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The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
by Anne Sebba'Superb and timely' KATE MOSSE'Impressive, important, deeply moving' SARAH WATERS'Brilliant' ANTHONY HOROWITZWhat role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were assembled to play marching music to other inmates - forced labourers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day - and give weekly concerts for Nazi officers. Individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances of an officer's favourite piece of music. It was the only entirely female orchestra in any of the Nazi prison camps and, for almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra was to save their lives. In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba tells their astonishing story with sensitivity and care.
The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival
by Anne Sebba'Superb and timely' KATE MOSSE'Impressive, important, deeply moving' SARAH WATERS'Brilliant' ANTHONY HOROWITZWhat role could music play in a death camp? What was the effect on those women who owed their survival to their participation in a Nazi propaganda project? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. Almost fifty women and girls from eleven nations were assembled to play marching music to other inmates - forced labourers who left each morning and returned, exhausted and often broken, at the end of the day - and give weekly concerts for Nazi officers. Individual members were sometimes summoned to give solo performances of an officer's favourite piece of music. It was the only entirely female orchestra in any of the Nazi prison camps and, for almost all of the musicians chosen to take part, being in the orchestra was to save their lives. In The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, award-winning historian Anne Sebba tells their astonishing story with sensitivity and care.
The Wonder of War on Land (The World At War)
by Francis Rolt-WheelerFrancis Rolt-Wheeler (1876 - 1960) was born Francis William Wheeler in Forest Hills, England. He lived with his family, in England, until some time before 1901. He crossed the Atlantic where he became a naturalised US citizen in 1903, working as a journalist. Starting around 1906, Wheeler made a name for himself -- as Francis Rolt-Wheeler -- as a writer of books, mostly for boys, like The Boy with the United States Survey and The Boy with the US Trappers. He also published a 10 volume Science-History of the Universe, books for children with topics ranging from Aztecs to dinosaurs to Thomas Alva Edison, a series of books on aspects of the first world war, and some poetry and drama. Francis Rolt-Wheeler remained in the US until the late 1920, and his reputation as a writer of popular boy's material continued to wax through the 1920s. He was traveling globally quite a bit during this period and left the US for the Middle East, where he began his second career as an occultist. The Rolt-Wheeler handle was used by both Francis and his sister Ethel, a poet, writer, reincarnationist and Fellow of the Theosophical Society.
The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs, and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa
by Adam RobertsEquatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billiondollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African and Zimbabwean mercenaries, travelling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes, that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots? The real motive lay deep below the ocean floor: oil. In The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth effectively described an attempt by mercenaries to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea - in 1972. And the chain of events surrounding the night of March 7, 2004, is a rare case of life imitating art-or, at least, life imitating a 1970s thriller-in almost uncanny detail. With a cast of characters worthy of a remake of Wild Geese and a plot as mazy as it was unlikely, The Wonga Coup is a tale of venality, overarching vanity and greed whose example speaks to the problems of the entire African continent.
The Wooden Horse: The Classic World War II Story of Escape (Military Classics Ser.)
by Gregory A. Freeman Eric WilliamsAn epic adventure-the most brilliant escape and evasion from the Nazis ever written.Eric Williams, a Royal Air Force bomber captain, was shot down over Germany in 1942 and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the infamous German POW camp. Digging an underground tunnel hidden beneath a wooden vaulting horse, he managed to escape after ten months and, accompanied by a fellow officer, made his way back to England. In this thinly fictionalized retelling, Williams relates his story in three distinct phases: the construction of a tunnel (its entrance camouflaged by the wooden vaulting horse in the exercise yard) and hiding the large quantities of sand he dug; the escape; and the journey on foot and by train to the port of Stettin, where Williams and his fellow escapee stowed away aboard a Danish ship, the Norensen.From painstakingly digging the tunnel to secretly depositing the dirt and gravel around the camp to dodging searchlights and search dogs and climbing barbed wire fences, this is an escape story hard to beat. For sheer heroism, courage, and perseverance, this classic is arguably the most ingenious POW escape of WWII. The Wooden Horse became a legend among servicemen long before its publication in 1949 and has remained one ever since.
The Wooden Horse: The Classic World War Ii Story Of Escape (Military Classics Ser.)
by Eric WilliamsIt is over fifty years since the critics of the day acclaimed The Wooden Horse as a superbly told story of the most ingenious and daring escape of the Second World War. Millions of readers agreed, and the book became a modern classic. This revised and expanded edition tells the tale. The escape itself was conceived on classical lines. The Greeks built a wooden horse and by means of it got into the city of Troy; in 1943 two British officers built a wooden horse and by means of it got out of a German prison camp. Together with a third companion, they were the only British prisoners ever to escape and reach England from this camp, though many tried. It was Stalag Luft III, designed especially to hold the Germans' most prized captives – Allied aircrew – and considered to be escape-proof. The break from the camp itself is only part of the story. Once outside the wire the escapers were still faced with the problem of getting out of Germany. Fugitives in the midst of a watchful enemy population, they had many close shaves when disaster threatened to overwhelm them – adventures which the reader shares to the full. The fantastic nature of this enterprise, the patience, determination and endurance, above all the steel nerve it demanded from an undernourished physique, are rendered the more impressive by the manner of the telling. The characters are so surely drawn that they could not but be real. Throughout the book runs a vein of humour which alone made those days bearable. The warmth of human companionship born of privation, fear and a common purpose is vividly portrayed.
The Wooden Shepherdess
by Hilary Mantel Richard HughesThe Wooden Shepherdess is the sequel to The Fox in the Attic, and the second volume of Richard Hughes's monumental historical fiction, "The Human Predicament." It opens with Hughes's hero Augustine in prohibition era America, where he is a bemused onlooker and an increasingly fascinated participant in a country intoxicated with sex, violence, and booze. In brilliant cinematic style, the book then moves to Germany, where the Nazi Party is gradually gaining in power; to the slums, mining towns, parliamentary back rooms, and great houses of a Britain teetering on the verge of class war; and to the wilds of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The novel ends with a terrifying account of the Night of the Long Knives, as Hitler ruthlessly secures his hold upon Germany. This new edition of the The Wooden Shepherdess concludes with the twelve chapters that Hughes completed of the planned third volume of "The Human Predicament," here published for the first time in America.
The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family
by Susan HigginbothamIn 1464, the most eligible bachelor in England, Edward IV, stunned the nation by revealing his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, a beautiful, impoverished widow whose father and brother Edward himself had once ridiculed as upstarts. Edward’s controversial match brought his queen’s large family to court and into the thick of the Wars of the Roses. This is the story of the family whose fates would be inextricably intertwined with the fall of the Plantagenets and the rise of the Tudors: Richard, the squire whose marriage to a duchess would one day cost him his head; Jacquetta, mother to the queen and accused witch; Elizabeth, the commoner whose royal destiny would cost her three of her sons; Anthony, the scholar and jouster who was one of Richard III’s first victims; and Edward, whose military exploits would win him the admiration of Ferdinand and Isabella.
The Words I Never Wrote: A Novel
by Jane ThynneA chance discovery inside a vintage typewriter case reveals the gripping story of two sisters on opposite sides of World War II in this captivating novel for readers of Lilac Girls and The Women in the Castle. New York, present day: On a whim, Juno Lambert buys a 1931 Underwood typewriter that once belonged to celebrated journalist Cordelia Capel. Within its case she discovers an unfinished novel, igniting a transatlantic journey to fill the gaps in the story of Cordelia and her sister and the secret that lies between them. Europe, 1936: Cordelia&’s socialite sister Irene marries a German industrialist who whisks her away to Berlin. Cordelia, feistier and more intellectual than Irene, gets a job at a newspaper in Paris, pursuing the journalism career she cherishes. As politics begin to boil in Europe, the sisters exchange letters and Cordelia discovers that Irene&’s husband is a Nazi sympathizer. With increasing desperation, Cordelia writes to her beloved sister, but as life in Nazi Germany darkens, Irene no longer dares admit what her existence is truly like. Knowing that their letters cannot tell the whole story, Cordelia decides to fill in the blanks by sitting down with her Underwood and writing the truth. When Juno reads the unfinished novel, she resolves to uncover the secret that continued to divide the sisters amid the turmoil of love, espionage, and war. In this vivid portrait of Nazi Berlin, from its high society to its devastating fall, Jane Thynne examines the truths we sometimes dare not tell ourselves.Advance praise for The Words I Never Wrote&“In sumptuous prose, Jane Thynne limns the lives of two sisters ripped apart by the moral choices they made in a time of war. Dramatic, fast-paced, and emotional, The Words I Never Wrote puts the interior details of women&’s lives in stark relief against the dramatic backdrop of Europe in World War II, helping readers understand the difficult choices that women made.&”—Elizabeth Letts, author of The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis &“Haunting, taut, and compelling, this portrait of two upper-class British sisters divided by World War II is a kaleidoscopic story of love and betrayal whose characters are never quite what they seem. It will capture your attention immediately and keep you thinking for a long time to come.&”—Lynne Olson, author of Madame Fourcade&’s Secret War
The Workers' State Meets the Market: Labour in China's Transition
by Sarah Cook Margaret Maurer-FazioAmong the most dramatic changes to affect China in the 1990s is the upsurge in labour mobility and the emergence of a market-driven system of labour allocation, changes which profoundly affect the working environment and livelihoods of the Chinese people. Papers in this collection draw on a wide variety of data sources to analyse key elements of this transformation.
