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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns
This book investigates into the Polish participation in the Crusades to the Holy Land, as well as the organisation of the campaign of preaching of the Cross and the collection of resources for the support of the Crusades by the Church. By broadening the scope of enquiry to consider the application of the motifs of crusading against Poland's pagan neighbours, local heretics or political opponents of the Church it provides conclusions which may interest the international reader. Finally, it shows the wider context of the Crusades, looking at the influence of the crusading ideology on different areas of life in medieval Poland - one of the countries of 'young Europe' (to use J. Kloczowski's term) - thus making an interesting contribution to our knowledge of European culture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Forgotten Crusaders, being an attempt to take a wider look at the relationships between Poland and the crusading movement, therefore has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the state of research.
In this book, leading historians of the French, Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine, and Neapolitan revolutions bridge the gap between the historiographies of the so-called Sister Republics and explore political culture as a set of discourses or political practices. Parliamentary practices, the comparability of "universal" political concepts, late-eighteenth-century Republicanism, the relationship between press and politics, and the interaction between the Sister Republics and France are all examined from a comparative, transnational perspective.
American fortunes were at a low point in the winter of 1777-78. The British had beaten the Continental Army at Brandywine and Germantown, seized the colonial capital of Philadelphia, and driven Washington's soldiers into barren Valley Forge. But, as Stephen Taaffe reveals, the Philadelphia Campaign marked a turning point in the American Revolution despite these setbacks. Occurring in the middle of the war in the heart of the colonies, this key but overlooked campaign dwarfed all others in the war in terms of numbers of combatants involved, battles fought, and casualties sustained. For the first time, British and American armies engaged out in the open on relatively equal terms. Although the British won all the major battles, they were unable to crush the rebellion. Taaffe presents a new narrative history of this campaign that took place not only in the hills and woods surrounding Philadelphia, but also in east central New Jersey and along the Delaware River. He uses the campaign to analyze British and American strategies, evaluate Washington's leadership, and assess the role of subordinate officers such as Nathanael Greene and Anthony Wayne. He also offers new insights into eighteenth-century warfare and shows how Washington transcended traditional military thinking to fashion a strategy that accommodated American social, political, and economic realities. During this campaign Washington came into his own as a commander of colonial forces and an astute military strategist, and Taaffe demonstrates that Washington used the fighting around Philadelphia as a proving ground for strategies that he applied later in the war. Taaffe also scrutinizes Washington's relationship with the militia, whose failure to carry out its missions contributed to the general's problems. Still, by enduring their losses and continuing to fight, the
Americans exacted a heavy toll on Britain's resources, helped to
convince France to enter the war, and put the redcoats on the
defensive. As Taaffe shows, far from being inconclusive, the
Philadelphia Campaign contributed more to American victory than the
colonists recognized at the time.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i. The perception remains that they succeeded in severely crippling the navy; however, nothing could be further from the truth. Thanks to meticulous research, Daughters of Infamy puts this myth rest and shows that the vast majority of warships in the harbor suffered no damage at all. Former US Navy photographer David Kilmer provides documentation on each ship that survived the Pearl Harbor massacre. He records what happened the day of the attack, then traces the ships' movements after December 7 and, in some cases, their destiny after the war. Contrary to popular belief, many met the enemy and helped to win the war in the Pacific. Undoubtedly the first work to compile factual and informative data on nearly all the ships in Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Kilmer's in-depth record fills a scholarly void. His fascinating narrative on each ship adds another layer of expertise and provides a new perspective on a familiar event.
How can we understand what caused World War I? What role did Germany play? This book encourages us to re-think the events that led to global conflict in 1914.Historians in recent years have argued that German leaders acted defensively or pre-emptively in 1914, conscious of the Reich's deteriorating military and diplomatic position. Germany and the Causes of the First World War challenges such interpretations, placing new emphasis on the idea that the Reich Chancellor, the German Foreign Office and the Great General Staff were confident that they could win a continental war. This belief in Germany's superiority derived primarily from an assumption of French decline and Russian weakness throughout the period between the turn of the century and the eve of the First World War. Accordingly, Wilhelmine policy-makers pursued offensive policies - at the risk of war at important junctures during the 1900s and 1910s.The author analyses the stereotyping of enemy states, representations of war in peacetime, and conceptualizations of international relations. He uncovers the complex role of ruling elites, political parties, big business and the press, and contends that the decade before the First World War witnessed some critical changes in German foreign policy. By the time of the July crisis of 1914, for example, the perception of enemies had altered, with Russia - the traditional bugbear of the German centre and left - becoming the principal opponent of the Reich. Under these changed conditions, German leaders could now pursue their strategy of brinkmanship, using war as an instrument of policy, to its logical conclusion.
For more than a century and a half, from 1607 to 1763, Britain and France struggled to master the eastern half of North America. They fought five blood-soaked wars and continuously provoked various Indian tribes to raise arms against each other's subjects for the mastery of the land. The last French and Indian War, from 1754 to 1760, would dwarf all previous conflicts in the number of troops, expense, geographical expanse, and total casualties. Placing the French and Indian War in a broad historical context, this study examines the struggle for North America during the two preceding centuries and includes not only the conflict between France and Britain, but also the parts played by various Indian tribes and the other European powers. The last French and Indian War makes for colorful reading with its array of inept and daring commanders, epic heroism among the troops, far-flung battles and sieges, and creaking fleets of warships. Ironically, America's most famous founder, George Washington, helped to spark the war, first by trudging through the wilderness in the dead of winter with a message from Virginia Governor Dinwiddie to the French to abandon their forts in the upper Ohio River valley, then a half year later by ordering the war's first shots when his troops ambushed Captain Jumonville, and finally when he ignominiously surrendered his force at Fort Necessity and unwittingly signed a surrender document in French naming himself Jumonville's assassin. Topical chapters discuss the economic, political, social, and military attributes of the participants, and narrative chapters examine the campaigns of the war's first two years.
An unflinching examination of the moral and professional dilemmas faced by physicians who took part in the Manhattan Project. After his father died, James L. Nolan, Jr., took possession of a box of private family materials. To his surprise, the small secret archive contained a treasure trove of information about his grandfather's role as a doctor in the Manhattan Project. Dr. Nolan, it turned out, had been a significant figure. A talented ob-gyn radiologist, he cared for the scientists on the project, organized safety and evacuation plans for the Trinity test at Alamogordo, escorted the "Little Boy" bomb from Los Alamos to the Pacific Islands, and was one of the first Americans to enter the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Participation on the project challenged Dr. Nolan's instincts as a healer. He and his medical colleagues were often conflicted, torn between their duty and desire to win the war and their oaths to protect life. Atomic Doctors follows these physicians as they sought to maximize the health and safety of those exposed to nuclear radiation, all the while serving leaders determined to minimize delays and maintain secrecy. Called upon both to guard against the harmful effects of radiation and to downplay its hazards, doctors struggled with the ethics of ending the deadliest of all wars using the most lethal of all weapons. Their work became a very human drama of ideals, co-optation, and complicity. A vital and vivid account of a largely unknown chapter in atomic history, Atomic Doctors is a profound meditation on the moral dilemmas that ordinary people face in extraordinary times.
Cat Wilson brings together two strands of historical scholarship: Churchill's work as a historian and the history of WWII in the Far East. Examining Churchill's portrayal of the British Empire's war against Japan, as set down in his memoirs, it ascertains whether he mythologised wartime Anglo-American relations to present a 'special relationship'.
This book fully revises standard regimental history by establishing the framework and background to the regiment's role in the Great War. It tests the current theories about the British army in the war and some of the conclusions of modern military historians. In recent years a fascinating reassessment of the combat performance of the British Army in the Great War has stressed the fact that the British Army ascended a 'learning curve' during the conflict resulting in a modern military machine of awesome power. Research carried out thus far has been on a grand scale with very few examinations of smaller units. This study of the battalion of the Buffs has tested these theoretical ideas. The central questions addressed in this study are: * The factors that dominated the officer-man relationship during the war. * How identity and combat efficiency was maintained in the light of heavy casualties. * The relative importance of individual characters to the efficiency of a battalion as opposed to the 'managerial structures' of the BEF. * The importance of brigade and division to the performance of a battalion. * The effective understanding and deployment of new weapons. * The reactions of individual men to the trials of war. * The personal and private reactions of the soldiers' communities in Kent. Using previously uncovered material, this book adds a significant new chapter to our understanding of the British army on the Western Front, and the way its home community in East Kent reacted to experience. It reveals the way in which the regiment adjusted to the shock of modern warfare, and the bloody learning curve the Buffs ascended as they shared the British Expeditionary Force's march towards final victory.
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force," was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues. On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. The 48 boxes in this series contain a complete copy of the 7,000 page report along with numerous copies of different volumes of the report, all declassified. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time. What is unique about this, compared to other versions, is that: * The complete Report is now available with no redactions compared to previous releases * The Report is presented as Leslie Gelb presented it to then Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford on January 15, 1969 * All the supplemental back-documentation is included. In the Gravel Edition, 80% of the documents in Part V.B. were not included This release includes the complete account of peace negotiations, significant portions of which were not previously available either in the House Armed Services Committee redacted copy of the Report or in the Gravel Edition. This facsimiile edition includes: Part V. A. Justification of the War. Public Statements. Volume I: A--The Truman Administration Part V. A. Justification of the War. Public Statements. Volume I: B--The Eisenhower Administration Part V. A. Justification of the War. Public Statements. Volume I: C--The Kennedy Administration Part V. A. Justification of the War. Public Statements. Volume II: D--The Johnson Administration Part V. B. 1. Justification of the War. Internal Documents. The Roosevelt Administration Part V. B. 2. a. Justification of the War. Internal Documents. The Truman Administration. Volume I: 1945 - 1949 Part V. B. 2. b. Justification of the War. Internal Documents. The Truman Administration. Volume II: 1950 -1952
For a full month in the autumn of 1812 the 2,000-strong garrison of the fortress the French had constructed to overawe the city of Burgos defied the Duke of Wellington. In this work a leading historian of the Peninsular teams up with a leading conflict archaeologist to examine the reasons for Wellington's failure.
Providing an in-depth examination of the bloody battle of Brandywine and other military engagements that resulted in the British capture of Philadelphia, McGuire weaves surviving first-hand accounts into the compelling story of the fight for the Continental capital. Covering all sides, from the soldiers in the battlefields to civilian witnesses, McGuire's account of the campaign for Philadelphia is a must-read for military history and Revolutionary War scholars. "The Philadelphia Campaign is first-rate, an absorbing work of tenacious research and close scholarship. Thomas J. McGuire knows the time of the American Revolution and has been over the ground in and about Philadelphia in a way few writers ever have. But it is his empathy for the human reality of war and the great variety of people caught up in it, whether in the service of the king or the Glorious Cause of America, that makes this book especially alive and memorable."--David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of John Adams and 1776
This gripping and heartbreaking narrative is the first full account
of an American woman who gave her life in the struggle against the
Nazi regime. As members of a key resistance group, Mildred and her
husband, Arvid Harnack, assisted in the escape of German Jews and
political dissidents, and for years provided vital economic and
military intelligence to both Washington and Moscow. But in 1942,
following a Soviet blunder, the Gestapo arrested, tortured and
tried some four score members of the Harnack's group, which the
Nazis dubbed the Red Orchestra.
In 1779 the fledgling U.S. naval fleet suffered a catastrophic defeat against the British in the waters of the Penobscot Bay, losing forty ships in a battle that was expected to be a sure victory for the Americans. Commodore Dudley Saltonstall was blamed for the debacle and ultimately court-martialed for his ineptitude. In this groundbreaking book George E. Buker defends Saltonstall providing compelling evidence that he was not to blame for the loss and that in fact the court-martial was rigged against him. Buker s conclusions foster a reassessment of Saltonstall s naval strategies and shed new light on the political maneuvers of the time."
The African and Chinese battles of the First World War
By 1756 the wilderness war for control of North America that erupted two years earlier between France and England had expanded into a global struggle among all of Europe's Great Powers. Its land and sea battles raged across the North American continent, engulfed Europe and India, and stretched from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific waters. The new conflict, now commonly known as the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, was a direct continuation of the last French and Indian War. This study explores the North American campaigns in relation to events elsewhere in the world, from the ministries of Whitehall and Versailles to the land and sea battles in Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Few wars have had a more decisive effect on international relations and national development. The French and Indian War resulted in France's expulsion from almost all of the Western Hemisphere, except for some tiny islands in the Caribbean and St. Lawrence. Britain emerged as the world's dominant sea power and would remain so for two centuries. Finally, within a generation or two the vast debts incurred by Whitehall and Versailles in waging this war would help to stimulate revolutions in America and France that would forever change world history.
This comprehensive analytical biography is the definitive work on the life and writings of history's most significant counterinsurgency doctrinaire, David Galula, elucidating the context for his reflections and examining the present and future applicability of his treatise for scholars and practitioners alike. The product of years of extensive research made possible by exclusive access to Galula's personal papers as well as first-hand accounts from colleagues, family members, and friends, this book traces Galula's life from early childhood until death, describing his upbringing, education, and military career in the tumultuous historical context of his era. The author-a former counterinsurgency practitioner himself-pays particular attention to how the Chinese Revolution and the Algerian War affected Galula's views, and identifies Galula's mentors and the schools of thought within the French military that greatly influenced his writings. A conclusion illuminates the contemporary and likely future validity of his works. In the epilogue, the author speaks to Galula's influence over modern military thought and U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine. This book is essential reading for individuals with an interest in counterinsurgency, Galula's writings, or Galula himself, such as military officers and civilian administrators undertaking counterinsurgency courses and training.
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.
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