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The Emperor's Last Victory: Napoleon and the Battle of Wagram
by Gunther E RothenbergA leading expert examines one of Napoleon's most decisive but least analysed victoriesIn early July 1809 Napoleon crossed the Danube with 187,000 men to confront the Austrian Archduke Charles and an army of 145,000 men. The fighting that followed dwarfed in intensity and scale any previous Napoleonic battlefield, perhaps any in history: casualties on each side were over 30,000. The Austrians fought with great determination, but eventually the Emperor won a narrow victory. Wagram was decisive in that it compelled Austria to make peace. It also heralded a new, altogether greater order of warfare, anticipating the massed manpower and weight of fire deployed much later in the battles of the American Civil War and then at Verdun and on the Somme.
The Emperor's Sword: Japan vs. Russia in the Battle of Tsushima
by Noel F. Busch"On this one battle rests the fate of our nation. Let every man do his utmost." From the bridge of his flagship, Mikasa, Admiral Togo signaled the beginning of the battle, standing near the forward rail, his body thrust forward in the determined stance of some classic Japanese war god. A tiny, Napoleonic figure-barely five feet, three inches tall, and weighing less than 130 pounds -Togo carried his Zeiss binoculars(one of three pairs in Japan) and wore his magnificent ceremonial sword, its gold-encrusted scabbard nearly touching the deck. The sword was a gift from Togo's deified Emperor, and symbolized Japan's new drive to world power by domination of the Eastern seas. The Japanese Fleet was drawn up in the Strait of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. A long smudge of smoke on the southern horizon signaled the approach of the Imperial Russian Ships. On the outcome of the Battle of Tsushima depended the fate of Japan and-ultimately-the fate of the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor. One hundred years after Trafalgar, on May 27, 1905, Togo met Rozhdestvensky, Imperial Russia against Imperial Japan, with most of the long- range firepower and weight on the Russian side. This battle would decide world policy in the Pacific for decades to come. The Emperor's Sword is a violent chronicle of war and death at sea, of diplomatic intrigue, heroism, cowardice, stupidity, international politics, and individual tragedy. The backbone of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron were four new battleships, top-heavy and slow. The armada totaled forty-two vessels. Many if not most of the seamen were bitterly hostile to their officers; the crews were untrained conscripts. When Rozhdestvensky lined up his squadron to face Togo, he had already survived an eighteen-thousand-mile journey, mutiny, lack of fuel, a shortage of ammunition, and a series of mishaps that had won his armada the name of "the mad dog fleet." Noel Busch weaves the complex strands of history into a gripping, absorbing narrative of The Emperor's Sword. As history, as adventure tale, and as sobering analysis of the part played by hazard in deciding defeat or victory, The Emperor's Sword is a fascinating chronicle by a master historian- storyteller.
The Emperor's Sword: Pre-order the brand new adventure in the Chivalry series! (Chivalry #6)
by Christian CameronThe penultimate instalment in the Chivalry series from a master of historical fiction.The Chivalry series follows young William Gold, who runs away from London to follow the Black Prince, from the killing fields of France, through life as a routier and criminal, and to redemption with the Knights of Saint John, further disillusion and an eventual career as a professional soldier and knight. Rich in the details of life in the High Middle Ages, the series also deals with modern issues about the role of violence in society, rules of conflict and war, and the price that people pay for using violence.'One of the finest historical fiction writers in the world' BEN KANE'The master of historical fiction' SUNDAY TIMES'A storyteller at the height of his powers' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
The Emperor's Sword: Pre-order the brand new adventure in the Chivalry series! (Chivalry #6)
