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Books > Biography > Historical, political & military
"The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a
big lie than to a small one." Adolf Hitler The only edition of Mein
Kampf officially sanctioned by the Nazi Foreign Office in the
English language was the edition translated and introduced by James
Murphy. The illustrated edition using his translation was first
published in the UK in 1939 in 22 weekly parts by Hutchison and Co
Ltd. This authentic edition brings together that entire series
complete with Murphy's 1939 introduction and a new introduction by
Emmy AwardTM winning historian Bob Carruthers, and includes over
250 photographs. Murphy's was the only translation which was
officially endorsed by the Nazi party during Hitler's lifetime and
as such represents an opportunity to approach the work as it was
presented to contemporary readers. This was the version of 'Mein
Kampf' which the Nazi party hoped would spread the gospel of
National Socialism throughout the UK, but by the time publication
was underway World War II had commenced. Somewhat surprisingly,
publication of the weekly illustrated edition was allowed to
continue although all proceeds from the sale were diverted to the
British Red Cross. This new publication of the entire primary
source provides the reader with access to the complete historical
document and provides a unique insight into the past by reproducing
'Mein Kampf' as it was presented to British readers in the
thirties.
They were the Tiger FACs, the forward air controllers who flew
fast-moving F-4E Phantoms over the deadly skies of Laos and North
Vietnam in an air war that history forgot to mention. These are
their stories, in their own words, of missions in AAA-filled skies
with supersonic angels as their wingmen. They challenged the enemy
down in the weeds, eyeball-to-eyeball; cutting the supply lines
that plunged through the mountains and karst formations of Laos on
their way to South Vietnam. The mission required flying sorties up
to six hours long with four to six air-to-air refuelings. It
demanded extraordinary teamwork and bravery, and this small group
of men paid the price, suffering up to eighty percent of the combat
damage of a seventy-two aircraft wing. Their stories are often
irreverent and far from today's political correctness, yet they are
filled with the reality of war. "The Tiger FACs" will take you back
to experience the days and nights of these fighter crews at Korat
Air Base in Thailand. It is a recantation of the life and times of
the men who chose to fly and fight, and while you won't experience
battle damage, you will feel what they lived, and know, without
doubt, that you are on their wing.
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.
The old, top-down approach to leadership doesn't work any more. What we
need is a more flexible, creative approach – one that empowers people
to do their best work, rather than tells them to do so.
In Creative Leadership, Rama Gheerawo applies the mind of a design
expert to the twenty-first-century organisation. In particular, his
book shows how success in the future will increasingly be dependent on
a mastery of three basic principles: creativity, clarity and empathy.
Drawing on his own experience in leading over 100 design projects with
government, business and the third sector, it sets out a blueprint for
engagement and success that applies to everything from small
enterprises, to large multinationals.
First published in 1882, Samuel Watkins' 'Co. Aytch - A Sideshow of
the Big Show' is widely recognized as one of the most important
Civil War memoirs. Written in a lively, engaging style, the book
captures the pride, misery, glory, and horror experienced by the
common foot soldier.
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