Midas, Dominic Ranger’s superb debut thriller novel, is a rollercoaster ride of revenge, intrigue, sex and money, taking readers from a quiet town in Hampshire to the tiny and incredibly beautiful Greek island of Symi.
Forging a Special Operations Force: The U.S. Army Rangers details the origins and development, combat philosophy, and key engagements of America's elite fighting force. Structured topically, the book gives a chronological review of the history of the Ranger from the 17th century to the present day, with special attention paid to the establishment of the 1st Ranger Battalion in the post-Vietnam era—the origins of the elite fighting force that exists today. Authored by a lifetime soldier who served in combat with the 75th Ranger Regiment, this book is replete with information garnered from dozens of interviews with the individuals who created the initial Ranger Force. By integrating the words and firsthand accounts of these founding fathers, the work offers insights unavailable elsewhere. Additionally, the author delves into the unique psyche of the soldiers who volunteer for—and are accepted into the ranks of—the ‘Rangers’.
In 1914 Herbert Hoskins joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment to fight in the First World War. As a captain, he soon found himself serving in the muddy, disease-ridden trenches of the Somme. Captain Hoskins’ letters, carefully compiled by his grandson, reveal the horrific experiences Captain Hoskins and his men endured and the extraordinary courage and stoicism they displayed as they faced illness, treacherous weather and an indefatigable enemy during the most gruelling years of the conflict. The letters reveal not only the hardship they suffered but the indomitable spirit that helped Hoskins and his men – some of them - survive. A remarkable blend of tragedy and stiff upper lip British humour, Thank You Mister Bosh, That’s Close Enough! is a moving account of the war that killed nine million men.
Forging a Special Operations Force: The U.S. Army Rangers details the origins and development, combat philosophy, and key engagements of America's elite fighting force. Structured topically, the book gives a chronological review of the history of the Ranger from the 17th century to the present day, with special attention paid to the establishment of the 1st Ranger Battalion in the post-Vietnam era—the origins of the elite fighting force that exists today. Authored by a lifetime soldier who served in combat with the 75th Ranger Regiment, this book is replete with information garnered from dozens of interviews with the individuals who created the initial Ranger Force. By integrating the words and firsthand accounts of these founding fathers, the work offers insights unavailable elsewhere. Additionally, the author delves into the unique psyche of the soldiers who volunteer for—and are accepted into the ranks of—the ‘Rangers’.
Three thousand years in the future humans descended on the planet Sarax. Over the next fifty years they created technologically advanced cities that were not just cities but beautiful works of art in themselves. Then the creatures came; Goblins, Orcs, Elves and things far worse. Now after untold horrors, disasters, sacrifices and isolation humanity has reverted back to a medieval state desperately fighting to stay alive... Play as adventurers questing to save the world of Sarax from destruction. This game requires one or more players also unlike many other role playing games it requires no gamesmaster or minatures.
On September 11, 2008, Warrant Officer Dominic Hagans of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment became the latest casualty of the Afghan war when an improvised enemy bomb exploded under his vehicle, wrecking his legs and changing his life forever. As he embarked on the long road to rehabilitation and partial recovery, WO2 Hagans decided to record his experiences and those some of his comrades in print. Wounded Rangers is a compilation of no-punches-pulled true stories from the front line, plus the heart-rending story of a mother whose son was critically injured on the battlefield. Harrowing and often shocking as these accounts are, the professional soldier’s determination to do his duty and his indomitable sense of humour shine through. All the proceeds from this book will go to the welfare fund of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, to help meet the cost of caring for their wounded and helping them to adapt and adjust to their injuries.
It's not like anything bad or dangerous could happen, right? Khazak has been feeling a little lost lately. By the age of thirty, he was the youngest Ranger Captain in his city's history. He thought he had the rest of his life figured out until he was betrayed by people he trusted and was forced to resign. The one bright spot in Khazak's world now is David, his human lover and former captive (though former doesn't always apply in the bedroom). The courageous orc will do everything in his power to not risk losing his handsome companion again. David's having a rough time himself. After miraculously surviving a deadly attack, he's left looking for answers and seeking revenge. His search brings him to the city of Pákannon, but he's not alone. His entire team is behind him, including Khazak, the orc who owned him (and technically, still does). But just as he's getting used to the idea of people knowing they're together, a threat from his past resurfaces. David hopes a side-quest to a mysterious mountain city may be exactly the romantic distraction they need, but something surprising may be lurking in the mist. Filled with action, comedy, tent sex, giant snakes, kinky power exchange, and ghost stories the Storms and Sarcrafice series explores a magical world of gay/male-on-male BDSM relationships that is sure to have readers hungry for more.
