After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1969 I was commissioned as an officer in the Marines. I served an interesting 'tour of duty' in Southeast Asia in 1972, during which time I was "in and out" of six different countries...including Vietnam. A greenhorn lieutenant when I landed, I was eventually promoted to captain. Because of my God given 'take charge personality' and a few "very junior officer" notable accomplishments I found myself frequently being handpicked for special assignments. I 'saw action' with seven different units...some good ...some bad...some ugly. I saw men die. I saw capable men withered by fatigue, brave men crippled by fear. Since I served, more than forty years ago now, I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and getting to know hundreds of fellow-Vietnam Vets; short term acquaintances, professional colleagues, neighbors, close friends, family members. Although our individual Vietnam stories are unique and intensely personal, I have come to realize that a common thread runs through most of them. For more than twenty-five years I have been asked to formally speak to sundry civic organizations, history classes, and social gatherings. As a result of fielding thousands of audience questions and listening to their spontaneous reactions to my "talks" I have learned what people are interesting in hearing. I have seen their reactions to my version of America's 'Vietnam experience'. I know what's interesting and what's not; what's important to those who weren't there, ordinary people who merely wonder 'what it was like'. I have enjoyed two "successful careers" and am currently embarked upon my third. I have fired most of life's best bullets, emptied most of my chosen weapon's most precious magazines, drained my fullest canteens, exhausted most of my allotted time on this fair planet we call earth. I want to share a few of the stories of men I served with, men I came to know later in life, men I loved as brothers-in-arms surviving in harm's way; or men who were simply 'Crazy Vietnam Vets' (like me) with a special story to tell. "Men JUST like me...only different " Ours are interesting up and down tales of wonder and weird, of good times and bad. I am happily married to a "seasoned" school nurse, am the father of three college educated sons, and have two fine grandsons. I live in Blanco, Texas about forty miles due west of Austin. I have always viewed life's glass as half full; hope you enjoy our 'Not Ordinary' war stories.

This book offers a first-person perspective on the institution of slavery in America, providing powerful, engaging interviews from the WPA slave narrative collection that enable readers to gain a true sense of the experience of enslavement. Today's students understandably have a hard time imagining what life for slaves more than 150 years ago was like. The best way to communicate what slaves experienced is to hear their words directly. The material in this concise single-volume work illuminates the lives of the last living generation of enslaved people in the United States-former slaves who were interviewed about their experiences in the 1930s. Based on more than 2,000 interviews, the transcriptions of these priceless interviews offer primary sources that tell a diverse and powerful picture of life under slavery. The book explores seven key topics-childhood, marriage, women, work, emancipation, runaways, and family. Through the examination of these subject areas, the interviews reveal the harsh realities of being a slave, such as how slave women were at the complete mercy of the men who operated the places where they lived, how nearly every enslaved person suffered a beating at some point in their lives, how enslaved families commonly lost relatives through sale, and how enslaved children were taken from their parents to care for the children of slaveholders. The thematic organizational format allows readers to easily access numerous excerpts about a specific topic quickly and enables comparisons between individuals in different locations or with different slaveholders to identify the commonalities and unique characteristics within the system of slavery. Provides a historical overview of the scholarship on slavery via first-person perspectives into the institution of slavery Supplies an introductory essay for each theme as well as brief contextual explanations for each excerpt with the text of the oral narrative Supplies primary source documents in the form of interviews with actual slaves from the WPA slave narratives that allow readers to better understand the experiences of those who lived in slavery Presents a history of the slave narratives project under the New Deal Gives eye-opening insights into the plight of women within the institution of slavery

When pilots sit around an airport or get together at a hotel lounge for beers or cocktails, they're almost certain to regale each other, and anyone else who will listen, with embellished tales of their greatest aviation exploits. The longer these stories continue, the more the similarities grow between the pilots' war stories and fish stories. As the night wears on, the exploits they share are likely to grow more and more elaborate and outlandish.

In the spirit of those war stories, author Jim Lewis, who has worked as a professional pilot since the mid-sixties, offers his share of stories from his experiences.

Many of these short stories are the result of mistakes in judgment, while others arose from deliberate decisions to proceed made from ignorance. A few were simply experiences that came with being a professional pilot, and two or three were blatant rule breaking. Lewis recalls landing in a soybean field, buzzing a nuclear submarine, flying under a bridge, running low on fuel, and tasting life in the cockpit of a jet liner. Some of his tales are humorous, while others take on a more dangerous nature. All of them, however, offer a lesson for others to learn.

"I lived the same life as everyone else, the life of ordinary people, the masses." Sitting in a prison cell in the autumn of 1944, Hans Fallada sums up his life under the National Socialist dictatorship, the time of "inward emigration." Under conditions of close confinement, in constant fear of discovery, he writes himself free from the nightmare of the Nazi years. His frank and sometimes provocative memoirs were thought for many years to have been lost. They are published here for the first time.

The confessional mode did not come naturally to Fallada the writer of fiction, but in the mental and emotional distress of 1944, self-reflection became a survival strategy. In the "house of the dead" he exacts his political revenge on paper. "I know that I am crazy. I'm risking not only my own life, I'm also risking the lives of many of the people I am writing about," he notes, driven by the compulsion to write. And write he does: about spying and denunciation, about the threat to his livelihood and his literary work, about the fate of many friends and contemporaries such as Ernst Rowohlt and Emil Jannings. To conceal his intentions and to save paper, he uses abbreviations. His notes, constantly exposed to the gaze of the prison warders, become a kind of secret code. He finally succeeds in smuggling the manuscript out of the prison, although it remained unpublished for half a century.

