Military engineering Books

Book SynopsisThis book is a collection of papers given at the sixth biennial conference at the University of Reading held in March 2006, and is the fourth in the series Modern Studies in Property Law. The Reading conference has become well-known as a unique opportunity for property lawyers to meet and confer both formally and informally. This volume is a refereed and revised selection of the papers given there. It covers a broad range of topics of immediate importance, not only in domestic law but also on a worldwide scale.Table of ContentsI - Keynote Address 1. Reforming Housing Law: A Progress Report Martin Partington II - Law and Equity 2. Equitable Co-ownership: Proprietary Rights in Name Only? Martin Dixon 3. Why is the Law of Undue Influence so Hard to Understand and Apply? Graham Ferris 4. The Lie of the Land: Mortgage Law as Legal Fiction Gary Watt 5. Curbing the Enthusiasm of Finders Robin Hickey 6. Leases: Rethinking Possession against Vulnerable Groups Warren Barr 7. Reconciling Property Law and Social Security Law: Same Concepts, Different Meanings? Nicholas Hopkins and Emma Laurie III - Possession of Land 8. The Acquisition of Rights in Property by the Effluxion of Time Amy Goymour 9. An Adjudication Rule for Encroachment Disputes: Adverse Possession or a Building Encroachment Statute? Pamela O’Connor 10. de Soto Discovers the Prairies:Of Squatters and the Canadian West Bruce Ziff and Sean Ward IV - Property, Empire and Indigenous Title 11. Land Law and the Making of the British Empire Patrick McAuslan 12. Translating Native Title to Individual ‘Title’ in Australia: Are Real Property Forms and Indigenous Interests Reconcilable? Lee Godden and Maureen Tehan 13. Individual Title versus Collective Title in Australia: Reflections on the North American and New Zealand Experiences of Indigenous Title to Land M A Stephenson

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Book SynopsisThis Naval and Military Press series on military technology continues with this very important publication, which gives details of all ammunition in use by the British Army in 1936 With few exceptions, it covers ammunition, explosives and propellants in service just prior to the start of the Second World War.Every military historian, war gamer, re-enactor and reader should be familiar with the technology associated with the tactics, and this series of reprints aims to provide that information. No true, objective appreciation of tactical operations is possible without a basic knowledge of the weapons and ammunition being used at a specific point in time, and the series will serve as a continuing source of the relevant information.This volume looks in detail at explosives, cartridges, tubes and primers in detail. It also gives a treatment of projectiles, explaining the form of shells, and how they are designed for their purpose. There is a detailed examination of time fuses (the proximity fuse being still a dream in 1936). Small arms ammunition is described, as are grenades (including the famous Mills 36) and a section deals with military explosives.There is a wealth of illustration including many colour plates and the book is an essential to any study of the British Army and its equipment at the start of World War II.

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Book SynopsisIn an age in which fears about the future predominate (in the form of dystopias, ecological catastrophes and terrifying Sci-Fi scenarios), utopia is reappearing as the bearer of hope for the fate of humanity. Latin America has historically been a fertile ground where utopian projects, movements and experiments could take root and thrive, and this constitutes one of the regions major contributions to world history. Each of the thirteen authors who participate to this collective volume address a particular case or specific aspect of Latin American utopianism from colonial times to the present day. The relationship between utopia and America Latin America in particular has been a constant throughout the ages and helps to clarify both the concept of Utopia and of Latin America. The one cannot be understood without the other, from the book of Thomas More in 1516 to the present. Myths and legends of utopian content already proliferated at the time of the voyages of exploration, spurring on the conquistadors, while the knowledge gap about lands awaiting discovery was filled with stories about utopias. The America that the Spanish and Portuguese discovered became, from the sixteenth century onwards, a space in which it was possible to imagine the widest variety of forms of human coexistence. Utopias in Latin America reconsiders the sense and understanding of utopias in various historical frames: the discovery of indigenous cultures and their natural environments; the foundation of new towns and cities in a vast colonial territory considered as empty space in which it was possible to start afresh; the experimental communities of nineteenth-century utopian socialists and European exiled intellectuals; and the innovative formulae that attempts to get beyond twentieth-century capitalism.

