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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Ldp Litt. Fantas Ser.)
by Max Brooks"The end was near." --Voices from the Zombie WarThe Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.ct that we couldn't shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They're not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!" --Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers"Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth." --General Travis D'Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, EuropeFrom the Hardcover edition.
The World Wars
by Paul Dowswell Ruth Brocklehurst Henry BrookThe two world wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 cast a malevolent shadow over the entire 20th century. This book takes you through the story of both conflicts - from the soldiers' terrifying experiences in the trenches in the First War, to the huge battles and bombings of cities in the Second. This is an accessible and thought-provoking introduction to the two most devastating wars the world has ever known.
The World Weavers: A Desert Rising Novel (Desert Rising Novels #3)
by Kelley GrantIn the face of a battle that will reshape mankind’s destiny and the face of the world itself, Kelley Grant brings her spellbinding, epic trilogy that began with Desert Rising and The Obsidian Temple to a thunderous and powerful conclusion, where old friendships will be tested and new alliances forged. It has been a year since Sulis Hasifel fled to the desert, narrowly escaping death at the hands of a vengeful god. The time of the final battle, the final confrontation with the deities of her world, is nearing. Lured by the call of their long-trapped powers, the deities will descend upon the Obsidian Temple, where the Chosen await.But the war between gods and humans has enveloped the entire land. Sulis’s twin, Kadar, joins forces with the nomadic warrior tribes of the desert. Little by little, the desert armies draw the deities away from their stronghold in the north, towards their doom.In a battle against immortals, though, how can humankind stand a chance?
The World Within War
by Gerald F. LindermanGerald Linderman has created a seamless and highly original social history, authoritatively recapturing the full experience of combat in World War II. Drawing on letters and diaries, memoirs and surveys, Linderman explores how ordinary front-line American soldiers prepared for battle, related to one another, conceived of the enemy, thought of home, and reacted to battle itself. He argues that the grim logic of protracted combat threatened soldiers not only with the loss of limbs and lives but with growing isolation from country and commanders and, ultimately, with psychological disintegration.
World Without End
by Hugh ThomasThe legacy of imperial Spain was shaped by many hands. But the dramatic human story of the extraordinary projection of Spanish might in the second half of the sixteenth century has never been fully told--until now. In World Without End, Hugh Thomas chronicles the lives, loves, conflicts, and conquests of the complex men and women who carved up the Americas for the glory of Spain. Chief among them is the towering figure of King Philip II, the cultivated Spanish monarch whom a contemporary once called "the arbiter of the world." Cheerful and pious, he inherited vast authority from his father, Emperor Charles V, but nevertheless felt himself unworthy to wield it. His forty-two-year reign changed the face of the globe forever. Alongside Philip we find the entitled descendants of New Spain's original explorers--men who, like their king, came into possession of land they never conquered and wielded supremacy they never sought. Here too are the Roman Catholic religious leaders of the Americas, whose internecine struggles created possibilities that the emerging Jesuit order was well-positioned to fill. With the sublime stories of arms and armadas, kings and conquistadors come tales of the ridiculous: the opulent parties of New Spain's wealthy hedonists and the unexpected movement to encourage Philip II to conquer China. Finally, Hugh Thomas unearths the first indictments of imperial Spain's labor rights abuses in the Americas--and the early attempts by its more enlightened rulers and planters to address them. Written in the brisk, flowing narrative style that has come to define Hugh Thomas's work, the final volume of this acclaimed trilogy stands alone as a history of an empire making the transition from conquest to inheritance--a history that Thomas reveals through the fascinating lives of the people who made it.
World Without Stars
by Poul AndersonWhen the starship Meteor crash-landed on a strange world orbiting a solitary sun in the vast darkness outside the galaxy, her crew of Earthmen had no idea of what to expect. The planet was Earthlike in gravity, air, animal and vegetable life - but what of the native races they glimpsed from a distance?What kind of culture would evolve on a planet whose sky was dominated by the glow of an entire galaxy - and with no other stars save its own dim sun? What kind of gods would they worship?The Earthmen had to find the astounding answers to these questions on a planet split by a world-wide war.
