Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm thatswept the world remains the definitive history of the Second WorldWar. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep andfor its sense of personal involvement, it is universallyacknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring,compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize forliterature. The Grand Alliance recounts the momentous events of1941 surrounding America's entry into the War and Hitler's march onRussia the continuing onslaught on British civilians during theBlitz, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the alliance betweenBritain and America that shaped the outcome of the War.
A riveting exploration of the world's most highly trained military units, from the ancient Spartans to modern-day US Navy SEALs, this is the definitive guide to the world's special military forces. 作者简介: Hugh McManners is a former commando and the author of many books, including Scars of War, and several successful DK titles, including The Outdoor Training Manual, Backpackers Handbook, and The Complete Wilderness Training Book.
The Politics of Upheaval, 1935-1936, volume three of PulitzerPrize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr."sAge of Roosevelt series, concentrates on the turbulent concludingyears of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term. A measure of economicrecovery revived political conflict and emboldened FDR's critics todenounce "that man in the White house." To his left were demagoguesHuey Long, Father Coughlin, and Dr. Townsend. To his right were thechampions of the old order ex-president Herbert Hoover, theAmerican Liberty League, and the august Supreme Court. For a time,the New Deal seemed to lose its momentum. But in 1935 FDR ralliedand produced a legislative record even more impressive than theHundred Days of 1933 a set of statutes that transformed the socialand economic landscape of American life. In 1936 FDR coasted toreelection on a landslide. Schlesinger has his usual touch withcolorful personalities and draws a warmly sympathetic portrait ofAlf M. Landon, the Republican candidate of 1936.
The political memoiras rousing adventure story—a sizzling account of a life lived inthe thick of every important struggle of the era. April 1973: snow falls thick and fast on the Badlands ofSouth Dakota. It has been more than five weeks since protestingSioux Indians seized their historic village of Wounded Knee, andthe FBI shows no signs of abandoning its siege. When Bill Zimmermanis asked to coordinate an airlift of desperately needed food andmedical supplies, he cannot refuse; flying through gunfire and amechanical malfunction, he carries out a daring dawn raid andsuccess?0?2fully parachutes 1,500 pounds of food into the village.The drop breaks the FBI siege, and assures an Indian victory. This was not the first—or last—time Bill Zimmerman put his life atrisk for the greater social good. In this extraordi?0?2nary memoir,Zimmerman takes us into the hearts and minds of those making thesocial revolution of the sixties. He writes about registering blackvoters in deepest, most racist Mississippi; marc
Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm thatswept the world remains the definitive history of the Second WorldWar. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep andfor its sense of personal involvement, it is universallyacknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring,compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize forliterature. Triumph and Tragedy recounts the dramatic months as theWar drew to a close the Normandy landings, the liberation ofWestern Europe, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and thesurrender of Germany and Japan.
In this landmark work of history, the National BookAward—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group ofgreatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals–Hamilton, Burr,Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–confronted theoverwhelming challenges before them to set the course for ournation. The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790.During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers–re-examinedhere as Founding Brothers–combined the ideals of the Declaration ofIndependence with the content of the Constitution to create thepractical workings of our government. Through an analysis of sixfascinating episodes–Hamilton and Burr’s deadly duel, Washington’sprecedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams’ administration andpolitical partnership with his wife, the debate about where toplace the capital, Franklin’s attempt to force Congress to confrontthe issue of slavery and Madison’s attempts to block him, andJefferson and Adams’ famous correspon
For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller has played acentral role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace as anadvisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national securityadvisors. Without partisanship or finger-pointing, Miller recordswhat went right, what went wrong, and how we got where we aretoday. Here is a look at the peace process from a place at thenegotiation table, filled with behind-the-scenes strategy, colorfulanecdotes and equally colorful characters, and new interviews withpresidents, secretaries of state, and key Arab and Israelileaders. Honest, critical, and often controversial, Miller’s insider’saccount offers a brilliant new analysis of the problem ofArab-Israeli peace and how it still might be solved.
In The Fatal Englishman, his first work of nonfiction,Sebastian Faulks explores the lives of three remarkable men. Eachhad the seeds of greatness; each was a beacon to his generation andleft something of value behind; yet each one died tragicallyyoung. Christopher Wood, only twenty-nine when he killed himself, was apainter who lived most of his short life in the beau monde of 1920sParis, where his charm, good looks, and the dissolute life thatfollowed them sometimes frustrated his ambition and achievement asan artist. Richard Hillary was a WWII fighter pilot who wrote a classicaccount of his experiences, The Last Enemy, but died in a mysterious trainingaccident while defying doctor’s orders to stay grounded afterhorrific burn injuries; he was twenty-three. Jeremy Wolfenden, hailed by his contemporaries as the brightestEnglishman of his generation, rejected the call of academia to become a hackjournalist in Cold War Moscow. A spy, alcoholic, and openhomosexual at a time when su
About national and international power in the "modern" or PostRenaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen andfallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "newmonarchies" in W. Europe.
Now the inspiration for the CBS Television drama, "TheUnit." Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secretstrike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won'thear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal theirtop-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readersinside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes usbehind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal thenever-before-told story of 1st Special Forces OperationalDetachment-D (Delta Force). Inside Delta Forece The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers,terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy byparachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone inhostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemytargets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He isthe ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator. In this dramatic behind-the-scenes ch
To this landmark biography of our first president, Joseph J.Ellis brings the exacting scholarship, shrewd analysis, and lyricprose that have made him one of the premier historians of theRevolutionary era. Training his lens on a figure who sometimesseems as remote as his effigy on Mount Rushmore, Ellis assessesGeorge Washington as a military and political leader and a manwhose “statue-like solidity” concealed volcanic energies andemotions. Here is the impetuous young officer whose miraculous survival incombat half-convinced him that he could not be killed. Here is thefree-spending landowner whose debts to English merchants instilledhim with a prickly resentment of imperial power. We see the generalwho lost more battles than he won and the reluctant president whotried to float above the partisan feuding of his cabinet. HisExcellency is a magnificent work, indispensable to anunderstanding not only of its subject but also of the nation hebrought into being.
