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The New Zealand Wars 1820-72
By Raffaele Ruggeri, Ian Knight. 2013
Between 1845 and 1872, various groups of Maori - the Polynesian people who had inhabited New Zealand since medieval times…
- were involved in a series of wars of resistance against British settlers, which in many ways mirrored the American Indian Wars. Like some Native Americans, the Maori had a fierce and long-established warrior tradition (epitomized today by the intimidating haka war-challenge performed by the All Blacks rugby team), and lived in tribal communities dispersed throughout rough and thickly wooded terrain. Subduing them took a lengthy British Army commitment, only surpassed in the Victorian period by that on the North-West Frontier of India.Warfare had been endemic in pre-colonial New Zealand - in contests over territory and group prestige, and in generations-long feuds - and Maori groups maintained fortified villages or pas. The small early British coastal settlements, also widely dispersed, were tolerated, and in the 1820s a chief named Hongi Hika travelled to Britain with a missionary and returned laden with gifts. He promptly exchanged these for muskets, and began an aggressive 15-year expansion at the expense of neighbouring tribes. When new waves of major British settlement arrived between the 1840s and 1860s, competition over the available productive land caused increased friction and clashes. British troops were shipped in, and fought a series of essentially local wars in both North and South Islands over more than 25 years. However, some Maori groups always allied themselves with the Europeans, in pursuit of ancient enmities with their neighbours.By the 1860s many Maori had acquired firearms and had perfected their bush-warfare tactics. Their defences also evolved, with conspicuous log fortifications giving way to deep entrenchments less visible and vulnerable to artillery. The British, too, were adapting their uniforms, equipment and tactics to broken-country fighting in the bush, and employing more portable artillery and mortars. In the last phase of the wars a religious movement, Pai Maarire ('Hau Hau'), inspired remarkable guerrilla leaders such as Te Kooti Arikirangi to renewed resistance. This final phase saw a reduction in British Army forces as operations were increasingly taken over by locally recruited constabulary and militia units. European victory was not total, but led to a negotiated peace that preserved some of the Maori people's territories and freedoms; in modern times this has allowed a real (if sometimes strained) progress towards a genuinely unified national identity.Loyal Service: Perspectives on French-Canadian Military Leaders
By Lieutenant-General J H P M Caron, Roch Legault, Colonel Bernd Horn. 2007
French Canadians have a long, proud history of serving their nation. From the earliest beginnings, French Canadians assisted in carving…
out and defending the nascent country. They were critical as defenders and as allies against hostile Natives and competing European powers. In the aftermath of the conquest, they continued, albeit under a different flag, to defend Canada. Loyal Service examines the service of a number of French-Canadian leaders and their contributions to the nation during times of peace, crisis, and conflict spanning the entire historical spectrum from New France to the end of the twentieth century.Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America
By Douglas R Egerton. 2016
Co-winner of the 2017 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln PrizeAn intimate, authoritative history of the first black soldiers to fight in the…
Union Army during the Civil WarSoon after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists began to call for the creation of black regiments. At first, the South and most of the North responded with outrage-southerners promised to execute any black soldiers captured in battle, while many northerners claimed that blacks lacked the necessary courage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, long the center of abolitionist fervor, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history. In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas Egerton chronicles the formation and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry-regiments led by whites but composed of black men born free or into slavery. He argues that the most important battles of all were won on the field of public opinion, for in fighting with distinction the regiments realized the long-derided idea of full and equal citizenship for blacks. A stirring evocation of this transformative episode, Thunder at the Gates offers a riveting new perspective on the Civil War and its legacy.The Kurillian Knot: A History of Japanese-Russian Border Negotiations
By Mark Ealey, Hiroshi Kimura. 1996
This book provides an answer to the mystery of why no peace treaty has yet been signed between Japan and…
Russia after more than sixty years since the end of World War Two. The author, a leading authority on Japanese-Russian diplomatic history, was trained at the Russian Institute of Columbia University. This volume contributes to our understanding of not only the intricacies of bilateral relations between Moscow and Tokyo, but, more generally, of Russia's and Japan's modes of foreign policy formation. The author also discusses the U.S. factor, which helped make Russia and Japan distant neighbors, and the threat from China, which might help these countries come closer in the near future. It would be hardly possible to discuss the future prospects of Northeast Asia without having first read this book.The Way of Tea