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Book SynopsisIn an age in which fears about the future predominate (in the form of dystopias, ecological catastrophes and terrifying Sci-Fi scenarios), utopia is reappearing as the bearer of hope for the fate of humanity. Latin America has historically been a fertile ground where utopian projects, movements and experiments could take root and thrive, and this constitutes one of the regions major contributions to world history. Each of the thirteen authors who participate to this collective volume address a particular case or specific aspect of Latin American utopianism from colonial times to the present day. The relationship between utopia and America Latin America in particular has been a constant throughout the ages and helps to clarify both the concept of Utopia and of Latin America. The one cannot be understood without the other, from the book of Thomas More in 1516 to the present. Myths and legends of utopian content already proliferated at the time of the voyages of exploration, spurring on the conquistadors, while the knowledge gap about lands awaiting discovery was filled with stories about utopias. The America that the Spanish and Portuguese discovered became, from the sixteenth century onwards, a space in which it was possible to imagine the widest variety of forms of human coexistence. Utopias in Latin America reconsiders the sense and understanding of utopias in various historical frames: the discovery of indigenous cultures and their natural environments; the foundation of new towns and cities in a vast colonial territory considered as empty space in which it was possible to start afresh; the experimental communities of nineteenth-century utopian socialists and European exiled intellectuals; and the innovative formulae that attempts to get beyond twentieth-century capitalism.

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Book SynopsisWritten by a former Colonel of the Coldstream Guards, this book gives an account of the Crimean War generally, from its causes and beginnings to its conclusion after the long-delayed fall of Sebastopol. As such, it can be read with profit by the general reader as well as the student of military or regimental history.The first part sets the political scene for the war, detailing the inconclusive military operations in Bulgaria and Romania and the novel arrival of women nurses in a theatre of war as well as the ravages of disease. The second part deals with the allied invasion of the Crimean peninsula - making no effort to hide now ill-equipped and badly prepared the allies were - and the Battle of the Alma. Part III describes the beginnning of the long and weary siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Balaclava, with the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. Part IV is solely concerned with the bloody Battle of Inkerman in which the Guards took a major part and suffered heavy losses. Part V outlines the savage winter of 1854-55 in the Crimea, during which the scantily-clad British army suffered more from the weather than the enemy. In Part VI, Sebastopol is at last taken and finally, Part VII deals with the end of the war on March 30th 1856. There are five appendices, including Crimea casualty breakdowns of the Coldstreams and the British Army generally, and six maps.

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Book SynopsisThe covert, clandestine operations of the Special Air Service (SAS) regiment, from the jungles of Malaya, Borneo and Brunei to the deserts and mountains of the Middle East and Afghanistan have always been the focus of intense fascination, stoked by the regiment's 'closed' organization and secretive activities. However, no period of activity has remained more secret than the vital years in the immediate aftermath of World War II when the regiment seemingly expired, only to rise miraculously from the dead to fight communism in the Malaya Emergency. Tim Jones' fascinating history pieces together the evidence to show that while the Malaya Emergency re-established the SAS as a unique source of counter-guerilla expertise, the regiment was not disbanded in 1945 and was, in fact, covertly involved in the Greek Civil War of 1945-49, a war unmatched in savagery until the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s. Revealing important operational secrets and shedding new light on post-war history, this book will be essential reading for enthusiasts of military history, and those interested in the world of intelligence.Trade Review'Reveals a new insight into the undiscovered years in the history of the SAS - a must for those interested in the SAS.' - Bulletin of the Military Historical SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Dare All to Win All 1. Towards a New Beginning 2. A life-line: Greece 3. Fighting for Survival on Two Fronts 4. Fighting Insurgency on Two Fronts 5. The International Squadron: Bending the Rules in Greece 6. 'Too Funny to be True!': The Middle East Rangers (SAS) 7. Fighting for Corps Status 8. Korea: The War That Never Was? 9. Malaya: Hearts, Minds and Winged Dagger 10. The SAS Family Appendix - Deception in Malaya

