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This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath
by Daniel E. Sutherland; Lesley J. Gordon; Michael FellmanThe Civil War and Its Aftermath deals with the American Civil War in a realistic and unromantic light, discussing the hard experiences of ordinary people and the uncertain decisions of military and political leaders. The title explores both the years leading up to the Civil War, and the war's aftermath in the North and the South.
This Time
by Kristin LeighHe walked away years ago, leaving her to raise their daughter alone. But now, he's lost everything ... except hope. Will she find it in her heart to give him one more chance? This Time is Kristin Leigh's touching new romance, a welcome addition to her Wounded Warriors series.Tara Marshall has one love: her daughter, Madelynn. For five years she's loved and nurtured her child alone, abandoned by the man who helped create her. She wants love, craves it, but fears the pain of finding and losing love all over again. And no other man has lived up to the SEAL she fell in love with so long ago.Mike Davis made the biggest mistake of his life when he denied his own child and left her mother high and dry. He's never found a woman like Tara again and knows he never will. But staying away from the woman he fell in love with and the child he fathered is what's best for them ... even if he burns for a second chance.When Mike is injured in the line of duty, he realizes that he has to take a leap of faith, regardless of potential consequences. But after he contacts Tara, Mike comes to understand the love he's been harboring for so long isn't just for their daughter; it's for Tara too. When they meet again, the passion and fire burn as brightly as they did five years before. But with so much time and pain between them, does Mike stand a chance of redemption? And does Tara have enough forgiveness to welcome Mike back into their lives?Content Notes: Spicy, Contemporary, Military
This Time We Win
by James S RobbinsMost of what Americans have heard about the Tet Offensive is wrong. The brief battles in early 1968 during the Vietnam conflict marked the dividing line between gradual progress toward possible victory and slow descent to a humiliating defeat. That the enemy was handily defeated on the ground was considered immaterial; that it could mount attacks at all was deemed a military triumph for the Communists. This persistent view of Tet is a defeatist story line that continues to inspire America's foreign enemies and its domestic critics of the use of force abroad.In This Time We Win, James S. Robbins at last provides an antidote to the flawed Tet mythology still shaping the perceptions of American military conflicts against unconventional enemies and haunting our troops in combat. In his re-examination of the Tet Offensive, Robbins analyzes the Tet battles and their impact through the themes of terrorism, war crimes, intelligence failure, troop surges, leadership breakdown, and media bias. The result is an explosion of the conventional wisdom about this infamous surge, one that offers real lessons for today's unconventional wars. Without a clear understanding of these lessons, we will find ourselves refighting the Tet Offensive again and again.
This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood
by Jack ValentiWith the nation at war in the 1940s, twenty-two-year-old Jack Valenti flew fifty-one combat missions as the pilot of a B-25 attack bomber with the 12th Air Force based in Italy. In the 1960s, with the nation reeling from the assassination of a beloved president and becoming embroiled in a far different kind of war in Vietnam, he was in that fateful Dallas motorcade in 1963, flew back to Washington with the new president, and for three years worked in the inner circle of the White House as special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Then, for the next thirty-eight years, with American society and popular culture undergoing a revolutionary transformation, Valenti was the public face of Hollywood in his capacity as head of the Motion Picture Association of America. Been there, done that, indeed. Texas-born and Harvard-educated, Valenti has led several lives, any one of which could have provided ample material for an unforgettable memoir. As it is, This Time, This Place is the gripping story of a man who saw the terrible face of war while fighting with skill and bravery for his country; who was in the room, listening, participating, and remembering, as political decisions were made that would benefit or devastate countless lives in this country and on the other side of the world; and who championed the interest of the vast and globally influential movie industry with tenacity and vision. The list of boldface names whom Valenti knew and with whom he worked is as varied as it is astonishing in number. Aside from LBJ, there were Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Robert McNamara, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Julia Roberts, Cary Grant, Lew Wasserman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, and Bill Clinton, to begin a very long list. The life of a man who earned both the Distinguished Flying Cross and his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is inherently intriguing, but Valenti's warm, sometimes rueful, always engaging account gives this memoir a depth of humanity and a taste of life's unpredictability that will linger long after you turn the final page. From growing up poor but largely oblivious to that fact in a hardscrabble neighborhood of Greek and Italian immigrants in Houston to rising to the highest summits both of national government and Hollywood, This Time, This Place is a candid and clear-eyed reflection of the joys and sorrows, ambitions and disappointments, of a life fully recognizable in its extraordinary variety. It is also a sweeping and important historical record, written by a brilliantly successful man who helped to shape politics and entertainment in the second half of the twentieth century, and who always found himself in the center of the current storm. From the Hardcover edition.
This Torrent of Indians: War on the Southern Frontier, 1715–1728
by Larry E. Ivers“It is likely as fine-grained an account of the actions of the Yamasee War as we are to possess for decades.” —H-Net ReviewsThe southern frontier could be a cruel and unforgiving place during the early eighteenth century. The British colony of South Carolina was in proximity and traded with several Native American groups. The economic and military relationships between the colonialists and natives were always filled with tension but the Good Friday 1715 uprising surprised Carolinians by its swift brutality. Larry E. Ivers examines the ensuing lengthy war in This Torrent of Indians. Named for the Yamasees because they were the first to strike, the war persisted for thirteen years and powerfully influenced colonial American history.Ivers’s detailed narrative and analyses demonstrates the horror and cruelty of a war of survival. The organization, equipment, and tactics used by South Carolinians and Native Americans were influenced by the differing customs but both sides acted with savage determination to extinguish their foes. Ultimately, it was the individuals behind the tactics that determined the outcomes. Ivers shares stories from both sides of the battlefield—tales of the courageous, faint of heart, inept, and the upstanding. He also includes a detailed account of black and Native American slave soldiers serving with distinction alongside white soldiers in combat. Ivers gives us an original and fresh, ground-level account of that critical period, 1715 to 1728, when the southern frontier was a very dangerous place.“Comprehensive and highly readable . . . This book will be a classic of Southern history.” —Lawrence S. Rowland, Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina at Beaufort
This Troubled World
by Eleanor Roosevelt“We will have to want Peace, want it enough to pay for it, before it becomes and accepted rule.” With these words, Mrs. Roosevelt concludes her appeal for peace on earth, good will to men.During the past year, World Peace has seemed more difficult of achievement than ever before, despite the efforts of Leagues and Courts. This discouraging situation has inspired Mrs. Roosevelt, whose life is bound by special ties to the whole fabric of our country’s welfare, to express her own sincere beliefs on the subject. She has analysed many peace plans and, as a result of her studies, presents her own suggestions as to how permanent peace can be brought about.This is a thoughtful book, written by a woman who realises that it is easier to keep out of situations which lead to war than it is to bring about peace once war is going on. If we can dispassionately go over the difficulties which arise between conflicting interests within our own borders, we will be in a better position to understand and arbitrate the quarrels which lead to war among other nations.
This Was Andersonville: The True Story of Andersonville Prison Camp [Illustrated Edition]
by Roy Meredith Pvt. John McElroyTHE TRUE STORY OF ANDERSONVILLE MILITARY PRISON, AS TOLD IN THE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN MCELROY, SOMETIME PRIVATE, CO. L, 16TH ILLINOIS CAVALRYAged only 16 years old in 1863, John McElroy enlisted with the Union Army as a private in Company L of the 16th Illinois Cavalry regiment, and was captured the following year near Jonesville, Virginia, by Confederate cavalrymen.McElroy was first sent to Richmond, then to Andersonville in February 1864. In October 1864 he was moved to Savannah and within about six weeks was sent to the new prison in Millen, Georgia (Camp Lawton); thence to several other camps before the war ended and his release from captivity.In 1879, John McElroy wrote Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, a non-fiction work based on his experiences during his fifteen-month incarceration. It quickly became a bestseller.This is the edited 1957 version by Roy Meredith, richly illustrated throughout by Arthur C. Butts IV.
This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace
by Swanee Hunt"Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope . . . the women in This Was Not Our War teach us how. "--William Jefferson Clinton This Was Not Our War shares amazing first-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women who are reconstructing their society following years of devastating warfare. A university student working to resettle refugees, a paramedic who founded a veterans' aid group, a fashion designer running two nonprofit organizations, a government minister and professor who survived Auschwitz--these women are advocates, politicians, farmers, journalists, students, doctors, businesswomen, engineers, wives, and mothers. They are from all parts of Bosnia and represent the full range of ethnic traditions and mixed heritages. Their ages spread across sixty years, and their wealth ranges from expensive jewels to a few chickens. For all their differences, they have this much in common: all survived the war with enough emotional strength to work toward rebuilding their country. Swanee Hunt met these women through her diplomatic and humanitarian work in the 1990s. Over the course of seven years, she conducted multiple interviews with each one. In presenting those interviews here, Hunt provides a narrative framework that connects the women's stories, allowing them to speak to one another. The women describe what it was like living in a vibrant multicultural community that suddenly imploded in an onslaught of violence. They relate the chaos; the atrocities, including the rapes of many neighbors and friends; the hurried decisions whether to stay or flee; the extraordinary efforts to care for children and elderly parents and to find food and clean drinking water. Reflecting on the causes of the war, they vehemently reject the idea that age-old ethnic hatreds made the war inevitable. The women share their reactions to the Dayton Accords, the end of hostilities, and international relief efforts. While they are candid about the difficulties they face, they are committed to rebuilding Bosnia based on ideals of truth, justice, and a common humanity encompassing those of all faiths and ethnicities. Their wisdom is instructive, their courage and fortitude inspirational.
This Was Railroading, Part 1 (This Was Railroading #1)
by George B. AbdillThis is Part 1 of a historical collection of rare photos and true stories about the tracks, trains and trainmen of the Pacific Northwest…including Northern California.Railroading is the massive Mallet and the caboose hop. It is the lonely track walker, the roundhouse rumors, the water tender, the engineer’s long-spouted oil can. It is the age of steam centered in the most romantic field of industry and commerce ever to intrigue Mr. America. And here in this book of beauty and memory is the graphic story of railroading as the “New West” saw it and rode with it.Railroading to author George B. Abdill is the sound and picture of black bulk streaking and shrieking through the night with a jet of steam trailing back along the boiler. He saw and heard this as a boy on an Oregon farm and has carried it in his heart ever since. Now as a Southern Pacific engineer—“hoghead” to you—and a dedicated collector of railroadiana, he raises the lid of his personal locker to all other railroaders, active and armchair.Get into the cab and as Engineer Abdill steams up the grade he’ll spin you tales of the rails and illustrate them with a part of his precious collection, many of these photographs museum pieces of the first water, most of them never before published, all are rare.
This Was Railroading, Part 2 (This Was Railroading #2)
by George B. AbdillThis is Part 2 of a historical collection of rare photos and true stories about the tracks, trains and trainmen of the Pacific Northwest…including Northern California.Railroading is the massive Mallet and the caboose hop. It is the lonely track walker, the roundhouse rumors, the water tender, the engineer’s long-spouted oil can. It is the age of steam centered in the most romantic field of industry and commerce ever to intrigue Mr. America. And here in this book of beauty and memory is the graphic story of railroading as the “New West” saw it and rode with it.Railroading to author George B. Abdill is the sound and picture of black bulk streaking and shrieking through the night with a jet of steam trailing back along the boiler. He saw and heard this as a boy on an Oregon farm and has carried it in his heart ever since. Now as a Southern Pacific engineer—”hoghead” to you—and a dedicated collector of railroadiana, he raises the lid of his personal locker to all other railroaders, active and armchair.Get into the cab and as Engineer Abdill steams up the grade he’ll spin you tales of the rails and illustrate them with a part of his precious collection, many of these photographs museum pieces of the first water, most of them never before published, all are rare.
This is My Brother: A Novel
by Louis PaulThis Is My Brother, first published in 1943, is a wartime novel set in the hopelessness of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Five American soldiers are captured and taken prisoner in the futile rearguard action on Bataan, Philippines. One by one, the prisoners are condemned as spies and executed. One prisoner, Bill Hilton, begins a diary, and records his thoughts, his musings on the war, and his hopes and fears for the future. This Is My Brother is beautifully written and remains a deeply moving testament to the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity.
This is My War, Too
by Louise E. EdgarThis Is Our War, Too, first published in 1950 as Out of Bounds, is the story of one woman’s experiences in the WAC’s (Women’s Army Corps), during the later days of World War Two. This Is Our War, Too unfolds in a fast-paced, often sassy manner, with a large dose of humor thrown in to help author Louise Edgar cope with Army-life as a woman, and also with the widespread devastation she witnessed. Her story takes the reader to New Guinea, Papua, Manila, and Shanghai, where Edgar describes her observations of life in these war-torn countries. The book ends with her return to the States and the start of her civilian life.
This was Sawmilling
by Ralph W AndrewsThis classic history about the sawmill industry in the Pacific Northwest is rich in memories. Here is the vital and true story of the triumphant growth and its undying promise, shown with superb photography and told with exciting text. The utilitarian waterwheel, the great days of the steam sawmill, and the epic courage of the schooner masters are told in all their glory. Ralph Andrews augments his careful and thorough research with anecdotes of the men who transformed logs into the building materials of a nation. The reader takes a step back in time, as the history of the industry which has gone on continuously since 1825 is brought to life.
Thomas Jefferson Travels: Selected Writings, 1784-1789
by Anthony BrandtEloquent and powerful, Thomas Jefferson's letters and travel diaries from his years abroad as the U.S. minister to France spill onto the pages of this volume in wonderful detail, covering the full range of his interests and passions.
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates
by Brian Kilmeade Don Yaeger"The challenges we face today are not so different from Jefferson's, and we've much to learn from his boldness and from the courage of the marines and sailors who died to protect their country." --Brian KilmeadeThis is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation.When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy--at least not while easy money could be made by extorting America, France, England, and other powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy's new warships and a detachment of marines to blockade Tripoli--launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status.As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many suspenseful episodes: * Lieutenant Andrew Sterett's ferocious cannon-battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli.* Lieutenant Stephen Decatur's daring night raid of an enemy harbor, aiming to destroy an American ship that had fallen into the pirates' hands.* General William Eaton's unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derna, where the marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time.Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea." Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgotten war that changed American history, with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.From the Hardcover edition.
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (Young Readers Adaptation)
by Brian Kilmeade Don YaegerA page-turning middle-grade adaptation of the New York Times bestseller about how a newly independent nation was challenged by foreign powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation.When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa routinely captured American sailors and held them as captives demanding ransom and tribute far beyond what the new country could afford.Jefferson found it impossible to negotiate a truce, and decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy and Marines to blockade Tripoli--launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status.This vivid and accessible young readers adaptation of the New York Times bestseller features an exclusive new introduction, extensive back matter, and eye-catching art throughout. Chronicling a crucial moment in American history, this historical thriller will excite and inspire the next generation of patriots.
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History
by Brian Kilmeade Don Yaeger"Another blockbuster! Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates reads like an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller. You will love this book and also wonder why so few people know this story. No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger." --Brad ThorThis is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford. Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy--at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy's new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli--launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status. As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many suspenseful episodes: ·Lieutenant Andrew Sterett's ferocious cannon battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli. ·Lieutenant Stephen Decatur's daring night raid of an enemy harbor, with the aim of destroying an American ship that had fallen into the pirates' hands.·General William Eaton's unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derne, where the Marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time. Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea." Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgotten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.
Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History
by Brian Kilmeade Don Yaeger"Another blockbuster! Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates reads like an edge-of-your-seat, page-turning thriller. You will love this book and also wonder why so few people know this story. No one captures the danger, intrigue, and drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath like Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger." --Brad ThorThis is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford. Over the previous fifteen years, as a diplomat and then as secretary of state, Jefferson had tried to work with the Barbary states (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco). Unfortunately, he found it impossible to negotiate with people who believed their religion justified the plunder and enslavement of non-Muslims. These rogue states would show no mercy--at least not while easy money could be made by extorting the Western powers. So President Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy's new warships and a detachment of Marines to blockade Tripoli--launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America's journey toward future superpower status. As they did in their previous bestseller, George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade and Yaeger have transformed a nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. Among the many suspenseful episodes: ·Lieutenant Andrew Sterett's ferocious cannon battle on the high seas against the treacherous pirate ship Tripoli. ·Lieutenant Stephen Decatur's daring night raid of an enemy harbor, with the aim of destroying an American ship that had fallen into the pirates' hands.·General William Eaton's unprecedented five-hundred-mile land march from Egypt to the port of Derne, where the Marines launched a surprise attack and an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil for the first time. Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles in the air, on land and sea." Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgotten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.
Thomas Mann's War: Literature, Politics, and the World Republic of Letters
by Tobias BoesIn Thomas Mann's War, Tobias Boes traces how the acclaimed and bestselling author became one of America's most prominent anti-fascists and the spokesperson for a German cultural ideal that Nazism had perverted.Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in literature and author of such world-renowned novels as Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain, began his self-imposed exile in the United States in 1938, having fled his native Germany in the wake of Nazi persecution and public burnings of his books. Mann embraced his role as a public intellectual, deftly using his literary reputation and his connections in an increasingly global publishing industry to refute Nazi propaganda. As Boes shows, Mann undertook successful lecture tours of the country and penned widely-read articles that alerted US audiences and readers to the dangers of complacency in the face of Nazism's existential threat. Spanning four decades, from the eve of World War I, when Mann was first translated into English, to 1952, the year in which he left an America increasingly disfigured by McCarthyism, Boes establishes Mann as a significant figure in the wartime global republic of letters.
Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age: Strategy as Social Science (Strategy And History Ser.)
by Robert AysonAn illuminating insight into the work of Thomas Schelling, one of the most influential strategic thinkers of the nuclear age. By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the United States' early forays into Vietnam, he had become one of the most distinctive voices in Western strategy. This book shows how Schelling's thinking is much more than a reaction to the tensions of the Cold War. In a demonstration that ideas can be just as significant as superpower politics, Robert Ayson traces the way this Harvard University professor built a unique intellectual framework using a mix of social-scientific reasoning, from economics to social theory and psychology. As such, this volume offers a rare glimpse into the intellectual history which underpins classical thinking on nuclear strategy and arms control - thinking which still has an enormous influence in the early twenty-first century.
Those About to Die
by Daniel P. MannixThe basis for the new Peacock television series: The classic, in-depth account of the ancient Romans&’ obsession with the bloody and brutal gladiatorial games. &“If you can imagine a superior American sports writer suddenly being transported back in time to cover the ancient Roman games, you will have some idea of the flavor and zest of [Those About to Die],&” said the Los Angeles Times about Daniel P. Mannix&’s century-by-century—and nearly moment-by-moment—narrative of the Roman Empire&’s national institution. Putting the games in the context of Rome&’s rise and dramatic fall, Mannix captures all the history, planning, and savage pageantry that went into creating the first spectator sports. The games began in 238 BC as nearly county fair–like entertainment, with trick riding, acrobats, trained animals, chariot racing, and athletic events. The contests then evolved into slave fights thanks to wealthy patricians Marcus and Decimus Brutus, who wanted to give their father an unforgettable funeral by reviving an old tradition. What the brothers wrought, Rome devoured, demanding even greater violence to satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd. Architectural wonders in themselves, massive arenas like Circus Maximus and the Colosseum were built, able to host sea battle reenactments on actual water. Successful gladiators found fame, fortune—and freedom. But as Rome began to fall in the fifth century, so did the games, devolving into nothing more than pointless massacres. In the end, millions of humans and animals were sacrificed in barbaric displays. What were once ceremonies given in honor of gods met an inglorious fate, yet they still captivate the imagination of people today.
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
by Lynne OlsonFrom the acclaimed author of Citizens of London comes the definitive account of the debate over American intervention in World War II--a bitter, sometimes violent clash of personalities and ideas that divided the nation and ultimately determined the fate of the free world. At the center of this controversy stood the two most famous men in America: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who championed the interventionist cause, and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who as unofficial leader and spokesman for America's isolationists emerged as the president's most formidable adversary. Their contest of wills personified the divisions within the country at large, and Lynne Olson makes masterly use of their dramatic personal stories to create a poignant and riveting narrative. While FDR, buffeted by political pressures on all sides, struggled to marshal public support for aid to Winston Churchill's Britain, Lindbergh saw his heroic reputation besmirched--and his marriage thrown into turmoil--by allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer. Spanning the years 1939 to 1941, Those Angry Days vividly re-creates the rancorous internal squabbles that gripped the United States in the period leading up to Pearl Harbor. After Germany vanquished most of Europe, America found itself torn between its traditional isolationism and the urgent need to come to the aid of Britain, the only country still battling Hitler. The conflict over intervention was, as FDR noted, "a dirty fight," rife with chicanery and intrigue, and Those Angry Days recounts every bruising detail. In Washington, a group of high-ranking military officers, including the Air Force chief of staff, worked to sabotage FDR's pro-British policies. Roosevelt, meanwhile, authorized FBI wiretaps of Lindbergh and other opponents of intervention. At the same time, a covert British operation, approved by the president, spied on antiwar groups, dug up dirt on congressional isolationists, and planted propaganda in U.S. newspapers. The stakes could not have been higher. The combatants were larger than life. With the immediacy of a great novel, Those Angry Days brilliantly recalls a time fraught with danger when the future of democracy and America's role in the world hung in the balance.Advance praise for Those Angry Days "With this stirring book, Lynne Olson confirms her status as our era's foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy. Those Angry Days tells the extraordinary tale of America's internal debate about whether and how to stop Hitler. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and surprising twists, the text raises moral and practical questions that we still struggle with today. Compelling for students of history and casual readers alike."--Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State "Lynne Olson has done it again. Those Angry Days is a riveting account of the political tensions and cast of historic figures engaged in an epic battle over the role of the United States in the early years of World War II. It's all here: FDR, Lindbergh, Churchill, Hitler, war in Europe and the Pacific. The stakes could not have been higher and the outcome was never certain. Modern leaders and citizens alike can learn so much from Those Angry Days."--Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation
Those Devils In Baggy Pants
by Ross S. Carter"THE GLORY AND SHAME OF WAR, VIVIDLY PORTRAYED IN A BOOK THAT IS 'ONE OF THE VERY BEST'"--F. Van Wyck MasonSuicide SquadRoss Carter was one of three men who survived the suicide stands of his platoon of paratroopers. They had a three-way destiny--to be wounded, killed, or captured. But bound together by deep comradeship and extraordinary daring, the twelve men in his unit set incredible records of heroism.Here are the unvarnished stories of ordinary men faced with the reality of death at any moment. They beef, get drunk, quarrel violently, take their women where they find them, and yet achieve an epic grandeur in their deeds."Every level of society had its representation among us. Senators' sons rubbed shoulders with ex-cowboys. Steel workers chummed up with tough guys from city slums. Farm boys, millionaires' spoiled brats, white-collar men, factory workers, ex-convicts, jailbirds, and hoboes joined for the thrill and adventure of parachute jumping. And so the army's largest collection of adventurous men congregated in the parachute troops."From their first jumps in Africa through the Battle of the Bulge, this is their story--a story filled with breathtaking suspense and inspiring gallantry.
Those Golden Days
by Sally SpencerContinuing the brilliant East End saga featuring Becky and her family, from the author of UP OUR STREETThe shadow of war hangs over the village of Marston, and Becky worries that her hot-headed son Billy will enlist the army. Her daughter Michelle is another cause for concern - since her illness she has withdrawn into herself, and Becky fears she will never be able to find real happyness. And Becky is not even aware of the great danger which looms on the horizon in the shape of her wicked brother -in-law Richard Worrel, who is determined to use his own son to destroy Beck's family