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Sociology and Military Studies: Classical and Current Foundations (Cass Military Studies)
by Joseph SoetersThis book examines the connection between sociology and the challenges faced by the modern military. Military sociology has received little attention in the broader academic world, and is mostly focused on civil-military relations. This book seeks to address this gap and combines ideas, theories and insights from sociology’s founding authors, with each chapter focusing on a specific thinker. There are chapters on Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, Erving Goffman, Michel Foucault, Morris Janowitz, Norbert Elias, Cornelis Lammers, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Cynthia Enloe and Bruno Latour, and each essay discusses their ideas and theories in relation to topics that are of concern in and around the military today. Military studies are taken in a broad sense here, so the volume encompasses a wide range of issues, including civil-military relations, military-political affairs, performance and outcomes of military operations, and organizational arrangements including technology and the composition, performance and well-being of personnel. The book intends to provide views and insights that will help the military to innovate their organizations and practices, not necessarily in the usual functional way of innovating (i.e. faster, more precise, etc.) but in a broader way. This book will be of great interest to students of sociology, military studies, civil-military relations, war and conflict studies, and IR in general.
Sociology of Community: A Collection of Readings
by Colin Bell Howard NewbyFirst Published in 1974. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Soda Pop Soldier
by Nick ColeWhen the virtual world gets real . . .Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat-sport arena where megacorporations field entire armies in the battle for dominance over real-world global-advertising space. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using dropships and state-of-the-art assault rifles to attack the enemy.But when times are tough, there's always the Black, an illegal open-source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free reign. And what begins as PerfectQuestion's onetime effort to make some cash quickly turns dangerous.All too soon, the real and virtual worlds collide when PerfectQuestion refuses to become the tool of a madman intent on hacking the global economy for himself and fights to stay alive--in WarWorld, in the Black, and in the real world.
SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944 (Government Official History Ser.)
by M.R.D. FootSOE in France was first published in 1966, followed by a second impression with amendments in 1968. Since these editions were published, other material on SOE has become available. It was, therefore, agreed in 2000 that Professor Foot should produce a revised version. In so doing, in addition to the material in the first edition, the author has had
SOE in France, 1941–1945: An Official Account of the Special Operations Executive's French Circuits
by Robert Bourne-PattersonIn the archives of the Special Operations Executive lay a report compiled by a staff officer and former member of SOE's French Section, Major Robert Bourne-Patterson, that until recently could not be published. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the work undertaken by the SOE, the paper was treated as confidential and its circulation was strictly limited to selected personnel. Now, at last, it can be made available to the general public.Limited, also, was the time available to Bourne-Patterson in compiling his report in 1946 as the SOE was being wound up and many documents were being weeded from the files. Nevertheless, the paper he wrote gives a good picture of the work of the SOE in France, the country where its operations were most extensive. It contains an overview of operations in France by the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War with detailed records of individual circuits from their inception onwards, containing much information concerning individual agents and their contacts, calendars of subversive activity against the Germans and the names and addresses of personnel connected with the circuits who had survived the war. In writing his account, Bourne-Patterson drew heavily on personal interviews and wartime debriefings by agents.
SOE's Mastermind: The Authorised Biography of Major General Sir Colin Gubbins KCMG, DSO, MC
by Brian LettThe first complete biography of Britain&’s WWII spymaster presents an intimate look at his life and career, as well as an insider&’s look at the SOE. Major General Sir Colin Gubbins was the driving force behind Britain&’s Special Operations Executive, the secret military organization established by Winston Churchill in 1940. First as its Operations and Training Director, and then its Commander, Gubbins orchestrated every aspect of the SOE&’s worldwide covert operations. Though Gubbins made enormous contributions to Allied victory, his life and work have remained shrouded in secrecy until now. With copious research and unprecedented access to family archives, biographer Brian Lett reveals the war hero&’s early experiences in the Great War, as well as in Russia, Ireland, Poland, and as Head of British Resistance. The result is a fascinating biography that reveals as much about SOEs extraordinary activities as it does about the man who inspired and commanded them.
