Knowledge = Power

First published in 1841,  Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is often  cited as the best book ever written about market psychology. This  Harriman House edition includes Charles Mackay's account of the three  infamous financial manias - John Law's Mississipi Scheme, the South Sea  Bubble, and Tulipomania.

The Sword and the Shield is based on one of the most extraordinary intelligence coups of recent  times: a secret archive of top-level KGB documents smuggled out of the  Soviet Union which the FBI has described, after close examination, as  the "most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any  source." Its presence in the West represents a catastrophic hemorrhage  of the KGB's secrets and reveals for the first time the full extent of  its worldwide network. Vasili Mitrokhin, a secret dissident who worked  in the KGB archive, smuggled out copies of its most highly classified  files every day for twelve years. In 1992, a U.S. ally succeeded in  exfiltrating the KGB officer and his entire archive out of Moscow. The  archive covers the entire period from the Bolshevik Revolution to the  1980s and includes revelations concerning almost every country in the  world. But the KGB's main target, of course, was the United States.  Though there is top-secret material on almost every country in the  world, the United States is at the top of the list. As well as  containing many fascinating revelations, this is a major contribution to  the secret history of the twentieth century. Among the topics and  revelations explored are: The KGB's covert operations in the United  States and throughout the West, some of which remain dangerous today.  KGB files on Oswald and the JFK assassination that Boris Yeltsin almost  certainly has no intention of showing President Clinton. The KGB's  attempts to discredit civil rights leader in the 1960s, including its  infiltration of the inner circle of a key leader. The KGB's use of radio  intercept posts in New York and Washington, D.C., in the 1970s to  intercept high-level U.S. government communications. The KGB's attempts  to steal technological secrets from major U.S. aerospace and technology  corporations. KGB covert operations against former President Ronald  Reagan, which began five years before he became president. KGB spies who  successfully posed as U.S. citizens under a series of ingenious  disguises, including several who attained access to the upper echelons  of New York society.

THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF PITCH ANYTHING IS BACK TO FLIP YOUR ENTIRE APPROACH TO PERSUASION.

Is  there anything worse than a high-pressure salesperson pushing you to  say "yes" (then sign on the dotted line) before you're ready?

If  there's one lesson Oren Klaff has learned over decades of pitching,  presenting, and closing long-shot, high-stakes deals, it's that people  are sick of being marketed and sold to. Most of all, they hate being  told what to think. The more you push them, the more they resist.

What  people love, however, is coming up with a great idea on their own, even  if it's the idea you were guiding them to have all along. Often, the  only way to get someone to sign is to make them feel like they're  smarter than you.

That's why Oren is throwing out the  old playbook on persuasion. Instead, he'll show you a new approach that  works on this simple insight: Everyone trusts their own ideas. If,  rather than pushing your idea on your buyer, you can guide them to  discover it on their own, they'll believe it, trust it, and get excited  about it. Then they'll buy in and feel good about the chance to work  with you.

That might sound easier said than done, but  Oren has taught thousands of people how to do it with a series of  simple steps that anyone can follow in any situation.

And as you'll see in this book, Oren has been in a lot of different situations.

He'll  show you how he got a billionaire to take him seriously, how he got a  venture capital firm to cough up capital, and how he made a skeptical  Swiss banker see him as an expert in banking. He'll even show you how to  become so compelling that buyers are even more attracted to you than to  your product.

These days, it's not enough to make a great pitch.

To get attention, create trust, and close the deal, you need to flip the script.

"It’s a startling and disconcerting read that should make you think twice every time a friend of a friend offers you the opportunity of a lifetime.”

When you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you're in control.

Verbal Judo is the classic guide to the martial art of the mind and mouth that can  help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation, whether you're  talking to a boss, a spouse, or even a teenager. For more than a  generation, Dr. George J. Thompson's essential handbook has taught  people how to communicate more confidently and persuasively in any  situation. Verbal Judo shows you how to listen and speak more  effectively, engage others through empathy (the most powerful word in  the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters,  and use proven strategies to successfully express your point of view -  and take the lead in most disputes.

This updated edition includes a new foreword and a chapter featuring Dr. Thompson's five universal truths of human interaction:

Stop being frustrated and misunderstood. Stop finding yourself on the losing end of an argument. With Verbal Judo you'll be able to have your say - and say what you mean.

A master class in the art of persuasion, as taught by  professors ranging from Bart Simpson to Winston Churchill, newly revised  and updated.

Timeless techniques of effective public speaking from ancient Rome's greatest orator

National Book Award Finalist

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document ... is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

Of all the despots of our time, Joseph Stalin lasted the longest and  wielded the greatest power, and his secrets have been the most jealously  guarded—even after his death.