The effects of war refuse to remain local: they persistthrough the centuries, sometimes in unlikely ways far removed fromthe military arena. In Ripples of Battle , the acclaimed historianVictor Davis Hanson weaves wide-ranging military and culturalhistory with his unparalleled gift for battle narrative as heilluminates the centrality of war in the human experience. The Athenian defeat at Delium in 424 BC brought tacticalinnovations to infantry fighting; it also assured the influence ofthe philosophy of Socrates, who fought well in the battle. Nearlytwenty-three hundred years later, the carnage at Shiloh and thedeath of the brilliant Southern strategist Albert Sidney Johnsoninspired a sense of fateful tragedy that would endure and stymieSouthern culture for decades. The Northern victory would alsobolster the reputation of William Tecumseh Sherman, and inspire LewWallace to pen the classic Ben Hur . And, perhaps most resonant forour time, the agony of Okinawa spurred the Japanese towardstate-sanct

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On 22 June 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union, onehundred fifty divisions advancing on three axes in a surpriseattack that overwhelmed and destroyed whatever opposition theRussians were able to muster. The German High Command was under theimpression that the Red Army could be destroyed west of the DneprRiver and that there would be no need for conducting operations incold, snow, and mud. They were wrong. In reality, the extreme conditions of the German war in Russiawere so brutal that past experiences simply paled before them.Everything in Russia--the land, the weather, the distances, andabove all the people--was harder, harsher, more unforgiving, andmore deadly than anything the German soldier had ever facedbefore. Based on the recollections of four veteran German commanders ofthose battles, FIGHTING IN HELL describes in detail what happenedwhen the world's best-publicized "supermen" met the world's mostbrutal fighting. It is not a tale for the squeamish.

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

A firsthand look at the Battle of Gettysburg offers Union andConfederate viewpoints of the conflict, recreating the three daysand discussing the decisions of Lee, Longstreet, and Meade.Reprint.

The acclaimed author of A Prayer for the Dying bringsall his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedyand heroism-the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. Halfway through a midsummer afternoon performance, RinglingBrothers Barnum and Bailey Circus's big top caught fire. The tenthad been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; inseconds it was burning out of control, and more than 8,000 peoplewere trapped inside. Drawing on interviews with hundreds ofsurvivors, O'Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events andilluminates the psychological oddities of human behavior understress: the mad scramble for the exits; the hero who tossed dozensof children to safety before being trampled to death. Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The CircusFire is history at its most compelling.

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and SebastianJunger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventurein which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a greathistorical mystery–and make history themselves. For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was morethan a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents,braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigatingthrough wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselvesto their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than oncein the rusting hulks of sunken ships. But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers wereprepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in thefrigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: aWorld War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wastelandof twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried underdecades of accumulated sediment. No identifying marks were visible on

The sinking of the Dorchester in the icy waters offGreenland shortly after midnight on February 3, 1942, was one ofthe worst sea disasters of World War II. It was also the occasionof an astounding feat of heroism—and faith. As water gushed through a hole made by a German torpedo, fourchaplains—members of different faiths but linked by bonds offriendship and devotion—moved quietly among the men onboard.Preaching bravery, the chaplains distributed life jackets,including their own. In the end, these four men went down with theship, their arms linked in spiritual solidarity, their voicesraised in prayer. In this spellbinding narrative, award-winningauthor and journalist Dan Kurzman tells the story of these heroesand the faith—in God and in country—that they shared. They were about as different as four American clergymen could be.George Lansing Fox (Methodist), wounded and decorated in World WarI, loved his family and his Vermont congregation—yet he re-enlistedas soon as he heard about Pearl Harbo

When he was a student in Paris, Truong Nhu Tang met Ho ChiMinh. Later he fought in the Vietnamese jungle and emerged as oneof the major figures in the "fight for liberation" -- and one ofthe most determined adversaries of the United States. He became theVietcong's Minister of Justice, but at the end of the war he fledthe country in disillusionment and despair. He now lives in exilein Paris, the highest level official to have defected from Vietnamto the West. This is his candid, revealing and unforgettableautobiography.

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.

《利玛窦》是一个人的传奇，更是一个时代的剪影。十六世纪地理大发现之后.中西文化交流进入了一个全新的时代。一五八三年.意大利传教士利玛窦运用“文化适应”的传教策略，成功地进入了中国内地，从而揭开了明末清初中西文化交流的高潮。《利玛窦》讲述的就是这位传奇人物为了实现他在晚明中国传教的梦想，不断认识、不断适应中国文化的故事。面对当今中西文化交流的诸多困惑，把眼光放长一点，回到利玛窦时代，来重新认识与思考中西文化的异同.这可以让我们用一种历史的、客观的眼光来给传统文化定位，用开放的、发展的眼光来看待文化交流与冲突。

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

Propelled by the discovery of an ancient book and a cache ofyellowing letters, a young woman plunges into a labyrinth where thesecrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: thedark reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that mayhave kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for thethe truth becomes an adventure of monumental propportions, takingus from monasteries and dusty libraries to the captitals of EasternEurope - in a feat of storytelling so rich, so exciting, sosuspenseful that it has enthralled readers around he world.

《中国宫殿史（修订本）》是在原版的基础上增补和修订而成的，该书选用新材料，吸纳新成果，求真求实，探索中国宫殿的发展轨迹，为我们展示了一幅中国宫殿的新画卷。全书共分10个章节，具体内容包括传说时代的宫室及夏商宫殿、周秦的都城与宫殿、两汉宫室、魏晋南北朝的都城与宫殿、隋唐宫殿等。《中国宫殿史》曾于1995年在初版，迄今已十余年了。十余年来。有关的文物考古材料又有新的发现，其研究成果亦堪称丰硕。

Here is an oral history of the Vietnam War by thirty-threeAmerican soldiers who fought it. A 1983 American Book Awardnominee.

《中国宫殿史（修订本）》是在原版的基础上增补和修订而成的，该书选用新材料，吸纳新成果，求真求实，探索中国宫殿的发展轨迹，为我们展示了一幅中国宫殿的新画卷。全书共分10个章节，具体内容包括传说时代的宫室及夏商宫殿、周秦的都城与宫殿、两汉宫室、魏晋南北朝的都城与宫殿、隋唐宫殿等。《中国宫殿史》曾于1995年在初版，迄今已十余年了。十余年来。有关的文物考古材料又有新的发现，其研究成果亦堪称丰硕。

A harrowing portrait of a largely forgotten campaign thatpushed one battalion to the limits of human suffering. Despite their lack of jungle training, the 32nd Division’s “GhostMountain Boys” were assigned the most grueling mission of theentire Pacific campaign in World War II: to march over the10,000-foot Owen Stanley Mountains to protect the right flank ofthe Australian army during the battle for New Guinea. Reminiscentof the classics like Band of Brothers and The Things They Carried,The Ghost Mountain Boys is part war diary, part extreme-adventuretale, and—through letters, journals, and interviews—part biographyof a group of men who fought to survive in an environment every bitas fierce as the enemy they faced. Theirs is one of the greatuntold stories of the war. “Superb.” —Chicago Sun-Times “Campbell started out with history, but in the end he has writtena tale of survival and courage of near-mythic proportions.” —America in WWII magazine