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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
This book completes a trilogy by the anthropologist Wendy James. It
is a case study of how the Uduk-speaking people, originally from
the Blue Nile region between the 'north' and the 'south' of Sudan,
have been caught up in and displaced by a generation of civil war.
Some have responded by defending their nation, others by joining
the armed resistance of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, and yet
others eventually finding security as international refugees in
Ethiopia, and even further afield in countries such as the USA.
Sudan's peace agreement of 2005 leaves much uncertainty for the
future of the whole country, as conflict still rages in Darfur. The
Uduk case shows how people who once lived together now try to
maintain links across borders and even continents through modern
communications, and where possible recreate their 'traditional'
forms of story-telling, music, and song.
This book offers a comprehensive Possible Worlds framework with
which to analyse counterfactual historical fiction. Counterfactual
historical fiction is a literary genre that comprises narratives
set in worlds whose histories run contrary to the history of our
world, usually speculating on what would have happened had a
significant historical event (such as a war) turned out
differently. The author develops a systematic critical approach
based on a customised model of Possible Worlds Theory supplemented
by cognitive concepts that account for the different processes that
readers go through when they read counterfactual historical
fiction, a genre which relies heavily on pre-existing knowledge
about history and culture. This book will be of interest to anyone
working with Possible Worlds, including within the fields of
philosophy, literary studies, stylistics, cognitive poetics, and
narratology.
This study is among the first works in English to comprehensively
address the Scandinavian First World War experience in the larger
international context of the war. It surveys the complex
relationship between the belligerent great powers and Northern
Europe's neutral small states in times of crisis and war. The
book's overreaching rationale draws upon three underlying
conceptual fields: neutrality and international law, hegemony and
great power politics as well as diplomacy and policy-making of
small states in the international arena. From a variety of angles,
it examines the question of how neutrality was understood and
perceived, negotiated and dealt with both among the Scandinavian
states and the belligerent major powers, especially Britain,
Germany and Russia. For a long time, the experience of neutral
countries during the First World War was seen as marginal, and was
overshadowed by the experiences of occupation and collaboration
brought about by the Second World War. In this book, Jonas
demonstrates how this perception has changed, with neutrality
becoming an integral part of the multiple narratives of the First
World War. It is an important contribution to the international
history of the First World War, cultural-historically influenced
approaches to diplomatic history and the growing area of neutrality
studies.
This is the complete wartime translation by the U.S. Navy of the
1943 edition of the official handbook given to all U-boat
commanders. The original handbook was compiled from combat reports
and was regularly updated throughout the war. The handbook was an
invaluable reference for every operational U-boat commander. Simply
written and highly accessible for a wider audience, the U-boat
handbook attempted to anticipate every possible situation and to
advise on suitable tactics. This superb war-time primary source is
enhanced by a rare series of photographs taken on an actual combat
patrol and published during the time of the Third Reich in the book
"U-Boot Auf Feindfahrt." Together the handbook and these rare
photographs provide a fascinating glimpse into the world of the
U-boats from a first hand perspective, and is essential reading for
anyone interested in World War II from primary sources. This book
is part of the 'Hitler's War Machine' series, a new military
history range compiled and edited by Emmy Award winning author and
historian Bob Carruthers. The series draws on primary sources and
contemporary documents toprovide a new insight into the true nature
of Hitler's Wehrmacht. The series consultant is David Mcwhinnie
creator of the award winning PBS series 'Battlefield'.
How did the French Resistance and Allied forces work together to
liberate southern France from the Germans during World War II?
Arthur Funk gives the first detailed account of the complex
British, French, and American operations in 1944, an account that
uses a wealth of original source material on both sides of the
Atlantic to evaluate the role of the French Resistance and to
assess the problems in coordinating Allied military activities. The
study should be of great interest to historians, history buffs, and
colleges and universities that wish to fill this gap in the
historiography of World War II. The first half of the book deals
with preparations for the Allied landings in August 1944, telling
about agents first in contact with the French Resistance and about
the work of Allied missions, French groups, and British officers
and teams directed from London and Algiers. The second half of the
book covers the collaboration of French Forces of the Interior with
the U.S. Seventh Army in the liberation of Marseilles, Lyon, and
other cities in southeastern France. Filled with interesting detail
about major figures in the war and little-known agents and
officers, the book is unique in weaving together recently
declassified OSS sources in Washington with British and French
archival information that is rarely noted. Maps and photographs are
included in the book, and a useful bibliography is also provided.
