Operation Ransac - Conspiracy is the true account of what happened to Eric R. Biddle, the same author of this book, at the hands of the Toronto Police starting in late October 1986. The book retraces the horrendous conditions he was exposed to in a year and a half of wrongful custody before sentencing. Also covered are the attempts on his life orchestrated by the police during the eight years and a half of custody. But the most interesting coverage is the actual criminal conspiracy to convict and silence him about the shocking investigation of the African National Congress or ANC in Canada. The other amazing aspect of the Eric R. Biddle story is that there was, and continues to be, a total media blackout on him. Biddle was falsely accused of attacking women and later decided to flee from Canada to Spain first and then to Finland, a true democracy. Biddle was finally cleared of criminal charges in July 2018. Eric R. Biddle was born on February 28,1950 in Vancouver, Canada. As a young man near Montreal he was very good at sports, but had to work hard at studies. After high school his parents encouraged him to distance himself from the bad influence of one friend. So, he accepted the offer of UBC in Vancouver and enrolled at age 17. After a year he returned east to study at Queens in Kingston, Ontario. During his four years at Queens he lived with his family for economic reasons. His summer jobs paid for tuition. After seven years working in the textile field for DuPont he resigned and moved to British Columbia. There he worked as a teacher. Seeking a better life he moved to Zimbabwe for some time. The poor conditions and bleak future of Africa decided him to return to Canada. This is the time when he got involved in intelligence work. After being wrongly imprisoned for eight and a half years, he fled Canada first to Spain and then to Finland, a true democracy. Teaching gave him an income in both countries. Now he enjoys writing.
World War I, given all the rousing “Over-There” songs and in-the-trenches films it inspired, was, at its outset, surprisingly unpopular with the American public. As opposition increased, Woodrow Wilson’s presidential administration became intent on stifling antiwar dissent. Wilson effectively silenced the National Civil Liberties Bureau, forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union. Presidential candidate Eugene Debs was jailed, and Deb’s Socialist Party became a prime target of surveillance operations, both covert and overt. Drastic as these measures were, more draconian measures were to come. In his absorbing new book, Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent During World War I, Eric Chester reveals that out of this turmoil came a heated public discussion on the theory of civil liberties – the basic freedoms that are, theoretically, untouchable by any of the three branches of the U.S. government. The famous “clear and present danger” argument of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the “balance of conflicting interest” theory of law professor Zechariah Chafee, for example, evolved to provide a rationale for courts to act as a limited restraint on autocratic actions of the government. But Chester goes further, to examine an alternative theory: civil liberties exist as absolute rights, rather than being dependent on the specific circumstances of each case. Over the years, the debate about the right to dissent has intensified and become more necessary. This fascinating book explains why, a century after the First World War – and in the era of Trump – we need to know about this.
The Bank of the United States sparked several rounds of intense debate over the meaning of the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause, which authorizes the federal government to make laws that are “necessary” for exercising its other powers. Our standard account of the national bank controversy, however, is incomplete. The controversy was much more dynamic than a two-sided debate over a single constitutional provision and was shaped as much by politics as by law. With Reconstructing the National Bank Controversy, Eric Lomazoff offers a far more robust account of the constitutional politics of national banking between 1791 and 1832. During that time, three forces—changes within the Bank itself, growing tension over federal power within the Republican coalition, and the endurance of monetary turmoil beyond the War of 1812 —drove the development of our first major debate over the scope of federal power at least as much as the formal dimensions of the Constitution or the absence of a shared legal definition for the word “necessary.” These three forces—sometimes alone, sometimes in combination—repeatedly reshaped the terms on which the Bank’s constitutionality was contested. Lomazoff documents how these three dimensions of the polity changed over time and traces the manner in which they periodically led federal officials to adjust their claims about the Bank’s constitutionality. This includes the emergence of the Coinage Clause—which gives Congress power to “coin money, regulate the value thereof”—as a novel justification for the institution. He concludes the book by explaining why a more robust account of the national bank controversy can help us understand the constitutional basis for modern American monetary politics.
