As a young boy he re-enacted historic battles with toysoldiers, as a soldier he saw action on three continents, and asthe Prime Minister only a direct edict from King George VI couldkeep him from joining the troops on D-Day. Churchill's War Lab reveals how Churchill's passion for militaryhistory, his unique leadership style, and his patronization ofradical new ideas would lead to new technology and new tactics thatwould save lives and enable an Allied victory. No war generatedmore incredible theories, more technical advances, more scientificleaps, or more pioneering work that lay the foundation for thepost-war computer revolution. And it was Churchill's doggeddetermination and enthusiasm for revolutionary ideas that fuelledthis extraordinary outpouring of British genius. From the coauthorof Cold War comes an exciting new take on Churchill's warleadership and the story of a complex, powerful and inventive warleader.

An award-winning historian's sweeping newinterpretation of the African American experience. In this masterful account, Ira Berlin, one of the nation's mostdistinguished historians, offers a revolutionary-and sure to becontroversial-new view of African American history. In The Makingof African America , Berlin challenges the traditional presentationof a linear, progressive history from slavery to freedom. Instead,he puts forth the idea that four great migrations, between theseventeenth and twenty-first centuries, lie at the heart of blackAmerican culture and its development. With an engrossing,accessible narrative, Berlin traces the transit from Africa toAmerica, Virginia to Alabama, Biloxi to Chicago, Lagos to theBronx, and in the process finds the essence of black Americanlife.

In this gripping collection of tragic moments from ournation's past, Ace Collins tells the gripping real-life tales ofmen, women, and children trapped in situations beyond theircontrol. Culled from documents, interviews with key participants,and news stories of the day, They Thought They Were Safe chroniclesthe harrowing human drama of individuals facing life at its mostextreme. Infused with danger and immediacy, these stories place readers inthe middle of harrowing circumstances as they unfold. Putting ahuman face on these tragic events, Collins offers keen insightsinto people's thoughts, fears, and emotions as they battle againstthe forces of nature and human error. From the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 to the Coconut Grove Fire of'42 . . . from the Great Nashville Train Wreck of 1918 to 1953'sWaco Tornado, here are the famous as well as the forgotten eventsthat illustrate our will to survive in the face of certaindoom.

Produced with the Smithsonian Institution and released inconjunction with the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, The Civil War is the definitive visual history to one of themost defining moments in our country's history. Comprehensivetimelines, revealing first-person accounts by soldiers andcivilians, key political and military leaders, as well asexaminations of broader topics, such as transportation, theeconomy, and the treatment of wounded soldiers, make The CivilWar a must-have for anyone interested in the history of theCivil War.

Nelson Lankford draws upon Civil War-era diaries, letters,memoirs, and newspaper reports to vividly recapture the experiencesof the men and women, both black and white, who witnessed thetumultuous fall of Richmond. In April 1865 General Robert E. Leerealized that his army must retreat from the Confederate capitaland that Jefferson Davis's government must flee. As the Southernsoldiers moved out they set the city on fire, leaving a blazingruin to greet the entering Union troops. The city's fall ushered inthe birth of the modern United States. Lankford's exploration ofthis pivotal event is at once an authoritative work of history anda stunning piece of dramatic prose.

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating andoriginal exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able tofight to the bitter end of World War II. Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lostWorld War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to theequally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out aslong as it did. The Third Reich did not surrender until Germany hadbeen left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Even in thenear-apocalyptic final months, when the war was plainly lost, theNazis refused to sue for peace. Historically, this is extremelyrare. Drawing on original testimony from ordinary Germans andarch-Nazis alike, award-winning historian Ian Kershaw explores thisfascinating question in a gripping and focused narrative thatbegins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with theGerman capitulation in May 1945. Hitler, desperate to avoid arepeat of the "disgraceful" German surrender in 1918, was of coursecritical to t

The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginouslyexciting…vibrantly imagined….[Krauss is] a prodigioustalent."—Janet Maslin, New York Times A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old mansearching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowedmother's loneliness. Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator eachevening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. Butlife wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polishvillage where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. Andthough Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulouscircumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after acharacter in that very book. And although she has her handsfull—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be theMessiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in theWild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save herfamily. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Kraussgradually draws

There is no story in twentieth-century history more important tounderstand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse ofcivilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich,Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians,has written the definitive account for our time. A masterfulsynthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated withimportant new research and interpretations, Evans’s historyrestores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler andthe Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the ThirdReich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book bywhich all others on the subject will be judged.

