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Showing 1 - 20 of 21338 items
By Anne Gisleson. 2017
The Futilitarians is a guide to living curiously and fully and ultimately asks us, "How do we keep moving forward…
amid all this loss and threat?" Anne tells us: "One answer is, we do it together." 2017.By J. L Granatstein. 1993
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.By Daniel Paisner, Krystyna Chiger. 2008
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.By Yadi Sharifirad. 2010
Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s, saved by a group of local Kurds, and…
eventually returned to Iran where he became a national hero. The Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché, but when he returned to Teheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Upon his release, despite constant surveillance, he resolved to smuggle his family out of the country. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2010.By G. W. L Nicholson. 2006
When the First World War began, Newfoundland had been without any kind of military organisation for more than half a…
century, so public-spirited citizens immediately formed themselves into a Patriotic Association, and within sixty days had recruited, partially equipped and dispatched 537 officers and men overseas. Nicholson details the harrowing experiences of the Newfoundland Regiment at Gallipoli, Beaumont Hamel, the Third Battle of Ypres and Cambrai, for which they were granted the title "Royal" - the only army unit to receive such a distinction during World War I. Some descriptions of violence. 2006.By Anne Morrow Lindbergh. 1976
Covers the European years of the Lindberghs, a period of happiness clouded by accusations of pro-Nazism against Col. Lindbergh. Records…
visits with the Bullitts, Kennedys, Lady Astor, George Bernard Shaw, and Gertrude Stein. Sequel to "Locked rooms and open doors" (RC16036). Prequel to "War within and without."By John Keegan. 1998
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unparalleled ferocity which extended far beyond its European epicentre,…
it broke the century of relative peace and prosperity which we associate with the Victorian era and unleashed the demons of the twentieth century - pestilence, military destruction and mass death - and also the ideas which continue to shape our world today - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society. Includes violence. 1998.In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots alike might avoid death, only to…
find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of POW camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz of sorts that housed the most troublesome, escape-prone prisoners. Its commandant was a boorish, hate-filled tyrant named Karl Niemeyer who swore that none should ever leave. Desperate to break out of "Hellminden" and return to the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatch an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls, and steely resolve. Once beyond the watch towers and round-the-clock patrols, Gray and almost a dozen of his half-starved fellow prisoners must then make a heroic 150 mile dash through enemy-occupied territory towards free Holland. Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Bascomb brings this narrative to cinematic life, amid the twilight of the British Empire and the darkest, most savage hours of the fight against Germany. At turns tragic, funny, inspirational, and nail-biting suspenseful, this is the little-known story of the biggest POW breakout of the Great War. 2018.By C. J Chivers. 2018
Almost 2.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001. C.J. Chivers has reported from both…
fronts from the beginning, walking side by side with combatants for more than a dozen years. He describes the experience of war today as it is endured by those most at risk-the camaraderie and profound sense of purpose, alongside courage, frustration, and moral confusion mixed with technical precision. In these remote places where the reason for their presence is sometimes not clear, these young men kill or are killed, facing palpable and often constant threat of ambush or hidden bombs. They repeatedly return, rushing toward danger, often to rescue the wounded in wars that escalate around them as the Pentagon changes doctrines and plans. Weaving a history of the war through troops' experiences, the characters in The Fighters climb into an F-14 cockpit for the opening strikes after the attacks of 9/11, hunt for Osama bin Laden along the Pakistani border, chase insurgent rocket teams with helicopters alongside American bases, face snipers in a hostile city in Anbar Province in Iraq, and engage in deadly counterguerilla warfare in the soaring mountains of the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. Some suffer terribly. All are changed. They return home, uncertain of their place in the world and what their wars have achieved. 2018.By Sean Rossiter. 2002
From the dawn of aviation, Canada has produced intrepid pilots of renown. Learning their craft in some of the most…
difficult conditions anywhere, many of these flyers became expert pilots, navigators and mechanics. These great Canadians pilots were among the highest-scoring Allied aces of both world wars. 2002.By Otto Dietrich. 2010
When Otto Dietrich was invited in 1933 to become Adolf Hitler's press chief, he accepted with the simple uncritical conviction…
that Adolf Hitler was a great man, dedicated to promoting peace and welfare for the German people. At the end of the war, imprisoned and disillusioned, Otto Dietrich sat down to write what he had seen and heard in twelve years of the closest association with Hitler. c2010. Uniform title: 12 Jahre mit Hitler.By Peter Hernon. 2017
For German u-boats hunting Allied ships in the treacherous waters of the Atlantic, no target was as prized as the…
Leviathan, carrying more than 10,000 doughboys per crossing. But the Germans were not the only deadly force threatening the ship and its passengers. In 1918, a devastating influenza pandemic--the Spanish flu--spread throughout the globe, predominantly striking healthy young adults, including soldiers. Peter Hernon tells the ship's story across multiple voyages and through the experiences of a diverse cast of participants. 2017.By James Chatto. 2005
They arrived as tourists in Corfu, Wendy from Canada and James from England. They enjoyed the sun, an idyllic beach,…
olives, fresh apricots and marinated lamb, and long evenings of storytelling at the local taverna. But what captivated James and Wendy was the way the islanders embraced them, and how their deep connection to Corfu and its people sustained them through tragedy just as it had carried them into love. Some strong language. 2005.By Tom Brokaw. 1998
Recalling his coverage of the fortieth anniversary of D-Day in 1984, reporter Brokaw describes World War II veterans as "the…
greatest generation any society has produced." Profiles individuals who sacrificed for their country, including Thomas Broderick--who founded the Blinded Veterans Association--and businessman Bob Bush, who lost an eye in a heroic rescue mission. Bestseller. 1998.By Paul Fussell. 1975
Examines the British experience during World War I through the eyes of writers Siegfried Sasson, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden;…
through the poetry of David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen; and through the amateur memoirs of the men in the trenches. 1975.By Samuel Pepys. 1991
Covers the nine years (1660-1669) during which the author kept his diary. Describes Pepys’ social and domestic life, the plague…
of 1665, and London’s great fire of 1666. 1991. Uniform title: Diary.By Northrop Frye, Robert D Denham. 2001
Frye's entries contain self-analysis and self-revelation, as well as humour, dark moods and claustrophobia, and some self-congratulating. They also serve…
as a chronicle of Frye's life, as we watch him teach classes, plan his career, record his dreams, register his reactions to the people he meets, and reflect on books, music, movies, and religious and political issues. Some strong language. 2001.By Fouad Ajami. 1998
Examines the concepts of secular nationalism and modernity as conceived by Arab intellectuals of Beirut, Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo. Provides…
insights into the Middle East from Arabic sources: fiction, poetry, memoirs, and political commentaries. c1998.By Lisa Appignanesi, Ma Yan, Pierre Haski. 2005
Ma Yan is a teenager from Ningxia, China, a drought-stricken rural area. Education can be the difference between a life…
of crushing poverty and a better future, but money is scarce. Ma Yan's diary chronicles her struggle to escape hardship and bring prosperity to her family, through her persistent, sometimes desperate, attempts to continue her schooling. Grades 4-7 and older readers. 2002, 2004. Uniform title: Journal de Ma Yan.By Lauretta Hannon. 2009
Growing up in Warner Robins, Georgia, with her parents - and their loving but rocky relationship - isn't always easy…
for Lauretta. It doesn't help that the rest of her family is a who's who list of misfits and petty criminals. Learning from them and their experiences, Lauretta develops a keen wit and an observant eye, talents she then takes on the road to Savannah and even to Europe. There she encounters even more oddballs and colourful characters - many of whom are profiled here. 2009.