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Long Shot: My Life As a Sniper in the Fight Against ISIS
by Azad CudiIn September 2014, Azad Cudi became one of seventeen snipers deployed when ISIS, trying to shatter the Kurds in a decisive battle, besieged the northern city of Kobani. In LONG SHOT, he tells the inside story of how a group of activists and idealists withstood a ferocious assault and, street by street, house by house, took back their land in a victory that was to prove the turning point in the war against ISIS. By turns devastating, inspiring and lyrical, this is a unique account of modern war and of the incalculable price of victory as a few thousand men and women achieved the impossible and kept their dream of freedom alive.
Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Snipers Who Broke ISIS
by Azad CudiA Kurdish journalist who volunteered as a sniper in the fight against ISIS reveals his story in a “gripping memoir . . . elegantly told” (Publishers Weekly).In 2002, at age nineteen, Azad was conscripted into Iran’s army and forced to fight his own people. Refusing to go to war against his fellow Kurds, he deserted and smuggled himself to the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum, became a citizen, and learned English. But in 2014, having returned to the Middle East as a social worker in the wake of the Syrian civil war, Azad found he would have to pick up a weapon once again.After twenty-one days of intensive training as a sniper, Azad became one of seventeen volunteer marksmen deployed by the Kurdish army when ISIS besieged the city of Kobani in Rojava, the newly autonomous region of the Kurds. Here, he tells the inside story of the Kurdish forces’ bloody street battles against the Islamic State. Vastly outnumbered, the Kurds would have to kill the jihadis one by one, and Azad takes us on a harrowing journey to reveal the sniper unit’s essential role in ISIS’s eventual defeat. Weaving the brutal events of war with personal and political reflection, he meditates on the incalculable price of victory—the permanent effects of war on the body and mind; the devastating death of six of his closest comrades; the loss of hundreds of volunteers in battle. But as Azad explains, these sacrifices saved not only a city but a people and their land.“A propulsive memoir that captures the grim reality of small-scale conflict and reveals the fragmented politics of the Middle East today” (Kirkus Reviews), Long Shot tells how, against all odds, a few thousand men and women achieved the impossible and kept their dream of freedom alive.
Long Spoon Lane: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel (Charlotte and Thomas Pitt #24)
by Anne PerryEarly one summer morning, two bombs explode in an East London street, shattering most of the houses. Forewarned of an attack by anarchists, Thomas Pitt of the Special Branch arrives in time to chase the bombers to a run-down tenement in Long Spoon Lane. There, two men are arrested and one shot dead - but who and where is the killer? As Pitt starts to investigate, he uncovers truths more disturbing than the acts of a few misguided idealists.
Long Spoon Lane: A gripping novel exploring the secrets of Victorian society (Thomas Pitt Mystery #24)
by Anne PerryNot even the police force is free from corruption... Anne Perry's bestselling Inspector Pitt novels entice readers into a literary world almost as real as the original, and are perfect for fans of C. J. Samson and Ann Granger. In Long Spoon Lane, flower sellers, costermongers, shopkeepers, and hansom drivers ply their trades, while the London police watch over all. Or so people believe... 'The period setting allows both some thoughtful debate on a difficult problem and a solution more reassuring than anything you'll find in tomorrow's papers' - Kirkus ReviewsEarly one morning, two bombs explode in an East London street. Forewarned of the attack, Thomas Pitt of the Special Branch, arrives in time to chase the bombers to a tenement in Long Spoon Lane. There, two men are arrested and one shot dead; but who and where and is the killer? As Pitt investigates, he uncovers truths more disturbing than the acts of a few misguided idealists. There's a web of corruption within the police force, and all the clues point to Inspector Wetron of Bow Street as its mastermind. But as head of the sinister Inner Circle, Wetron has powerful allies in every sphere. What readers are saying about Long Spoon Lane: '[Anne Perry] is quite exceptional in her ability to craft a complex plot with wholesome characters in a fascinating period/location. I can barely wait for Pitt's next adventure''Totally captivating, I could not put it down' 'Five stars'