An instant classic of war reporting, The Forever War isthe definitive account of America's conflict with Islamicfundamentalism and a searing exploration of its human costs.Through the eyes of Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the NewYork Times, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, theaftermath of the attack on New York on September 11th, and theAmerican wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only Americanjournalist to have reported on all these events, and hisexperiences are conveyed in a riveting narrative filled withunforgettable characters and astonishing scenes.
From an award-winning historian, a stirring (and timely)narrative history of American labor from the dawn of the industrialage to the present day. From the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first realfactories in America, to the triumph of unions in the twentiethcentury and their waning influence today, the con?test betweenlabor and capital for their share of American bounty has shaped ournational experience. Philip Dray’s ambition is to show us the vitalaccomplishments of organized labor in that time and illuminate itscentral role in our social, political, economic, and culturalevolution. There Is Power in a Union is an epic, character-drivennarrative that locates this struggle for security and dignity inall its various settings: on picket lines and in union halls,jails, assembly lines, corporate boardrooms, the courts, the hallsof Congress, and the White House. The author demonstrates,viscerally and dramatically, the urgency of the fight for fairnessand economic democracy—a strugg
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay's brilliant andcontroversial collection of essays and articles that define andexplain the ideals upon which the United States of America wasfounded. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: ? A concise introduction that gives readers important backgroundinformation ? A chronology of the author's life and work ? A timeline of significant events that provides the book'shistorical context ? An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers formtheir own interpretations ? Detailed explanatory notes ? Critical analysis, including contemporary and modernperspectives on the work ? Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and bookgroup interaction ? A list of recommended related books and films to broaden thereader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great worksof literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary.The scholarship provided in En
A brilliant account of religion's role in the politicalthinking of the West, from the Enlightenment to the close of WorldWar II. The wish to bring political life under God's authority is nothingnew, and it's clear that today religious passions are again drivingworld politics, confounding expectations of a secular future. Inthis major book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-oldquest-and its surprising role in shaping Western thought. Making uslook deeper into our beliefs about religion, politics, and the fateof civilizations, Lilla reminds us of the modern West's uniquetrajectory and how to remain on it. Illuminating and challenging, The Stillborn God is a watershed in the history ofideas.
With an Introduction by Mishtooni Bose More's Utopia is a complex, innovative and penetrating contribution to political thought, cuhninating in the famous 'de*ion' of the Utopians, who live according to the principles of natural law, but are receptive to Christian teachings, who hold all possessions in common,and view golcl as worthless. Drawing on the ideas of Plato,St Augustine and Aristotle, Utopia was to prove seminal in its turn, giving rise to the genres of utopian and dystopian prose fiction whose practitioners include Sir Francis Bacon,H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. At once a critique of the social consequences of greed and a meditation on the personal cost of entering public service,Utopia dramatises the difficulty of balancing the competing claims of idealism and pragmatism, and continues to invite its readers to become participants in a compelling debate concerning the best state of a commonwealth.
Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years ofconflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not onlyabout how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawingfrom thousands of hours of previously unavailable (and stillclassified) tape-recorded meetings between the highest levels ofthe American military command in Vietnam, A Better War is aninsightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these finalyears. Through his exclusive access to authoritative materials,award-winning historian Lewis Sorley highlights the dramaticdifferences in conception, conduct, and-at least for a time-resultsbetween the early and later years of the war. Among his mostimportant findings is that while the war was being lost at thepeace table and in the U.S. Congress, the soldiers were winning onthe ground. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better Warsheds new light on the Vietnam War.
For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, "a legacy of ashes." Now Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA-and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after 9/ll. Tim Weiner's past work on the CIA and American intelligence was hailed as "impressively reported" and "immensely entertaining" in The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal called it "truly extr
Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way thingswork, and often don't work, at the highest levels ofgovernment--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideasinspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and whobecame the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americansget better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, socialcritic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in theirtwenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clintonadministration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries inhistory. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignantchronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those inWashington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those withexactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the careerbureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, onoccasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders whoclash by day an
Drawing upon dozens of other "declarations of independence"written to protest the repression of the colonies by King GeorgeIII, as well as carefully analyzing the drafts of the Declarationsigned on July 4, 1776, Maier reveals the extent to whichJefferson's words and ideas were indebted to popular politicalbeliefs.
Widely considered in his own time as a genial but provinciallightweight who was out of place in the presidency, Abraham Lincolnastonished his allies and confounded his adversaries by producing aseries of speeches and public letters so provocative that theyhelped revolutionize public opinion on such critical issues ascivil liberties, the use of black soldiers, and the emancipation ofslaves. This is a brilliant and unprecedented examination of howLincoln used the power of words to not only build his politicalcareer but to keep the country united during the Civil War.
Capitalism has never been a subject for economists alone.Philosophers, politicians, poets and social scientists have debatedthe cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism forcenturies, and their claims have been many and diverse. The Mindand the Market is a remarkable history of how the idea ofcapitalism has developed in Western thought. Ranging across an ideological spectrum that includes Hobbes,Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and MatthewArnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, andneoliberal intellectuals, historian Jerry Muller examines afascinating thread of ideas about the ramifications of capitalismand its future implications. This is an engaging and accessiblehistory of ideas that reverberate throughout everyday life.