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Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu
by Bernard B. FallThe 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu ranks with Stalingrad and Tet for what it ended (imperial ambitions), what it foretold (American involvement), and what it symbolized: A guerrilla force of Viet Minh destroyed a technologically superior French army, convincing the Viet Minh that similar tactics might prevail in battle with the U. S.
Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochina (Stackpole Military History Series)
by Bernard B. FallThis book is one of a handful of truly classic accounts of the wars in Indochina. Originally published in 1961, just as the Kennedy administration was escalating the war in Vietnam, it attracted little initial notice in the United States. By 1967, however, when the United States was engaged in full-scale war and the author himself had been killed reporting combat in the very area he had written about, it had become standard reading for the U.S. officer corps in Vietnam. It remains today perhaps the best English account of France’s frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful effort to subdue the Vietminh insurgency. The author came naturally by his chosen profession as a student of war. He grew up in France against the backdrop of World War II, lost both parents in that conflict, and by his own recollection experienced his “first whiff of war” at age twelve. As a teenager, he joined the resistance, and he fought with the Allies in the liberation of France and the drive toward Berlin. This book remains not only a splendid account of a conflict often forgotten in the aftermath of America’s war in Vietnam, but it also speaks directly to a debate that continues to rage among military experts on the nature of the two wars in Indochina and the proper ways to fight them.
Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz (Cordelia Codd Ser.)
by Bernard AshleyLondon is at war and as the Blitz rages, children like Josie and her brother Len face the same dangers as the adults. Can they find the strength to stand up against the onslaught? A tale of amazing bravery, inspired by the true story of the Dead End Kids of Wapping - young people who fought fires and rescued their friends and neighbours from bomb sites. Perfect for fans of Michael Morpurgo, this dramatic story brings the Second World War vividly to life.
Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz (Cordelia Codd Ser.)
by Bernard AshleyLondon is at war and as the Blitz rages, children like Josie and her brother Len face the same dangers as the adults. Can they find the strength to stand up against the onslaught?A tale of amazing bravery, inspired by the true story of the Dead End Kids of Wapping - young people who fought fires and rescued their friends and neighbours from bomb sites. Perfect for fans of Michael Morpurgo, this dramatic story brings the Second World War vividly to life.
The Mosquito Fleet: The History of the PT Boat in World War II
by Bern KeatingThe Mosquito Fleet, first published in 1963, is a classic account of America’s small but strategically important fleet of PT boats during the Second World War. The lightweight boats proved to be a significant ‘irritant’ to the enemy in terms of their effectiveness in combat, hence the nickname ‘Mosquito.’ The book covers the use of PT boats in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters, and is based on action reports, squadron histories, and other naval records, plus diaries, letters, anecdotes, etc. supplied by PT crewmen. Included are six maps.Author Bern Keating served as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was the author of a number of history-related books. He passed away in 2004.
Statebuilding and State-Formation: The Political Sociology of Intervention (Routledge Studies in Intervention and Statebuilding)
by Berit Bliesemann de GuevaraThis book examines the ways in which long-term processes of state-formation limit the possibilities for short-term political projects of statebuilding. Using process-oriented approaches, the contributing authors explore what happens when conscious efforts at statebuilding ‘meet’ social contexts, and are transformed into daily routines. In order to explain their findings, they also analyse the temporally and spatially broader structures of world society which shape the possibilities of statebuilding. Statebuilding and State-Formation includes a variety of case studies from post-conflict societies in Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as the headquarters and branch offices of international agencies. Drawing on various theoretical approaches from sociology and anthropology, the contributors discuss external interventions as well as self-led statebuilding projects. This edited volume is divided into three parts: Part I: State-Formation, Violence and Political Economy Part II: Governance, Legitimacy and Practice in Statebuilding and State-Formation Part III: The International Self – Statebuilders’ Institutional Logics, Social Backgrounds and Subjectivities The book will be of great interest to students of statebuilding and intervention, war and conflict studies, international security and IR.
