The Backroom Boys

Author : Graeme Sligo
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2013-10-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781922132543

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The Backroom Boys by Graeme Sligo Pdf

The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided high-level policy advice to Australia’s most senior soldier, General Blamey, and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and masterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. The Directorate has been depicted as a haven for underemployed poets or meddlesome soldier-politicians. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture. The fierce conflicts in the wartime bureaucracy between public servants and soldiers, in which the Directorate provided critical support to Blamey, went to the heart of military command, accountability and the profession of arms. The Directorate was a pioneer in developing approaches to military government in areas liberated by the combat troops, as demonstrated by the Australian Army in New Guinea, and Borneo in 1945-46. It is an issue of enduring importance. The Directorate established the Australian School of Pacific Administration, and had an important role in founding the Australian National University. Its influence extended into post war Australia. The Backroom Boys emphasises the personality of Colonel Alf Conlon, as well as the talented men and women he recruited. Above all, this book shows how, unexpectedly, the Australian Army fostered a group of men and women who made a lasting contribution to the development of Australia in the decades after the war.

Author : Francis Spufford
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2010-11-25
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780571266449

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Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford Pdf

A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers. The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others. Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, 'Backroom Boys' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars. 'Backroom Boys' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Fontana Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1973
Category : History
ISBN : IND:30000055109601

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The Backroom Boys by Noam Chomsky Pdf

Author : Francis Spufford
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2004-09-02
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0571228356

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Backroom Boys by Francis Spufford Pdf

Author : Graeme Sligo
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Politics and war
ISBN : 192194112X

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The Backroom Boys by Graeme Sligo Pdf

The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided highlevel policy advice to Australia's most senior soldier, General Blamey, and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and masterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. The Directorate has been depicted as a haven for underemployed poets or meddlesome soldier-politicians. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture. The fierce conflicts in the wartime bureaucracy between public servants and soldiers, in which the Directorate provided critical support to Blamey, went to the heart of military command, accountability and the profession of arms. The Directorate was a pioneer in developing approaches to military government in areas liberated by the combat troops, as demonstrated by the Australian Army in New Guinea, and Borneo in 1945-46. It is an issue of enduring importance. The Directorate established the Australian School of Pacific Administration, and had an important role in founding the Australian National University. Its influence extended into post war Australia. The Backroom Boys emphasises the personality of Colonel Alf Conlon, as well as the talented men and women he recruited. Above all, this book shows how, unexpectedly, the Australian Army fostered a group of men and women who made a lasting contribution to the development of Australia in the decades after the war.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : AK Press
Page : 838 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : 1902593820

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Language and Politics by Noam Chomsky Pdf

An indispensable guide through the work of the world's most influential living intellectual.

Author : Andrew Dallmeyer
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 1982-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0907540244

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The Boys in the Backroom by Andrew Dallmeyer Pdf

Author : Mandla Mathebula
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2017-04-04
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781776140893

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The Backroom Boy by Mandla Mathebula Pdf

The Backroom Boy opens dramatically in China, 1962. Andrew Mlangeni is one of a small select group undergoing military training there. The unannounced visitor is Mao Tse-Tung or Chairman Mao as he was known, Chairman of the Communist Party of China. Mlangeni was selected as one of the first-ever six members who received military training in China before the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. He seems to have been chosen because he was a dedicated, intelligent and dependable operative, rather than a leader. Even after his release after 25 years on Robben Island, Mlangeni was not given a senior position in the post-apartheid democratic government. ‘I was always the backroom boy,’ says Andrew Mlangeni about himself. Andrew Mlangeni, is a struggle stalwart, Rivonia Trialist, and Robben Island prisoner 467/64 who was next door inmate to Nelson Mandela’s acclaimed 466/64 prison number. Released after 26 years of incarceration, he served as Member of Parliament, and is Chairman of the ANC’s Integrity Commission and Founder of the June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation. With the passing of Ahmed Kathrada (March 2017), Mlangeni (91) is one of only two Rivonia Trialist still alive with Denis Goldberg. While still at school, Andrew Mlangeni joined the Communist Party of South Africa and also the ANC Youth League. These were the organisations that shaped his values. Decades of resourceful activism were to lead to his arrest and life sentence in the Rivonia trial. Mlangeni’s lifelong commitment to the struggle for liberation reverberates with other biographies and memoirs of leading figures, such as Rusty Bernstein’s Memory Against Forgetting and Albie Sachs’ We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge. This story of an ANC elder is a well-researched historical record overlaid with intensely personal refl ections which intersect with the political narrative. Above all, it is one man’s story, set in the maelstrom of the liberation struggle. This biographical project has been developed for, and published in conjunction with, the June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation.

Author : John Pilger
Publisher : Random House
Page : 642 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2010-09-02
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9781407086378

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Distant Voices by John Pilger Pdf

Throughout his distinguished career as a journalist and film-maker, John Pilger has looked behind the 'official' versions of events to report the real stories of our time. The centrepiece of this new, expanded edition of his bestselling Distant Voices is Pilger's reporting from East Timor, which he entered secretly in 1993 and where a third of the population has died as a result of Indonesia's genocidal policies. This edition also contains more new material as well as all the original essays - from the myth-making of the Gulf War to the surreal pleasures of Disneyland. Breaking through the consensual silence, Pilger pays tribute to those dissenting voices we are seldom permitted to hear.

