- Table View
- List View
The Abongo Abroad: Military-Sponsored Travel in Ghana, the United States, and the World, 1959-1992 (Cold War in Global Perspective)
by John V. CluneBlending African social history with US foreign relations, John V. Clune documents how ordinary people experienced a major aspect of Cold War diplomacy. The book describes how military-sponsored international travel, especially military training abroad and United Nations peacekeeping deployments in the Sinai and Lebanon, altered Ghanaian service members and their families during the three decades after independence in 1957. Military assistance to Ghana included sponsoring training and education in the United States, and American policymakers imagined that national modernization would result from the personal relationships Ghanaian service members and their families would forge. As an act of faith, American military assistance policy with Ghana remained remarkably consistent despite little evidence that military education and training in the United States produced any measurable results. Merging newly discovered documents from Ghana's armed forces and declassified sources on American military assistance to Africa, this work argues that military-sponsored travel made individual Ghanaians' outlooks on the world more international, just as military assistance planners hoped they would, but the Ghanaian state struggled to turn that new identity into political or economic progress.
About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior
by Col. David H. HackworthCalled &“everything a war memoir could possibly be&” by The New York Times, this all-time classic of the military memoir genre now includes a new forward from bestselling author and retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink.Whether he was fifteen years old or forty, David Hackworth devoted his life to the US Army and quickly became a living legend. However, he appeared on TV in 1971 to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam. From Korea to Berlin and the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam, Hackworth&’s story is that of an exemplary patriot, played against the backdrop of the changing fortunes of America and the US military. This memoir is the stunning indictment of the Pentagon&’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Vietnam conflict and of the bureaucracy of self-interest that fueled the war. With About Face, Hackworth has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation and presents a vivid and powerful portrait of patriotism.
About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War
by Buff Whitman-Bradley Sarah Lazare Cynthia Whitman-BradleyVeterans of recent conflicts describe their individual journeys from raw recruit to war resister in this collection of testimonials. Although it is not well publicized, the long tradition of refusing to fight unjust wars continues today within the American military. The stories in this book provide an intimate, honest look at the personal transformation of each of these young people and at the same time constitute a powerful argument against militarization and endless war. Also included are exclusive interviews with Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg addressing the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and the role civilian and GI resistance plays in bringing the troops home.
Above and Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America's Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission
by Casey Sherman Michael J. TougiasFrom the authors of the bestselling The Finest Hours comes the riveting, deeply human story of President John F. Kennedy and two U-2 pilots, Rudy Anderson and Chuck Maultsby, who risked their lives to save America during the Cuban Missile CrisisDuring the ominous two weeks of the Cold War's terrifying peak, two things saved humanity: the strategic wisdom of John F. Kennedy and the U-2 aerial spy program.On October 27, 1962, Kennedy, strained from back pain, sleeplessness, and days of impossible tension, was briefed about a missing spy plane. Its pilot, Chuck Maultsby, was on a surveillance mission over the North Pole, but had become disoriented and steered his plane into Soviet airspace. If detected, its presence there could be considered an act of war.As the president and his advisers wrestled with this information, more bad news came: another U-2 had gone missing, this one belonging to Rudy Anderson. His mission: to photograph missile sites over Cuba. For the president, any wrong move could turn the Cold War nuclear.Above and Beyond is the intimate, gripping account of the lives of these three war heroes, brought together on a day that changed history.
Above The French Lines; Letters Of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator.: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917 [Illustrated Edition]
by Stuart Walcott"It is now seven weeks since the dispatches from Paris reported that Stuart Walcott was attacked by three German airplanes and brought down behind the German lines, after he himself had brought down a German plane in his first combat on December 12, 1917, and that it was feared he had been killed; but even now, after the lapse of nearly two months, it is not definitely known whether his fall proved fatal, or whether the earnest hope of his friends that he is still alive may be realized."Unfortunately for the family and friends of Stuart Walcott, his grave was located not long after the Princeton Alumni Journal printed the above. He had given his life for his ideals of Democracy and Freedom fighting above the fields of France as a pilot. His letters recount his experiences training and fighting with the famed Lafayette Escadrille with fellow Americans.Author -- Walcott, Stuart, 1896-1917.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Princeton, Princeton university press; 1918. Original Page Count - 93 pagesIllustration -- 3 illustrations.