Explosion: Part 3 in the Colliding Worlds Trilogy
by Berinn RaeThe earth-shattering conclusion of the Colliding Worlds trilogy: It’s been one year since the Sephians, Draeken, and humans reached a truce. Peace, at last.It’s been six months since news footage revealed that earth no longer stood alone in the universe. Panic ensued. Truces were broken. All aliens were quarantined.Earth’s final war is here and time is running out . . .Talla Kolhm is a Draeken warrior-woman, beaten down but never broken. She refuses to feel any emotion, especially love or compassion. When she meets a kindred spirit in Jax Jerrick, a human soldier with his own share of scars, they develop an uncommon but comfortable rapport. But when a deadly toxin is released across the planet, all aliens are quickly blamed and ordered to be executed. With the help of her human, she escapes, and, despite her vows, Jax reawakens her darkest desires. Betrayed once before, Jax can barely bring himself to trust another woman. Regardless, as Jax deals with his past, Talla reawakens his heart. While battling their simmering passion, they join the resistance committed to finding an antidote. And so the fight begins. Talla will do anything for earth’s survival, even sacrifice herself and her heart, which may be the only way to save us all.Sensuality Level: Sensual
Explosion: Part 3 in the Colliding Worlds Trilogy
by Berinn RaeThe earth-shattering conclusion of the Colliding Worlds trilogy: It’s been one year since the Sephians, Draeken, and humans reached a truce. Peace, at last.It’s been six months since news footage revealed that earth no longer stood alone in the universe. Panic ensued. Truces were broken. All aliens were quarantined.Earth’s final war is here and time is running out . . .Talla Kolhm is a Draeken warrior-woman, beaten down but never broken. She refuses to feel any emotion, especially love or compassion. When she meets a kindred spirit in Jax Jerrick, a human soldier with his own share of scars, they develop an uncommon but comfortable rapport. But when a deadly toxin is released across the planet, all aliens are quickly blamed and ordered to be executed. With the help of her human, she escapes, and, despite her vows, Jax reawakens her darkest desires. Betrayed once before, Jax can barely bring himself to trust another woman. Regardless, as Jax deals with his past, Talla reawakens his heart. While battling their simmering passion, they join the resistance committed to finding an antidote. And so the fight begins. Talla will do anything for earth’s survival, even sacrifice herself and her heart, which may be the only way to save us all.Sensuality Level: Sensual
A Private Affair
by Beppe FenoglioA powerful World War II novel about a young soldier joining the anti-German resistance in occupied Italy, this classic—which touches on everything from wartime dangers and adventures to desperate love—is regarded as one of the greatest works of twentieth-century Italian literature.Milton—the name is a nom de guerre—is a member of a partisan band battling Italian Fascists and German forces in the chaotic last years of World War II. Before the war Milton was a student of English literature and a lover of poetry. He was in love with a girl, too, Fulvia, and from time to time she&’d invite him over to her rich family&’s fine house and have him read to her. Now, in the thick of war, he discovers that handsome Giorgio, his friend and fellow partisan, was sleeping with Fulvia at the time. Furious with jealousy, Milton hastens to have it out with Giorgio, but Giorgio has been captured by the Germans. A Private Affair tells the story of Milton&’s mad quest—through mud and fog, rain and terror, while barely evading enemy patrols—to rescue his friend, the better to settle a grudge from a lost world of peace. Beppe Fenoglio&’s masterpiece is a peerless story of the violent heart and world.
Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution
by Benson BobrickAngel in the Whirlwind is a dramatic narrative of the American Revolution illuminated by fresh insight by noted historian Benson Bobrick.
Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas
by Benson BobrickIn this revelatory, dynamic biography, one of our finest historians, Benson Bobrick, profiles George H. Thomas, arguing that he was the greatest and most successful general of the Civil War. Because Thomas didn't live to write his memoirs, his reputation has been largely shaped by others, most notably Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, two generals with whom Thomas served and who, Bobrick says, diminished his successes in their favor in their own memoirs. Born in Virginia, Thomas survived Nat Turner's rebellion as a boy, then studied at West Point, where Sherman was a classmate. Thomas distinguished himself in the Mexican War and then returned to West Point as an instructor. When the Civil War broke out, Thomas remained loyal to the Union, unlike fellow Virginia-born officer Robert E. Lee (among others). He compiled an outstanding record as an officer in battles at Mill Springs, Perryville, and Stones River. At the Battle of Chickamauga, Thomas, at the time a corps commander, held the center of the Union line under a ferocious assault, then rallied the troops on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a Confederate rout of the Union army. His extraordinary performance there earned him the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." Promoted to command of the Army of the Cumberland, he led his army in a stunning Union victory at the Battle of Chattanooga. Thomas supported Sherman on his march through Georgia in the spring of 1864, winning an important victory at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. As Sherman continued on his March to the Sea, Thomas returned to Tennessee and in the battle of Nashville destroyed the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood. It was one of the most decisive victories of the war, and Thomas won it even as Grant was on his way to remove Thomas from his command. (When Grant discovered the magnitude of Thomas's victory, he quickly changed his mind.) Thomas died of a stroke in 1870 while still on active duty. In the entire Civil War, he never lost a battle or a movement. Throughout his career, Thomas was methodical and careful, and always prepared. Unlike Grant at Shiloh, he was never surprised by an enemy. Unlike Sherman, he never panicked in battle but always remained calm and focused. He was derided by both men as "Slow Trot Thomas," but as Bobrick shows in this brilliant biography, he was quick to analyze every situation and always knew what to do and when to do it. He was not colorful like Grant and Sherman, but he was widely admired by his peers, and some, such as Grant's favorite cavalry commander, General James H. Wilson, thought Thomas the peer of any general in either army. He was the only Union commander to destroy two Confederate armies in the field. Although historians of the Civil War have always regarded Thomas highly, he has never captured the public imagination, perhaps because he has lacked an outstanding biographer -- until now. This informed, judicious, and lucid biography at last gives Thomas his due.
