Modern warfare Books

3170 products


  • Assassination in Vichy

    University of Toronto Press Assassination in Vichy

    Book SynopsisDuring the night of 25 July 1941, assassins planted a time bomb in the bed of the former French Interior Minister, Marx Dormoy. The explosion on the following morning launched a two-year investigation that traced Dormoy’s murder to the highest echelons of the Vichy regime. Dormoy, who had led a 1937 investigation into the Cagoule, a violent right-wing terrorist organization, was the victim of a captivating revenge plot. Based on the meticulous examination of thousands of documents, Assassination in Vichy tells the story of Dormoy’s murder and the investigation that followed. At the heart of this book lies a true crime that was sensational in its day. A microhistory that tells a larger and more significant story about the development of far-right political movements, domestic terrorism, and the importance of courage, Assassination in Vichy explores the impact of France’s deep political divisions, wartime choices, and post-war memory.Trade Review"In their study of Marx Dormoy and his murder, Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite provide something for scholars and casual consumers of history alike. Fans of true crime, especially, will not be disappointed." -- Julie M. Powell * Origins, March 2021 *"The research and writing pair Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite have a knack for finding compelling stories that are historically revealing. With their new book, Assassination in Vichy: Marx Dormoy and the Struggle for the Soul of France, they again present a case study of a murder perpetrated by right-wing terrorists. As with their first book, they blend readability with intellectual rigor." -- Mattie Fitch, Marymount University * H-France *"Original in its content and insightful in its analysis, Assassination in Vichy will appeal not only to French history enthusiasts, but also to those who enjoy learning about the complex nature of wartime justice and France's rather complicated role in the Second World War." -- Catherine Gaughan, Ryerson University * The French Review *“A thrilling work of historical scholarship, thoughtful and scrupulous.” -- Kirkus ReviewsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction July 26, 1941: Explosion 1. 1888–1941: Marx Dormoy and the Soul of France 2. 1941: A Long, Hot Summer 3. July 26–30, 1941: Anatomy of a Crime Scene 4. August 14, 1941: A Bombing in Nice 5. 1941: Recruiting the Assassins 6. August–October 1941: The Net Widens 7. October 1941–March 1942: The Waiting Game 8. April 18, 1942: The Return of Pierre Laval 9. January 23, 1943: German Intervention 10. August 26, 1944: Liberation Conclusion Today: The Legacy of Marx Dormoy Glossary Organizations Timeline Bibliography

    £20.69

  • Enemies among Us

    University of Nebraska Press Enemies among Us

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisJohn E. Schmitz examines the causes, conditions, and consequences of America's selective relocation and internment of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during World War II.Trade Review"This book is a work that stands outside what one usually finds in historical accounts, and the reader will become quickly engrossed in Schmitz’s narrative. Well organized, the book contains a timeline of significant events from 1930 to 1949, a comprehensive notes section, and a valuable index to locate specific people or events of interest. This book is a must-read for anyone unfamiliar with the events of those dark days in America. Additionally, academics and public policy experts will benefit from the extensive list of resources and citations that the author used in his work. This is a captivating read, recommended without reservation."—Lt. Col. Carl P. (Pete) Johnson, Military Review“It might be fair to call Schmitz’s National Archives research heroic. His pages show the impact of U.S. relocation and internment policies and camps on specific individuals and families, impacts that varied wildly from cases to case.”—Kenneth O’Reilly, Journal of American History“John Schmitz makes astute use of previously unused documents to weave together the internment and relocation story, the military situation abroad, and the machinations of American politicians struggling to master it all. Enemies among Us is a unique and important addition to our understanding of this sad episode.”—Stephen Fox, author of Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Americans during World War II"Schmitz's in-depth study is a useful and much-needed beginning for a new direction in this period of America's wartime history."—Steph Hinnershitz, Southwestern Historical Quarterly"The breadth of Enemies among Us makes it well suited for inclusion in undergrad and graduate school courses in history, American studies, war studies, and international relations."—Alan Rosenfeld, Michigan War Studies Review"Enemies among Us will be an indispensable resource for those seeking to comprehend how, during World War II, it came to be that 'Americans created, castigated, and then incarcerated alleged enemies; all this, despite lack of evidence, or worse, evidence to the contrary.'"—William Issel, California History"Schmitz's work untangles the psychological, political, social, and, yes, racial forces that culminated in a sad historical episode."—Mark G. Brennan, Chronicles Magazine"Professor Schmitz’s book is a welcome addition to literature on the treatment of enemy aliens in World War II."—Fred L. Borch, Journal of Military History“Enemies among Us sheds important light on little-remembered but undeniably significant episodes in twentieth century history. By expanding our understanding of American detention, internment, and repatriation during World War II, John Schmitz exposes the dynamics that can lead to the mass violation of civil rights, even by otherwise well-intentioned policy makers and law enforcement officials. As much as it is a historical text, this work also presents an important warning for our world today.”—Bradley W. Hart, author of Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States“John Schmitz has accomplished something no other scholar has attempted: a comprehensive, thoroughly researched investigation of the wartime treatment of all three major national groups treated as ‘enemy aliens’ in the United States during World War II: Germans, Italians, and Japanese. The interpretive arguments are provocative [and] important.”—Max Paul Friedman, author of Rethinking Anti-Americanism: The History of an Exceptional Concept in American Foreign RelationsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Chronology of U.S. Relocation and Internment List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Pejoratives, Precedents, and Prejudice 2. Fifth-Column Fears and Foreign Challenges 3. Dire Preparations 4. The Fifth-Column Threat 5. Pearl Harbor and the Home Front 6. Defeats, Rumors, and Reactions 7. Dual-Coast Relocation and Nationwide Internment 8. Internment, Repatriation, and Exchange 9. Internment Camps and Relocation Centers Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

    1 in stock

    £48.60

  • The Stuff of Soldiers

    Cornell University Press The Stuff of Soldiers

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Stuff of Soldiers uses everyday objects to tell the story of the Great Patriotic War as never before. Brandon Schechter attends to a diverse array of thingsfrom spoons to tanksto show how a wide array of citizens became soldiers, and how the provisioning of material goods separated soldiers from civilians.Through a fascinating examination...Trade ReviewWith this original approach—in itself an amazing achievement given the immense literature in this historical field—Brandon Schechteruses the material culture of the Red Army to trace the makeover of Soviet life and politics brought about by the war. * Foreign Affairs *The Stuff of Soldiers is a well-written, wide-ranging, novel approach for understanding the social and military history of the Soviet Army. [It] is an excellent addition to the historiography of the Great Patriotic War and to the general study of how material culture can reflect how soldiers and their societies have experienced war throughout time. * Journal of Military History *The Stuff of Soldiers has much to offer those with an affinity for cultural history studied through objects and for others who want a basic introduction to the quotidian of the Red Army during the Second World War... it takes the reader into the daily life of the Soviet soldier during the war in a way that no other work in the field does. * The Russian Review *Few, if any, thinkers have sought to view [the materiality of the human being] through the prism of an army, its weaponry, the environment it shaped and the objects its soldiers used, cherished or robbed. Brandon M. Schechter is the first to embark upon this intellectual adventure. * The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies *This book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of Soviet history and World War II but also to everyone interested in the experience of life during wartime. * Canadian Slavonic Papers *Schechter's ability to analyze the everyday minutiae of soldiers' lives to tell both personal stories of what it meant to be a member of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War with careful attention placed on differing perspectives based on class, gender, and nationality, and a broader narrative of state-directed (if not always followed) social transformation is inspiring. * Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia *Given the author's lively and accessible style this is surely a work that will reach an audience outside of academia, while the deeply-researched and insightful content equally makes it an invaluable addition to scholars of both the Soviet Union and those interested more broadly in the history and legacies of the Second World War. * British Journal for Military History *A beautifully written, sweeping and nuanced history of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War through the lens of objects and material culture. The Stuff of Soldiers is not only a major contribution to the history of the war; it is also a stimulating attempt to overcome disciplinary boundaries and long-lasting debates about the Soviet project through an ethnographic focus on objects and practices of everyday life. * Cahiers du monde russe *Schechter elegantly intertwines individual stories, context, and analysis taking the reader to the most intimate parts of soldiers' everyday lives. The interested audience of this work will be very large, spanning individuals interested in military history broadly defined, in the history of the Soviet Union, and in material culture. * Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (JSPPS) *Brandon Schechter has written a tour-de-force volume that presents an innovative approach to the history of the Second World War in the Soviet Union. [O]ne of the main contributions of this work is Schechter's success in offering a new and fresh analysis of these sources from the perspective of material culture. * English Historical Review *Table of ContentsPrelude: Outgunned and Outmanned Acknowledgments List of Archival Sources and Their Abbreviations Terms and Abbreviations Explanatory Notes Introduction: Government Issue 1. The Soldier's Body: A Little Cog in a Giant War Machine 2. A Personal Banner: Life in Red Army Uniform 3. The State's Pot and the Soldier's Spoon: Rations in the Red Army 4. Cities of Earth, Cities of Rubble: The Spade and Red Army Landscaping 5. "A Weapon Is Your Honor and Conscience": Killing in the Red Army 6. The Thing-Bag: A Public-Private Place 7. Trophies of War: Red Army Soldiers Confront an Alien World of Goods Conclusion: Subjects and Objects Notes Index

    2 in stock

    £26.09

  • Leningrad 1941 - 42: Morality in a City under

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Leningrad 1941 - 42: Morality in a City under

