The first two books in an excellent trilogy of the Great War in the Middle East
W. T Massey was the foremost accredited journalist reporting on behalf of the London newspapers covering the Great War in the Middle East as it was fought against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, its German ally and the tribes of the region who threw in their lot with them. He possessed a deeply held conviction that this theatre of operations was far more important than those who only concerned themselves with the conflict in Europe believed. He was particularly aware of the hardships suffered by British and Colonial troops serving in difficult climates and over unrelenting terrain and he became, through his long association with the entire campaign, a champion of those who fought in it. This volume in the two book Leonaur edition-which covers the complete conflict from the war in the Western Desert against the Senussi to the actions at Aleppo and beyond-begins appropriately with the first book, 'The Desert Campaigns' and follows with the campaign that culminated in Allenby's historic walk into Jerusalem in 'How Jerusalem was Won.' Part history, part first hand account this is a valuable history imbued with the insight of one who was there.

An intimate portrait of war
There are books which report the experience of war and then there are a few that enable the reader to step into another's life to share war, both in the mind and the flesh. Red Dust is such a book. Written by a trooper of the Australian Light Horse on campaign in the Middle East during the Great War against the Ottoman Turkish empire it tells of 'mateship, ' hard campaigning and brutal conflict-often hand to hand and described in relentless detail. It also allows the reader to share the thoughts of this ordinary man-a man of his time and his country-as he struggles to rationalise the horror and futility of war, his feelings on the loss of comrades, the embryonic sense of otherness from the Imperial motherland and the loss of youth. The action takes place principally in the Jordon Valley in Palestine-a grinding stalemate of a phase in what was often one of fluid manoeuvre. Here the troops experienced fiercely hot days, freezing nights, scorpions and spiders and the ever present threat of the tenacious and respected enemy. Red Dust is a rare book in every sense and will be sure to reward all those interested in the First World War and fine writing.

An 'Old Contemptible' recounts the campaign of 1914
At the outbreak of the First World War, units of the British regular army-the B. E. F-were despatched to the continent to assist the French in an attempt to stem the tide of the advancing Imperial German Army as it marched inexorably towards Paris. The enemy viewed the 'Tommies' as 'that contemptible little army.' In that way peculiar to the British the insult became a byword for courage and honour as the highly trained and motivated soldiers in khaki demonstrated just what a contemptible little army could do. However, this was a war of attrition and despite the 'contemptibles' magnificent performance the 'grey horde' could not initially be halted. What followed was the memorable retreat from Mons. The author of this book was a subaltern officer serving in one of the county regiments of the B. E. F and chose as his title for this book the proudly worn designation 'Contemptible.' Although the book was written under a pseudonym it is widely believed that the writer was Arnold Gyde who served with the South Staffordshire Regiment and was one of the first British soldiers to set foot on the continent. Although the account of this vital aspect of the opening months of the conflict is presented in a 'factional' style it is clearly based on the author's first hand experiences.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution introduces scholars, students and generally interested readers to the formative event in American history. In thirty-three individual essays, by thirty-three authorities on the Revolution, the Handbook provides readers with in-depth analysis of the Revolution's many sides, ranging from the military and diplomatic to the social and political; from the economic and financial, to the cultural and legal. Its cast of characters ranges far, including ordinary farmers and artisans, men and women, free and enslaved African Americans, Indians, and British and American statesmen and military leaders. Its geographic scope is equally broad. The Handbook offers readers an American Revolution whose geo-political and military impact ranged from the West Indies to the Mississippi Valley; from the British Isles to New England and from Nova Scotia to Florida. The American Revolution of the Handbook is, simply put, an event that far transcended the boundaries of what was to become the United States. In addition to a breadth of subject matter, the Handbook offers a broad range of interpretive and methodological approaches. Its authors include social historians, historians of politics and institutions, cultural historians, historians of diplomacy, imperial historians, ethnohistorians, and historians of gender and sexuality. Instead of privileging a single or even several interpretive perspectives, the Handbook attempts to capture the full scope of current revolutionary-era scholarship. Nothing comparable has been published in decades.

