During World War Two, 131 German cities and towns weretargeted by Allied bombs, a good number almost entirely flattened.Six hundred thousand German civilians died—a figure twice that ofall American war casualties. Seven and a half million Germans wereleft homeless. Given the astonishing scope of the devastation, W.G. Sebald asks, why does the subject occupy so little space inGermany’s cultural memory? On the Natural History of Destructionprobes deeply into this ominous silence.
Known as "the GI's general" and "Lightning Joe," General J.Lawton Collins played no less than a global part in the Alliedvictory of World War II. Here, for the first time, is the story of an American hero andpatriot- a man who earned the admiration of the grunts with whom heshared foxholes and the respect of the highest-ranking generals.Collins was a true leader of men with his iron-clad devotion toduty, his genuine concern for those under his command, and hisseemingly unending drive to defend his nation against allenemies-no matter where the fight took him...
The Roman Empire did not meet its end when barbarians sackedthe City of Seven Hills, but rather a thousand years later with thefall of Constantinople, capital of the surviving Eastern Empire.The Ottoman Turks who conquered the city aslo known to us asByzantium would force a tense centruy of conflict in theMediterranean culminating in the famous Battle of Lepanto. Thefirst book in a triptych depicting this monumental confrontationbetween a Muslim empire and Christendom, The Fall of Constantinoplebrilliantly captures a defning moment in the two creeds' historytoo often eclipsed by the Crusades.
"In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, toNormandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversaryof D-Day, the massive and daring Allied invasion of Europe thatmarked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.There, I underwent a life-changing experience. As I walked thebeaches with the American veterans who had returned for thisanniversary, men in their sixties and seventies, and listened totheir stories, I was deeply moved and profoundly grateful for allthey had done. Ten years later, I returned to Normandy for thefiftieth anniversary of the invasion, and by then I had come tounderstand what this generation of Americans meant to history. Itis, I believe, the greatest generation any society has everproduced." In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tellthrough the stories of individual men and women the story of ageneration, America's citizen heroes and heroines who came of ageduring the Great Depression and the Second World War and went
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, set sail forEgypt with 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection ofscholars, artists, and scientists to establish an eastern empire.He saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians fromoppression. But Napoleon wasn’t the first—nor the last—whotragically misunderstood Muslim culture. Marching across seeminglyendless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, pushed to the limitsof human endurance, his men would be plagued by mirages, suicides,and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor woulddegenerate into chaos. And yet his grand failure also yielded atreasure trove of knowledge that paved the way for modernEgyptology—and it tempered the complex leader who believed himselfdestined to conquer the world.
Only now can the full scope of the war in the Pacific be fullyunderstood. Historian Ronald Spector, drawing on newly declassifiedintelligence files, an abundance of British and American archivalmaterial. Japanese scholarship and documents, and research andmemoirs of scholarly and military men, has written a stunning,complete and up-to-date history of the conflict.
This streamlined revision of the breakthrough bestseller byrenowned child-development expert Dr. Harvey Karp will do even moreto help busy parents survive the “terrible twos” andbeyond.... In one of the most revolutionary advances in parenting of thepast twenty-five years, Dr. Karp revealed that toddlers often actlike uncivilized little cavemen, with a primitive way of thinkingand communicating that is all their own. In this revised edition ofhis parenting classic, Dr. Karp has made his innovative approacheasier to learn—and put into action—than ever before. Combining his trademark tools of Toddler-ese and the Fast-FoodRule with a highly effective new green light/yellow light/red lightmethod for molding toddler behavior, Dr. Karp provides fastsolutions for today’s busy and stressed parents. As you discoverways to boost your child’s good (green light) behavior, curb hisannoying (yellow light) behavior, and immediately stop hisunacceptable (red light) behavior you will learn how t
This riveting work of investigative reporting and historyexposes classified government projects to build gravity-defyingaircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flyingsaucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy governmentscientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originallyspearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another highpriority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the firsttime, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in theintelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidencethat tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove aspowerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation thata "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can bereplicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation toharness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to buildmilitary planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the mostdeadly weaponry the wo
A war that started under questionable pretexts. A presidentwho is convinced of his country’s might and right. A military andpolitical stalemate with United States troops occupying a foreignland against a stubborn and deadly insurgency. The time is the 1840s. The enemy is Mexico. And the war is one ofthe least known and most important in both Mexican and UnitedStates history—a war that really began much earlier and whoseconsequences still echo today. Acclaimed historian David A. Clarypresents this epic struggle for a continent for the first time fromboth sides, using original Mexican and North Americansources. To Mexico, the yanqui illegals pouring into her territories ofTexas and California threatened Mexican sovereignty and security.To North Americans, they manifested their destiny to rule thecontinent. Two nations, each raising an eagle as her standard,blustered and blundered into a war because no one on either sidewas brave enough to resist the march into it. In Eagles and Empi
At once an informed overview for general-interest readers anda superb resource for serious buffs, this extraordinary, gloriouslyillustrated volume is sure to become one of the fundamental booksin any Civil War library. Its features include a dramatic narrativepacked with eyewitness accounts and hundreds of rare photographs,artifacts, and period illustrations. Evocative sidebars, detailedmaps, and timelines add to the reference-ready quality of thetext. From John Brown's raid to Reconstruction, Eyewitness to the CivilWar presents a clear, comprehensive discussion that addresses everymilitary, political, and social aspect of this crucial period.In-depth de*ions of campaigns and battles in all theaters ofwar are accompanied by a thorough evaluation of the nonmilitaryelements of the struggle between North and South. In their ownwords, commanders and common soldiers in both armies tell of lifeon the battlefield and behind the lines, while letters from wives,mothers, and sisters provide a portrait of the hom
Writing with passion and intelligence, Said retraces thePalestinian Hejira, its disastrous flirtation with Saddam Hussein,and its ambitious peace accord with Israel. Said demolishes Westernstereotypes about the Muslim world and Islam's illusions aboutitself, leaving a masterly synthesis of scholarship and polemicwith the power to redefine the debate over the Middle East.
