A significant part of the Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, especially in 1864. Books and articles have been written about the fighting that took place there, but they generally cover only a small period of time and focus on a particular battle or campaign. This work covers the entire year of 1864 so that readers can clearly see how one event led to another in the Shenandoah Valley and turned once-peaceful garden spots into gory battlefields. It tells the stories of the great leaders, ordinary men, innocent civilians, and armies large and small taking part in battles at New Market, Chambersburg, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, but it primarily tells the stories of the soldiers, Union and Confederate, who were willing to risk their lives for their beliefs. The author has made extensive use of memoirs, letters and reports written by the soldiers of both sides who fought in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.
President Obama was elected on an anti-war platform, yet targeted killings have increased under his command of the 'War on Terror'. The US thinks of itself as upholding the rule of international law and spreading democracy, yet such targeted killings have been widely decried as extra-judicial violations of human rights. This book examines these paradoxes, arguing that they are partially explained by the application of existing legal standards to transnational wars. Critics argue that the kind of war the US claims to be waging - transnational armed conflict - doesn't actually exist. McDonald analyses the concept of transnational war and the legal interpretations that underpin it, and argues that the Obama administration's adherence to the rule of law produces a status quo of violence that is in some ways more disturbing than the excesses of the Bush administration. America's interpretations of sovereignty and international law shape and constitute war itself, with lethal consequences for the named and anonymous persons that it unilaterally defines as participants. McDonald's analysis helps us understand the social and legal construction of legitimate violence in warfare, and the relationship between legal opinions formed in US government departments and acts of violence half a world away.
This study offers a concise yet comprehensive account of Israel's history as told through the lives of nine of its leading citizens and founders. Each chapter chronicles a critical epoch in the Israeli saga and catalogs the impact made on that epoch by one of nine leading protagonists--Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon. The result is a narrative that traces events from the genesis of modern political Zionism in the late 19th century to the present. A tapestry of history, biography and myth deconstruction, this volume provides a distinctive introduction to a nation that--whether it inspires pride or incites passions--never ceases to fascinate.
An “indispensable” (Chicago Tribune) collection of more than sixty previously unpublished works from Jack Kerouac, ranging from stories and poems to plays and excerpts of novels “Fascinating . . . provides a poignant picture of a life brimming with promise.”—The Boston Globe Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his classic On the Road, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. Atop an Underwood brings together works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two years old, including an excerpt from The Sea Is My Brother. These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years and reflect his primary literary influences, including the source of his spontaneous prose style. Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac’s development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics alike.
In this volume of The Wild West, Drake tells stories about the squattocracy, the cattle kings and the land barons; mounted police, sheriffs and posses in the pursuit of their elusive prey; bushrangers and outlaws and why they are so loved in popular fantasy; stockmen, ringers and cowboys; early white settlement and both friendly and hostile contact with indigenous peoples; and six shooters, gun slingers, snider rifles and infamous shoutouts.
Jack Sheldon examines the German mindset at the close of 1914 when it became apparent that a quick victory was no longer a possibility. Both sides were temporarily exhausted in static positions from the Channel to the Swiss Border. In a reversal of roles, the French launched major offensives in Champagne and Artois, while the British Army, adapting to the demands of large scale continental warfare, went on the offensive in support at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos.Such was the Allied pressure that the only German offensive in 1915 was at Ypres in April using gas on a large scale for the first time.1915 was a transitional year on the Western Front with lessons being learned the hard way by both sides prior to the massive attritional battles of 1916 and 1917.Using his skill at archival research, Sheldon describes how the 1915 experience shaped the German approach to the cataclysmic battles that lay ahead, leading to the ultimate, previously unthinkable defeat of the Kaisers Germany.
What if you could make things vanish, purely with a simple effort of your mind? What would you do? Who would want to control that power? Jack Cady, in The Man Who Could Make Things Vanish, releases a long pent-up everyman rage against a system that is designed to terrorize, inhumanize, and degrade the human experience. The secret organization behind this villainy is given a name here—Mobilier—and the only thing that can stop it from complete world domination is one man. Cady, an outspoken critic of the military industrial complex and over-reaching government action, turns his considerable talents to pose a scathing “What if?” that is still terrifyingly relevant and cautionary today as it was when the book was first released twenty years ago. This edition includes an introduction by Dale Bailey, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award.