Delving into a traditionally underexplored period, this book focuses on the treatment of Greek Jews under the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas in the years leading up to the Second World War. Almost 86% of Greek Jews died in the Holocaust, leading many to think this was because of Metaxas and his fascist ideology. However, the situation in Greece was much more complicated; in fact, Metaxas in his policies often attempted to quash anti-Semitism. The Fourth of August Regime and Greek Jewry, 1936-1941 explores how the Jews fit (and did not fit) into Metaxas's vision for Greece. Drawing on unpublished archival sources and Holocaust survivor testimonies, this book presents a ground-breaking contribution to Greek history, the history of Greek anti-Semitism, and sheds light on attitudes towards Jews during the interwar period.

Written in a clear and engaging narrative style, this book analyzes the pivotal campaign in which Robert E. Lee drove the Union Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan away from the Confederate capital of Richmond, VA, in the summer of 1862. The Seven Days' Battles: The War Begins Anew examines how Lee's Confederate forces squared off against McClellan's Union Army during this week-long struggle, revealing how both sides committed many errors that could have affected the outcome. Indeed, while Lee is often credited with having brilliant battle plans, the author shows how the Confederate commander mismanaged battles, employed too many complicated maneuvers, and overestimated what was possible with the resources he had available. For his part, McClellan of the Union Army failed to commit his troops at key moments, accepted erroneous intelligence, and hindered his campaign by refusing to respect the authority of his civilian superiors. This book presents a synthetic treatment that closely analyzes the military decisions that were made and why they were made, analyzes the successes and failures of the major commanders on both sides, and clearly explains the outcomes of the battles. The work contains sufficient depth of information to serve as a resource for undergraduate American history students while providing enjoyable reading for Civil War enthusiasts as well as general audiences.

A young British soldier who went to war on two wheels
When the Great War broke out, the author of this book decided to leave his university studies and join the struggle. What attracted him immediately was the potential to combine his military service with his love of motorcycles and so it was that he found himself one of a select group of motorcycle despatch riders within the 5th Division of the 'Contemptible Little Army' that went to France and Belgium to halt the overwhelming numerical superiority of the advancing German Army. This book, an account of his experiences in the early months of the war, tells the story of a conflict of fluid manoeuvre and dogged retreat. Together with congested roads filled with military traffic and refugees, the ever present threat of artillery barrage and changing front lines the author had to constantly be aware of the presence of the deadly Uhlans-mounted German Lancers-who were always ready to pitch horseflesh against horsepower.

The quantity of journalism produced during World War I was unlike anything the then-budding mass media had ever seen. Correspondents at the front were dispatching voluminous reports on a daily basis, and though much of it was subject to censorship, it all eventually became available. It remains the most extraordinary firsthand look at the war that we have. Published immediately after the cessation of hostilities and compiled from those original journalistic sources-American, British, French, German, and others-this is an astonishing contemporary perspective on the Great War. This replica of the first 1919 edition includes all the original maps, photos, and illustrations, lending an even greater immediacy to readers a century later. Volume I covers June through October 1914, from the causes of the war-including how the local matter of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria grew into a global conflagration and the various declarations of war among the world powers-through the early battles on the Western Front. American journalist and historian FRANCIS WHITING HALSEY (1851-1919) was literary editor of The New York Times from 1892 through 1896. He wrote and lectured extensively on history; his works include, as editor, the two-volume Great Epochs in American History Described by Famous Writers, From Columbus to Roosevelt (1912), and, as writer, the 10-volume Seeing Europe with Famous Authors (1914).

Largely overshadowed by World War II's "greatest generation" and the more vocal veterans of the Vietnam era, Korean War veterans remain relatively invisible in the narratives of both war and its aftermath. Yet, just as the beaches of Normandy and the jungles of Vietnam worked profound changes on conflict participants, the Korean Peninsula chipped away at the beliefs, physical and mental well-being, and fortitude of Americans completing wartime tours of duty there. Upon returning home, Korean War veterans struggled with home front attitudes toward the war, faced employment and family dilemmas, and wrestled with readjustment. Not unlike other wars, Korea proved a formative and defining influence on the men and women stationed in theater, on their loved ones, and in some measure on American culture. In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation not only gives voice to those Americans who served in the "forgotten war" but chronicles the larger personal and collective consequences of waging war the American way.

