From the invasion of Zululand & Isandhlwana to Rorke's Drift & Ulundi-the Zulu War freshly related. Zulu:1879 is an unusual book. It brings to life a war - nearly 130 years in the past - almost as though it was a modern conflict. We hear the voices of the time speaking with the immediacy of recent recollection. Here are officers, newspaper reporters, teamsters, ordinary soldiers and even the Zulu warriors themselves recounting their experiences of this remarkable conflict. D.C.F Moodie's selection has been refined and enhanced by the Leonaur Editors with 3 additional engaging accounts of Zulu Warfare together with a special bonus account from the ranks of the Buffs selected from Leonaur's book "Tommy Atkins' War Stories"

Why young men voluntarily go off to war has long defied understanding. Eagerly risking one's life seems contrary to the innate instinct for self-preservation. Are young males--notorious risk-takers--courting death out of some irresistible altruistic impulse to sacrifice their lives for a larger cause or, conversely, do they expect something in return? In this engrossing exploration of men's motives for war, the author argues persuasively that one important subconscious reason young men volunteer for battle is to enhance their status as marriage partners for the women on the home front. Especially for men from low socioeconomic backgrounds becoming a soldier offers a sexual and reproductive edge over their civilian male peers. The author also examines the subtle influence that women's expanding power in society has on male attitudes regarding conflict. Drawing upon extensive literary as well as historical sources, he demonstrates how tensions over gender roles affect men's willingness to go to war, and how the experience of war, in turn, changes the relations between the sexes. Until very recently, war has reaffirmed the central social importance of masculinity and demoted women to supportive, domestic roles. Reviewing the social circumstances leading up to conflicts from the American Civil War through the Viet Nam War and the current clash between the West and Islamic fundamentalists, he convincingly shows that gender-based pressures play a significant, if often unconscious, role in tipping a society toward the decision of war. Thoroughly researched, yet engagingly and accessibly written, this unique discussion of men and women's roles in a society contemplating war offers much food for thought.

Twelve experts analyze existing threats to American security, problems of defense, the prospects of limited and total wars, and possible strategies to meet the crisis in light of the stresses and strengths of NATO.

Confronting Sukarno examines the regional and international implications of the Malaysian-Indonesian Confrontation, a crisis more popularly known as Konfrontasi. By doing so, fundamental themes concerning the Asian Cold War are discussed. In particular, the concern of western policy makers with an increasingly belligerent communist China, the importance of Konfrontasi to the war in Vietnam and the British 'role' east of Suez, are all examined in detail. Being a work of international history, the book draws extensively from recently de-classified documents in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

George Luther Stearns became John Brown's single most important financial backer. He personally owned the 200 Sharps rifles Brown brought to Harper's Ferry. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew asked Stearns to recruit the first northern state African-American regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, recently made famous by the Hollywood movie Glory. Stearns was made a major and made Assistant Adjutant General for the Recruitment of Coloured Troops. He recruited over 13,000 African-Americans and established schools for their children and found work for their families. After Emancipation, he worked tirelessly for African-American civil rights. Friends and associates included the Emersons and the Alcotts, Thoreau, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Sumner, Andrew Johnson, and Frederick Douglass.