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Book SynopsisInsecure Gulf examines how the concept of Arabian/Persian Gulf 'security' is evolving in response to new challenges that are increasingly non-military and longer-term. Food, water and energy security, managing and mitigating the impact of environmental degradation and climate change, addressing demographic pressures and the youth bulge and reformulating structural economic deficiencies, in addition to dealing with the fallout from progressive state failure in Yemen, require a broad, global and multi-dimensional approach to Gulf security. While 'traditional' threats from Iraq, Iran, nuclear proliferation and trans-national terrorism remain robust, these new challenges to Gulf security have the potential to strike at the heart of the social contract and redistributive mechanisms that bind state and society in the Arab oil monarchies. Consequently, Insecure Gulf explores the relationship between 'traditional' and 'new' security challenges and situates it within the changing political economy of the GCC states as they move at varying speeds toward post-oil structures of governance. It describes how regimes are anticipating and reacting to the shifting security paradigm, and contextualises these changes within the broader political, economic, social and demographic framework. It also argues that a holistic approach to security is necessary for regimes to renew their sources of legitimacy in a globalising world.Trade Review'Insecure Gulf' provides the first detailed assessment of the developments in the Persian Gulf sub-region in the post-oil era. It is the one of the few books of its kind not to be obsessed with the sub-region's energy riches, and in looking to highlight the uncertainties of a future from which oil income may not provide sufficient protection, warns of the sub-region's impending demographic, economic and environmental crises. Sympathetically written and meticulously researched, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen draws our attention to the dangers of a perfect storm forming in the Gulf Arab countries in which domestic challenges could combine with externally-induced security or economic shocks to expose these societies to crises of such magnitude that could test their very socio-political foundations. This is a must read. -- Anoush Ehteshami, Professor of International Relations at Durham UniversityKristian Coates Ulrichsen's absorbing book is rich in detail and profoundly incisive. It is brilliant in its analysis and masterful in scope, tackling the most important and toughest questions on security in the Gulf region. Fascinating, fluently written and insightful, 'Insecure Gulf' offers a genuinely original perspective on this important subject. This is compulsory and highly engaging reading. -- Dr Steven Wright, Department of International Affairs, Qatar University'Insecure Gulf' offers a broad-ranging yet consistently cogent survey of the major trends that threaten the stability of the Arab Gulf states at the present moment and in the foreseeable future. It highlights not only the concrete, material challenges that confront regimes in this part of the world but also the ideational dynamics that shape how strategic realities get interpreted and prioritized. And the book accomplishes this while remaining accessible to non-specialists. An enlightening tour d'horizon. -- Fred H. Lawson, Professor of Government, Mills College