Worldmaking in the Long Great War: How Local and Colonial Struggles Shaped the Modern Middle East
by Jonathan WyrtzenIt is widely believed that the political problems of the Middle East date back to the era of World War I, when European colonial powers unilaterally imposed artificial borders on the post-Ottoman world in postwar agreements. This book offers a new account of how the Great War unmade and then remade the political order of the region. Ranging from Morocco to Iran and spanning the eve of the Great War into the 1930s, it demonstrates that the modern Middle East was shaped through complex and violent power struggles among local and international actors.Jonathan Wyrtzen shows how the cataclysm of the war opened new possibilities for both European and local actors to reimagine post-Ottoman futures. After the 1914–1918 phase of the war, violent conflicts between competing political visions continued across the region. In these extended struggles, the greater Middle East was reforged. Wyrtzen emphasizes the intersections of local and colonial projects and the entwined processes through which states were made, identities transformed, and boundaries drawn. This book’s vast scope encompasses successful state-building projects such as the Turkish Republic and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as short-lived political units—including the Rif Republic in Morocco, the Sanusi state in eastern Libya, a Greater Syria, and attempted Kurdish states—that nonetheless left traces on the map of the region. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Worldmaking in the Long Great War retells the origin story of the modern Middle East.
Worlds: Worlds Book 1 (WORLDS)
by Joe HaldemanTowards the end of the twenty-first century 41 Worlds, small satellites with a total population of half a million, orbit the Earth, which has seen many changes, not least of which is a second revolution in America. Marianne O'Hara, a brilliant political sciences student, is from New New York, a hollowed out asteroid and the largest of the Worlds, but is to spend a year on Earth as a postgraduate student. Because the political relationship between the Worlds and Earth is complex and voltatile, Marianne unwittingly finds herself caught up with a group of fanatics determined on a third revolution in America - even if such a revolution could lead to the destruction of the Earth...
Worlds Apart: Worlds Book 2 (WORLDS)
by Joe HaldemanEarth was finished, devastated by nuclear and biological war. The inhabitants of the artificial asteroid colonies looked down on it and knew that humanity's old home would soon be gone forever.But Earth would not loose its ties so easily. And for Marianne O'Hara there was work that had to be done among the stricken ruins before she could at last look outwards to the stars.
Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security
by Swanee HuntWorlds Apart tells of a well-meaning foreign policy establishment often deaf to the voices of everyday people. Its focus is the Bosnian War, but its implications extend to any situation that prompts the consideration of military intervention on humanitarian grounds. Ambassador Swanee Hunt served in Vienna during the Bosnian War and was intimately involved in American policy toward the Balkans. During her tenure as ambassador and after, she made scores of trips throughout Bosnia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia, attempting to understand the costly delays in foreign military intervention. To that end, she had hundreds of conversations with a wide range of politicians, refugees, journalists, farmers, clergy, aid workers, diplomats, soldiers, and others. In Worlds Apart, Hunt's eighty vignettes alternate between the people living out the war and "the internationals" deciding whether or how to intervene. From these stories, most of which she witnessed firsthand, she draws six lessons applicable to current conflicts throughout the world. These lessons cannot be learned from afar, Hunt says, with insiders and outsiders working apart. Only by bridging those worlds can we build a stronger paradigm of inclusive international security.
World's Best Soldiers (Special Forces: Protecting, Building, Te)
by C. F. EarlAlmost every country in the world has its elite units. These are the men and women who perform operations no regular soldiers will touch, who go deep into enemy territory to sabotage, attack, rescue, and observe. Take a look at life in five of the most prestigious military units--U.S. Airborne Forces, the Israeli Parachute Corps, Russian Spetsnaz forces, the British SAS, and the Australian SAS. Explore each force's history to understand why these units are respected and feared by their enemies. Discover: * How some elite units existed even in ancient times. * What recruiters look for in special forces. * How U.S Airborne troops parachuted into the jungles of Vietnam. * How Russian Spetsnaz sabotaged German trains during World War II. * How some U.S. amphibious ships can carry 1,700 troops.