Born in the wake of World War II, RAND quickly became thecreator of America’s anti-Soviet nuclear strategy. A magnet for thebest and the brightest, its ranks included Cold War luminaries suchas Albert Wohlstetter, Bernard Brodie, and Herman Kahn, whoarguably saved us from nuclear annihilation and unquestionablycreated Eisenhower’s "military-industrial complex." In the Kennedyera, RAND analysts and their theories of rational warfare steeredour conduct in Vietnam. Those same theories drove our invasion ofIraq forty-five years later, championed by RAND affiliated actorssuch as Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Zalmay Khalilzad. ButRAND’s greatest contribution might be its least known: rationalchoice theory, a model explaining all human behavior throughself-interest. Through it RAND sparked the Reagan-ledtransformation of our social and economic system but also unleasheda resurgence of precisely the forces whose existence it denied --religion, patriotism, tribalism. With Soldiers of Reason, Alex Abella

This is a compendium of the weapons of war that may accompanyour soldiers in the near and far future, as well as an insightfullook at the soldier, sailor, and airman of today and tomorrow. Allmanner of military hardware is covered, as well as informationabout cutting-edge technology that will become standard in weaponsto come, the possibility of robotic soldiers, vehicles, protectivearmor, and the prospects of fighting a war in both space andcyberspace.

An absorbing and comprehensive work, INDIAN WARS recounts theviolent conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers thatlasted more than three hundred years, the effects of which stillresonate today. Here, the widely respected historians Robert Utleyand Wilcomb Washburn examine both small battles and major wars --from the Native rebellion of 1492, to Crazy Horse and the SiouxWar, to the massacre at Wounded Knee. This volume contains a newintroduction by Robert Utley.

A visually stunning collection that brings the soldiers'experience to vivid photographic life- includes a DVD. The Aviation Photographic Unit was a military unit unlike anyother in World War II. Founded and led by legendary photographerEdward Steichen, the photographers in this unit gave Americans onthe home front memorable and dramatic images of the people fightingthe Navy's battles in the Pacific theater. Beginning with just halfa dozen intrepid shutterbugs and expanding to ten battle-seasonedphotographers, the unit covered everything from early aircraftraids to amphibious landings to the surrender in Tokyo Bay. With anestimated 14,000 images in the collection of the National Archives,the work of this talented photographic unit is historicallysignificant not only as a visual record of the war, but also forits influence on generations of postwar photographers. Faces of Waris a tribute to the vision of Edward Steichen, as well as the menwho served under him, and most importantly to their subjects

The popular primer to Latino life and culture—updatedfor 2008 Latinos represent the fastest-growing ethnic population in theUnited States. In an accessible and entertainingquestion-and-answer format, this completely revised 2008 editionprovides the most current perspective on Latino history in themaking, including: ? New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s announced candidacy for the2008 presidential election ? Ugly Betty —the hit ABC TV show based on the Latinotelenovela phenomenon ? The number of Latino players in Major League baseball surpassingthe 25 percent mark ? Immigration legislation and the battle over the Mexicanborder ? The state of Castro’s health and what it means for Cuba More than ever, this concise yet comprehensive reference guide isthe ideal introduction to the vast and varied history and cultureof this multifaceted ethnic group.

Did Eisenhower avoid a showdown with Stalin by not takingBerlin before the Soviets? What might have happened if JFK hadn'tbeen assassinated? This new volume in the widely praised seriespresents fascinating "what if..." scenarios by such prominenthistorians as: Robert Dallek, Caleb Carr, Antony Beevor, JohnLukacs, Jay Winick, Thomas Fleming, Tom Wicker, Theodore Rabb,Victor David Hansen, Cecelia Holland, Andrew Roberts, Ted Morgan,George Feifer, Robert L. O'Connell, Lawrence Malkin, and John F.Stacks. Included are two essential bonus essays reprinted from theoriginal New York Times bestseller What If? (tm)-DavidMcCullough imagines Washington's disastrous defeat at the Battle ofLong Island, and James McPherson envisions Lee's successfulinvasion of the North in 1862.

Immediately after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt sought to restore the honor of the UnitedStates with a dramatic act of vengeance: a retaliatory bombing raidon Tokyo. On April 18, 1942, eighty brave young men, led by thefamous daredevil Jimmy Doolittle, took off from a navy carrier inthe mid-Pacific on what everyone regarded as a suicide mission butinstead became a resounding American victory and helped turn thetide of the war. The First Heroes is the story of thatmission. Meticulously researched and based on interviews withtwenty of the surviving Tokyo Raiders, this is a true account thatalmost defies belief, a tremendous human drama of great personalcourage, and a powerful reminder that ordinary people, when facedwith extraordinary circumstances, can rise to the challenge ofhistory.

