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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Historical, political & military
Written immediately after the Cuban Revolution and first published
in 1961, Guerrilla Warfare soon became a how-to manual for legions
of guerrilla fighters around the world-from Latin America to Africa
and Asia. In this revolutionary primer, Che focuses on the general
principles of guerrilla warfare, the guerrilla "band," the
organization of the guerrilla front, and strategies for preserving
and defending power once it has been won. The book covers broad
topics-guerrilla strategy and tactics; propaganda, training, and
indoctrination; and the role of women-and more specific issues like
medical problems, supplies, and "sabotage." Che's epilogue, written
a year after "the culmination of the long armed civil struggle by
the Cuban people," includes his analysis of the Cuban situation at
the time and predictions for the country's future. Both historical
document and impassioned treatise, Guerrilla Warfare was intended
as a guide to realizing change when political opposition and legal
civil struggle against totalitarianism are inadequate. In that
sense, it provides a timeless window into revolutionary thinking
today.
'Fresh and eager...rich in character...so infectiously alive to the
simple pleasures that even now the senses quicken to read it.' Jan
Morris in The Times '...a brilliant picture of traditional English
rural society ... (Parson Woodforde) is now among the most
unforgettable characters of English literature.' Ronald Blythe in
the Introduction The world in which Parson Woodforde lived was
tumultuous to say the least. Yet while the French Revolution and
the American War of Independence shook and changed the world, this
kindly country priest fills the pages. of his diary with the
ordinariness of his life, firstly in a Somerset parish and then in
rural Norfolk. He accords no more importance to the Fall of the
Bastille than to the extra large crab he buys from a local
fisherman or the cost of ribbons for his niece's hats. Particularly
vivid are the descriptions of the gargantuan meals he enjoys with
friends and neighbours, his remedies for ailments, his descriptions
of East Anglian winters, his modest but unfailing generosity to the
poor and his enthusiasm for local gossip. Parson Woodforde's diary
provides an extraordinary portrait of life in Georgian England, but
it is the diarist's humour and unpretentiousness which ensure its
place among the classics of English literature.
Blending history and memoir, retired U.S. Marshal Mike Earp--a
descendant of the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp--offers an exclusive
and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the most storied law
enforcement agency in America, illuminating its vital role in the
nation's development for more than two hundred years.Mike Earp
spent his career with the U.S. Marshals Service, reaching the
number three position in the organization's hierarchy before he
retired. In this fascinating, eye-opening book, written with the
service's full cooperation, he shares his experiences and takes us
on a fascinating tour of this extraordinary organization--the
oldest, the most effective, and the most dangerous branch of
American law enforcement, and the least known.Unlike their
counterparts in the police and the FBI, U.S. Marshals aren't
responsible for investigating or prosecuting crimes. They pursue
and arrest the most dangerous criminal offenders on U.S. soil, an
extraordinarily hazardous job often involving gun battles and
physical altercations. Earp takes us back to the service's early
days, explaining its creation and its role in the border wars that
helped make continental expansion possible. He brings to life the
gunslingers and gunfights that have made the Marshals legend, and
explores the service's role today integrating federal, state, and
local law enforcement agencies in the hunt for the most notorious
criminals--terrorists, drug lords, gun runners.Setting his own
experiences within the long history of the U.S. Marshals service,
Earp offers a moving and illuminating tribute to the brave marshals
who have dedicated their lives to keeping the nation safe.
The battlefield reputation of Confederate general Nathan Bedford
Forrest, long recognized as a formidable warrior, has been shaped
by one infamous wartime incident. At Fort Pillow in 1864, the
attack by Confederate forces under Forrest's command left many of
the Tennessee Unionists and black soldiers garrisoned there dead in
a confrontation widely labeled as a "massacre." In "The River Was
Dyed with Blood," best-selling Forrest biographer Brian Steel Wills
argues that although atrocities did occur after the fall of the
fort, Forrest did not order or intend a systematic execution of its
defenders. Rather, the general's great failing was losing control
of his troops.