World's End
by Upton SinclairThe Lanny Budd novels, of which this is the first, portray the changing pattern of world events from the first stirrings to WWI to 1940.
Worlds Enough and Time: Worlds Book 3 (WORLDS)
by Joe HaldemanWith their homeworld in ruins, ten thousand brave colonists set out for the stars. Among them is Marianne O'Hara - who survived a baptism of cataclysmic fire to emerge as the last hope of her doomed race. But madness, mysterious deaths and irreversible sabotage threaten their mission - propelling the crippled starship Newhome blindly toward an unimaginable future, and hurtling Marianne toward an astonishing confrontation that could mean the end or the transcendent rebirth of humankind.
Worlds of Honor (Worlds of Honor #2)
by David WeberContains 5 short stories set in Honor Harrington's universe. The Stray, by Linda Evans What Price Dreams?, by David Weber Queen's Gambit, by Jane Lindskold The Hard Way Home, by David Weber Deck Load Strike, by Roland J. Green IT'S A PARTY! In Honor's Honor, David Weber and Other Top Science Fiction Writers pay a Visit to Honor Harrington's Universe- David Weber has shot to the forefront of science fiction. The core of his work is Honor Harrington, the toughest, smartest starship captain in the galaxy. David Weber himself is on board with two never-before-published excursions into Honor's universe. First, he tells how young Honor Harrington first demonstrated the heroic stuff she was made of when she and her treecat Nimitz face the impossible task of rescuing the victims of an avalanche in a sub-zero blizzard. Weber returns with a chapter in the history of the telepathic treecats, who are far more intelligent than humans realize, and with whom the right human can form a close telepathic bond that can be severed only by death. But in this case, the young human who bonded with a treecat was a Very Important Person. Specifically, she was the Manticoran crown princess and heir to the throne of the empire. Roland Green, author of the "Starcruiser Shenandoah" series and the "Peace Company" series, is on board with a hard-hitting account of what happened when Manticore and the People's Republic of Haven went eyeball-to-eyeball over a strategically vital planet. Linda Evans, "Time Scout" co-author, looks at life among the treecats, before Honor. Jane Lindskold, author of the highly-praised fantasy Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls, tells how Honor's monarch, Elizabeth III, had to learn the hard way what monarchy is all about.
Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Worlds Of Deep Space Nine (Star Trek #3)
by David R. George III Keith R. DeCandidoWithin every federation and every empire, behind every hero and every villain, there are the worlds that define them. In the aftermath of Unity and in the daring tradition of Spock's World, The Final Reflection, and A Stitch in Time, the civilizations most closely tied to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine can now be experienced as never before...in tales both sweeping and intimate, reflective and prophetic, eerily familiar and utterly alien. FERENGINAR: Quark's profit-driven homeworld is rocked with scandal as shocking allegations involving his brother's first wife, the mother of Nog, threaten to overthrow Rom as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance. Making matters worse, Quark has been recruited by Rom's political adversaries to join their coup d'état, with guarantees of all Quark ever dreamed if they succeed in taking his brother down. While Ferenginar's future teeters on the edge, the pregnancy of Rom's current wife, Leeta, takes a difficult turn for both mother and child. THE DOMINION: Since its defeat in the war for the Alpha Quadrant, the Great Link -- the living totality of the shape-shifting Founders -- has struggled with questions. At its moment of greatest doubt, its fate, and that of the Dominion itself, is tied to Odo's investigation of his kind's true motives for sending a hundred infant changelings out into the galaxy. As Odo searches for answers and takes a hard look at his past choices, Taran'atar reaches a turning point in his own quest for clarity...one from which there may be no going back.