Long Storm
by Ernest HaycoxHIS FAMOUS NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR—THE BLOODY STRUGGLE FOR THE RICHES OF THE WILD NORTHWEST AND THE DESPERATE FIGHT OF A MAN AND WOMAN TO HOLD IT FOR THE UNION.IN THE CIVIL WAR the Copperheads almost took over the state of Oregon. Big Adam Musick, river-boat pilot, went out to stop them.He caught Ringrose, the Copperhead leader, holed up in a dark warehouse beside the flooding river.“I came to get you, Ringrose,” Musick said.“God damn you!” Ringrose shouted. The floor jumped as his gun went off, and Musick felt the heat of the bullet. Then he tackled Ringrose around the knees and they went crashing together down the flimsy stairway into the waist-deep water.Musick was on top of his enemy, choking him, holding him under to drown. Ringrose was everything he hated. Then he remembered. This wasn’t just his fight. This was his country’s war and Ringrose should hang for a traitor, not die by one man’s hand.“LONG STORM—HAYCOX AT HIS BEST!”—The New York Times“The Old Frontier, the rough-and-ready life of the times—the historical novel at its best!”—BOSTON HERALDTHROUGH THE LONG STORM OF THE CIVIL WAR, THE FOUR SAVAGE YEARS THAT SPLIT THE UNION, THE RICH NORTHWEST WAS A DEFENSELESS PRIZE FOR EITHER NORTH OR SOUTHPortland, Oregon, was a town with five thousand inhabitants and fifty-five saloons, high-toned hotels and brothels, gaudy girl-shows and a fancy residential section, plank sidewalks and mud streets.Every day more gold prospectors poured into town, and with them came guns and secret agents from the Confederacy, supplies from the Copperheads who were determined to turn Oregon into a slave state. Only one man, Adam Musick, tough riverboat captain, saw the danger to the Union cause...Ernest Haycox, all-time great writer of the Old West, gives us this big, full-bodied novel, crammed with action and people...
Long Story Short (short story collection)
by Jodi TaylorNow in print for the very first time, this unmissable collection brings together seven short stories from the internationally bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series, and one special guest tale from somewhere completely different. **Includes brand-new St Mary's short story When Did You Last See Your Father? and original introductions from the author**From riotous misbehaviour in Victorian London to ingenious feats of scientific invention (powdered water - just add water!), and from a chaotic Nativity play starring a vengeful Angel Gabriel to an illegal expedition to Mars, Jodi Taylor knows how to spin a good yarn. ---Christmas Past The Farrells are together at last for their first St Mary's Christmas, a time of riotous misbehaviour and the traditional illegal Christmas jump - this time to Victorian London.Battersea Barricades A glimpse into the past of some of your St Mary's favourites characters in the throes of Civil Uprisings.The Steam-Pump Jump St Mary's Max is injured and tied to Sick Bay but obviously a good historian would never let that get in her way. Step forward, Mr Markham...And Now For Something Completely Different Who would the St Mary's team be to turn down a little Christmas expedition to Mars? An illegal Christmas jump is traditional, after all.When Did You Last See Your Father? Have you ever wondered how things would go if Max's husband met Max's father? This is the story of what can happen if St Mary's doesn't like someone...Desiccated Water Professor Rapson breaks astonishing new ground with his latest feat of scientific invention. Markham and the Anal Probing When Markham disappears in the middle of nowhere, Max jumps to the logical conclusion - alien abduction. Little Donkey A chaotic Nativity play like no other, starring a donkey intent on eating the baby Jesus and a vengeful Angel Gabriel.
Long Story Short: A Short Story Collection (Chronicles Of St. Mary's Ser.)
