In "Call Signs," former naval aviator Rich Dinkel shares memories and personal stories of several of the brave men and women who shared the profession. These flyers must be able to execute their orders in any circumstance, time, or climate. They are sharply skilled professionals who train and retrain constantly. Each naval aviator has their own call sign-their personal pseudonym, to be used during their service and most likely for many years after their service has ended. Dinkel uses the call signs of his former colleagues as he tells their stories.

Tactical aviation is often described as a very risky business in the eyes of everyday people. Today's fighter and attack aircraft can take-off and land on a runway and shoot off the bow (front) of an aircraft carrier, and be recovered in the cross-deck pendants at the stern (rear) of the ship. In order to perform this sort of flying, a pilot must have steely eyes with perfect vision; quick, cat-like refl exes; and exceptional common sense-something that can occasionally be problematic. He or she must also have a deep and wide knowledge of every system in the aircraft, an equally in depth knowledge of the enemy, and the proper way to use his or her deadly weapons in combat.

"Call Signs" offers personal stories and a unique insider's view of tactical aviation and the challenges that each pilot must meet to succeed.

A New York Times bestseller, A Slave in the White House received glowing reviewsthatpraised its narrative and original research. It is the story of Paul Jennings, who was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia and moved with the Madison household staff to the White House. Jennings was a self-taught and self-made man who purchased his own freedom and penned the first ever White House memoir. Nearly two centuries later, Montpelier scholar Elizabeth Dowling Taylor uncovered the memoir. In this amazing narrative she reconstructs his lifeand hisunusual portraits of James and Dolley Madison andSenator Daniel Websterin early nineteenth century Washington, as well as the 1812 assault on British troops and Jennings' heroic saving of George Washington's portrait. Fascinating and original, this is an important contribution to American history.

This book is a translation of the Ruzhany Memorial (Yizkor) Book that was published in 1957 in Hebrew and Yiddish; it is based upon the memoirs of former Jewish residents of the town who had left before the war. Ruzhany, called Rozana in Polish and Ruzhnoy in Yiddish, is now a small town in Belarus. It was part of Russia at the time of World War I and Poland afterwards for a short period, and then the Soviet Union. In 1939, the Jewish population was at its peak 3,500, comprising 78% of the town's population. In November 1942, every Jewish resident was murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Founded in the mid-1500s, Jews were welcomed by the private owner, the Grand Chancellor, Duke Leu Sapeiha. He valued Jewish settlers who would create a variety of businesses that would produce profits and generate collectable taxes. They opened schools, built many small synagogues, and the Great Synagogue in the main square. In addition they established many social institutions. The market town thrived. Starting in the early 1900s, many young Jews immigrated to the United States so that the young men could avoid prolonged conscription into the Czar's army.

Every time Mark W. Merritt puts on the uniform of a US Naval Officer, he is reminded of how thankful he is to be an American. He began compiling his memories in 2008 while serving in Iraq, just after celebrating his fiftieth birthday in a combat zone. In his memoir, he offers a collection of lessons learned from his years in intelligence-through twenty-nine countries, frost bite, two hip replacements, cancer, three wars, five combat zones, eight marathons, multiple parachute jumps, three college degrees, and two black belts. He has been an author, high school hall-of-famer and collegiate NCAA athlete, mountain climber and kayaker, husband, son, brother, warrior, scholar, and gentleman. As a special operations intelligence officer, Merritt has always pushed to do more, but now he can step back and take in what he has accomplished. He has failed many times, but he has succeeded often, as well. Happiness no longer seems like an unobtainable goal. They Rest Not at Night offers both Merritt's personal life history with all its variety and an exploration of his intelligence experience, sharing his own commentary on the wisdom he has gained the hard way.

"Shoot" hollered Willie B. "Where" I screamed. "Shoot, Shoot." Screamed Willie B. Again. I clicked my rifle from safe to full auto and let it rip in the direction of the tracers from the other two guys. I fired one complete magazine. I had no idea what was happening. I changed magazines. I buried my face in the dirt attempting to make myself invisible. I was terrified. I lie there cowering by hiding my face in the dirt. I had no idea what to do. "Shoot" screamed Willie B. again . My rifle had a bi-pod attached to the front of it as it was a select fire. (Semi or full auto). I extended the bi-pod and again ripped off full auto rounds. My hands and fingers were moving too slow. It was as if I was moving in slow motion. I couldn't make my hands move any faster. I kept shooting like the other two . At what, I had no idea. My heart was pumping ninety miles an hour. I heard firing erupt from the NDP then stop. A piece of hot brass hit me in the neck and went down my fatigue shirt burning the hell out of me. I kept firing and trying to shake the hot brass out of my shirt at the same time. I had fired six magazines before I noticed the other two had stopped firing. I errently touched the barrel of my rifle and got a burn that bubbled up the skin. We all lie still. My mouth was so dry, I couldn't swallow. I was shaking badly and couldn't catch my breath. Again, I buried my face in the dirt in a futile attempt to escape. I didn't like any of this. This wasn't at all like playing soldier in the back yard as a kid.

