History Books: New, General, etc.

Xi
(from the author) I struggle with the demons all who have been to war must bear. There are days when these burdens seem more than I can handle.

71
re the moment of combat:
You may not be able to see, think, or control your body. During the first experience of combat you may have a shaking fit or curl up in a fetal position. You will probably recover within a few days.

How will I perform during my first time in combat?
Your performance may be poor. It will be hard for you to adjust, identify, and respond to dangers such as incoming artillery. You have a relatively high risk of being wonded or killed in your first battle.

Will I fire my weapon?
Probably, although this was not always the case. Less than half the riflemen in WWII and 55% in the Korean War fired their weapons. US military training has become more adept at conditioning you to shoot. 90% of frontline personnel fired their weapons in Vietnam.

86
Where am I most vulnerable to friendly fire?
Most friendly fire injuries in recent wars have occurred because tanks and vehicles were improperly targeted. 70% of all combat vehicles lost in the Gulf Ware were destroyed by friendly fire.

91
What will prolonged exposure to combat do to me?
In WW II it was determined that after 60 days of continuous combat, 98% of all those who survive will have become psychiatric casualties. Lieutenant Colonel (Re.) Dave Grossman wrote: “It is not too far from the mark to observe that there is something about continuous, inescapable combat which will drive 98% of all men insane, and the other 2% were crazy when they got there.

112
In returning home from an unpopular war will I be spit on or harassed?

Probably not. Research indicates that the story of the returning Vietnam vet spat upon by a protester at the airport may be an urban legend. However, there are credible reports of hostility and violence toward men and women in uniform. Some Viet vets reported discrimination from college and graduate school admissions offices. Others reported verbal abuse. This continues to the present day.

115
What are the long-term consequences of combat stress?

There is a direct link between severe stress exposure and long-term health problems. 20 years after their exposure to combat, Viet vets showed a higher rate of circulatory, digestive, musculoskeletal , metabolic, nervous system, and respiratory problem. They were also at greater risk for some infectious diseases.

What are some of the specific problems I might develop?

You are at greater risk for drug-related disorders and alcoholism, as well as depression, hysteria, and hypochondria. You may have more frequent nightmares and trouble sleeping for many years if you were exposed to combat. 15% of Viet vets reported regular nightmare 18 years after combat.

115
Who is most at risk for PTSD in combat?
Among men, Hispanics and blacks are more susceptible than whites. The Army and the Marine Corps are the most susceptible services. In all branches, the lower ranks are more likely to experience PTSD.

116
Can PTSD be cured?

No, but treatments can minimize outbreaks. The most successful are medication and cognitive-behavioral therapy- talking through the trauma and processing it slowly.

Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History (Hardcover) by ~ John David Lewis

The goal of war is to defeat the enemy's will to fight. But how this can be accomplished is a thorny issue. Nothing Less than Victory provocatively shows that aggressive, strategic military offenses can win wars and establish lasting peace, while defensive maneuvers have often led to prolonged carnage, indecision, and stalemate. Taking an ambitious and sweeping look at six major wars, from antiquity to World War II, John David Lewis shows how victorious military commanders have achieved long-term peace by identifying the core of the enemy's ideological, political, and social support for a war, fiercely striking at this objective, and demanding that the enemy acknowledges its defeat.

Lewis examines the Greco-Persian and Theban wars, the Second Punic War, Aurelian's wars to reunify Rome, the American Civil War, and the Second World War. He considers successful examples of overwhelming force, such as the Greek mutilation of Xerxes' army and navy, the Theban-led invasion of the Spartan homeland, and Hannibal's attack against Italy--as well as failed tactics of defense, including Fabius's policy of delay, McClellan's retreat from Richmond, and Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. Lewis shows that a war's endurance rests in each side's reasoning, moral purpose, and commitment to fight, and why an effectively aimed, well-planned, and quickly executed offense can end a conflict and create the conditions needed for long-term peace.
Recognizing the human motivations behind military conflicts, Nothing Less than Victory makes a powerful case for offensive actions in pursuit of peace.

Also coming in March for those interested in Civil War history:

A Vast and Fiendish Plot (Paperback)
~ Clint Johnson
New York City, November 25, 1864. Confederate officers attempt to destroy the city with a series of lethal fires that will forever diminish it to a mere speck of an island. What fueled these Southern patriots' rage? And what if they had succeeded?
This terrifying scenario almost became a reality following what the New York Herald declared "a vast and fiendish plot." Infuriated by the Union's killing of their beloved General John Hunt Morgan and the burning of the Shenandoah Valley, eight Confederate officers swore revenge. Their method: Greek fire. Their target: Manhattan's commercial district. The daring mission could have changed the course of American history.