by Jodi TaylorNow in print for the very first time, this unmissable collection brings together seven short stories from the internationally bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series, and one special guest tale from somewhere completely different. **Includes brand-new St Mary's short story When Did You Last See Your Father? and original introductions from the author**From riotous misbehaviour in Victorian London to ingenious feats of scientific invention (powdered water - just add water!), and from a chaotic Nativity play starring a vengeful Angel Gabriel to an illegal expedition to Mars, Jodi Taylor knows how to spin a good yarn. ---Christmas Past The Farrells are together at last for their first St Mary's Christmas, a time of riotous misbehaviour and the traditional illegal Christmas jump - this time to Victorian London.Battersea Barricades A glimpse into the past of some of your St Mary's favourites characters in the throes of Civil Uprisings.The Steam-Pump Jump St Mary's Max is injured and tied to Sick Bay but obviously a good historian would never let that get in her way. Step forward, Mr Markham...And Now For Something Completely Different Who would the St Mary's team be to turn down a little Christmas expedition to Mars? An illegal Christmas jump is traditional, after all.When Did You Last See Your Father? Have you ever wondered how things would go if Max's husband met Max's father? This is the story of what can happen if St Mary's doesn't like someone...Desiccated Water Professor Rapson breaks astonishing new ground with his latest feat of scientific invention. Markham and the Anal Probing When Markham disappears in the middle of nowhere, Max jumps to the logical conclusion - alien abduction. Little Donkey A chaotic Nativity play like no other, starring a donkey intent on eating the baby Jesus and a vengeful Angel Gabriel.
Long Suffering: American Endurance Art as Prophetic Witness
by Karen Gonzalez RiceLong Suffering productively links avant-garde performance practices with religious histories in the United States, setting contemporary performances of endurance art within a broader context of prophetic religious discourse in the United States. Its focus is on the work of Ron Athey, Linda Montano, and John Duncan, American artists whose performances involve extended periods of suffering. These unsettling performances can disturb, shock, or frighten audiences, leaving them unsure how to respond. The book examines how these artists work at the limits of the personal and the interpersonal, inflicting suffering on themselves and others, transforming audiences into witnesses, straining social relations, and challenging definitions of art and of ethics. By performing the death of self at the heart of trauma, strategies of endurance signal artists' attempts to visualize, legitimize, and testify to the persistent experience of being wounded. The artworks discussed find their foundations in artists' early experiences of religion and connections with the work of reformers from Angelina Grimké to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who also used suffering as a strategy to highlight social injustice and call for ethical, social, and political renewal.
Long Summer Day (A Horseman Riding By #1)
by R. F. DelderfieldA great read for fans of PBS&’s Poldark and Downton Abbey—first in the saga of a man returning from battle to an estate in the pre-WWI English countryside. After serving his country in the Boer War, injured Lieutenant Paul Craddock returns to England to resume civilian life. But things have changed since he joined the Imperial Yeomanry three years ago. His father has died, leaving Paul as heir to a scrap metal business he has no intention of continuing. Instead, he purchases an auctioned-off thirteen-hundred-acre estate in a secluded corner of Devon. Neglected and overgrown, Shallowford becomes the symbol of all that Paul has lost—and a reminder of the gentle place his homeland once was. And here, on this sprawling stretch of land, he will be changed by his love for two women: fiercely independent Grace Lovell, and lovely, demure Claire Derwent. Set in the English countryside in the first part of the previous century—from the long &“Edwardian afternoon&” following the death of Queen Victoria, to the gathering storm of World War I—Long Summer Day is the story of a man, his family, and a people struggling to adapt to life in a new world. Long Summer Day is the first novel in R. F. Delderfield&’s saga A Horseman Riding By, which continues with Post of Honour and The Green Gauntlet.
Long Summer Day: The first in the magnificent saga trilogy (A\horseman Riding By Ser. #1)
by R. F. Delderfield1902-1911 An age of innocence and hope. Before the storm clouds roll over Europe. As Paul Craddock recovers from his Boer War injuries, he starts to plan a new life. As soon as he is able he invests all he has in a remote but beautiful estate in Devon, determined to make something wonderful of the place and to be at the heart of what is most real and most important. Then he meets Grace, beautiful and passionate, and mistress of the land he has so quickly grown to love. Equals in spirit and honour, their attraction to each other is undeniable, but she too has ambitions - and they may not be compatible with his. As Paul gains knowledge, contentment and stature in Shallowford it is at the price of heartbreak and bittersweet lessons learned.