"Soft" Counterinsurgency: Human Terrain Teams and US Military Strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan
by Paul JosephSoft Counterinsurgency reviews the promises and achievements of Human Terrain Teams, the small groups of social scientists that were eventually embedded in every combat brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
by Clint Van WinkleA powerful, haunting, provocative memoir of a Marine in Iraq—and his struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a system trying to hide the damage done Marine Sergeant Clint Van Winkle flew to war on Valentine's Day 2003. His battalion was among the first wave of troops that crossed into Iraq, and his first combat experience was the battle of Nasiriyah, followed by patrols throughout the country, house to house searches, and operations in the dangerous Baghdad slums. But after two tours of duty, certain images would not leave his memory—a fragmented mental movie of shooting a little girl; of scavenging parts from a destroyed, blood-spattered tank; of obliterating several Iraqi men hidden behind an ancient wall; and of mistakenly stepping on a "soft spot," the remains of a Marine killed in combat. After his return home, Van Winkle sought help at a Veterans Administration facility, and so began a maddening journey through an indifferent system that promises to care for veterans, but in fact abandons many of them. From riveting scenes of combat violence, to the gallows humor of soldiers fighting a war that seems to make no sense, to moments of tenderness in a civilian life ravaged by flashbacks, rage, and doubt, Soft Spots reveals the mind of a soldier like no other recent memoir of the war that has consumed America.
Soft Target (Executioner #323)
by Don Pendleton Jerry Van CookNew intelligence in the form of confiscated terrorist-training films indicates a highly orchestrated chain of catastrophic violence is about to spread like wildfire across the United States. Assassinations of government officials, the mass murder of innocents at shopping malls and churches, and suicide bombings will simply lay the groundwork for the big event to come. Operating on razor-sharp instincts, Mack Bolan begins at the beginning- tracking targeted victims and taking out the enemy before havoc ensues, picking up bits of the puzzle and piecing together the grim picture. A mass hostage-taking at a large university demands every bit of steel the Executioner's got, but even the worst that unfolds is a cakewalk compared to a relentless enemy's next calculated act of devastation.
Soft Targets (A Jonathan Grave Thriller)
by John GilstrapFour children's lives hang in the balance. A vicious criminal is on the loose. With law enforcement at a dead end, there's only one man who can recover the hostages--Jonathan Grave. FBI Special Agent Irene Rivers is horrified to learn that because of mistakes made by agents under her command, a murderer and child molester will walk free. When Irene's own daughters become the monster's next targets, she reaches out in desperation to an elite Special Forces operator. His name is Jonathan Grave. For Grave, results matter more than procedures. Together, they discover a new kind of justice--and a new breed of evil. . .
Softspoken
by Lucius ShepardA chilling and mysterious voice becomes audible to Sanie shortly after she and her husband Jackson move into the decaying antebellum mansion that is the Bullard ancestral home in rural South Carolina. At first, she wonders if the voice might be a prank played by Jackson's peyote-popping brother Will or his equally off-kilter sister Louise.But soon Sanie discovers that the ghostly voice is merely a single piece of the decadent, baroque puzzle that comprises the Bullard family history, rank with sensuality, violence, repression and madness.
SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam
by John L. PlasterJohn Plaster’s riveting account of his covert activities as a member of a special operations team during the Vietnam War is “a true insider’s account, this eye-opening report will leave readers feeling as if they’ve been given a hot scoop on a highly classified project” (Publishers Weekly).Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most secret elite US military unit to serve in the Vietnam War—so secret its very existence was denied by the government. Composed entirely of volunteers from such ace fighting units as the Army Green Berets, Air Force Air Commandos, and Navy SEALs, SOG took on the most dangerous covert assignments, in the deadliest and most forbidding theaters of operation. In SOG, Major John L. Plaster, a three-tour SOG veteran, shares the gripping exploits of these true American warriors in a minute-by-minute, heartbeat-by-heartbeat account of the group’s stunning operations behind enemy lines—penetrating heavily defended North Vietnamese military facilities, holding off mass enemy attacks, launching daring missions to rescue downed US pilots. Some of the most extraordinary true stories of honor and heroism in the history of the US military, from sabotage to espionage to hand-to-hand combat, Plaster’s account is “a detailed history of this little-known aspect of the Vietnam War…a worthy act of historical rescue from an unjustified, willed oblivion” (The New York Times).