    20 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book recounts one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century: the siege of Leningrad. It is based on the searing testimony of eyewitnesses, some of whom managed to survive, while others were to die in streets devastated by bombing, in icy houses, or the endless bread queues. All of them, nevertheless, wanted to pass on to us the story of the torments they endured, their stoicism, compassion and humanity, and of how people reached out to each other in the nightmare of the siege. Though the siege continues to loom large in collective memory, an overemphasis on the heroic endurance of the victims has tended to distort our understanding of events. In this book, which focuses on the "Time of Death", the harsh winter of 1941-42, Sergey Yarov adopts a new approach, demonstrating that if we are to truly appreciate the nature of this suffering, we must face the full realities of people's actions and behaviour. Many of the documents published here – letters, diaries, memoirs and interviews not previously available to researchers or retrieved from family archives – show unexpected aspects of what it was like to live in the besieged city. Leningrad changed, and so did the morals, customs and habits of Leningraders. People wanted at all costs to survive. Their notes about the siege reflect a drama which cost a million people their lives. There is no spurious cheeriness and optimism in them, and much that we might like to pass over. But we must not. We have a duty to know the whole, bitter truth about the siege, the price that had to be paid in order to stay human in a time of brutal inhumanity.Trade Review"St. Petersburger Sergey Yarov was, until his cruelly premature death, one of Russia's leading historians, and in this spare, searing analysis of his home city's greatest disaster, he is at the height of his powers. Unlike conventional eulogies to siege heroism, Yarov's retrospective anthropology, drawing on hundreds of diaries and documents, shows us what he calls 'real people, irate, resentful, but still imbued with a sense of compassion'. Amid the horrors of disintegration and degradation, he testifies to how 'Leningrad saved itself through redeeming actions great and small'. An intensely moving and unforgettable book."—Catriona Kelly, University of Oxford "When most people in a great city were dying of hunger, some died faster than others. Some lived by privilege, by crime, or by the goodness of others. Some were empowered to decide which others would live or die. What does this tell us about their morality – and about our own rules of ethical behaviour? Sergey Yarov's study of wartime Leningrad is an unblinking inquiry into the depths of the human spirit."—Mark Harrison, Warwick University "While in Russia many historians of the siege ignored or minimized negative aspects of people's behaviour during it, Yarov shows both the self-sacrifice and the selfishness, the heroism and the egoism that were displayed at all levels of society. Leningrad 1941-42 is an outstanding book and one which sheds a great deal of new light on how people behave in extreme conditions. It will undoubtedly be of interest to a wide readership."—John Barber, University of Cambridge"This depiction of humanity in extreme circumstances has significance beyond the fate of a particular city and will make many readers wonder how they would behave in similar conditions."—Times Higher Education"An important work which contributes both to our understanding of the siege of Leningrad as well as to the nature of humanity itself."—Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsForeword by John Barber Preface Part I. Concepts of Morality in 1941-2 Chapter 1. The tragedy of Leningrad The Time of Death The breakdown of moral standards Chapter 2. Moral commandments The concept of honesty Fairness Charity Attitudes to theft Chapter 3. The shifting boundaries of ethics Infringement of ethical standards: arguments used in self-justification Compulsory ethical standards: coercion as a means of ensuring survival Chapter 4. The influence of moral standards on people’s behaviour Appealing for help Expressing gratitude for help Part II. The Ethical Dimension Chapter 1. The family: compassion, consolation, love Chapter 2. Ethics within the family: continuity and disintegration Funerals Friends and family Friends Neighbours Colleagues Chapter 3. Party and Government Rules of behaviour Privileges Chapter 4. Strangers Parentless children People collapsing in the streets 'Dystrophics' Leningraders in the queue Part III. Means of Reinforcing Morality Chapter 1. Concepts of civilization Art, creativity, reading Tales of the siege Tales about life in the past and future Diaries and letters Control Chapter 2. Self-control Codes of behaviour Introspection Leningraders in the Time of Death: human and superhuman Notes Index

    20 in stock

    £16.19

  • Wilfrid Laurier University Press Afghanistan: Transition under Threat

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis Many have questioned the wisdom of the international intervention in Afghanistan in light of the escalation of violence and instability in the country in the past few years. Particularly uncertain are Canadians, who have been inundated with media coverage of an increasingly dirty war in southern Afghanistan, one in which Canadians are at the frontline and suffering heavy casualties. However, the conflict is only one aspect of Afghanistan's complicated, and incomplete, political, economic, and security transition. In Afghanistan: Transition under Threat, leading Afghanistan scholars and practitioners paint a full picture of the situation in Afghanistan and the impact of international and particularly Canadian assistance. They review the achievements of the reconstruction process and outline future challenges, focusing on key issues like the narcotics trade, the Pakistan - Afghanistan bilateral relationship, the Taliban-led insurgency, and continuing endemic poverty. This collection provides new insight into the nature and state of Afghanistan's post-conflict transition and illustrates the consequences of failure. Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation Trade Review``Though originating in the context of Canadian political debates, the volume's center of gravity is not Canada in Afghanistan, but Afghanistan itself, objectively considered, as a genuine national policy dilemma. For that reason, it is of immediate relevance to decision-making processes presently confronting the United States and those nations whose soldiers and national coffers will provide the means for proceeding in this key theater of 'The Long War.'... Development studies, area studies, South Asian history, international relations, national security studies, post-conflict peace studies, are the principal academic audiences for this text. Many others employed in government, international organizations, NGO's, and the relevant private sector, are also likely beneficiaries. It is important for academics outside of Canada to learn how Canadians, who GDP and armed forces are a small fraction of America's, view the magnitude of the challenges, sacrifices, and dilemmas facing Afghanistan c. 2006. Jargon-free in general, well-edited, with a very satisfactory index, the volume is suitable as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduates and above.'' -- Paul Kamolnick, East Tennessee State University -- Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, 200912``Straddling the fraught international crossroad of terrorism and drugs, Afghanistan has succeeded in puncturing the hubris of liberal interventionism. It poses a new question to policy-makers: How do you defeat an insurgency in a fragile state? In this comprehensive collection, Hayes and Sedra succeed in bringing together an impressive range of opinion and expertise that adds to our understanding of contemporary Afghanistan and its international significance. This excellent book examines the political, economic, and security considerations underpinning the current search for peace, stability, and nationhood. It provides a sober, penetrating, and, in places, controversial analysis of the missed opportunities, problems, and, indeed, successes of this encounter.'' -- Mark Duffield, Professor of Development Politics, Bristol University -- 200810``Hayes, Sedra, and their colleagues provide the most comprehensive and balanced assessment to date of the international effort in Afghanistan.'' -- Barnett R. Rubin, Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Center on International Cooperation, New York University -- 200810Table of Contents Afghanistan: Transition under Threat, edited by Geoffrey Hayes and Mark Sedra Foreword Christopher Alexander Introduction Mark Sedra and Geoffrey Hayes Section I: The Political Transition Looking Back at the Bonn Process William Maley Afghanistan: The Challenge of State Building Ali A. Jalali Poppy, Politics, and State Building Jonathan Goodhand Section II: The Economic Transition Responding to Afghanistan's Development Challenge: An Assessment of Experience and Priorities for the Future William A. Byrd Laying Economic Foundations for a New Afghanistan Seema Patel Section III: The Security Transition The Neo-Taliban Insurgency: From Village Islam to International Jihad Antonio Giustozzi Security Sector Reform and State Building in Afghanistan Mark Sedra Insecurity along the Durand Line Husain Haqqani Section IV: The Canadian Case Peace Building and Development in the Fragile State of Afghanistan: A Practitioner's Perspective Nipa Banerjee Establishing Security in Afghanistan: Strategic and Operational Perspectives M.D. Capstick Canada in Afghanistan: Assessing the Numbers Geoffrey Hayes Contributors Index Contributors' Bios Nipa Banerjee worked for thirty-three years for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), serving both at the headquarters level and in the field. She represented CIDA in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Afghanistan. Her most recent posting, in Kabul (2003-2006), was as CIDA's head of aid for Afghanistan. In July 2008, she joined the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, where she lectures on international development. Her research interests include development in post-conflict countries and aid coordination and aid effectiveness, with a focus on Afghanistan. William A. Byrd is currently serving in the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, as adviser in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit of the South Asia Region. Until recently he was the bank's senior economic adviser in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he helped to develop the World Bank's strategy for Afghanistan's reconstruction effort. He led the team that produced the first World Bank economic report on Afghanistan in a quarter-century. He has been with the World Bank for more than twenty years, during which time he has worked on China, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. His publications include six books on China and numerous articles, including several on Afghanistan. He has been responsible for reports on Afghanistan's public finance management, economic co-operation in the wider Central Asia region, and Afghanistan's drug industry. Most recently he co-authored a joint report of the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development titled Afghanistan: Economic Incentives and Development Initiatives to Reduce Opium Production. Colonel Mike Capstick retired from the Canadian Armed Forces (Regular) in late 2006 after thirty-two years of service. His final appointment was as Commander of the first deployment of the CF Strategic Advisory Team Afghanistan from August 2005 until August 2006. This unique unit, a mixed military civilian team, provided strategic planning advice and capacity building to development-related agencies of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his leadership of this team and is currently an associate at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary. Antonio Giustozzi is a research fellow at the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics, where he runs a research project on contemporary Afghanistan. He is the author of War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (2000) and Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan (2007) as well as several papers and articles on Afghanistan. Jonathan Goodhand teaches in the development studies department of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. His involvement with Afghanistan dates back to the late 1980s, when he was an aid worker based in Peshawar, Pakistan. Since then he has conducted research and published widely on issues related to civil wars, war economies, international aid, and post-conflict peacebuilding. His most recent publication is Aiding Peace? The Role of NGOs in Armed Conflict (2006). Husain Haqqani is Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Prior to taking this post he was the Director of Boston University's Center for International Relations and co-chair of the Islam and Democracy Project at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He has served as an adviser to Pakistani prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto and as Pakistan's ambassador to Sri Lanka. His most recent book is Pakistan between Mosque and Military (2005). Geoffrey Hayes is an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Waterloo and is the associate director of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, both of which are based in Waterloo, Canada. His work on contemporary defence issues has appeared in such journals as War and Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal and Behind the Headlines. Most recently he co-edited, with Mike Bechthold and Andrew Iarocci, Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007). Ali A. Jalali was the interior minister of Afghanistan from January 2003 to September 2005. He is currently serving as both a distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and a researcher at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, both of which are based at the National Defence University in Washington, DC. His areas of interest include reconstruction, stabilization, and peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and regional issues affecting Afghanistan, Central Asia, and South Asia. He has published widely on Afghanistan. William Maley is a professor and the director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. He has served as a visiting professor at the Russian Diplomatic Academy, a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, and a visiting research fellow in the refugee-studies program at Oxford University. A regular visitor to Afghanistan, he is the author of numerous books on Afghanistan, including Rescuing Afghanistan (2006) and The Afghanistan Wars (2002). Seema Patel is an independent consultant whose focus is on market-led economic development in fragile environments. She is currently a consultant to the AfghanAmerican chamber of commerce and the Global Development Alliance at USAID. She recently left the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she served as a business development advisor for the project. From 2006 to 2007 she led a comprehensive CSIS field-based study on reconstruction in Afghanistan. The final report for the project was titled Breaking Point: Measuring Progress in Afghanistan. Mark Sedra is a research assistant professor in the department of political science at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, both of which are based in Waterloo, Canada. He currently leads CIGI's research program on global and human security. He has regularly served as a consultant to governments, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs on security issues in Afghanistan and has published widely on the country. His most recent publications are: The Search for Security in Post-Taliban Afghanistan (2007), co-authored with Cyrus Hodes, and Afghanistan, Arms, and Conflict Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society (2008), co-authored with Michael Vinay Bhatia.