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Book SynopsisAs the People's Republic's seemingly inexorable rise to economic and military power con-tinues, never has the need for a better grasp of Chinese strategic thought by the West been more acute. In Deciphering Sun Tzu, Derek Yuen seeks to reclaim for the reader the hidden contours and lost Chinese and Taoist con- texts of Sun Tzu's renowned treatise The Art of War, a literary classic and arguably one of the most influential books ever written. He also explains its historical, philosophical, strategic, and cross-cultural significance. His comprehensive analysis of Sun Tzu, based on close reading of the Chinese sources, also reconstructs the philosophy, Taoist methodology and worldview that effectively form the cornerstones of Chinese strategic thinking, which are arguably as relevant today as at any moment in history. Yuen's innovative reading and analysis of Sun Tzu within and from a Chinese context is a new way of approaching the strategic mas- ter's main concepts, which he compares with those of Clausewitz, Liddell-Hart and other Western strategists.Deciphering Sun Tzu offers illuminating analysis and contextualisation of The Art of War in a manner that has long been sought by Western readers and opens new means of getting to grips with Chinese strategic thought.Trade Review'Deciphering Sun Tzu is by far the best book on the subject in years. ... Yuen argues that the only way to read Sun Tzu is to understand the philosophical, historical, and cultural context behind The Art of War. ... Yuen's work reveals that Sun Tzu's treatise needs to be seen in the context of statecraft as a broader cultural artifact rather than in the narrower context of war or strategy'. -- Rob Johnson, Director of the Changing Character of War Programme, Oxford University, in The American Interest'Yuen puts Sun Tzu in context, identifying his debts to Chinese philosophy (particularly Taoism), providing historical background, guiding the reader through the key themes in his work, explaining common interpretations of it, and detailing its reception in the West. Yuen presents Sun Tzu's view of strategic thought as holistic and nonlinear. This is not a book for the faint-hearted or for those skeptical about Sun Tzu's approach to strategy. But anyone who wishes to understand Sun Tzu should not ignore it.' -- Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs'Taking the oldest and most enigmatic of military texts Derek Yuen boldly confronts questions of philosophy and strategic culture as no other contemporary interpreter of Sun Tzu has done before. In a quite extraordinary work of erudition he demonstrates both the continuing significance of The Art of War in Chinese thinking and why our continuing misreading of the text is proving so damaging to our understanding of Chinese thinking.' -- Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of The Improbable War: China, the US and the Logic of Great Power Conflict'Derek Yuen has produced a fascinating re-interpretation of Sun Tzu. He casts a wide philosophical-cultural net in his quest to capture the essence of this timeless Chinese classic of strategy.' -- Andrew Scobell, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation and author of China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March'Derek Yuen's exciting new book takes Sun Tzu studies to a new level. It goes beyond the existing translations of and commentaries on this canonical text to deploy its underlying, unique logic as it evolved through Daoist philosophy to serve as a foundation for developing a more comprehensive theory of strategic thought. It is a bold and profoundly philosophical attempt to rise above the familiar rationalisations of this antique text to register its seminal contribution to the holistic nature of Chinese thinking in its broadest sense.' -- Roger T. Ames, Professor of Philosophy, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawaii'Reading Deciphering Sun Tzu: How to Read the Art of War by Derek Yuen is very much a light bulb moment for commentators on Western strategic thought.' -- LSE Review of Books

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Book SynopsisRebooting Clausewitz offers an entirely new take on the work of history's greatest theorist of war. Written for an undergraduate readership that often struggles with Clausewitz's master work On War--a book that is often considered too philosophical and impenetrably dense--it seeks to unpack some of Clausewitz's key insights on theory and strategy. In three fictional interludes Clausewitz attends a seminar at West Point; debates the War on Terror at a Washington think tank; and visits a Robotics Institute in Santa Fe where he discusses how scientists are reshaping the future of war. Three separate essays situate Clausewitz in the context of his times, discuss his understanding of the culture of war, and the extent to which two other giants--Thucydides and Sun Tzu--complement his work. Some years ago the philosopher W.B. Gallie argued that Clausewitz needed to be 'saved from the Clausewitzians'. Clausewitz doesn't need saving and his commentators have contributed a great deal to our understanding of On War's seminal status as a text. But too often they tend to conduct a conversation between themselves. This book is an attempt to let a wider audience into the conversation.Trade Review'Christopher Coker answers the question of Clausewitz's relevance to the twenty-first Century by imagining the great master justifying his theories to modern audiences. His approach is engaging, illuminating and a bit mischievous. * Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London, author of Strategy: A History *'Is Clausewitz still relevant for the twenty first century? In this bravura and scintillatingly written study, Christopher Coker argues for a powerful yes. Mixing acute analysis and thought provoking imagined dialogues and fictional recreations of Clausewitz's discussion with his friends, Coker has produced a gem of a book, illuminating brilliantly for the twenty first century the originality and genius of both Clausewitz and On War.' * Nicholas Rengger, Professor of Political Theory and International Relations, University of St Andrews *'An evocative and entertaining excursion that reveals not only what Coker thinks about Clausewitz, but also what he thinks about several of the leading institutions that help shape strategic thinking in the US and UK today.' * Antulio J. Echevarria II, Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies, US Army War College *'Arguing about Clausewitz remains a vital exercise in thinking about conflict. Coker's study will help students grasp his main concepts, and to argue afresh over the Prussian's ideas, life and legacy, and the conflicting ways to interpret his work. Clausewitz's mind was restless and argumentative, and Coker imagines him intervening in the debates of our time. Coker, like Bassford, Herberg-Rothe, Paret and Strachan helps bring Clausewitz back from stale doctrinal arguments, as a source of wisdom in times of war.' * Patrick Porter, Professor of Strategic Studies, University of Exeter, and author of The Global Village Myth: Distance, War and the Limits of Power *