by Christian CameronThe penultimate instalment in the Chivalry series from a master of historical fiction.The Chivalry series follows young William Gold, who runs away from London to follow the Black Prince, from the killing fields of France, through life as a routier and criminal, and to redemption with the Knights of Saint John, further disillusion and an eventual career as a professional soldier and knight. Rich in the details of life in the High Middle Ages, the series also deals with modern issues about the role of violence in society, rules of conflict and war, and the price that people pay for using violence.'One of the finest historical fiction writers in the world' BEN KANE'The master of historical fiction' SUNDAY TIMES'A storyteller at the height of his powers' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
The Emperor's Sword: Pre-order the brand new adventure in the Chivalry series! (Chivalry #6)
by Christian CameronThe penultimate instalment in the Chivalry series from a master of historical fiction.The Chivalry series follows young William Gold, who runs away from London to follow the Black Prince, from the killing fields of France, through life as a routier and criminal, and to redemption with the Knights of Saint John, further disillusion and an eventual career as a professional soldier and knight. Rich in the details of life in the High Middle Ages, the series also deals with modern issues about the role of violence in society, rules of conflict and war, and the price that people pay for using violence.'One of the finest historical fiction writers in the world' BEN KANE'The master of historical fiction' SUNDAY TIMES'A storyteller at the height of his powers' HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
The Empire Collection Volume I: Wounds of Honour, Arrows of Fury, Fortress of Spears
by Anthony RichesThe first three stories in Anthony Riches' thrilling EMPIRE series, now available in one page-turning collection, including Wounds of Honour, Arrows of Fury and Fortress of Spears.Wounds of HonourMarcus Aquila has scarcely landed in Britannia when he has to run for his life - condemned to dishonorable death by power-crazed emperor Commodus. The plan is to take a new name, serve in an obscure regiment on Hadrian's Wall and lie low until he can hope for justice. Then a rebel army sweeps down from north of the Wall, and Marcus has to prove he's tough enough to lead a century in the front line of a brutal war.Arrows of FuryThe new Roman governor of Britannia must stamp out the northern rebellion or risk losing the province. For Marcus - Centurion Corvus of the 1st Tungrians - the campaign has become doubly dangerous. As reinforcements flood into Britannia he is surrounded by new officers with no reason to protect him. Death could result from a careless word as easily as from an enemy spear. Worse, one of them is close on his heels. The prefect of the 2nd Tungrians has discovered his secret. Only a miracle can save Marcus from disgrace and death . . .Fortress of SpearsMarcus Aquila - burning for revenge on an enemy that has killed one of his best friends - rides north with the Petriana cavalry. He believes his disguise as Centurion Corvus of the 2nd Tungrians is still holding. But he is just a few days ahead of two of the emperor's agents, sent from Rome to kill him. Pitiless assassins who know his real name, and too much about his friends.
The Empire Collection Volume I: Wounds of Honour, Arrows of Fury, Fortress of Spears
by Anthony RichesThe first three stories in Anthony Riches' bestselling EMPIRE series, now available in one page-turning collectionIncluding Wounds of Honour, Arrows of Fury and Fortress of Spears.Wounds of HonourMarcus Aquila has scarcely landed in Britannia when he has to run for his life - condemned to dishonorable death by power-crazed emperor Commodus. The plan is to take a new name, serve in an obscure regiment on Hadrian's Wall and lie low until he can hope for justice. Then a rebel army sweeps down from north of the Wall, and Marcus has to prove he's tough enough to lead a century in the front line of a brutal war.Arrows of FuryThe new Roman governor of Britannia must stamp out the northern rebellion or risk losing the province. For Marcus - Centurion Corvus of the 1st Tungrians - the campaign has become doubly dangerous. As reinforcements flood into Britannia he is surrounded by new officers with no reason to protect him. Death could result from a careless word as easily as from an enemy spear. Worse, one of them is close on his heels. The prefect of the 2nd Tungrians has discovered his secret. Only a miracle can save Marcus from disgrace and death . . .Fortress of SpearsMarcus Aquila - burning for revenge on an enemy that has killed one of his best friends - rides north with the Petriana cavalry. He believes his disguise as Centurion Corvus of the 2nd Tungrians is still holding. But he is just a few days ahead of two of the emperor's agents, sent from Rome to kill him. Pitiless assassins who know his real name, and too much about his friends.