Testament: A Soldier's Story of the Civil War
by Benson BobrickThe story of the author's great-grandfather's Civil War experience, based on a remarkable set of newly discoverd letters—a powerful, moving addition to the firsthand soldiers' accounts of the Civil War.Dear Mother, I was very glad to hear from home this morning. It is the first time since I left Otterville. We marched from Sedalia 120 miles....I almost feel anxious to be in a battle & yet I am almost afraid. I feel very brave sometimes & think if I should be in an engagement, I never would leave the field alive unless the stars & stripes floated triumphant. I do not know how it may be. If there is a battle & I should fall, tell with pride & not with grief that I fell in defense of liberty. Pray that I may be a true soldier. Not since Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage have the trials and tribulations of a private soldier of the Civil War been told with such beguiling force. The Red Badge of Courage, however, was fiction. This story is true. In Testament, Benson Bobrick draws upon an extraordinarily rich but hitherto untapped archive of material to create a continuous narrative of how that war was fought and lived. Here is virtually the whole theater of conflict in the West, from its beginnings in Missouri, through Kentucky and Tennessee, to the siege of Atlanta under Sherman, as experienced by Bobrick's great-grandfather, Benjamin W. ("Webb") Baker, an articulate young Illinois recruit. Born and raised not far from the Lincoln homestead in Coles County, Webb had stood in the audience of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, become a staunch Unionist, and answered one of Abraham Lincoln's first calls for volunteers. The ninety-odd letters on which his story is based are fully equal to the best letters the war produced, especially by a common soldier; but their wry intelligence, fortitude, and patriotic fervor also set them apart with a singular and still-undying voice. In the end, that voice blends with the author's own, as the book becomes a poignant tribute to his great-grandfather's life -- and to all the common soldiers of the nation's bloodiest war.
Erich von Manstein: Hitler's Master Strategist
by Benoit LemayA Selection of the Military Book Club: An “informative and objective” biography of a genius commander and a study of his loyalty to the Nazi cause (Library Journal).To many close students of World War II, Erich von Manstein is considered the greatest commander of the war, if not the entire twentieth century. He devised the plan that conquered France in 1940, and led an infantry corps in that campaign. At the head of a panzer corps he reached the gates of Leningrad in 1941, then took command of 11th Army and conquered Sevastopol and the Crimea. After destroying another Soviet army in the north, he was given command of the ad hoc Army Group Don to retrieve the German calamity at Stalingrad, whereupon he launched a counteroffensive that, against all odds, restored the German front. Afterward he commanded Army Group South, nearly crushing the Soviets at Kursk, and then skillfully resisted their relentless attacks as he traded territory for coherence in the East.Though an undoubtedly brilliant military leader—whose achievements, considering the forces at his disposal, rivaled of Patton, Rommel, MacArthur, and Montgomery—surprisingly little is known about Manstein himself, save for his own memoir and the accolades of his contemporaries. In this book we finally have a full portrait of the man, including his campaigns, and an analysis of what precisely kept a genius like Manstein harnessed to such a dark cause.A great military figure, but a man who lacked a sharp political sense, Manstein was very much representative of the Germano-Prussian military caste of his time. Though Hitler was uneasy about the influence he’d gained throughout the German Army, Manstein ultimately declined to join any clandestine plots against his Führer, believing they would simply cause chaos, the one thing he abhorred. Though he constantly opposed Hitler on operational details, he considered it a point of loyalty to simply stand with the German state, in whatever form. Though not bereft of personal opinions, his primary allegiances were, first, to Deutschland, and second, to the soldiers under his command, who’d been committed against an enemy many times their strength.It is thus through Manstein that the attitudes of other high-ranking officers who fought during the Second World War, particularly on the Eastern Front, can be illuminated. This book is “a well-researched, convincingly reasoned analysis of a general widely considered one of WWII’s great commanders” (Publishers Weekly).Includes photographs
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
by Benny MorrisBenny Morris' The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem was published in 1988. Its startling revelations about how and why 700,000 Palestinians left their homes and became refugees during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 undermined traditional interpretations as to whether they left voluntarily or were expelled as part of a systematic plan. This 2004 book represents a revised edition of the earlier work, compiled on the basis of newly-opened Israeli military archives. While the focus remains the 1948 war and the analysis of the Palestinian exodus, the new material contains more information about what happened in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa, and how events there led to the collapse of Palestinian urban society. It also sheds light on the battles and atrocities that resulted in the disintegration of rural communities. The story is a harrowing one. The refugees now number four million and their existence remains a major obstacle to peace.
