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.

Using the lens of postcolonial feminism and with particular focus on immigration accross the U.S.across/Mexico border, this book explores the processes by which security threats are identified and interpreted, and thus the relationship between national, civilizational, and environmental security within mainstream environment security discourse in the United States. Another distinctive element of the book is that its focus on the broader discourse of environmental security and immigration, examining the articulation of environmental security concerns over immigration across U.S. institutions such as the media, the state, NGOs, and academia to unpack the ways these threats are identified and interpreted.

Once warfare became established in ancient civilizations, it's hard to find any other social institution that developed as quickly. In less than a thousand years, humans brought forth the sword, sling, dagger, mace, bronze and copper weapons, and fortified towns. The next thousand years saw the emergence of iron weapons, the chariot, the standing professional army, military academies, general staffs, military training, permanent arms industries, written texts on tactics, military procurement, logistics systems, conscription, and military pay. By 2,000 B.C.E., war was an important institution in almost all major cultures of the world. This book shows readers how soldiers were recruited, outfitted, how they fought, and how they were cared for when injured or when they died. It covers soldiers in major civilizations from about 4000 B.C.E. to about 450 C.E. Soldiers' Lives through History; The Ancient World is divided into two parts, the first addressing military life and the second the ancient armies themselves. "Military Life" presents twenty-one chapters, on significant aspects of military life in the ancient world. Some of the topics include The physical condition of the soldier Recruitment Rations The soldier's equipment Camp life Discipline and punishment Weapons The chariot The cavalry Siegecraft and artillery Death and wounding Military medical care Topics are discussed cross-culturally, drawing examples from several of the cultures, armies, and time periods within each chapter in order to provide the reader with as comprehensive an understanding as possible and to avoid the usual "Western-centric" perspective too common in analyses of ancient warfare. The second part of the book,"Ancient Armies," seeks to present a detailed description of eighteen major armies of antiquity. Some of the armies included are those of Sumer and Akkad Egypt The Mitanni The Hittites The Philistines The Israelites China India Classical Greece Republican Rome Carthage The Barbarians The Roman Empire The book also provides a timeline at the beginning of the book in order to put some of the events, inventions, and developments into more context. There are 36 illustrations and 3 maps that help readers visualize some of the equipment, armor, transport, and formations that ancient soldiers used, carried, and fought in. Chapter bibliographies as well as a general bibliography and a comprehensive index round out the volume.

Based upon a wide range of historical and literary sources, An Apprenticeship in Arms is a scholarly study of the military experiences of peers and gentlemen from the British Isles who volunteered to fight in the religious and dynastic wars of mainland Europe, as well as the ordinary men who were impressed to serve in the ranks from the time of the English intervention in the Dutch war of independence in 1585 to the death of the soldier-king William III in 1702. This apprenticeship in arms exposed these men to the technological innovations of the military revolution, laid the foundations for a fledgling professional officer class based upon merit and established a fund of military expertise. This remilitarization of aristocratic culture and society was completed by 1640, and provided numerous experienced military officers for the various armies of the civil wars and, subsequently, for the embryonic British army after William III invaded and conquered the British Isles and committed the Three Kingdoms to the armed struggle against Louis XIV during the Nine Years War. Conflicts between amateur aristocrats and so-called 'soldiers of fortune' led to continuing debates about the relative merits of standing armies and a select militia; the individual pursuit of honour and glory by such amateurs also obscured the more rational military and political objectives of the modern state, subverted military discipline, and delayed the process of the professionalization of the officer corps of the British army.

This volume addresses a timely subject--the question of small wars and the limits of power from a historical perspective. The theme is developed through case studies of small wars that the Great Powers conducted in Africa and Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This historical overview clearly shows the dangers inherent for a metropolitan government and its armed forces once such military operations are undertaken. Importantly, these examples from the past stand as a warning against current and future misapplication of military strength and the misuse of military forces.

While continuing diplomatic efforts at limiting nuclear weapons, at reducing stockpiles of conventional arms, and the ongoing political change in Eastern Europe have lessened the dangers of a major war between the superpowers, small wars like the Persian Gulf War still occur. The end of the Cold War has brought more armed conflict in Europe, albeit in the form of sporadic civil war or ethnic violence, than during the height of NATO and Warsaw Pact confrontation. Indeed, it seems that as the risks of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union have diminished, political leaders have become more willing to resort to military force to solve complex international problems before exhausting diplomatic channels. This study will be of interest to policymakers and scholars interested in the judicial exercise of power.

Do the news media have any role in the transformation of war and warfare? A constellation of labels by academics and practitioners have been coined in the last twenty years to describe the new forms of a phenomenon as old as the human race. However, this book claims that it remains to be fully understood what the specific role of the news media is in this process. It argues that the news media, old and new alike, alter the cognitive and strategic environment of the actors of war and politics and change the way these interact with one another. Building on a four-dimensional definition of power and focusing on the role of television, this book recognises the importance of interactions upon the understanding of any social phenomenon. It suggests that the nature of war is changing partly because it is no longer just a matter of linear strategic interactions but also, and mainly, of 'mediated' ones.