    1 in stock

    £33.96

  • Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour

    Wilfrid Laurier University Press Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis Terry Copp's tireless teaching, research, and writing has challenged generations of Canadian veterans, teachers, and students to discover an informed memory of their country's role in the Second World War. This collection, drawn from the work of Terry's colleagues and former students, considers Canada and the Second World War from a wealth of perspectives. Social, cultural, and military historians address topics under five headings: The Home Front, The War of the Scientists, The Mediterranean Theatre, Normandy/Northwest Europe, and The Aftermath. The questions considered are varied and provocative: How did Canadian youth and First Nations peoples understand their wartime role? What position did a Canadian scientist play in the Allied victory and in the peace? Were veterans of the Mediterranean justified in thinking theirs was the neglected theatre? How did the Canadians in Normandy overcome their opponents but not their historians? Why was a Cambridge scholar attached to First Canadian Army to protect monuments? And why did Canadians come to commemorate the Second World War in much the same way they commemorated the First? The study of Canada in the Second World War continues to challenge, confound, and surprise. In the questions it poses, the evidence it considers, and the conclusions it draws, this important collection says much about the lasting influence of the work of Terry Copp. Foreword by John Cleghorn. Trade Review``In one sense, the book...is a simple but elegant testimony by colleagues and former students to [Terry Copp's] eminence as a scholar and teacher; on another, it speaks loudly about the vibrancy and depth of Canadian military history that has developed over the past quarter century.'' -- Brian JC McKercher, Royal Military College, Kingston, ON -- Cercles, 2014``This ... collection of essays ... asks familiar questions but provides new answers.... While many of the essays take a traditional military history approach and come to new insights through a careful reinterpretation of the sources, other sections also deal with the social and political history of the home front and the cultural impact of the war and its aftermath.... This volume provides much that is new and interesting about Canada's war effort, embracing different historical approaches but emphasizing the importance of evidence-based historical interpretation. Terry Copp has taught his students well, and this book is a fitting Festschrift honoring his distinguished career.'' -- Angelike Sauer, Texan Lutheran University -- Yearbook of German American Studies, Spring 2015Table of Contents Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp, edited by Geoffrey Hayes, Mike Bechthold, and Matt Symes Foreword John Cleghorn Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Terry Copp's Approach to History Mark Osborne Humphries The Home Front 3 ""To Hold on High the Torch of Liberty"":Canadian Youth and the Second World War Cynthia Comacchio 4 Fighting a White Man's War? First Nations Participation in the Canadian War Effort, 1939-1945 Scott Sheffield 5 Harnessing Journalists to the War Machine: Canada's Domestic Press Censors in the Second World War Mark Bourrie 6 Dangerous Curves: Canadian Drivers and Mechanical Transport in Two World Wars Andrew Iarocci 7 How C.P. Stacey Became the Army's Official Historian The Writing of The Military Problems of Canada, 1937-1940 Roger Sarty The War of the Scientists 8 ""Strike Hard, Strike Sure"": Bomber Harris, Precision Bombing, and Decision Making in RAF Bomber Command Randall Wakelam 9 Leadership and Science at War: Colonel Omond Solandt and the British Army Operational Research Group, 1943-1945 Jason Ridler 10 Wartime Military Innovation and the Creation of Canada's Defence Research Board Andrew Godefroy The Mediterranean Theatre 11 Overlord's Long Right Flank: The Battles for Cassino and Anzio, January-June 1944 Lee Windsor 12 A Sharp Tool Blunted: The First Special Service Force in the Breakout from Anzio James A. Wood 13 La culture tactique canadienne: le cas de l'opération Chesterfield, 23 mai 1944 Yves Tremblay 14 Knowing Enough Not to Interfere: Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes at the Lamone River, December 1944 Douglas E. Delaney Northwest Europe 15 No Ambush, No Defeat: The Advance of the Vanguard of the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 7 June 1944 Marc Milner CORRECTION: Free download of updated version of Chapter 15 16 Defending the Normandy Bridgehead: The Battles for Putot-en-Bessin, 7-9 June 1944 Mike Bechthold 17 Operation Smash and 4 Canadian Armoured Division's Drive to Trun Angelo Caravaggio 18 A History of Lieutenant Jones Geoffrey Hayes The Aftermath 19 A Biography of Major Ronald Edmond Balfour Michelle Fowler 20 The Personality of Memory: The Process of Informal Commemoration in Normandy Matt Symes 21 An Open Door to a Better Future: The Memory of Canada's Second World War Jonathan F. Vance Contributors Terry Copp: A Select Bibliography

    1 in stock

    £33.96

  • Eva and Otto: Resistance, Refugees, and Love in

    Purdue University Press Eva and Otto: Resistance, Refugees, and Love in

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisEva and Otto is a truestory about German opposition and resistance to Hitler as revealed through the early lives of Eva Lewinski Pfister (1910–1991) and Otto Pfister (1900–1985). It is an intimate and epic account of two Germans—Eva born Jewish, Otto born Catholic—who worked with a little-known German political group that resisted and fought against Hitler in Germany before 1933 and then in exile in Paris before the German invasion of France in May 1940. After their improbable escapes from separate internment and imprisonment in Europe, Eva obtained refuge in America in October 1940 where she worked to rescue other endangered political refugees, including Otto, with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt. As revealed in recently declassified records, Eva and Otto later engaged in different secret assignments with the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in support of the Allied war effort. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, Eva and Otto gave each other hope and strength as they acted upon what they understood to be an ethical duty to help others threatened by fascism. The book provides a sobering insight into the personal risks and costs of a commitment to that duty. Their unusually beautiful writing—directed to each other in diaries and correspondence during two long periods of wartime separation—also reveals an unlikely and inspiring love story.Table of Contents Preface Prologue Part I. Eva's Path to 28 Boulevard Poissonnière 1. Childhood in Goldap (1910–1926) 2. Study in France and at the Walkemühle (1926–1932) 3. Anti-Nazi Work in Germany (1932–1933) 4. Early Years in Exile in Paris (1933–1935) Part II. Otto's Path to 28 Boulevard Poissonnière 5. Childhood in Munich (1900–1920) 6. "Education" in Italy and France (1920–1935) Part III. Resistance and Love in Paris, 1935–1940 7. Anti-Nazi Work in Paris 8. War Begins: Internment, Sabotage, and Love Part IV. German Invasion on May 9, 1940: Eva and Otto Forced on Separate Paths 9. Eva's Internment at Vélodrome d'Hiver and Camp de Gurs 10. Eva's Refuge in Castagnède, Montauban, and Marseille 11. Otto's Capture and Imprisonment by the Nazis 12. Otto's Return to Paris and Flight to Montauban 13. Eva's Escape over the Pyrenees and Unexpected Delay in Lisbon Eva's Voyage from Lisbon to New York Part V. New York, 1940–1941: Urgent Efforts to Rescue ISK Colleagues, including Otto 15. Eva's Daunting Task of Obtaining U.S. Visas 16. Help from Eleanor Roosevelt and Other Americans 17. Three Crucial Meetings on December 27, 1940 18. 1940 Correspondence 19. Eva's Other Activities before the End of 1940 20. Further Pleas to Help Otto and Other Refugees 21. Otto's Wait for a Visa in Southern France 22. Otto's Escape to America 23. Eva's Defense of Her Decision to Marry Otto Part VI. Rescue Efforts and Work for the OSS in the Face of Personal Challenges 24. Priorities: Eva's Rescue and Relief Work 25. René-Eva Correspondence: Eva's Secret Work with the Office of Strategic Services 26. Three Big Decisions in 1943–1944 27. A Devastating Loss Part VII. Separated Again 28. Otto's OSS Mission and Eva and Otto's Wartime Correspondence 29. The War Drags On, Reports on Nazi Atrocities, and Another Personal Loss 30. Questions about the Future as the Allies Battle in Europe Part VIII. Hope Renewed 31. 1945: Signs of Spring as the War in Europe Grinds to an End 32. A New Life Epilogue Afterword Acknowledgments Appendix A. Summary Backgrounds of ISK Members on Eva's List of Applicants for Emergency Visas Appendix B. Examples of René-Eva and Robert-Eclair Correspondence Appendix C. Eva's Memorial Summary of Otto's Life Notes Bibliography Index

    10 in stock

    £23.36

  • RAF Wings over Florida: Memories of World War II British Air Cadets

    Purdue University Press RAF Wings over Florida: Memories of World War II British Air Cadets

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrom 1941 through 1945, British cadets in the Royal Air Force trained in the United States through the Lend-Lease Act, President Roosevelt's ingenious plan to help beleaguered Great Britain while maintaining the semblance of neutrality. This book tells the saga of two Florida training fields during this turbulent time. In their own words, British pilots tell of their Florida experiences. Many of them still in their late teens, away from home for the first time, pale and thin from years of rationing, these young men encountered immense challenges and overwhelming generosity during their training in Florida. Now retired, these former pilots still smell the scent of orange blossoms when they glance through the log books they kept while flying their Stearmans and Harvards over Florida citrus groves. They fondly remember the times when they buzzed over the homes of their Florida "families" to let them know to expect them for Sunday dinner. More than fifty years later, their stories still resonate with universal emotions: fear of failure, love of country, camaraderie, romantic love, and the pain of tragic deaths. Their stories also remind the American reader of a unique time in our history, when, poised on the brink of war, the United States reached out to help a country in distress.Table of Contents Acknowledgments Editor's Note Introduction Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida Riddle Field, Clewiston, Florida The Yanks The Instructors Community Friendships L'Envoi: The Terrible Cost of War Appendix: Watch Your Language Bibliography Index

    2 in stock

    £26.96

  • Holocaust Remembrance: The Shapes of Memory

    John Wiley and Sons Ltd Holocaust Remembrance: The Shapes of Memory

    Book SynopsisThe recording, explanation and the inescapable task of judging great wrongs in the past presents historians with their most difficult assignment. For those who have either lived through such injustice or have been in some way responsible for it the impositions of memory are both painful and unavoidable. Memory shapes the future, and the recollections of past suffering haunt and may overwhelm generations long after. In 1938 the National Socialist Party in Germany began the final preparations for the systematic genocide of the Jews throughout Europe. For the Jews, whose national loyalties had long exceeded any ties of ethnicity, the programme of extermination was an act not merely of monstrous cruelty but of humiliation and treachery. In Holocaust Remembrance scholars, artists and writers consider the ways in which the events of 1938-1945 have been, might be, and will be remembered. The records of the Holocaust are vast and various, ranging from the museum at Auschwitz to the cartoons of Art Spiegelman, from the dark paintings of R. B. Kitaj to the elegaic stories of Primo Levi, from the filmed testimonies of the death camp survivors to revisionist historians who usurp the name of scholar in the pursuit of denial and evasion. The perspectives brought to bear here are rich and various - impassioned, objective, personal, poetical, historical and philosophical. They are united by an awareness of the dangers both of respectful silence and overwhelming information, and that only in remembering can an understanding of the past be sought and human kind redeemed from the forces of humiliation and guilt.Trade Review"Hartman has assembled penetrating essays that constitute of ameningful act of remembrance." Publishers Weekly "An outstanding interdisciplinary anthology. Hartman's Holocaust Remembrance is simultaneously representative of, and a major contribution to, the best literature on this subject." The HistorianTable of ContentsDarkness Visible: Geoffrey Hartman. 1. On Testimony: Annette Wieviork (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris). 2. The Library of Jewish Catastrophe: David Roskies (Jewish Theological Seminary of America). 3. Voices from the Killing Ground: Sara Horowitz (University of Delaware). 4. Jean Amery as Witness: Alvin Rosenfeld (Indiana University). 5. Remembering Survival: Lawrence Langer (Simmons College). 6. Christian Witness and the Shoah: David Tracy (University of Chicago). 7. Film as Witness: Lanzmann's Shoah: Shoshana Felman (Yale University). 8. Charlotte Salomon's Inward-Turning Testimony: Mary Felstiner (San Francisco State University). 9. 'Varschreibt!': R. B. Kitaj. 10. Conversation in the Cemetery: Dan Pagis and the Prosaics of Memory: Sidra Ezrahi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). 11. Chinese History and Jewish Memory: Vera Schwarcz (Wesleyan University). 12. The Awakening: Aharon Applefeld. 13. Facing the Glass Booth: Haim Gouri. 14. The Andean Waltz: Leo Spitzer (Dartmouth College). 15. German-Jewish Memory and National Consciousness: Miriam Hansen & Michael Geyer (both University of Chicago). 16. Negating the Dead: Nadine Fresco (Centre National de Recherche Scientique, Paris). 17. 'The First Blow': Projects for the Camp at Fossoli: Giovanni Leoni. 18. Jewish Memory in Poland: James Young (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). 19. Reclaining Auschwwitz: Deborah Dwork & Robert Jan van Pelt (Yale Child Study Center & University of British Columbia). 20. Memory, Trauma and the Writing of History: Saul Friedlander (Tel Aviv University). 'Liberation' (poem): Abraham Sutzkever.

