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In this major and wholly original contribution to military history, John Keegan reverses the usual convention of writing about war in terms of generals and nations in conflict, which tends to leave the common soldier as cipher. Instead, he focuses on what a set battle is like for the man in the thick of it—his fears, his wounds and their treatment, the mechanics of being taken prisoner, the nature of leadership at the most junior level, the role...
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"Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) was a war correspondent for nearly fifty years. From the Spanish Civil War in 1937 through the wars in Central America in the mid-eighties, her candid reports reflected her feelings for people no matter what their political ideologies, and the openness and vulnerability of her conscience. "I wrote very fast, as I had to, " she says, "afraid that I would forget the exact sound, smell, words, gestures, which were special...
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Search the annals of military history and you will discover no end of quirky characters and surprising true stories: The topless dancer who saved the Byzantine Empire. The World War I battle that was halted so a soccer game could be played. The scientist who invented a pigeon-guided missile in 1943. And don't forget the elderly pig whose death triggered an international crisis between the United States and Great Britain. This is the kind of history...
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From the wooden horse at Troy to a harrowing photograph snapped in Vietnam, from Robert E. Lee's lost battle plans to the evacuation of Dunkirk, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Time and again, invincible armies fall to weaker opponents in the face of impossible odds, when the outcome had seemed a foregone conclusion. How and why does this happen? What is it that decides the fate of battle?
Writing...
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While the battle for air supremacy is being waged in the skies, the coalition forces pull off a stunning, and ultimately decisive, deception. Later dubbed the 'Hail Mary Pass,' it consists of the abrupt relocation of the coalition ground forces hundreds of miles to the West. Meanwhile, as inflatable decoys, deceptive radio transmissions, and psyops leaflets all lead them to believe, the Iraqis are expecting an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf,...
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War has ravaged the world since the beginning of time, but how has it changed throughout the millennia? Grisly history is explained in detail and illuminated with handy charts and maps. A surefire hit with reluctant readers, this book takes no prisoners as it spills the gruesome details about the dark and violent side of the ancient and modern worlds.
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In the grand tradition of Edward Creasy's classic Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, James Lacey and Williamson Murray spotlight only those engagements that changed the course of civilization. In gripping narrative accounts they bring these conflicts and eras to vivid life, detailing the cultural imperatives that led inexorably to the battlefield, the experiences of the common soldiers who fought and died, and the legendary commanders and statesmen...
9) On war and leadership: the words of combat commanders from Frederick the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf
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Owen Connelly is the McKissick Dial Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. An ex-captain of U.S. Army Rangers, he did two years' duty in the Korean War and was later executive officer of the Rangers' Amphibious and Jungle Warfare Training Camp in Florida. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, in 1989 and 1995. His many books include Napoleon's Satellite Kingdoms, The Gentle Bonaparte, The Epoch of Napoleon,...
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Battle your way through the world of fierce fighters! The Biggest, Baddest Book of Warriors will take you on a journey to uncover history's most dangerous and fascinating soldiers. Discover great leaders, heroic battles, and deadly weapons. Hang on to your hats! Biggest, Baddest Books for Boys are sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.
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"A dramatic, colorful, stylishly-written history, Hubris is a much-needed reflection on war from a master of his field, "--Amazon.com.
Sir Alistair Horne has been a close observer of war and history for more than fifty years. In this wise and masterly work, he revisits six battles that changed the course of the twentieth century to reveal the one trait that links them all: hubris. In Greek tragedy, hubris is excessive human pride that challenges...
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• Succinct accounts of 21 guerrilla conflicts in the twentieth century
• Wars covered include the Boer War, the Philippine War, World War I, the Russian Revolution, World War II, Vietnam, the Algerian War, the Afghan-Soviet War, and more
• The exploits of men like Lawrence of Arabia, Orde Wingate, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevera
In war, whenever one side outnumbers and outguns the other, the outnumbered and outgunned side often resorts to guerrilla...
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Fourteen dramatic stories of troops outnumbered but not outmatched-from Hannibal's Carthaginians to the English at Agincourt to the Red Army in WWII.
Even a commander as fearless, self-assured, and battle-hardened as Alexander the Great, leading 40,000 Macedonian troops, must have quailed at the sight that met him as he neared the village of Issus, Asia Minor, in 333 BCE: an unexpectedly and unimaginably vast Persian force of some 100,000 men, spanning...
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A single day in the heat of armed conflict can shape the future of the world. Throughout history, individual battles have inspired the birth of nations, the devastation of cultures and the triumph of revolutions. Yet while some battles rise up as the cornerstones of history, others fade in our cultural memory, forgotten as minor skirmishes. Why is this so? What makes a battle 'important'? Celebrated veteran and military expert Michael Lee Lanning...
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"From the small bands of wilderness warriors who battled in 18th-century North America to the "Chechen Lion, " and the contemporary conflict in Chechnya, John Arquilla chronicles the deadly careers of the greatest masters of irregular warfare over the past 250 years. Their impact on events has been profound, with irregulars playing crucial roles in such epochal struggles as the Anglo-French duel for North America, the defeat of Napoleon in Spain and...
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Beginning with defining the scapegoat and examining the conditions needed to qualify, this book then shares a history that is full of tales of those who have been wrongly castigated in the rush to find a culprit; only later, sometimes much later, when the real truth comes out, is the scapegoat exonerated. Exposed here, the real stories behind the myths that allow the reader to make a balanced judgment on history's fairness to the individual. From...
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As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive. "It gives us purpose, meaning,...
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Very short introductions volume 117
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"This book explores the ways in which ancient society thought about conflict. Many aspects of ancient warfare are examined from philosophy to the technical skills needed to fight"--Provided by publisher.
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A spirited and sweeping account of how the crusades really worked-and a revolutionary attempt to rethink how we understand the Middle Ages. The story of the wars and conquests initiated by the First Crusade and its successors is itself so compelling that most accounts move quickly from describing the Pope's calls to arms to the battlefield. In this highly original and enjoyable new book, Christopher Tyerman focuses on something obvious but overlooked:...