Worlds of the Imperium
by Keith LaumerAmerican diplomat Brion Bayard is on assignment in Stockholm when he notices he's being shadowed. Before he can escape, Bayard is kidnapped and transported to a parallel universe: the Imperium, where history has taken a different turn and the British Empire and its allies rule the world. Yet another parallel world exists, and the Imperium has a task there for their reluctant visitor: the impersonation and assassination of a global dictator who happens to be Bayard's otherworldly double.This adventurous, action-packed novel is the work of award-winning author Keith Laumer, creator of the Bolo and Reteif stories. Science-fiction enthusiasts, especially those who enjoy alternate histories, will savor the twists and turns of this imaginative thriller.
World's War Events, Vol. I (The World At War)
by Francis ReynoldsA three volume series of books describing events of the WW I. This is part one.
World's War Events, Vol. II (The World At War)
by Francis ReynoldsA three volume series of books describing events of the WW I. This is part two.
World's War Events, Vol. III (The World At War)
by Francis ReynoldsA three volume series of books describing events of the WW I. This is part three.
The Worldview of Redemptive Violence in the US
by Wayne LavenderThrough US military history, Lavender directly confronts the dominant US viewpoint of redemptive violence, the concept that a nation can use its military to improve the human condition. Alternatives are presented in order to encourage the current recessive worldview that supports conflict resolution, cooperation, collaboration and peaceful efforts.
Worm-Time: Memories of Division in South Korean Aesthetics
by We Jung YiWorm-Time challenges conventional narratives of the Cold War and its end, presenting an alternative cultural history based on evolving South Korean aesthetics about enduring national division. From novels of dissent during the authoritarian era to films and webtoons in the new millennium, We Jung Yi's transmedia analyses unearth people's experiences of "wormification"—traumatic survival, deferred justice, and warped capitalist growth in the wake of the Korean War. Whether embodied as refugees, leftists, or broken families, Yi's wormified protagonists transcend their positions as displaced victims of polarized politics and unequal development. Through metamorphoses into border riders who fly over or crawl through the world's dividing lines, they reclaim postcolonial memories buried in the pursuit of modernization under US hegemony and cultivate a desire for social transformation. Connecting colonial legacies, Cold War ideologies, and neoliberal economics, Worm-Time dares us to rethink the post-WWII consensus on freedom, peace, and prosperity.
Worse Than a Monolith: Alliance Politics and Problems of Coercive Diplomacy in Asia (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics #129)
by Thomas J. ChristensenIn brute-force struggles for survival, such as the two World Wars, disorganization and divisions within an enemy alliance are to one's own advantage. However, most international security politics involve coercive diplomacy and negotiations short of all-out war. Worse Than a Monolith demonstrates that when states are engaged in coercive diplomacy--combining threats and assurances to influence the behavior of real or potential adversaries--divisions, rivalries, and lack of coordination within the opposing camp often make it more difficult to prevent the onset of conflict, to prevent existing conflicts from escalating, and to negotiate the end to those conflicts promptly. Focusing on relations between the Communist and anti-Communist alliances in Asia during the Cold War, Thomas Christensen explores how internal divisions and lack of cohesion in the two alliances complicated and undercut coercive diplomacy by sending confusing signals about strength, resolve, and intent. In the case of the Communist camp, internal mistrust and rivalries catalyzed the movement's aggressiveness in ways that we would not have expected from a more cohesive movement under Moscow's clear control. Reviewing newly available archival material, Christensen examines the instability in relations across the Asian Cold War divide, and sheds new light on the Korean and Vietnam wars. While recognizing clear differences between the Cold War and post-Cold War environments, he investigates how efforts to adjust burden-sharing roles among the United States and its Asian security partners have complicated U.S.-China security relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb
by Avner CohenIsrael has made a unique contribution to the nuclear age. It has created a special "bargain" with the bomb. Israel is the only nuclear-armed state that does not acknowledge its possession of the bomb, even though its existence is a common knowledge throughout the world. It only says that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. The bomb is Israel's collective ineffable-the nation's last great taboo. This bargain has a name: in Hebrew, it is called amimut, or opacity. By adhering to the bargain, which was born in a secret deal between Richard Nixon and Golda Meir, Israel has created a code of nuclear conduct that encompasses both governmental policy and societal behavior. The bargain has deemphasized the salience of nuclear weapons, yet it is incompatible with the norms and values of a liberal democracy. It relies on secrecy, violates the public right to know, and undermines the norm of public accountability and oversight, among other offenses. It is also incompatible with emerging international nuclear norms. Author of the critically acclaimed Israel and the Bomb, Avner Cohen offers a bold and original study of this politically explosive subject. Along with a fair appraisal of the bargain's strategic merits, Cohen critiques its undemocratic flaws. Arguing that the bargain has become increasingly anachronistic, he calls for a reform in line with domestic democratic values as well as current international nuclear norms. Most ironic, he believes Iran is imitating Israeli amimut. Cohen concludes with fresh perspectives on Iran, Israel, and the effort toward global disarmament.