SOG: A Photo History of the Secret Wars
by John L. PlasterA new edition of this classic illustrated history of the operations and operatives of MACV-SOG in the Vietnam War.In 1972 the U.S. military destroyed all known photos of the top-secret Studies and Observations Group, with the intention that details could never be made public. But unknown to those in charge, SOG veterans had brought back with them hundreds of photographs of SOG in action and would keep them secret for more than three decades. In this new edition of SOG: A Photo History, more than 700 irreplaceable photos bring to life the stories of SOG legends Larry Thorne, Bob Howard, Dick Meadows, George Sisler, "Q" and others, and document what really happened deep inside enemy territory: Operation Tailwind, the Son Tay raid, SOG's defense of Khe Sanh, Hatchet Force operations, Bright Light rescues, HALO insertions, string extractions, SOG's darkest programs and much more.
SOG Medic: Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence
by Joe Parnar Robert DumontThe “hair-raising details of the second-by-second events” of a Special Forces medic’s covert operations during the Vietnam War (On Point: The Journal of Army History Online).In the years since the Vietnam War, the elite unit known as the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) has spawned many myths, legends, and war stories. Special Forces medic Joe Parnar served with SOG during 1968 in FOB2/CCC near the tri-border region that gave them access to the forbidden areas of Laos and Cambodia. Parnar recounts his time with the recon men of this highly classified unit, as his job involved a unique combination of soldiering and lifesaving. His stories capture the extraordinary commitment made by all the men of SOG and reveal the special dedication of the medics, who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their teammates. Parnar also discusses his medical training with the Special Forces.“A well-written, interesting account of Parnar’s three-year term of enlistment in the US Army, culminating as a Special Forces medic in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 . . . Parnar takes the time to provide context, circumstance and motivation for heroism and tragedy—for US soldiers and the indigenous Vietnamese soldiers and civilians with whom he worked . . . The service, sacrifice and valor of a generation are vividly documented in the pages of SOG Medic.” —ARMY Magazine
The Sojourn
by Andrew KrivakThe Sojourn, winner of the Chautauqua Prize and finalist for the National Book Award, is the story of Jozef Vinich, who was uprooted from a 19th-century mining town in Colorado by a family tragedy and returns with his father to an impoverished shepherd's life in rural Austria-Hungary. When World War One comes, Jozef joins his adopted brother as a sharpshooter in the Kaiser's army, surviving a perilous trek across the frozen Italian Alps and capture by a victorious enemy.A stirring tale of brotherhood, coming-of-age, and survival, that was inspired by the author's own family history, this novel evokes a time when Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians, and Germans fought on the same side while divided by language, ethnicity, and social class in the most brutal war to date. It is also a poignant tale of fathers and sons, addressing the great immigration to America and the desire to live the American dream amidst the unfolding tragedy in Europe.The Sojourn is Andrew Krivak's first novel. Krivak is also the author of A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life, a memoir about his eight years in the Jesuit Order, and editor of The Letters of William Carlos Williams to Edgar Irving Williams, 1902-1912, which received the Louis L. Martz Prize. The grandson of Slovak immigrants, Krivak grew up in Pennsylvania, has lived in London, and now lives with his wife and three children in Massachusetts where he teaches in the Honors Program at Boston College.