    £36.05

  • Vietnam and Other American Fantasies

    University of Massachusetts Press Vietnam and Other American Fantasies

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis work is a cultural history of the Vietnam War and its continuing impact upon contemporary American society. The author presents an investigation of how myths about the war evolved and why people depend on them to answer the confusing questions that have become the legacy of the war. Memories change and reconstruct the past, and in this text, the author argues that the American memory of Vietnam has left fact and experience behind so that what remains is myth and denial.Trade ReviewAn all inclusive cultural history of the Vietnam War and its continuing impact upon contemporary American society. - Library Journal ""Coming to terms with the Vietnam War - the war that America lost - has been a long, grueling struggle, mired by historical denial and distortion and, as Franklin so formidably reveals, myths that have become entrapped in American culture. He presents a scholarly, yet personal and lucid investigation of how these myths evolved and why people depend upon them to answer the confusing questions that have become the legacy of the war."" - ForeWord ""Franklin has written on other subjects over the years, but Vietnam has inspired some of his most probing work.... Cogent cultural criticism."" - Booklist ""Memories change and reconstruct the past, and in this provocative study, Rutgers cultural historian Franklin argues that the American memory of Vietnam has left fact and experience behind so that what remains is myth and denial."" - Publishers Weekly memory of the Vietnam War, this book is indispensable,"" - Richard Falk, Princeton University ""What marks this provocative and engaging book is H. Bruce Franklin's steadfast resistance to a society that takes 'plausible deniability' as its first principle. The range of subjects considered, Franklin's clear-headed analysis, and his impressive knowledge all make this an important contribution."" - Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990

    2 in stock

    £21.80

  • The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the

    University of Massachusetts Press The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is a wide-ranging critical assessment of the cultural impact of America's longest war.The lingering aftereffects of the Vietnam War resonate to this day throughout American society: in foreign policy, in attitudes about the military and war generally, and in the contemporary lives of members of the so-called baby boom generation who came of age during the 1960s and early 1970s. While the best-known personal accounts of the war tend to center on the experience of combat, Maureen Ryan's ""The Other Side of Grief"" examines the often overlooked narratives - novels, short stories, memoirs, and films - that document the war's impact on the home front.In analyzing the accounts of Vietnam veterans, women as well as men, Ryan focuses on the process of readjustment, on how the war continued to insinuate itself into their lives, their families, and their communities long after they returned home. She looks at the writings of women whose husbands, lovers, brothers, and sons served in Vietnam and whose own lives were transformed as a result. She also appraises the experiences of the POWs who came to be embraced as the war's only heroes; the ordeal of Vietnamese refugees who fled their 'American War' to new lives in the United States; and the influential movement created by those who committed themselves to protesting the war.The end result of Ryan's investigations is a cogent synthesis of the vast narrative literature generated by the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Together those stories powerfully demonstrate how deeply the legacies of the war penetrated American culture and continue to reverberate still.Trade ReviewWhat I especially like about The Other Side of Grief is the way it enlarges what most readers think of as 'Vietnam War literature.' By juxtaposing the canonical veteran novels and memoirs with those of women, former POWs, antiwar activists, and Vietnamese refugees, we gain a much richer and broader understanding of the impact of the war on the entire society. - Christian G. Appy, author of Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides ""This is a book that needed to be written. Maureen Ryan has done it, and she has done it professionally, thoroughly, and completely."" - Philip D. Beidler, author of Re-writing America: Vietnam Authors in Their Generation

    1 in stock

    £26.31

  • Life and Death in the Central Highlands: An

    University of North Texas Press,U.S. Life and Death in the Central Highlands: An

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn 1968 James T. Gillam was a poorly focused college student at Ohio University who was dismissed and then drafted into the Army. Unlike most African-Americans who entered the Army then, he became a Sergeant and an instructor at the Fort McClellan Alabama School of Infantry. In September 1968 he joined the First Battalion, 22nd Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Within a month he transformed from an uncertain sergeant—who tried to avoid combat—to an aggressive soldier, killing his first enemy and planning and executing successful ambushes in the jungle. Gillam was a regular point man and occasional tunnel rat who fought below ground, an arena that few people knew about until after the war ended. By January 1970 he had earned a Combat Infantry Badge and been promoted to Staff Sergeant. Then Washington’s politics and military strategy took his battalion to the border of Cambodia. Search-and-destroy missions became longer and deadlier. From January to May his unit hunted and killed the enemy in a series of intense firefights, some of them in close combat. In those months Gillam was shot twice and struck by shrapnel twice. He became a savage, strangling a soldier in hand-to-hand combat inside a lightless tunnel. As his mid-summer date to return home approached, Gillam became fiercely determined to come home alive. The ultimate test of that determination came during the Cambodian invasion. On his last night in Cambodia, the enemy got inside the wire of the firebase, and the killing became close range and brutal. Gillam left the Army in June 1970, and within two weeks of his last encounter with death, he was once again a college student and destined to become a university professor. The nightmares and guilt about killing are gone, and so is the callous on his soul. Life and Death in the Central Highlands is a gripping, personal account of one soldier’s war in the Vietnam War.

    4 in stock

    £22.36

  • Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the

    University of North Texas Press,U.S. Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Beyond the Quagmire, thirteen scholars from across disciplines provide a series of provocative, important, and timely essays on the politics, combatants, and memory of the Vietnam War. The essays pose new questions, offer new answers, and establish important lines of debate regarding social, political, military, and memory studies. Part 1 contains four chapters by scholars who explore the politics of war in the Vietnam era. In Part 2, five contributors offer chapters on Vietnam combatants with analyses of race, gender, environment, and Chinese intervention. Part 3 provides four innovative and timely essays on Vietnam in history and memory.Trade ReviewThis will be a valuable and significant addition to the historiography of the war."" - James Willbanks, author of Abandoning Vietnam and The Tet Offensive

    1 in stock

    £23.96

  • Phantom in the Sky: A Marine's Back Seat View of

    University of North Texas Press,U.S. Phantom in the Sky: A Marine's Back Seat View of

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisPhantom in the Sky is the story of a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the back seat of the supersonic Phantom jet during the Vietnam War—a unique, tactical perspective of the ""guy in back,"" or GIB, absent from other published aviation accounts. During the time of Terry L. Thorsen's service from 1966 to 1970, the RIO played an integral part in enemy aircraft interception and ordnance delivery. In Navy and Marine F-4 Phantom jets, the RIO was a second pair of eyes for the pilot, in charge of communications and navigation, and great to have during emergencies. Thorsen endured the tough Platoon Leaders Course at Quantico and barely earned a commission. He underwent aviation and intercept training while suffering airsickness issues—and still earned his wings. Thorsen joined the oldest and most decorated squadron in the Marine Corps, the VMFA-232 Red Devils in southern California, as it prepared for deployment to Vietnam. In combat, Thorsen felt angst when he saw the sky darken around him from anti-aircraft artillery explosions high above the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On his first close air support mission in support of ground troops (the majority of his Marine aviation missions), he witnessed tracers whiz by his canopy. On one harrowing sortie, he and his pilot purposely became the target to save an Army unit battling an enemy just a hundred feet away. On secret missions with secret weapons, they dove at anti-aircraft artillery muzzle flashes and flew as a low as fifty feet off the deck during close air support sorties, ""scraping"" the napalm off their plane. For one mission a friend survived a crash landing, but a training instructor vanished without a trace.

    1 in stock

    £27.96

  • War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps

    University of North Texas Press,U.S. War in the Villages: The U.S. Marine Corps

    20 in stock

    Book SynopsisMuch of the history written about the Vietnam War overlooks the U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons. These CAPs lived in the Vietnamese villages, with the difficult and dangerous mission of defending the villages from both the National Liberation Front guerrillas and the soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army. The CAPs also worked to improve living conditions by helping the people with projects, such as building schools, bridges, and irrigation systems for their fields. In War in the Villages, Ted Easterling examines how well the CAPs performed as a counterinsurgency method, how the Marines adjusted to life in the Vietnamese villages, and how they worked to accomplish their mission. The CAPs generally performed their counterinsurgency role well, but they were hampered by factors beyond their control. Most important was the conflict between the Army and the Marine Corps over an appropriate strategy for the Vietnam War, along with weakness of the government of the Republic of South Vietnam and the strategic and the tactical ability of the North Vietnamese Army.War in the Villages helps to explain how and why this potential was realized and squandered. Marines who served in the CAPs served honorably in difficult circumstances. Most of these Marines believed they were helping the people of South Vietnam, and they served superbly. The failure to end the war more favorably was no fault of theirs.

    20 in stock

    £23.96

  • OSS and the Yugoslav Resistance, 1943-1945

    Texas A & M University Press OSS and the Yugoslav Resistance, 1943-1945

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £16.16

  • Prisoner of the Rising Sun: The Lost Diary of

    Texas A & M University Press Prisoner of the Rising Sun: The Lost Diary of

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisA never-before-published account of the experience of an American officer at the hands of Japanese captors, ""Prisoner of the Rising Sun"" offers new evidence of the treatment accorded officers and shows how the Corregidor prisoners fared compared with the ill-fated Bataan captives. When Japanese aircraft struck airfields in the Philippines on December 8, 1941, Col. Lewis C. Beebe was Gen. Douglas MacArthur's chief supply officer. Promoted to brigadier general, he would become chief of staff for General Wainwright in 1942. Beebe kept diary records of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, their advance to Manila and capture of the Bataan Peninsula, and their assault on Corregidor. When Japanese troops took Corregidor, Beebe was among those captured. During his captivity, Beebe recorded in his diary descriptions of poor rations, inadequate medical care, and field work in camps in the Philippines, on Taiwan, and in Manchuria. He also describes the sometimes greedy behavior of his fellow captives, as well as a lighter side of camp life that included POW concerts and Red Cross visits. Annotation and an epilogue by General Beebe's son, Rev. John M. Beebe, add details about his military career, and an introduction by historian Stanley L. Falk places the diary in the context of the broader American experience of captivity.

    3 in stock

    £35.96

  • Mobilizing the Home Front: War Bonds and Domestic

    Texas A & M University Press Mobilizing the Home Front: War Bonds and Domestic

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDuring World War II, the home front offered unprecedented levels of moral, financial, and labor support for the war effort. This was no accident. Through the U.S. Treasury Department's war bond drives, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration strategically cultivated national morale by creating the largest single domestic propaganda campaign known to that time. Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny joined Judy Garland, Dorothy Lamour, and Lana Turner to urge Americans to buy war bonds, helping to create a virtual army of home front soldiers. Dr. Seuss drew cartoons, Irving Berlin wrote songs, and Norman Rockwell designed posters to help raise over $185 billion for the struggle, most of it coming from average citizens who well remembered the poverty of the Depression. In ""Mobilizing the Home Front"", James J. Kimble marshals archival documents, public appeals, and a wealth of internal memoranda, reports, and surveys to offer a new understanding of the government's eight war bond drives and the psyche of the nation at war. With roots in propaganda studies, military history, rhetorical criticism, and peace studies, this book adds new dimensions to our understanding of the waging of war by the ""Greatest Generation.