On September 11, 2008, Warrant Officer Dominic Hagans of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment became the latest casualty of the Afghan war when an improvised enemy bomb exploded under his vehicle, wrecking his legs and changing his life forever. As he embarked on the long road to rehabilitation and partial recovery, WO2 Hagans decided to record his experiences and those some of his comrades in print. Wounded Rangers is a compilation of no-punches-pulled true stories from the front line, plus the heart-rending story of a mother whose son was critically injured on the battlefield. Harrowing and often shocking as these accounts are, the professional soldier’s determination to do his duty and his indomitable sense of humour shine through. All the proceeds from this book will go to the welfare fund of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, to help meet the cost of caring for their wounded and helping them to adapt and adjust to their injuries.
Midas, Dominic Ranger’s superb debut thriller novel, is a rollercoaster ride of revenge, intrigue, sex and money, taking readers from a quiet town in Hampshire to the tiny and incredibly beautiful Greek island of Symi.
It's always been a wild world, with humans telling stories of killer animals as soon as they could tell stories at all. Movies are an especially popular vehicle for our fascination with fierce creatures. In Brute Force, Dominic Lennard takes a close look at a range of cinematic animal attackers, including killer gorillas, sharks, snakes, bears, wolves, spiders, and even a few dinosaurs. Lennard argues that animal horror is not so much a focused genre as it is an impulse, tapping into age-old fears of becoming prey. At the same time, these films expose conflicts and uncertainties in our current relationship with animals. Movies considered include King Kong, Jaws, The Grey, Them!, Arachnophobia, Jurassic Park, Snakes on a Plane, An American Werewolf in London, and many more. Drawing on insights from film studies, art history, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology, Brute Force is an engaging critical exploration—and appreciation—of cinema's many bad beasts.
When David went exploring with his friends, he figured they might come across some old ruins or maybe fight a few monsters.... He never expected that he'd wind up captured by an orc and turned into his pet; what he expected even less was that he'd actually like it. It all started when he was sitting in a jail cell, so desperate to escape that he agreed to trial by combat: The Ritual of Steel & Thunder. He opens the fight strong, but when his competitor manages to overpower him, things start to heat up and he realizes he may have signed on for more than he bargained for. Captain Khazak Ironstorm is the orc ranger responsible for David's arrest-and after defeating him in combat, his new owner amused by his slave's antics, until something deeper begins to grow between them. What does this mean? A tale of romance mixed with some humor, adventure, and a heaping helping of kink. Read the journey of David and Khazak as they learn to understand each other and uncover the mysteries of the magical world around them. Readers who love kink, BDSM, Dom/sub, and other elements of male-on-male romance will love this story.
Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang examines one of the least understood migrations in modern East Asia - the human exodus from China to Taiwan when Chiang Kai-shek's regime collapsed in 1949. Peeling back layers of Cold War ideological constructs, he tells a very different story from the conventional Chinese civil war historiography that focuses on debating the reasons for Communist success and Nationalist failure. Yang lays bare the traumatic aftermath of the Chinese Communist Revolution for the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who were forcibly displaced from their homes across the sea. Underscoring the displaced population's trauma of living in exile and their poignant 'homecomings' four decades later, he presents a multi-event trajectory of repeated traumatization with recurring searches for home, belonging, and identity. This thought-provoking study challenges established notions of trauma, memory, diaspora, and reconciliation.