The Empire Collection Volume II: The Leopard Sword, The Wolf's Gold, The Eagle's Vengeance
by Anthony RichesThe EMPIRE sequence continues with books IV-VI in Anthony Riches' bestselling series, available in a page-turning collection, including The Leopard Sword, The Wolf's Gold and The Eagle's Vengeance.The Leopard SwordThe Roman agents who nearly captured Marcus Aquila have been defeated by his friends. But to protect those friends from the wrath of the emperor, he must leave the province which has given him shelter. As centurion of the second Tungrians, he leads his men from Hadrian's Wall to the Tungrians' original home. There he finds a different world from the turbulent British frontier - but one with its own dangers. A bandit chieftain is robbing with impunity. And now he threatens to destabilize the whole northern frontier of the empire.The Wolf's GoldMarcus Aquila and the Tungrians have been sent to Dacia with the mission to safeguard a major source of imperial power. The mines contain enough gold to pave the road to Rome. They would make a mighty prize for the Sarmatae tribesmen who threaten the province, and the outnumbered auxiliaries are entrusted with their safety in the face of an invasion. The Tungrians will have to fight to the death to save the honour of the empire - and themselves.The Eagle's VengeanceThe Tungrians return to Hadrian's Wall to find chaos, with the legions overstretched, struggling to man the northern frontier. The Tungrians are sent into the northern wastes, where a lost symbol of imperial power of the Sixth Legion awaits them. Protected by an impassable swamp, the eagle of the Sixth legion must be recovered if the legion is to survive. Marcus and his men must penetrate the heart of the enemy's strength, if they are to rescue the legion's venerated standard. If successful their escape will be twice as perilous...
The Empire Collection Volume II: The Leopard Sword, The Wolfs Gold, The Eagles Vengeance
by Anthony RichesThe EMPIRE sequence continues with books IV-VI in Anthony Riches' bestselling series, available in a page-turning collection, including The Leopard Sword, The Wolf's Gold and The Eagle's Vengeance.The Leopard SwordThe Roman agents who nearly captured Marcus Aquila have been defeated by his friends. But to protect those friends from the wrath of the emperor, he must leave the province which has given him shelter. As centurion of the second Tungrians, he leads his men from Hadrian's Wall to the Tungrians' original home. There he finds a different world from the turbulent British frontier - but one with its own dangers. A bandit chieftain is robbing with impunity. And now he threatens to destabilize the whole northern frontier of the empire.The Wolf's GoldMarcus Aquila and the Tungrians have been sent to Dacia with the mission to safeguard a major source of imperial power. The mines contain enough gold to pave the road to Rome. They would make a mighty prize for the Sarmatae tribesmen who threaten the province, and the outnumbered auxiliaries are entrusted with their safety in the face of an invasion. The Tungrians will have to fight to the death to save the honour of the empire - and themselves.The Eagle's VengeanceThe Tungrians return to Hadrian's Wall to find chaos, with the legions overstretched, struggling to man the northern frontier. The Tungrians are sent into the northern wastes, where a lost symbol of imperial power of the Sixth Legion awaits them. Protected by an impassable swamp, the eagle of the Sixth legion must be recovered if the legion is to survive. Marcus and his men must penetrate the heart of the enemy's strength, if they are to rescue the legion's venerated standard. If successful their escape will be twice as perilous...
