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Showing 281 - 300 of 681 items
By Catherine Ostler. 2021
'A scintillating story superbly told... [Ostler] packs every paragraph with eye-opening detail' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times 'A rollicking read...…
[Ostler] tells Elizabeth's story with admirable style and gusto' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'Fascinating. Magnificent.? Sensitively told' Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five and The Covent Garden Ladies 'Catherine Ostler's superb, gripping, decadent biography brings an extraordinary woman and a whole world blazingly to life' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Catherine the Great and Potemkin When the glamorous Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, Countess of Bristol, went on trial at Westminster Hall for bigamy in April 1776, the story drew more attention in society than the American War of Independence. A clandestine, candlelit wedding to the young heir to an earldom, a second marriage to a Duke, a lust for diamonds and an electrifying appearance at a masquerade ball in a diaphanous dress: no wonder the trial was a sensation. However, Elizabeth refused to submit to public humiliation and retire quietly. Rather than backing gracefully out of the limelight, she embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe, being welcomed by the Pope and Catherine the Great among others. As maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth led her life in the inner circle of the Hanoverian court and her exploits delighted and scandalised the press and the people. She made headlines, and was a constant feature in penny prints and gossip columns. Writers were intrigued by her. Thackeray drew on Elizabeth as inspiration for his calculating, alluring Becky Sharp. But her behaviour, often depicted as attention-seeking and manipulative, hid a more complex tale – that of Elizabeth's fight to overcome personal tragedy and loss. Now, in this brilliantly told and evocative biography , Catherine Ostler takes a fresh look at Elizabeth's story and seeks to understand and reappraise a woman who refused to be defined by society's expectations of her. A woman who was by turns, brave, loving and generous but also reckless, greedy and insecure; a woman totally unwilling to accept the female status of underdog or to hand over all the power, the glory and the adventures of life to menA general-turned-historian reveals the remarkable battlefield heroics of Major General Maurice Rose, the World War II tank commander whose 3rd…
Armored Division struck fear into the hearts of Hitler's panzer crews. Two months after D-Day, the Allies found themselves in a stalemate in Normandy, having suffered enormous casualties attempting to push through hedgerow country. Troops were spent, and American tankers, lacking the tactics and leadership to deal with the terrain, were losing their spirit. General George Patton and the other top U.S. commanders needed an officer who knew how to break the impasse and roll over the Germans—they needed one man with the grit and the vision to take the war all the way to the Rhine. Patton and his peers selected Maurice Rose. The son of a rabbi, Rose never discussed his Jewish heritage. But his ferocity on the battlefield reflected an inner flame. He led his 3rd Armored Division not from a command post but from the first vehicle in formation, charging headfirst into a fight. He devised innovative tactics, made the most of American weapons, and personally chose the cadre of young officers who drove his division forward. From Normandy to the West Wall, from the Battle of the Bulge to the final charge across Germany, Maurice Rose's deadly division of tanks blasted through enemy lines and pursued the enemy with a remarkable intensity. In The Panzer Killers , Daniel P. Bolger, a retired lieutenant general and Iraq War veteran, offers up a lively, dramatic tale of Rose's heroism. Along the way, Bolger infuses the narrative with fascinating insights that could only come from an author who has commanded tank forces in combat. The result is a unique and masterful story of battlefield leadership, destined to become a classicThe first of a three-volume historical narrative of the four-year struggle. Opening with Jefferson Davis' resignation from the Senate and…
closing with Lincoln's departure from Springfield, the battles and personalities are presented from the point of view of the participantsBy Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard. 2014
Political commentator O'Reilly and historian Dugard, authors of Killing Jesus (DB 77565), examine the last year and the death of…
General George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945); theorize that Patton's death was not due to complications of injuries sustained in a car accident; and detail possible motives for assassination. Bestseller. 2014By Scott Mcewen, Ryan Zinke. 2016
Former Congressman, Ryan Zinke, recalls his years growing up in Montana, and his service as a Navy SEAL. Includes broad…
information about his time as acting Commander of Joint Special Forces in Iraq. Some strong language and some violenceBy Dava Guerin, Kevin Ferris. 2018
A collection of essays about the bonds that develop between wounded veterans and the animals that help them heal. Includes…
stories of traditional service companion dogs as well as vets who bond with horses, birds of prey, and even pigs. 2017By Matt Young. 2018
An irreverent account of the author's time in the Marine Corps, which he joined while still a teenager. Discusses his…
training, three deployments to Iraq, and the absurdity of twenty-first-century war. Strong language, some violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2018By John Perritano. 2018
Portrays John McCain's life, from his childhood as an admiral's son to his own time at the Naval Academy, his…
service as a pilot, and his experience as a prisoner of war. Explores McCain's years as a senator and his two bids for the U. S. presidency. For grades 5-8. 2018By David Goggins. 2018
A retired Navy SEAL who is also an accomplished competitor in marathons and ultramarathons shares his story. Describes overcoming poverty…
and prejudice to go on to great success, and argues that most people only tap into forty percent of their capabilities. Strong language. Bestseller. 2018By Tom Clavin. 2021
An American fighter pilot doomed to die in Buchenwald but determined to survive. On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set…