Experimentation with armored cars by the American militarygoes back to 1898. Today, the armored car is once again back infavor as the Marine Corps and U.S. Army look for economicalsolutions for the third-world battlefields of today andtomorrow.
In The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson named With theOld Breed one of the top five books on epic twentieth-centurybattles. Studs Terkel interviewed the author for his definitiveoral history, The Good War. Now E. B. Sledge’s acclaimedfirst-person account of fighting at Peleliu and Okinawa returns tothrill, edify, and inspire a new generation. An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of suchheroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledgebecame part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division–3d Battalion,5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to bethrown into the battle of Peleliu, where “the world was a nightmareof flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.” By the time Sledgehit the hell of Okinawa, he was a combat vet, still filled withfear but no longer with panic. Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the NewTestament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity andsearing honesty the experience of a soldier
This book traces the history of Europe from the end of WorldWar II to 1992, the scheduled reunification of Western Europe. Itexamines the East European revolution of 1989 and the changes inthe Soviet Union, as well as assessing the aftermath of the ColdWar, the post-war period that most commentators feel has come to anend. The unification of Western Europe and the disintegration ofthe Soviet empire, the author argues, doesn't mark the end ofhistory, as some claim, but the beginning of another era, of a newEurope, one quite unlike, yet in some ways parallel to the Europethat presided over the world at the end of the previouscentury.
"A comprehensive look at WMD's antecedents, from flamethrowersof the Peloponnesian War to plague-bearing booby traps.... Rich andentertaining." -Newsweek Featuring a new introduction by the author. Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scalespreading of disease... are these terrifying agents and implementsof warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. Weapons ofbiological and chemical warfare have been in use for thousands ofyears, and Greek Fire, Poison Arrows Scorpion Bombs, AdrienneMayor's fascinating exploration of the origins of biological andunethical warfare draws extraordinary connections between themythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts ofHerodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war andterrorism. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows Scorpion Bombs will catapultreaders into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war andmythic treachery-and their devastating consequences.
The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the middleof the Indonesian archipelago--remote, tranquil, and now largelyignored. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, however,Run's harvest of nutmeg turned it into the most lucrative of theSpice Islands, precipitating a fierce and bloody battle between theall-powerful Dutch East India Company and a small band of ragtagBritish adventurers led by the intrepid Nathaniel Courthope. Theoutcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals inhistory: Britain ceded Run to Holland, but in return was givenanother small island, Manhattan. A brilliant adventure story of unthinkable hardship and savagery,the navigation of uncharted waters, and the exploitation of newworlds, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a remarkable chapter in the historyof the colonial powers. "An exciting account of the dangerous voyages, bizarretransactions and desperate battles of the Spice Wars."--TheWashington Post "Fascinating . . . an epic tale, told superbly
In Patton, Montgomery, Rommel , one of Britain's mostaccomplished military scholars presents an unprecedented study ofthe land war in the North African and European theaters, as well astheir chief commanders—three men who also happened to be the mostcompelling dramatis personae of World War II. Beyond spellbinding depictions of pivotal confrontations at ElAlamein, Monte Cassino, and the Ardennes forest, author-scholarTerry Brighton illuminates the personal motivations and historicalevents that propelled the three men's careers: how Patton's,Montgomery's, and Rommel's Great War experiences helped to moldtheir style of command—and how, exactly, they managed to applytheir arguably megalomaniacal personalities (and hithertounrecognized political acumen and tact) to advance their careersand strategic vision. Opening new avenues of inquiry into the lives and careers of threemen widely profiled by scholars and popular historians alike,Brighton definitively answers numerous lingering and controversialquestion
The distinguished historian of the Jewish people, Howard M.Sachar, gives us a comprehensive and enthralling chronicle of theachievements and traumas of the Jews over the last four hundredyears. Tracking their fate from Western Europe’s age of mercantilism inthe seventeenth century to the post-Soviet and post-imperialistIslamic upheavals of the twenty-first century, Sachar applies hisrenowned narrative skill to the central role of the Jews in many ofthe most impressive achievements of modern civilization: whether inthe rise of economic capitalism or of political socialism; in thediscoveries of theoretical physics or applied medicine; in “higher”literary criticism or mass communication and popularentertainment. As his account unfolds and moves from epoch to epoch, fromcontinent to continent, from Europe to the Americas and the MiddleEast, Sachar evaluates communities that, until lately, have beenunderestimated in the perspective of Jewish and world history—amongthem, Jews of Sephardic