In the first book to bring to life this bold conspiracy in full detail, Civil War expert Clint Johnson reveals shocking facts about the treacherous alliances and rivalries that threatened nineteenth-century America. Here is the truth about this stunning event, the spirit that fueled it, and the near destruction of the world's most influential city.
"A fresh and intriguing addition to Civil War literature. . .. Johnson dispels myths and shows how Southerners sought to take revenge on a -sister city' they felt betrayed them."--Brion McClanahan, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers

364
The experience of battle, so widely diffused, may have had another effect on postbellum America.T he American historical profession has laboured hard and long to explain why the US alone among major industrialized countries failed to produce a domestic socialist movement. It gave birth to powerful trade unions, such as the AFL and the CIO, but neither adopted a socialist ideology as their European equivalents did. It was not for want of trying by the ideologues. Karl Marx, himself a passionate student at a distance of the Civil War, believed and argues that it should inaugurate a new order. In January 1865, he wrote, “The working men of Europe feel that as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class so the American anti-slavery war will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son
365
of the working class through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social peace.” Lincoln had already stridently rejected Marx’s vision of the future in words that encapsulated the American dream and anticipated the brunt of American historians’ attempt to explain why socialism failed to find rooting ground in his country. In 1864 he wrote, “None are so deeply interested to resist the present rebellion as the working people.” Then, in a reference to the draft riots in New York of 1863, he went on: “It should never be so. The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside the family, should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds. Nor should this be a war upon property-property is desirable-is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is a just encouragement to enterprise and industry. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another but let him labour diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built. In those last three sentences, Lincoln set forth the idea of individual effort on which the rise oto prosperity of late Victorian and twentieth-century America was built. It was an idea perfectly acceptable to the thinking classes of the epoch in Europe but also in American, who had decided to give their allegiance to the state and to collective activity and many of whom found their inspiration in the ideology of the left in all its varieties. Karl Marx, who captured the imagination of so many on the left, argued that the working class should re-organise itself for its advance to capture the necessary resources on military principle. In the Communist Manifesto he urged the working class to “form industrial armies.” The American working class, though it unionized enthusiastically, consistently opposed the appeal to revolution. American intellectuals struggled for generations to understand the American worker’s antipathy for radical and violent change. The American worker, had he been able to articulate his feelings, might have said that his country’s first revolution, as he called the War of Independence, had fulfilled many of his aspirations by founding his republic and that the second revolution, which was the civil War, had completed the first. He had no desire to form industrial armies, having in his hundreds of thousands already formed and served in real armies and learnt by his experience that armies brought hardship and suffering. One experience of army life was enough for a lifetime and not only for an individual lifetime but for a national lifetime as well. American socialism was stillborn on the battlefields of Shiloh and Gettysburg.

306
The shortages included shortages of labour. The ranks of the Confederate armies were filled to an overwhelming extent by young men from the countryside, which left farms to be run by older men, slaves, should any be owned, and by women.The place of women in Southern society has been heavily mythologised. There was little that was romantic about it at the time. For every brave beauty who assumed leadership on the plantation while the men were away at the war, there were hundreds of ordinary farmers’ wives who simply added ploughing and reaping to the endless list of jobs they had always performed. War may have brought unaccustomed responsibility, but it also brought much extra work which taxed women very hard. Yet Southern women are a distinctive breed even today, admired for their femininity and outward-going personality. Their difference must surely be ascribed to the war, not perhaps so much to the work they were obliged to undertake as to the role they were forced to assume in the lives of their men folk. To Europeans Southern women seem much more akin to European women than American women generally. The egalitarian qualities of American women are to Europeans one of their most striking characteristics. It is possible to believe that the femininity of Southern women derived from the parts they played as the war turned to failure and eventual defeat, in supporting and eventually comforting their men. Defeat is not part of the American way. American armies have an almost unbroken record of success. American women have traditionally welcomed their men home as victors. The exception is in the south, to which and to whose womenfolk the armies of the Confederacy returned beaten and dejected. Comforting beaten men, resorting their self-esteem, was a major part of the Southern women’s work after April 1865. The experience helped to form the distinctive characteristics of Southern womanhood.

From Publishers Weekly
Military historian Hastings (Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944–45) adds to his illustrious reputation with this magnificent analysis of Winston Churchill's years of greatness. In 1938 Churchill seemed a man bypassed by history. By 1945 he had become the greatest war leader Britain ever knew and has since achieved mythic status, standing higher than any other single human being at the head of the forces of light. During WWII Churchill wielded more power than any British prime minister in history but remained a democrat. He raised his nation far higher in the Grand Alliance than its material contributions justified. Hastings recognizes Churchill's strategic errors, his misplaced enthusiasms. Britain'smilitary leaders and military systems often disappointed his soaring hopes. His understanding of the empire and its peoples was limited and unenlightened. His indifference to building a new society resulted in his being turned out of office as the guns fell silent. But the outcome justified all, in his eyes. Churchill's strength of will, rhetoric, and personality enabled the British to understand the reasons for their sacrifices and made Britain's end as a great power a heroic one. 32 pages of photos, 8 maps. (Apr. 30)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Amazon
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders captured by the Japanese in Singapore. He not only survived working on the notorious Bridge on the River Kwai , but he was subsequently taken on one of the Japanese 'hellships' which was torpedoed. Nearly everyone else on board died and Urquhart spent 5 days alone on a raft in the South China Sea before being rescued by a whaling ship. He was taken to Japan and then forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later a nuclear bomb dropped just ten miles away ...This is the extraordinary story of a young men, conscripted at nineteen and whose father was a Somme Veteran, survived not just one, but three close encounters with death - encounters which killed nearly all his comrades.

