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Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 4, #1 (Spring #2014)
by William A. BlairThe Journal of the Civil War Era<P> Volume 4, Number 1<P> March 2014<P> TABLE OF CONTENTS<P> Articles<P><P> Nicholas Marshall<P> The Great Exaggeration: Death and the Civil War<P><P> Sarah Bischoff Paulus<P> America's Long Eulogy for Compromise: Henry Clay and American Politics, 1854-58<P> Ted Maris-Wolf<P> "Of Blood and Treasure": Recaptive Africans and the Politics of Slave Trade Suppression<P><P> Review Essay<P> W. Caleb McDaniel<P> The Bonds and Boundaries of Antislavery<P><P> Book Reviews<P> Books Received<P> Professional Notes<P> Craig A. Warren<P> Lincoln's Body: The President in Popular Films of the Sesquicentennial<P><P> Notes on Contributors
Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 4, #2 (Summer #2014)
by William A. BlairThe Journal of the Civil War Era<P> Volume 4, Number 2<P> June 2014<P><P> TABLE OF CONTENTS<P><P> Tom Watson Brown Book Award<P> John Fabian Witt<P> Civil War Historians and the Laws of War<P><P> Articles<P><P> Chandra Manning<P> Working for Citizenship in Civil War Contraband Camps<P><P> Michael F. Conlin<P> The Dangerous Isms and the Fanatical Ists: Antebellum Conservatives in the South and the North Confront the Modernity Conspiracy<P><P> Nicholas Guyatt<P> "An Impossible Idea?" The Curious Career of Internal Colonization<P><P> Review Essay<P> John Craig Hammond<P> Slavery, Sovereignty, and Empires: North American Borderlands and the American Civil War, 1660-1860<P><P> Book Reviews<P> Books Received<P> Professional Notes<P><P> Jill Ogline Titus<P> An Unfinished Struggle: Sesquicentennial Interpretations of Slavery and Emancipation<P><P>
Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 4, #3 (Fall #2014)
by William A. BlairThe Journal of the Civil War Era<P> Volume 4, Number 3, September 2014<P> TABLE OF CONTENTS<P> Editor's Note, William Blair<P><P> Articles<P><P> Felicity Turner<P> Rights and the Ambiguities of Law: Infanticide in the Nineteenth-Century U.S. South<P><P> Paul Quigley<P> Civil War Conscription and the International Boundaries of Citizenship<P><P> Jay Sexton<P> William H. Seward in the World<P><P> Review Essay<P> Patick J. Kelly<P> the European Revolutions of 1848 and the Transnational turn in Civil War History <P><P> Book Reviews<P> Books Received<P> Notes on Contributors
Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 4, #4 (Winter #2014)
by William A. BlairThe Journal of the Civil War Era<P> Volume 4, Number 4 -- Coming to Terms with Civil War Military History: A Special Issue<P> December 2014<P><P> TABLE OF CONTENTS<P><P> Articles<P><P> Gary Gallagher & Kathryn Shively Meier<P> Coming to Terms with Civil War Military History<P><P> Peter C. Luebke<P> "Equal to Any Minstrel Concert I Ever Attended at Home": Union Soldiers and Blackface Performance in the Civil War South<P><P> John J. Hennessy<P> Evangelizing for Union, 1863: The Army of the Potomac, Its Enemies at Home, and a New Solidarity<P><P> Andrew F. Lang<P> Republicanism, Race, and Reconstruction: The Ethos of Military Occupation in Civil War America<P><P> Professional Notes<P><P> Kevin M. Levin<P> Black Confederates Out of the Attic and Into the Mainstream<P><P> Book Reviews<P> Books Received<P> Notes on Contributors<P>
Journal of the Civil War Era. Volume 1, #4 (Winter #2011)
by William A. BlairThe University Of North Carolina Press And The George And Ann Richards Civil War Era Center At The Pennsylvania State University Are Pleased To Publish The Journal Of The Civil War Era. William Blair, Of The Pennsylvania State University, Serves As Founding Editor.<P><P> Table Of Contents For This Issue:<P> Volume 1, Number 4: December 2011<P> Articles<P> Rachel A. Shelden<P> Messmates' Union: Friendship, Politics, And Living Arrangements In The Capital City, 1845–1861<P><P> Bruce Levine<P> "The Vital Element Of The Republican Party": Antislavery, Nativism, And Abraham Lincoln<P><P> James L. Huston<P> The Illinois Political Realignment Of 1844–1860: Revisiting The Analysis<P><P> Review Essay<P> Lyde Cullen Sizer<P> Mapping The Spaces Of Women's Civil War History<P> Book Reviews<P> Books Received<P> Professional Notes<P> Brian Kelly & John W. White<P> The After Slavery Website: A New Online Resource For Teaching U.S. Slave Emancipation<P><P> Notes On Contributors<P> The Journal Of The Civil War Era Takes Advantage Of The Flowering Of Research On The Many Issues Raised By The Sectional Crisis, War, Reconstruction, And Memory Of The Conflict, While Bringing Fresh Understanding To The Struggles That Defined The Period, And By Extension, The Course Of American History In The Nineteenth Century.
Journal of the Indian Wars: The Indian Wars' Civil War
by Michael HughesJournal of the Indian Wars, or JIW was a quarterly publication on the study of the American Indian Wars. Before JIW, no periodical dedicated exclusively to this fascinating topic was available. JIW's focus was on warfare in the United States, Canada, and the Spanish borderlands from 1492 to 1890. Published articles also include personalities, policy, and military technologies. JIW was designed to satisfy both professional and lay readers with original articles of lasting value and a variety of columns of interest, plus book reviews, all enhanced with maps and illustrations. JIW's lengthy essays of substance are presented in a fresh and entertaining manner. Most readers of the Civil War and Indian War history know that a small force of Indians participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge; John Pope was banished to Minnesota after his disastorous performance at Second Bull Run to face the rebellious Sioux; Stand Watie and Ely Parker rose to high rank in the Confederate and Union armies, respectively; and a region labeled simply "Indian Territory" existed somewhere in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. All true. Yet the situation of American Indians during the Civil War period was much more complex, their fate more devastating and far-reaching than most students appreciate. Each of the articles in this issue underscore this point. In this edition: Foreword Firm but Fair: The Minnesota Volunteers and the Coming of the Dakota War of 1862 The Most Terrible Stories: The 1862 Dakota Conflict in White Imagination Chiefs by Commission: Stand Watie and Ely Parker Flowing with Blood and Whiskey: Stand Watie and the Battles of First and Second Cabin Creek Nations Asunder: Western American Indian Experiences During the Civil War, 1861-1865, Part I Interview: A Conversation with Battlefield Interpreter Doug Keller Features: Wisconsin's 1832 Black Hawk Trail The Indian Wars: Organizational, Tribal, and Museum News Thomas Online: Daughters of the Lance: Native American Women Warriors Book Reviews Index
Journal of the Waterloo Campaign
by Cavalie MercerMercers journal is the most outstanding eyewitness account of the Waterloo campaign ever published. It is a classic of military history. This new, fully illustrated edition, featuring an extensive introduction and notes by Andrew Uffindell, one of the leading authorities on the Napoleonic Wars, contains a mass of additional material not included in the original. As the bicentenary of Waterloo approaches, this beautifully prepared, scholarly edition of Mercers work will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to know what it was really like to fight in the final, great battle against Napoleon.
Journal of the Waterloo Campaign
by Cavalie MercerMercers journal is the most outstanding eyewitness account of the Waterloo campaign ever published. It is a classic of military history. This new, fully illustrated edition, featuring an extensive introduction and notes by Andrew Uffindell, one of the leading authorities on the Napoleonic Wars, contains a mass of additional material not included in the original. As the bicentenary of Waterloo approaches, this beautifully prepared, scholarly edition of Mercers work will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to know what it was really like to fight in the final, great battle against Napoleon.
