{"title":"Books by Thomas E. Ricks","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780715652763","title":"Churchill and Orwell","description":"Today, as liberty and truth are increasingly challenged, the figures of Churchill and Orwell loom large. Exemplars of Britishness, they preserved individual freedom and democracy for the world through their far-sighted vision and inspired action, and cast a long shadow across our culture and politics. In Churchill \u0026amp; Orwell, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas E. Ricks masterfully argues that these extraordinary men are as important today as they ever were. Churchill and Orwell stood in political opposition to each other, but were both committed to the preservation of freedom. However, in the late 1930s they occupied a lonely position: democracy was much discredited, and authoritarian rulers, fascist and communist, were everywhere in the ascent. Unlike others, they had the wisdom to see that the most salient issue was human liberty – and that any government that denies its people basic rights is a totalitarian menace to be resisted. Churchill and Orwell proved their age’s necessary men, and this book reveals how they rose from a precarious position to triumph over the enemies of freedom. Churchill may have played the larger role in Hitler’s defeat, but Orwell’s reckoning with the threat of authoritarian rule in 1984 and Animal Farm defined the stakes of the Cold War and continues to inspire to this day. Their lives are an eloquent testament to the power of moral conviction, and to the courage it takes to stay true to it.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201822228658,"sku":"9780715652763","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780715652763_d41dfea6-0638-4834-8b32-c1b3fce66579.jpg?v=1786014805"},{"product_id":"9781639366798","title":"Everyone Knows But You","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn FBI agent finds himself in the insular world of a fishing village on the Maine coast where the rules are different—sometimes lethally so.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter his wife and two children are killed in a car crash, Ryan Tapia starts a new life in Maine. But his first case there is a puzzling oddball—the corpse of a fisherman washes up on federal land, while the man’s boat drifts into waters that are part of an Indian reservation. Ryan quickly learns the nuances of Maine life as he delves into two illicit coastal trades: hard drugs and rare fish. Many of the locals are happy to see that particular fisherman dead. What’s more, they are not shy about noting that Ryan must have screwed up pretty badly to be posted to such a remote location as Bangor, Maine.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Undaunted, Ryan works to understand the unforgiving way of life on Liberty Island, where people live by an older, harsher code. Adrift on a sailboat one day, he encounters a man from the Malpense tribe, living as a hermit on a remote island, who witnessed something that fateful day.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In his riveting crime debut, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author Thomas E. Ricks turns his literary talents to land he knows deeply, from working in the Maine woods and trapping lobsters year-round. \u003ci\u003eEveryone Knows But You \u003c\/i\u003eis a rich and dynamic crime novel that brings a unique part of America to vivid, thrilling life.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581468831922,"sku":"9781639366798","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781639366798_77d03273-6ae9-46e3-ac2d-7f086e4f11ac.jpg?v=1786024174"},{"product_id":"fiasco","title":"Fiasco","description":"Cutting through the headlines and spin, this is the first book to give us a true picture of the reality on the ground, through the words of the people there - from commanders to intelligence officers, army doctors to ordinary soldiers. Providing eye-witness accounts that contradict the official stories and figures, they give a chilling picture of the deceit, stupidity, wishful thinking, lack of forward planning and total intellectual failure of those behind the invasion. The result is an extraordinary new insight into the plight of ordinary soldiers doing nightmarish jobs, and the real nature of the fighting in Iraq.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466554581365,"sku":"9780141028507","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141028507.jpg?v=1785654612"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-thomas-e-ricks.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}