This splendid volume does more than reinstate Jack London as a leading voice of the American cultural left. Jonah Raskin documents how London struggled to reconcile his political and his personal desires, creating memorable art but failing to save himself. One of the world's most popular writers comes alive, in all his passion and agony."—Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan "Interest in Jack London never flags. This first-rate anthology places London at the epicenter of the American radical tradition."—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California "In this well conceptualized anthology, Jonah Raskin has resurrected works that have been unavailable for decades, making The Radical Jack London a very timely presence for the twenty-first century. Raskin's own writing is forceful and engaging, and he is unblinkingly honest about London as person and as writer, never succumbing to romanticizing or whitewashing the picture of either."—H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies, Rutgers University "Jack London always knew how to bang a righteous drum of social indignation, and in The Radical Jack London he can make your heart pound even today."—Paul Berman, author of Power and the Idealists and editor of Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems
After the great battles of 1916, the Allied Armies planned to launch massive attacks North and South of the Somme. The German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917 forced the new French CinC General Nivelle to rethink and the French embarked on a major attack in the Aisne area and along the Chemin des Dames, with the British conducting large scale diversionary operations around Arras. The French suffered disastrously and, rendered incapable of further offensive operations, it fell to the British to step up the pressure, which they did albeit at a terrible price. This latest work by expert Jack Sheldon describes the event of Spring 1917 from the defenders' perspective. In particular it reveals the methods the Germans used to smash the French attacks and Oberst Fritz von Lossberg's transformation of the defences in the Arras front. Actions described in detail are the bitter battles around Monchy Le Preun, the Roeux Chemical works and Bullecourt as well as the capture of Vimy Ridge.
America's first great civil war battle took place on a hill in South Carolina...more than a quarter-century before Robert E. Lee was born. A pair of Presidents and their First Ladies repose side by side for all eternity in the undercroft of a Massachusetts church. America's most dramatic case of treason played out along the banks of New York's Hudson River where barges and yachts now pass. One of Florida's fabled keys hosts an annual festival that draws throngs...yet no one lives on the island any other day of the year. These are but four examples of classic Americana tucked away in hidden nooks, secret pockets of historical, cultural, and human interest unknown to most Americans. If you know where to look, you can enter a colorful, extravagant, gaudily lighted Christmas village in Pennsylvania such as you've never seen before. And if you're in the right place in Washington, you can visit a cemetery containing the grave of one of America's most famous Native Americans and choke up at the affecting personal tributes to ordinary everyday Indians that surround it. In the middle of Minnesota you can tour an iron ore mine so real you almost forget it's fake. On the banks of the Ohio River in Illinois you can enter a huge cave whose dark, eerie recesses once enticed travelers, naturalists, and America's first serial killers. In Hawaii you can descend a hidden, unimproved trail to one of the Pacific's most enchanting bays and walk along the shore where the world's greatest explorer was killed. In Alaska you can walk up to a glacier whose enormity will overwhelm you and then hike across it and taste its icy wetness. These are not famous places. They are, rather, obscure, unheralded, little-visited corners of America waiting to tempt you. Welcome to "Arcane America: 101 of the Best Places You Never Heard Of," a compilation of some of the least-known, most-interesting sites in the United States: a Connecticut prison where inmates served their time chained to the bowels of a deserted copper mine; a rural Iowa county that spawned America's greatest western actor and a sextet of covered bridges; a New Jersey miniature kingdom whose beauty and artistry killed its creator; a New York county where you can ride the largest number of free carousels anywhere in the world; a temple of gold to one of the world's most misunderstood religions in the rolling hills of West Virginia; a medical museum in the nation's capital where you'll see pickled fetuses, radical human deformities, and bits of Abraham Lincoln's skull. There are no Statues of Liberty, Disneyworlds, or Grand Canyons in this collection of some of America's most unusual and anonymous delights. Many have never before been written of, except in regional publications of limited scope and circulation. Almost all are virtually unknown outside their immediate vicinities or states. You may find yourself recognizing a particular name, cultural relationship, or historical fact here or there, but you'll probably not know the whole story. Included in the 101 destinations covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia are battlefields, graves, miniature worlds, scenic drives and hikes, natural formations and curiosities, national and state parks, mansions, historic sites, nature and wildlife preserves, deserted islands, Indian reservations, gardens, inexplicable mysteries, religious shrines, museums honoring traditional accomplishments and one-of-a-kind eccentricities, reconstructed villages, manufacturing sites, underground worlds, hidden sites in the middle of nowhere, and corners of forgotten importance within America's largest city. Some are breathtakingly beautiful; others are frighteningly bizarre. All are memorably unique. Legendary figures stand shoulder to shoulder with those whom time has forgotten: Buffalo Bill Cody and his mountaintop resting place; William Gillette and his quirky castle; Franklin D.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.