“As the book’s subtitle indicates, Mr. Ziegler uses one of the world’s great rivers as a vehicle to pursue this story—and what a vehicle it is. . . . [He] writes beautifully, and with the fervor of a naturalist.” —The Wall Street Journal “The writing is superb . . . a true labour of love, Black Dragon River is a triumph.” —The Spectator Black Dragon River is a personal journey down one of Asia’s great rivers that reveals the region’s essential history and culture. The world’s ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. As a crossroads for the great empires of Asia, this area offers journalist Dominic Ziegler a lens with which to examine the societies at Europe's only borderland with east Asia. He follows a journey from the river's top to bottom, and weaves the history, ecology and peoples to show a region obsessed with the past—and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today. One of Asia’s mightiest rivers, the Amur is also the most elusive. The terrain it crosses is legendarily difficult to traverse. Near the river’s source, Ziegler travels on horseback from the Mongolian steppe into the taiga, and later he is forced by the river’s impassability to take the Trans-Siberian Railway through the four-hundred-mile valley of water meadows inland. As he voyages deeper into the Amur wilderness, Ziegler also journeys into the history of the peoples and cultures the river’s path has transformed. The known history of the river begins with Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongolian empire a millennium ago, and the story of the region has been one of aggression and conquest ever since. The modern history of the river is the story of Russia's push across the Eurasian landmass to China. For China, the Amur is a symbol of national humiliation and Western imperial land seizure; to Russia it is a symbol of national regeneration, its New World dreams and eastern prospects. The quest to take the Amur was to be Russia’s route to greatness, replacing an oppressive European identity with a vibrant one that faced the Pacific. Russia launched a grab in 1854 and took from China a chunk of territory equal in size nearly to France and Germany combined. Later, the region was the site for atrocities meted out on the Russian far east in the twentieth century during the Russian civil war and under Stalin. The long shared history on the Amur has conditioned the way China and Russia behave toward each other—and toward the outside world. To understand Putin’s imperial dreams, we must comprehend Russia’s relationship to its far east and how it still shapes the Russian mind. Not only is the Amur a key to Putinism, its history is also embedded in an ongoing clash of empires with the West.
How has our understanding of sport been shaped by sociological ideas? How can the study of sport help sociologists to understand wider society? The sociology of sport is a sub-discipline approaching maturity. This is the first book to stand back and reflect upon the subject’s growth, to trace its developmental phases and to take stock of the current fund of knowledge. It offers a ‘state of the art’ review of the sociology of sport and investigates those areas where sport has come to influence the sociological mainstream. The book also examines how the sociology of sport has attempted to engage with a popular readership, and what the consequences of such engagement have been. Focusing on touchstone issues and concepts within sociological discourse such as race, gender, celebrity, the body and social theory, the book assesses the successes and failures of the sociology of sport in influencing the parent discipline, related sub-disciplines and the wider public. It also asks to what extent the sociology of sport can be said to be autonomous, distinctive and distinguished, and challenges students of sport to extend their work out of the narrow confines of the subdiscipline and across disciplinary divides. As the first book to provide a history of the sociology of sport and to clearly locate the contemporary discipline in the wider currents of sociological discourse, this is important reading for all students and scholars interested in the relationship between sport and society, whether they are working in sport studies or in the sociological mainstream.
This is the story of Mayo men and women active during the War of Independence and the Civil War, a story largely untold or forgotten. Throughout, there is an attempt at real insight into the lives of participants. The establishment and acceptance of the Garda Síochána and how Mayo adapted to peace while hundreds of Mayo men and women were still imprisoned is explored. The myth that little or nothing happened in Mayo during these troubled times is dispelled forever. • First factual account of War of Independence and Civil War in Mayo • This book is explosive (Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at the launch of the book) •
SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture. It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie. To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst toThe X Factor.
Nature Prose seeks to explain the popularity and appeal of contemporary writing about nature. This book intervenes in key areas of contemporary debate about literature and the environment and explores the enduring appeal of writing about nature during an ecological crisis. Using a range of international examples, with a focus on late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century writing from Britain and the US, Dominic Head argues that nature writing contains formal effects which encapsulate our current ecological dilemma and offer a fresh resource for critical thinking. The environmental crisis has injected a fresh urgency into nature writing, along with a new piquancy for those readers seeking solace in the nonhuman, or for those looking to change their habits in the face of ecological catastrophe. However, behind this apparently strong match between the aims of nature writers and the desires of their readers, there is also a shared mood of radical uncertainty and insecurity. The treatment and construction of 'nature' in contemporary imaginative prose reveals some significant paradoxes beneath its dominant moods, moods which are usually earnest, sometimes celebratory, sometimes prophetic or cautionary. It is in these paradoxical moments that the contemporary ecological crisis is formally encoded, in a progressive development of ecological consciousness from the late 1950s onwards. Nature prose, fiction and nonfiction, is now contemporaneous with a defining time of crisis, while also being formally fashioned by that context. This is a mode of writing that emerges in a world in crisis, but which is also, in some ways, in crisis itself. With chapters on remoteness, exclusivity, abundance, and rarity, this book marks a turning point in how literary criticism engages with nature writing.