By Aaron Fisher. 2010
In today's world, the lives of ancient tea masters, living in mountainside huts and picking tea leaves fresh off wild…
plants, seem inapplicable to our hectic lives. The Way of Tea shows modern readers how you can bring this serenity to your daily life. You don't need a mountainside hut or hours for endless contemplation; just a few quiet moments with a steaming cup of your favorite tea.Aaron Fisher, noted tea expert and author, illustrates the way of tea for modern readers. It does not need to be a somber religious ceremony, but instead can be a path to experience inner peace, to relax the ego and to allow oneself to be free and open--an excellent recipe for a life well lived.The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad (Library of Arabic Literature #20)
By M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, Mamar Ibn Rashid, Sean W. Anthony. 2015
The Expeditions is one of the oldest biographies of the Prophet Muhammad to survive into the modern era. Its primary…
author, Ma'mar ibn Rashid (714-770 AD/96-153 AH), was a prominent scholar from Basra in southern Iraq who was revered for his learning in prophetic traditions, Islamic law, and the interpretation of the Qur'an. This fascinating foundational seminal work contains stories handed down by Ma'mar to his most prominent pupil, 'Abd al-Razzaq of Sanaa, relating Muhammad's early life and prophetic career as well as the adventures and tribulations of his earliest followers during their conquest of the Near East.Edited from a sole surviving manuscript, the Arabic text offers numerous improved readings over those of previous editions, including detailed notes on the text's transmission and variants as found in later works. This new translation, which renders the original into readable, modern English for the first time, is accompanied by numerous annotations elucidating the cultural, religious and historical contexts of the events and individuals described within its pages.The Expeditions represents an important testimony to the earliest Muslims' memory of the lives of Muhammad and his companions, and is an indispensable text for gaining insight into the historical biography of both the Prophet and the rise of the Islamic empire.In the Cool Shade of Compassion: The Enchanted World of the Buddha in the Jungle
By Kamala Tiyavanich. 2018
A fascinating collection of stories of the Thai forest monks that illuminates the Thai Forest tradition as a vibrant …
compassionate and highly appealing way of life This work ingeniously intermingles real-life stories about nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Buddhist monks in old Siam today s Thailand with experiences recorded by their Western contemporaries Stories of giant snakes bandits boatmen midwives and guardian spirits collectively portray a Buddhist culture in all its imaginative and geographical brilliance By juxtaposing these eyewitness accounts Kamala Tiyavanich presents a new and vivid picture of Buddhism as it was lived and of the natural environments in which the Buddha s teachings were practiced This book was previously published under the title The Buddha in the JungleKalevi Holsti: Major Texts on War, the State, Peace, and International Order
By Kalevi Holsti. 2016
In honour of Prof. Kalevi Holsti's 80th birthday, this book includes key texts by the renowned Canadian International Relations scholar…
on war, the state, peace, and the international order. The first part includes texts on the Study of War, Use of Force in International Politics: Four Revolutions, and The Decline of Interstate War, while the second part analyses International Sports Competition and the Creation and Sustenance of Statehood, as well as Internationalism and Nationalism within the Multi-Community State. The third part addresses The Peacemakers: Issues and International Order, Governance Without Government: Polyarchy in 19th-Century European International Politics, and The Post-Cold War 'Settlement' in Comparative Perspective. Prof. Holsti is a former president of the International Studies Association and the author of a major textbook that was translated into Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesian. Thousands of undergraduates around the world are acquainted with his work.My Appeal to the World: Statements On The 10th Of March, 1961-2010
By Sofia Stril-Rever, HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA. 2015
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is the foremost spokesperson for the people of the Tibetan Plateau although…