A prewar slave trader and owner, Forrest was a controversial
figure throughout his lifetime. Because the attack on Fort
Pillow--which, as Forrest wrote, left the nearby waters "dyed with
blood"--occurred in an election year, Republicans used him as a
convenient Confederate scapegoat to marshal support for the war.
After the war he also became closely associated with the spread of
the Ku Klux Klan. Consequently, the man himself, and the truth
about Fort Pillow, has remained buried beneath myths, legends,
popular depictions, and disputes about the events themselves.
Wills sets what took place at Fort Pillow in the context of
other wartime excesses from the American Revolution to World War II
and Vietnam, as well as the cultural transformations brought on by
the Civil War. Confederates viewed black Union soldiers as the
embodiment of slave rebellion and reacted accordingly.
Nevertheless, Wills concludes that the engagement was neither a
massacre carried out deliberately by Forrest, as charged by a
congressional committee, nor solely a northern fabrication meant to
discredit him and the Confederate States of America, as
pro-Southern apologists have suggested. The battle-scarred fighter
with his homespun aphorisms was neither an infallible warrior nor a
heartless butcher, but a product of his time and his heritage.
`A shepstar's (dressmaker) son, hatched in Gutter lane', Davis
became an Oxford scholar, a skilled mathematician. The story might
have ended there, teaching at the University or schoolmastering.
Instead he became a soldier and follower of the Earl of Essex and
lost everything when he joined him in rebellion. He saved his life
by turning government supergrass and in the process destroyed
Essex's line of defence. His rehabilitation was tortuous, but he
died a country gentleman. The book casts new light on the plotting
that preceded the rebellion of 1601 and on the examinations and
trial that followed it. It also describes the military career of a
middle-ranking officer, who was a `conformable' Catholic, finally
distinguishing him from so many others of the same name. Roger
Ashley, like Davis, graduated from Worcester College (then
Gloucester Hall) and has found Sir John persistently invading his
spare time since postgraduate days.
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Noble Rider
(Hardcover)
S Bret Breneman
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R809
R709
Discovery Miles 7 090
Save R100 (12%)
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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The consummate soldier of Wellington's Peninsular Army
Guernsey born John Gaspard Le Marchant was an intellectual born
before his time. He had a gift for languages, was a competent
musician and a talented water colourist. Nevertheless, he chose a
career as a soldier and cavalryman, perhaps unusually, since
cavalry officers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were not
noted for their intellect. In common with many officers who were
associated with the Duke of Wellington in the battles against
Napoleon's First Empire, Le Marchant first saw action against the
French Revolutionary armies in the Low Countries. The campaign was
a debacle, but it caused Le Marchant to consider the formation,
drill, equipment and tactical methods employed by the British army
in the field, and resulted in his authorship of a number of
important treatises on these subjects. These works were
particularly well received by the Duke of York and this led to
royal patronage and the adoption of several Le Marchant's ideas.
His greatest achievement was certainly the creation of the Royal
Military College, and his vision of a training school for military
officers gave rise not only to Sandhurst, but also West Point and a
number of other institutions created on his model internationally.
His promotion to major-general excluded him from academic life and
he was given command of a brigade of heavy cavalry in the
Peninsular War, where he was, predictably, as effective in the
field as he was in all his endeavours. Le Marchant fell, sabre in
hand among enemy ranks, at the Battle of Salamanca having
instituted a brilliant manoeuvre of cavalry which almost certainly
sealed what is recognised as one of Wellington's greatest
victories. This biography of by Le Marchant's son is accompanied in
this special Leonaur edition by a short biography of Le Marchant's
military career by historian, John William Cole.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each
title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our
hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their
spines and fabric head and tail bands.
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Bruno
(Hardcover)
Jacob Abbott
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R489
Discovery Miles 4 890
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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