The Empire Collection Volume III: The Emperor's Knives, Thunder of the Gods, Altar of Blood
by Anthony RichesThe most recent three novels in Anthony Riches' thrilling EMPIRE series, including The Emperor's Blood, Thunder of the Gods, Altar of Blood, now available in one page-turning collection.The Emperor's Blood (VII)Centurion Marcus Aquila is back in Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family. But the urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands. A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait.Thunder of the Gods (VIII)With Rome no longer safe, Marcus and his Tungrian legion are ordered east to the desolate border lands where Rome and Parthia have vied for supremacy for centuries. Ordered to relieve the siege of an isolated fortress, their task is doomed to bloody failure unless they can turn the disaffected Third Legion into a fighting force capable of resisting the terrifying Parthian cataphracts. And Marcus must travel to the enemy capital Ctesiphon on a desperate mission, the only man who can persuade the King of Kings to halt a war that threatens the humiliation of the empire and the slaughter of his friends.Altar of Blood (IX)Ordered to cross the river Rhenus into barbarian Germany and capture a tribal priestess who may be the most dangerous person on the empire's northern border, the Tungrians are soon subject to the machinations of an old enemy who will stop at nothing to sabotage their plans before they have even set foot on the river's eastern bank. With two of the Bructeri tribe's greatest treasures in their hands, they must regain Roman territory by crossing the unforgiving wilderness that was the graveyard of Roman imperial strategy two hundred years before.
The Empire Collection Volume III: The Emperor's Knives, Thunder of the Gods, Altar of Blood
by Anthony RichesThe most recent three novels in Anthony Riches' thrilling EMPIRE series, including The Emperor's Blood, Thunder of the Gods, Altar of Blood, now available in one page-turning collection.The Emperor's Blood (VII)Centurion Marcus Aquila is back in Rome, hunting the men who destroyed his family. But the urge to exact his own brutal justice upon the shadowy cabal of assassins who butchered his family means that he must face them on their own ground, risking his own death at their hands. A senator, a gang boss, a praetorian officer and, deadliest of all, champion gladiator Mortiferum - the Death Bringer - lie in wait.Thunder of the Gods (VIII)With Rome no longer safe, Marcus and his Tungrian legion are ordered east to the desolate border lands where Rome and Parthia have vied for supremacy for centuries. Ordered to relieve the siege of an isolated fortress, their task is doomed to bloody failure unless they can turn the disaffected Third Legion into a fighting force capable of resisting the terrifying Parthian cataphracts. And Marcus must travel to the enemy capital Ctesiphon on a desperate mission, the only man who can persuade the King of Kings to halt a war that threatens the humiliation of the empire and the slaughter of his friends.Altar of Blood (IX)Ordered to cross the river Rhenus into barbarian Germany and capture a tribal priestess who may be the most dangerous person on the empire's northern border, the Tungrians are soon subject to the machinations of an old enemy who will stop at nothing to sabotage their plans before they have even set foot on the river's eastern bank. With two of the Bructeri tribe's greatest treasures in their hands, they must regain Roman territory by crossing the unforgiving wilderness that was the graveyard of Roman imperial strategy two hundred years before.
The Empire Has An Answer: The Empire Air Training Scheme as Reported in the Australian Press 1939-1945
by Tony James Brady&If we do not win the battle of training, we shall win no other battle in the air.’ In 1943 the Royal Air Force recognised that training a vast amount of aircrew for a high attrition war was essential to an Allied victory, and that the key to winning the ‘battle of training’ was the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). 37,576 Australian aircrew graduated from the EATS. Over 300 were killed whilst training for war and 9874 aircrew were killed or listed as missing while on active duty. Those who fought under this scheme during World War II amounted to just 6.7 per cent of Australian service personnel serving overseas yet the aircrew losses amounted to almost 25 per cent of all the Australian fatalities during the war. This made serving in EATS among the most hazardous duties of the war. The Empire has an Answer was researched using more than 35 000 articles, from 150 metropolitan, regional, and district newspapers, and what materialised was a story of one of, if not, the greatest training programs the world has seen. Follow the journey from the conception and implementation of the scheme, through recruitment and basic training, flight training, and then into combat. The individual accounts woven into the narrative provide a first-hand experience of the triumphs and trials of typical airmen and airwomen who performed extraordinary feats in a time of great need. The significant achievements and success of the Empire Air Training Scheme has for the most part been overlooked in our history, until now.