This book discusses the present-day significance of the Supreme Court's partially discredited, yet never overruled, 1944 decision upholding the constitutional validity of the mass Japanese American exclusion leading to indefinite incarceration. It charts policymakers' and judges' "chameleonic deployment" of the muddled high court ruling alternatively to legitimate or to reject present-day security actions that undercut fundamental rights to freedom, association, religious choice, due process, and equality - rights of immigrants and citizens, protestors and justice organizations, worshippers, and journalists.
An award-winning Civil War historian’s profile of the brilliant Union cavalry officer and the strategies he employed to prevent catastrophe at Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg turned the tide of the Civil War. But the outcome of the decisive confrontation between North and South might have been dramatically different if not for the actions of Brig. Gen. John Buford, commander of the Union army’s First Cavalry Division. An award-winning chronicler of America’s War between the States and author of more than a dozen acclaimed works of historical scholarship, Eric J. Wittenberg now focuses on the iconic commanding officer known to his troops as “Honest John” and “Old Steadfast.” Wittenberg describes in fascinating detail the brilliant maneuvers Buford undertook to keep Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army at bay and later rescue what remained of the devastated First and Eleventh Corps.”The Devil’s to Pay” celebrates the stunning military achievements of an unparalleled tactical genius at the onset of the Gettysburg Campaign and paints an unforgettable portrait of a quiet, unassuming cavalryman who recognized a possible disaster in the making and took bold action to avert it. Based on a wealth of information from primary sources, “The Devil’s to Pay” includes pages of illustrations, maps, and photographs, as well as a walking and driving tour of the battlefield sites where America’s history was made at a staggeringly high cost in blood. A comprehensive tactical study that is both scholarly and eminently accessible, it is an essential addition to the library of any Civil War enthusiast.
An award-winning cavalry historian shares a myth-busting look at how the Union cavalry surpassed its Confederate counterpart and helped win the Civil War. The Army of the Potomac’s mounted units suffered early in the Civil War at the hands of the horsemen of the South. However, by 1863, the Federal cavalry had evolved into a fearsome fighting machine. Despite the numerous challenges occupying officers and politicians, as well as the harrowing existence of troopers in the field, the Northern cavalry helped turn the tide of war much earlier than is generally acknowledged. In this expertly researched volume, historian Eric J. Wittenberg describes how the Union cavalry became the largest, best-mounted, and best-equipped force of horse soldiers the world had ever seen. The 1863 consolidation of numerous scattered Federal units created a force to be reckoned with—a single corps ten thousand strong. Wittenberg’s research thoroughly debunks the narrative that the Confederate “cavaliers” were the superior force.
Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world's most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of an estimated thirty thousand Nazi war criminals after the Second World War, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America's pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies--both successful and unsuccessful--that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades--all in the name of international justice and human rights. In this exhaustively researched and compelling written work of political and judicial history, the authors argue that while the legal and operational regimes needed to apprehend and deliver suspected war criminals to justice are largely in place, the political will on the part of states to make arrests happen in a consistent and apolitical manner remains elusive. And until this situation is rectified, murderers will get away with murder, and torturers will retire with pensions"--Provided by publisher.
One of the Washington Post's Top Nonfiction Titles of 2001 In the spring of 1942, the federal government forced West Coast Japanese Americans into detainment camps on suspicion of disloyalty. Two years later, the government demanded even more, drafting them into the same military that had been guarding them as subversives. Most of these Americans complied, but Free to Die for Their Country is the first book to tell the powerful story of those who refused. Based on years of research and personal interviews, Eric L. Muller re-creates the emotions and events that followed the arrival of those draft notices, revealing a dark and complex chapter of America's history.
In a study developed from his 1997 Ph.D. dissertation for the State University of New York-Buffalo, Banking and Politics in New York, 1784-1829, Wright (money and banking, U. of Virginia) investigates why American banking arose when it did and with the particular characteristics it did. c. Book News Inc.
