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Showing 1 - 20 of 1080 items
By Winston Groom. 2011
In June 1846, General Stephen Watts Kearny rode out of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with two thousand soldiers, bound for California.…
The adventures and dangers that Kearny and his troops encountered intertwines with those of mountain man Kit Carson; Brigham Young and his Mormon followers fleeing persecution and Illinois; and the ill-fated Donner party, trapped in the snow of the Sierra Nevada. AdultBy Stephen E Ambrose. 1996
By Geoffrey Roberts. 2012
"Marshal Georgy Zhukov is one of military history's legendary names. He played a decisive role in the battles of Moscow,…
Stalingrad and Kursk that brought down the Nazi regime. He was the first of the Allied generals to enter Berlin and it was he who took the German surrender. He led the huge victory parade in Red Square, riding a white horse, and in doing so, dangerously provoking Stalin's envy. His post-war career was equally eventful--Zhukov found himself sacked and banished twice, and wrongfully accused of disloyalty. However, he remains one of the most decorated officers in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union. Since his death in 1974, Zhukov has increasingly been seen as the indispensable military leader of the Second World War, surpassing Eisenhower, Patton, Montgomery and MacArthur in his military brilliance and ferocity. Making use of hundreds of documents from Russian military archives, as well as unpublished versions of Zhukov's memoirs, Geoffrey Roberts fashions a remarkably intimate portrait of a man whose personality was as fascinating as it was contradictory. Tough, decisive, strong-willed and brutal as a soldier, in his private life he was charming and gentle. Zhukov's relations with Stalin's other generals were often prickly and fraught with rivalry, but he was the only one among them to stand up to the Soviet dictator. Piercing the hyperbole of the Zhukov personality cult, Roberts debunks many of the myths that have sprung up around Zhukov's life, to deliver fresh insights into the marshal's relations with Stalin, Khrushchev and Eisenhower. A highly regarded historian of Soviet Russia, Roberts has fashioned the definitive biography of this seminal 20th-century figure." -- Provided by publisherVeterans recall experiences of battle from World War I to the war in Iraq. Soldiers' letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral…
histories provide personal accounts of D-Day, the Tet offensive, heroic actions, and sinking ships. Includes an interview with Senator John McCain about his captivity in Vietnam. 2005By Henry Falls Young. 2019
Union soldier Henry F. Young candidly documented his experiences on the front lines of the Civil War through extensive letters…
sent home to his family in Wisconsin. Dear Delia presents his writings faithfully, along with comprehensive notes providing historical context throughout. Adult. UnratedBy Dan Pedersen. 2019
The founder of the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons program, aka "TOPGUN," shares the untold story of how he and eight…
other young pilots revolutionized the art of aerial combat and created the center for excellence and incubator of leadership that thrives to this day. Provided by publisher. Adult. UnratedBy Max Schiavon. 2021
Biographie de l'officier Maurice Gamelin (1872-1958). L'auteur tente de comprendre pourquoi cet homme a conduit les armées alliées au désastre…
en 1940. Il analyse ses choix tactiques et stratégiques, son comportement et ses failles. Il examine également les motivations de ceux qui l'ont désigné à ce poste. Il évoque sa vie publique et privée, ainsi que ses expériences.By Nathalie Guibert. 2022
L'auteure est la première femme autorisée à entrer dans un sous-marin nucléaire d'attaque de la Marine française. Elle fait part…
du trajet parcouru pour obtenir l'autorisation d'embarquer à bord d’un tel bâtiment pendant un mois. Puis elle présente son expérience de l'enfermement, seule parmi un équipage masculin, sous l'eau et sans nouvelles du monde extérieur.By Romeo Dallaire. 2023
Longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize: In this piercing memoir, Roméo Dallaire, retired general and former senator, the author of…
the bestsellers Shake Hands with the Devil andThey Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, and one of the world's leading humanitarians, delves deep into his life since the Rwandan genocide.At the heart of Waiting for First Light is a no-holds-barred self-portrait of a top political and military figure whose nights are invaded by despair, but who at first light faces the day with the renewed desire to make a difference in the world. Roméo Dallaire, traumatized by witnessing genocide on an imponderable scale in Rwanda, reflects in these pages on the nature of PTSD and the impact of that deep wound on his life since 1994, and on how he motivates himself and others to humanitarian work despite his constant struggle. Though he had been a leader in peace and in war at all levels up to deputy commander of the Canadian Army, his PTSD led to his medical dismissal from the Canadian Forces in April 2000, a blow that almost killed him. But he crawled out of the hole he fell into after he had to take off the uniform, and he has been inspiring people to give their all to multiple missions ever since, from ending genocide to eradicating the use of child soldiers to revolutionizing officer training so that our soldiers can better deal with the muddy reality of modern conflict zones and to revolutionizing our thinking about the changing nature of conflict itself. His new book is as compelling and original an account of suffering and endurance as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and William Styron's Darkness Visible.By Ian Fritz. 2023