The Road To Stalingrad
by Alec Brown Benno ZieserSTALINGRAD...an eyewitness report of World War II’s most decisive battle.Drafted into the German infantry when he was scarcely out of school, Benno Zieser fought his way deep into Soviet Russia—advancing, retreating, digging in, destroying tanks with hand grenades, battling snipers, killing the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, he and his platoon struggled on, till their bravery was no longer an act of patriotism but a desperate effort to survive. Few of them did. At Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht soldiers reached the end of the line: nothing could spring the giant trap set by Russian crack troops closing in on them.Zieser’s account of the war’s most brutal battle is intensely moving and honest—a personal ordeal with a universal meaning.On the last day of January, 1943, the German Sixth Army surrendered to the Russians at Stalingrad. After a winter campaign of unparalleled horror and hardship, the Wehrmacht was beaten.THE ROAD TO STALINGRAD is a shattering eyewitness account of that lost battle—written by a survivor. Benno Zieser was drafted at the age of nineteen and fought in the infantry at Stalingrad. In this book he tells of his first naive enthusiasm—then the shocking realities:The frozen wastes of an unconquerable continent...gutted roads strewn with abandoned equipment...the anonymous graves by the wayside...the colossal fraud behind Hitler’s promise of victory.Not since All QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT has a German author written such a powerful indictment of war—but Benno Zieser’s book is fact, not fiction.
Dark Star Rising: Blackwood And Virtue (Blackwood & Virtue)
by Bennett R. Coles"This naval adventure in space is recommended for fans of David Weber’s character Honor Harrington and Lois McMaster Bujold’s “Vorkosigan Saga,” as all three combine adventure, espionage, tight-knit crews of adopted families, as well as a mix of governmental shenanigans, warfare, and political corruption." — Library Journal
Virtues of War
by Bennett R. ColesThe Terran military, the Astral Force, launches a mission to crush a colonial rebellion on the colony of Cerberus. The results of that mission ripple across the planets of the Centauria, and place the entire system on the brink of war.Lieutenant Katja Emmes is a platoon commander, leader of the 10-trooper strike team aboard the fast-attack craft Rapier. Although fully trained, she has never led troops in real operations before, and lives in the shadow of her war-hero father. Sublieutenant Jack Mallory is fresh out of pilot school, daydreaming about a fighter pilot position in the space fleet and in for a rude awakening. Lieutenant Commander Thomas Kane uses a six-month deployment in command of Rapier to secure his rise to stardom within the military.As violence erupts, each will be tested as never before. How they respond may decide the fate of Terra, and Earth.
Virtues of War - March of War
by Bennett R. ColesVICTORY AT ANY COSTThough narrowly thwarted in their attack on Earth, Centauri rebels continue assaulting targets across Terran space, placing Jack Mallory and Thomas Kane in the thick of the action. On Earth, Centauri spies whip up anti-war sentiment, seeking to cripple the government and gain the upper hand. As enemy efforts become increasingly deadly, Special Forces operative Katja Emmes digs deep to locate the perpetrators. When it’s learned that the Centauris employ new and deadly technology, Terran forces must up their own destructive capabilities. Yet how far can the violence be taken before results become atrocities?
Winds of Marque: Blackwood And Virtue (Blackwood & Virtue)
by Bennett R. ColesIn a dense star cluster, the solar winds blow fiercely. The star-sailing ship HMSS Daring runs at full sheet on a secret mission from the Emperor himself: to hunt down and destroy a festering pirate threat. Armed with a letter of marque allowing them to collect the bounty of enemy vessels, the crew has been told to find the pirates’ base by any means necessary.Dashing second-in-command Liam Blackwood and plucky quartermaster Amelia Virtue lead the infiltration of shady civilian merchant networks to gather intelligence, all while keeping Daring’s true identity hidden. But trouble begins when Daring’s enigmatic captain makes a series of questionable choices and rumblings of discontent ripple up from the crew. Liam and Amelia must discover the truth about their commander, their mission, and the real enemy threat before they fall prey to the very pirates they’re supposed to be tracking.