Operation Ransac - Conspiracy is the true account of what happened to Eric R. Biddle, the same author of this book, at the hands of the Toronto Police starting in late October 1986. The book retraces the horrendous conditions he was exposed to in a year and a half of wrongful custody before sentencing. Also covered are the attempts on his life orchestrated by the police during the eight years and a half of custody. But the most interesting coverage is the actual criminal conspiracy to convict and silence him about the shocking investigation of the African National Congress or ANC in Canada. The other amazing aspect of the Eric R. Biddle story is that there was, and continues to be, a total media blackout on him. Biddle was falsely accused of attacking women and later decided to flee from Canada to Spain first and then to Finland, a true democracy. Biddle was finally cleared of criminal charges in July 2018. Eric R. Biddle was born on February 28,1950 in Vancouver, Canada. As a young man near Montreal he was very good at sports, but had to work hard at studies. After high school his parents encouraged him to distance himself from the bad influence of one friend. So, he accepted the offer of UBC in Vancouver and enrolled at age 17. After a year he returned east to study at Queens in Kingston, Ontario. During his four years at Queens he lived with his family for economic reasons. His summer jobs paid for tuition. After seven years working in the textile field for DuPont he resigned and moved to British Columbia. There he worked as a teacher. Seeking a better life he moved to Zimbabwe for some time. The poor conditions and bleak future of Africa decided him to return to Canada. This is the time when he got involved in intelligence work. After being wrongly imprisoned for eight and a half years, he fled Canada first to Spain and then to Finland, a true democracy. Teaching gave him an income in both countries. Now he enjoys writing.
Joaquín Sorolla (born in Valencia 1863 - died in Cercedilla 1923) is one of the most successful Spanish painters ever. He was a genius in capturing the essence of the scene he was painting. In Joaquín Sorolla Portraits 3 1911 -1920 Sorolla paints still paints many important portraits although in the course of preparing for his grand masterpiece "The Vision of Spain", which hangs in the Hispanic Society of America, he did not have the same amount of time available. Sorolla also indulged in painting gardens as relaxation from the gigantic "The Vision of Spain" project. The portraits provide a deep and interesting look into both American and Spanish society in this period. In his early years Sorolla often showed social realism, in his culmination period showed the increasingly wealthy sitters that came to him and in his final period he is a celebrated portraitist of rich Americans and a cultural and political elite in Spain.
Race, Rights and National Security: Law and the Japanese American Incarceration is both a comprehensive resource and course book that uses the lens of the WWII imprisonment of Japanese Americans to explore the danger posed when the country sacrifices the rule of law in the name of national security. Following an historical overview of the Asian American legal experience as unwanted minorities, the book examines the infamous Supreme Court cases that upheld the orders leading to the mass incarceration and their later reopening in coram nobis proceedings that proved the government lied to the Court. With that foundation, the book explores the continued frightening relevance of those cases, including how racial and religious minorities continue to be harmed in the name of national security and the threat to democracy when courts fail to act as a check on their co-equal branches of government. New to the Third Edition: An entirely new section, which views the recent targeting of religious minorities through the lens of the Japanese American incarceration, including the Muslim travel ban case of Trump v. Hawaii, which purported to overrule Korematsu v. United States. A continuous inquiry throughout the book regarding the role of courts in reviewing government actions taken in the name of national security, the tensions inherent in identifying that role, the potential cost of excessive court deference, and a proposed method for judicial review of national security-based government actions. Updated text, including revisions that tailor the book’s content to its revised focus on national security, enhanced discussions of early anti-Asian exclusionary laws and Ex Parte Endo; recent events raising parallels to the Japanese American incarceration, such as the incarceration of immigrants and family separation at the southern border and the continued negative stereotyping of Asian Americans. Augmented discussion of ethical rules in relation to misconduct by government lawyers during World War II. Professors and students will benefit from: A succinct overview of Asian American legal history An overarching narrative that takes the reader from early anti-Asian discriminatory laws to the wartime Japanese American incarceration to today, interweaving carefully contextualized case law with questions, original government and litigation documents, oral histories, commentary, and photographs to stimulate class discussion. A focus on both the legal and non-legal issues surrounding the Japanese American incarceration, so that readers consider how the legal system, the law, and players within the legal system act within a broader milieu of politics, economics, and culture. The ability to understand law and the legal system in a way that is both interdisciplinary and that crosses different areas of law. The book treats subjects such as race relations and critical race theory; constitutional, criminal, and national security law; criminal and civil procedure; professional ethics; evidence; legal history; and lawyering practice. A professor in the area of constitutional law, for example, might excerpt relevant portions of the book to supplement the standard, typically decontextualized case law treatment of the Korematsu and Hirabayashi cases. At the same time, this book explores these and other cases in their historical and political context and addresses the law’s real human impact. Finally, the story of the Japanese American incarceration provides a powerful starting place for students to discuss a range of present-day issues regarding stereotypes and profiling, government restraint on liberties, national protectionism, and civic responsibility. If teaching at its best is about engaging students’ hearts and minds, and provoking stimulating debate, these materials are designed to facilitate just that.
This book is a judicial, military and political history of the period 1941 to 1954. As such, it is also a United States legal history of both World War II and the early Cold War. Civil liberties, mass conscription, expanded military jurisdiction, property rights, labor relations, and war crimes arising from the conflict were all issues to come before the federal judiciary during this period and well beyond since the Supreme Court and the lower courts heard appeals from the government’s wartime decisions well into the 1970s. A detailed study of the judiciary during World War II evidences that while the majority of the justices and judges determined appeals partly on the basis of enabling a large, disciplined, and reliable military to either deter or fight a third world war, there was a recognition of the existence of a tension between civil rights and liberties on the one side and military necessity on the other. While the majority of the judiciary tilted toward national security and deference to the military establishment, the judiciary’s recognition of this tension created a foundation for persons to challenge governmental narrowing of civil and individual rights after 1954. Kastenberg and Merriam present a clearer picture as to why the Court and the lower courts determined the issues before them in terms of external influences from both national and world-wide events. This book is also a study of civil-military relations in wartime so whilst legal scholars will find this study captivating, so will military and political historians, as well as political scientists and national security policy makers.
Scott L. Mingus Sr. and Eric J. Wittenberg, the authors of more than forty Civil War books, have once again teamed up to present a history of the opening moves of the Gettysburg Campaign in the two-volume study “If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania”: The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg. This compelling study is one of the first to integrate the military, media, political, social, economic, and civilian perspectives with rank-and-file accounts from the soldiers of both armies as they inexorably march toward their destiny at Gettysburg. This first installment covers June 3–21, 1863, while the second, spanning June 22–30, completes the march and carries the armies to the eve of the fighting. Gen. Robert E. Lee began moving part of his Army of Northern Virginia from the Old Dominion toward Pennsylvania on June 3, 1863. Lee believed his army needed to win a major victory on Northern soil if the South was to have a chance at winning the war. Transferring the fighting out of war-torn Virginia would allow the state time to heal while he supplied his army from untapped farms and stores in Maryland and the Keystone State. Lee had also convinced Pres. Jefferson Davis that his offensive would interfere with the Union effort to take Vicksburg in Mississippi. The bold movement would trigger extensive cavalry fighting and a major battle at Winchester before culminating in the bloody three-day battle at Gettysburg. As the Virginia army moved north, the Army of the Potomac responded by protecting the vital roads to Washington, D.C., in case Lee turned to threaten the capital. Opposing presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, meanwhile, kept a close watch on the latest and often conflicting military intelligence gathered in the field. Throughout northern Virginia, central Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania, meanwhile, civilians and soldiers alike struggled with the reality of a mobile campaign and the massive logistical needs of the armies. Thousands left written accounts of the passage of the long martial columns. Mingus and Wittenberg mined hundreds of primary accounts, newspapers, and other sources to produce this powerful and gripping account. As readers will quickly learn, much of it is glossed over in other studies of the campaign, which cannot be fully understood without a firm appreciation of what the armies (and civilians) did on their way to the small crossroads town in Pennsylvania.