Americans love war. We've never run from a fight. Our triumphs from the American Revolution to World War II define who we are as a nation and a people. Americans hate war. Our leaders rush us into conflicts without knowing the facts or understanding the consequences. Korea, Vietnam, and now Iraq and Afghanistan define who we are as a nation and a people. How We Fight explores the extraordinary doublemindedness with which Americans approach war, and reveals the opposing mindsets that have governed our responses throughout history: the "crusade" tradition-our grand quests to defend democratic values and overthrow tyrants; and the "quagmire" tradition-our resistance to the work of nation-building and its inevitable cost in dollars and American lives. How can one nation be so split? Studying conflicts from the Civil War to the present, Dominic Tierney has created a secret history of American foreign policy and a frank and insightful look at how Americans respond to the ultimate challenge. And he shows how success is possible. His innovative model for tackling the challenges of modern war can mean longstanding victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, by rediscovering a lost American warrior tradition.
This highly accessible and original introduction to British-Asian theatre explores the creativity, innovation and diversity of major British-Asian theatre companies. Including coverage of Tara Arts, Tamasha and Kali theatre companies, as well as important writers such as Hanif Kureishi and Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, the book analyses the dramaturgy, cultural and political contexts and critical receptions that have informed major productions. Complete with plot summaries and illustrated throughout, the text explores the extraordinary contribution that British-Asian theatre has made to the British stage over the past thirty years.
Race. The mere mention of the R-word is a surefire conversation-stopper. In this book about AmericaÆs most divisive social issue, Dominic J. Pulera offers a compelling roadmap to our future. This accessible and penetrating analysis is the first to include detailed coverage of AmericaÆs five "racial" groups: whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. The author contends that race will matter to Americans during the twenty-first century because of visible differences, and that differences in physical appearance separating the races are the single most important factor shaping intergroup relations, in conjunction with the social, cultural, economic, and political ramifications that accompany them. Pulera shows how, why, when, and where race matters in the United States and who is affected by it. He explains the ongoing demographic transition of America from a predominantly white country to one where nonwhites are increasingly numerous and consequently more visible. The advent of a multiracial consciousness has tremendous implications for AmericaÆs future, because the racial significance of almost every part of the American experience is increasing as a result. The author concludes on a note of cautious optimism as he explores whether the visible differences dividing Americans are reconcilable.
′...a welcome addition to the literature in the rapidly expanding field of sports studies. It is up to date, comprehensive, and well and clearly written. Though primarily sociological in its orientation, it will help students -postgraduate and undergraduate alike and their teachers as well - to establish connections between the various sub-disciplines and guide them to sources which will enable them to probe issues more deeply... It is a beautifully crafted book and is sure to be a hit with students and their teachers. It would not surprise me in the least, however, if it appealed to sports lovers more generally... It is a tour de force and I recommend it unreservedly′ - Eric Dunning, Professor in Sociology, The Centre for the Sociology of Sport, University of Leicester Sports studies is one of the fastest growing fields in higher education today. The SAGE Dictionary of Sports Studies brings a timely, much-needed and comprehensive tool for all students in this multi-disciplinary field. Each entry provides a basic definition, a guide to research themes and a clear account of the relevance of the concept in understanding sport. Not only indispensable for quick clarification of terms, it will give students a springboard for more in-depth research and critical analysis. It offers: " Cross referencing to assist critical thinking " A list of key readings for each entry " Expert definitions drawn from sociology, history, psychology, economics, management and business, politics and policy, physical education and health, and research methods. " Concise, student-friendly and authoritative entries. Covering sociology, history, psychology, politics, business, physical education, health and research methods, The SAGE Dictionary of Sports Studies provides the first one-stop reference guide for all students who study the social aspects of sport.
This text begins with the essentials, advancing to applications and studies of physical disciplines, including classical and irreversible thermodynamics, electrodynamics, and the theory of gauge fields. Geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students, it develops most of the theory and requires only a familiarity with upper-division algebra and mathematical analysis. "Essential." — SciTech Book News. 1985 edition.
