminists having a grand old time protesting beauty pageants and bridal fairs. Courageous, silly, funny, and heartbreaking, these women shaped the nation and our vision of what it means to be female in America.

By culling the most fascinating characters -- the average as well as the celebrated -- Gail Collins, the editorial page editor at the New York Times, charts a journey that shows how women lived, what they cared about, and how they felt about marriage, sex, and work. She begins with the lost colony of Roanoke and the early southern "tobacco brides" who came looking for a husband and sometimes -- thanks to the stupendously high mortality rate -- wound up marrying their way through three or four. Spanning wars, the pioneering days, the fight for suffrage, the Depression, the era of Rosie the Riveter, the civil rights movement, and the feminist rebellion of the 1970s, America's Women describes the way women's lives were altered by dress fashions, medical advances, rules of hygiene, social theories about sex and courtship, and the ever-changing attitudes toward education, work, and politics. While keeping her eye on the big picture, Collins still notes that corsets and uncomfortable shoes mattered a lot, too.

"The history of American women is about the fight for freedom," Collins writes in her introduction, "but it's less a war against oppressive men than a struggle to straighten out the perpetually mixed message about women's roles that was accepted by almost everybody of both genders."

Told chronologically through the compelling stories of individual lives that, linked together, provide a complete picture of the American woman's experience, America's Women is both a great read and a landmark work of history.

[dandelioncottage]

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo is on sale today for both Nook and Kindle for under $3.00:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...=9780547999524

http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Anne-...4129167&sr=1-1

Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships.

Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In this lively book, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies.

[peachiekene]

Sale
Kindle Countdown Deal: $5.99US*

Oh Myyy! (There Goes The Internet) (Life, the Internet and Everything) by George Takei
AmazonUS

How did a 75-year old actor from Star Trek become a social media juggernaut? Why does everything he posts spread like wildfire across the ether, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of likes and shares? And what can other sites, celebrities and companies do to attain his stratospheric engagement levels, which hover or top 100 percent while theirs languish in the single digits?

Read about George Takei’s meteoric rise and dominance of the Internet in Oh Myyy (There Goes the Internet), published of course in electronic format.
In this groundbreaking, hilarious and informative book, Takei recounts his experiences on platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, where fans and pundits alike have crowned him King. He muses about everything from the nature of viral sharing, to the taming of Internet trolls, to why Yoda, bacon and cats are such popular memes. Takei isn’t afraid to tell it likes he sees it, and to engage the reader just as he does his legions of fans.

Both provokingly thoughtful and wickedly funny, Oh Myyy! captures and comments upon the quirky nature of our plugged-in culture. With Takei’s conversational yet authoritative style, peppered with some of his favorite images from the web, readers should be prepared to LOL, even as they can’t help but hear his words in their heads in that unmistakable, deep bass.

*I know this is a bit high for these threads, but it's list price is $9.99 and given Takei's internet presence and huge fan base, I don't see this one dipping down much more than this.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by dandelioncottage

The Creation of Anne Boleyn by Susan Bordo is on sale today for both Nook and Kindle for under $3.00:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...=9780547999524

http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Anne-...4129167&sr=1-1

Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships.

Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. In this lively book, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies.

made me break my .99 rule! but it looks verrrrry good! and it's down to the odd price of $2.51

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

made me break my .99 rule! but it looks verrrrry good! and it's down to the odd price of $2.51

I noticed that too. It's price matched at $2.99 everywhere else I looked though - so that may be why.

[Little.Egret]

Combat and Other Shenanigans: Tales of the Absurd from a Deployment to Iraq by Piers Platt

Free

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00INKEXNO/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00INKEXNO/

War is hell...but sometimes it's also funny as hell. Combat and Other Shenanigans is Lieutenant Piers Platt's firsthand account of his year as a US cavalry platoon leader in Iraq. Wry, action-packed, and poignant, Combat and Other Shenanigans is the absurd-but-true story of the antics the world's finest soldiers get up to when no one high-ranking is watching.

[shootist]

http://www.amazon.com/Fifteen-Decisi...=UTF8&sr=&qid=

[ATDrake]

There's just a few hours left in Smashwords' RAEBW sale, and for those who skipped the dedicated thread, Bev Editions is offering some rather good Canadian backlist non-fiction freebies, including history and recent affairs. Also, if you've an interest in LGBT cultural theory/self-help, Lethe Press is also offering 75% off selected titles.

Linkage to the publisher page for Bev Editions (almost everything is free or 50% off, and they have over a half-dozen non-fic freebies). They've biographies of 17th century military and cultural notables, true crime with spies and drug dealers, and fascism and communism in Canada, among other things, if you're interested, all previously print-published.

Random sampling of the freebie titles (even more on their catalogue page):

General Miranda's Wars: Turmoil and Revolt in Spanish America, 1750-1816

The Spy Within: Larry Chin and China's Penetration of the CIA

Reds Under the Bed: How Communists Frightened the Canadian Establishment, 1928-32

Sex, Rock & History

Sadomasochism and Ardent Love: An Historical Perspective

Linkage to Lethe Press (only a handful of things in their very large catalogue free, and hard to tell which ones without checking the individual title pages, unfortunately), where most of the non-fic seems to be discounted.

[sharphamster]

The Wild Blue
The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-1945
By Stephen E. Ambrose

$2.99 US at Amazon Kobo eBooks.com and B&N

Stephen E. Ambrose, acclaimed author of Band of Brothers and Undaunted Courage, carries us along in the crowded and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to destroy the German war machine during World War II.

The young men who flew the B-24s over Germany in World War II fought against horrific odds, and, in The Wild Blue, Ambrose recounts their extraordinary heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship with vivid detail and affection.

Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and selected the elite few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys—turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B-24s—who suffered over fifty percent casualties.

With his remarkable gift for bringing alive the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine. Twenty-two-year-old George McGovern, who was to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate, flew thirty-five combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes. Many went down in flames.

As Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers portrayed the bravery and ultimate victory of the American soldiers from Normandy on to Germany, The Wild Blue illustrates the enormous contribution that these young men of the Army Air Forces made to the Allied victory.