Cosmo's Tale
by Bennett Cole"I'm gonna die," screams Cosmo, a failed Navy parachute streaming behind him as his body hurtles earthward. Yet he survives. How? Was his unlikely birth in an Italian farmer's field in 1922 an omen of the untoward circumstances that would later characterize his life? Ministered to in the critical moments of his life by a mysterious "spooky" lady, Cosmo stumbles through countless storms of life: forced to fight with the Italian Army in WW II against his fellow Americans, gut-wrenching failed romances, a daring escape from a Guatemalan jail, and more. In spite of it all, Cosmo experiences a meteoric rise through the ranks of corporate management. Later, as a widower in his eighties and living on a coastal island, he miraculously survives a storm-of-the-century hurricane, and his spooky lady makes an incredibly peculiar final appearance.
Contested Commemorations
by Benjamin ZiemannThis innovative study of remembrance in Weimar Germany analyses how experiences and memories of the Great War were transformed along political lines after 1918. Examining the symbolism, language and performative power of public commemoration, Benjamin Ziemann reveals how individual recollections fed into the public narrative of the experience of war. Challenging conventional wisdom that nationalist narratives dominated commemoration, this book demonstrates that Social Democrat war veterans participated in the commemoration of the war at all levels: supporting the 'no more war' movement, mourning the fallen at war memorials and demanding a politics of international solidarity. It describes how the moderate Socialist Left related the legitimacy of the Republic to their experiences in the Imperial army and acknowledged the military defeat of 1918 as a moment of liberation. This is the first comprehensive analysis of war remembrances in post-war Germany and a radical reassessment of the democratic potential of the Weimar Republic.
Crusade And Mission: European Approaches Toward The Muslims
by Benjamin Z. KedarThis wide-ranging study of medieval Europe's response to the challenge of Islam examines the relationship between ideas of crusade and mission, between European projects for military conquest and those for the conversion of Muslims to Christianity. Covering the years from the emergence of Islam to the fourteenth century, Benjamin Z. Kedar discusses not only the crusades and the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem but also the confrontation of Catholics and Muslims in Sicily and Spain. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Greetings From Afghanistan, Send More Ammo
by Benjamin Tupper"Raw, direct, and powerful. . . This work is vitally important. " -Ken Stern, former CEO of National Public Radio Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home. Here, he takes us inside the intricacies of the war, opening up a unique and multifaceted view of both Afghan culture and the daily life of an American soldier. From the rush of gunfire to surreal, euphoric moments of cross-cultural understanding, this emotional and thought- provoking narrative is rich with humor, eloquence and contradiction. Deeply personal and darkly funny, Tupper illuminates the challenges of the war, vividly bringing to life both the mundane and the extraordinary and seeking a way forward.
Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge: His Years as Battle Commander in the American Revolutionary War
by Benjamin Tallmadge“Benjamin Tallmadge narrates his time spent as a military officer during the American Revolutionary War, detailing his roles as both commander and intelligence gatherer. Renowned for his successes during the American Revolution, Benjamin Tallmadge commences these memoirs with a brief family history. After this short introduction, he immediately describes his military training and deployment, and the witnessing of his first battle close to New York City. Stricken and steeled by the carnage of war, the young Tallmadge expresses his wish to see the Revolution to its very end. Upon demonstrating a keen sense of tactics, and mounting a successful raid wherein the supplies and premises of an enemy force were burned by Tallmadge and his fellow operatives, George Washington praised the officer's abilities. Throughout the conflict, Tallmadge proved an able spymaster; heading up the Culper Ring, a network of agents whose information in and around the New York area would prove extremely valuable to the war effort.”-Print ed.
Private Smith's Journal Recollections of the Late War: Recollections Of The Late War (classic Reprint)
by Benjamin T. SmithTHE Civil War journal of Benjamin T. Smith is the record kept by an unsophisticated 18-year-old of his services in the Civil War, from October, 1861, to November, 1865. Smith’s journal differs from most journals kept by privates because he saw the war from two different levels—as a simple soldier who endured the rough discomforts, the miserable food, the occasional moments of great danger, and the fleeting times of fellowship around the fire, and as a member of a division headquarters, carrying important messages, acting as a mounted scout, serving as General Phil Sheridan’s orderly.