Secret Foundation

Unique in all the world, the American foundation sector has been an engine of social change for more than a century. In this companion volume to The Foundation: A Great American Secret, Joel Fleishman, Scott Kohler, and Steven Schindler explore 100 of the highest-achieving foundation initiatives of all time. Based on a rich array of sources--from interviews with the principals themselves to contemporaneous news accounts to internal evaluation reports--this volume presents brief case studies of foundation success stories across virtually every field of human endeavor. The influence of the foundations on American, and indeed global society, has only occasionally come into the public view. For every well-known foundation achievement--Andrew Carnegie's massive library building program or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's public efforts to curb tobacco use--there are a great many lesser-known, but often equally important stories to be told. The cases in this volume provide a wealth of evidentiary support for Joel Fleishman's description of, and recommendations for, the foundation sector. With lessons for grant-makers, grant-seekers, public officials, and public-spirited individuals alike, this casebook pieces together 100 stories, some well known, others never before told, and offers hard proof of the foundation sector's immense and enduring impact on scientific research, education, public policy, and many other fields. The work that foundations have supported over the past century has achieved profound results. Yet foundations are capable of more and better. This volume, a window onto great successes of the past and present, is at once a look back, a look around, and a point of reference as we turn to the future.

Foundations are a peculiarly American institution. They have been the dynamo of social change since their invention at the beginning of the last century. Yet they are cloaked in secrecy -- their decision-making and operations are inscrutable to the point of obscurity-leaving them substantially unaccountable to anyone. Joel Fleishman has been in and around foundations for almost half a century . . . running them, sitting on their boards, and seeking grants from them. And in this groundbreaking book he explains the history of foundations, tells the stories of the most successful foundation initiatives -- and of those that have failed -- and explains why it matters. The baby boomer generation is going to participate in the largest transfer of wealth in history when it passes on its assets to its successor generation. The third sector is about to become more powerful than ever. This book shows how foundations can provide a vital spur to the engine of the American, and the world's, economy -- if they are properly established and run.

A prolific author, Isaac Asimov is most admired for his science fiction, including his collection of short stories I, Robot and his Robot, Empire and Foundation series novels. While each of these narratives takes place in a different fictional universe, Asimov asserted at the end of his career that he had, with his last Robot and Foundation novels, unified them into one coherent metaseries. This reference work identifies and describes all of the characters, locales, artifacts, concepts and institutions in Asimov's metaseries. Mimicking the style of The Encyclopedia Galactica, the fictional compendium of all human knowledge that features prominently in the Foundation series, this encyclopedia is an invaluable companion to Asimov's science fiction oeuvre.

With irrepressible humor, Slavoj Žižek dissects our current political and social climate, discussing everything from Jordan Peterson and sex “unicorns” to Greta Thunberg and Chairman Mao. Taking aim at his enemies on the Left, Right, and Center, he argues that contemporary society can only be properly understood from a communist standpoint. Why communism? The greater the triumph of global capitalism, the more its dangerous antagonisms multiply: climate collapse, the digital manipulation of our lives, the explosion in refugee numbers – all need a radical solution. That solution is a Left that dares to speak its name, to get its hands dirty in the real world of contemporary politics, not to sling its insults from the sidelines or to fight a culture war that is merely a fig leaf covering its political and economic failures. As the crises caused by contemporary capitalism accumulate at an alarming rate, the Left finds itself in crisis too, beset with competing ideologies and prone to populism, racism, and conspiracy theories. A Left that Dares to Speak Its Name is Žižek’s attempt to elucidate the major political issues of the day from a truly radical Leftist position. The first three parts explore the global political situation and the final part focuses on contemporary Western culture, as Žižek directs his polemic to topics such as wellness, Wikileaks, and the rights of sexbots. This wide-ranging collection of essays provides the perfect insight into the ideas of one of the most influential radical thinkers of our time.

The only thing standing between Central Massachusetts and the forces of darkness is this group of underfunded, over-caffeinated investigators. How screwed are we, really? The North County branch is one of the best paranormal investigation and cleanup team employed by the Foundation for Paranormal Research. They keep the residents of Northern Worcester County, Massachusetts safe from the things that secretly live among them. That is, if they can avoid killing each other in the process. In this special collection, get to know the world of North County Paranormal Unit through two volumes. A novella set one year before the main series, The Vanishing House has the team tackling what should be a simple haunted house case. Madelyn, a young agent still recovering from a horrible work accident, badly wants to be back in the field while her friends want to keep her safe. But when one of their own disappears inside the building, the team quickly learns that they’re on their own to bring her back. And Madelyn might hold the key. Then, in North County Paranormal Unit #1, Gabriella, a recent college graduate, gets an invitation to join her cousin at the local branch of the Foundation for Paranormal Studies. Hunting ghosts and monsters isn’t what she had in mind after school. But she needs a job and this one is available, so she takes it. But then her first case goes horribly wrong. Injured and confused in the aftermath, Gabriella is forced to choose sides within the team. All her life, Gabriella's been told to be nice and trust her higher-ups, that by not making waves she’ll be kept safe. But is that the right decision in a situation when it pits her against her team? And what's the price if she chooses incorrectly?