White males, 100 million strong, constitute approximately 35 percent of the U.S. population, a percentage that declines slightly each year. They matter very much to discussions of race, ethnicity, and gender in the US due to their numbers and the enormous influence they have wielded—and continue to wield. In this highly original and readable work, Dominic Pulera offers the broadest and most balanced treatment of the white male experience in America to date. He contends that virtually all white males are sharing the American dream with women and people of color, in response to the nation's changing demographics and the multicultural mindset that informs policies and attitudes in our nation. Some white males are sharing the dream voluntarily; others are doing so involuntarily. The author also explores the heterogeneity of white male America, taking into account such factors as age, ethnicity, ideology, social class, regional background, occupational status, and sexual orientation. This timely work relies on a broad range of sources, including extensive field research and hundreds of interviews along with the best primary and secondary sources available. It includes original historical treatments, discussion of contemporary dynamics, and comparative material that takes into account the experiences of peoples in other countries. In doing so, Pulera places white males in the context of America's ongoing transition from a predominantly white country to one where people of color are increasingly numerous and consequently becoming more visible. Dominic J. Pulera is an independent scholar who lectures and writes about issues related to race, ethnicity, and gender. In the wake of his first book, Visible Differences: Why Race Will Matter to Americans in the Twenty-First Century, he spoke at 13 universities on 4 continents and appeared on a one-hour segment of Book TV (C-Span). He has been a frequent guest on radio and television programs in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Globalizing Cricket examines the global role of the sport - how it developed and spread around the world. The book explores the origins of cricket in the eighteenth century, its establishment as England's national game in the nineteenth, the successful (Caribbean) and unsuccessful (American) diffusion of cricket as part of the development of the British Empire and its role in structuring contemporary identities amongst and between the English, the British and postcolonial communities. Whilst empirically focused on the sport itself, the book addresses broader issues such as social development, imperialism, race, diaspora and national identities. Tracing the beginnings of cricket as a 'folk game' through to the present, it draws together these different strands to examine the meaning and social significance of the modern game. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of sport in both colonial and post-colonial periods; the history and peculiarities of English national identity; or simply intrigued by the game and its history.
A dazzling account of the men (and occasional woman) who led the world’s empires, a book that probes the essence of leadership and power through the centuries and around the world. From the rise of Sargon of Akkad, who in the third millennium BCE ruled what is now Iraq and Syria, to the collapse of the great European empires in the twentieth century, the empire has been the dominant form of power in history. Dominic Lieven’s expansive book explores strengths and failings of the human beings who held those empires together (or let them crumble). He projects the power, terror, magnificence, and confidence of imperial monarchy, tracking what they had in common as well as what made some rise to glory and others fail spectacularly, and at what price each destiny was reached. Lieven’s characters—Constantine, Chinggis Khan, Trajan, Suleyman, Hadrian, Louis XIV, Maria Theresa, Peter the Great, Queen Victoria, and dozens more—come alive with color, energy, and detail: their upbringings, their loves, their crucial spouses, their dreadful children. They illustrate how politics and government are a gruelling business: a ruler needed stamina, mental and physical toughness, and self-confidence. He or she needed the sound judgement of problems and people which is partly innate but also the product of education and experience. A good brain was essential for setting priorities, weighing conflicting advice, and matching ends to needs. A diplomatically astute marriage was often even more essential. Emperors (and the rare empresses) could be sacred symbols, warrior kings, political leaders, chief executive officers of the government machine, heads of a family, and impresarios directing the many elements of "soft power" essential to any regime’s survival. What was it like to live and work in such an extraordinary role? What qualities did it take to perform this role successfully? Lieven traces the shifting balance among these elements across eras that encompass a staggering array of events from the rise of the world’s great religions to the scientific revolution, the expansion of European empires across oceans, the great twentieth century conflicts, and the triumph of nationalism over imperialism. The rule of the emperor may be over, but Lieven shows us how we live with its poltical and cultural legacies today.
This work is a doctrinal examination of war termination strategy and conflict resolution as a dependent pair, requiring a plan to achieve both in unison in advance of a fight. The necessity of a plan for conflict resolution should be intuitively obvious for policymakers, yet a survey of recent conflicts, including Afghanistan and Iraq, shows that not to be the case. Beyond Guns and Steel: A War Termination Strategy provides a practical approach to establishing a plan for war termination and conflict resolution before the bullets fly. In explaining the difference between strategy and policy, Colonel Dominic J. Caraccilo clarifies the most important, and often the most constraining, element of a nation's power—its resources. He posits that termination strategy and conflict resolution are interdependent and need to be included in conflict plans from the outset. Caraccilo's book fills a void in current strategy for the development of long-term plans that bring conflicts to timely and acceptable conclusions, providing a methodology that allows interagency requirements and resources for war termination to be defined, allocated, and employed effectively.
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