Journal of the Waterloo Campaign (Journal of the Waterloo Campaign (kept throughout the campaign of 1815) #1)
by Pickle Partners Publishing General Alexander Cavalié MercerThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Without doubt, one of the finest accounts of a participant of the Waterloo campaign. Mercer was famously in charge of "G" troop RHA during the campaign, and from the journal he kept at the time, he formed this book. It is written with a jaunty air more often seen in the writings of French cavalry officers memoirs, a certain irreverence to rank and custom (his description of the Duc de Berri is particularly cutting) and a keen eye for detail and the anecdote. This edition is the second volume of a two volume series as originally published. Having been stationed in Belgium for over a month during which time he offers a number of telling remarks on the country and its inhabitants, and their enthusiasm for the conflict, his troop arrived belatedly at the battle of Quatre Bars on the 16th June 1815 as the fighting died down. He was involved in covering the retreat of the Allied forces northward to Waterloo on the 17th. During this retreat Mercer sights Napoleon riding with the vanguard of his advanced forces, as he struggles to cover his retreating comrades, in a moment he refers to as "sublime". During the battle on the 18th his troop is in the thick of the fighting, during which time Mercer's account leaves no detail out, apart from his disobeying Wellington's order to avoid counter-battery fire. As the battle rolls on the magnificent and yet foolhardy charges of the massed French cavalry are recounted with their brave but ultimately futile attempt to break the squares on the ridge, Mercer and his troop pour fire into the horsemen mercilessly. As the Armée du Nord recoils from its final attack in disarray, Mercer is ordered with his men to follow up the retreating hordes, he replies to his superior "How?" as the charnel house surrounding his position contains the dead and dying horses needed to pull his guns. Essential reading. The Text, whole and complete, is taken from 1870 edition, published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh Author - General Alexander Cavalié Mercer (1783-1868)
Journal of the Waterloo Campaign (Journal of the Waterloo Campaign (kept throughout the campaign of 1815) #2)
by Pickle Partners Publishing General Alexander Cavalié MercerThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Without doubt, one of the finest accounts of a participant of the Waterloo campaign. Mercer was famously in charge of "G" troop RHA during the campaign, and from the journal he kept at the time he formed this book. It is written with a jaunty air more often seen in the writings of French cavalry officers memoirs, a certain irreverence to rank and custom (his description of the Duc de Berri is particularly cutting) and a keen eye for detail and the anecdote. This edition is the second volume of a two volume series as originally published. Having been stationed in Belgium for over a month during which time he offers a number of telling remarks on the country and its inhabitants, and their enthusiasm for the conflict, his troop arrived belatedly at the battle of Quatre Bars on the 16th June 1815 as the fighting died down. He was involved in covering the retreat of the Allied forces northward to Waterloo on the 17th. During this retreat Mercer sights Napoleon riding with the vanguard of his advanced forces, as he struggles to cover his retreating comrades, in a moment he refers to as "sublime". During the battle on the 18th his troop is in the thick of the fighting, during which time Mercer's account leaves no detail out, apart from his disobeying Wellington's order to avoid counter-battery fire. As the battle rolls on the magnificent and yet foolhardy charges of the massed French cavalry are recounted with their brave but ultimately futile attempt to break the squares on the ridge, Mercer and his troop pour fire into the horsemen mercilessly. As the Armée du Nord recoils from its final attack in disarray, Mercer is ordered with his men to follow up the retreating hordes, he replies to his superior "How?" as the charnel house surrounding his position contains the dead and dying horses needed to pull his guns. Essential reading. The Text, whole and complete, is taken from 1870 edition, published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh Author - General Alexander Cavalié Mercer (1783-1868)
Journals of Field-Marshal Count Von Blumenthal for 1866 and 1870-1871
by Alexander Gillespie-Addison Field-Marshal Graf Leonhard Von Blumenthal General Graf Albrecht Von BlumenthalIncludes the Franco-Prussian Map Pack with over 35 maps, plans and diagrams of the engagements of the warGraf Leonhard Von Blumenthal 1810-1900 was a Prussian General Field Marshal of forthright and upstanding principles who became a legendary figure in the German army during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars.After numerous staff and regimental appointments Von Blumenthal was assigned to be the Chief of the General Staff to the Crown Prince of Prussia, commanding the 2nd army, for the Austro-Prussian war in 1866. The post of Chief of the General Staff was intended to be that of a highly competent adviser to the royal titular commander of the army, and with it came great power of decision. It was upon the 2nd army that the brunt of the fighting fell during the short but brutal war, and its arrival at the battle of Königgratz saved the day. Von Blumenthal's own part in the entire campaign and particularly on the battlefield of Königgratz was most conspicuous, the grateful Crown Prince said to him, "I know to whom I owe the conduct of my army".The successful team of Crown Prince and Chief of the General Staff was revived for the struggle with the French during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Once again his service was nothing less than brilliant, particularly whilst herding the French Army into the bottleneck trap at Sedan. Bismarck himself said : "So far as one can see, the papers make no mention of him, although he is chief of the staff to the Crown Prince and, next after Moltke, deserves most credit for the conduct of the war. ... He won the battles of Wörth and Wissembourg, and after that of Sedan, as the Crown Prince was not always interfering with his plans."These fascinating journals are an undiscovered gem of military writing and a particularly interesting sidelight on two often forgotten wars that still shape Europe today.
Journey Among Brave Men
by Dana Adams SchmidtA gripping account of an award-winning journalist&’s journey into the heart of rebel territory during the First Iraqi-Kurdish War. On July 4, 1962, New York Times foreign correspondent Dana Adams Schmidt left his post in Beirut to be voluntarily smuggled into Iraqi Kurdistan. It was the beginning of a nearly two-month journey that would climax in a days-long visit with the leader of the Kurdish rebellion, the most loved and feared man in Kurdistan, Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Accompanied by armed Kurdish guides and a 72-year-old Turkish interpreter, the six-feet-three-inch, seersucker-suit-clad Schmidt traveled, often at night, a secret route by foot, mule, horse and, on two occasions, jeep into the high Kurdish mountains to report on &“the fightingest people in the Middle East&” as no foreign journalist had done before. The physical dangers were acute—his group was strafed more than once by the Iraqi air force. Along the way, Schmidt learned about the history and culture of the Kurds, whose cause Barzani hoped Schmidt could convey to the world. Originally published in 1964 and now back in print with a new foreword by historian Charles Glass, Journey Among Brave Men is an enduring testament to the power of audacious journalism and to the strong will of the Kurds, an embattled people who remain in search of an independent state today. &“One can only marvel at the author&’s indefatigable industry and power of enthusiasm, which makes him one of the most reliable of all daily paper reporters . . . An excellent, fair and patently honest piece of work.&”—The New York Times
Journey Interrupted: A Family Without a Country in a World at War
by Hildegarde MahoneyIn the midst of World War II, a German-American family finds themselves stranded in Japan in this inspiring tale of an extraordinary family adapting to the hazards of fate, and finding salvation in each other. In the spring of 1941, seven-year-old Hildegarde Ercklentz and her family leave their home in New York City and set off for their native Germany, where her father has been recalled to the headquarters of the Commerz & Privat Bank in Berlin. It was meant to be an epic journey, crossing the United States, the Pacific, and Siberia--but when Hitler invades Russia, a week-long stay in Yokohama, Japan becomes six years of quasi-detention, as Hildegarde and her family are stranded in Japan until the war's end. In this spellbinding memoir, Mahoney recounts her family's moving saga, from their courage in the face of terrible difficulties--including forced relocation, scarce rations, brutal winters in the Japanese Alps--to their joyous reunion with their German relatives in Hamburg, and their eventual return to New York City in 1950. Richly detailed and remarkably vivid, Journey Interrupted is a story unlike any other--the inspiring tale of an extraordinary family adapting to the hazards of fate, and finding salvation in each other.
Journey into Hazard: Marines on Mission
by Marc ParrottJourney into Hazard: Marines on Mission, 1805-1945, first published in 1962 as Hazard: Marines on Mission, is a recounting of some of the most notable personalities and events in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps: from its humble beginnings in the early 1800s and the fight in the North African Barbary Wars, to the “ideal Marine” Lou Diamond, to the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and the sad fate of Pima Indian Ira Hayes. While not a book of combat, Journey into Hazard provides insight into a number of nearly forgotten incidents that shaped both the Marines and the United States. Included are 10 pages of maps and illustrations. Author Marc Parrott served in the Marines during World War II.
Journey of the Giants
by Maj. Gene GurneyThe story of the B-29 Superfort—the weapon that won the war in the Pacific.Major Gurney writes about B-29 operations in the Pacific, asserting that this aircraft was instrumental in forcing the Japanese to surrender.Much has been written about this great airplane, because any account of the devastating fire raids on Japan or of the dramatic beginnings of atomic warfare would be incomplete without telling the story of the B-29s which figured so prominently in these missions. But there is also an exciting story behind that story—the story of the giant bomber’s journey from the drawing boards of its designers to the day when out of the bomb bay of the “Enola Gay” tumbled the fantastic new weapon that, with a blinding flash and unprecedented power, brought about the dawn of the nuclear age. That is the story which Gene Gurney tells in Journey of the Giants, and he tells it well.The book ends with the historic scene on the battleship Missouri which signified the end of the war in the Pacific and, with it, the end of World War II. But while this was the climax in the B-29’s long journey, it was by no means its end. B-29s continued to serve a variety of important peacetime missions; they did their share in the development and testing of advanced nuclear weapons and, in the Korean War, added new battle honors to those gained in the Pacific.—Thomas S. Power, General, USAF, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command
Journey through the Night
by Anne VriesThis book is a glimpse into the daily life and struggles of a Dutch family and their community during the German occupation of Holland.
Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand CélineCéline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper-realistic, boiling over with black humor Céline’s masterpiece—colloquial, polemic, hyper realistic—boils over with bitter humor and revulsion at society’s idiocy and hypocrisy: Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of cruelty and violence that hurtles through the improbable travels of the petit bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu: from the trenches of WWI, to the African jungle, to New York, to the Ford Factory in Detroit, and finally to life in Paris as a failed doctor. Ralph Manheim’s pitch-perfect translation captures Céline’s savage energy, and a dynamic afterword by William T. Vollmann presents a fresh, furiously alive take on this astonishing novel.
Journey to the Giant: The Story of a Top Secret Mission Into the Heart of Hitler's Third Reich
by Dustin JonesIn the year 1944, as World War Two rages onward in Europe a squad of highly trained and skilled soldiers from the United States Army embark on a covert mission to dismantle Hitler's most secretive and sinister of experiments. As the group of men travel to Hitler's secluded underground facility, dubbed Der Riese or 'The Giant', will they have what it takes to stop Germany's dictator once and for all, or will they succumb to the dangers of the undead, ravenous blitz wolves, and savage mutated soldiers? Follow the harrowing adventures of Sergeant James Jacobs, Joseph Doc Wolfwood, Privates Kevin Killian, Jonathan Flynn, Jack Evans, Stephen Quinn, Teddy Stacy, and Greg Walter as they race to save the lives of millions, and history itself in this action packed story of war, friendship, treachery, and the will to survive.
Journey's End (Penguin Modern Classics)
by R. C. SherriffSet in the First World War, Journey's End concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed ...Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of Journey's End in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic.
Journey's End: Bomber Command's Battle from Arnhem to Dresden and Beyond
by Kevin WilsonThe final, climactic volume of Wilson's acclaimed bomber war trilogy. In February 1945, British and American bombers rained down thousands of tons of incendiaries on the city of Dresden, creating one of the greatest firestorms in history. Their bombs killed an estimated 25,000 people, and wiped one of the most beautiful cities in Europe from the map. The controversy that erupted shortly afterwards, and which continues to this day, has long overshadowed the other events of the bomber war, and blighted the memory of the young men who gave their lives to fight in the skies over Germany.This book neither condemns the bombing of Dresden, nor excuses it, but simply puts it in its proper context as a devastating set of raids in a much larger campaign. To the crews who flew over Germany night after night there were other much more pressing worries: the V2 rockets that threatened their loved ones at home, the brand new German jet fighters that could strike them at speeds of over 600mph, the deadly flak over the cities of the Ruhr Valley. The bomber war had entered its final unforgiving months, and no quarter was given on either side. Kevin Wilson has interviewed over a hundred people for this book, some of whom flew on the Dresden raids, and many more who experienced other aspects of bombing, both in the air and on the ground. JOURNEY'S END chronicles the brutal endgame of a conflict that caused devastation and tragedy on both sides.
Journey's End: Bomber Command's Battle from Arnhem to Dresden and Beyond
by Kevin Wilson'A brilliant insight into life in the air and on the ground' ObserverIn February 1945, British and American bombers rained down thousands of tons of incendiaries on the city of Dresden, killing an estimated 25,000 people and destroying one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The controversy that erupted shortly afterwards, and which continues to this day, has long overshadowed the other events of the bomber war, and blighted the memory of the young men who gave their lives to fight in the skies over Germany.Journey's End neither condemns nor condones the bombing of Dresden, but puts it in its proper context as part of a much larger campaign. To the young men who flew over Germany night after night there were other much more pressing worries: the V2 rockets that threatened their loved ones at home; the brand new German jet fighters that could strike them at speeds of over 600mph. They lived life at a heightened tempo during these final unforgiving months of the bomber war when no quarter was given on either side.As the climactic volume in Kevin Wilson's acclaimed bomber war trilogy, Journey's End chronicles the brutal endgame of a conflict that caused such devastation and tragedy on both sides.
