Against Their Will

"During his reign, Joseph Stalin oversaw the forced resettlement of people by the millions - a maniacal passion that he used for social engineering. Six million people were resettled before Stalin's death. This volume is the first attempt to comprehensively examine the history of forced and semi-voluntary population movements within or organized by the Soviet Union. Contents range from the early 1920s to the rehabilitation of repressed nationalities in the 1990s, dealing with internal (kulaks, ethnic and political deportations) and international forced migrations (German internees and occupied territories)."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Real-life accounts of harrowing abductions and resilient survivors from the author of Prince Andrew: Epstein, Maxwell and the Palace. True stories of twisted criminals who hold their victims in endless captivity to satisfy their perverse desires, Against Their Will is a comprehensive compendium of the most disturbing kidnappings of all time. Jaycee Lee Dugard—lived to tell the tale of her eighteen years of captivity in paroled rapist Phillip Garrido’s suburban backyard Elizabeth Smart—bravely held on for nine long months in a forced marriage to religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell, who repeatedly raped her in the name of God Elisabeth Fritzl—amazingly overcame twenty-four years trapped in a basement dungeon built especially for her by her father, Josef Colleen Stan—heroically endured seven years as a sex slave, brutally tortured with the full consent of her captor’s wife Tina Marie Risico—escaped certain death at the hands of a killer by being an unwilling accomplice in other kidnappings “Not for the faint of heart.” —Series & TV

Matt Grayson, Hollywood's newest star is looking forward to a long weekend respite in Texas, celebrating his mother's birthday. As he boards the flight to Houston, he is still spinning from all the sudden and constant attention his new movie has garnered for him. He settles in his seat and waits for the plane to depart. Lynn McCane is an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She has been working non-stop on a series of reports on the latest and greatest medical inventions. Her research led her to numerous cities, the latest of which was Los Angeles. As she followed one lead to another, she discovered more than she bargained for. Now, she is racing to get back to Houston and share her information with her colleagues at the paper, for it is information so damming that it could bring down powerful leaders both in business and the government. Their plane departs and for the first part of the flight, all is normal. Matt and Lynn chat briefly after their meal, and then the passengers settle in for the flight, thinking there is nothing to be concerned about. When the plane is hit by lightning their smooth ride changes to a roller coaster of life and death. They go down in the pine woods of East Texas. Although they survive, nothing seems right after the flight. Matt knows Lynn is in serious condition and needs help. When he finally finds someone to help, he is too late and is told she has died. Matt does not want to accept it and fights those who try to prove she is truly dead. Later, after reluctantly returning to Los Angeles to begin work on his next film, he encounters Lynn. When he insists she is the woman from his flight, that she is Lynn McCane, the woman informs him that she is Linda McGowan and that she has never been to Houston. As Matt refuses to give up that she is indeed, Lynn McCane, he tries to convince her that he is right. She refuses. But the more Matt insists, the more Linda seems unnerved by his assertions. When the FBI shows up asking about Linda's experience in the hospital, they are even more bewildered. Events unfold that force Matt and Linda to seek answers as they learn they are now wanted and a large reward has been posted for information on their whereabouts. As they seek answers they uncover information that, if found to be true, could topple government officials as well as some very powerful business leaders. As they race against time to reveal what they have learned, they discover the President of the United States is slated to be the next victim.

During the Cold War, an alliance between American scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and the US military pushed the medical establishment into ethically fraught territory. Doctors and scientists at prestigious institutions were pressured to produce medical advances to compete with the perceived threats coming from the Soviet Union. In Against Their Will, authors Allen Hornblum, Judith Newman, and Gregory Dober reveal the little-known history of unethical and dangerous medical experimentation on children in the United States. Through rare interviews and the personal correspondence of renowned medical investigators, they document how children—both normal and those termed "feebleminded"—from infants to teenagers, became human research subjects in terrifying experiments. They were drafted as "volunteers" to test vaccines, doused with ringworm, subjected to electric shock, and given lobotomies. They were also fed radioactive isotopes and exposed to chemical warfare agents. This groundbreaking book shows how institutional superintendents influenced by eugenics often turned these children over to scientific researchers without a second thought. Based on years of archival work and numerous interviews with both scientific researchers and former test subjects, this is a fascinating and disturbing look at the dark underbelly of American medical history.

A holiday drive to Florida ends tragically for Izzy and Maria when their car breaks down outside a rural North Carolina bar. Kidnapped by two brutally sadistic men, the sisters are held captive in a remote fishing cabin. As the men become increasingly unhinged, their savagery intensifies, propelling the young women into a desperate fight for their lives.Decades and distance have healed their physical injuries, but Izzy and Maria's once-close relationship has failed to survive in the aftermath of their nightmare. Estranged and living on opposite coasts, they rarely see or speak to each other.Now, one of the kidnappers has been released from prison, vowing to exact his revenge on Izzy and Maria. As a hurricane rages around them, the sisters endeavor to repair their bond, confronting many hard truths in the process. Can they reconcile in time to defeat the demons from their past?

This text contains excerpts from over 400 letters from 78 correspondents sent during World War II featuring the author's father Oswald A. Holzer, MD, and his family and friends.

DIVDIVSusan Brownmiller’s groundbreaking bestseller uncovers the culture of violence against women with a devastating exploration of the history of rape—now with a new preface by the author exposing the undercurrents of rape still present today/divDIV Rape, as author Susan Brownmiller proves in her startling and important book, is not about sex but about power, fear, and subjugation. For thousands of years, it has been viewed as an acceptable “spoil of war,” used as a weapon by invading armies to crush the will of the conquered. The act of rape against women has long been cloaked in lies and false justifications./divDIV It is ignored, tolerated, even encouraged by governments and military leaders, misunderstood by police and security organizations, freely employed by domineering husbands and lovers, downplayed by medical and legal professionals more inclined to “blame the victim,” and, perhaps most shockingly, accepted in supposedly civilized societies worldwide, including the United States./divDIV Against Our Will is a classic work that has been widely credited with changing prevailing attitudes about violence against women by awakening the public to the true and continuing tragedy of rape around the globe and throughout the ages./divDIV Selected by the New York Times Book Review as an Outstanding Book of the Year and included among the New York Public Library’s Books of the Century, Against Our Will remains an essential work of sociological and historical importance./divDIV/div/div

With little oversight, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina ordered the sterilization of thousands of the state's most vulnerable citizens. This award-winning series led to an apology from the North Carolina governor and the first legislation in the nation seeking to compensate victims of eugenics, or involuntary sterilization.