The Workhorse of Helmand: A Chinook Crewman's Account of Operations in Afghanistan & Iraq
by Michael FryAs a RAF Chinook crewman, Mick Fry’s exposure to Afghanistan spanned over 10 years and countless deployments, from watching 9/11 unfold in Australia, leaving the deck of HMS Ocean off the coast of Pakistan under the cover of darkness all the way through numerous fighting seasons and the chaos of Helmand Province. The Chinook helicopter was the workhorse of the British Military operations in Afghanistan, and the crews from RAF Odiham were confronted by their own mortality on an almost daily basis as they worked tirelessly and skillfully to support the troops on the ground. Whether it was taking part in air assault missions against a determined enemy, or extracting casualties from the battlefield under fire, and in a life or death race against time, Mick witnessed both the best and worst of humanity on a daily basis. His story is both gripping and confronting. It takes the reader on a journey through combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Author paints a gritty picture of repeated operational deployments, balancing harrowing scenes and the ever present threat of death with the humor and camaraderie of comrades and the exhilaration of surviving Taliban RPG’s and AK47 fire.
The Workhouse Sisters: The absolutely gripping and heartbreaking story of one woman’s journey to save her family (Workhouse to War)
by Kay BrellendAfter escaping the grip of the workhouse, Lily has kept her fiancé's business afloat while he is away fighting on the Western Front. Still battling on, she's now doing her bit for her country as an auxiliary nurse - but one thing above all else continues to weigh heavily on her heart: her long-lost sister.Born just before her mother died, the scandal was hushed-up and the baby spirited away. But now, at last, there is hope Lily could find her little sister for she has a clue to go on: the name of the notorious baby farmer who bought the child all those years ago. Mrs Jolley.Using all her pluck, and with the help of her two friends Margie and Fanny, Lily will do anything in her power to find her little sister and save her from the dark streets of London.With Winter drawing in, and the war with no end in sight, will she be able to bring her family together?
The Workhouse Sisters: The absolutely gripping and heartbreaking story of one woman’s journey to save her family (Workhouse to War)
by Kay BrellendAfter escaping the grip of the workhouse, Lily has kept her fiancé's business afloat while he is away fighting on the Western Front. Still battling on, she's now doing her bit for her country as an auxiliary nurse - but one thing above all else continues to weigh heavily on her heart: her long-lost sister.Born just before her mother died, the scandal was hushed-up and the baby spirited away. But now, at last, there is hope Lily could find her little sister for she has a clue to go on: the name of the notorious baby farmer who bought the child all those years ago. Mrs Jolley.Using all her pluck, and with the help of her two friends Margie and Fanny, Lily will do anything in her power to find her little sister and save her from the dark streets of London.With Winter drawing in, and the war with no end in sight, will she be able to bring her family together?
The Workhouse Sisters: The absolutely gripping and heartbreaking story of one woman’s journey to save her family (Workhouse to War)
by Kay BrellendAfter escaping the grip of the workhouse, Lily has kept her fiancé's business afloat while he is away fighting on the Western Front. Still battling on, she's now doing her bit for her country as an auxiliary nurse - but one thing above all else continues to weigh heavily on her heart: her long-lost sister.Born just before her mother died, the scandal was hushed-up and the baby spirited away. But now, at last, there is hope Lily could find her little sister for she has a clue to go on: the name of the notorious baby farmer who bought the child all those years ago. Mrs Jolley.Using all her pluck, and with the help of her two friends Margie and Fanny, Lily will do anything in her power to find her little sister and save her from the dark streets of London.With Winter drawing in, and the war with no end in sight, will she be able to bring her family together?
The World After the War: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957
by Derek LeebaertOne of the great myths of the twentieth century is that after the Second World War Britain simply relinquished its power and America quickly embraced its worldwide political and military commitments. Instead the two allies improvised an uneasy, shifting partnership for twelve long years while most of western Europe lay in turmoil and Russia grew more aggressive. But in 1957 Washington issued a &‘declaration of independence&’ from British authority. It was then that everything changed, and America assumed leadership of the new world order just taking shape. Derek Leebaert spins a riveting global narrative of Britain as the original superpower and shows why the Americans kept believing it to be indispensable. It&’s the story of secret ties, diplomatic quarrels and military interventions that casts political giants Churchill, Truman, Eisenhower and Johnson in a new light. In a volatile world of decolonisation, a uniting Europe and the Suez Crisis, shrewd men in London were leveraging the empire&’s long-established resources and influence to maintain their grip on power. The enduring notion of a special relationship, rising tensions with Russia and China, and the sources of much of the world&’s turmoil can&’t be understood without knowing what really occurred.
The World And The Word: An Introduction To The Old Testament
by Eugene H. Merrill Mark Rooker Michael A. GrisantiThe World and the Word is a fresh introduction to the Old Testament driven largely by the fact that so much Christian preaching and teaching today increasingly ignores what is eighty percent of the Bible. Authors Eugene Merrill, Mark Rooker, and Michael Grisanti work through the world and text of the Old Testament always making three major points: • The Old Testament is a rich source of theology and doctrine that is presupposed by the New Testament. Without it, Christian theology would be seriously deficient. • Mastery of the Old Testament is crucial to an understanding of the New Testament. • The Old Testament offers, by teaching and example, practical principles of belief and behavior for contemporary times. Who God was and what He did then can be replicated in the lives of men and women today.
The World Beneath Their Feet: The British, the Americans, the Nazis and the Mountaineering Race to Summit the Himalayas
by Scott EllsworthLonglisted for the 2020 William Hill Sports Book of the Year'A gripping history' THE ECONOMIST 'The World Beneath Their Feet contains plenty of rollicking stories' THE TIMES'Gripping' THE SUNDAY TIMES'So far as adventure stories go, this book is tops.' Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump'[Ellsworth] recasts the era as a great Himalayan race...[and] it works brilliantly...his account of the 1953 ascent of Everest...feels unusually fresh' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Like if Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air met Lauren Hillenbrand's Unbroken ... an inviting and engrossing read' SPORTS ILLUSTRATEDOne of the most compelling international dramas of the 20th century and an unforgettable saga of survival, technological innovation, and breathtaking human physical achievement-all set against the backdrop of a world headed toward war.While tension steadily rose between European powers in the 1930s, a different kind of battle was raging across the Himalayas. Contingents from Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the United States had set up rival camps at the base of the mountains, all hoping to become recognized as the fastest, strongest, and bravest climbers in the world.Carried on across nearly the entire sweep of the Himalayas, this contest involved not only the greatest mountain climbers of the era, but statesmen and millionaires, world-class athletes and bona fide eccentrics, scientists and generals, obscure villagers and national heroes. Centered in the 1930s, with one brief, shining postwar coda, the contest was a struggle between hidebound traditionalists and unknown innovators, one that featured new techniques and equipment, unbelievable courage and physical achievement, and unparalleled valor. And death. One Himalayan peak alone, Nanga Parbat in Kashmir, claimed twenty-five lives in less than three years.Climbing the Himalayas was the Greatest Generation's moonshot--one shrouded in the onset of war, interrupted by it, and then fully accomplished. A gritty, fascinating history that promises to enrapture fans of Hampton Side, Jon Krakauer, and Laura Hillenbrand, The World Beneath Their Feet brings this forgotten story back to life.
The World Beneath Their Feet: The British, the Americans, the Nazis and the Mountaineering Race to Summit the Himalayas
by Scott EllsworthThe stories of the extraordinary men and women - the athletes, aristocrats, opportunists and oddballs - who launched the race to the roof of the world.From 1931 to 1953, there was a race like no other. It was a race to the top of the world-a race primarily between Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the United States.Carried on across nearly the entire sweep of the Himalayas, it involved not only the greatest mountain climbers of the era, but statesmen and millionaires, world-class athletes and bona fide eccentrics, scientists and generals, obscure villagers and national heroes. Centred in the 1930s, with one brief, shining postwar coda, the contest was a struggle between hidebound traditionalists and unknown innovators, one that featured new techniques and equipment, unbelievable courage and physical achievement, and unparalleled derring-do. And death. One Himalayan peak alone, Nanga Parbat in Kashmir, claimed twenty-five lives in less than three years. Fuelled by deep national needs, the great Himalayan race captured the attention of the world. British superiority, German innovation, American determination and the wonder of Sherpas dominated the newsreels, radio broadcasts, books and magazines of the age. The World Beneath Their Feet will bring this forgotten story back to life. It will resurrect what was, in fact, one of the most compelling international dramas of the 1930s, a saga of survival, technology, and some of the most breathtaking human physical achievements, and athletes, ever known, all set against the backdrop of a world headed toward war.(P) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
The World Crisis, Volume I: 1911-1914 (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Winston ChurchillBest known as the Prime Minister who guided Britain through World War II, Winston Churchill also played an active role in the preceding war, during which he served as his country's First Lord of the Admiralty and the leader of its aerial defense. After masterminding the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, he resigned from the government and sought to rehabilitate his reputation by serving with the army on the Western Front. Before and after World War I, Churchill wrote several books that remain popular with students and historians. Written with his customary flair and enriched by his firsthand knowledge of events, Churchill's The World Crisis series remains the greatest history of World War I. This unabridged first volume vividly recounts the status of the world's nations at the war's outbreak, It traces the international tensions over the Balkan states that triggered the conflict as well as the arms race between the British and German navies.
The World Crisis: 1911-1914 (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #1)
by Winston S. ChurchillThe causes of the Great War are examined in this first volume of the series that is &“essential reading, as fresh and compelling as ever&” (Jon Meacham, bestselling author of Franklin and Winston). An absorbing history of the outbreak of World War I from a true insider&’s point of view, the first volume of Winston S. Churchill&’s five-volume The World Crisis is unsurpassed as both a historical and personal account of the earth-shaking events leading up to WWI. Beginning in 1911, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, this report is based on thousands of his personal letters and memos. Churchill&’s epic series opens with a chilling description of the Agadir Crisis, and provides an in-depth account of naval clashes in the Dardanelles, one of Churchill&’s major military failures. It takes readers from the fierce bloodshed of the Gallipoli campaign to the tide-turning battles of Jutland and Verdun—as well as the United States&’ entry into the combat theatre. Written in powerful prose by a great leader who would also go on to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature, The World Crisis, 1911–1914 provides a perspective you won&’t find anywhere else: a dynamic insider&’s account of events that would shape the outcome of modern history. &“Whether as a statesman or an author, Churchill was a giant; and The World Crisis towers over most other books about the Great War.&” —David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All Peace
The World Crisis: 1915 (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #2)
by Winston S. ChurchillThe second volume in Churchill&’s &“outstandingly readable history of the First World War&” (David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All Peace). This second volume in Winston S. Churchill&’s five-volume series The World Crisis, 1915 is by far the most personal—dealing frankly with Churchill&’s failures as a military leader and his ultimately unsuccessful battle to break the European deadlock. After the disastrous Gallipoli landings on the Dardanelles, Churchill served for several months as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. During this time, he served on one of the most violent stretches of the front lines, making a total of thirty-six courageous expeditions into No Man&’s Land. In this chapter of his &“remarkable&” eyewitness account, Churchill provides an unflinching narrative of a particularly challenging time in World War I and in his own career—providing fascinating insight into the mental and psychological challenges faced by a major historical leader (Jon Meacham, bestselling author of Franklin and Winston).
The World Crisis: 1916-1918 (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #3)
by Winston S. ChurchillA volume in Churchill&’s history of the First World War that is &“essential reading, as fresh and compelling as ever&” (Jon Meacham, bestselling author of Franklin and Winston). This epic volume—third in a five-volume history of World War I from the eyewitness perspective of a highly-placed political insider—details Winston S. Churchill&’s development of the Ten Year Rule, which gave the treasury unprecedented power over financial, foreign, and strategic policy for years to come. In March 1916, Churchill returned to England to speak once more in the House of Commons. Appointed first Minister of Munitions, then later Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air, Churchill was in a prime position to observe and document the violent end of World War I. This volume gives context for the events that came before Churchill&’s return, including the intense battles of Jutland and Verdun. And it provides a rare perspective in the unbiased observances of a political leader with a journalist&’s eye for the truth and a historian&’s sense of significance—qualities which helped earn him a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
The World Crisis: The Aftermath (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #4)
by Winston S. ChurchillThe aftermath of World War I is explored in the fourth volume of Winston Churchill&’s &“remarkable&” eyewitness account of history (Jon Meacham, bestselling author of Franklin and Winston). Once the war was over, the story didn&’t end—not for Winston Churchill, and not for the West. The fourth volume of Churchill&’s series, The World Crisis: The Aftermath documents the fallout of WWI—including the Irish Treaty and the peace conferences between Greece and Turkey. The period immediately after World War I was extremely chaotic—and it takes a genius of narrative description and organization to accurately and accessibly describe it for us. Churchill, who went on to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature, depicts the international disorganization and anarchy in the period immediately after the war—with the unique perspective of both a historian and a political insider. &“Whether as a statesman or an author, Churchill was a giant; and The World Crisis towers over most other books about the Great War.&” —David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All Peace
The World Crisis: The Eastern Front (Winston S. Churchill World Crisis Collection #5)
by Winston S. ChurchillThe conclusion of the great statesman&’s epic five-volume history of World War I. The fifth and final volume of Winston Churchill&’s &“remarkable&” series, The World Crisis: The Eastern Front tells a gritty, true-to-life account of the combat in eastern Europe—written by someone whose decisions had a profound impact on the success of war efforts both in the East and in the West (Jon Meacham). While the battle for modern civilization was being fought on the Western Front during World War I, an equally important war—with equally high stakes—was being fought on the Eastern Front, between Russia, Germany, and Germany&’s Austrian allies. It&’s rare that a historical account of World War I documents in as much detail the events of the Eastern Front as those of the West. Churchill&’s account was one of the first to do so, telling the story of an armed conflict that was shockingly dissimilar from its counterpart in the West. &“Whether as a statesman or an author, Churchill was a giant; and The World Crisis towers over most other books about the Great War.&” —David Fromkin, author of A Peace to End All Peace
The World Information War: Western Resilience, Campaigning, and Cognitive Effects (Routledge Advances in Defence Studies)
by Timothy ClackThis book outlines the threats from information warfare faced by the West and analyses the ways it can defend itself. Existing on a spectrum from communication to indoctrination, information can be used to undermine trust, amplify emotional resonance, and reformulate identities. The West is currently experiencing an information war, and major setbacks have included: ‘fake news’; disinformation campaigns; the manipulation of users of social media; the dissonance of hybrid warfare; and even accusations of ‘state capture’. Nevertheless, the West has begun to comprehend the reality of what is happening, and it is now in a position defend itself. In this volume, scholars, information practitioners, and military professionals define this new war and analyse its shape, scope, and direction. Collectively, they indicate how media policies, including social media, represent a form of information strategy, how information has become the ‘centre of gravity’ of operations, and why the further exploitation of data (by scale and content) by adversaries can be anticipated. For the West, being first with the truth, being skilled in cyber defence, and demonstrating virtuosity in information management are central to resilience and success. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, information warfare, propaganda studies, cyber-security, and International Relations.