The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed
by Ivan ElandMost Americans don&’t think of their government as an empire, but in fact the United States has been steadily expanding its control of overseas territories since the turn of the twentieth century. Now, through political intimidation and over 700 military bases worldwide, the U.S. holds sway over an area that dwarfs the great empires of world history.In The Empire Has No Clothes, Ivan Eland, a leading expert on U.S. defense policy and national security, examines American military interventions around the world from the Spanish-American War to the invasion of Iraq. Eland shows that the concept of empire is wholly contrary to the principles of both liberals and conservatives and that it makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers' vision for a free republic. Eland also warns that in recent years, "blowback" and the enormous expansion of domestic federal power resulting from this overextended empire have begun to threaten the American homeland itself and curtail the very liberties these interventions were supposed to protect. Public debate of the United States' role in the world has finally begun in earnest, and Ivan Eland delivers a penetrating argument in this landmark book, exposing the imperial motives behind interventionist U.S. policy, questioning the historical assumptions on which it is based and advocating a return to the Founding Fathers' vision of military restraint overseas.
The Empire Trilogy
by J. G. FarrellThe Empire Trilogy--consisting of the Lost Booker Prize-winning Troubles, the Booker Prize-winning The Siege of Krishnapur,and The Singapore Grip--is Farrell's re-examination of the legacy, and limits, of British imperial rule. The three volumes, connected by theme rather than character, and above all by their shared wit, brio, and daring, range in setting from the India of the Great Mutiny of 1857, to Ireland immediately after the Great War, to the besieged Singapore of World War II. Together the books constitute not only a spectacular entertainment but also an ambitious refashioning of the traditional historical novel to meet the tragic realities of the modern world. · The Siege of Krishnapur - India, 1857--the year of the Great Mutiny, when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. This time of convulsion is the subject of J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, widely considered one of the finest British novels of the last fifty years.Farrell's story is set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent. Rumors of strife filter in from afar, and yet the members of the colonial community remain confident of their military and, above all, moral superiority. But when they find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their dominion--at once brutal, blundering, and wistful--is soon revealed. · Troubles - 1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland, hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fiancée is strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline. The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand scale; its few remaining guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland itself the mounting violence of "the troubles." · The Singapore Grip - Singapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn't what it used to be for Walter Blackett, head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett's partner, is an idealistic sympathizer with the League of Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be booming--what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett's price-fixing and market manipulation--but something is wrong. No one suspects that the world of the British Empire, of fixed boundaries between classes and nations, is about to come to a terrible end.
The Empire of the Senses
by Alexis LandauA sweeping, gorgeously written debut: a novel of duty to family and country, the dictates of passion, and blood ties unraveling in the charged political climate of Berlin between the world wars. Lev Perlmutter, an assimilated, cultured German Jew, enlists to fight in World War I, leaving behind his gentile wife, Josephine, and their children, Franz and Vicki. Moving between Lev's and Josephine's points of view, the first part of the novel focuses on Lev's experiences on the Eastern Front--both in war and in love--which render his life at home a pale aftermath by comparison. The second part of the novel takes us to Berlin, 1927-28. Now young adults, the Perlmutter children grapple with their own questions: Franz, drawn into the Nazi brown shirt movement, struggles with his unexpressed homosexuality; Vicki, seduced by the Jazz Age and everything new, bobs her hair and falls in love with a young man who wants to take her to Palestine. Unlike many historical novels of its kind, The Empire of the Senses is not about the Holocaust but about the juxtaposition of events that led to it, and about why it was unimaginable to ordinary people like Lev and his wife. Plotted with meticulous precision and populated with characters who feel and dream to the fullest, it holds us rapt as the tides of cultural loss and ethnic hatred come to coexist with those of love, passion, and the power of the human spirit.From the Hardcover edition.
