Søgeresultater: 28

Summary: Sunday Times' Best History Books of 2017 Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History Winner of the 2017 Caroline Bancroft History Prize Shortlisted for the Military History Magazine Book of the Year Award NOMINATED FOR THE 2017 PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN 'Extraordinary... Cozzens has stripped the myth from these stories, but he is such a superb writer that what remains is exquisite' The Times In a sweeping narrative, Peter Cozzens tells the gripping story of the wars that destroyed native ways of life as the American nation continued its expansion onto tribal lands after the Civil War, setting off a conflict that would last nearly three decades. By using original research and first-hand sources from both sides, Cozzens illuminates the encroachment experienced by the tribes and the tribal conflicts over whether to fight or make peace, and explores the squalid lives of soldiers posted to the frontier and the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their native enemies. Bringing together a cast of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman, Grant and a host of other military and political figures, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Red Cloud, The Earth is Weeping is the fullest account to date of how the West was won... and lost

Summary: In this riveting book, Tara Zahra takes the story of immigration that Americans know so well and weaves it into a larger story of emigration that we have long neglected. In this riveting book, Tara Zahra takes the story of immigration that Americans know so well and weaves it into a larger story of emigration that we have long neglected. With all the drama of a novel and all the nuance of history writing at its best, The Great Departure is a must-read. (Alison Johnson, Harvard University) In this spare, deeply researched, and unfailingly analytical book, Tara Zahra frees the great migration of Eastern Europeans to the West from romantic myth and dissects all its human and moral complexities. (Robert D. Kaplan, of In Europe's Shadow: A Journey Through Two Cold Wars in Romania and Beyond) With a combination of deft historical analysis, sparkling prose, and careful attention to individual stories, both poignant and instructive, Tara Zahra systematically deconstructs the myths surrounding emigration, escape, and deportation from Eastern Europe since the late nineteenth century. The Great Departure is brimming with important and suggestive lessons from the past for thinking about the worldwide dynamics of emigrants and refugees in our own day. (Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University) Meticulously researched, The Great Departure shows mass emigration from all sides, including individual stories of poverty and maltreatment-but also positive changes emigration brought to women . . . This book is equally relevant for Americans, showing why and how many of their ancestors left their countries, and for Europeans, confronted with an unprecedented wave of immigrants today. (Slavenka Drakulic, author of A Guided Tour through the Museum of Communism) About the Author Tara Zahra is a professor of Eastern European history at the University of Chicago and the author of two award-winning books, Kidnapped Souls and The Lost Children

Summary: With a Foreword by Bill O’Reilly, here is the incredible memoir of a former Marine who returns to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan three decades after leaving the Corps. Terry McGowan had been a beat cop, a Marine captain, and a Special Agent for the FBI before retiring at the age of fifty. But when tragedy struck the United States on September 11th, 2001, Terry felt an undiminished sense of duty to protect and serve his country. Six years later, he was in Iraq as a member of a team of high ranking retired and active duty military working for the highest level of Marine military intelligence. His success in Iraq led to a position as a Law Enforcement Professional with the Marines in Afghanistan. There he found himself the oldest member of a platoon on the front line; a platoon that was understrength and under fire. While an eighteen year old Marine can't look at a crowd of Afghans and pick out the guilty party, with his years of experience in law enforcement, Terry had developed an eye for the "felony look". His training as a Marine Officer combined with his experience as an FBI Agent made him a unique asset as he struggled to keep up with young Marines while they humped over the mountains. In The Silence of War , Terry recounts the many trials of his life of service, providing an intimate glimpse into the horrible realities of modern military conflict

Summary: "...The authors deliver a chilling, well-researched biography that opens a whole new window on the world wars and the German psyche at the time."—Kirkus "A brilliant tactician and an abysmally poor politician and strategist, Ludendorff summed up the strengths and weaknesses of the German General Staff. His is a fascinating story of talent, discipline, obsession, and denial."—Professor Isabel Virginia Hull, PhD, Cornell University One of the most important military individuals of the last century, yet one of the least known, Ludendorff not only dictated all aspects of World War I, he refused all opportunities to make peace; he antagonized the Americans until they declared war; he sent Lenin into Russia to forge a revolution in order to shut down the Russian front; and in 1918 he pushed for total military victory, in a slaughter known as "The Ludendorff Offensive." Ludendorff created the legend that Germany had lost the war only because Jews had conspired on the home front. He forged an alliance with Hitler, endorsed the Nazis, and wrote maniacally about how Germans needed a new world war, to redeem the Fatherland. He aimed to build a gigantic state to dwarf even the British Empire. Simply stated, he wanted the world

Summary: After storming the beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allied invasion of France bogged down in seven weeks of grueling attrition in Normandy. On July 25, U.S. divisions under Gen. Omar Bradley launched Operation Cobra, an attempt to break out of the hedgerows and begin a war of movement across France. Despite a disastrous start, with misdropped bombs killing hundreds of GIs, Cobra proved to be one of the most pivotal battles of World War II, successfully breaking the stalemate in Normandy and clearing a path into occupied France

Summary: The powerful and riveting new book in the multimillion-selling Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. Killing the Rising Sun takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, where General Douglas MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting a full-scale invasion of Japan. Across the globe in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team of scientists are preparing to test the deadliest weapon known to mankind. In Washington, DC, FDR dies in office and Harry Truman ascends to the presidency, only to face the most important political decision in history: whether to use that weapon. And in Tokyo, Emperor Hirohito, who is considered a deity by his subjects, refuses to surrender, despite a massive and mounting death toll. Told in the same page-turning style of Killing Lincoln , Killing Kennedy , Killing Jesus , Killing Patton , and Killing Reagan , this epic saga details the final moments of World War II like never before