Russia played a fundamental role in the outcome of Napoleonic Wars;
the wars also had an impact on almost every area of Russian life.
Russia and the Napoleonic Wars brings together significant and new
research from Russian and non-Russian historians and their work
demonstrates the importance of this period both for Russia and for
all of Europe.
During World War I, French citizens accepted national union on the
home front as a necessary act of self-defence, but not without a
considerable degree of ambivalence. At the political level, the
union altered the balance of forces by improving the position of
the Right, destroying the identity of the Radical party and
creating the means by which the Socialist party first had access to
power. However, what makes this collection of articles important is
that they illustrate the social and political impact of French
citizens' acceptance of a national union during World War I as well
as dealing with the industrial aspects of French wartime history.
This is one volume in a library of Confederate States history, in
twelve volumes, written by distinguished men of the South, and
edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. A generation after the
Civil War, the Southern protagonists wanted to tell their story,
and in 1899 these twelve volumes appeared under the imprint of the
Confederate Publishing Company. The first and last volumes comprise
such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in
seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the
Confederate States government; the history of the actions and
concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its
policy in securing the territorial dominion of the United States;
the civil history of the Confederate States; Confederate naval
history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a
connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to
its close. The other ten volumes each treat a separate State with
details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its
heroes, and its battlefields. Volume 2 is Maryland and West
Virginia.
This new, updated edition of The Battle of Britain on Screen
examines in depth the origins, development and reception of the
major dramatic screen representations of 'The Few' in the Battle of
Britain produced over the past 75 years. Paul MacKenzie explores
both continuity and change in the presentation of a wartime event
that acquired and retains near-mythical dimensions in popular
consciousness and has been represented many times in feature films
and television dramas. Alongside relevant technical developments,
the book also examines the social, cultural, and political changes
occurring in the second half of the 20th century and first decade
of current century that helped shape how the battle came to be
framed dramatically. This edition contains a new chapter looking at
the portrayal of the Battle of Britain at the time of its 70th
anniversary. Through its perceptive demonstration of how our memory
of the battle has been constantly reshaped through film and
television, The Battle of Britain on Screen provides students of
the Second World War, 20th-century Britain and film history with a
thorough and complex understanding of an iconic historical event.
This year is the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of the
Second World War. In that year, Lizzy Schwarz was a teenage Jew
enjoying life in Boskovice, Czechoslovakia. Far to the east in
Poland, teenage Jerzy Dyszkiewicz had recently qualified as an
Officer Cadet in the Polish Army. During the war, Lizzy and her
family were interned in Nazi concentration camps. Lizzy's mother
died from ill health brought on by cruel treatment, her sister and
father later died at the Auschwitz death camp. Lizzy however
miraculously survived three of those horrendous camps. In September
1939, Jerzy's unit was moving west to meet the invading Germans
when they were captured by the Soviet Army advancing east. They
were handed over to the Germans and sent to a series of POW camps
to work. In 1942, Jerzy and three close comrades escaped from a
camp near the Belgian border and, surviving many close shaves,
finally made it to England. After the war Lizzy and Jerzy
coincidentally met and later married in London on 17th September
1955. This is their incredible story of a double escape from Nazis
with an ultimate happy ending.
The Great War toppled four empires, cost the world 24 million dead,
and sowed the seeds of another worldwide conflict 20 years later.
This is the only book in the English language to offer
comprehensive coverage of how Germany and Austria-Hungary, two of
the key belligerents, conducted the war and what defeat meant to
them. This new edition has been thoroughly updated throughout,
including new developments in the historiography and, in
particular, addressing new work on the cultural history of the war.