The Empire's Ruin (Ashes of the Unhewn Throne #1)
by Brian StaveleyBrian Staveley, author of The Emperor's Blades, gives readers the first book in a new epic fantasy trilogy based in the world of his popular series the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, The Empire's Ruin. Best of Summer 2021—PolygonThe Annurian Empire is disintegrating. The advantages it used for millennia have fallen to ruin. The ranks of the Kettral have been decimated from within, and the kenta gates, granting instantaneous travel across the vast lands of the empire, can no longer be used.In order to save the empire, one of the surviving Kettral must voyage beyond the edge of the known world through a land that warps and poisons all living things to find the nesting ground of the giant war hawks. Meanwhile, a monk turned con-artist may hold the secret to the kenta gates.But time is running out. Deep within the southern reaches of the empire and ancient god-like race has begun to stir.What they discover will change them and the Annurian Empire forever. If they can survive.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Empty Throne: A Novel (Last Kingdom (formerly Saxon Tales) #8)
by Bernard CornwellThe eighth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London)—the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit television series.Britain, early tenth century AD: a time of change. There are new raids by the Vikings from Ireland and turmoil among the Saxons over the leadership of Mercia. A younger generation is taking over. Æthelred, the ruler of Mercia, is dying, leaving no legitimate heir. The West Saxons want their king, but Uhtred has long supported Æthelflaed, sister to King Edward of Wessex and widow of Æthelred. Widely loved and respected, Æthelflaed has all the makings of a leader—but could Saxon warriors ever accept a woman as their ruler? The stage is set for rivals to fight for the empty throne.
The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II (Routledge Revivals)
by Christopher ChantCodenames were a vital feature of World War II, serving as mental shorthand for those in the know, and obscuring the issues for those who were not. Codenames were used from the highest level, in the planning of grand strategic moves affecting the conduct of the whole war, to the lowest command divisions, in the conduct of small-scale tactical operations. This encyclopedia, first published in 1986, removes the mystery surrounding many of the important code names from the era. With around 3,000 entries drawn from all sides – the U.K., U.S.A., Germany, the U.S.S.R. and Japan – Christopher Chant’s work provides a uniquely comprehensive and full overview of major operations, names and code words. Thorough and exciting, this key reference reissue is an exceptionally valuable resource for military historians, enthusiasts and general readers with an interest in World War II.
The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals: The Definitive Guide to the 426 Leaders of the South's War Effort
by Samuel W. Mitcham Jr.A renown military historian and frequent television commenter brings to life the generalship of the South during the Civil War in sparkling, information-filled vignettes. For both the Civil War completist and the general reader!Anyone acquainted with the American Civil War will readily recognize the names of the Confederacy&’s most prominent generals. Robert E. Lee. Stonewall Jackson. James Longstreet. These men have long been lionized as fearless commanders and genius tacticians. Yet few have heard of the hundreds of generals who led under and alongside them. Men whose battlefield resolve spurred the Confederacy through four years of the bloodiest combat Americans have ever faced. In The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals, veteran Civil War historian, Samuel W. Mitcham, documents the lives of every Confederate general from birth to death, highlighting their unique contributions to the battlefield and bringing their personal triumphs and tragedies to life. Packed with photos and historical briefings, The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals belongs on the shelf of every Civil War historian, and preserves in words the legacies once carved in stone.
The End Of It: A Novel (classic Reprint)
by Mitchell Goodman2nd Lieut. Mitchell Goodman's experiences form the basis for this vivid 1961 anti-war novel. The story focuses on an American artillery lieutenant, assimilated into the massive Allied invasion force, who is forced to re-examine his life and his beliefs by his experiences in beautiful but war-torn Italy.