Mockaitis begins by providing a working definition of counterinsurgency that distinguishes it from conventional war while discussing the insurgents' uses of terror as a method to support their broader strategy of gaining control of a country. Insurgent movements, he notes, use terror far more selectively than do terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, which kills indiscriminately and is more than willing to produce mass casualties. Such methods stand in stark contrast to the American approach to armed conflict, which is more ideally suited to pragmatic culture leery of involvement in protracted foreign wars and demands immediate results. Within this context, Mocktaitis examines the conflict in Iraq, from post conflict troubles with Saddam in the early 1990s, to pre-invasion planning in 2003. He then moves into a discussion of the rise of insurgent movements and the challenges they posed in the aftermath of the fighting, tracing the ongoing efforts to shape a doctrine that allows US forces to successfully deal with the growing insurgency The U.S. military in Iraq faces the most complex counterinsurgency campaign in its history and perhaps the history of modern warfare. At the outset, it confronted as many as 22 different domestic insurgent and foreign terrorist groups in an environment made more difficult by thousands of criminals released by Saddam Hussein. Over the past three years, the conflict has evolved with growing ethnic violence complicating an already difficult security situation. Even the most optimistic assessments predict a continued deployment of significant U.S. forces for at least five years for the country to be stabilized. It remains to be seen whether public opinionwill support such a deployment. Mockaitis situates the Iraq War in its broad historical and cultural context. He argues that failure to prepare for counterinsurgency in the decades following the end of the Vietnam War left the U.S. military ill equipped to handle irregular warfare in the streets of Baghdad. Lack of preparation and inadequate troop strength led American forces to adopt a conventional approach to unconventional war. Over-reliance on firepower combined with cultural insensitivity to alienate many Iraqis. However, during the first frustrating year of occupation, U.S. forces revised their approach, relearning lessons from past counterinsurgency campaigns and adapting them to the new situation. By the end of 2004, they had developed an effective strategy and tactics but continued to be hampered by troop shortages, compounded by the unreliability of many Iraqi police and military units. The Army's new doctrine, embodied in FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency, outlines the correct approach to winning Iraq. However, three years of desultory conflict amid ongoing revelations that the premises upon which the administration argued the need for invading Iraq may be false have eroded support for the war. The American armed forces may soon find themselves in the unfortunate situation of having found a formula for success at almost the same time the voters demand withdrawal.

This book studies the made-to-order genre of socialist-realist fiction that was produced at the direction of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy (MPD) as a part of the war for men's minds waged by the Soviet State. The first chapter is a history of the genre, tracing it from its roots in the Revolution to the dissolution of the MDP in 1991. Topics examined in the book include the attitude toward Germans following World War II; the retirement of the World War II generation; military wives; Dear John letters; life at remote posts; the military as a socializing institution; the use of lethal force by sentries; attitudes toward field training exercises, heroism, and initiative; legitimacy of command; and the reception of Afghan vets.

Nowhere is the mid-20th century 'historiographical revolution' in Irish history better represented than in the writings of J. G. Simms, one of the most prolific historians of this generation. In a stream of books and papers from the early 1950s to his death in 1979, Simms tackled some of the most vexed and vexing questions in all Irish history: the wars, confiscations, persecutions and politics of the later 17th century. Topics such as Cromwell's sieges, the 'Glorious Revolution' and its aftermath, the later passage of the infamous 'penal laws' against Catholics are all episodes close to the heart of modern myth-makers, and yet all are described by Simms with fairness and exemplary clarity. This is a collection of his key essays, all of which remain a valuable resource for scholars of war and politics in early modern Ireland.

This collection of 139 letters from six of the seven Gould brothers who left their homes in central New York to fight for the Union Army forms a moving depiction, not only of life on the front lines of the Civil War, but of life on the home front as well. These letters, written to their beloved sister Hannah, span the entire four years of the conflict and run the gamut from initial enlistment to eventual death or discharge. Through the eyes of the Goulds, an immigrant English family struggling to make a new life, one is able to experience this major American historical event with a new understanding. Unfortunately, Hannah's letters to her brothers at the front are lost forever, victims of the fighting; but the vivid responses of her brothers speak to her own questions and concerns about the crisis that was tearing families apart. With only minor annotation and amendment, these letters tell a most important story of separation and domestic change. They reveal the plight of an individual family in the midst of turmoil.

When many Americans think of George S. Patton, they conjure the image of George C. Scott. Yet the movie could only tell a compressed version of Patton's remarkable life. This book presents the full complexity of one of America's most famous generals. Patton began as a young man from a privileged background and loving family. He struggled to overcome what was probably a learning disability to gain entrance into West Point, and began a storied career as a soldier, one that would lead him into confrontations in Mexico, the Argonne Forest in World War I, and virtually everywhere in the European Theatre of World II, where his world renown exploded. Along the way, he found time to become a devoted family man, as well as an expert horseman and fencer. He even represented the United States in the Olympics. This book also includes a thorough bibliography of print and electronic sources to aid further research. A timeline plots the key events in Patton's life and career. Accessible to students and general readers, this biography looks at Patton the soldier and Patton the man, and is perfect for those interested in the general's life, World War II, and the U.S. military in the early and mid-20th century.