About the Author
Alistair Urquhart is now 90 (and is the last surviving member of the Scottish regiment the Gordon Highlanders) and teaches computer skills to OAPs in Scotland

In this companion to the HBO(r) miniseries-executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman-Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot during World War II.

Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan. From the debacle in Bataan, to the miracle at Midway and the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, their solemn oaths to their country later led one to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot and the others to the coral strongholds of Peleliu, the black terraces of Iwo Jima and the killing fields of Okinawa, until at last the survivors enjoyed a triumphant, yet uneasy, return home.

In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price-a price paid in full by all.

About the Author
Hugh Ambrose is a noted historian and was a consultant on the documentary Price for Peace, for which Steven Spielberg and Stephen Ambrose were the Executive Producers. He was a consultant to his father on his books, and is also serving as a historical consultant on HBO(r)'s The Pacific miniseries. Ambrose is also the former vice president of the national World War II Museum and has led battlefield tours through Europe and along the Pacific Rim.

34
on obsolescence
I accost an American sailor and inquire why the ships of his country are built so as to last for only a short time; he answers without hesitation that the art of navigation is every day making such rapid progress that the finest vessel would become almost useless if it lasted beyond a few years. In these words, which fell accidentally, and on a particular subject, from an uninstructed man, I recognize the general and systematic idea upon which a great people direct all their concerns.

134
on religion
Whole families, old men, women, and children, cross rough passes and untrodden wilds, coming from a great distance, to join a camp-meeting, where, in listening to these discourses, they totally forget for several days and nights the cares of business and even the most urgent wants of the body.
Here and there in the midst of American society you meet with men full of a fanatical and almost wild spiritualism, which hardly exists in Europe. From time to time strange sects arise which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness. Religious insanity is very common in the United States.

restless in the midst of their prosperity
136
A native of the US clings to this world’s goods as if he were certain never to die; and he is so hasty in grasping at all within his reach that one would suppose he was constantly afraid of not living long enough to enjoy them. He clutches everything, he hold nothing fast, but soon loosens his grasp to pursue fresh gratifications.
137
At first sight there is something surprising in this strange unrest of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance. The spectacle itself, however, is as old as the world; the novelty is to see a whole people furnish an exemplification of it.

Young women in the US
198
An American girl scarcely ever displays that virginal softness in the midst of young desires or that innocent and ingenuous grace which usually attend the European woman in the transition from girlhood to youth. It is rare that an American woman, at any age, displays childish timidity or ignorance. Like the young women of Europe she seeks to please, but she knows precisely the cost of pleasing. If she does not abandon herself to evil, at least she knows that it exists; and she is remarkable rather for purity of manners than for chastity of mind.

on living apart
256
When social conditions are equal, every man is apt to live apart, centered in himself and forgetful of the public.

By Mark S "marks" (uesa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blood-curdling Box (Horrible Histories) (Paperback)
An excellent collection of books from the "Horrible Histories" series, this set covers events from the Stone Age thru WW2. Often graphic in detail but presented in a sophomoric, humorous manner, these slim volumes offer a wealth of historical detail that teaches history while at the same time entertains. The reading level makes this series accessible to nearly all middle school students from low to high readers and the topic format should keep even the most disinterested history students motivated and on task.

Not to be confused with text books, this series can certainly be supportive of classroom lessons helping to keep lower performing students on task and keeping their interest level elevated. It's common in my classroom to have students w/a "HH" in one hand and Wikipedia on their computer screens.

Title of series clearly states that this series is NOT balanced nor is it meant to be. These are not text books, nor are they edited, censured, generic, white washes of history. Obviously written for adolescent entertainment, the learning aspect is strictly an added bonus.

Can also be a good resource tool for classroom teachers. Much of what these books contain may not appear in more traditional textbooks but if one enhances their lessons with some of the information from "HH" you can be certain on keeping the students' attention.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, May 12, 2009
By HSC (Montana, United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blood-curdling Box (Horrible Histories) (Paperback)
My 10 year old daughter loves these and seems unmoved by what might seem to an adult an unnecessary emphasis on the violent, macabre and depressing. It's been a great way to get her to read about history. The 20 book set is very good value. She and my 7 year old also enjoyed the audio book versions but they are much more expensive.

History
For a distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World,” by Liaquat Ahamed (The Penguin Press), a compelling account of how four powerful bankers played crucial roles in triggering the Great Depression and ultimately transforming the United States into the world’s financial leader.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City,” by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company), an evocative, heavily researched examination of an industrial giant’s grandiose scheme to create a model rubber plantation deep in the Amazon forest, and “Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815,” by Gordon S. Wood (Oxford University Press), a lucid exploration of a turbulent era when a profoundly changing America, despite the sin of slavery, came to see itself as a beacon to the world, demonstrating human capacity for self-government.

BIOGRAPHY

For a distinguished and appropriately documented biography or autobiography by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Awarded to “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” by T.J Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf), a penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan who revolutionized transportation, amassed vast wealth and shaped the economic world in ways still felt today.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Cheever: A Life,” by Blake Bailey (Alfred A. Knopf), an absorbing, impeccably researched exploration of the famed writer John Cheever, illuminating his greatness as well as flaws, told in a compelling voice worthy of the subject, and “Woodrow Wilson: A Biography,” by John Milton Cooper, Jr. (Alfred A. Knopf), a magisterial work that corrects erroneous perceptions and casts important new light on one of the most pivotal and enigmatic American presidents, fully placing the man in the context of his times.