The End and the Beginning: A Novel
by K. J. HoldomA stunning tour de force of a novel based on the true story of a fourteen-year-old boy&’s harrowing experience fleeing a Hitler youth camp with his best friend in the last days of the Second World War—perfect for readers of All the Light We Cannot See and The German Girl.At the start of the war, eight-year-old Max Bernot lives with his sister and parents in Lauterbach, Saarland, a narrow strip of territory between the French and German defence lines. His German father, Anton, and his French mother, Marguerite, do their best to shield Max and his sister, Anna, from Nazi violence, but in late 1944, their beloved godfather is executed in their garden by the SS, and Max, now thirteen, is conscripted in the Volkssturm. Less than a month later, Max flees a Hitler Youth camp in Bavaria with his best friend, Hans. His mission: to return home and tell his mother the truth about his godfather&’s murder As he escapes, he sends postcards to his family that trace his fraught journey across a country in its death throes. Unbeknownst to Max, his mother is trapped in the German interior, coerced into working for a fanatical Nazi officer. Desperate to escape and reunite her family, Marguerite must first protect Anna from the sinister attentions of their captor, who could hold information on Max&’s whereabouts even as Allied planes circle closer. Deftly interweaving the wartime stories of Max and Marguerite, The End and the Beginning maps the loss of innocence of a generation of children raised in the shadow of the Reich and follows the fate of one family, neither wholly French nor entirely German, who find themselves on the wrong side whichever way they turn.
The End of All Songs (Gateway Essentials #405)
by Michael MoorcockJherek Carnelian and Mrs Amelia Underwood return to the End of Time from their brief exile in the Devonian Period to find the world under attack from the Lat and extinction a very real possibility. The perfect occasion, then, for love to bloom, the secret of Jherek's past to be revealed and the true nature of time to be unveiled...
The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era (America in the World #57)
by Mark Atwood LawrenceA groundbreaking new history of how the Vietnam War thwarted U.S. liberal ambitions in the developing world and at home in the 1960sAt the start of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy and other American liberals expressed boundless optimism about the ability of the United States to promote democracy and development in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. With U.S. power, resources, and expertise, almost anything seemed possible in the countries of the Cold War’s “Third World”—developing, postcolonial nations unaligned with the United States or Soviet Union. Yet by the end of the decade, this vision lay in ruins. What happened? In The End of Ambition, Mark Atwood Lawrence offers a groundbreaking new history of America’s most consequential decade. He reveals how the Vietnam War, combined with dizzying social and political changes in the United States, led to a collapse of American liberal ambition in the Third World—and how this transformation was connected to shrinking aspirations back home in America.By the middle and late 1960s, democracy had given way to dictatorship in many Third World countries, while poverty and inequality remained pervasive. As America’s costly war in Vietnam dragged on and as the Kennedy years gave way to the administrations of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, America became increasingly risk averse and embraced a new policy of promoting mere stability in the Third World. Paying special attention to the U.S. relationships with Brazil, India, Iran, Indonesia, and southern Africa, The End of Ambition tells the story of this momentous change and of how international and U.S. events intertwined.The result is an original new perspective on a war that continues to haunt U.S. foreign policy today.
The End of Empire: Cyprus: A Soldier's Story
by Martin Bell OBEMartin Bell, the former BBC was reporter and Independent MP, served as a soldier in the Suffolk Regiment during the Cyprus emergency between 1957 and 1959. In a chocolate box in the attic many years later he found more than 100 letters that he had sent home to his family. He was not a journalist then, but the letters give a vivid impression of what it was like to be a conscript on active service during the EOKA rebellion against British rule. They describe road blocks and cordons and searches, murders and explosions and riots and a strategy of armed repression that ultimately failed. From this beginning he has written The End of Empire.His narrative is a powerful and personal account of the violent process of decolonization, of the character of the British Army at the time and the impact of National Service on young men who were not much more than kids in uniform. It also gives a graphic insight into the ultimate futility of the use of force in wars among people and it reveals the true story of the insurgency and the campaign to defeat it.By drawing on recently declassified documents, he shows that Cyprus in the late 1950s was run not by the governor but by a military junta. The army commanders were looking for the knockout blow that would deliver victory, but their misguided tactics served only to strengthen support for their enemy.So The End Of Empire is much more than a personal reminiscence. It is an absorbing account of the experience of army life from the perspective of a private soldier, and it is the inside story of how Britain tried to crush a violent rebellion sixty years ago.
The End of Everything: How Wars Descend Into Annihilation
by Victor Davis HansonVictor Davis Hanson, an historian charts how and why some societies chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. <P><P> War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. <P><P> In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>