The very best firms today are poietic organizations; that is, they are exceptional at streamlining the processes of ideation, creation, and production. These poietic organizations do two things well: They design and develop high power teams, and they create an organizational culture and context that supports improvisation, design, experimentation, aesthetic awareness, and strengths development. Great teams exhibit the same characteristics—trust, commitment, and energy. Inside you’ll learn how to design and develop creative high power teams and organizations by first assessing team member strengths using personality factors and multiple intelligences theory. Following these assessments, how to best represent and share this information to promote team development is illustrated, while examining three types of high performance teams—improvisational, design, and research teams. The second half of this book focuses on the major models upon which organizations are built, the pros and cons of these choices, and strategy. Using current research, examples and cases, the author articulates ways to transform your organization into a high power and poietic organization.
The classic social history of the Great English Agricultural Uprising of 1839 by two of the greatest historians of our age. In our increasingly mechanized age, the Swing revolts are a timely record of the relationship between technological advance, labour and poverty.With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism swept from the cities into the countryside, and tensions mounted between agricultural workers and employers. From 1830 on, a series of revolts, known as the ‘Swing’ shook England to its core. Landowners wanting to make their land more profitable started to use machinery to harvest crops, causing widespread misery among rural communities. Captain Swing reveals the background to that upheaval, from its rise to its fall, and shines a light on the people who tried to change the world and save their livelihoods.
The titanic three-day battle of Gettysburg left 50,000 casualties in its wake, a battered Southern army far from its base of supplies, and a rich historiographic legacy. Thousands of books and articles cover nearly every aspect of the battle, but not a single volume focuses on the military aspects of the monumentally important movements of the armies to and across the Potomac River. One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863 is the first detailed military history of Lee's retreat and the Union effort to catch and destroy the wounded Army of Northern Virginia. Against steep odds and encumbered with thousands of casualties, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee's post-battle task was to successfully withdraw his army across the Potomac River. Union commander George G. Meade's equally difficult assignment was to intercept the effort and destroy his enemy. The responsibility for defending the exposed Southern columns belonged to cavalry chieftain James Ewell Brown (Jeb) Stuart. If Stuart fumbled his famous ride north to Gettysburg, his generalship during the retreat more than redeemed his flagging reputation. The ten days of retreat triggered nearly two dozen skirmishes and major engagements, including fighting at Granite Hill, Monterey Pass, Hagerstown, Williamsport, Funkstown, Boonsboro, and Falling Waters. President Abraham Lincoln was thankful for the early July battlefield victory, but disappointed that General Meade was unable to surround and crush the Confederates before they found safety on the far side of the Potomac. Exactly what Meade did to try to intercept the fleeing Confederates, and how the Southerners managed to defend their army and ponderous 17-mile long wagon train of wounded until crossing into western Virginia on the early morning of July 14, is the subject of this study One Continuous Fight draws upon a massive array of documents, letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and published primary and secondary sources. These long-ignored foundational sources allow the authors, each widely known for their expertise in Civil War cavalry operations, to describe carefully each engagement. The result is a rich and comprehensive study loaded with incisive tactical commentary, new perspectives on the strategic role of the Southern and Northern cavalry, and fresh insights on every engagement, large and small, fought during the retreat. The retreat from Gettysburg was so punctuated with fighting that a soldier felt compelled to describe it as "One Continuous Fight." Until now, few students fully realized the accuracy of that description. Complimented with 18 original maps, dozens of photos, and a complete driving tour with GPS coordinates of the entire retreat, One Continuous Fight is an essential book for every student of the American Civil War in general, and for the student of Gettysburg in particular. About the Authors: Eric J. Wittenberg has written widely on Civil War cavalry operations. His books include Glory Enough for All (2002), The Union Cavalry Comes of Age (2003), and The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads and the Civil War's Final Campaign (2005). He lives in Columbus, Ohio. J. David Petruzzi is the author of several magazine articles on Eastern Theater cavalry operations, conducts tours of cavalry sites of the Gettysburg Campaign, and is the author of the popular "Buford's Boys" website at www.bufordsboys.com. Petruzzi lives in Brockway, Pennsylvania. A long time student of the Gettysburg Campaign, Michael Nugent is a retired US Army Armored Cavalry Officer and the descendant of a Civil War Cavalry soldier. He has previously written for several military publications. Nugent lives in Wells, Maine.