This edition also includes: - New material on the domestic front,
covering Austria-Hungary's internal political frictions and ethnic
fissures - More on Austria-Hungary and Germany's position within
the wider geopolitical framework - Increased coverage of the
Eastern front "The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary,
1914-1918" offers an authoritative and well-researched survey of
the role of the Central powers that will be an invaluable text for
all those studying the First World War and the development of
modern warfare.
The author, a historian and former Swiss Armoured Corp officer,
uses primary documents to describe tank tactics during the first
two years of World War II, a period in which armour was employed in
the Polish, Western and Russian campaigns. The first year of
'Operation Barbarossa' is examined in great detail using the files
of the second Panzer Army whose commander, Guderian, who has been
called the father of the German armoured force.
Winning the Battle of the Atlantic was critical to Britain's
survival in the Second World War. The British Merchant Navy
suffered enormous losses of both ships and men, particularly in the
early years of the war. Sailing through U-boat wolf-packs across
the Atlantic, or on the perilous routes to Malta and Murmansk, took
a special kind of courage. Ships often sank within minutes of being
torpedoed. Survivors is the history of this epic struggle. It is a
graphic account of how the ships were attacked and sunk, how crews
reacted, how they attempted to launch their lifeboats and how they
ended up swimming or clinging to debris, or making long voyages in
lifeboats or on rafts. Death might come at any stage, yet the will
to live and the resourcefulness and skill of the seamen enabled a
surprising number to survive.
""There was a terrific smash and everything was pandemonium on
deck. The wheel house collapsed on top of me and I was trapped by
the concrete slabs which had fallen on me and pinned me to the
deck. I think that the ship sank in about thirty seconds after
breaking in two ... Although I was trapped, I could see everything
over my head. The stern burst into flames and I saw flames forward.
I could see the water coming up and coming over my head. The ship
hit the bottom and turned over, the debris was thrown off me and I
was released and I came to the surface.""--Sinking of SS Abukir, 28
May 1940
The Japanese bombing of Wake Island began a mere few hours after
the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941. Thirty-six
Japanese aircraft blasted the atoll's US base and destroyed eight
of twelve aircraft. For fifteen days American troops suffered
endless bombardments until the second major Japanese offensive was
launched on 23rd December. The battle took place on and around the
atoll and its minor islets by the air, land, and naval forces of
the Japanese Empire against those of the United States, with
Marines playing a prominent role on both sides. Against
overwhelming forces the Marines and other troops that were
stationed on the island fought valiantly, but after forty-nine men
had lost their lives in the fight, the remaining American men and
civilians were captured by the Japanese.
Throughout World War II, Detroit's automobile manufacturers
accounted for one-fifth of the dollar value of the nation's total
war production, and this amazing output from ""the arsenal of
democracy"" directly contributed to the allied victory. In fact,
automobile makers achieved such production miracles that many of
their methods were adopted by other defence industries,
particularly the aircraft industry. In Arsenal of Democracy: The
American Automobile Industry in World War II, award-winning
historian Charles K. Hyde details the industry's transition to a
wartime production powerhouse and some of its notable achievements
along the way. Hyde examines several innovative cooperative
relationships that developed between the executive branch of the
federal government, U.S. military services, automobile industry
leaders, auto industry suppliers, and the United Automobile Workers
(UAW) union, which set up the industry to achieve production
miracles. He goes on to examine the struggles and achievements of
individual automakers during the war years in producing items like
aircraft engines, aircraft components, and complete aircraft; tanks
and other armoured vehicles; jeeps, trucks, and amphibians; guns,
shells, and bullets of all types; and a wide range of other weapons
and war goods ranging from search lights to submarine nets and
gyroscopes. Hyde also considers the important role played by
previously underused workers-namely African Americans and women-in
the war effort and their experiences on the line. Arsenal of
Democracy includes an analysis of wartime production nationally, on
the automotive industry level, by individual automakers, and at the
single plant level. For this thorough history, Hyde has consulted
previously overlooked records collected by the Automobile
Manufacturers Association that are now housed in the National
Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library.
Automotive historians, World War II scholars, and American history
buffs will welcome the compelling look at wartime industry in
Arsenal of Democracy.
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