Above the Battle: An Air Observation Post Pilot at War
by Ronald Lyell MunroA rare memoir of serving as an AOP pilot—one of the most daring and dangerous jobs in World War II. Includes maps and photos. In April 1943, a young officer arrived at Penshurst to join C Flight, 653 Squadron. He was no ordinary pilot, and this was no ordinary RAF outfit. Lyell Munro was a soldier and 653 was an Air Observation Post Squadron whose pilots were Royal Artillery and whose ground crew were RAF. AOP pilots were expert gunners, skilled flyers, and incurable rule breakers. Flying from airstrips just behind the front lines, without armament and often with no parachute, they controlled the fire of hundreds of guns and their enemies learned to dread the sight of the little green Austers in the skies above the battlefield. An incautious movement, a puff of smoke or a chance flash of reflected sunlight could bring tons of high explosives raining down. They flew alone without ground control, scanning the skies constantly while they directed the guns. Closing at over 250mph, an attacking ME 109 left no time for indecision. Reactions had to be instinctive and evasive action instant. Failure was fatal. After the war ended, the survivors went back into civilian life and few histories mention them or what they did. Lyell&’s is one of only two personal accounts that are known to exist, and it is likely that there will be no more. Written for his family and his comrades in C Flight, Above the Battle is a story told without heroics, but with a deep affection for the men with whom he flew and worked.
Above the Battle (The World At War)
by Romain RollandAbove the Battle is an anti-world war I treatise by Romain Rolland written in 1916. (Excerpt) "A great nation assailed by war has not only its frontiers to protect: it must also protect its good sense. It must protect itself from the hallucinations, injustices, and follies which the plague lets loose. To each his part: to the armies the protection of the soil of their native land; to the thinkers the defence of its thought. If they subordinate that thought to the passions of their people they may well be useful instruments of passion; but they are in danger of betraying the spirit, which is not the least part of a people's patrimony. One day History will pass judgment on each of the nations at war; she will weigh their measure of errors, lies, and heinous follies. Let us try and make ours light before her!"
Above the Din of War: Afghans Speak About Their Lives, Their Country, and Their Future—and Why America Should Listen
by Peter EichstaedtMost books about the war in Afghanistan examine the conflict from the perspective of a foreign correspondent, political analyst, or US soldier, but Above the Din of War focuses on the people of Afghanistan themselves, providing a forum in which the thoughts of everyday people can be considered. Having traveled the country for a year, Peter Eichstaedt draws out Afghans from all walks of life: a former warlord, a Taliban judge, victims of self-immolation, courageous women parliamentarians, would-be suicide bombers, besieged merchants, frightened mullahs, and desperate archaeologists. The book explores a country that both vexes and fascinates the world and relates what its people have to say about living through 30 years of continual unrest, violence, and negative international attention. From his time spent interviewing and living with the people of Afghanistan, Eichstaedt proposes American and NATO exit strategies that could avoid leaving Afghanistan mired in chaos and war. This thought-provoking title from a journalist's point of view adds a human element to this complex international situation.
Above the East China Sea
by Sarah BirdIn her most ambitious, moving, and provocative novel to date, Sarah Bird makes a stunning departure. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love. Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base in Okianawa. Luz's older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has just been killed in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her sister's death and a lifetime of constant moving from base to base, Luz turns for the comfort her service-hardened mother cannot offer to the "Smokinawans," the "waste cases," who gather to get high every night in a deserted cove. When even pills, one-hitters, Cuervo Gold, and a growing crush on Jake Furusato aren't enough to soften the unbearable edge, the desolate girl contemplates taking her own life.In 1945, Tamiko Kokuba, along with two hundred of her classmates, is plucked out of her elite girls' high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army's horrific cave hospitals. With defeat certain, Tamiko finds herself squeezed between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans. She believes she has lost her entire family, as well as the island paradise she so loved, and, like Luz, she aches with a desire to be reunited with her beloved sister. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and your entire clan waits for you in the afterworld, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that, if she surrenders to the most unbrat impulse and allows herself to connect completely with a place and its people, the ancestral spirits will save not only Tamiko but her as well. Propelled by a riveting narrative and set at the very epicenter of the headline-grabbing clash now emerging between the great powers, Above the East China Sea is at once a remarkable chronicle of how war shapes the lives of conquerors as well as the conquered and a deeply moving account of family, friendship, and love that transcends time.This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
Above the East China Sea
by Sarah BirdIn her most ambitious, moving, and provocative novel to date, Sarah Bird makes a stunning departure. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love. Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base in Okianawa. Luz's older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has just been killed in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her sister's death and a lifetime of constant moving from base to base, Luz turns for the comfort her service-hardened mother cannot offer to the "Smokinawans," the "waste cases," who gather to get high every night in a deserted cove. When even pills, one-hitters, Cuervo Gold, and a growing crush on Jake Furusato aren't enough to soften the unbearable edge, the desolate girl contemplates taking her own life.In 1945, Tamiko Kokuba, along with two hundred of her classmates, is plucked out of her elite girls' high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army's horrific cave hospitals. With defeat certain, Tamiko finds herself squeezed between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans. She believes she has lost her entire family, as well as the island paradise she so loved, and, like Luz, she aches with a desire to be reunited with her beloved sister. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and your entire clan waits for you in the afterworld, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that, if she surrenders to the most unbrat impulse and allows herself to connect completely with a place and its people, the ancestral spirits will save not only Tamiko but her as well. Propelled by a riveting narrative and set at the very epicenter of the headline-grabbing clash now emerging between the great powers, Above the East China Sea is at once a remarkable chronicle of how war shapes the lives of conquerors as well as the conquered and a deeply moving account of family, friendship, and love that transcends time.From the Hardcover edition.