Long Summer Day: The first in the magnificent saga trilogy (A\horseman Riding By Ser. #1)
by R. F. Delderfield1902-1911 An age of innocence and hope. Before the storm clouds roll over Europe. As Paul Craddock recovers from his Boer War injuries, he starts to plan a new life. As soon as he is able he invests all he has in a remote but beautiful estate in Devon, determined to make something wonderful of the place and to be at the heart of what is most real and most important. Then he meets Grace, beautiful and passionate, and mistress of the land he has so quickly grown to love. Equals in spirit and honour, their attraction to each other is undeniable, but she too has ambitions - and they may not be compatible with his. As Paul gains knowledge, contentment and stature in Shallowford it is at the price of heartbreak and bittersweet lessons learned.
Long Summer Nights
by Aharon AppelfeldThe second and last children's book by the extraordinary Holocaust survivor and Hebrew-language author of the award-winning Adam & Thomas.A mystical and transcendent journey of two wanderers, an eleven-year-old boy and an old man to whom the boy has been entrusted by his father, a Jew, fleeing the ravages of the war by the late award winning author, Aharon Appelfeld. The old man is a former Ukranian commander, revered by the soldiers under his command, who has gone blind and chosen the life of a wanderer as his last spiritual adventure. The child, now disguised as a Ukranian non-Jew, learns from the old man how to fend for himself and how to care for others. In the tradition of The Alchemist, the travelers learn from each other and the boy grows stronger and wiser as the old man teaches him the art of survival and, through the stories he shares, the reasons for living. Long Summer Nights carries its magic not only in the words, but also in the silences between them.
Long Time Coming: A Novel
by Robert GoddardA classic thriller with Goddard's trademark plot twists.In Antwerp in 1939, a Jewish diamond trader flees Nazi Europe, leaving his priceless collection of Picasso paintings and diamonds with a friend who takes them to London. The boat he flees on sinks, leaving no survivors. Fast forward to 1976 when his penniless family tries to track down the missing paintings. A classic thriller with Goddard's trademark plot twists.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America
by Michael Eric DysonFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop, a passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. This eBook edition includes nine illustrations of George Floyd, Breona Taylor and Emmett Till, among other victims of racial violence, by artist Everett Dyson. “Antiracist demonstrations have been like love notes to the martyrs of racist terror and anti-Blackness. Michael Eric Dyson writes out these love notes in this powerfully illuminating, heart-wrenching, and enlightening book. Long Time Coming is right on time.” —Ibram X. Kendi, bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist“Crushingly powerful, Long Time Coming is an unfiltered Marlboro of black pain.” —Isabel Wilkerson, author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents "Formidable, compelling...has much to offer on our nation’s crucial need for racial reckoning and the way forward." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst, (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color) it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters—each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney—Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life—and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson’s exciting new book points the way to social redemption. Long Time Coming is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race.
Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation
by Myra MacPhersonThis new edition of a classic book on the impact of the Vietnam War on Americans reintroduces the haunted voices of the Vietnam era to a new generation of readers. Based on more than 500 interviews, Long Time Passing is journalist Myra MacPherson&’s acclaimed exploration of the wounds, pride, and guilt of those who fought and those who refused to fight the war that continues to envelop the psyche of this nation. In a new introduction, Myra MacPherson reflects on what has changed, and what hasn&’t, in the years since these interviews were conducted, explains the key points of reference from the 1980s that feature prominently in them, and brings the stories of her principal characters up to date. &“A haunting chorus of voices, a moving deeply disturbing evocation of an era.&” —San Francisco Chronicle &“A brilliant and necessary book . . . this stunning depiction of Vietnam&’s bitter fruit is calculated to agitate even the most complacent American.&” —Philadelphia Inquirer &“There have been many books on the Vietnam War, but few have captured its second life as memory better than Long Time Passing.&” —Washington Post Book World &“Enthralling reading . . . full of deep and strong emotions.&” —New York Times
Long Train Passing
by Steven W. WiseFor the small midwestern town of California, Missouri, September 1943 heralded another fall without husbands and sons as World War II exploded in the European theater. And as this public battle took its toll on the world, another war raged that would change this small Missouri town forever--a war between father and son. Jubal Cole remembered a time when he could look at his son, Jewell, and feel love, not anger. It seemed like only months since they were a happy family. But since Jewell's mother left, Jubal's fury roared with his son's every breath. Jewell Cole lived in absolute fear of his father's ravings and bouts of drunkenness. It was bad enough having the town drunk as a father, but Jewell could not even escape his father's wrath at school. Jubal Cole did not take kindly to school or to teachers. Annabelle Allen had herself known the fear of being different and alone. Through her personal trials Annabelle had developed an uncanny strength of character and gift for teaching. Now beginning her first semester teaching at a new school, Annabelle must find a way to reach Jewell Cole before he is relegated to a life of crime and loneliness. With the help of a mysterious and awkward man, Emmett Tragman, Annabelle devises a scheme that may enable Jewell to develop his own unique talents despite his father, and find a life of purpose and love. But when Jewell's pent up wrath turns against his father, none of their lives will ever be the same.