The first complete history of the Caribbean islands--updatedthrough the year 2000. This comprehensive volume takes the reader and student throughmore than five hundred years of Caribbean history, beginning withColumbus's arrival in the Bahamas in 1492. A Brief History of theCaribbean traces the people and events that have marked thisconstantly shifting region, encompassing everything from economicbooms and busts to epidemics, wars, and revolutions, and bringingto life such important figures as Sir Francis Drake, Blackbeard,Toussaint Louverture, Fidel Castro, the Duvaliers, andJean-Bertrand Aristide. This superbly written history, revised and updated, with newchapters that reflect the islands' most recent social, economic,and political developments, is a work of impeccable scholarship.Featuring maps, charts, tables, and photographs, it remains theideal guide to the region and its people. "A veritable sourcebook of information . . . analysis,de*ion, interpretation . . . interesting and

Prior to gaining international renown for his definitivebiography of Che Guevara and first-hand reporting on the war inIraq for the New Yorker , Jon Lee Anderson wrote Guerrillas , a pioneering account of five diverse insurgentmovements around the world—the mujahedin of Afghanistan, the FMLNof El Salvador, the Karen of Burma, the Polisario of WesternSahara, and a group of young Palestinians fighting against Israelin the Gaza Strip. Making the most of unprecedented, direct accessto his subjects, Anderson combines powerful, firsthand storytellingwith balanced, penetrating analysis of each situation. A work ofphenomenal range, analytical acuity, and human empathy, Guerrillas amply demonstrates why Jon Lee Anderson is one ofour most important chroniclers of societies in crisis.

The Marines? march up to Baghdad, Sherman?s trail of destructionin Georgia, an army of Missouri volunteers trekking across theGreat Plains to Mexico?this wide-ranging and imaginative book tellsfor the first time the story of how American armies from the sandsof Iraq to the halls of the Montezuma have followed figuratively inthe footsteps of the original Anabasis, the famous Greek march intothe interior of Asia made by Xenophon and the Ten Thousand in 400BC. Starting with the Iraq War, Tim Rood turns back to the conquest ofthe American West and to the Civil War, showing how one of the mostfamous episodes in classical antiquity was first appropriated inthe name of military expansion, and then used to expressconflicting responses to the most controversial campaign of theCivil War. Allusions to Xenophon in speeches, newspaper reports,and military memoirs are throughout read against Xenophon?s ownstory.

On 2 August 1944, Winston Churchill mocked Adolf Hitler in theHouse of Commons by the rank he had reached in the First World War.'Russian success has been somewhat aided by the strategy of HerrHitler, of Corporal Hitler', Churchill jibed. 'Even military idiotsfind it difficult not to see some faults in his actions'. AndrewRoberts' previous book "Masters and Commanders" studied thecreation of Allied grand strategy; "The Storm of War" now analyzeshow Axis strategy evolved. Examining the Second World War on everyfront, Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-makingprocess and a different strategy, the Axis might even have won.Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler afterthe war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their formerFuhrer once he was safely beyond defending himself? The book isfull of illuminating sidelights on the principle actors that bringtheir characters and the ways in which they reached decisions intofresh focus.

Two famous, firsthand accounts of the holy war in theMiddle Ages Originally composed in Old French, thetwo chronicles brought together here offer some of the most vividand reliable accounts of the Crusades from a Western perspective.Villehardouin's Conquest of Constantinople , distinguished byits simplicity and lucidity, recounts the controversial FourthCrusade, which descended into an all-out attack on the E asternChristians of Byzantium. In Life of Saint Louis , Joinvilledraws on his close attachment to King Louis IX of France to recallhis campaigning in the Holy Land. Together these narrativescomprise a fascinating window on events that, for all theirremoteness, offer startling similarities to our own age.

In this widely praised history of an infamous institution,award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into thedarkest corners of the British and American slave ships of theeighteenth century. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritimearchives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, TheSlave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations,reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history:the “floating dungeons” at the forefront of the birth of AfricanAmerican culture.

An updated edition of this classic collection of more than 500years of Native American history Revised to bring this important chronicle to the end of themillennium, anthropologist Peter Nabokov presents a history ofNative American and white relations as seen though Indian eyes andtold through Indian voices. Beginning with the Indians' firstencounters with European explorers, traders, missionaries,settlers, and soldiers to the challenges confronting NativeAmerican culture today, Native American Testimony is a series ofpowerful and moving documents spanning five hundred years ofinterchange between the two peoples. Drawing from a wide range ofsources--traditional narratives, Indian autobiographies, governmenttran*s, firsthand interviews, and more--Nabokov has assembleda remarkably rich and vivid collection, representing nothing lessthan an alternate history of North America. * Updated with new material on Native Americans facing thetwenty-first century "A strong and moving reminder of a