Author : Nigel Rees
Publisher : Batsford Books
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2014-12-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781849942898

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Don't You Know There's A War On? by Nigel Rees Pdf

Nigel Rees presents a nostalgic and witty guide to wartime catchphrases, from the now ubiquitous 'Keep Calm and Carry On' to lesser-known gems such as 'lions led by donkeys'. Following his hugely popular survey of domestic sayings, More Tea Vicar?, Rees returns with a witty and fascinating examination of the catchphrases that saw us through wartime Britain and are still relevant in times of crisis today. Including domestic phrases of the time, propaganda, and slang developed by soldiers abroad, the book describes the provenance and development of these intriguing, quirky and sometimes crude phrases that were born out of times of conflict and have in many cases become part of our language.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Penguin Books India
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2003-07
Category : United States
ISBN : 014303054X

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For Reasons Of State by Noam Chomsky Pdf

Chomsky S Second Major Collection Of Political Writings, Following His Pathbreaking American Power And The New Mandarins An Essential Record Of Chomsky S Political And Social Thought As It Was Sharpened On The Upheavals In Domestic And International Affairs Of The Early 1970S, For Reasons Of State Is A Major Addition To The Intellectual History Of The Vietnam Era. It Includes Articles On The War In Vietnam And The 'Wider War' In Laos And Cambodia, An Extensive Dissection Of The Pentagon Papers, Reflections On The Role Of Force In International Affairs, Essays On Civil Disobedience And The Role Of The University, And A Now-Classic Introduction To Anarchism. These Contributions Reveal Very Different Facets Of Chomsky S Powers As A Thinker, From His Uncanny Ability To Join Abstract Philosophical Considerations With The Concrete Political Realities Of His Time, To His Singular Capacity To Mount Withering, Fact-Based Critiques Of American Foreign Policy.

Author : Jim Diamond
Publisher : Grosvenor House Publishing
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2022-12-08
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781803813806

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The Legal Extortion Racket by Jim Diamond Pdf

JIM has had a 40 years career in the law. During that period, he worked as an outdoor clerk for Weightman's, a small legal firm in Liverpool, at the end of the 1970s and moved to London in the early 1980s. He worked in-house for Clifford Turner (now Clifford Chance) during the 1980s and Allen & Overy during the 1990s. With Clifford Turner and Allen & Overy being two of the top five City of London law firms, he spent most of my time working on some of the highest legal costs, disputes, and budgets over a two-decade period. Throughout the last two decades, he has worked independently. With a client base ranged from individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to billionaires and corporate clients such as Goldman Sachs. He has worked on many legal costs dispute cases throughout the UK. The different systems across England, Wales, Scotland and the Channel Islands all suffer, from his view, the same problems, including a lack of transparency and a lack of regulatory controls and protocols to protect the client from overcharging. The book also looks at Jim's life journey from a comprehensive school education in inner city Liverpool in 70s to publishing stats on the UK legal market place which have over two decades been published worldwide. The book looks at specific cases and his fights with the legal regulators in the UK. Some cases are absolutely shocking and bring shame on the legal profession and legal regulators. To balance the book, he has added chapters which give a personal account of why/who he is.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 499 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-11-10
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9780307772497

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The Chomsky Reader by Noam Chomsky Pdf

The Chomsky Reader brings together for the first time the political thought of American's leading dissident intellectual—“arguably the most important intellectual alive” (The New York Times). At the center of practically every major debate over America's role in the world, one finds Noam Chomsky's ideas—sometimes attacked, sometimes studiously ignored, but always a powerful presence. Drawing from his published and unpublished work, The Chomsky Reader reveals the awesome range of this ever-critical mind—from global questions of war and peace to the most intricate questions of human intelligence, IQ, and creativity. It reveals the underlying radical coherency of his view of the world—from his enormously influential attacks on America's role in Vietnam to his perspective on Nicaragua and Central America today. Chomsky's challenge to accepted wisdom about Israel and the Palestinians has caused a furor in America, as have his trenchant essays on the real nature of terrorism in our age. No one has dissected more graphically the character of the Cold War consensus and the way it benefits the two superpowers, or argued more thoughtfully for a shared elitist ethos in liberalism and communism. No one has exposed more logically America's acclaimed freedoms as masking irresponsible power and unjustified privilege, or argued quite so insistently that the “free press” is part of a stultifying conformity that pervades all aspects of American intellectual life. In a lengthy interview with the editor, Chomsky discussed his thought in the context of his personal history.

Author : Charles L. Parks
Publisher : Trafford Publishing
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781412051729

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Exceptions to Silence by Charles L. Parks Pdf

Have gender inequalities always existed? Did inequality occur instantaneously, or gradually over centuries? How responsible were women for their subordination. Why was there no women's movement in ancient times?

Author : Sanjay Chitranshi
Publisher : One Point Six Technology Pvt Ltd
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-10
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9789352015931

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Dalits, Dynasty & She by Sanjay Chitranshi Pdf

"‘Dalits, Dynasty and She’ is a political satire. For the first time in the history of the nation, a Dalit woman leader has captured the seat of power in the most populous and politically most important state. And decades after the independence, the Dalits are feeling hopeful of justice and their empowerment. An old political party, controlled by a powerful dynasty that has ruled the country most of the years since the independence, is facing the charges of massive corruption. A powerful movement against corruption has erupted under an old social-activist, hijacked by his vocal, ambitious upper-caste supporters is spreading over the entire country, taking the political class by surprise. A small section of the Dalits and tribal, disgruntled with the status-quo and the feudal power-structure, while the seats of power change from one set of looters to another have embraced Maoism and are preparing for an armed revolution. Will the marginalised sections of the society get justice and be empowered under the rule of a Dalit leader? Will the movement against corruption succeed? Will the Maoist succeed in an armed revolution? Finally, will the chance meeting of so many strong socio-political currents help the nation usher in a new beginning?"