Every city and every state needs a Richard Ravitch. In sixty years on the job, whether working in business or government, he was the man willing to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing New York. Trained as a lawyer, he worked briefly for the House of Representatives, then began his career in his family's construction business. He built high-profile projects like the Whitney Museum and Citicorp Center but his primary energy was devoted to building over 40,000 units of affordable housing including the first racially integrated apartment complex in Washington, D.C. He dealt with architects, engineers, lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians, union leaders, construction workers, bankers, and tenants--virtually all of the people who make cities and states work.
It was no surprise that those endeavors ultimately led to a life of public service. In 1975, Ravitch was asked by then New York Governor Hugh Carey to arrange a rescue of the New York State Urban Development Corporation, a public entity that had issued bonds to finance over 30,000 affordable housing units but was on the verge of bankruptcy. That same year, Ravitch was at Carey's side when New York City's biggest banks said they would no longer underwrite its debt and he became instrumental to averting the city's bankruptcy.
Throughout his career, Ravitch divided his time between public service and private enterprise. He was chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from 1979 to 1983 and is generally credited with rebuilding the system. He turned around the Bowery Savings Bank, chaired a commission that rewrote the Charter of the City of New York, served on two Presidential Commissions, and became chief labor negotiator for Major League Baseball.
Then, in 2008, after Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal and New York State was in a post-financial-crisis meltdown, Spitzer's successor, David Paterson, appointed Ravitch Lieutenant Governor and asked him to make recommendations regarding the state's budgeting plan. What Ravitch found was the result of not just the economic downturn but years of fiscal denial. And the closer he looked, the clearer it became that the same thing was happening in most states. Budgetary pressures from Medicaid, pension promises to public employees, and deceptive budgeting and borrowing practices are crippling our states' ability to do what only they can do--invest in the physical and human infrastructure the country needs to thrive. Making this case is Ravitch's current public endeavor and it deserves immediate attention from both public officials and private citizens.

In central Brussels stands a statue of a young woman. Built in 1923, it is the first monument to a working-class woman in European history. Her name was Gabrielle Petit. History has forgotten Petit, an ambitious and patriotic Belgian, executed by firing squad in 1916 for her role as an intelligence agent for the British Army. After the First World War she was celebrated as an example of stern endeavour, but a hundred years later her memory has faded. In the first part of this historical biography Sophie De Schaepdrijver uses Petit's life to explore gender, class and heroism in the context of occupied Europe. Petit's experiences reveal the reality of civilian engagement under military occupation and the emergence of modern espionage. The second part of the book focuses on the legacy and cultural memory of Petit and the First World War. By analysing Petit's representation in ceremony, discourse and popular culture De Schaepdrijver expands our understanding of remembrance across the 20th century.

Drafted when he was 37 years old, this is the story of Dale Hubley - his life and service during World War II as a member of the Seventh Armored Division in Patton's Third Army. Being drafted when he was older change his life in many way but he was never bitter. He would always say, "I was one of the lucky ones, I got to come home." This positive attitude is what shaped Dale's life.

With the agreement at Munich in 1938 he effectively abandoned Czechoslovakia, but immediately accelerated Britain's rearmament programme and the following year declared that Britain would defend Poland. This commitment led, in September 1939, to the start of World War II.

Nelson Mandela was called a terrorist, forced into hiding, captured, threatened with the death penalty and eventually thrown into jail for twenty-seven years, but nothing could stop him from fighting to liberate his country from the evil of apartheid. A hero in the struggle against a terrible regime, he never gave up. Even when he was a prisoner, he worked secretly with his comrades to undermine the oppressive apartheid government. This is the exciting true story of a young herd boy who was to grow up to become a lawyer, a freedom fighter, South Africa’s first democratically elected president and the beloved grandfather of a nation. It is told here in words and pictures for the young and the young at heart: a story to read with enjoyment and remember with pride.

A masterful biography of Lincoln that follows his bitter struggle with poverty, his self-made success in business and law, his early disappointing political career, and his leadership as President during one of America's most tumultuous periods.

Louis Botha was ’n briljante Boeregeneraal wie se taktiese vernuf en intuïtiewe aanslag vir etlike oorwinnings oor die Britse magte in die Anglo-Boereoorlog gesorg het. Maar dit was sy enigmatiese karakter en vaste oortuiging om te hou by wat hy geglo het reg was, wat hom as ’n leier van die Boerevolk bevestig het.

Richard Steyn gee op meesterlike wyse insae in die lewe van hierdie grootse Suid-Afrikaanse krygsman en staatsman. Hy beskryf verhelderend hoe Botha saam met sy hegte vriend, Jan Smuts, die vier Suid-Afrikaanse kolonies na Uniewording in 1910 gelei het waarna Botha as die eerste eerste minister van die Unie aangewys is.

Gedurende die Eerste Wêreldoorlog was Botha aan die voorpunt van die Suid-Afrikaanse magte se suksesvolle inval van Duits-Suidwes-Afrika. Tog is hy deur talle Afrikaners verkwalik vir sy steun aan Brittanje, en die Afrikaner-rebellie van 1914, waartydens hy teen voormalige makkers moes optree, het sy hart gebreek.

Botha se groothartig en vrygewige omgang met mense – van Vereeniging tot Versailles – het hom bo sy tydgenote laat uitstaan.