Long Voyage: America's Merchant Marine in World War II
by Samuel Duff McCoy Philip R. KelleyLong Voyage, first published in 1944 as Nor Death Dismay is the moving account of the unsung heroes of America’s Merchant Marine during the Second World War—those brave seamen who sailed the vital cargo-ships, facing unseen submarines and enemy aircraft. This well-written book focuses on the fleet of a large steamship company—the American Export Lines—whose ship’s plied the world’s oceans, and whose crews reported on their experiences at sea. Many ship’s owned by the company were sunk, forcing the crew’s to take to their lifeboats and trust their fate to the open sea, hoping for a speedy rescue that sometimes never came. The bravery and dedication of the crews remains a source of inspiration today.
Long Walk Home: Reflections on Bruce Springsteen
by Richard Russo Eric Alterman David L. Ulin Paul Muldoon Wesley Stace Elijah Wald Daniel Wolff Peter Ames Carlin Regina Barreca Greil Marcus Kenneth Womack Jim Cullen Dermot Bolger Deepa Iyer Jefferson Cowie A. O. Scott Joel Dinerstein Nancy Bishop Gillian G. Gaar Louis Masur Natalie Adler Martyn Joseph Lauren Onkey Colleen Sheehy Frank Stefanko Irwin Streight Wayne SwanBruce Springsteen might be the quintessential American rock musician but his songs have resonated with fans from all walks of life and from all over the world. This unique collection features reflections from a diverse array of writers who explain what Springsteen means to them and describe how they have been moved, shaped, and challenged by his music. Contributors to Long Walk Home include novelists like Richard Russo, rock critics like Greil Marcus and Gillian Gaar, and other noted Springsteen scholars and fans such as A. O. Scott, Peter Ames Carlin, and Paul Muldoon. They reveal how Springsteen’s albums served as the soundtrack to their lives while also exploring the meaning of his music and the lessons it offers its listeners. The stories in this collection range from the tale of how “Growin’ Up” helped a lonely Indian girl adjust to life in the American South to the saga of a group of young Australians who turned to Born to Run to cope with their country’s 1975 constitutional crisis. These essays examine the big questions at the heart of Springsteen’s music, demonstrating the ways his songs have resonated for millions of listeners for nearly five decades. Commemorating the Boss’s seventieth birthday, Long Walk Home explores Springsteen’s legacy and provides a stirring set of testimonials that illustrate why his music matters.
Long Walk To Freedom
by Nelson MandelaThe riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM brilliantly re-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader.'Burns with the luminosity of faith in the invincible nature of human hope and dignity ... Unforgettable' Andre Brink 'Enthralling ... Mandela emulates the few great political leaders such as Lincoln and Gandhi, who go beyond mere consensus and move out ahead of their followers to break new ground' Donald Woods in the SUNDAY TIMES
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, a book destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph, which has, until now, been virtually unknown to most of the world. The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He recounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account of the unforgettable events since his release that produced at last a free, multiracial democracy in South Africa. To millions of people around the world, Nelson Mandela stands, as no other living figure does, for the triumph of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self-discipline and love over persecution and evil. Long Walk to Freedom embodies that spirit in a book for all time.
