The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion and obsession for the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence,...

Inspired by the Vermeer painting of the same title, Girl with Pearl Earring, this novel takes the reader inside the world of the 17th century Delft. In seventeenth-century Delft, there's a strict social order -rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant -and all know their place. When Griet becomes a maid in the household of the painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry, and the care of his six children....

The financial meltdown from the perspective of a number of players: Michael Burry, a bizarre autistic-like stock-picking genius, and the first to realize that the market's housing boom is based on a "house of cards" sham; Mark Baum, self-loathing fictional character whose firm picks up insider trading information from a wrong number phone call; Jarred Vennet, a smart-aleck broker who confirms the ominous suspicion; and Charles Gellar and James Shipley,...

Delves into the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and how it affected people, how the American public worked together to get through the massive hardships, and how the economy recovered with World War II. Examine the changes that swept the shaken nation during the first year - from the landslide victory of FDR in 1932 to Dust Bowl farmers. Americans sought release from the hard times wherever they could find it - from marathon dancing to going to the movies....

Bill Munny, a retired, once ruthless killer-turned-hog farmer, is flat broke. A widower with two young children to tend to, he feels he has no choice but to accept one last bounty hunter mission to find and kill two young gunslingers who brutalized and cut up the face of a local prostitute. Bill teams up with his old partner Ned and the cocky greenhorn, The Schofield Kid. The three men soon find out this bounty has many more obstacles to overcome...

It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression--only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand it. These people are at the heart of this reinterpretation of one of the most crucial events of the twentieth century. Author Shlaes presents the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how through brave leadership they helped establish the steadfast...

Foreign policy expert and key impeachment witness Fiona Hill reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia--and shows how we can return hope to our forgotten places. In this deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and explains that only by expanding opportunity can we save our democracy.

Explores a half-century of U.S. foreign policy from World War II to the Iraq War, revealing how, as Dwight Eisenhower had warned in his 1961 Farewell Address, political and corporate interests have become alarmingly entangled in the business of war. On a deeper level, what emerges is a portrait of a nation in transition--drifting dangerously far from her founding principles toward a more imperial and uncertain future.

This documentary juxtaposes newsreel footage, film clips and period music in an eye-opening look at the Great Depression. Many of the movies created in the 1930s featured strong social commentary, while others offered pure escapism and fed a fascination with a dazzling world out of reach to the everyday American. Through a contrast between the fantasy of film and the reality of everyday life, a fascinating perspective on the Great Depression and Hollywood's...

In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood's most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse...