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War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War
by William Philpott“Philpott argues persuasively that the last hundred days of the war were the result of a steep learning curve necessitated by earlier bloodbaths.” —The Wall Street Journal A Wall Street Journal Best Non-Fiction Book of 2014! The Great War of 1914–1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world’s great economies. Now, one hundred years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war. Drawing on the experience of front line soldiers, munitions workers, politicians, and diplomats, War of Attrition explains for the first time why and how this new type of conflict was fought as it was fought; and how the attitudes and actions of political and military leaders, and the willing responses of their peoples, stamped the twentieth century with unprecedented carnage on—and behind—the battlefield. War of Attrition also establishes link between the bloody ground war in Europe and political situation in the wider world, particularly the United States. America did not enter the war until 1917, but, as Philpott demonstrates, the war came to America as early as 1914. By 1916, long before the Woodrow Wilson’s impassioned speech to Congress advocating for war, the United States was firmly aligned with the Allies, lending dollars and selling guns and opposing German attempts to spread submarine warfare. War of Attrition skillfully argues that the emergence of the United States on the world stage is directly related to her support for the conflagration that consumed so many European lives and livelihoods. In short, the war that ruined Europe enabled the rise of America.
War of Honor (Honor Harrington Series, Book #10)
by David WeberCome and visit the far future kingdom of Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven who are still locked in a war. It seems that Manticore has the upper hand technologically and so can afford to prolong hostilities. This is a fascinating series of which this book is the tenth. There is really incredible detail here and all who love military sf or space opera have come to the right place!
The War of Jenkins' Ear: The Forgotten Struggle for North and South America: 1739-1742
by Robert GaudiFilled with unforgettable characters and martime adventure, the incredible story of a forgotten war that shaped the fate of the United States—and the entire Western Hemisphere.In the early 18th century, the British and Spanish Empires were fighting for economic supremacy in the Americas. Tensions between the two powers were high, and wars blossomed like violent flowers for nearly a hundred years, from the War of Spanish Succession (sometimes known as Queen Anne's War in the Americas), culminating in the War of Jenkins' Ear. This war would lay the ground work for the French and Indian War and, eventually, the War of the American Revolution. The War of Jenkins' Ear was a world war in the truest sense, engaging the major European powers on battlefields ranging from Europe to the Americas to the Asian subcontinent. Yet the conflict that would eventually become known as the War of Jenkins' Ear—a moniker coined by the 19th century historian Robert Carlyle more than a century later—is barely known to us today. Yet it resulted in the invasion of Georgia and even involved members of George Washington&’s own family. It would cost fifty-thousand lives, millions in treasure, and over six hundred ships. With vivid prose, Robert Gaudi takes the reader from the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay to the rocky shores of Tierra del Fuego. We travel around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Pacific to the Philippines and the Cantonese coast, with stops in Cartagena, Panama, and beyond. Yet even though it happened decades before American independence, The War of Jenkins' Ear reveals that this was truly an American war; a hard-fought, costly struggle that determined the fate of the Americas, and in which, for the first time, American armies participated. In this definitive work of history—the only single comprehensive volume on the subject—The War of Jenkins&’ Ear explores the war that establed the future of two entire continents.
The War of Lost Opportunities (Great War Ser. #Vol. 75)
by Max HoffmannFirst published in 1924, German General Max Hoffmann’s The War of Lost Opportunities examines missed opportunities for the German military during the First World War.The book takes particular note of The Battle of Tannenberg fought between August 26-30, 1914, which resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov.The battle also led to the 1918 Spring Offensive—otherwise known as Kaiserschlacht (“Kaiser’s Battle”), or the Ludendorff Offensive—which saw a series of German attacks along the Western Front, beginning on 21 March 1918, that marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914.An invaluable addition to any First World War book collection.
The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror
by Professor Sunaina Maira Holly Swyers Jeremy K. Saucier Cindy Dell Clark Robertson Allen Jo Lampert Benjamin Cooper Rebecca A. Adelman Laura Browder Irene Garza David KieranFollowing the 9/11 attacks, approximately four million Americans have turned eighteen each year and more than fifty million children have been born. These members of the millennial and post-millennial generation have come of age in a moment marked by increased anxiety about terrorism, two protracted wars, and policies that have raised questions about the United States's role abroad and at home. Young people have not been shielded from the attacks or from the wars and policy debates that followed. Instead, they have been active participants--as potential military recruits and organizers for social justice amid anti-immigration policies, as students in schools learning about the attacks or readers of young adult literature about wars. The War of My Generation is the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped these new generations of Americans. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from graphic war images in the classroom to computer games designed to promote military recruitment to emails from parents in the combat zone. The collection considers what cultural factors and products have shaped young people's experience of the 9/11 attacks, the wars that have followed, and their experiences as emerging citizen-subjects in that moment. Revealing how young people understand the War on Terror--and how adults understand the way young people think--The War of My Generation offers groundbreaking research on catastrophic events still fresh in our minds.
The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind
by Martin SixsmithMore than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures - not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts, and fears.Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping account of fear itself - and in today's uncertain times, it is more resonant than ever.
The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind
by Martin SixsmithA major new history of the Cold War that explores the conflict through the minds of the people who lived through it.More than any other conflict, the Cold War was fought on the battlefield of the human mind. And, nearly thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its legacy still endures—not only in our politics, but in our own thoughts and fears. Drawing on a vast array of untapped archives and unseen sources, Martin Sixsmith vividly recreates the tensions and paranoia of the Cold War, framing it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Revisiting towering, unique personalities like Khrushchev, Kennedy, and Nixon, as well as the lives of the unknown millions who were caught up in the conflict, this is a gripping narrative of the paranoia of the Cold War—and in today's uncertain times, this story is more resonant than ever.
War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir of the Vietnam War's Uncounted Enemy (Eyewitness Memoirs Ser.)
by Sam AdamsIn vibrant, engaging prose, this memoir from inside the belly of US intelligence operations reveals what fundamentally went wrong for the US and its allies, and why the Vietnam War was never "winnable." A cautionary tale about the perils of politicizing and manipulating honest intelligence.For political reasons, the Johnson and Nixon administrations wanted to control the narrative about US prospects in Vietnam. In 1965, low level CIA analyst Sam Adams was transferred from the Congo desk to Southeast Asia, where he was charged with assessing enemy morale and counting their ranks. Only the enemy strength estimate he came up with as the CIA's official head counter varied wildly from the official estimates being produced by military intelligence and released by the White House for consumption by Congress, the media, troops in the field and the American electorate. Adams' findings pointed to the conclusion that the war was unwinnable, but when politicians and military leaders failed to release let alone acknowledge his findings, he knew the intelligence was being politicized and embarked on a one man crusade to hold those in power accountable and expose the truth.
The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II
by Colonel Wolfgang W. SamuelOne survivor tells of the fire-bombing of Dresden. Another survivor recounts the pervasive fear of marauding Russian and Czech bandits raping and killing. Children recall fathers who were only photographs and mothers who were saviors and heroes. These are typical in the stories collected in The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II. For this book Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, a childhood refugee himself after the fall of Nazi Germany, interviewed twenty-seven men and women who as children—by chance and sheer resilience—survived Allied bombs, invading armies, hunger, and chaos. “Our eyes carried no hate, only recognition of what was,” Samuel writes of his childhood. “Peace was an abstraction. The world we Kinder knew nearly always had the word ‘war’ appended to it.” Samuel's heartfelt narratives from these innocent survivors are invariably riveting and often terrifying. Each engrossing story has perilous and tragic moments—school children in Leuna who are sent home during an air raid but are strafed as moving targets; fathers who exist only as distant figures, returning to their families long after the war—or not at all; mothers who are raped and tortured; families who are forced into a seemingly endless relocation that replicates the terrors of war itself. In capturing such experiences from nearly every region of Germany and involving people of every socio-economic class, this is a collection of unique memories, but each account contributes to a cumulative understanding of the war that is more personal than strategic surveys and histories. For Samuel and the survivors he interviewed, agony and fright were part of everyday life, just as were play, wondrous experience, and above all perseverance. “My focus,” Samuel writes, “is on the astounding ability of a generation of German children to emerge from debilitating circumstances as sane and productive human beings.”
War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East
by Gershom GorenbergRommel's army is a day from Cairo, a week from Tel Aviv. The SS is ready for action. Espionage brought the Nazis this far. Espionage can stop them - if Washington wakes up to the danger.As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led his Axis army swiftly and terrifyingly toward Alexandria, with the goal of overrunning the entire Middle East. Each step was informed by detailed updates on British positions. The Nazis, somehow, had a source for the Allies' greatest secrets. Yet the Axis powers were not the only ones with intelligence. Brilliant Allied cryptographers worked relentlessly at Bletchley Park, breaking down the extraordinarily complex Nazi code Enigma. From decoded German messages, they discovered that the enemy had a wealth of inside information. On the brink of disaster, a fevered and high-stakes search for the source began. War of Shadows is the cinematic story of the race for information in the North African theater of World War II, set against intrigues that spanned the Middle East. Years in the making, this book is a feat of historical research and storytelling, and a rethinking of the popular narrative of the war. It portrays the conflict not as an inevitable clash of heroes and villains but a spiraling series of failures, accidents, and desperate triumphs that decided the fate of the Middle East and quite possibly the outcome of the war.
War of Shadows (A Dan Morgan Thriller #7)
by Leo J. Maloney“Dan Morgan is one of the best heroes to come along in ages.”—Jeffery Deaver From Black Ops veteran Leo J. Maloney comes a pulse-pounding thriller of an American agent on the run from merciless enemies—and unable to trust his allies. . . WAR OF SHADOWS Dan Morgan is a wanted man. Unknown assailants have targeted him—and his family. His home destroyed. His wife Jenny, presumed dead. His fellow Zeta operatives are missing in action, except his daughter Alex. Someone has declared war on Zeta, and the Morgans may be the only agents left alive. Pursued cross-country, Dan is driven by two things—protecting Alex and getting revenge against those responsible for killing Jenny. But he is unaware of who he’s truly up against. He suspects Zeta was infiltrated by double agents. Intelligence operatives from around the world are hunting him. And an adversary from Dan’s past is determined to destablize the world by any means necessary . . . Praise for Leo J. Maloney and His Novels ”Fine writing and real insider knowledge.”—Lee Child “Rings with authenticity.”—John Gilstrap “Everything a thriller reader wants.”—Ben Coes “The new master of the modern spy game.”—Mark Sullivan “A ripping story!”—Meg Gardiner
The War Of The American Revolution: Narrative, Chronology, And Bibliography [Illustrated Edition]
by Robert W. CoakleyIncludes over 20 maps and illustrationsThe American Revolution, the Bicentennial of which we are celebrating in 1975 and 1976, was an event of utmost significance in the history of both this country and the world. It brought into being a nation, dedicated to the ideals of liberty and justice, that was destined to become, in less than two centuries, the leader of the western world. And it marked the beginning of vast changes that would sweep that western world in the century following, thrusting aside old monarchical institutions in favor of representative government and free economic institutions. Albeit fought on the battlefields much like other eighteenth century wars, it also carried within it the seeds of change in the military sphere that were to sprout and grow in the French Revolution less than two decades later. It was, in this sense, a war of transition between the epoch of limited wars fought by professional armies and people's wars fought by the "nation in arms."Our first national army, the Continental Army, was created to fight the Revolution. As the forebear of the United States Army of today, the Continental Army established many of the traditions and practices still honored in our service. The War of the American Revolution was, until Vietnam at least, the Army's longest war. It is altogether fitting and proper then that the United States Army should pay particular attention to the study of its origins during the bicentennial years and commemorate the events of the Revolution in which the Continental Army and its adjunct, the militia, participated.The purpose of this small volume is to provide a ready reference for such study and observance. The American Revolution has been intensively studied and written about in the two hundred years that have elapsed since 1775. There is much good scholarship as well as popular writing, both old and new, covering all aspects of the conflict and the political and social changes that accompanied it.
The War Of The Dwarves: Book 2 (Dwarves #2)
by Markus HeitzThe dwarves have gone to battle and they have been victorious. But outside the realm, dark forces are working . . .A secret army of Orcs, made immortal by the hidden powers of the Black Water, now marches towards Girdlegard, set to unleash its fury upon the kingdom. Sooner than they realise, Tungdil and his comrades will need to summon all their courage to do battle against this bloodthirsty horde.The Orcs are not the only threat. An unspeakable new power is growing and threatens the very existence of the dwarves. But both enemies have forgotten one very important truth: a dwarf is never more dangerous than when total obliteration seems inevitable . . .The international bestselling fantasy epic continues.Other books by Markus Heitz:The DwarvesThe Revenge of the DwarvesThe Fate of the DwarvesThe Triumph of the DwarvesRighteous FuryDevastating HateDark PathsRaging StormAera book's one to ten
The War Of The Dwarves: Book 2 (Dwarves #2)
by Markus HeitzThe dwarves have gone to battle and they have been victorious. But outside the realm, dark forces are working . . .A secret army of Orcs, made immortal by the hidden powers of the Black Water, now marches towards Girdlegard, set to unleash its fury upon the kingdom. Sooner than they realise, Tungdil and his comrades will need to summon all their courage to do battle against this bloodthirsty horde.The Orcs are not the only threat. An unspeakable new power is growing and threatens the very existence of the dwarves. But both enemies have forgotten one very important truth: a dwarf is never more dangerous than when total obliteration seems inevitable . . .The international bestselling fantasy epic continues.Other books by Markus Heitz:The DwarvesThe Revenge of the DwarvesThe Fate of the DwarvesThe Triumph of the DwarvesRighteous FuryDevastating HateDark PathsRaging StormAera book's one to ten
The War of the End of the World: A Novel
by Mario Vargas LlosaThe Nobel Prize–winning author’s classic novel of civil war in nineteenth-century Brazil: “A modern tragedy on the grand scale . . . As dark as spilled blood” (Salman Rushdie, The New Republic).Deep within the remote backlands of Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of outcast. It is a place where history and civilization have been wiped away. There is no money, no taxation, no marriage, no census. Canudos is a cauldron for the revolutionary spirit in its purest form, a state with all the potential for a true, libertarian paradise—and one the Brazilian government is determined to crush at any cost.In perhaps his most ambitious and tragic novel, Mario Vargas Llosa offers his fictionalized vision of the story of Canudos, inhabiting characters on both sides of the massive, cataclysmic battle between the society and government troops. The resulting novel is a fable of Latin American revolutionary history, an unforgettable story of passion, violence, and the devastation that follows from fanaticism.
War of the Gods
by Poul AndersonThe story of the great King Hadding is one of the darkest and most violent to come down to us from the old North. Hadding was raised by giants far from his rightful throne, as his father, a Danish king, was slain shortly after Hadding's birth. But the time comes when Hadding feels he must reclaim his legitimate place in the land of the old North. He must endure ferocious battles, the charms of voluptuous Valkieries, and a War of the Gods to rival Armageddon.
War of the Gods
by Poul Anderson&“Readers bored with Tolkien-clone fantasies will be enthralled by the intricately detailed world and characters Anderson brings to life here.&” —Publishers Weekly, starred review The Grand Master of Science Fiction delivers &“a Dark Age saga based on Old Scandinavian mythology and the exploits of the legendary Danish King Hadding . . . A brilliantly accomplished yarn&” (Kirkus Reviews). In a scheme arranged by the god Odin, Hadding is born to King Gram Skjoldung of Denmark but is sent to be raised by giants for his own safety. After his father is murdered, Hadding must claim his destiny. Prey to the follies of humans and gods, he rises to the challenges of war, fate, and love in a mythic adventure &“episodic in character, gory in detail, fatalistic in atmosphere, and spiked with sinister, chthonic Norse magic&” (Interzone). &“War of the Gods struck me like a hammer-bolt out of the sky.&” —Black Gate Praise for Poul Anderson &“Anderson has produced more milestones in contemporary science fiction and fantasy than any one man is entitled to.&” —Stephen Donaldson &“One of science fiction&’s most revered writers.&” —USA Today &“The great canvas of interstellar space comes alive under Anderson&’s hand as it does under no other.&” —Gordon R. Dickson &“One of science fiction&’s most influential and prolific writers.&” —The Daily Telegraph
The War of the Gun Boats
by Bryan CooperThe 'little ships' of the Second World War - the fast and highly maneuverable motor torpedo boats and gunboats which fought in coastal waters all over the world - developed a special kind of naval warfare. With their daring nightly raids against an enemy's coastal shipping - and sometimes much larger warships - they acquired the buccaneering spirit of an earlier age. And never more so than in the close hand-to-hand battles which raged between opposing craft when they met in open waters.Large numbers of these small fighting boats were built by the major naval powers. The Germans called them Schnellboote (Fast Boats), referred to by the British as E-boats (E for Enemy). In the Royal Navy they were MTBs and MGBs. The American equivalent were PT boats (for Patrol Torpedo). They fought in the narrow waters of the English Channel and the stormy North Sea, in the Mediterranean off the coasts of North Africa and Italy and among the islands of the Aegean, across the Pacific from Pearl Harbour to Leyte Gulf, in Hong Kong and Singapore, and off Burma's Arakan coast.Bryan Cooper's book traces the history and development of these craft from their first limited use in the First World War and the fast motor boats designed in the 1930s for wealthy private clients and water speed record attempts. With account of the battles which took place during the Second World War, when the vital importance of coastal waters came to be recognized, he captures the drama of this highly individual form of combat. And not least the sea itself which was the common enemy of all who crewed these frail craft.
The War of the Motor Gun Boats: One Man's Personal War at Sea with the Coastal Forces, 1943–1945
by A. J. ChapmanTony Chapman was born in Southampton in 1924. Aged 16 he watched with horror as the historic High Street of Southampton burnt to the ground in a firestorm caused by a heavy German bombing raid on the night of 30 November 1940. He vowed to join up and fight back. Tony joined the Navy.Within hours of being posted to his first Motor Gun Boat, Telegraphist Tony Chapman was involved in an epic Coastal Forces engagement when his flotilla took on a force of thirty E-boats. Although their unit of two MGBs sank three E-Boats, it was at a high cost. Half of Tony's shipmates were killed or injured.This was the start of an eventful and dramatic wartime service with these little warships. Tony's flotilla operated in the Mediterranean and Aegean where the Motor Gun Boats played a key role in this important but often neglected theatre.rnDaily life on these small ships is vividly described. The flotilla had a busy time showing the flag in the Levant and on combined operations in the Aegean with the Greek Sacred Regiment of Commandos. The culmination of their efforts was when Tony's boat, ML838, took the surrender of the Island of Kos in 1945.rnrnWritten from the perspective of one of the other ranks, War of the Motor Gun Boats fills an important gap in the literature of the Second World War.As featured in the North Devon Journal and Exmoor Magazine.
War of the Rats
by David L. RobbinsFor six months in 1942, Stalingrad is the center of a titanic struggle between the Russian and German armies--the bloodiest campaign in mankind's long history of warfare. The outcome is pivotal. If Hitler's forces are not stopped, Russia will fall. And with it, the world....German soldiers call the battle Rattenkrieg, War of the Rats. The combat is horrific, as soldiers die in the smoking cellars and trenches of a ruined city. Through this twisted carnage stalk two men--one Russian, one German--each the top sniper in his respective army. These two marksmen are equally matched in both skill and tenacity. Each man has his own mission: to find his counterpart--and kill him. But an American woman trapped in Russia complicates this extraordinary duel. Joining the Russian sniper's cadre, she soon becomes one of his most talented assassins--and perhaps his greatest weakness. Based on a true story, this is the harrowing tale of two adversaries enmeshed in their own private war--and whose fortunes will help decide the fate of the world.From the Paperback edition.
The War Of The Rats
by David L. Robbins'White-knuckle tension as the two most dangerous snipers in Europe hunt each other through the hell of Stalingrad. Immensely exciting and terribly authentic' Frederick ForsythStalingrad in 1942 is a city in ruins, its Russian defenders fighting to the last man to repel the invading German army. One of their most potent weapons is the crack sniper school developed by Vasily Zaitsev. Its members can pick off the enemy at long range, and their daring tactics - hiding for hours in no man's land until a brief opportunity presents itself - mean that no German, and particularly no German officer, can ever feel safe. This part of the battle is as much psychological as anything, and to counter the continuing threat to German morale, the Nazi command bring to the city their own top marksman, Heinz Thorvald. His mission is simple: to identify, and kill, Zaitsev.Based on a true story, THE WAR OF THE RATS is a brilliantly compelling thriller which brings vividly to life probably the most harrowing battlefront of the Second World War.
The War of the Roses: An Alternative History of Britain
by Timothy VenningTimothy Venning's exploration of the alternative paths that British history might easily have taken moves on to the Wars of the Roses. What if Richard of York had not given battle in vain? How would a victory for Warwick the Kingmaker at the Battle of Barnet changed the course of the struggle for power? What if the Princes had escaped from the tower or the Stanleys had not betrayed their king at Bosworth? These are just a few of the fascinating questions posed by this book. As always, while necessarily speculative, Dr. Venning discusses all the scenarios within the benefit of a deep understanding of the major driving forces, tensions and trends that shaped British history. In so doing, he helps the reader to understand why things panned out as they did, as well as what might have been in this tumultuous period.
The War of the Running Dogs: How Malaya Defeated The Communist Guerrillas, 1948-1960 (Sven Hassel War Classics)
by Noel Barber'The story of the first all-out struggle in Asia between Communism and the West, vividly told in an exciting and engrossing book' Sunday ExpressOnly three short years after the end of the Japanese occupation, war came again to Malaya. The Chinese-backed guerrillas called it the War of the Running Dogs - their contemptuous term for those in Malaya who remained loyal to the British. The British Government referred to this bloody and costly struggle as the 'Malayan Emergency'. Yet it was a war that lasted twelve years and cost thousands of lives. By the time it was over Malaya had obtained its independence - but on British, not on Chinese or Communist terms. Here is the war as it was. Here are the planters and their wives on their remote rubber estates, the policemen, the generals and the soldiers, the Malays, Chinese and Indians of a polyglot country, all fighting an astute, ruthless, and well organized enemy.
The War of the Running Dogs: Malaya 1948-1960 (W&N Military)
by Noel Barber'The story of the first all-out struggle in Asia between Communism and the West, vividly told in an exciting and engrossing book' Sunday ExpressOnly three short years after the end of the Japanese occupation, war came again to Malaya. The Chinese-backed guerrillas called it the War of the Running Dogs - their contemptuous term for those in Malaya who remained loyal to the British. The British Government referred to this bloody and costly struggle as the 'Malayan Emergency'. Yet it was a war that lasted twelve years and cost thousands of lives. By the time it was over Malaya had obtained its independence - but on British, not on Chinese or Communist terms. Here is the war as it was. Here are the planters and their wives on their remote rubber estates, the policemen, the generals and the soldiers, the Malays, Chinese and Indians of a polyglot country, all fighting an astute, ruthless, and well organized enemy.
The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714
by James FalknerThe War of the Spanish Succession, fought between 1701 and 1714 to decide who should inherit the Spanish throne, was a conflict on an unprecedented scale, stretching across most of western Europe, the high seas and the Americas. Yet this major subject is not well known and is little understood. That is why the publication of James Falkner's absorbing new study is so timely and important. rn In a clear and perceptive narrative he describes and analyses the complex political manoeuvres and a series of military campaigns which also involved the threat posed by Ottoman Turks in the east and Sweden and Russia in the north. Fighting took place not just in Europe but in the Americas and Canada, and on the high seas. All European powers, large and small, were involved France, Spain, Great Britain, Holland, Austria and Portugal were the major players.rn The end result of eleven years of outright war was a French prince firmly established on the throne in Madrid and a division of the old Spanish empire. More notably though, French power, previously so dominant, was curbed for almost ninety years.