January 2012 Non-fiction Releases from Penguin Group

For four hundred years, Americans have wrestled with and fought over two concepts that define the nature of the nation: the proper relation between church and state and between a free individual and the state. These debates began with the extraordinary thought and struggles of Roger Williams, who had an unparalleled understanding of the conflict between a government that justified itself by "reason of state"-i.e. national security-and its perceived "will of God" and the "ancient rights and liberties" of individuals.

This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."
Acclaimed historian John M. Barry explores the development of these fundamental ideas through the story of the man who was the first to link religious freedom to individual liberty, and who created in America the first government and society on earth informed by those beliefs. The story is essential to the continuing debate over how we define the role of religion and political power in modern American life.

Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul coming January 5, 2012 from Viking!

In 1987 writer Whitley Strieber exposed the world to the truth about alien abduction in his landmark memoir, Communion. For the first time in years, Strieber revisits his encounter with alien intelligences-but now dramatically widens his search to explore how "the visitors" connect with today's persistent and globe-spanning reports of anomalous phenomena, such as crop circles, cattle mutilations, UFO sightings, alien abductions, near-death experiences, close encounters, and unexplained bodily implants.
In his magisterial style, Strieber contextualizes these bizarre and unsettling reports with his own childhood memories of strange schools, sinister experiments, and family secrets. In exploring today's most convincing cases of unexplained phenomena, Strieber reasons that they are not unrelated events. Nor are they the result of mass delusion. In some of his most persuasive writing, Strieber argues that the wave of mysterious episodes marks a transition that humanity is undergoing right now. Against all conscious understanding, we are experiencing a broadened awareness of dimensions of reality that exist beyond our current perceptions.

Solving the Communion Enigma: What Is To Come coming January 5, 2012 from Tarcher!

At age thirty-four, Heather Donahue's life went to pot. Literally. After starring in The Blair Witch Project-the tiny indie film- turned-blockbuster that Roger Ebert named one of the ten Most Influential Movies of the Century-she became a household name. But the afterglow of the movie waned, her acting career stalled, and she feared the day her epitaph would read, "Here Lies the Girl from The Blair Witch Project." Determined to start a new life, she left most remnants of the old one in the desert, meditated on things for a few days, then followed her brand-new boyfriend to her brand-new life- growing pot.

Growgirl is Heather's year living in Nuggettown, California, among "The Community"-a collection of growers, their "pot wives," and the reason for it all: "The Girls." They help one another build grow rooms, tend to their crops, and provide a glimpse into this rarely seen world that's currently the source of much intrigue and discussion. Though her relationship hits rocky territory, Heather's new life brings unexpected solace, and she's surprised to finally find normalcy in the least likely of places.

Growgirl coming January 5, 2012 from Gotham!

General Stanley McChrystal, the innovative, forward-thinking commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was living large. He was better known to some as Big Stan, M4, Stan, and his loyal staff liked to call him a "rock star." During a spring 2010 trip across Europe to garner additional allied help for the war effort, McChrystal was accompanied by journalist Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone. For days, Hastings looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration for what they saw as a lack of leadership. When Hastings's piece appeared a few months later, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was ordered to Washington, where he was fired unceremoniously.

In The Operators, Hastings picks up where his Rolling Stone coup ended. He gives us a shocking behind-the-scenes portrait of our military commanders, their high-stakes maneuvers and often bitter bureaucratic infighting. Hastings takes us on patrol missions in the Afghan hinterlands, to late-night bull sessions of senior military advisors, to hotel bars where spies and expensive hookers participate in nation-building gone awry. And as he weighs the merits and failings of old-school generals and the so-called COINdinistas-the counterintelligence experts-Hastings draws back the curtain on a hellish complexity and, he fears, an unwinnable war.

The Operators: The Wild and Terrfying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan coming January 5, 2012 from Blue Rider Press!

For more new titles coming from Penguin Group visit them online at http://us.penguingroup.com/!