his home is in India in the Himalayan foothills where he has been forced to live in exile since 1959 As a Buddhist monk his main focus has been the spiritual life and the leadership of his people in exile ensuring their survival and preserving their unique Buddhist culture while appealing to the world to stop the destruction of their homeland and the six million Tibetans oppressed within it Every March 10th from 1961 until 2011 in commemoration of the greatest uprising of the Tibetan people against the Chinese military occupation the Dalai Lama delivered an appeal to the world on behalf of his people Each statement is a heartfelt call to recognize the truth and the factual reality of Tibet s history and situation a cry for help a plea for justice and a pledge of determination to withstand the worst and to overcome In these annual addresses he began to articulate and fully express his overarching appeal to humanity All of the Dalai Lama s March 10th speeches at their most poignant and eloquent are collected here introduced and historically contextualized by Sofia Stril-Rever an author and scholar of Tibetan history and culture and Buddhist spirituality who has long served as his French translator Here in this book is his appeal to us all The people of all nations have heard it and have tried to help but their governments still have not dared to stand up effectively for justice on behalf of the Tibetan people and for recognition of the basic human rights to which we all are entitled The question therefore remains Who will finally respond to this appeal in time to prevent the ultimate disaster that is looming on the roof of the worldReckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam
By Robert K. Brigham. 2018
Henry Kissinger's role in the Vietnam War prolonged the American tragedy and doomed the government of South Vietnam The American…
war in Vietnam was concluded in 1973 after eight years of fighting, bloodshed, and loss. Yet the terms of the truce that ended the war were effectively identical to what had been offered to the Nixon administration four years earlier. Those four years cost America and Vietnam thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and they were the direct result of the supposed master plan of the most important voice in American foreign policy: Henry Kissinger. Using newly available archival material from the Nixon Presidential Library, Kissinger's personal papers, and material from the archives in Vietnam, Robert K. Brigham punctures the myth of Kissinger as an infallible mastermind. Instead, he constructs a portrait of a rash, opportunistic, and suggestible politician. It was personal political rivalries, the domestic political climate, and strategic confusion that drove Kissinger's actions. There was no great master plan or Bismarckian theory that supported how the US continued the war or conducted peace negotiations. Its length was doubled for nothing but the ego and poor judgment of a single figure. This distant tragedy, perpetuated by Kissinger's actions, forever changed both countries. Now, perhaps for the first time, we can see the full scale of that tragedy and the machinations that fed it.The Proton Launcher: History and Developments
By Stefan Barensky, Christian Lardier. 2018
The Soviet / Russian space program was in the hands of three industrial empires: those of Serguei Korolev, the Soviet…
von Braun who launched Sputnik-1 and Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Tchelomei, his main competitor, and Mikhail Yangel, Many launchers and satellites in Ukraine.In 2011, we published a first book on the history of the Soyuz launcher that was developed by Korolev and launched more than 1,800 copies. This time, we tell the story of the Proton, the main competitor of the European launcher Ariane, which was developed by Chelomei and launched more than 400 copies. Finally, the last book of the trilogy will deal with the many developments of Yangel. In the three books, the first part deals with the history of rockets in the USSR / Russia (East) and the second part on the history of their commercialization in the West.The Statebuilder's Dilemma: On the Limits of Foreign Intervention
By David A. Lake. 2006
The central task of all statebuilding is to create a state that is regarded as legitimate by the people over…
whom it exercises authority. This is a necessary condition for stable, effective governance. States sufficiently motivated to bear the costs of building a state in some distant land are likely to have interests in the future policies of that country, and will therefore seek to promote loyal leaders who are sympathetic to their interests and willing to implement their preferred policies. In The Statebuilder's Dilemma, David A. Lake addresses the key tradeoff between legitimacy and loyalty common to all international statebuilding attempts. Except in rare cases where the policy preferences of the statebuilder and the population of the country whose state is to be built coincide, as in the famous success cases of West Germany and Japan after 1945, promoting a leader who will remain loyal to the statebuilder undermines that leader's legitimacy at home. In Iraq, thrust into a statebuilding role it neither anticipated nor wanted, the United States eventually backed Nouri al-Malaki as the most favorable of a bad lot of alternative leaders. Malaki then used the support of the Bush administration to govern as a Shiite partisan, undermining the statebuilding effort and ultimately leading to the second failure of the Iraqi state in 2014. Ethiopia faced the same tradeoff in Somalia after the rise of a promising but irredentist government in 2006, invading to put its own puppet in power in Mogadishu. But the resulting government has not been able to build significant local support and legitimacy. Lake uses these cases to demonstrate that the greater the interests of the statebuilder in the target country, the more difficult it is to build a legitimate state that can survive on its own.Islam And Democracy: Fear Of The Modern World With New Introduction
By Fatima Mernissi. 1992
Is Islam compatible with democracy? Must fundamentalism win out in the Middle East, or will democracy ever be possible? In…