This is a history of the California prison movement from 1950 to 1980, focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area's San Quentin State Prison and highlighting the role that prison reading and writing played in the creation of radical inmate ideology in those years. The book begins with the Caryl Chessman years (1948-60) and closes with the trial of the San Quentin Six (1975-76) and the passage of California's Determinate Sentencing Law (1977). This was an extraordinary era in the California prisons, one that saw the emergence of a highly developed radical convict resistance movement inside prison walls. This inmate groundswell was fueled at times by remarkable individual prisoners, at other times by groups like the Black Muslims or the San Quentin chapter of the Black Panther Party. But most often resistance grew from much wider sources and in quiet corners: from dozens of political study groups throughout the prison; from an underground San Quentin newspaper; and from covert attempts to organize a prisoners' union. The book traces the rise and fall of the prisoners' movement, ending with the inevitably bloody confrontation between prisoners and the state and the subsequent prison administration crackdown. The author examines the efforts of prison staff to augment other methods of inmate management by attempting to modify convict ideology by means of "bibliotherapy" and communication control, and describes convict resistance to these attempts as control. He also discusses how Bay Area political activists became intensely involved in San Quentin and how such writings as Chessman's Cell 2455, Cleaver's Soul on Ice, and Jackson's Soledad Brother reached far beyond prison walls to influence opinion, events, and policy.
The U.S. Army Before the War, Mobilization of Manpower, Building the American Expeditionary Forces, American Soldiers Begin Arriving, Men and Materiel, The AEF Joins the Fight
The U.S. Army Before the War, Mobilization of Manpower, Building the American Expeditionary Forces, American Soldiers Begin Arriving, Men and Materiel, The AEF Joins the Fight
This eBook edition of "U.S. Entering The Great War: 1917-1918" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. America's entry into the World War in April 1917 presented the United States Army with its greatest challenge in the nation's history. This book examines the U.S. Army's involvement in the Great War from the declaration of war on 6 April 1917 through the initial phase of the German Spring Offensive in March–April 1918. Finally, this book is enriched with the official documents of the U.S. Government from the Fist World War. Contents: Strategic Setting The U.S. Army Before the War American Military and Civilian Leadership The Amalgamation Debate Mobilization of Manpower Building the AEF, 1917 American Soldiers Begin Arriving Training the AEF Men and Materiel in the AEF The War Department: Challenges and Reform Strategic Crisis on the Western Front The AEF Joins the Fight Official Documents of the U.S. Government from the Great War Official Positions of Principal Persons Mentioned in the Correspondence The Continuation and Further Spread of the War—Efforts Toward Peace The Continuation of the War—Participation of the United States Neutral Rights Neutral Duties Belligerent Rights and Practice Other Problems and Responsibilities
This second edition of a major textbook uses lively prose and a series of carefully-crafted pedagogical features to both introduce sociology as a discipline and to help students realize how deeply sociological issues impact on their own lives. Over the book's 12 chapters, students discover what sociology is, alongside its historical development and emergent new concerns. They will be led through the theories that underpin the discipline and familiarized with what it takes to undertake good sociological research. Ultimately students will be led and inspired to develop their own sociological imagination – learning to question their own assumptions about the society, the culture and the world around them today. Historically, the majority of introductory sociology textbooks have run to many hundreds of pages, discouraging students from further reading. By contrast, Discovering Sociology has been carefully designed and developed as a true introduction, covering the key ideas and topics that first year undergraduate students need to engage with without sacrificing intellectual rigour. New to this Edition: - Two new chapters adding coverage on crime, deviance and political sociology - Updated examples, Vox Pops and case studies keep this new edition feeling fresh and contemporary and ensure diverse coverage, including from beyond Western sociology - Thoughtfully updated and refreshed layout and visual features. Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/discovering-sociology-2e. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.