    1 in stock

    £27.96

  • The Ghosts of Iwo Jima

    Texas A & M University Press The Ghosts of Iwo Jima

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn February 1945, some 80,000 U.S. Marines attacked the heavily defended fortress that the Japanese had constructed on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Leaders of the Army Air Forces said they needed the airfields there to provide fighter escort for their B-29 bombers. At the cost of 28,000 American casualties, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions dutifully conquered this desolate piece of hell with a determination and sacrifice that have become legendary in the annals of war, immortalized in the photograph of six Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.But the Army Air Forces' fighter operations on Iwo Jima subsequently proved both unproductive and unnecessary. After the fact, a number of other justifications were generated to rationalize this tragically expensive battle. Ultimately, misleading statistics were presented to contend that the number of lives saved by B-29 emergency landings on Iwo Jima outweighed the cost of its capture.In The Ghosts of Iwo Jima, Captain Robert S. Burrell masterfully reconsiders the costs of taking Iwo Jima and its role in the war effort. His thought-provoking analysis also highlights the greater contribution of Iwo Jima's valiant dead: They inspired a reverence for the Marine Corps that proved critical to its institutional survival and its embodiment of American national spirit. From the 7th War Loan Campaign of 1945 through the flag-raising at Ground Zero in 2001, the immortal image of Iwo Jima has become a symbol of American patriotism itself.Burrell's searching account of this fabled island conflict will advance our understanding of World War II and its continuing legacy for the twenty-first century. At last, the battle's ghosts may unveil its ultimate, and most crucial, lessons.

    1 in stock

    £20.36

  • Texas A & M University Press December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £27.71

  • The Battle of Britain

    Facts On File Inc The Battle of Britain

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDuring the summer of 1940, the fate of the world hung in the balance as Adolf Hitler's powerful air force, the Luftwaffe, contested the skies above southern England with Britain's Royal Air Force. A handful of brave but outnumbered RAF pilots, many hailing from outside the United Kingdom, fought desperately to hold the Nazi juggernaut back and, in doing so, defend Britain from invasion. In Prime Minister Winston Churchill's immortal words, those brave RAF pilots were ""the few"" on whom so much depended. The brand-new The Battle of Britain traces the origins and course of the Battle of Britain, examining the reasons why Great Britain found itself in such a desperate situation in the summer of 1940, and why, for all their advantages, the Germans were confounded at what seemed to be the brink of victory.

    1 in stock

    £29.71

  • Beyond the Call of Duty: Army Flight Nursing in

    Kent State University Press Beyond the Call of Duty: Army Flight Nursing in

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAt the height of World War II, five hundred Army flight nurses served with the Army Air Forces as members of thirty-one medical air evacuation squadrons located throughout the world on both the European and Pacific fronts. Their work was not insignificant—over one million patients were evacuated by air between January 1943 and May 1945. These specially trained Army nurses took nursing to new heights. Often decorated for their accomplishments, they exemplify the ability of a group of nurses to cope successfully with the challenges of war.In her comprehensive book, author Judith Barger brings together information that is becoming less accessible as the former nurses succumb to age, infirmity, and death. Barger interviewed twenty-five of these pioneering women in 1986 when their recall of their service experiences was still vivid and informative. Building on Barger's earlier research, their stories and the numerous complementary photographs included in the volume bring to life this long overdue tribute to Army flight nursing in World War II.Beyond the Call of Duty offers the only in-depth account of the events leading up to the formation of the military flight nurse program, their training for duty, and the air evacuation missions in which they participated. Readers of military history, women's history, and nursing history will find all three interests represented in this book, which gives new meaning to a phrase in the Flight Nurse Creed of 1943: "I will be faithful to my training, and to the wisdom handed down to me by those who have gone before me.

    1 in stock

    £24.71

  • A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and

    Texas A & M University Press A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn February 1971, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) launched an incursion into Laos in an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and destroy North Vietnamese Army (NVA) base areas along the border. This movement would be the first real test of Vietnamization, Pres. Richard Nixon’s program to turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese forces as US combat troops were withdrawn. US ground forces would support the operation from within South Vietnam and would pave the way to the border for ARVN troops, and US air support would cover the South Vietnamese forces once they entered Laos, but the South Vietnamese forces would attack on the ground alone. The operation, dubbed Lam Son 719, went very well for the first few days, but as movement became bogged down the NVA rushed reinforcements to the battle and the ARVN forces found themselves under heavy attack. US airpower wreaked havoc on the North Vietnamese troops, but the South Vietnamese never regained momentum and ultimately began to withdraw back into their own country under heavy enemy pressure. In this first in-depth study of this operation, military historian and Vietnam veteran James H. Willbanks traces the details of battle, analyzes what went wrong, and suggests insights into the difficulties currently being incurred with the training of indigenous forces.

    1 in stock

    £27.96

  • Combat Talons in Vietnam: Recovering a Covert

    Texas A & M University Press Combat Talons in Vietnam: Recovering a Covert

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisCombat Talons in Vietnam is a personal account of the first use of C-130s in the Vietnam War. It provides an insider’s view of crew training and classified missions for this technologically advanced aircraft. Many covert missions over North Vietnam were sucessful, but one night, John Gargus, a mission planner, oversaw an operation in which the aircraft—carrying eleven crewmembers—failed to return from a nighttime mission. For thirty years, a search for the missing aircraft remained in progress. In the late 1990s, the Combat Talon veteran community at Hurlburt Field in Florida, still uncertain of the full story, decided to dedicate a memorial to the lost crew. When wartime mission records were declassified, Gargus embarked on a long journey of inquiry, research, and puzzle-solving to reconstruct the events of that mission and the fate of its crew. He discovered that the wreckage of the plane had been found in 1992 and that the remains of the crew were being held in Hawaii. Through numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, interviews, and site visits, Gargus sought to answer the question of why it took so long to find the wreckage and, more importantly, why the special operations command units and crewmember families were left uninformed. By 2000, the remains were relocated to a common grave at Arlington National Cemetery at last providing a measure of closure to family, friends, and comrades.

    1 in stock

    £31.46

  • Storms over the Mekong: Major Battles of the

    Texas A & M University Press Storms over the Mekong: Major Battles of the

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrom the defeat of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam at Ap Bac to the battles of the Ia Drang Valley, Khe Sanh, and more, Storms over the Mekong offers a reassessment of key turning points in the Vietnam War. Award-winning historian William P. Head not only reexamines these pivotal battles but also provides a new interpretation on the course of the war in Southeast Asia. In considering Operation Rolling Thunder, for example-which Head dubs as "too much rolling and not enough thunder"-readers will grasp the full scope of the campaign, from specifically targeted bridges in North Vietnam to the challenges of measuring success or failure, the domestic political situation, and how over time, Head argues, "slowly, but surely, Rolling Thunder dug itself into a hole." Likewise, Head shows how the battles for Saigon and Hue during the Tet Offensive of 1968 were tactical defeats for the Communist forces with as many as 40,000 killed and no real gains. At the same time, however, Tet made it clear to many in Washington that victory in Vietnam would require a still greater commitment of men and resources, far more than the American people were willing to invest.Storms over the Mekong is a blow-by-blow account of the key military events, to be sure. But beyond that, it is also a measured reconsideration of the battles and moments that Americans thought they already knew, adding up to a new history of the Vietnam War.

    1 in stock

    £31.96

  • Code Name Arcadia: The First Wartime Conference

    Texas A & M University Press Code Name Arcadia: The First Wartime Conference

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe First Washington Conference, codenamed Arcadia, was a secret meeting held in the days immediately following the entrance of the United States into World War II. It was the first meeting between the United States and Britain to determine military strategy. Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and their top military advisors spent hours making major decisions that would determine the direction of the Allied war effort. The main achievement of the conference was the 'Europe first' decision, declaring that the defeat of Germany was the highest priority.Neither side knew what to expect before this momentous meeting. Before the war, the British and the Americans had differing strategic concerns, especially about the Pacific and East Asia: differences of such contrast that the conference was in jeopardy of ending early if not resolved. The narrative uses a chronological approach that examines in detail each day of the conference. This day-by-day methodology shows the gradual development of rapport between the allied chieftains, why and how it forged relationships, and the undercurrent of tension as each ally sought to ensure its national interests while cooperating with the other in a grand alliance.Historian and retired Brigadier General John F. Shortal skillfully unravels the inside story of this pivotal meeting. He shows how the working and personal relationships between Roosevelt and Churchill, as well as their military chiefs of staffs, first took root and then blossomed during the conference. Code Name Arcadia makes a major contribution not only to the history of World War II, but also to our understanding of the power structure of the postwar world.

    1 in stock

    £35.96

  • The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatis

    University of Massachusetts Press The Pro-War Movement: Domestic Support for the Vietnam War and the Making of Modern American Conservatis

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the vast literature on the Vietnam War, much has been written about the antiwar movement and its influence on U.S. policy and politics. In this book, Sandra Scanlon shifts attention to those Americans who supported the war and explores the war s impact on the burgeoning conservative political movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. Believing the Vietnam War to be a just and necessary cause, the pro-war movement pushed for more direct American military intervention in Southeast Asia throughout the Kennedy administration, lobbied for intensified bombing during the Johnson years, and offered coherent, if divided, endorsements of Nixon s policies of phased withdrawal. Although its political wing was dominated by individuals and organisations associated with Barry Goldwater s presidential bids, the movement incorporated a broad range of interests and groups united by a shared antipathy to the New Deal order and liberal Cold War ideology. Appealing to patriotism, conservative leaders initially rallied popular support in favour of total victory and later endorsed Nixon s call for peace with honour. Yet as the war dragged on with no clear end in sight, internal divisions eroded the confidence of pro-war conservatives in achieving their aims and forced them to reevaluate the political viability of their hardline Cold War rhetoric. Conservatives still managed to make use of grassroots patriotic campaigns to marshal support for the war, particularly among white ethnic workers opposed to the antiwar movement. Yet in so doing, Scanlon concludes, they altered the nature and direction of the conservative agenda in both foreign and domestic policy for years to come.

    1 in stock

    £25.16

  • We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War

    University of Massachusetts Press We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam's Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra's ""These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."" For a ""tunnel rat"" who blew smoke into the Viet Cong's underground tunnels, it was Jimi Hendrix's ""Purple Haze."" For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., it was Aretha Franklin's ""Chain of Fools."" And for countless other Vietnam vets, it was ""I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die,"" ""Who'll Stop the Rain,"" or the song that gives this book its title.In We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. They explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans -- black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and ""grunts"" -- whose personal reflections drive the book's narrative. Many of the voices are those of ordinary soldiers, airmen, seamen, and marines. But there are also ""solo"" pieces by veterans whose writings have shaped our understanding of the war -- Karl Marlantes, Alfredo Vea, Yusef Komunyakaa, Bill Ehrhart, Arthur Flowers -- as well as songwriters and performers whose music influenced soldiers' lives, including Eric Burdon, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Country Joe McDonald, and John Fogerty. Together their testimony taps into memories -- individual and cultural -- that capture a central if often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam.Trade Review"Intimate and deeply informative, with a scope that encompasses both the war itself and the way that music has helped raise awareness of veterans' issues long after its end."—Rolling Stone

    1 in stock

    £65.45

  • Island at War: Puerto Rico in the Crucible of the Second World War

    University Press of Mississippi Island at War: Puerto Rico in the Crucible of the Second World War

    Book SynopsisDespite Puerto Rico being the hub of the United States' naval response to the German blockade of the Caribbean, there is very little published scholarship on the island's heavy involvement in the global conflict of World War II. Recently, a new generation of scholars has been compiling interdisciplinary research with fresh insights about the profound wartime changes, which in turn generated conditions for the rapid economic, social, and political development of postwar Puerto Rico. The island's subsequent transformation cannot be adequately grasped without tracing its roots to the war years. Island at War brings together outstanding new research on Puerto Rico and makes it accessible in English. It covers ten distinct topics written by nine distinguished scholars from the Caribbean and beyond. Contributors include experts in the fields of history, political science, sociology, literature, journalism, communications, and engineering. Topics include US strategic debate and war planning for the Caribbean on the eve of World War II, Puerto Rico as the headquarters of the Caribbean Sea frontier, war and political transition in Puerto Rico, the war economy of Puerto Rico, the German blockade of the Caribbean in 1942, and the story of a Puerto Rican officer in the Second World War and Korea. With these essays and others, Island at War represents the cutting edge of scholarship on the role of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in World War II and its aftermath.