The Solace of Trees: A Novel
by Robert MadryginA Bosnian War orphan of Muslim heritage escapes his homeland, finds a new family in New England, and learns to deal with his trauma--and years later falls into the depths of post-9/11 America's extraordinary rendition program. A piercing and resonant debut novel about war and the endurance of the human spirit, and a cautionary tale about the damage that can be inflicted upon war victims when wealthy nations become obsessed with self-protection and retribution. This book contains an author Q&A at the back, and so is ideal for book group adoption and discussion. The Solace of Trees tells the story of Amir, a young boy of secular Muslim heritage who witnesses his family's murder in the Bosnian War. Amir hides in a forest, mute and shocked, among refugees fleeing for their lives. Narrowly escaping death while wandering through rural Bosnia, he finds sanctuary in a UN camp. After a charity relocates him to the United States, the retired professor who fosters Amir learns that the boy holds a shameful secret concerning his parents' and sister's deaths. Amir's years in the US bring him healing and a loving place in a new family. In college he falls in love⎯and he accepts the request of a professor of Islamic studies to edit a documentary film on the plight of Palestinians. 9/11 comes, and with it, the arrest of the professor for his ties to terrorist organizations. As Amir enters adulthood, his destiny brings him full circle back to the darkness he thought he'd forever escaped. For fans of Sara Novic's Girl at War, Kenan Trebincevic's The Bosnia List, and Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo.
Sold for Silver: An Autobiography (Biography And Memoir Ser.)
by Janet LimOriginally published in 1958, this is the true story of China-born Janet Lim, who was sold into slavery as a young girl in 1930’s Singapore.When Singapore falls to the Japanese in 1942, she escapes by ship, but when it is bombed and sinks, Janet floats at sea for days close to death. Rescued by fishermen, then captured by the Japanese, she narrowly escapes sexual-imprisonment as a comfort woman and is tortured.An inspirational autobiography of a true heroine.
Sold for Silver: An Autobiography (Biography And Memoir Ser.)
by Janet LimSold for Silver, first published in 1958, is the autobiographical account of Singaporean Chinese Janet Lim. The book covers her early childhood in China to the end of World War II. Janet Lim, an 'ordinary' person, lived in a time and had experiences that were anything but ordinary however: sold into domestic slavery as a child, living in Singapore when it was captured by the Japanese in 1942, aboard a ship that was bombed and sunk and then adrift in the ocean for a number of days, captured and held prisoner by the Japanese, selected to be a "comfort girl," and sentenced to be executed. Ms. Lim survived each challenge with her strong will, her faith, and with the help of close friends. Her book is a timeless true story of inspiration.
Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History
by Elizabeth SalasThis study explores the evolving role of women soldiers in Mexico—as both fighters and cultural symbols—from the pre-Columbian era to the present.Since pre-Columbian times, soldiering has been a traditional life experience for innumerable women in Mexico. Yet the many names given these women warriors—heroines, camp followers, Amazons, coronelas, soldadas, soldaderas, and Adelitas—indicate their ambivalent position within Mexican society. In this original study, Elizabeth Salas challenges many traditional stereotypes, shedding new light on the significance of these women.Drawing on military archival data, anthropological studies, and oral history interviews, Salas first explores the real roles played by Mexican women in armed conflicts. She finds that most of the functions performed by women easily equate to those performed by revolutionaries and male soldiers in the quartermaster corps and regular ranks. She then turns her attention to the soldadera as a continuing symbol, examining the image of the soldadera in literature, corridos, art, music, and film.Salas finds that the fundamental realities of war link all Mexican women, regardless of time period, social class, or nom de guerre.