Winner of the 2022 Civil War Books and Authors Book of the Year Award In Soldiers from Experience, Eric Michael Burke examines the tactical behavior and operational performance of Major General William T. Sherman’s Fifteenth US Army Corps during its first year fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Burke analyzes how specific experiences and patterns of meaning-making within the ranks led to the emergence of what he characterizes as a distinctive corps-level tactical culture. The concept—introduced here for the first time—consists of a collection of shared, historically derived ideas, beliefs, norms, and assumptions that play a decisive role in shaping a military command’s particular collective approach on and off the battlefield. Burke shows that while military historians of the Civil War frequently assert that generals somehow imparted their character upon the troops they led, Sherman’s corps reveals the opposite to be true. Contrary to long-held historiographical assumptions, he suggests the physical terrain itself played a much more influential role than rifled weapons in necessitating tactical changes. At the same time, Burke argues, soldiers’ battlefield traumas and regular interactions with southern civilians, the enslaved, and freedpeople during raids inspired them to embrace emancipation and the widespread destruction of Rebel property and resources. An awareness and understanding of this culture increasingly informed Sherman’s command during all three of his most notable late-war campaigns. Burke’s study serves as the first book-length examination of an army corps operating in the Western Theater during the conflict. It sheds new light on Civil War history more broadly by uncovering a direct link between the exigencies of nineteenth-century land warfare and the transformation of US wartime strategy from “conciliation,” which aimed to protect the property of Southern civilians, to “hard war.” Most significantly, Soldiers from Experience introduces a new theoretical construct of small unit–level tactical principles wholly absent from the rapidly growing interdisciplinary scholarship on the intricacies and influence of culture on military operations.
This “ambitious [and] delightful” (The New York Times) work of literary nonfiction interweaves the science and history of the powerful refrigerant (and dangerous greenhouse gas) Freon with a haunting meditation on how to live meaningfully and morally in a rapidly heating world. In After Cooling, Eric Dean Wilson braids together air-conditioning history, climate science, road trips, and philosophy to tell the story of the birth, life, and afterlife of Freon, the refrigerant that ripped a hole larger than the continental United States in the ozone layer. As he traces the refrigerant’s life span from its invention in the 1920s—when it was hailed as a miracle of scientific progress—to efforts in the 1980s to ban the chemical (and the resulting political backlash), Wilson finds himself on a journey through the American heartland, trailing a man who buys up old tanks of Freon stockpiled in attics and basements to destroy what remains of the chemical before it can do further harm. Wilson is at heart an essayist, looking far and wide to tease out what particular forces in American culture—in capitalism, in systemic racism, in our values—combined to lead us into the Freon crisis and then out. “Meticulously researched and engagingly written” (Amitav Ghosh), this “knockout debut” (New York Journal of Books) offers a rare glimpse of environmental hope, suggesting that maybe the vast and terrifying problem of global warming is not beyond our grasp to face.
This eBook edition of "American Army in World War I" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. A century ago, the great powers of Europe became engulfed in what was then called the Great War. The modern U.S. Army, capable of conducting industrialized warfare on a global scale, can trace its roots to the World War. Although the war's outbreak in August 1914 shocked most Americans, they preferred to keep the conflict at arm's length. In April 1917, the president, out of diplomatic options, asked Congress to declare war on Germany. By the end of 1918, the Army had grown to four million men and had trained 200,000 new officers to lead them. The United States will never forget the American soldiers who fought and died in the World War. To this day, memorials to their sacrifice can be found across America, and the date of the armistice has become a national holiday honoring all those who serve in defense of the nation. Contents: The U.S. Army in the World War I Era The Prewar Army, 1899–1917 At War After the Armistice The American Army and the Great War Joining the Great War April 1917– April 1918 Strategic Setting The U.S. Army Before the War American Military and Civilian Leadership The Amalgamation Debate Mobilization of Manpower Building the AEF, 1917 American Soldiers Begin Arriving Training the AEF Men and Materiel in the AEF The War Department: Challenges and Reform Strategic Crisis on the Western Front The AEF Joins the Fight Joining the World War I Strategic Setting The U.S. Army Before the War American Military and Civilian Leadership The Amalgamation Debate American Soldiers Begin Arriving Men and Materiel in the AEF The War Department: Challenges and Reform Strategic Crisis on the Western Front The AEF Joins the Fight Official Documents of the U.S. Government from the World War I
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