An exploration of the ways in which ancient theories of empire can inform our understanding of present-day international relations, Enduring Empire engages in a serious discussion of empire as it relates to American foreign policy and global politics.

The imperial power dynamics of ancient Athens and Rome provided fertile ground for the deliberations of many classical thinkers who wrote on the nature of empire: contemplating political sovereignty, autonomy, and citizenship as well as war, peace, and civilization in a world where political boundaries were strained and contested. The contributors to this collection prompt similar questions with their essays and promote a serious contemporary consideration of empire in light of the predominance of the United States and of the doctrine of liberal democracy.

Featuring essays from some of the leading thinkers in the fields of political science, philosophy, history, and classics, Enduring Empire illustrates how lessons gleaned from the Athenian and Roman empires can help us to understand the imperial trajectory of global politics today.
About the Author

David Edward Tabachnick is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Nipissing University.

Toivo Koivukoski is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Nipissing University.

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
History is usually classified as a social science, but Burrow eloquently demonstrates that the writing of history is an art. And since historians engage in an art form, they are required to use rigor, discipline, and, especially, analytical skill. It is that skill that separates Herodotus and Thucydides from earlier Egyptian and Mesopotamian scribes, whom Burrow classifies as record keepers rather than historians. As he examines the historical writings of Livy, Bede, McCaulay, and such twentieth-century historians as Huizinga and Bloch, it is fascinating to see the evolution of various historiographic trends. Some view history as a working out of a divine plan. Others are militant secularists with a contempt for the great man theory of development. What seems to unite all great historians is a sincere, if inevitably biased, effort to find deeper meanings that transcend particular events and help us better understand how individuals function as social actors. While this book will be especially valuable to historians, general readers can also learn much from Burrow’s superbly written analyses of these great histories and those who wrote them. --Jay Freeman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“Burrow marshals a lifetime of knowledge and guides the reader effortlessly across the ages.”
—Time

“A fascinating compendium.”
—The New Yorker

"A triumph. . . . Reminds us of how often the narratives of the great historians resemble works of literature and of how important a secure grasp of historical fact can be to the progress of culture and the fate of nations."
—The Wall Street Journal

“Absorbingly informative. . . . An exemplar of how history should be written. Witty, scholarly and, above all, fair.”
—The Times (London)

Page 525
Four years later in his second inaugural address(1937) he said, ‘the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered.”

This was the New Deal message that was rediscovered during the financial meltdown of 2008, after decades of free-market ideology.

But Roosevelt aimed to change not only the role of government but the relation between individuals and their society.

"Old truths have been relearned; untruths have been unlearned. We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics…This new understanding undermines the old admiration of worldly success as such. We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life."
(and later on)

"Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed civilization. In every land there are always at work forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men together. In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people."

Carpet-Bombing Falsehoods About a War That’s Little Understood By DWIGHT GARNER

(excerpt)
“Here was the Vietnam War we came to know before Vietnam — gooks, napalm, rapes, whores, an unreliable ally, a cunning enemy, fundamentally untrained G.I.’s fighting a war their top generals barely understood, fragging of officers, contempt for the know-nothing civilians back home, devilish battles indescribable even to loved ones, press handouts from Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters apparently scripted by comedians or lunatics, an ostensible vision of bringing freedom and liberty to a sordid dictatorship run by servants of Japanese imperialism.”

Other battles are perhaps just as famous — Thermopylae, Waterloo, Gettysburg — but the aura of Cannae, where Hannibal obliterated the largest army the Roman Republic had ever put into the field, is unmatched. The battle is unparalleled for its carnage, with more men from a single army killed on that one day, Aug. 2, 216 B.C., than on any other day on any other European battlefield: something like 50,000 Romans died, two and a half times the number of British soldiers who fell on the first day of the Somme.

LONDON — A book that gives a rare glimpse of everyday life inside one of the world's most secretive states won Britain's leading nonfiction book prize Thursday.

Barbara Demick's "Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea" was named winner of the 20,000 pound ($30,000) Samuel Johnson award at a ceremony in London.

From Publishers Weekly

In a thought-provoking book designed to reconsider the attributes of American leadership, Issacson (Einstein and His Universe), former managing editor of Time and now president of the Aspen Institute, has assembled a group of distinguished historians to address some seminal figures in terms of their vision, principles, flexibility, and pragmatism. Many of the contributors have first-rate résumés in scholarship, letters, and research, including Frances Fitzgerald, Sean Wilentz, Jean Strouse, and Robert Dallek. Quality writing, incisive analysis, and valuable revelations accompany each essay, whether it's Kevin Baker's take on the unpredictable baseball manager John Joseph McGraw, Evan Thomas's emotional deconstruction of Robert F. Kennedy, or Annette Gordon-Reed's perceptive measure of W.E.B. Du Bois. Three standout essays concern the moral and strategic strengths and weaknesses of Gen. George Washington; Joseph, chief of the Nez Perce Indians; and presidents Hoover and FDR. At a time when leadership is lacking, this memorable book culls examples from our past to reveal what makes a person stand above the rest. It's unfortunate that just one of the subjects--civil rights activist Pauli Murray--is a woman. 13 illus. (Oct.) (c)
Copyright © PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The qualities that define great leadership are almost as mercurial and indecipherable as those that identify great art: one notices more their absence than their presence, and sometimes a rearview mirror is necessary to determine if they ever existed at all. Isaacson has gathered preeminent writers to examine this slippery conundrum, each author portraying significant, and surprising, figures from America’s history. From historian Thomas Fleming’s penetrating review of George Washington’s military prowess to professor Glenda Gilmore’s robust depiction of civil rights activist Pauli Murray, the studies offer illuminating, insightful, and inspiring examples of valor and integrity. Likewise, biographer Robert Dallek’s judicious examination of the failures that beset successive presidents, from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, puts forth a cautionary and controversial notion of establishing a mechanism whereby officials can be recalled when they prove themselves incapable of demonstrating these requisite qualities. Incisive, shrewd, and perhaps even prescient, this eclectic collection offers rich food for thought for students of history and management alike. --Carol Haggas

From Publishers Weekly
This stirring study situates one of the most subversive yet profoundly American of social movements at the heart of the nation's history. Historian Dray (At the Hands of Persons Unknown) follows organized labor from the struggles of early 19th-century female textile workers to the present-day retreat of organized labor following the failed 1981 air trafic controllers' strike. His episodic narrative, structured around major strikes, shows labor's heroic age as an era of naked class warfare: strikers died by the dozens in pitched battles with police, soldiers, and Pinkerton agents, and such charismatic organizers as Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn braved prison and worse. The post-WWII period, by contrast, is a story of union conservatism, corruption scandals, and one rout after another at the hands of union-busting corporations abetted by government indifference. Organized labor's legacy, the author argues, is as much political as economic; it challenges bedrock American values of self-reliance while championing civil liberties--IWW speakers faced mass arrest for their public square orating--and bringing rights to the workplace. Packed with vivid characters and dramatic scenes, Dray's fine recap of a neglected but vital tradition has much to say about labor's current straits.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Dray traces the history of American trade unionism from the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1820s to unionism’s decline in the 1980s and the current status of organized labor, which the author suggests “may have been reduced to a whisper of its former greatness.” He explores such issues as what workers in different eras felt were their rights, what kind of future they envisioned for themselves and their families, the tension that erupts between skilled and unskilled labor, the impact of immigration, and the changing role of government in labor issues. The reader learns about recent labor concerns, including decades of globalization, which allows U.S. businesses to relocate production overseas using lower-cost workers and creative personnel practices such as massive hiring of temporary and part-time employees, who do not receive pension and health benefits. He notes that security of full-time employees is also threatened in our 24/7 workplace dominated by computers and e-mail, which he dubs “the electronic collar.” A thought-provoking book. --Mary Whaley

“Here you have three books wrapped into one: an exciting novel that happens to be true; an entertaining but thorough historical account of everything important that happened to any important people in the last ten millennia; and an educated guess about what will happen in the future. Read, learn, and enjoy!” —Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and Natural Experiments of History

From Publishers Weekly
Hicks (Raising the Hunley) revisits U.S. treachery and deceit toward Native Americans in his study of John Ross, the Cherokee chief who for 20 years led his people in defense of their lands. As the population of the fledgling U.S. grew, so too did pressure on the Cherokees to quit their land. Foremost among the advocates of Cherokee removal was Andrew Jackson, who used every power at his command--including eventually the power of the presidency--to see Cherokee land settled by whites. Against this formidable foe stood an unlikely champion, trading post owner John Ross. Only a fraction Cherokee, Ross nevertheless felt a powerful connection to the people and their cause, journeying repeatedly to Washington to plead their case and gain some sort of protection from the depredations of settlers and overzealous politicians. Ultimately defeated, he turned to doing what he could to ease the brutality of the long, bitter, and--for many thousands of Cherokee--fatal march on foot into the West along what came to be called the Trail of Tears. Richly detailed and well-researched, the heartbreaking history unfolds like a political thriller with a deeply human side. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This study of a January 1811 slave uprising and march on New Orleans exhumes the deliberately obscured and "largest act of armed resistance against slavery in the history of the United States." Historian Rasmussen expands on scarce source material to provide a complex context for a revolt that dwarfed such better-known rebellions as Nat Turner's and Denmark Vesey's, a stealthily organized uprising of 500 armed slaves dressed in military uniforms marching on and trying to conquer New Orleans. The author ties together diverse political, economic, and cultural threads in describing the rise (and brutal suppression) of the "ethnically diverse, politically astute, and highly organized" army, and investigates why this "story more Braveheart than Beloved" was consigned to historical footnote. While the book's ambition occasionally exceeds its grasp, it vividly evokes the atmosphere of New Orleans of the early 19th century and how a recalcitrant, French-rooted Louisiana and some Spanish possessions in the Deep South were incorporated into the expanding American nation though brutal revenge justice and political pressures. (Jan.) (c)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Impressive work by an up-and-coming historian.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“New Orleans has been the scene of many dark adventures, but none so shocking as the slave rebellion of 1811. Daniel Rasmussen has unearthed a stunning tale of freedom and repression and told it in gripping fashion.” (Evan Thomas )