Summary: As an interpreter in the German Foreign Ministry, Paul-Otto Schmidt (1899–1970) was in attendance at some of the most decisive moments of twentieth-century history. Fluent in both English and French, he served as Hitler's translator during negotiations with Chamberlain, the British declaration of war and the surrender of France, as well as translating the Führer's infamous speeches for radio. Having gained favour with the Nazi Party – donning first the uniform of the SS then that of the Luftwaffe – Paul Schmidt was given 'absolute authority' in everything to do with foreign languages. He later presided over the interrogation of Canadian soldiers captured after the 1942 Dieppe Raid. Arrested in May 1945, Schmidt was freed by the Americans in 1948. In 1946 he testified at the Nuremberg Trials, where conversations with him were noted down by the psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn and later published. After the war he taught at the Sprachen und Dolmetscher Institut in Munich. Hitler's Interpreter presents a highly atmospheric account of the bizarre life led behind the scenes at the highest level of the Third Reich. Roger Moorhouse is a historian of the Third Reich. He is the author of the acclaimed Berlin at War, Killing Hitler and The Devil's Pact. He has contributed to He Was My Chief, I Was Hitler's Chauffeur, With Hitler to the End and Hitler's Last Witness

Summary: Keggie Carew grew up in the gravitational field of an unorthodox father who lived on his wits and dazzling charm. As his memory begins to fail, she embarks on a quest to unravel his story, and soon finds herself in a far more consuming place than she had bargained for. Tom Carew was a maverick, a left-handed stutterer, a law unto himself. As a member of an elite SOE unit he was parachuted behind enemy lines to raise guerrilla resistance in France, then Burma, in the Second World War. But his wartime exploits are only the start of it... Dadland is a manhunt. Keggie takes us on a spellbinding journey, in peace and war, into surprising and shady corners of history, her rackety English childhood, the poignant breakdown of her family, the corridors of dementia and beyond. As Keggie pieces Tom – and herself – back together again, she celebrates the technicolour life of an impossible, irresistible, unstoppable man. Foreword and afterword read by the author

Summary: This essential book offers a compelling and original interpretation of the rise of military aviation. Jeremy Black, one of the world's finest scholars of military history, provides a lucid analysis of the use of airpower over land and sea both during the two world wars and the more limited wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Considering both the theory and praxis of air power, the author begins with hot air balloons, and then highlights the use of zeppelins, piston engine fighters, jet bombers, and finally the so-called Military Revolution of today. While discussing the growth of American and European military aviation, Black, a pioneer in emphasizing the importance of non-Western military history for understanding global developments, also traces the emergence of air power in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Black breaks new ground by exploring not only to conventional war—both inside and outside Europe—but also to the use of air power in unconventional wars, especially critical given to the spread of insurgencies around the globe. He vividly describes traditional debates over the pros and cons of strategic bombing and aircraft carriers versus battleships and gives equal attention to managerial, doctrinal, and technological innovations. The author shows how better management resulted in increasing lethality of close air support of the RAF during the latter part of World War II and at the same times highlights the limits of air power with case studies of the two Gulf Wars. The author goes beyond our traditional understanding of air power associated with bombing and fighter engagements, adding the important elements associated with naval power, including ground/logistics support, anti-aircraft measures, and political constraints. As he explains, air power has become Western politicians' weapon of choice, spreading maximum destruction with the minimum of commitment. His current and comprehensive study considers how we got to this point, and what the future has in store. Anyone seeking a balanced, accurate understanding of air power in history will find this book an essential introduction

Summary: Lucifer Rising unravels for the first time the myths surrounding the most surreal yet, ultimately, seriously-intended secret operations of the Second World War when Britain stood alone against the Nazis. Featuring an eccentric cast of characters, including the creator of James Bond, the self-proclaimed 'wickedest man in the world', a cross-dressing astrologer and the Deputy Führer, bestselling author Nicholas Booth weaves together an incredible narrative about spying, sabotage, weird inventions, black propaganda and even the attempted harnessing of the occult as the British secret service sought desperately to gain the upper hand over the Nazis by whatever means possible. Using hitherto secret files – many only recently released – Lucifer Rising shows how nothing was considered too outrageous in the desperate fight against the Nazi regime, including the attempted manipulation of the occult and astrology with often unintentionally hilarious results

Summary: A chronicle of the region’s rich history, from the Ice Age to the dramatic political divisions of the current era.   Syria—which in its historical wider sense includes modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan—has always been at the center of events of world importance. It was in this region that pastoral-stock rearing, settled agriculture, and alphabetic writing were invented (and the dog was domesticated). From Syria, Phoenician explorers set out to explore the whole Mediterranean region and sailed around Africa 2,000 years before Vasco de Gama.   These are achievements enough, but the succeeding centuries also offer a rich tapestry of turbulent change, a cycle of repeated conquest, unification, rebellion and division. John D Grainger gives a sweeping yet detailed overview of the making of this historical region. From the end of the ice age through the procession of Assyrian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French, and British attempts to dominate this area, the key events and influences are clearly explained and analyzed—and the events playing out on our TV screens over recent years are put in the context of 12,000 years of history

Summary: Covers a pivotal but largely neglected period on the Eastern Front Focuses on German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, one of the best commanders of World War II After the Soviets trapped German forces in Stalingrad, the Germans regrouped under Erich von Manstein, who orchestrated a dramatic reversal of fortune during the winter of 1942-43, enabling Germany to continue fighting for two more years