A powerful, timely memoir of a young Air Force linguist coming-of-age in a war that is lost. When Ian Fritz…
joined the Air Force at eighteen, he did so out of necessity. He hadn't been accepted into college thanks to an indifferent high school career. He'd too often slept through his classes as he worked long hours at a Chinese restaurant to help pay the bills for his trailer-dwelling family in Lake City, Florida. But the Air Force recognizes his potential and sends him to the elite Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, to learn Dari and Pashto, the main languages of Afghanistan. By 2011, Fritz was an airborne cryptologic linguist and one of only a tiny number of people in the world trained to do this job on low-flying gunships. He monitors communications on the ground and determines in real time which Afghans are Taliban and which are innocent civilians. This eavesdropping is critical to supporting Special Forces units on the ground, but there is no training to counter the emotional complexity that develops as you listen to people's most intimate conversations. Over the course of two tours, Fritz listens to the Taliban for hundreds of hours, all over the country night and day, in moments of peace and in the middle of battle. What he hears teaches him about the people of Afghanistan—Taliban and otherwise—the war, and himself. Fritz's fluency is his greatest asset to the military, yet it becomes the greatest liability to his own commitment to the cause. Both proud of his service and in despair that he is instrumental in destroying the voices that he hears, What the Taliban Told Me is a brilliant, intimate coming-of-age memoir and a reckoning with our twenty years of war in AfghanistanBy Roy Blount. 2003
Cultural journalist and humourist with southern upbringing offers character insights on Confederate Civil War general Robert E. Lee (1807-1870). Discusses…
Lee's background, the strengths and weaknesses of his military tactics, and his sense of honor. Appendixes explore Lee's sexuality, quirky humor, and attitude toward slavery. 2003By Evan Thomas. 2003
Biography of the "great sea warrior," born in Scotland in 1747, who went to sea at age thirteen. Describes his…
career in the fledgling American Continental Navy, his later exploits in Europe and Russia, and his burial in an obscure Paris grave in 1792. 2003By John S. D. Eisenhower. 2003
The son of General Dwight D. Eisenhower draws on his own observations and research as a military historian to describe…
his father's relationships with World War II associates. Essays portray Ike's interactions with George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Charles de Gaulle, and Winston Churchill, among others. Some strong language. 2003By H. Paul Jeffers. 2003
A biography of captain Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973), the much decorated "Ace of Aces" who destroyed twenty-six enemy planes in World…
War I. Fascinated with engines and speed, he began his career as a race-car driver, becoming third-ranked in the country. He later founded Eastern Airlines. 2003By Veterans History Project. 2004
Personal accounts of American soldiers and medical personnel active in World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam…
wars, and the Persian Gulf conflicts. Extracts from interviews, letters, and diary entries collected by the Library of Congress Veterans History Project are grouped by themes: Answering the Call, Under Fire, Coming Home. 2004By James T. De Kay. 2004
Biography of early American hero Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) by well-known naval historian. Portraying Decatur as a brilliant, fearless, and adored…
commander, de Kay recounts his rise to national prominence through exploits in the Barbary wars and the War of 1812. Offers new details on Decatur's tragic death in a senseless duel. 2004By Joseph J. Ellis. 2004
Author of Founding Brothers (DB 51469) delves into the life and times of America's first president. Uses personal papers and…
historical accounts to recreate the man who was a French and Indian War soldier, plantation owner, businessman, and savvy politician who forged a new nation. Bestseller. 2004By General Tommy Franks. 2004
Retired army general and former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command recollects his childhood and decorated thirty-eight-year military career…
including service in Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Provides an inside look at the war on terror. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2004By Terry Golway. 2005
Biography of American Revolutionary War commander Nathanael Greene (1742-1786), who was born a Rhode Island Quaker but chose to fight…
for independence. Details his career as George Washington's quartermaster general and his appointment as leader of the southern theater. Outlines how Greene forced the British to concede at Yorktown. 2005By Adam Nicolson. 2005
The author views Admiral Horatio Nelson in terms of a religious but brutal British culture that condoned war. Posits that…
"the twinning of apocalypse and millennium, of violence leading to peace," resulted in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, in which England defeated Napoleonic France. Violence. 2005