off on his forty-fourth combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's Lightning Down tells this largely untold and riveting true story. Moser was just twenty-two years old, a farm boy from Washington State who fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot August morning he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane. Captured immediately, Moser's journey into hell began. Moser and his courageous comrades from England, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere endured the most horrific conditions during their imprisonment... until the day the orders were issued by Hitler himself to execute them. Only a most desperate plan would save them. The page-turning momentum of Lightning Down is like that of a thriller, but the stories of imprisoned and brutalized airmen are true and told in unforgettable detail, led by the distinctly American voice of Joe Moser, who prays every day to be reunited with his family. Lightning Down is a can't-put-it-down inspiring saga of brave men confronting great evil and great odds against survival. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's PressBy John C. McManus. 2021
From the author of Fire and Fortitude , the continuation of the US Army's epic crusade in the Pacific War,…
from the battle of Saipan to the occupation of Japan John C. McManus's award-winning Fire and Fortitude enthralled readers with an unforgettable and authoritative account of the US Army's evolution during the Pacific War, from the devastation of Pearl Harbor to the bloody battle for Makin Island in 1943. Now, in this second and final volume, he follows the Army as they land on Saipan, Guam, and Okinawa, climaxing with the American return to the Philippines, one of the largest, most complex operations in American history and one that would eventually account for one-third of all American casualties in the Pacific-Asia theater. Brilliantly researched and written, the narrative moves seamlessly from the highest generals to the lowest foot soldiers and in between, capturing the true essence of this horrible conflict. It is a masterful history by one of our finest historians of World War IIBy Ruben Gallego. 2021
From the Arizona Congressman, a 21st-century Band of Brothers chronicling the eternal bonds forged between the Marines of Lima Company,…
the hardest-hit unit of the Iraq War At first, they were "Lucky Lima." Infantryman Ruben Gallego and his brothers in Lima Company—3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, young men drawn from blue-collar towns, immigrant households, Navajo reservations—returned unscathed on patrol after patrol through the increasingly violent al Anbar region of Iraq, looking for weapons caches and insurgents trying to destabilize the nascent Iraqi government. After two months in Iraq, Lima didn't have a casualty, not a single Purple Heart, no injury worse than a blister. Lucky Lima. Then, in May 2005, Lima's fortunes flipped. Unknown to Ruben and his fellow grunts, al Anbar had recently become a haven for al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The bin Laden-sponsored group had recruited radicals from all over the world for jihad against the Americans. On one fateful day, they were lured into a death house; the ambush cost the lives of two men, including a platoon sergeant. Two days later, Ruben's best friend, Jonathon Grant, died in an IED attack, along with several others. Events worsened from there. A disastrous operation in Haditha in August claimed the lives of thirteen Marines when an IED destroyed their amphibious vehicle. It was the worst single-day loss for the Marines since the 1983 Beirut bombings. By the time 3/25 went home in November, it had lost more men than any other single unit in the war. Forty-six Marines and two Navy Corpsmen serving with the battalion in Iraq were killed in action during their roughly nine-month activation. They Called Us "Lucky" details Ruben Gallego's journey and includes harrowing accounts of some of the war's most costly battles. It details the struggles and the successes of Ruben—now a member of Congress—and the rest of Lima Company following Iraq, examining the complicated matter of PTSD. And it serves as a tribute to Ruben's fallen comrades, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their countryBy Doris Gregory. 2015
Still sassy, Doris Gregory takes the reader back over seventy years to the time when she broke with tradition, first…
by publicly challenging the University of British Columbia's discrimination against women, and then by joining the Canadian Women's Army Corps. Her memoir allows us to travel with her across the Atlantic at the height of the U-boat infestation and to take refuge in underground shelters while bombs fall on London. Unlike most memoirs of the war that focus on battles, Gregory shows the everyday mundane activities of office life, working under some less-than-brilliant supervisors. Gregory transforms what could have been a dull soldier's life into one of small adventures: cycling along traffic-free roads through southern England, the midlands and Scottish lowlands, hopping on the ferry to Ulster, slipping into neutral, forbidden Eire, and looking into the gun barrel of an angry German sentry. Although at times the war weighs heavily upon her, the author's optimism,enthusiasm and sense of humour permeate this memoir, full of laughter and surprises.By Kevin M. Levin. 2019
By Ulysses S. Grant. 2018
A collection of letters from famed Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant to his wife, Julia Dent Grant. The letters…
range in time from their engagement in 1844 until Union victory in 1865 and provide insight into the general's experiences and mental state, especially during the Civil War. 2018By Jeffrey Lee. 2017
An account of the role of Reynald de Chatillon in the Crusades. Recounts his joining the Second Crusade and subsequent…
rise through the ranks. Discusses whether his historical reputation as a bloodthirsty maniac is valid. Some violence. 2016By Herman Wouk. 2016
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Caine Mutiny (DB 31442) and other works reflects on his life. Discusses the…
books that have influenced him, his personal relationships--including his sixty-six-year marriage to his wife, Sarah--his faith, military service during World War II, recognition of his work, and more. 2016By Tracy Crow, Jerri Bell. 2017
A collection of accounts of women aiding in military efforts throughout American history, beginning with the Revolutionary War. Includes profiles…
of Harriet Tubman, Josette Dermody Wingo, Barbara Dulinsky, and Brooke King, among many others. Features excerpts from diaries, letters, oral histories, and memoirs. Some violence and some strong language. 2017By Damien Lewis, Jason Morgan. 2017
The memoir of a former Special Forces soldier. Wounded badly and told he would never walk again, Morgan's recovery was…
long, and his wife left him with their three young sons. At this lowest point, a special service dog named Napal entered his life. Some violence and some strong language. 2016By Mary Jennings Hegar. 2017
An account of the author's military career. Discusses her role as a pilot in the US Air Force, flying combat…
search-and-rescue missions and earning her more than one award. Also recounts her fight to eliminate the military's Ground Combat Exclusion Policy. Some violence. 2017