A crisp, confident writer, Rasmussen tells this story with verve. (John Stauffer, The Wall Street Journal )

An incredible true story. (New York Post )

“Thorough . . . vivid. . . . A welcome addition to popular history and an engaging read for anyone interested in this important chapter in the tragic story of American slavery.” (Library Journal )

“American Uprising vividly evokes the atmosphere of New Orleans of the early 19th century and how a recalcitrant, French-rooted Louisiana and some Spanish possessions in the Deep South were incorporated into the expanding American nation through brutal revenge justice and political pressures.” (Publishers Weekly )

Amazon Review
Ferguson is the most brilliant British historian of his generation ... he writes with splendid panache The Times One of the world's leading historians -- Hamish McRae Independent Praise for The Ascent of Money Beautifully written... Breathtakingly clever -- Martin Van Weyer Sunday Telegraph Praise for The Ascent of Money The tales he tells of boom and bust, of triumph and disaster, of bubbles that inflate... are the very essence of financial history -- Bill Emmott Financial Times Praise for The Ascent of Money An often enlightening and enjoyable tour through the underside of great events, a lesson in how the most successful great powers have always been underpinned by smart money -- Robert Skidelsky New York Review of Books

From Amazon

Review
George Lepre found it remarkable that no detailed study of fragging had ever been published. . . . He has filled that void with this outstanding volume. . . . This first-rate account is highly recommended. --Peter Brush, Vietnam Magazine

'One of those 'myth-busting' books . . . it debunks orthodox literature that fragging occurred on the battlefield rather than in the rear echelon. --Ron Milam, author of Not a Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War

Lepre set out to find the real truth behind the myths and rumors and he has done a masterful job to that end. --James H. Willbanks, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Product Description
During its long withdrawal from South Vietnam, the U.S. military experienced a serious crisis in morale. Chronic indiscipline, illegal drug use, and racial militancy all contributed to trouble within the ranks. But most chilling of all was the advent of a new phenomenon: large numbers of young enlisted men turning their weapons on their superiors. The practice was known as ''fragging,'' a reference to the fragmentation hand grenades often used in these assaults.

Between 1968 and 1973, dozens of Americans and Vietnamese were murdered in fragging incidents, but only a handful of their killers were ever brought to justice. Drawing upon more than 500 cases from official records in addition to interviews with both perpetrators and victims, George Lepre examines these episodes in close detail. A comparative analysis of fragging in American units and the Australian army in Vietnam is also included.
In the first in-depth study of this vexing trend, Lepre drills down to the core of the soldier's mindset, bringing to light a little understood aspect of military experience.

Review
A Civil War specialist revisits the glory days of one of the most splendid fighting forces ever assembled: the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV).

After the bitter defeat at Gettysburg, the Confederate army, its officer corps severely depleted, never regained the momentum it had achieved since June 1862 when Robert E. Lee assumed command. But what a run they had. At the Seven Days, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and even the bloody stalemate at Antietam, the ANV fashioned a brilliant string of military successes that changed the course of the war in the East. In the process, Lee and his gallant army came to embody the Southern cause, keeping alive the possibility against long odds that the Confederacy might survive. Assessing the ANV’s legacy, Wert (Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart, 2008, etc.) eschews the tick-tock of battle in favor of analysis of the big-picture, how the army was led and how the rank and file responded. Nimbly sifting the oftentimes conflicting judgments of a wide array of historians and making vivid use of primary source documents, the author demonstrates how everything—the good and the bad—began with Lee. He immediately reorganized and disciplined the army, improved communications, delegated broad authority to his senior commanders, particularly the steady, reliable James Longstreet and the eccentric, audacious Stonewall Jackson, and relied on a talented cadre of brigade and regimental officers to implement his relentlessly aggressive battle plans. Convinced the South could never prevail relying on a passive, defensive strategy, Lee constantly took the fight to the enemy, even as the battlefield victories bled his forces. Wert covers it all—the blunders, the exceptional maneuvers, the irreparable losses, all the exquisitely difficult choices facing a general whose bold calculations always prevailed until, finally, they didn’t.

An energetic, evenhanded assessment that gets at the heart of Lee’s genius and the heroic achievements of the army he so ably led.

—Kirkus Reviews

Product Description
From the time Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862, until the Battle of Gettysburg thirteen months later, the Confederate army compiled a record of military achievement almost unparalleled in our nation’s history. How it happened—the relative contributions of Lee, his top command, opposing Union generals, and of course the rebel army itself—is the subject of Civil War historian Jeffry D. Wert’s fascinating and riveting new history.

In the year following Lee’s appointment, his army won four major battles or campaigns and fought Union forces to a draw at the bloody Battle of Antietam. Washington itself was threatened, as a succession of Union commanders failed to stop Lee’s offensive. Until Gettysburg, it looked as if Lee might force the Union to negotiate a peace rather than risk surrendering the capital or even losing the war. Lee’s victories fired southern ambition and emboldened Confederate soldiers everywhere.

