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Showing 1 - 20 of 21657 items
On the night of March 24, 1944, eighty airmen crawled through a 400-foot-long tunnel, code-named "Harry," and dashed from Stalag…
Luft III, the infamous WWII German POW camp. It became known as The Great Escape. The breakout had taken a year to plan, involved 2,000 POWs, and prompted a massive manhunt across occupied Europe. All but three escapees were recaptured, and on Hitler’s orders, fifty were murdered. The author recounts this battle of wits and determination through the voices of those involved, assembles original interviews, memoirs, letters and diaries to reconstruct the Great Escape’s untold story. Bestseller. 2014.
In 1997 this New York Times journalist traveled across Asia, visiting the classic hill towns built by several colonial powers.…
She recalls her journeys to these remote locations, discusses their history, and describes how each has evolved since being inherited by an independent nation. 1998.
Granatstein's study of life at the top during the Second World War centres on the most senior ranks in the…
Canadian Army. Men like Andrew McNaughton, Harold Crerar, Thomas Burns and Guy Simonds had not only to win military campaigns, but also command the sympathies of bureaucrats and powerful politicians. None, however, forgot they were fighting a war, and that their decisions directly affected the lives of Canadian soldiers. 1993.
The Great Escape tells how more than six hundred men in a German prisoner of war camp worked together to…
achieve an extraordinary break-out. Every night for a year they dug tunnels, and those who weren't digging forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes to wear once they had escaped. All of this was conducted under the very noses of their prison guards. When the right night came, the actual escape itself was timed to the split second - but of course, not everything went according to plan... 2000.
In 1943, with Lvov's 150,000 Jews having been exiled, killed, or forced into ghettos and facing extermination, a group of…
Polish Jews sought refuge in the city's sewer system. The last surviving member this group, Krystyna Chiger, provides a first-person account of those fourteen months with her family. Also describes Leopold Socha, a Polish Catholic and former thief, who risked his life to help Chiger's underground family survive, bringing them food and supplies. 2009, c2008.
To offset the grim predictions of environmentalists, Turner describes solutions already at work around the world, from Canada's largest wind…
farm to Asia's greenest building and Europe's most eco-friendly communities. He also seeks out the next generation of political, economic, social, and spiritual institutions that could provide the global foundations for a sustainable future, including the parliament houses of Scandinavia and the villages of southern India, where microcredit finance has remade the social fabric. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 2007.
Novelist, critic, and biographer White, who moved to Paris in 1983, describes his wanderings through the city's arrondissements, including districts…
congenial to writers, African-Americans, Jews, artists, gays and lesbians, and royalists. A flâneur is someone who strolls about a city with no specific purpose, yet is attuned to its history and character. Bestseller. 2001.
The Canadian government censored the news during World War II for two main reasons: to keep military and economic secrets…
out of enemy hands and to prevent civilian morale from breaking down. But in those tumultuous times - with Nazi spies landing on our shores by raft, U-boat attacks in the St. Lawrence, army mutinies in British Columbia and Ontario, and pro-Hitler propaganda in the mainstream Quebec press - censors had a hard time keeping news events contained. Now, with freshly unsealed World War II press-censor files, many of the undocumented events that occurred in wartime Canada are finally revealed. c2011.
The author recounts her expedition into the forests of Borneo in search of a reclusive primatologist, who has devoted her…
life to protecting orphaned orangutans. Describes the beauty of the island, the local society, and the despoilment of natural resources through poaching, deforestation, and misguided ecotourism. 1998.
Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with…
the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. 2001.
The 19th century Russian author's account of an 1852-1853 journey from St. Petersburg around the Cape of Good Hope, up…
to Japan on the frigate "Pallada", concluding with an overland trek across Siberia. c1987. Uniform title: Fregat "Pallada".
The night of 27 April 1944: Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D-Day landings, is held off Slapton Beach in…
Devon. As the mock assault is under way, 946 American servicemen die. Under wartime restrictions the story is concealed and in time forgotten, until local hotelier Ken Small finds American bullets and money while beachcombing and decides to find the truth. 1993.
A history of the Mediterranean world from the dramatic creation of the sea when the Atlantic flooded across the barrier…
of land connecting Morocco and Gibraltar and plunged over a cliff 50 times the height of Niagara. The transformation of man in this rich region from hunter-gather to a settled form of existence was the beginning of civilisation and so began the process that was to transform the whole area. 1987.
Chronicles the horror of Berlin's fall to the Soviets in 1945, recalling the starvation, exposure, artillery fire, rape, and mass…
destruction that marked the Red Army's final push on Germany's capital. 2002.
Following her husband's death in 1976, Anton spent several years in India as a volunteer Jesuit Lay Missionary. Having travelled…
extensively in India, she presents a realistic look at this nation in transition. 1979.
The author set out in 1972 to cross the Sahara by camel and by himself. This story of his journey,…
fraught with disaster from the outset, is a moving account of his battle with fear and loneliness, and conquest of the many hazards of the desert. 1974.
Taras Grescoe plunges into the ruts where the tourists are thickest, starting at the tip of Spain's Land's End and…
finishing, nine months later, on the soldier-patrolled beaches of China's End of the Earth. Along the way, he crosses the entire Eurasian landmass, experiencing all sorts of travel such as all-inclusive resorts, pilgrimages, and bus tours. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2003.
A biologist searches for a solution that will save many fish species from life-threatening dams. His adventures take him from…
a fisheries patrol boat on the Fraser River to the great Tsukiji fish market in Japan, with stops in the Philippines, Thailand, and assorted South American countries. Portrays fishermen, fish farmers, and even fish cops in a new light, as well as scientists, shysters, and some very drunk, hairy Brazilian men in thongs. Some strong language, some descriptions of sex, and some descriptions of violence. c2008.
Fall, 1941. Almost 2,000 members of the Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to bolster the British garrison at…
Hong Kong, but in the seventeen day battle for the colony following the attack on December 8, the Canadians suffered grievous losses. The second part of their story describes how the Canadians survived the horrendous conditions of Japanese POW camps. Some descriptions of sex, explicit descriptions of violence and strong language. 2010.