Above the East China Sea
by Sarah BirdIn her most ambitious, moving, and provocative novel to date, Sarah Bird makes a stunning departure. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two teenaged girls, an American and an Okinawan, whose lives are connected across seventy years by the shared experience of profound loss, the enduring strength of an ancient culture, and the redeeming power of family love. Luz James, a contemporary U.S. Air Force brat, lives with her strictly-by-the-rules sergeant mother at Kadena Air Base in Okianawa. Luz's older sister, her best friend and emotional center, has just been killed in the Afghan war. Unmoored by her sister's death and a lifetime of constant moving from base to base, Luz turns for the comfort her service-hardened mother cannot offer to the "Smokinawans," the "waste cases," who gather to get high every night in a deserted cove. When even pills, one-hitters, Cuervo Gold, and a growing crush on Jake Furusato aren't enough to soften the unbearable edge, the desolate girl contemplates taking her own life.In 1945, Tamiko Kokuba, along with two hundred of her classmates, is plucked out of her elite girls' high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army's horrific cave hospitals. With defeat certain, Tamiko finds herself squeezed between the occupying Japanese and the invading Americans. She believes she has lost her entire family, as well as the island paradise she so loved, and, like Luz, she aches with a desire to be reunited with her beloved sister. On an island where the spirits of the dead are part of life and your entire clan waits for you in the afterworld, suicide offers Tamiko the promise of peace. As Luz tracks down the story of her own Okinawan grandmother, she discovers that, if she surrenders to the most unbrat impulse and allows herself to connect completely with a place and its people, the ancestral spirits will save not only Tamiko but her as well. Propelled by a riveting narrative and set at the very epicenter of the headline-grabbing clash now emerging between the great powers, Above the East China Sea is at once a remarkable chronicle of how war shapes the lives of conquerors as well as the conquered and a deeply moving account of family, friendship, and love that transcends time.
Above the Pacific: Three Medal of Honor Fighter Aces of World War II Speak (American War Heroes)
by Colin HeatonThree legendary fighter pilots from the Pacific War—all recipients of the Medal of Honor—tell their own stories in this remarkable collection. Marine ace Pappy Boyington is perhaps the most celebrated of all American pilots in the war against Japan, fighting in the skies with both the famed Flying Tigers and his own Black Sheep Squadron. Marine Joe Foss joined Guadalcanal&’s Cactus Air Force and destroyed a Japanese Zero on his first mission—the first of twenty-six aerial kills achieved during the war. Navy captain David McCampbell didn&’t notch his first kill until June 1944, but he would quickly go on to assemble one of the most remarkable aerial-combat records in history with thirty-four victories, including nine in one day. In this gripping oral history—which spans the entire war— from the Americans who fought the Japanese in China to the final, desperate battle for Okinawa, these three heroes tell their own stories, in their own words. These interviews, personally conducted by military veteran and historian Colin Heaton, are the final testimony of some of America&’s greatest warriors.
Above the Reich: Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest American Air Heroes of World War II, in Their Own Words
by Anne-Marie Lewis Colin HeatonSensational eyewitness accounts from the most heroic and legendary American aviators of World War II, never before published as a bookThey are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces--and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up twenty-seven kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine. Robin Olds was a West Point football hero who became one of the most dogged, aggressive fighter pilots in the European theater, relentlessly pursuing Germans in his P-38 Lightning. And Jimmy Doolittle became the most celebrated American airman of the war--maybe even of all time--after he led the audacious raid to bomb Tokyo. Today these heroes are long gone, but now, in this incredible volume, they tell their stories in their own words.