    £61.75

  • National and Transnational Memories of the

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd National and Transnational Memories of the

    Book SynopsisThe first transnational study of the memory of the Kindertransport and the first to explore how it is represented in museums, memorials, and commemorations. The Kindertransport, the rescue of ca. 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi sphere of control and influence before the Second World War, has often been framed as a "British story." This book recognizes that even though most of the "Kinder" were initially brought to the UK and many stayed, it was more than that. It therefore compares British memory of the Kindertransport to that of other host nations (the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). It is the first book to ask how the Kindertransport is remembered both in the countries of origin, particularly Germany, and in the host nations, as well as the first to analyze how it is represented in museums, memorials, and commemorations. Seeing memory of the Kindertransport in the host nations and in Germany as significantly different, the study argues that the different national memory discourses around the Nazi persecution of Jews shape the respective countries' images of the Kindertransport, and that those images in turn shape the discourses - especially in Britain. Yet while national memory frameworks remain crucial to how the Kindertransport is remembered, the book also documents the increasing significance of transnational memory trends that link the host nations with each other and with the countries from which the children originated.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Kindertransport Memory and Representation 1: British Memory of the Kindertransport 2: American and Canadian Memories of the Kindertransport 3: Memories of the Kindertransport in Australia and New Zealand 4: German Memory of the Kindertransport Conclusion Bibliography Index

    £89.25

  • Borders on the Move: Territorial Change and

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd Borders on the Move: Territorial Change and

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn examination of territorial changes between Czechoslovakia and Hungary and their effects on the local populations of the borderlands in the World War II era The movement of borders and people was a remarkably common experience for mid-twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europeans. Such was the case along the border between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, where territory changed hands in1938 and again in 1945. During the intervening period and beyond, residents of the borderland were caught in a nearly continuous onslaught of ethnic cleansing - expulsion of Czech and Slovak "colonists," Jewish deportations during the Holocaust, and postwar population exchanges - that was meant to reshape the territory first in the desired image of the Hungarian state and later on in that of Czechoslovakia. Borders on the Move examines the impact of border changes and migrations on this region between 1938 and 1948. It investigates the everyday consequences of geopolitical events that are well-known from the perspective of international and national histories, but does so explicitly in the context of the borderland. Making skillful use of state and local archival sources in Hungary and Slovakia, author Leslie Waters illuminates the catastrophic effects of state action - including sweeping wealth redistribution and the expulsion of those perceived as enemies of the state - on individuals. This engagingly written and far-reaching work will be invaluable to scholars of the Holocaust and of East Central Europe as well as to those who study forced migration, population exchange, and inter-ethnic relations.Trade ReviewLeslie Waters' Borders on the Move is a model academic monograph. [...] a well written and researched account of borderland life and lives during World War II in Hungary and Slovakia. It will be of interest to historians and other scholars of borderlands, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, national identities and Central and Eastern Europe. -- EUROPE-ASIA STUDIESLeslie Waters's Borders on the Move is an important work for both international historiography and Hungarian and Slovak historiographies. * HUNGARIAN CULTURAL STUDIES *Table of ContentsGlossary Introduction Shifting Borders and Shifting Populations Territorial Reintegration War and Radicalization The Holocaust in the Borderland Return to Czechoslovakia Conclusion Bibliography

    3 in stock

    £81.00

  • Seeking Accountability for Nazi and War Crimes in

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd Seeking Accountability for Nazi and War Crimes in

    Book SynopsisThe thirst for post-World War II justice transcended the Cold War and mobilized diverse social groups. This is a story of their multilayered and at times conflictual interactions. In this edited collection, sixteen historians develop a new approach to the trials against persons accused of war crimes and mass murder in Europe during the ascendancy of Nazism and the Second World War (1933-1945). Focusing on the social aspects of the demand for justice and making use of previously underexploited local and international sources, contributors put to the test the notion of "show trials" and explore a range of judicial and political cultures from Germany to the Soviet Union. Essays uncover the expectations around accountability and forms of mobilization on the part of a range of citizens involved in the trials: survivors, witnesses, perpetrators, Nazi hunters, and civic activists. In addition to the perspective of these citizens, contributors invoke the expertise of reporters, filmmakers, historians, investigators, and prosecutors who shaped public representations of justice. These shaping efforts, the authors show, often supported the desire of political authorities to benefit from the publicity of the trials and to contain the spontaneous dissemination of information. The book's close examination of interactions between citizens and authorities thus demonstrates the extent and limits of what might be called a "coproduction" of justice, in the process shedding light on the interdependence between historical knowledge and legal prosecution of mass crimes.Table of ContentsTable of Figures Introduction V. Voisin, E. Le Bourhis, and I. Tcherneva List of Abbreviations Part I - Justice and visibility Shaping the Spectacle: Politics and Professional Practices Chapter 1. Justice in Mantle Coats: Shooting the Bulgarian People's Courts in Revolutionary Times, 1944-1945 Nadège Ragaru Chapter 2. The Nuremberg Trials - To Stage or Not to Stage: Conflicting Visions and Creative Differences Sylvie Lindeperg/Camille Noûs Chapter 3. Evidence and Soviet Rhetorical Devices: Staging Justice at the Nuremberg Trial Victor Barbat Disclosing Data: Doubt and Uncertainty Chapter 4. Tensions Between Secrecy and Publicity: Internment, Investigation, Extradition, and Convictions in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany, 1945-1950 Enrico Heitzer and Julia Landau Chapter 5. Concentration Camp Crimes on Trial, on TV, and in Civic Education. Bonn 1958-1959 Götz Lachwitz Chapter 6. Law and Accountability, Secrecy and Guilt: Soviet Trawniki Defendants' Trials, 1960-1970 David Alan Rich Part II - Justice and social mobilization From Rumor to Testimony: Challenges in Voluntary Social Involvement Chapter 7. Rehabilitation of individuals suspected of collaboration: The Jewish Civic Court by the Central Committee of Jews in Poland, 1946-1950 Katarzyna Person Chapter 8. Risks and Results of Citizens' Commitments: The Kačerovski Case in Riga, 1958-1963 Eric Le Bourhis and Irina Tcherneva Chapter 9. Mediators behind the Scenes: The World Jewish Congress and the International Auschwitz Committee during the Preparations for the First Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt Katharina Stengel Individual and Collective Advocacy Chapter 10. Accusing Hans Globke, 1960-1963: Agency and the Iron Curtain Jasmin Söhner and Máté Zombory Chapter 11. The Fils et Filles des Déportés Juifs de France and the Lischka Trial in Cologne, 1971-1980 Anne Klein and Birte Klarzyk List of Contributors Index

    £114.00

  • Kyiv as Regime City: The Return of Soviet Power

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd Kyiv as Regime City: The Return of Soviet Power

    Book SynopsisHow the Soviet Union reestablished power in a changed Kyiv following the retreat of Nazi forces, consolidating its regime as it headed into the Cold War. Kyiv as Regime City charts the resettlement of the Ukrainian capital after Nazi occupation, focusing on the efforts of returning Soviet rulers to regain legitimacy within a Moscow-centered regime still attending to the warfront. Beginning with the Ukrainian Communists' inability to both purge their capital city of "socially dangerous" people and prevent the arrival of "unorganized" evacuees from the rear, this book chronicles how a socially and ethnically diverse milieu of Kyivans reassembled after many years of violence and terror. While the Ukrainian Communists successfully guarded entry into their privileged, elite ranks and monitored the masses' mood toward their superiors in Moscow, the party failed to conscript a labor force and rebuild housing, leading the Stalin regime to adopt new tactics to legitimize itself among the large Ukrainian and Jewish populations who once again called the city home. Drawing on sources from the once-closed central, regional, and local archives of the former Soviet Union, this study is essential reading for those seeking to understand how the Kremlin reestablished its power in Kyiv, consolidating its regime as the Cold War with the United States began. Funded by the Knowledge Unlatched Select 2023 collection, this title is available as an Open Access ebook under the Creative Commons License: CC BY NCTrade ReviewWell-written, accessible to scholars and general readers alike, with a balanced, logical structure, advancing compelling arguments substantiated by the wealth of archival sources, the book is a welcome addition to the historiography of the postwar Soviet Union. * AB IMPERIO *An excellent source of information on the rich and complex period at wars end, and will be interesting to scholars of Soviet history, Ukrainian and Jewish history, and urban history as well. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *[Blackwell's] use of Kyivan archival material is impressive...scholars interested in the history of Kyiv and the Great Patriotic War will find this work extremely valuable. * THE RUSSIAN REVIEW *Blackwell's useful monograph is a tightly knit examination of multiethnic Kyiv between November 6, 1943 and early 1947. * SLAVIC REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction "The Capital Is Being Settled All Over Again": Resettlement from Fall 1943 to Fall 1944 "There Was No Real Battle against Illegal Entry": Resettlement from Fall 1944 to Fall 1946 "People Are Going for the Party Who Are Forcing Us to Be Justifiably Careful": The Reassembled Elite "A Textual Implementation of the Law . . . Was Not Carried Out": The Reassembled Masses "The State's Dignity Is Higher Than His Own Dignity": The Relegitimization of Soviet Power "Tashkent Partisans" and "German Bitches": Relationships with Soviet Power Conclusion Notes Index

    £23.74

  • The Enemy Within Never Did Without: German and

    Texas Review Press The Enemy Within Never Did Without: German and

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisCamp Huntsville was one of the first and largest POW camps constructed in America during World War II. Located roughly eight miles east of Huntsville, Texas, in Walker County, the camp was built in 1942 and opened for prisoners the following year. The camp served as a model site for POW installations across the country and set a high standard for the treatment of prisoners.Between 1943 and 1945, the camp housed roughly 4,700 German POWs and experienced tense relations between incarcerated Nazi and anti-Nazi factions. Then, during the last months of the war, the American military selected Camp Huntsville as the home of its top-secret re-education program for Japanese POWs.The irony of teaching Japanese prisoners about democracy and voting rights was not lost on African Americans in East Texas who faced disenfranchisement and racial segregation. Nevertheless, the camp did inspire some Japanese prisoners to support democratization of their home country when they returned to Japan after the war. Meanwhile, in this country, the US government sold Camp Huntsville to Sam Houston State Teachers College in 1946, and the site served as the school's Country Campus through the mid-1950s.Trade Review“This long-overdue project is one I started working on decades ago but didn't finish. It is gratifying to see the book come to fruition through the efforts of these two history professors. And what a job they've done!” - Paul Ruffin, Director, TRP