This 31-volume set contains titles, originally published between 1956 and 1993. The first 15 books came out of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute a think tank established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden's 150 years of unbroken peace and one of the most respected worldwide. The majority of titles are from the 1980s, the period of the cold war where tensions had begun to rise again, and the threat of nuclear war gripped the world. International in scope the volumes look at the arms race, deterrence, nuclear proliferation, global policy and strategy and various other issues within the area of nuclear security.

This book argues that the US Army has made four significant shifts in the content of its capstone operations doctrine along a spectrum of war since the end of WWII: 1) in 1954 it made a shift from a doctrine focused almost exclusively on mid-intensity conventional warfare to a doctrine that added significant emphasis to high-intensity nuclear warfare; 2) in 1962 it made an even greater shift in the opposite direction toward low-intensity unconventional warfare doctrine; 3) in 1976 it shifted back to an almost exclusive focus on mid-intensity conventional warfare content; 4) and this is where Army doctrine remained for 32 years until 2008, when it made a doctrinal shift back toward low-intensity unconventional warfare - five and seven years into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively. Closely tracking each of these shifts, the author zooms in on specific domestic, international and bureaucratic politics that had a direct impact on these shifts.

War: Contemporary Perspectives on Armed Conflicts around the World presents a broad variety of interdisciplinary and social scientific perspectives on the causes, processes, cultural representations, and social consequences of the armed conflicts between and within nations and other politically organized communities. This book provides theoretical views of armed conflict and its impact on people and institutions around the world.

The '82 Kenyan Military Coup is a summary of events that took place in Kenya from the eyes of a victim.It starts with the dreams of a young man aspiring to be a soldier. It talks about the challenges he underwent through in the recruitment process, and in military training. The author talks about how he participated in an attempted Military Coup, and narrowly escaping death. Whereas the book deals with personal experiences and survival in prison, it is a testament of inner strength and triumph over adversity relying on mental toughness.

Samuel A. Burney, born in April 1840, was the son of Thomas Jefferson Burney and Julia Shields Burney. He graduated from Mercer University (then at Penfield, Georgia) in 1860. He joined the Panola Guards, an infantry component of Thomas R. R. Cobb's Georgia Legion, in July 1861. For the next four years he served in the Army of Northern Virginia both in Virginia and in Tennessee. Burney was wounded at Chancellorsville in May 1863, and as a result of his wound he was placed in disability in March 1864 and served the remainder of the war on commissary duty in southwest Georgia. After the war, Burney returned to Mercer's school of theology, was ordained into the Baptist ministry, and served as pastor of several churches in Morgan County. He was pastor of the Madison Baptist Church until shortly before his death in 1896. These letters of a college graduate written to his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Shepherd Burney are lyrical and beautifully written. Burney describes battles, camp life, theology, and the day-to-day dreariness of life in the army. This is an astounding collection of letters for anyone interested in the Civil War, or the South.

An unprecedented description of the critical energy situation throughout Asia, this book examines the energy resources, naval forces, and national strategies of the nations of that vast landmass, set against the priorities and resources of the United States. Energy security in Asia is crucial to the continued economic growth and hence the national security of the region's nations. Providing such security requires a combination of naval, political, and economic policies. Despite dramatic news coverage to the contrary, Cole's research reveals that the nations of the region-of which the United States must be counted-are in fact acting more together than apart in striving to ensure the security of scarce energy resources they all require. No issue in today's international environment is more important than energy security. Even the North Korean nuclear development program must be taken as a subset of this subject. As the United States, the United Kingdom, and other nations have done in past decades, the People's Republic of China is striving to establish proprietorship of energy resources throughout their lifecycle, from recovery from the ground to sale in the market place. This important book demonstrates the vacuity of that paradigm, illustrating the multilateral nature of energy security.

Growing up in Da' Harbor, a rough steel town with more than its share of notorious criminals passing through, a young boy seemed destined to a life of crime or, at best, a hazardous life in the steel mill. In Harbor Knight: From Harbor 'Hoodlum' to Honored CIA Agent, Ralph Garcia reflects on "pivotal moments" when his life in East Chicago, Indiana might have taken a horrible turn for the worse. Harbor Knight follows Garcia through his tumultuous childhood, to fatherhood at age sixteen...and to a bunker in Vietnam, where an unconventional message to the CIA gains him an exciting career in covert defense of the United States.

With much humor (and a few other emotions), the author shares incidents from his life of espionage and speaks frankly of how this career has affected his family life. In retirement, Garcia describes how he has been given a second, unexpected opportunity at fatherhood. Keeping one foot in the spy business, he also assists veterans and youth on a variety of fronts and has become involved in politics.

..".an account of the life of that guy next door, the average American, doing his best overseas and at home to defend US national security."

-Michael J. Sulick, former CIA Director of National Clandestine Service