Above the Trenches: The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War
by Ian MackerseyThe 1914-18 conflict narrated through the voices of the men whose combat was in the air. <p><p> The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander in chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory. <p><p> Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them. <p><p> Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to 'Blighty', they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home. <p><p> Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of its participants. As they waited to die, the men shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs - and squadron gossip - with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope.
Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
by Abraham LincolnPresents the full text of a selection of President Lincoln's greatest speeches, with historical notes and context provided by John Grafton.
Abraham Lincoln (Biographies)
by Laura K. MurrayHow much do you know about Abraham Lincoln? Find out the facts you need to know about the 16th president of the United States. You'll learn about the early life, challenges, and major accomplishments of this important American.
Abraham Lincoln and Coles County, Illinois
by Charles H. ColemanIn the predawn darkness of Friday, February 1, 1861, aboard a westbound train, Abraham Lincoln, left Coles County for the last time.Elected to the presidency the previous November and not yet having departed his home in Springfield for Washington, D.C., to be inaugurated, he had come on January 30 to visit his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, and to say farewell to friends and family in Charleston and the surrounding area.He would never return. Having led the United States through the Civil War, he would die at the hand of assassin John Wilkes Booth in Washington’s Ford Theater on another Friday—April 14, 1865.This book by history scholar Charles H. Coleman explores Lincoln’s close-knit family ties in and connection to Coles County, located in east-central Illinois: the home of his father and stepmother, Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, as well as his stepbrother John and his stepsisters, Sarah Elizabeth and Matilda, along with their families, and where Lincoln himself was a frequent visitor during his lifetime.
Abraham Lincoln And Jefferson Davis: A Comparison Of Civil War Commanders In Chief
by L-Cmdr Michael S. TrenchThis is a study of the effectiveness of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as Commanders in Chief during the Civil War. It begins by comparing their backgrounds prior to assuming the Presidency; then comparing their military strategies and command structures. The final area of comparison is their involvement in the first military draft in American history. Davis had extensive government and military experience, but exhibited personality traits early on that later hampered his performance as a war-time Commander in Chief. Lincoln had very little experience, but excelled at dealing with people. Lincoln tried several staff arrangements before finally appointing Grant as General in Chief. Davis changed his structure very little throughout the war. Although he appointed Lee as General in Chief in the first year, he lost his services by placing him in command of a field army. Both faced strong challenges from a powerful governor over the draft. Davis first tried to win over the governor, then appealed directly to the people. Lincoln publicly kept distant from the draft and worked behind the scenes.
Abraham Lincoln An Essay: An Essay
by Carl SchurzAbraham Lincoln “An Essay" from Carl Schurz. Confidante of Lincoln, U.S. Ambassador to Spain, a major-general in the Civil War, a U.S. Senator from Missouri, Secretary of the Interior in the Hayes administration, author of a biography of Henry Clay, president of the National Civil Service Reform League, and an editorial writer for Harper's Weekly (1829-1906) – Print ed.
Absaraka, Home of the Crows: A Military Wife?s Journal Retelling Life on the Plains and Red Cloud?s War
by Margaret CarringtonThe classic journal and firsthand account of one of the most disastrous military battles of the American frontier.On July 17, 1866, two soldiers and six wagoners were killed by Sioux Indians. In the next two weeks, fourteen more men died in Sioux attacks. The attacks continued through the summer and fall. On December 21, disaster struck. Recklessly pursuing Indians across a wooded ridge, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his company fell into an ambush. It was the worst military blunder of the Indian Wars before the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.Margaret Irvin Carrington, like many officers' wives, kept a journal of her stay in the outposts of the West. She recorded her impressions of the scenery and the inhabitants of Absaraka, in present-day Wyoming, Montana, and the western Dakotas. As the wife of the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, she experienced the sequence of events and the heightening of tensions that led to that bloody December day. She could not have known that her journal would come to such a shocking climax, with her husband's career at stake. Today, her journal has been reprinted several times over to present this exciting, eye-opening view into life on the plains as the wife of an officer.
Absaraka, Home of the Crows: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the Plains
by Margaret Irvin Carrington"With acknowledgments to Lieutenant-General Sherman, whose suggestions at Fort Kearney, in the spring of 1866, were adopted, in preserving a daily record of the events of a peculiarly eventful journey, and whose vigorous policy is as promising of the final settlement of Indian troubles and the quick completion of the Union Pacific Railroad as his "March to the Sea' was signal in crushing the last hope of armed rebellion, this narrative is respectfully dedicated. MARGRET IRVIN CARRINGTON.
