A history of shoplifting, revealing the roots of our modern dilemma. Rachel Shteir's The Steal is the first serious study of shoplifting, tracking the fascinating history of this ancient crime. Dismissed by academia and the mainstream media and largely misunderstood, shoplifting has become the territory of moralists, mischievous teenagers, tabloid television, and self-help gurus. But shoplifting incurs remarkable real-life costs for retailers and consumers. The "crime tax"-the amount every American family loses to shoplifting-related price inflation-is more than $400 a year. Shoplifting cost American retailers $11.7 billion in 2009. The theft of one $5.00 item from Whole Foods can require sales of hundreds of dollars to break even. The Steal begins when shoplifting entered the modern record as urbanization and consumerism made London into Europe's busiest mercantile capital. Crossing the channel to nineteenth-century Paris, Shteir tracks the rise of the department store and the pathologizing of shoplifting as kleptomania. In 1960s America, shoplifting becomes a symbol of resistance when the publication of Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book popularizes shoplifting as an antiestablishment act. Some contemporary analysts see our current epidemic as a response to a culture of hyper-consumerism; others question whether its upticks can be tied to economic downturns at all. Few provide convincing theories about why it goes up or down. Just as experts can't agree on why people shoplift, they can't agree on how to stop it. Shoplifting has been punished by death, discouraged by shame tactics, and protected against by high-tech surveillance. Shoplifters have been treated by psychoanalysis, medicated with pharmaceuticals, and enforced by law to attend rehabilitation groups. While a few individuals have abandoned their sticky-fingered habits, shoplifting shows no signs of slowing. In The Steal, Shteir guides us through a remarkable tour of all things shoplifting-we visit the Woodbury Commons Outlet Mall, where boosters run rampant, watch the surveillance footage from Winona Ryder's famed shopping trip, and learn the history of antitheft technology. A groundbreaking study, The Steal shows us that shoplifting in its many guises-crime, disease, protest-is best understood as a reflection of our society, ourselves.

In the sixty-four days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states - Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - Trump's supporters claimed widespread voter fraud. Caught up in this effort were scores of activists, lawyers, judges and state and local officials, among them Rohn Bishop, enthusiastic chairman of the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, Republican Party, who would be branded a traitor for refusing to say his state's election was tainted, and Ruby Freeman, a part-time ballot counter in Atlanta who found herself accused of being a 'professional vote scammer' by the President. Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues and their families. The Steal is an engaging, in-depth report on what happened during those crucial nine weeks and a portrait of the heroic individuals who did their duty and stood firm against the unprecedented, sustained attack on the US election system and ensured that every legal vote was counted and the will of the people prevailed.

The Art of the Steal tells the story of several larger-than-life figures - the billionaire tycoon Alfred Taubman; the most powerful woman in the art world, Dede Brooks; and the wily British executive Christopher Davidge - who conspired to cheat their clients out of millions of dollars. It offers an unprecedented look inside this secretive, glamorous, gold-plated industry, describing just how Sotheby's and Christie's grew from clubby, aristocratic businesses into slick international corporations. And it shows how the groundwork for the most recent illegal activities was laid decades before the perpetrators were caught by federal prosecutors.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 The first drop of water fell from a urinal in an Atlanta bathroom, splashing onto a black concrete floor. It seeped into crevices, into the arena's structure and interstitial spaces, and eventually collected and poured through the ceiling of the room below. #2 The downpour in the Atlanta arena was a brief squall. The arena's maintenance crew found the source, fixed the urinal, and sopped up the mess. No ballots got wet; no equipment was damaged. #3 Leah Hoopes, a Republican committeewoman from Bethel Township in Delaware County, was one of the first people to vote in her local polling place. She was there to vote for Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican slate, as well as to serve as a watchdog. #4 Sheselfidentified as a patriot, and she saw Trump as a powerful messenger for those like her, who felt America slipping away from greatness.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The first drop of water fell from a urinal in an Atlanta bathroom, splashing onto a black concrete floor. It seeped into crevices, into the arena's structure and interstitial spaces, and eventually collected and poured through the ceiling of the room below. #2 The downpour in the Atlanta arena was a brief squall. The arena's maintenance crew found the source, fixed the urinal, and sopped up the mess. No ballots got wet; no equipment was damaged. #3 Leah Hoopes, a Republican committeewoman from Bethel Township in Delaware County, was one of the first people to vote in her local polling place. She was there to vote for Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican slate, as well as to serve as a watchdog. #4 Sheself-identified as a patriot, and she saw Trump as a powerful messenger for those like her, who felt America slipping away from greatness.

The most detailed study of Soviet military-industrial espionage during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s--spying aimed specifically at acquiring restricted information and materials relating to American industry, technology, and science.