Wert shows how the same audacity and aggression that fueled these victories proved disastrous at Gettysburg. But, as Wert explains, Lee had little choice: outnumbered by an opponent with superior resources, he had to take the fight to the enemy in order to win. For a year his superior generalship prevailed against his opponents, but eventually what Lee’s trusted lieutenant General James Longstreet called “headlong combativeness” caused Lee to miscalculate. When an equally combative Union general—Ulysses S. Grant—took command of northern forces in 1864, Lee was defeated. A Glorious Army draws on the latest scholarship, including letters and diaries, to provide a brilliant analysis of Lee’s triumphs. It offers fresh assessments of Lee; his top commanders Longstreet, Jackson, and Stuart; and a shrewd battle strategy that still offers lessons to military commanders today. A Glorious Army is a dramatic account of major battles from Seven Days to Gettysburg that is as gripping as it is convincing, a must-read for anyone interested in the Civil War.
About the Author
Jeffrey D. Wert is the author of eight previous books on Civil War topics, most recently Cavalryman of the Lost Cause and The Sword of Lincoln. His articles and essays on the Civil War have appeared in many publications, including Civil War Times Illustrated, American History Illustrated, and Blue and Gray. A former history teacher at Penns Valley High School, he lives in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, slightly more than one hour from the battlefield at Gettysburg.

Now, 150 years after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the journalist, travel writer and historian Adam Goodheart has let loose his own salvo in what will be a four-year firestorm of books commemorating the Civil War. Many good studies about the struggle will be published, but few will be as exhilarating as “1861: The Civil War Awakening.”
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Not everyone will be enamored of “1861.” Some will object that it concentrates too much on the white men of the North, giving short shrift to women, blacks and Southerners. Readers hoping for a conventional war story might be put off by the book’s peripatetic structure. Skeptics may look askance at Goodheart’s unabashed optimism and open admiration of the Union cause in spite of the many ways it would fall short of its most noble goals. But readers who take “1861” on its own passionate, forthright terms will find it irresistible. And for those who don’t like this Civil War book, well, just wait — there are plenty more to come.

from Amazon
Review
"I consider John Lukacs one of the outstanding historians of the generation and, indeed, of our time."--Jacques Barzun
(Jacques Barzun )

"We are in the presence of one of the most powerful, as well as one of the most learned, minds of the century."''--Conor Cruise O''Brien
(Conor Cruise O'Brien )

"There is no one who has looked at subjects as broadly, sensitively, and deeply...This is what gives all of Lukacs''s works their long-term value."--George F. Kennan
(George F. Kennan )

"No historian of the Second World War has John Lukacs''s range, acuteness, intuition."--Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(Daniel Patrick Moynihan )

"Mr. Lukacs is one of the more incisive historians of the twentieth century."--Washington Times
(Washington Times )

"A brilliant and penetrating analysis of the present and future of history by one of our wisest historians and philosophers of history, a work that should be read by everyone interested in history in the twenty-first century."--Stanley G. Payne, author of Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II

(Stanley Payne )

“In the course of the last six decades, John Lukacs has published more than thirty learned, witty, controversial tomes and innumerable articles and reviews – nearly all of them contributions to the study of modern European and American history, and many of them laced with striking reflections on the present discontents. In this slim, gracefully written volume, this renowned historian turns from tracing, analyzing, and assessing the significance of developments past to ruminating on the present state of historical scholarship and pondering its prospects. Composed in a conversational style reminding one of what it originally meant to pen an essay, The Future of History will be treasured by readers graced with a speculative cast of mind and apt to take delight in the company of a thoughtful and erudite provocateur.”--Paul A. Rahe, author of Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift

(Paul A. Rahe )

"These personal reflections on the nature of history and historical consciousness, the fruit of a long productive career of an historian who never shrank from big subjects and controversial questions, will provoke, stimulate and enlighten readers. Its central thesis, that history is and should remain literature, conveying meaning like great novels more through insight and understanding than by factual narration, is surely worth pondering."--Paul Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763-1848

(Paul Schroeder )
Product Description
For more than sixty years, John Lukacs has been writing, teaching, and reading about the past. In this inspired volume, he turns his attention to the future. Throughout The Future of History, Lukacs reflects on his discipline, eloquently arguing that the writing and teaching of history are literary rather than scientific, comprising knowledge that is neither wholly objective nor subjective. History at its best, he contends, is personal and participatory.

Despite a recently unprecedented appetite for history among the general public, as evidenced by history television program ratings, sales of popular history books, and increased participation in local historical societies, Lukacs believes that the historical profession is in a state of disarray. He traces a decline in history teaching throughout higher education, matched by a corresponding reduction in the number of history students. He reviews a series of short-lived fads within the profession that have weakened the fundamentals of the field. In looking for a way forward, Lukacs explores the critical relationships between history and literature, including ways in which novelists have contributed to historical understanding. Through this startling and enlightening work, readers will understand Lukacs's assertion that "everything has its history, including history" and that history itself has a future, since everything we know comes from the past