    1 in stock

    £17.06

  • The Air War in Vietnam

    Texas Tech Press,U.S. The Air War in Vietnam

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Air War in Vietnam is a deep dive into the effectiveness of air power during the Vietnam War, offering particular evaluation of the extent to which air operations fulfilled national policy objectives. Built from exhaustive research into previously classified and little-known archival sources, Michael Weaver insightfully blends new sources with material from the State Department's Foreign Relations of the United States Series. While Air Force sources from the lion's share of the documentary evidence, Weaver also makes heavy use of Navy and Marine materials.Breaking air power into six different mission sets--air superiority, aerial refueling, airlift, close air support, reconnaissance, and coercion & interdiction--Weaver assesses the effectiveness of each of these endeavors from the tactical level of war and adherence to US policy goals. Critically, The Air War in Vietnam perceives of the air campaign as a siege of North Vietnam.While American air forces completed most of their air campaigns successfully on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels, what resulted was not a failure in air power, but a failure in the waging of war as a whole. The Air War in Vietnam tackles controversies and unearths new evidence, rendering verdicts both critical and positive, arguing that war, however it is waged, is ultimately effective only when it achieves a country's policy objectives.Trade ReviewMichael E. Weaver offers a detailed, comprehensive and meticulous re-examination of air power effectiveness during the Vietnam War. His fresh approach, shrewd analysis, and insightful research, including newly declassified evidence, demystifies air power's contribution to statecraft in a war that defied traditional metrics for measuring success and failure. This book is a work of significance and highly recommended." —Colonel John Andreas Olsen, author of A History of Air Warfare

    2 in stock

    £40.50

  • Kokoda Air Strikes: Allied air forces in New

    NewSouth Publishing Kokoda Air Strikes: Allied air forces in New

    Book SynopsisThe author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played – or failed to play – in crucial World War II campaigns in New Guinea.This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre – the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal – presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942.It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity – with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. And they persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.

    £20.66

  • An Australian Band of Brothers: Don Company,

    NewSouth Publishing An Australian Band of Brothers: Don Company,

    Book SynopsisThis riveting book follows a small group of Australian front-line soldiers from their enlistment in the dark days of 1940 to the end of World War II. No ordinary soldiers, they were members of Don Company of the Second 43rd Battalion, part of the famous 9th Australian Division, which during campaigns in Tobruk, El Alamein, New Guinea and Borneo sustained more casualties and won more medals than any other Australian division. It is an evocative and detailed account of the dayto-day war of three infantry soldiers whose experiences included night patrols at Tobruk, advancing steadily through German barrages at Alamein, charging enemy machine guns in New Guinea, and repelling Japanese charges on Borneo. Inspired by American historian Stephen Ambrose’s landmark book, Band of Brothers, about the US Army’s Easy Company of the 506th Regiment, Mark Johnston, one of our best military historians, here gives an Australian company the same treatment. Using the frank and detailed personal letters, diaries and memoirs of three Australian soldiers, he brings to life their campaigns, battles and interactions with their comrades and enemies. His book is a unique and powerful account of the everyday experiences of a small unit of soldiers on the front line.Trade Review‘A magnificent achievement from our premier historian of Australian soldiers in WWII. This is superb storytelling.’ - Professor Peter Stanley

    £17.95

  • Wizards of Oz: How Oliphant and Florey helped win

    NewSouth Publishing Wizards of Oz: How Oliphant and Florey helped win

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisTwo Australian scientists played a vital yet largely unknown role in the Allied victory in the Second World War. Almost eight decades later, Wizards of Oz finally tells their story.In this fast-paced and compelling book, Brett Mason reveals how two childhood friends from Adelaide – physicist Mark Oliphant and medical researcher Howard Florey – initiated the three most significant scientific and industrial projects of the Second World War. Manufacturing penicillin, developing microwave radar and building the atomic bomb gave the Allies the edge and ultimate victory over Germany and Japan.More than just a story of scientific discovery, Wizards of Oz tells a remarkable tale of secret missions, international intrigue and triumph against all odds. Mason tells how Oliphant and Florey were also instrumental in convincing a reluctant United States to develop and deploy these three breakthrough inventions in time to change the course of the war. The two Australians not only helped win the war but shaped the peace, with their war-time contributions continuing to influence international politics and the health and wealth of nations.Oliphant and Florey emerge in Wizards of Oz as the two most consequential Australians of the Second World War – perhaps of all time.

    2 in stock

    £19.76

  • Béla Bartók in Italy: The Politics of Myth-Making

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd Béla Bartók in Italy: The Politics of Myth-Making

    Book SynopsisExamines the reputation of the Hungarian musician Béla Bartók (1881-1945) as an antifascist hero. This book examines the reputation of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881-1945) as an antifascist hero and beacon of freedom. Following Bartok's reception in Italy from the early twentieth century, through Mussolini's fascist regime, and into the early Cold War, Palazzetti explores the connexions between music, politics and diplomacy. The wider context of this study also offers glimpses into broader themes such as fascist cultural policies, cultural resistance, and the ambivalent political usage of modernist music. The book argues that the 'Bartókian Wave' occurring in Italy after the Second World War was the result of the fusion of the Bartók myth as the 'musician of freedom' and the Cold War narrative of an Italian national regeneration. Italian-Hungarian diplomatic cooperation during the interwar period had supported Bartok's success in Italy. But, in spite of their political alliance, the cultural policies by Europe's leading fascist regimes started to diverge over the years: many composers proscribed in Nazi Germany were increasingly performed in fascist Italy. In the early 1940s, the now exiled composer came to represent one of the symbols of the anti-Nazi cultural resistance in Italy and was canonised as 'the musician of freedom'. Exile and death had transformed Bartók into a martyr, just as the Resistenza and the catastrophe of war had redeemed post-war Italy.Trade ReviewPalazzetti takes up [an] important and ground-breaking study of Bartók in Italy. [...]. Exploring the roots of [Bartók's] canonization - the myth-making referred to in the book's subtitle - and its multiple political purposes, Palazzetti follows the trajectory of the composer's experiences and the popularity of his music before, during and after the fascist ventennio. [...]. The meticulously researched list of performances of Bartók's music from the very first, in 1911, to the end of 1950 is an invaluable resource, and reveals how often some of the most demanding works were played. [...]. The situation is one of condensed complexity, and Palazzetti is an excellent guide through its tangled paths. -- Kenneth Chalmers * OPERA *True to the ethos of contemporary musicology, Palazzetti worries away at the parallelisms between the work of composers and the lives lived within cultures [...]. The very particular specifics of Palazzetti's material, so thoroughly researched and referenced in this book, raise many resonances, already debated by [...] Bartók scholars [...], as well as authors concentrating on Cold War cultural studies. -- Arnold Whittall * THE MUSICAL TIMES *A well-researched study of how politics can try to hijack music. -- Susan Pierotti * Stringendo, Journal of the Australian Strings Association *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Bartók in Liberal Italy, 1911-1925 Chapter 2: Heroism and Silence: Bartók in Mussolini's Italy, 1925-1938 Chapter 3: Resistance and Dictatorship, 1939-1942 Chapter 4: Resistance and Democracy, 1943-1947 Chapter 5: Bartók's Legacy in a Divided World, 1948-1956 Chapter 6: Bartók's Influence on Italian Composers Conclusion: Bartók and the Memory of the Twentieth Century Bibliography Appendix: Performances of Bartók's Works in Italy between 1911 and 1950 Index

    £76.00

  • The Foreign Office's War, 1939-41: British

    Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Foreign Office's War, 1939-41: British

    Book SynopsisProvides a forceful corrective to the idea that Britain 'stood alone' until the invasion of the Soviet Union and the attack on Pearl Harbor brought about 'the Grand Alliance'. Based on extensive archival research, the book demonstrates that 1939 to 1941 was a period of intensive diplomatic activity by the British Foreign Office designed to ensure that Britain's potential enemies, especially Soviet Russia, Italy and Japan, remained neutral and that its most desirable potential ally, the United States, remained as friendly as possible until it could be persuaded to join in the conflict. The book highlights the importance of diplomacy towards neutrals for British policy, considers the complexities of the situation, tying together issues such as blockade and the disposition of British forces in various theatres, explores decision making within the British government, examining how the diplomatic considerations of the Foreign Office played into wider debates amongst ministers and senior civil servants, and discusses the various courses towards neutrals, including alternatives, advocated within the Foreign Office. Overall, the book provides a rich, highly nuanced view of British policy in this crucial period.Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments (T.G. Otte) List of Abbreviations Introduction: Keith Neilson and Modern International History (T.G. Otte) Chapter 1:On the Eve of War: January to September 1939 Chapter 2:The Baltic, Blockade and Soviet Russia: September 1939 - June 1940 Chapter 3:Defending the Mediterranean: Italy, Russia and the Balkans Chapter 4: Defending Britain and the Far East: The United States, Japan and Soviet Russia, September 1939-June 1940 Chapter 5: 'Nothing for nothing': From the Fall of France to Operation Barbarossa: July 1940 - June 1941 Epilogue (T.G. Otte) Appendix I: Members of the American, Central, Eastern, Far Eastern, Northern and Southern Departments, 1939-1941 Appendix II: Dramatis Personae Appendix III: Keith Neilson, List of Publications Bibliography

    £90.25

  • A Very British Experience: Coalition, Defence and

    Liverpool University Press A Very British Experience: Coalition, Defence and

    Book SynopsisThree defining elements of the collective wartime experience deserve full scrutiny: the challenges of building and maintaining coalitions and alliances; the paramount importance of defending the British mainland and its population; and the central role the African continent assumed in all British strategic planning. An introductory essay sets out how the British wartime experience was underpinned by these critical elements. Topics addressed include 1940 and the Defence of Britain; relations with the United States; the British Empire Air Training Plan; General Boy Browning and Operation Market Garden; the recall of General Alan Cunningham from Libya in 1941; plans for defending the Royal Family; Exercise Genesis, which turned west London into a battleground for a day in May 1942; and the role of the Eastern Fleet off Africa. Andrew Stewart provides a compelling chapter on the loss of the Tobruk garrison in June 1942 -- one of the worst military disasters suffered by the British Empire during the Second World War. The essay on Tobruk demonstrates how all three defining elements of wartime experience converged: the loss of public confidence about how the war was being conducted; its impact on the relationship with the Union of South Africa, a key partner in the Dominion wartime coalition; and the absolute necessity that existed for deep strategic planning on the African continent -- subsequently to be realized at the final battle at El Alamein.