Worth Dying For: A Navy Seal's Call to a Nation
by Ellis Henican Rorke DenverIn a fast-paced and action-packed narrative, Navy SEAL commander Rorke Denver tackles the questions that have emerged about America's past decade at war--from what makes a hero to why we fight and what it does to us.Heroes are not always the guys who jump on grenades. Sometimes, they are the snipers who decide to hold their fire, the wounded operators who find fresh ways to contribute, or the wives who keep the families together back home. Even a SEAL commander--especially a SEAL commander--knows that. But what's a hero, really? What do we have a right to expect from our heroes? How should we hold them accountable? Amid all the loose talk of heroes, these questions are seldom asked. As a SEAL commander, Rorke Denver is uniquely qualified to answer questions about what makes a hero or a leader, why men kill, how best to serve your country, how battlefield experiences can elevate us, and most importantly, why we fight and what it does for and to us. In Worth Dying For, Denver tackles many of these issues by sharing his personal experiences from the forefront of war today. Denver applies some of his SEAL-sense to nine big-picture, news-driven questions of war and peace, in a way that appeals to all sides of the public conversation. By broadening the issues, sharing his insights, and achieving what civilian political leaders have been utterly unable to, Denver eloquently shares answers to America's most burning questions about war, heroism, and what it all means for America's future.
Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger's Journey Out of the Military and Across America
by Rory Fanning&“Fanning combines memoir, travelogue, political tract, and history lesson in this engaging account of his 3,000-mile solo walk from Virginia to California&” (Publishers Weekly). Just days after the US military covered up the death by friendly fire of Pat Tillman, Rory Fanning—who served in the same unit as Tillman—left the Army Rangers as a conscientious objector. Disquieted by his tours in Afghanistan, Fanning sets out to honor Tillman&’s legacy by crossing the United States on foot. The generous, colorful people he meets and the history he discovers help him learn to live again. &“Fanning&’s descriptions of the hardships and highlights of the trip comprise the bulk of the book, and he infuses his left-wing politics into a narrative peppered with historical tidbits, most of which describe less-than-honorable moments in American history, such as the terrorist actions of the Ku Klux Klan and the nation&’s Indian removal policies. What stands out most, though, is the selflessness and generosity―which come in the form of stories, hospitality, and donations for the foundation―of the people Fanning encountered during his journey.&” ―Publishers Weekly &“Rory Fanning&’s odyssey is more than a walk across America. It is a gripping story of one young man&’s intellectual journey from eager soldier to skeptical radical, a look at not only the physical immenseness of the country, its small towns, and highways, but into the enormity of its past, the hidden sins and unredeemed failings of the United States. The reader is there along with Rory, walking every step, as challenging and rewarding experience for us as it was for him.&” —Chicago Sun-Times