The writers examine how the eastward movement of NATO has led to a new organization. As they point out, the process was underway by the time the Soviet Union collapsed. Issues of western financial constraint, the Gulf War, events in the former Yugoslavia, and changing configurations of the major NATO partners led the way. In addition, the essays examine the potential effects of the incorporation of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as well as the more distant, but still conceivable inclusion of the Baltic states, Ukraine, and others and special arrangements with Russia. NATO is leading the way in creating a new security architecture for Europe and its look East policy is the most important part of the change. As the essays indicate, NATO's transformation leaves many questions for the future. Despite the new Russian-NATO agreement, what reactions will take place in Rusian domestic politics? What will happen in the ratification process throughout the extant member states? Can all 16 states come to a unanimous agreement? And lastly what will be the consequences for Eastern Europe: including the new members of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and possibly and more importantly, those states inside the former communist empire which are not admitted as members in the first round of expansion? This is an important study for scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with Eastern Europe and NATO.

An extensively researched account of the infamous Benedict Arnold, framed in Martin's biography as a hero rather than a traitor Benedict Arnold stands as one of the most vilified figures in American history. Stories of his treason have so come to define him that his name, like that of Judas, is virtually synonymous with treason. Yet Arnold was one of the most heroic and remarkable men of his time, indeed in all of American history. A brilliant military leader of uncommon bravery, Arnold dedicated himself to the Revolutionary cause, sacrificing family life, health, and financial well-being for a conflict that left him physically crippled, sullied by false accusations, and profoundly alienated from the American cause of liberty. By viewing Arnold's life backward through the prism of his treason, we invariably succumb to the demonizations that arose only after his abandonment of the rebel forces. We thereby overlook his critical role as one of the influential actors in the American Revolution. Distinguished historian James Kirby Martin's landmark biography, the result of a decade's labor, stands as an invaluable antidote to this historical distortion. Careful not to endow the Revolutionary generation with mythical proportions of virtue, Martin shows how self-serving, venal behavior was just as common in the Revolutionary era as in our own time. Arnold, a deeply committed patriot, suffered acutely because of his lack of political savvy in dealing with those who attacked his honor and reputation. Tracing Arnold's life, from his difficult childhood through his grueling winter trek across the howling Maine wilderness, his valiant defense of Lake Champlain, and his crucial role in the Quebec and Saratoga campaigns, Martin has given us an entirely new perspective on this dramatic and exceptional life, set against the tumultuous background of the American Revolution.

Although the military-industrial complex became familiar to most Americans during the Cold War, Paul Koistinen shows that its origins actually go back to the dawn of this century. "Mobilizing for Modern War," the second of an extraordinary five-volume study on the political economy of American warfare, highlights the emergence of this pivotal relationship. In this volume, Koistinen examines war planning and mobilizing in an era of rapid industrialization and reveals how economic mobilization for defense and war is shaped at the national level by the interaction of political, economic, and military institutions and by increasingly powerful and expensive weaponry.

Covering the Gilded Age and Progressive Era through the Spanish-American War and World War I, Mobilizing for Modern War shows how a partnership evolved between government and business to prepare for and conduct modern warfare. This partnership was an extension of Progressive regulatory reforms, but it had to include a professionalized army and navy in order to handle the new technology of war. Koistinen traces the origins of the military-industrial complex to the emergence of a modern navy at the turn of the century, when building a new fleet of steel, armor, and ordnance required a production team of political leaders, naval officers, and businessmen. A similar team was brought together again between 1915 and 1918 as the War Industries Board to mobilize the economy for World War I, and it became the model for subsequent industrial mobilization planning.

Koistinen shows how mobilizing for World War I left an indelible imprint on twentieth-century life. By accelerating the emerging Progressive political economy, it strengthened the cooperative planning ethic within business and government and introduced the concept of industrial preparedness, carried out largely under military leadership. Relating events of this period to what preceded and followed, Koistinen convincingly argues that in this century warfare has shaped the nation's social institutions and ideology even more than reform. Mobilizing for Modern War is marked by outstanding research and cogent analysis and yields fresh insights not only about the conduct of conflict, but also about war's effects on peacetime affairs.