    £30.00

  • Political Comedy and Social Tragedy: Spain, a

    Liverpool University Press Political Comedy and Social Tragedy: Spain, a

    Book SynopsisA prequel to the authors previous monographs on the Great War and the Foundations of the Spanish Civil War, this book analyses the troubled and often violent path of Spain to modernity. During the nearly 30 years of history explored (18921921), the country appeared to be caught in a kind of Groundhog Day. It was rocked in the 1890s by an ill-fated colonial adventure and a spiral of anarchist terrorism and praetorian-led repression, mostly in Barcelona, which culminated with the murder of the Conservative prime minister, Antonio Canovas, in August 1897. Twenty-four years later, Spain was undergoing a similar set of circumstances: a military quagmire in Morocco and vicious social warfare, with its epicentre in the Catalan capital, which resulted in the killing of the then Conservative prime minister, Eduardo Dato, in March 1921. The chronological framework highlights the gradual crisis, but also resilience, of the ruling Restoration Monarchy. Francisco Romero Salvado pursues the thesis that this crisis could be largely explained by focusing on the correlation between two apparently contradictory conceptual terms, but which in fact proved to be supplementary: the extent to which the persistence of the political comedy embodied by an unreformed liberal but oligarchic order perpetuated a social tragedy. Notwithstanding the peculiarity of the authors approach, this study rejects any notion of determinism or exceptionalism. On the contrary, Spain was not an extraordinary case within the European context but constituted a laboratory par excellence of the turmoil which marked this age. Indeed, a watershed period of fast technological progress, economic modernization and cultural awareness clashed head-on with traditional constitutional and liberal states that found they were unable to retain their past hegemony in the dawning era of mass politics. The outcome was unprecedented social warfare which led in many cases to a reactionary backlash and the establishment of authoritarian formulas of governance. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies

    £100.00

  • Political Comedy and Social Tragedy: Spain, a

    Liverpool University Press Political Comedy and Social Tragedy: Spain, a

    Book SynopsisA prequel to the authors previous monographs on the Great War and the Foundations of the Spanish Civil War, this book analyses the troubled and often violent path of Spain to modernity. During the nearly 30 years of history explored (18921921), the country appeared to be caught in a kind of Groundhog Day. It was rocked in the 1890s by an ill-fated colonial adventure and a spiral of anarchist terrorism and praetorian-led repression, mostly in Barcelona, which culminated with the murder of the Conservative prime minister, Antonio Canovas, in August 1897. Twenty-four years later, Spain was undergoing a similar set of circumstances: a military quagmire in Morocco and vicious social warfare, with its epicentre in the Catalan capital, which resulted in the killing of the then Conservative prime minister, Eduardo Dato, in March 1921. The chronological framework highlights the gradual crisis, but also resilience, of the ruling Restoration Monarchy. Francisco Romero Salvado pursues the thesis that this crisis could be largely explained by focusing on the correlation between two apparently contradictory conceptual terms, but which in fact proved to be supplementary: the extent to which the persistence of the political comedy embodied by an unreformed liberal but oligarchic order perpetuated a social tragedy. Notwithstanding the peculiarity of the authors approach, this study rejects any notion of determinism or exceptionalism. On the contrary, Spain was not an extraordinary case within the European context but constituted a laboratory par excellence of the turmoil which marked this age. Indeed, a watershed period of fast technological progress, economic modernization and cultural awareness clashed head-on with traditional constitutional and liberal states that found they were unable to retain their past hegemony in the dawning era of mass politics. The outcome was unprecedented social warfare which led in many cases to a reactionary backlash and the establishment of authoritarian formulas of governance. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies

    £39.95

  • The Faith and the Fury: Popular Anticlerical

    Liverpool University Press The Faith and the Fury: Popular Anticlerical

    Book SynopsisThe five-year period following the proclamation of the Republic in April 1931 was marked by physical assaults upon the property and public ritual of the Spanish Catholic Church. These attacks were generally carried out by rural and urban anticlerical workers who were frustrated by the Republic's practical inability to tackle the Church's vast power. On 17- 18 July 1936, a right-wing military rebellion divided Spain geographically, provoking the radical fragmentation of power in territory which remained under Republican authority. The coup marked the beginning of a conflict which developed into a full-scale civil war. Anticlerical protagonists, with the reconfigured structure of political opportunities working in their favour, participated in an unprecedented wave of iconoclasm and violence against the clergy. During the first six months of the conflict, innumerable religious buildings were destroyed and almost 7,000 religious personnel were killed. To date, scholarly interpretations of these violent acts were linked to irrationality, criminality and primitiveness. However, the reasons for these outbursts are more complex and deep-rooted: Spanish popular anti-clericalism was undergoing a radical process of reconfiguration during the first three decades of the twentieth century. During a period of rapid social, cultural and political change, anticlerical acts took on new -- explicitly political -- meanings, becoming both a catalyst and a symptom of social change. After 17--18 July 1936, anticlerical violence became a constructive force for many of its protagonists: an instrument with which to build a new society. This book explores the motives, mentalities and collective identities of the groups involved in anti-clericalism during the pre-war Spanish Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War, and is essential reading for all those interested in twentieth-century Spanish history. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.

    £29.95

  • Ruptura: The Impact of Nationalism and Extremism

    Liverpool University Press Ruptura: The Impact of Nationalism and Extremism

    Book SynopsisDespite over 20,000 published books on the Spanish civil war, it remains the case that the social and cultural dimensions of the conflict have been relatively under-researched. Ruptura focuses on how nationalism, and extremist conceptions and projects, defined daily life experiences in both the battlefield and civilian cities and towns. A principal objective is to demonstrate that the civil war was not a struggle waged between ideologies disconnected from the preoccupations and daily lives of the Spanish people. A tripartite division of the chapter contributions -- Construction of the war; Wartime experiences; Memory and legacies -- brings to light the climate of violence, the social and symbolic transformations resulting from political divergence, and the widespread uncertainty that shaped the behavior, attitudes, lifestyles, practices and experiences of both combatants and civilians. New theoretical approaches on so-called war studies are addressed and engaged with. Several contributions frame their analyses within the international context of radicalization and political violence of interwar Europe. However, attention to the European frame does not diminish the importance accorded throughout the volume to the events that occurred in Spain. Without an understanding of the development of extremist projects, ideologies and attitudes in their particular and international dimensions it is impossible to explain the atmosphere of severe social radicalization and the unprecedented levels of violence reached during and after the civil war. In present times, when the relationship of extremism and nationalism to civil war is once again at the heart of public discourse and a preoccupation of media and governments, an historical perspective on these questions could not be more timely or necessary. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.

    £100.00

  • The Crucible of Francoism: Combat, Violence, and

    Liverpool University Press The Crucible of Francoism: Combat, Violence, and

    Book SynopsisThe July 1936 coup d'tat against the Spanish Second Republic brought together a diversity of anti-Republican political and social groups under the leadership of rebel Africanista military officers. In the ensuing Civil War this coalition gradually came under the rule of Generalissimo Franco. This volume explores the hypothesis that the violence and combat experiences of the war were the fundamental ideological crucible for the Francoist regime. The rebels were a group of reactionary and anti-liberal forces with little ideological or political coherence, but they emerged from the conflict not only victorious but ideologically united under the dictator's power. Key to understanding this transition are the different political cultures of the rebel army, how the combatants' war experiences contributed to the transformation of diverse rebel groups, and the role of foreign armed intervention. The contributors examine not only the endogenous Spanish political and military cultures of the Francoist coalition, but also the transnational influence of foreign groups. The roots of Francoist political culture are found in the Falangist and Carlist militias, and Civil Guard units, that lent their support to the military rebellion. The war experiences of conscripts, colonial troops, and junior officers forged the Francoist ideology. It was reinforced by fascist influences and assistance from Germany and Italy, and the lesser-known contributions of Swiss and White Russian volunteers. At the beginning of the conflict the rebel side was not homogeneous. But it weaved together a complex, transnational web of political and military interests in the midst of a bloody and destructive war, transforming itself in the process to a political and dictatorial platform that was to rule Spain for many years.Trade Review‘The Crucible of Francoism offers fresh insights into a period of Spanish history on which so much has been written… I would highly commend this book to anyone interested in understanding the complex nomenclature of Francoism, and how its philosophy and practice was forged in the furnace and brutality of war.’ John McCulloch, Bulletin of Spanish Studies

    £100.00

  • Miss Spain in Exile : Isa Reyes' Escape from the

    Liverpool University Press Miss Spain in Exile : Isa Reyes' Escape from the

    Book SynopsisOn the day in 1936 that Franco invaded Spain, a fifteen-year-old girl from Madrid was on vacation in the Sierra de Gredos, a mountain range popular for hikers. Isa (Conchita) Reyes fled Spain for Paris with her mother and sister, taking only what they could carry in their suitcases. Her father stayed behind to fight on the Loyalist side. It was not long before the last piece of jewelry had been sold, and ways had to be found to make a living. Working as a model, she was discovered and given the stage name Isa. A renowned Flamenco dancer, she performed in Paris and in the capitals and resorts of Europe. In 1938 she was crowned Miss Spain in Exile. In Venice, she was courted by Count Ciano, Mussolinis son-in-law, and used an imaginative lie to avoid his affections. In Berlin, in 1939, she performed (unwillingly) at Hitlers fiftieth birthday celebrations organized by Joseph Goebbels. Later in the year, whilst on a dancing tour in Athens, she met the man she would marry my father. Together, they escaped Europe for the New World. This is Isas story, from the nightclubs and ateliers of Paris, to the performance halls of Europe, to the harrowing inspections by the Gestapo while transiting Germany. This is a story of a young girl who had to grow up quickly when war turned her world upside down. Isa fulfilled her dream of becoming a dancer, albeit in ways she could not have imagined when growing up. Her story is told against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and Europes inexorable march to conflict. Isa never lost her optimism or her sense of humor. Her dream came true, but the circumstances were tragic and tumultuous.

    £29.95

  • The Franco Regime and its Historiography: Spanish

    Liverpool University Press The Franco Regime and its Historiography: Spanish

    Book SynopsisFor two decades after the civil war the Franco regime applied systematic historical propaganda and imposed relentless repression of history professionals. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, the balance shifted from all-pervading propaganda to structural but flexible censorship. Gradually and reluctantly, the regime had to give back the initiative for explaining the recent past to where it belonged: to the professional historians, but not without oversee and livelihood threat. In its efforts to keep control, the regime could count on historians who were willing to censor their more adventurous colleagues. But the outcome of this process was biased and uncertain. The main issue was always whether an author could be considered a friend of the regime. Personal interventions by Franco himself regularly played a decisive role. Historians fully loyal to the regime and its aims were published without difficulty; others took a reformist path, albeit without endangering the dominant interpretation that favoured the tropes of inevitability and positive consequences of Franco's rebellion. Reformist historians avoided criticism of the personal integrity of the dictator and the army, and did not address the issue of systematically planned terror in Franco's National Zone during the Civil War. Historians who dared to embrace these topics were condemned to write from abroad. Historical works dealing with the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) have been regularly studied in-depth. Dutch historian Jan van Muilekom provides a wider perspective by viewing the Franco historiography from the time of the preceding Second Republic (1931-1936). His analysis recognizes the crucial 1939-1952 period where Franco consolidated his seizure of power. The research is based on a wealth of published censored books, unpublished manuscripts, censorship archives and historical propaganda material. The book is an important complement to earlier studies that mainly dealt with the regimes dealing with the press, the film industry and literature. Over a span of four decades, Franco never lost his grip on how recent Spanish history should be read. Exploring the historiography of the regime provides multiple insights into the links between authoritarianism and censorship.

    £100.00

© 2026 Book Curl

    • American Express
    • Apple Pay
    • Diners Club
    • Discover
    • Google Pay
    • Maestro
    • Mastercard
    • PayPal
    • Shop Pay
    • Union Pay
    • Visa

    Login

    Forgot your password?

    Don't have an account yet?
    Create account