Journey: Memoirs of an Air Force Chief of Staff
by Leon Panetta General Norty Schwartz Ron Levinson Suzie SchwartzAn uncensored account of General Schwartz's term as the wartime US Air Force Chief of Staff under presidents Bush and Obama.The General’s dysfunctional home life drove him to apply to the Air Force Academy over forty years ago, where he was provided with a new family and sense of worth he had never earned from his own father. This purpose has driven the General throughout his remarkable career, taking him to Alaska, the Pentagon, and Germany; to Florida during Hurricane Opal, and has also allowed him to work alongside Presidents Bush and Obama and Secretaries of Defense Don Rumsfeld, Bob Gates and Leon Panetta.Journey is a book about leadership. It is packed with the General’s lessons from life in the military: breaking the mold, flying uncharted airspace, battles?from Iraq to the Pentagon, Afghanistan to Congress. It’s about pushing limits in an era of diminishing budgets and fewer resources to fuel the furnace of innovation. He chronicles the phenomenal story of the evolution of the US special operations, such as what was achieved when taking down Bin Laden. The General discusses the controversial new technologies that have been allowing America to build new capabilities in remote aircraft and cyber warfare. Many believe General Schwartz’s greatest legacy will be the dramatic acceleration of the “drone” program. He is a staunch advocate for it and this book will explain why.
Joys of War: From the Foreign Legion, the SAS and into Hell with PTSD
by John-Paul JordanA Special Forces veteran and former Legionnaire tells of his military adventures—and of the personal battle that followed him home. In war, John-Paul Jordan was the first to batter down the door, whether he was facing bullets or bombs. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the young Irishman set off to join the French Foreign Legion. He would go on to provide security in Iraq, serve his country in Afghanistan, and protect journalists on the front line in Libya. He was decorated for his leadership and bravery—but his biggest fight would come after he left the battlefield. In this memoir he recounts the camaraderie, action, and danger he experienced—and how he later found himself of prisoner of war to PTSD. Dehumanized by the professionals he turned to for help, this Special Forces veteran and former Legionnaire was brought to his knees. His marriage was over; his home was lost. In isolation, his world unraveled, and the seeds of destruction had been well and truly sown. Knowing he would never see military action again and faced with the realization of the war raging within him in the spiral of PTSD, John-Paul felt condemned as a man. But, on April 1, 2016, he surrendered. He asked for help . . . and found the answers within. His story is a testament to the strength of the human spirit: to get back up and to lead from the front. He did not go through all that just to go through all that. This is the story of his return to freedom and joy. Buckle up, because this veteran doesn&’t do anything in half measures.
Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games
by Nina B. Huntemann Matthew Thomas PayneJoystick Soldiers is the first anthology to examine the reciprocal relationship between militarism and video games. War has been an integral theme of the games industry since the invention of the first video game, Spacewar! in 1962.While war video games began as entertainment, military organizations soon saw their potential as combat simulation and recruitment tools. A profitable and popular relationship was established between the video game industry and the military, and continues today with video game franchises like America’s Army, which was developed by the U.S.Army as a public relations and recruitment tool. This collection features all new essays that explore how modern warfare has been represented in and influenced by video games. The contributors explore the history and political economy of video games and the "military-entertainment complex;" present textual analyses of military-themed video games such as Metal Gear Solid; and offer reception studies of gamers, fandom, and political activism within online gaming.
Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland
by Joshua D. ZimmermanThe story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup. In the story of modern Poland, no one stands taller than Jozef Pilsudski. From the age of sixteen he devoted his life to reestablishing the Polish state that had ceased to exist in 1795. Ahead of World War I, he created a clandestine military corps to fight Russia, which held most Polish territory. After the war, his dream of an independent Poland realized, he took the helm of its newly democratic political order. When he died in 1935, he was buried alongside Polish kings. Yet Pilsudski was a complicated figure. Passionately devoted to the idea of democracy, he ceded power on constitutional terms, only to retake it a few years later in a coup when he believed his opponents aimed to dismantle the democratic system. Joshua Zimmerman’s authoritative biography examines a national hero in the thick of a changing Europe, and the legacy that still divides supporters and detractors. The Poland that Pilsudski envisioned was modern, democratic, and pluralistic. Domestically, he championed equality for Jews. Internationally, he positioned Poland as a bulwark against Bolshevism. But in 1926 he seized power violently, then ruled as a strongman for nearly a decade, imprisoning opponents and eroding legislative power. In Zimmerman’s telling, Pilsudski’s faith in the young democracy was shattered after its first elected president was assassinated. Unnerved by Poles brutally turning on one another, the father of the nation came to doubt his fellow citizens’ democratic commitments and thereby betrayed his own. It is a legacy that dogs today’s Poland, caught on the tortured edge between self-government and authoritarianism.