Part of the briefing included familiarizing the men with theenemy uniforms. Private Robert “Lightnin” Hayes had thisrecollection to add: “I remember the day we were assembled in atent for the first time and an officer told us where we were goingto jump. He then paused to watch our reactions. There was a sandtable near by with a facsimile of the terrain on which we weregoing to drop. There were tw...

In his writing, Borges always combined high seriousness with awicked sense of fun. Here he reveals his delight in re-creating (ormaking up) colorful stories from the Orient, the Islamic world, andthe Wild West, as well as his horrified fascination with knifefights, political and personal betrayal, and bloodthirsty revenge.Spark-ling with the sheer exuberant pleasure of story-telling, thiscollection marked the emergence of an utterly distinctive literaryvoice.

“A richly detailed and deeply researched account.” —TheWashington Post “Kohl’s journalist touch…brings a human element to the ratherinhuman stories that came out of the trials…The Witness House is animportant reminder of how, at the end of war, we still have to eatat the same table. Finding a civil way to do so is perhaps the keyto healing.” —NPR.org “Richly detailed and deeply researched… [The Witness House is] a360-degree view of this critical time in history.” —The DenverPost “Drawing on interviews, primary source materials, and recentlydisclosed documents, Kohl introduces a cast of characters who, if not actually realparticipants in the events described, would seem to be the productof a work of fiction.” —Jewish Book World “The history of World War II is so rich in character and detailthat fiction presented alongside often pales in comparison, andthis is especially true for a story so nuanced and taut as Kohlpresents in The Witness House. The cast of characters, setting,

On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slippedbehind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirtyrugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp,among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. Arecent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in thePhilippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time toplan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates thisdaring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfoldsalongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives inthe camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive,defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation,tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkablemission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account ofenormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most tryingconditions.

September 17, 1944. Thousands of Screaming Eagles–101stAirborne Division paratroopers–descend from the sky over Holland,dropping deep behind German lines in a daring daylight mission toseize and secure the road leading north to Arnhem and the Rhine.Their success would allow the Allied army to advance swiftly intoGermany. The Screaming Eagles accomplish their initial objectiveswithin hours, but keeping their sections of “Hell’s Highway” opentakes another seventy-two days of fierce round-the-clock fightingagainst crack German troops and tank divisions. Drawing on interviews with more than six hundred paratroopers,George E. Koskimaki chronicles, with vivid firsthand accounts, thedramatic, never-before-told story of the Screaming Eagles’ valiantstruggle. Hell’s Highway also tellsof the Dutch citizens andmembers of the underground who were liberated after five years ofNazi oppression and never forgot America’s airborne heroes. Thisrenowned force risked their lives for the freedom of a

The heartwarming New York Times bestseller by the author ofThe Greatest Generation "When I wrote about the men and women who came out of theDepression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices inWorld War II and then returned home to begin building the world wehave today ... it was my way of saying thank you. I was notprepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off bythat book. "I had written a book about America, and now America was writingback." Tom Brokaw touched the heart of the nation with his towering #1bestseller The Greatest Generation, a moving tribute to those whogave the world so much -- and who left an enduring legacy ofheroism and grace. The Greatest Generation Speaks was born out ofthe vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from people eager toshare their personal memories and experiences of a momentous timein America's history. These letters and reflections cross time, distance, andgenerations as they give voice to lives forever chan

In 1971 a young French ethnologist named Francois Bizot wastaken prisoner by forces of the Khmer Rouge who kept him chained ina jungle camp for months before releasing him. Four years laterBizot became the intermediary between the now victorious KhmerRouge and the occupants of the besieged French embassy in PhnomPenh, eventually leading a desperate convoy of foreigners to safetyacross the Thai border. Out of those ordeals comes this transfixing book. At its centerlies the relationship between Bizot and his principal captor, a mannamed Douch, who is today known as the most notorious of the KhmerRouge’s torturers but who, for a while, was Bizot’s protector andfriend. Written with the immediacy of a great novel, unsparing inits understanding of evil, The Gate manages to be at oncewrenching and redemptive.

A powerful wartime saga in the bestselling tradition of Flags of Our Fathers, Brothers in Arms recounts theextraordinary story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the firstall-black armored unit to see combat in World War II.

An analysis of the Civil War, drawing on letters and diariesby more than one thousand soldiers, gives voice to the personalreasons behind the war, offering insight into the ideology thatshaped both sides. Reprint. PW.

Anyone who loves scandal, particularly the juicy dish onroyalty, will inhale this gossipy account by British writer Shaw(The Mammoth Book of Tasteless Lists). In a style reminiscent oflow-end tabloids, the author presents a litany of negative andsometimes disgusting details about the personal lives of the menand women who ruled Britain, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Spain,Portugal, Poland and Austria. Leaving the late 20th century mostlybehind (his only mention of Charles and Diana is in theintroduction), the author concentrates instead on royal misbehaviorback to the 1700s. Entertaining overall, many entries areindisputably not for the faint of heart, such as the truly grossstory of Russia's Peter the Great ("`Great' was generally arecognition of power or brute strength, no matter how they lived,how many people they had killed or how repulsive they were"),described by Shaw as a "paranoid sadist." This tsar was analcoholic who tortured people for fun and once forced an attendantto bite into the flesh of a

Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters wasplaying cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendouscrash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like arunaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. Athird firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Ohmy God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons ofmolasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging itscontents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outsettraveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even thebrick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. Itwould be years before a landmark court battle determined who wasresponsible for the disaster.

With a post* describing SEAL efforts in Afghanistan,The Warrior Elite takes you into the toughest, longest, and mostrelentless military training in the world. What does it take to become a Navy SEAL? What makes talented,intelligent young men volunteer for physical punishment, coldwater, and days without sleep? In The Warrior Elite, former NavySEAL Dick Couch documents the process that transforms young meninto warriors. SEAL training is the distillation of the humanspirit, a tradition-bound ordeal that seeks to find men withcharacter, courage, and the burning desire to win at all costs, menwho would rather die than quit.

Around 330 b.c., a remarkable adventurer named Pytheas set outfrom the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille) on theMediterranean Sea to explore the fabled, terrifying lands ofnorthern Europe. Renowned archaeologist Barry Cunliffe herere-creates Pytheas's unprecedented journey, which occurred almost300 years before Julius Caesar landed in Britain. Beginning with aninvaluable pocket history of early Mediterranean civilization,Cunliffe illuminates what Pytheas would have seen andexperienced-the route he likely took to reach Brittany, thenBritain, Iceland, and Denmark; and evidence of the ancient cultureshe would have encountered on shore. The discoveries Pytheas madewould reverberate throughout the civilized world for years to come,and in recounting his extraordinary voyage, Cunliffe chronicles anessential chapter in the history of civilization.

This brief and illuminating account of the ideas of worldorder prevalent in the Elizabethan age and later is anindispensable companion for readers of the great writers of thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries—Shakespeare and the Elizabethandramatists, Donne and Milton, among many others. The basic medievalidea of an ordered Chain of Being is studied by Professor Tillyardin the process of its various transformations by the dynamic spiritof the Renaissance. Among his topics are: Angels; the Stars andFortunes; the Analogy between Macrocosm and Microcosm; the FourElements; the Four Humours; Sympathies; Correspondences; and theCosmic Dance—ideas and symbols which inspirited the minds andimaginations not only of the Elizabethans but of all men of theRenaissance.