this now-classic book, Islamic sociologist Fatima Mernissi explores the ways in which progressive Muslims--defenders of democracy, feminists, and others trying to resist fundamentalism--must use the same sacred texts as Muslims who use them for violent ends, to prove different views. Updated with a new introduction by the author written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Islam and Democracy serves as a guide to the players moving the pieces on the rather grim Muslim chessboard. It shines new light on the people behind today's terrorist acts and raises provocative questions about the possibilities for democracy and human rights in the Islamic world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the Middle East today, Islam and Democracy is as timely now as it was upon its initial, celebrated publication.The Essence of War: Leadership and Strategy from the Chinese Military Classics
By Ralph D. Sawyer. 2004
From antiquity, the history of China has been marked by invading tribes, warring states, and popular uprisings. This heritage of…
conflict produced a body of martial literature exploring the fundamental principles of warfare and their methods of employment. Fully aware of the tragic consequences of battle, the authors of these texts emphasized that bloodshed and war should be avoided whenever possible. But, they argued, this is possible only when the principles of leadership and strategy have been mastered and the dynamics of conflict thoroughly analyzed. Over the centuries, these texts have been studied throughout Asia, not only by generals on the battlefield but by leaders of all kinds concerned with the management of human conflict in all its forms. The Essence of War presents eight of these classics (written from 500 B. C. E. to 700 C. E. ), including Sun-tzu's Art of War and Sun Pin's Military Methods. The book introduces the core principles of Chinese military science, grouping selected passages and key quotations into five thematic sections encompassing forty-one topical chapters: Fundamentals, Tao of Warfare, Tao of Command, Tactical Essentials, and Tactical Specifics. Translator Ralph D. Sawyer provides here a concise introduction to Chinese military thought and influential materials not only of traditional import, but also for contemporary study and enduring value in both business and military circles throughout the world.Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World
By Nir Rosen. 2010
Dangerous Ground
By Scott Ritter. 2010
Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War
By Edwin G. Burrows. 2008
Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown. Just over 6,800 of those men…
died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons--more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. It was in New York, not Boston or Philadelphia, where most Americans gave their lives for the cause of independence. New York City became the jailhouse of the American Revolution because it was the principal base of the Crown’s military operations. Beginning with the bumper crop of American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed--those who escaped alive told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. Despite the extraordinary number of lives lost, Forgotten Patriots is the first-ever account of what took place in these hell-holes. The result is a unique perspective on the Revolutionary War as well as a sobering commentary on how Americans have remembered our struggle for independence--and how much we have forgotten.Greetings From Afghanistan, Send More Ammo
By Benjamin Tupper. 2010
"Raw, direct, and powerful. . . This work is vitally important. " -Ken Stern, former CEO of National Public Radio…
Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home. Here, he takes us inside the intricacies of the war, opening up a unique and multifaceted view of both Afghan culture and the daily life of an American soldier. From the rush of gunfire to surreal, euphoric moments of cross-cultural understanding, this emotional and thought- provoking narrative is rich with humor, eloquence and contradiction. Deeply personal and darkly funny, Tupper illuminates the challenges of the war, vividly bringing to life both the mundane and the extraordinary and seeking a way forward.Wounded Warriors: Those For Whom The War Never Ends
By Mike Sager. 2008
Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell prided himself on being a hard-core Marinea patriotic Devil Dog on his third tour of Iraq.…
Then his brain was shredded with mortar shrapnel. Today, Maxwell has a large angry scar on the left side of his head. He forgets words, his wife has to read to him, and he drags one foot when he walks. Yet he works twelve-hour days as commander of the Wounded Warrior Barracks at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. For these warriors, Iraq and Afghanistan will never quite be in the past. And the struggle never ends. Other stories in Wounded Warriors depict life inside an L. A. crack gang, ex-pat Vietnam War veterans in Thailand, and five days in Las Vegas with basketball anti-hero Kobe Bryantall of it captured stylishly by the writer who has been called the beat poet of American journalism. ”Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq
By Linda Robinson. 2008
After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David…
Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key U. S. and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president when he or she takes office in January 2009.