From Batman Begins to Tom Clancy, How to Justify Torture shows how contemporary culture creates simplified narratives about good guy torturers and bad guy victims, how dangerous this is politically, and what we can do to challenge it. The ticking bomb scenario is a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified in emergency conditions. If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, would it be justified to torture...

For thirty-one years, a monster terrorized the residents of Wichita, Kansas. A bloodthirsty serial killer, self-named "BTK"-for "bind them, torture them, kill them"-he slaughtered men, women, and children alike, eluding the police for decades while bragging of his grisly exploits to the media. The nation was shocked when the fiend who was finally apprehended turned out to be Dennis Rader-a friendly neighbor . . . a devoted husband . . . a helpful...

In 1985, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were spotted shoplifting. Ng escaped, but Lake's capture led police to a concrete bunker in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they discovered the grisly evidence of an orgy of sex crimes, torture, and murder that claimed at least sixteen victims. Lake committed suicide: Ng fled to Canada, where he was tracked down and extradited to California. This fourteen-year, $10 million legal case was the costliest and longest...

"This searing memoir tells the story of a young doctor and activist who ran an underground hospital in Syria"--

This gripping account of the highest-ranked woman in the Third Reich who, as Head Overseer of the women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was personally responsible for the murder, torture and suffering of countless prisoners, explores how she became to embody the very worst of humanity.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat lays bare the blueprint leaders from Mussolini to Trump have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future. Authoritarian rulers promise law and order, then legitimize lawbreaking by financial, sexual, and other predators. They use masculinity as a symbol of strength and a political weapon, and they use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power. Vladimir...

"From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a deeply researched and news breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the greatest geopolitical conflicts of our time When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam...