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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > General
This volume highlights the people and scientific developments in
military medicine through the ages, concentrating on medical
advances that changed both warfare and societies at home. Thanks to
advances in field medicine and improved mobility and efficiency of
medical units, the death rate of soldiers injured during battle has
dramatically declined in the last 100 years. Nowadays, with forward
medical stations operating close to battle lines and medical
transports (ground and air) at hand, injured soldiers survive their
battle wounds. Military Medicine: From Ancient Times to the 21st
Century provides expert coverage of the key role medical advances
and practices have played in the evolution of warfare, and how many
of those advances and practices have been put to work saving and
improving civilian lives as well. Military Medicine surveys the
development of military medicine from its prehistoric origins
through modern threats and practice. That coverage is followed by
over 200 of alphabetically organized entries with special emphasis
placed on those areas with the most dramatic applications to
civilian medicine, including triage and trauma management,
treatment for infections, emergency surgical procedures, and more.
In 1966, a soft-spoken 32-year old man emerged from relative
obscurity and humble background to become Nigeria's Head of State
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. His name was Lt Col
(later General)Yakubu Gowon. He emerged as the compromise candidate
following the political crisis that engulfed the country after the
July 1966 military coup that had led to the assassination of the
country's first military Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi. At
the end of the Civil War in 1970, General Gowon's doctrine of 'No
Victor No Vanquished' greatly endeared him to many, and he was
variously dubbed 'Abraham Lincoln of Nigeria', 'a soft spoken but
dynamic leader' 'a real gentleman' and 'an almost faultless
administrator'. However, after he was overthrown in a military coup
in July 1975, long knives were drawn out for him, with the hitherto
friendly press and public crying 'crucify him', and now variously
vilifying him as 'weak' and of managing a purposeless
administration that had led to the 'drifting' of the nation. In
this book Professor J. Isawa Elaigwu attempts a scholarly political
biography of someone he believes has rendered great services to the
Nigerian nation despite his weaknesses as a leader. He rejects the
notion that Gowon's nine years in office were 'nine years of
failure' as the General's ardent critics posit, arguing that if it
is possible to identify a number of thresholds in his
administration, it is also possible to identify the approximate
point in time when the strains of his administration became visible
to observers and the public in general. He poses and methodically
seeks answers to a number of fundamental questions: Who was Yakubu
Gowon? Why and how was the reservoir of goodwill and credibility
which he had accumulated by the end of the Civil War expended? What
image of Nigeria did he have when he came into power? And did he
ever achieve his objectives? The book, first published in 1986, has
been revised and expanded for this edition
____________________________________ Dr. J. Isawa Elaigwu is
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Jos, Jos,
Nigeria. He is currently the President of the Institute of
Governance and Social Research (IGSR), Jos, Nigeria. A widely
travelled academic, Professor Elaigwu's works have been widely
published within and outside Nigeria. He has also served as a
consultant to many national and international agencies.
It all seemed so picture-perfect. It was a typical fall evening in
Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in 1965 when John Gouin, a
twelve-year-old boy with big dreams came home from football
practice and sat down at the dinner table with his mother. But when
the front door slammed loudly shut, John and his mother anticipated
the worst. His father was a man lost within his own anger.
In his compelling memoir "An Unforgettable Salute," Gouin
chronicles his lifelong battle to please his alcoholic father, his
attempts to stop the physical abuse, and his journey to
psychological healing that eventually culminated in a heartwarming
final exchange with his gravely ill father. After describing a
childhood during which he was physically beaten and emotionally
scarred, Gouin details his dream of playing in the NFL, which
lasted until a devastating injury ended his football career. After
struggling to find his calling, Gouin eventually joined the army,
where he learned self-discipline and the leadership skills that
later guided him to achieve professional success as a podiatric
surgeon.
"An Unforgettable Salute" is the true story of one man who rose
from the silent side of abuse to achieve healing, happiness,
success, and most of all, peace.
With one of Wellington's heavy cavalry regiments during the war in
Iberia
Samuel Broughton was an assistant surgeon for a regiment of militia
before transferring to the 2nd Life Guards. He served with this
elite cavalry regiment throughout the campaigns in Portugal, Spain
and into the South of France and in the concluding battle for
Toulouse. Broughton's take on the campaign as it appears in this
collection of his letters-originally published in 1815-reveals a
man with a keen eye for the details of the countryside through
which he travelled and the habits and cultures of the people he
met. This a very personal account of war from an observant and
thoughtful medical man who clearly wanted to share his experiences
of a journey through wartime. It is rich in period colour making it
ideal background reference material of this fascinating episode of
the Napoleonic War.
As Napoleon's French Army retreated, all hope that it could
maintain a hold over the Iberian Peninsula began to fade. By
September of 1813 the Allied Army commanded by the 'captain of the
age'-the Duke of Wellington-stood on the frontier of France within
the area of the estuary of the Bidassoa. Napoleon was being pressed
on two fronts, but he still had a large reserve of veteran troops
stationed in the south of France to call upon. The time had come to
tighten the grip on France. Wellington would now invade it, engage
the southern army which it was hoped would spur the Coalition of
northern European powers to greater endeavours to bring about its
defeat. No longer now an expanding empire, the French were faced
with the defence of their own homeland and Wellington was poised
for a campaign which would bring a large and prosperous region of
it under allied control. It would be a contest bitterly fought as
only those with desperate stakes can be. In this, the second of
Beatson's series on the fall of Revolutionary France published by
Leonaur, the reader is once again taken into the centre of
Wellington's strategic and tactical genius. Every action is
described in detail and complemented by the voices of the soldiers
who experienced those momentous times.
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