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Book SynopsisNicholas Rogers' book gives the reader a detailed and illuminating insight into the world and ways of the press gang. The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away to a harsh life at sea, sometimes for years at a time. Nicholas Rogers explains exactly how the press gang worked, whom it was aimed at and how successful it was in achieving its ends. He also shows the limits to its operations and the press gang's need for cooperation from local authorities, who were by no means prepared to support it. Written by an expert in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain, it is both well-researched and highly readable.Trade Review"The Press Gang was a pleasure to read. Rogers has done his research, consulting a variety of primary sources including Admiralty records, numerous newspapers of the period and pamphlets. He places the press gang and community resistance to their activities in a new light, and challenges the prevailing historiography of British naval history by bringing this story to light. By examining the violent practices of the Navy, and the British government's support of them, Rogers has transcended the prevailing heroic interpretation of naval history." -Donald H. Parkerson, Nautical Research Journal, Vol. 54, June 2009"Detailed and illuminating insight into the world and ways of the press gang" Bookseller Buyers GuideMention -Book News, February 2009"The great strength of this book is Roger's ability to link impressment, which only a small demographic can define and discuss, to larger social issues...Rogers has done much to illuminate the ways in which human agency constrained the expansion of coercive, government-sponsored military conscription throughout much of the British Atlantic World. He is to be applauded for refusing to yield the human spirit to ubiquitous structural forces associated with legal, political, and military institutions such as impressment." -Christopher P. Magra, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, 2009"[Rogers] should be commended for his efforts. This volume reads easily and makes a major contribution to the literature on civil-naval relations." -Keith Mercer, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 21, 2009Table of ContentsIntroduction; Impressment and the Law; Resisting the Press gang: Trends, Patterns, Dynamics; Spotlight on Two Ports: Bristol and Liverpool; Manning the Navy in the Mid-century Atlantic; The Navy and the Nation, 1793-1820; Epilogue.

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Book SynopsisProbably the most famous tank of the World War II, the Tiger I was originally conceived in 1941 in response to the German Army's experience in fighting British tanks and anti-tank guns in Western Europe and the North African desert. Following the invasion of Russia, the appearance of the Soviet T-34 and KW tanks lent a further impetus to the programme. The Tiger's power and performance on the battlefield is emphasised by tables of relevant performance throughout the book, which clearly show the battlefield survivability of the Tiger and its superiority to many allied tank designs. This comprehensive and extremely detailed text is accompanied by a fine selection of black and white photographs showing the tank in use.Table of ContentsIntroduction · Design and Development · Production History · Production Modifications · Firepower · Mobility · Battlefield Survivability · Operational History ·

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Book SynopsisThis volume pulls together and republishes, with some editing, updating, and additions, articles written during 1978-86 for internal use within the CIA Directorate of Intelligence. The information is relatively timeless and still relevant to the never-ending quest for better analysis.The articles are based on reviewing cognitive psychology literature concerning how people process information to make judgments on incomplete and ambiguous information. Richard Heur has selected the experiments and findings that seem most relevant to intelligence analysis and most in need of communication to intelligence analysts. He then translates the technical reports into language that intelligence analysts can understand and interpreted the relevance of these findings to the problems intelligence analysts face.

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