Abschied von Hamburg
by Dieter RudolphEin erfrischender und neuer Blick auf den Krieg in Deutschland, erzählt von einem deutschen Jungen aus Hamburg. Der Leser kann seine Erfahrungen der Höhen und Tiefen des Lebens während der Zerstörung Hamburgs im Feuersturm von 1943 miterleben. Die Familie erhält die verheerende Nachricht, dass sein Vater an der Ostfront vermisst wird, vermutlich tot, gemäss den Berichten, dass seine Panzereinheit total zerstört wurde. Dann endete glücklicherweise der Krieg. Mutter war mit einem britischen Soldaten befreundet. Dieser Waliser, der in den britischen Küchen arbeitete, war in der Lage die nötigen Lebensmittel zu liefern, um zu verhindern, dass diese Familie hungern musste, wenn auch mit schwierigen und außergewöhnlichen Mitteln, um seine eigene Position nicht zu gefährden. Dieter erzählt seine herzzerreissende Geschichte und nimmt uns mit auf seine Reise von der Zerstörung Hamburgs bis zur Friedenszeit an der walisischen Küste. Wie bei allen guten Erzählungen gibt es eine Wende und für Dieter noch mehr emotionalen Aufruhr. Aber mit der stets führenden Hand seines älteren Bruders Hans kann er sich all den Prüfungen stellen, die der Krieg ihm brachte und das Entsetzen, das er als kleiner Junge in einem fremden Land empfand, als die Familie nach Wales zog. Er war isoliert, nicht in der Lage, die Sprache zu sprechen. Aber er führt den Leser durch seine Abenteuer in diesem fremden Land und zeigt die Belastbarkeit der Jugend.
The Absence Of Grand Strategy: The United States In The Persian Gulf, 1972-2005
by Steve A. YetivGreat powers and grand strategies. It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. Popular theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But, as Steve A. Yetiv contends, things may not always be that cut and dried. <p><p> Analyzing the evolution of the United States' foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv offers a provocative and panoramic view of American strategies in a region critical to the functioning of the entire global economy. Ten cases—from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq—reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy. <p> Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative approach to understanding the behavior of great powers in unstable regions. At a time when the effects of U.S. foreign policy are rippling across the globe, The Absence of Grand Strategy offers key insight into the nature and evolution of American foreign policy in the Gulf.
The Absence of Grand Strategy: The United States in the Persian Gulf, 1972–2005
by Steve A. YetivGreat powers and grand strategies. It is easy to assume that the most powerful nations pursue and employ consistent, cohesive, and decisive policies in trying to promote their interests in regions of the world. Popular theory emphasizes two such grand strategies that great powers may pursue: balance of power policy or hegemonic domination. But, as Steve A. Yetiv contends, things may not always be that cut and dried. Analyzing the evolution of the United States' foreign policy in the Persian Gulf from 1972 to 2005, Yetiv offers a provocative and panoramic view of American strategies in a region critical to the functioning of the entire global economy. Ten cases—from the policies of the Nixon administration to George W. Bush's war in Iraq—reveal shifting, improvised, and reactive policies that were responses to unanticipated and unpredictable events and threats. In fact, the distinguishing feature of the U.S. experience in the Gulf has been the absence of grand strategy.Yetiv introduces the concept of "reactive engagement" as an alternative approach to understanding the behavior of great powers in unstable regions. At a time when the effects of U.S. foreign policy are rippling across the globe, The Absence of Grand Strategy offers key insight into the nature and evolution of American foreign policy in the Gulf.
Absent-Minded Beggars: Yeomanry and Volunteers in the Boer War
by Will BennettThe British Army suffered one of its greatest crises when in December 1899 the Boer irregulars inflicted three reverses in South Africa in 'Black Week'. A nation grown accustomed to success was stunned. Part of the answer was a very British blend of patriotism and pragmatism. For the first time civilian volunteers and part-time soldiers were allowed to fight overseas to the horror of traditionalist professional soldiers. Yet, by the end of the Boer War, almost 90,000 men had volunteered to serve the Colours. Much of sporting high society joined the newly formed Imperial Yeomanry. The Volunteers sent infantrymen to serve alongside the regulars and the City of London financed the raising of the City Imperial Volunteers. Men also came forward from the colonies. This book tells the story of these volunteer units.