El soldado de porcelana
by Mathias MalzieuCon la conmovedora historia de Mainou, Mathias Malzieu ha conquistado de nuevo a los lectores franceses, firmando una novela aclamada unánimemente por la crítica de su país. «Con pudor y emoción, Malzieu se pone en la piel de su propio padre, su soldado de porcelana, en esta novela divertida y tierna, sensible y melancólica, que suena siempre a verdad».Livres Hebdo Francia, verano de 1944. Con nueve años, Mainou acaba de perder a su madre mientras daba a luz a su hermana pequeña. El compungido padre se ve obligado entonces a enviar a Mainou a Lorena, con su abuela, al otro lado de la línea de demarcación, escondido en un carro de heno. Allí, en la granja familiar, tratará de retener los últimos suspiros de su infancia mientras la realidad lo empuja a evadirse: el miedo, la pena, la guerra. Junto a esa familia que aún no conocía, y a los misteriosos sucesos que los rodean, el niño se confía a la imaginación para atravesar el duelo y sobrevivir a los últimos meses de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Con El soldado de porcelana, Mathias Malzieu le ha escrito una carta de amor a su padre que es a la vez un homenaje universal, una novela que narra los acontecimientos de su vida con la honestidad exacta para situarnos a la altura de los años cruciales, cuando todo está por definir. La crítica ha dicho:«Como suele ocurrir con Mathias Malzieu, los fantasmas no llevan sábanas blancas: son solamente recuerdos que aguardan para perseguirnos [...]. Una historia íntima y conmovedora».Le Figaro «Mathias Malzieu no escribe bien, escribe en estado de gracia; es como si fuera un niño crecido que ha hecho un pacto ateo con las estrellas. Sabe ver el polvo de lossueños que se esparce por el mundo y que revela, de manera casi fotográfica, la poesía de cada momento».Le Journal du Dimange «Una novela cariñosa e irresistible sobre la infancia de su padre. [...] Mathias Malzieu tiene el don de transformar las cosas serias en burbujas de poesía».Elle«Una historia que sabe proporcionarnos una alegría en cada página con sus expresiones revoltosas que parecen hilvanadas en el aire. ¡Y qué retrato lúdico de la infancia!»Le Parisien «El mundo de la infancia se evoca en estas páginas con una modestia abrumadora.[...] Páginas límpidas, inteligentes y sutiles».Le Provence«Mathias Malzieu [es] un mago de la narración. [...] Su arte consiste en contar una historia tierna poniéndose en la piel de un niño. Entre la delicadez y la poesía, nos convertimos en ese niño con un gran corazón. Encontramos aquí la esencia de Mecánica del corazón que tanto nos enamoró en su momento».Le Soir «lanovela más íntima de Mathias Malzieu, que combina el humor y la poesía para rememorar la infancia de su padre».Tandem «Una hermosa novela».Midi Libre «Sensible y precisa [...]. Mathias Malzieu, el travieso, ha encontrado el tono adecuado mezclando un humor desenfadado con imágenes oníricas».La Libre Belgique (Bélgica)«La guerra vista desde el punto de vista de un niño, descrita con una escritura poética: esta novela es de una belleza deslumbrante».Ciné Télé Revue (Bélgica) «Una verdadera oda a la perseverancia y al amor»La Côte (Suiza) «Un homenaje conmovedor. [...] Es un placer descubrir a Mathias Malzieu en este nuevo registro».Metro (Bélgica)
SOLDADOS DE PERON (ACTUALIZADO) (EBOOK)
by Richard GillespieLa obra explica cómo fue posible que un pequeño grupo de católicos radicalizados desarrollaran en la Argentina y en América Latina una de las guerrillas urbanas más influyentes y eficaces, y cómo finalmente fue silenciada. El autor analiza con todo detalle por qué, pese a contar con un apoyo popular considerable, los Montoneros tuvieron que recurrir a una estrategia cada vez más militarizada, que fatalmente acabó por aislarlos de la sociedad argentina. Es es, sin duda, el estudio más sólido que hasta la fecha se ha publicado sobre la guerrilla argentina. El autor se sirve de entrevistas personales realizadas con montoneros en Buenos Aires, La Habana y Londres, y sus fuentes de información material llegan a incluir documentos internos de la organización. Por lo demás, si bien esta obra examina un movimiento específico, su crítica de la guerra de guerrillas cobra un importancia que va mucho más allá de las fronteras de la Argentina.