Richard Evans revisits the sites of a selection of Greek and Roman battles and sieges to seek new insights. The battle narratives in ancient sources can be a thrilling read and form the basis of our knowledge of these epic events, but they can just as often provide an incomplete or obscure record. Details, especially those related to topographical and geographical issues which can have a fundamental importance to military actions, are left tantalisingly unclear to the modern reader. The evidence from archaeological excavation work can sometimes fill in a gap in our understanding, but such an approach remains uncommon in studying ancient battles. By combining the ancient sources and latest archaeological findings with his personal observations on the ground, Richard Evans brings new perspectives to the dramatic events of the distant past. The campaigns and battles selected for this volume are: Ionian Revolt (499-493BC), Marathon (490 BC), Thermopylai (480 BC), Ilerda (49 BC) and Bedriacum (AD69).

What did Hitler really want to achieve: world domination. In the early twenties, Hitler was working on this plan and from 1933 on, was working to make it a reality. During 1940 and 1941, he believed he was close to winning the war. This book not only examines Nazi imperial architecture, armament, and plans to regain colonies but also reveals what Hitler said in moments of truth. The author presents many new sources and information, including Hitler's little known intention to attack New York City with long-range bombers in the days of Pearl Harbor.

For six decades, John Knoepfle has been writing poems, and he's still going strong. Knoepfle writes love poems, among the best we have, of the joys, loneliness, danger and the infinite transformations of marriage. He writes narrative poems, surreal, sardonic and magical about astronauts on the moon or an angry farmer and a prophetic owl. He recovers the stories of folks who never made it into the history books. Always he has a respect for the spoken word and lays his lines out on the page so that you too can hear it. And a spiritual force runs through his books like the slow and powerful rivers of the Midwest he inhabits. Both moving and humorous, Knoepfle's autobiography shows us how by hard work and lucky accident he came to be the poet he is.

"Lean men, brown men, men from overseas,
Men from all the outer world; shy and ill at ease
" There were Canadian Mounties, American cowboys, Arctic explorers, adventurers, rogues, big game hunters and sportsmen. There were famous men like Cherry Kearton, the naturalist and explorer and the grand old man of Africa-Frederick Selous himself. All these men had come together under the Union Flag to do battle against colonial Imperial Germany in East Africa. They came under the command of Driscoll of Driscoll's Scouts who performed with renown during the Boer War. These were the men of the 25th Royal Fusiliers-The Legion of Frontiersmen-and their battlegrounds were to be the great plains of Africa rich in wildlife and elemental danger. This is their story through the years of the Great War told by one of their own officers in vivid detail. It is a story of campaigns and hardship which would be equal to the best of them and lay many a 'lean, brown man' in a shallow grave in the red earth before it was concluded.

Two first accounts by early aviators
This special Leonaur 'good value' edition contains two accounts of the early days of powered flight. The first book, written just before the outbreak of the First World War, describes in depth the training of French military pilots up to the point where they are qualified. It contains much of historical interest and the process is explained, in considerable detail, from the trainee pilot's viewpoint as he grappled to master his machine. His numerous errors and how the aircraft performed as they were made are elaborated. The author came into contact with several types of aircraft and he describes the characteristics, performance and mechanics of each. So this book provides essential insights into the practicalities of being a fighter pilot in the imminent conflict. The second work is by a British pilot who was fully engaged in the air war over France. He was shot down and captured by the 'Bosch, ' he escaped and was again captured, and he underwent many other adventures before finally returning to his homeland. Accounts of pilots and aviation from the pioneer days of flying are comparatively few in number and these two short first hand narratives, essential reading for students of the subject, would have been unlikely to see republication as individual books.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.