Praise from the U.K. for A World on Fire

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST

“A World on Fire is an achievement as enjoyable as it is impressive. As in a great nineteenth-century novel, a teeming cast propels this epic—the gallant and the craven, scoundrels and lovers, diplomats and freebooters—some helplessly caught in the gale, others with their hands firmly on the levers of power. Charles Dickens appears in this book; had he been an historian he might well have written it.”—Richard Snow, editor, American Heritage, 1990–2007

“This is a tale never previously told.”—Stephen Graubard, Financial Times

“Riveting . . . The reader is swept along. . . . One can hardly overestimate the brilliance of Foreman’s conception. . . . A shimmering tapestry.”—Jay Parini, The Guardian

“Amanda Foreman’s magnificent new book . . . resembles nothing so much as War and Peace.”—Adam I. P. Smith, History Today

“A real-life Gone with the Wind . . . extraordinarily rich, racy and poignant . . . an iridescent book.”—Antonia Fraser, The Mail on Sunday

“Magnificent . . . a completely fresh perspective on the first great modern conflict.”—Antony Beevor, author of D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

“The scale of Ms. Foreman’s book is epic.”—The Economist

Indeed, the central thesis of “Civilization” is that six “killer apps” (along with “the fortuitous weakness of the West’s rivals”) enabled the West “to dominate the world for the better part of 500 years.” Those “apps” were competition, science, property rights, medicine, “the consumer society” (“without which the Industrial Revolution would have been unsustainable”) and “the work ethic” (which Mr. Ferguson, drawing upon Max Weber, associates with Protestant Christianity).

Book Description
Publication Date: October 18, 2011

The People’s War is the story of one of history’s great events, the American Revolutionary War, told almost entirely in the words of the soldiers who fought it and the civilians who endured it. Drawing on thousands of original sources—diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers, pension applications—Noel Rae has culled the most colorful and vivid passages and woven them into a vibrant, eyewitness narrative that takes us from the peaceful days before the Stamp Act, through all the war’s major events, and ends with farewell accounts of what happened in later life to the people we have come to know along the way.

Some of these figures, like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and King George III, are familiar figures, but most were ordinary people, little known to history, but here briefly emerging from obscurity: a farm boy who ran away to sea at the age of twelve, a pretty young widow roughed up by Tory ruffians, and a slave who escaped to the British after witnessing his mother being flogged. These are but a few of those whose collective voices, drawn from all sides of the conflict, bring the Revolution truly to life—in a history at its most entertaining and authoritative, for who better qualified to tell what happened than the

Rare, First-Hand Accounts from Newspaper Correspondents Describing the Course of America’s Largest Indian War, Compiled and Edited for the First Time in One Volume

“No one commands better the story of the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877 as presented in the nation’s newspapers than does Marc Abrams. Here is Abrams’s story of America’s greatest Indian war woven from those timely reports, augmented with insightful introductions and annotations. Abrams has produced a significant addition to the historiography of this endlessly fascinating struggle and its colorful personalities.” —Paul L. Hedren, author of After Custer: Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country

“Marc Abrams has provided an invaluable service to both scholars and lay readers in compiling this treasure trove of primary information. Like the correspondents he has come to know through his research, Marc has done the hard work; we need only read in comfort and benefit from his efforts.” —Douglas W. Ellison, author of Sole Survivor: An Examination of the Frank Finkel Narrative

“Marc Abrams’s book is an exciting and innovative approach that brings immediacy to the campaigns of Custer, Crook, and Miles, and teems with fascinating new detail. Sioux War Dispatches not only offers a gripping contemporary window into those times, it fills an important reference need as well.” —Jerome A. Greene, author of Stricken Field: The Little Bighorn

Since 1876 Sioux War Dispatches: Reports from the Field, 1876-1877, tells the story of the Great Sioux War, including the battle of the Little Big Horn, primarily through the eyes of contemporary newspaper correspondents, both civilian and military. The volume begins with the Black Hills dilemma and the issue of the unceded territory (the disputed lands that were adjacent to the Great Sioux Reservation) and continues through to the spring of 1877 with the surrender of the legendary Sioux leader Crazy Horse. Along the way readers will learn about the Reynolds battle, the skirmish at Tongue River Heights, the battle of the Rosebud, the battle of the Little Big Horn, the skirmish at Warbonnet Creek, the fight at Slim Buttes, and more. In addition to numerous annotated excerpts from those who were there, are rare original dispatches, reprinted in full, that will take readers on a wild ride through several battles.

Review
"Both Zinn’s critics and his fans (there are many of both) will not see any appreciable watering-down of his often contentious views on democracy and war, the two subjects most abundantly represented here. But here there is also an opportunity to see a side of Zinn that was often kept private. His 2007 essay, 'Remembering Kurt Vonnegut,' for example, eulogizes the acclaimed novelist with a rather touching personal statement of Zinn’s own affection for him. A sharp and insightful collection from one of the country’s most visible historians and critics."—Booklist

"Howard Zinn's life and work are an unforgettable model, sure to leave a permanent stamp on how history is understood and how a decent and honorable life should be lived."—Noam Chomsky

"Proudly, unabashedly radical . . . Mr. Zinn delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy."—New York Times

"For Howard, democracy was one big public fight and everyone should plunge into it. That's the only way, he said, for everyday folks to get justic—by fighting for it."—Bill Moyers