Soldados de Salamina (Colección Andanzas Ser. #Vol. 433)
by Javier CercasIn this bestselling literary novel Cercas takes the reader on an investigation of historic events to unravel an essential secret about Spain's most uncomfortable past, but most importantly, about the human condition. Rafael Sanchez Mazas, founder and ideologue of the Falange movement, manages to escape from a collective execution. As the Republicans look for him, an anonymous soldier points a gun at him, but lets him get away. He will hide out in the forest until the war ends, but he will always remember the soldier with the strange gaze that did not turn him in. Cercas tries to penetrate the mystery of the enigmatic Sanchez-Mazas, but only to discover that the true meaning of the story is found where least expected, « because one does not find what he looks for, but rather what life gives him.
Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier
by Siegfried Knappe Ted BrusawThe Dell War Series takes you onto the battlefield, into the jungles and beneath the oceans with unforgettable stories that offer a new look at the terrors and triumphs of America's war experience. Many of these books are eyewitness accounts of the duty-bound fighting man. From the intrepid foot soldiers, sailors, pilots, and commanders, to the elite warriors of the Special Forces, here are stories of men who fight because their lives depend on it.
Soldaten
by Sönke Neitzel Harald WelzerA trove of previously unpublished, transcribed conversations among German POWs - secretly recorded by the Allies - reveals the extent of their brutality and changes our understanding of the mind-set of the German soldier during World War II. On a visit to the British National Archive in 2001, Sonke Neitzel made a remarkable discovery: reams of meticulously transcribed conversations among German POWs that had been covertly recorded and recently declassified. Neitzel would later find another collection of transcriptions, twice as extensive, in the National Archive in Washington, D. C. These were discoveries that would provide a unique and profoundly important window into the true mentality of the soldiers in the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the German navy, and the military in general--almost all of whom had insisted on their own honourable behaviour during the war. Collaborating with renowned social psychologist Harald Welzer, Neitzel examines these conversations--and the casual, pitiless brutality omnipresent in them--from a historical and psychological perspective, and in reconstructing the frameworks and situations behind these conversations, they have created a powerful narrative of wartime experience. 'these extraordinary bugged conversation reveal through the eyes of German soldiers with stark clarity and candour the often brutal reality of the Second World War, providing remarkable insight into the mentality and behaviour of the Wehrmacht. ' Sir Ian Kershaw'Nothing short of sensational . . . [Soldaten] has the potential to change our view of the war. ' Der Spiegel
Soldaten
by Harald Welzer Sonke Neitzel Jefferson ChaseIn 2001, spurred by a nagging curiosity over a transcript of a secretly recorded conversation he had come across in his research on the German U-boat wars, historian Sönke Neitzel paid a visit to the British national archives. He had heard of the existence of recorded interrogations of German POWs, but never about covert recordings taken within the confines of the holding cells, bedrooms, and camps that housed the prisoners. What Neitzel discovered, to his amazement, were reams of untouched, recently declassified transcripts totaling nearly eight hundred pages. Later, Neitzel would find another trove of protocols twice as extensive at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Though initially recorded by British intelligence with the intention of gaining information that might be useful for the Allied war effort, the matters discussed in these conversations ultimately proved to be limited in that regard. But for Neitzel and his collaborator, renowned social psychologist Harald Welzer, they would supply a unique and profoundly important window into the mentality of the soldiers in the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the German navy, and the military in general, almost all of whom had insisted on their own honorable behavior during the war. It is a myth these transcripts unequivocally debunk. Soldaten closely examines these conversations, and the casual, pitiless brutality omnipresent in them, from a historical and psychological perspective. What factors led to the degradation of the soldiers' sense of awareness and morality? How much did their social environments affect their interpretation of the war and their actions during combat? By reconstructing the frameworks and situations behind these conversations, and the context in which they were spoken, a powerful, unflinching narrative of wartime experience emerges. The details of what these soldiers did, after all, are not filtered the way they might be in letters to family, or girlfriends and wives, or during interrogations by the enemy. In Soldaten, Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer offer an unmitigated window into the mind-set of the German fighting man, potentially changing our view of World War II.