Long Walk to Nowhere: Human Trafficking in Post-Mandela South Africa
by Philip FrankelThe end of apartheid has triggered massive illegal immigration into South Africa from all parts of Africa and beyond. Along with urbanization and internal migration, the end of apartheid has encouraged human smuggling and the trafficking of men, women, and children into the commercial sex market and various sectors of the economy from mining to agriculture and the service industries. Long Walk to Nowhere analyses the impact of these developments on Nelson Mandela's vision for a democratic South Africa.Frankel explores human rights, the political culture, public health, the criminal justice system, and institutional development as South Africa moves into its third decade after liberation. Using migration and human trafficking as barometers for democratic success, Frankel establishes that South Africa has become more unstable under two post-Mandela presidencies.The book covers the three major modes of human trafficking�commercial sex trafficking, child trafficking, and labour trafficking. It also looks at the dynamics of trafficking with a perpetrator-focus, the complex issues of dominance, and the policy responses in light of South Africa's first comprehensive counter-trafficking legislation designed for implementation in late 2015. Long Walk to Nowhere blends South African experiences with contemporary mass political movements which challenge human rights and good governance on a world-wide basis.
Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story
by Linda Sue ParkA gripping tale of conflict and survival that has inspired millions of young readers and adults alike, with two million copies sold worldwide Eleven-year-old Salva is forced to flee on foot when his village comes under attack. Braving every imaginable hardship – including killer lions and hungry crocodiles – he is one of the 'lost boys' travelling the African continent on foot in search of his family and a safe place to stay. Nya goes to the pond two times a day to fetch water. It takes her eight hours. But there is unexpected hope, as these two stories set in Sudan – one unfolding in 2008 and one in 1985 – go on to intersect with Nya&’s in an astonishing and moving way.
Long Wars and the Constitution
by Stephen M. GriffinIn a wide-ranging constitutional history of presidential war decisions from 1945 to the present, Stephen M. Griffin rethinks the long-running debate over the imperial presidency and concludes that the eighteenth-century Constitution is inadequate to the challenges of a post-9/11 world. The Constitution requires the consent of Congress before the United States can go to war. Truman’s decision to fight in Korea without gaining that consent was unconstitutional, says Griffin, but the acquiescence of Congress and the American people created a precedent for presidents to claim autonomy in this arena ever since. The unthinking extension of presidential leadership in foreign affairs to a point where presidents unilaterally decide when to go to war, Griffin argues, has destabilized our constitutional order and deranged our foreign policy. Long Wars and the Constitution demonstrates the unexpected connections between presidential war power and the constitutional crises that have plagued American politics. Contemporary presidents are caught in a dilemma. On the one hand are the responsibilities handed over to them by a dangerous world, and on the other is an incapacity for sound decisionmaking in the absence of interbranch deliberation. President Obama’s continuation of many Bush administration policies in the long war against terrorism is only the latest in a chain of difficulties resulting from the imbalances introduced by the post-1945 constitutional order. Griffin argues for beginning a cycle of accountability in which Congress would play a meaningful role in decisions for war, while recognizing the realities of twenty-first century diplomacy.
Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories of World War II
by Loet VelmansLoet Velmans was seventeen when the Germans invaded Holland. He and his family fled to London on the Dutch Coast Guard cutter Seaman's Hope and then sailed to the Dutch East Indies-now Indonesia-where he joined the Dutch army. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the archipelago and made prisoners of the Dutch soldiers. For the next three and a half years Velmans and his fellow POWs toiled in slave labor camps, building a railroad through the dense jungle on the Burmese-Thailand border so the Japanese could invade India. Some 200,000 POWs and slave laborers died building this Death Railway. Velmans, though suffering from malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable mistreatment, never gave up hope. Fifty-seven years later he returned to revisit the place where he should have died and where he had buried his closest friend. From that emotional visit sprung this stunning memoir.Long Way Back to the River Kwai is a simply told but searing memoir of World War II-a testimonial to one man's indomitable will to live that will take its place beside the Diary of Ann Frank, Bridge over the River Kwai, and Edith's Story.
Long Way Home: Journeys of a Chinese Montanan
by Flora WongIn 1936, seven-year-old Flora Wong, her parents, and her seven siblings left their home in Boston and set out across the Pacific Ocean on a twenty-one-day voyage to return to her parents' home village in rural southern China. Flora's father and mother sought a new, quiet life for their young family in their native land.