These revealing memoirs by one of the best-known German writers of the 20th century will be of great interest to all readers of modern literature.

Unique from his contemporaries, Frantz Fanon examined the dangers of post-colonial power. His monumental contribution was posing questions and explaining the `curse' which national liberation would become for the developing world. Voices of Liberation: Frantz Fanon gives insight into the extraordinary thought and ideas of the man hailed as the 20th century's most important revolutionary. The book includes a gripping view on his life, the period he lived in and a selection of his work; also interviews with those who fought with him in the struggle against French colonialism in Algeria and Tunisia. Fanon's daughter, Mireille Fanon, has written the Foreword to Voices of Liberation: Frantz Fanon, where she explains the continued importance of her father's writings and politics. Dan Watts, editor of the radical newspaper Liberator, in 1967 described Fanon's influence on the revolt of black America: `You're going along thinking all the brothers in these riots are old winos. Nothing could be further from the truth. These cats are ready to die for something. And they know why. They all read. Read a lot. Not one of them hasn't read the Bible... Fanon... You'd better get this book. Every brother on a rooftop can quote Fanon.' The Voices of Liberation series celebrates the lives and writings of African Liberation activists and heroes. By providing access to the thoughts and writings of some of the many men and women who fought for the dismantling of apartheid, this series invites the contemporary reader to engage directly with the rich history of the struggle for democracy, to discover where we come from and to explore how we, too, can choose to shape our destiny.

War was no stranger to the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. A small farming community at the outbreak of the Civil War, Sudbury stood ready to support the cause of the Union. Uriah and Mary Moore, a local farmer and his wife, parents of ten children, sent four sons off to fight for the Union. George Frederick Moore was twenty years old when he joined the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment in 1862, along with brother, Albert. Their brother, John, had enlisted in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment and had been serving since 1861. In 1864, a fourth brother, Alfred, joined the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment. The eighty-four letters in this collection span the years from August 1862 to the end of the War and include correspondence to and from Pvt. George Moore and five family members. George's personal diaries from 1863 and 1864 are also included, as well as the 1867 diary of Sarah Jones, the girl he married. Through research the family is traced long after the war, revealing their travels and accomplishments. Explanatory passages that accompany these letters highlight the campaigns of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts through the war years. George Moore took part in battles from South Mountain and Antietam to Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbell's Station, and the Siege of Knoxville. He participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the assault on Petersburg. The letters to and from George Moore and his loved ones provide an intimate glimpse of the trials, not only of the soldiers, but of the family who sent their boys off to war.

This book deals with the remarkable life of a powerful and fiery woman at the heart of the turbulent Barons' Wars. As sister of Henry III and aunt of the future Edward I, Eleanor de Montfort was at the heart of the bloody conflict between the Crown and the English barons. At Lewes in 1264 Simon de Montfort captured the king and secured control of royal government. A woman of fiery nature, Eleanor worked tirelessly in supporting her husband's cause. She assumed responsibility for the care of the royal prisoners and she regularly dispatched luxurious gifts to Henry III and the Lord Edward. But the family's political fortunes were shattered at the battle of Evesham in August 1265 where Simon de Montfort was killed. The newly-widowed Eleanor rose to her role as matriarch of her family, sending her surviving sons - and the family treasure - overseas to France, negotiating the surrender of Dover Castle and securing her own safe departure from the realm. The last ten years of her life were spent in the Dominican convent at Montargis. Drawing on chronicles, letters and public records this book reconstructs the narrative of Eleanor's remarkable life.

Providing both an analysis of the Mexican Revolution and a compelling story of the notorious Pancho Villa, this book describes this historical period from the perspective of its most iconic figure. Doroteo Arango-much better known as "Pancho Villa"-was one of the revolutionary generals during Mexico's turbulent times in the early 1900s. Villa was a train robber, a cattle thief, and a murderer, yet today he is revered by Mexicans and Americans for his accomplishments, and roads and neighborhoods in Mexico bear his name. Pancho Villa: A Biography provides a compelling life story full of adventure, the events of which helped define the course of modern Mexico. Through the lens of Villa's personal experience, author Alejandro Quintana offers an appealing, accessible interpretation of the complex turn of events that define the violence, confusion, chaos, and transformation in Mexico between 1910 and 1923. Organized chronologically, the book details the social tensions under the ruthless rule of dictator Porfirio Diaz; documents Villa's rise into becoming the most powerful military leader of the revolution; analyzes the civil war that resulted from Villa's differences with the revolutionary political leadership; and describes the reasons for his decline and eventual assassination. Provides a chronology of Villa's life linked to important revolutionary events Includes photos of Pancho Villa in different stages of his life, some of which depict other important revolutionary leaders as well Logically organized and clearly written to facilitate reading comprehension and research on specific topics

In a masterful narrative, historian and biographer Charles Bracelen Flood brings to life the drama of Lincoln's final year, in which he oversaw the last campaigns of the Civil War, was reelected as president, and laid out his majestic vision for the nation's future in a reunified South and in the expanding West.

In "1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History," the reader is plunged into the heart of that crucial year as Lincoln faced enormous challenges. The Civil War was far from being won: as the year began, Lincoln had yet to appoint Ulysses S. Grant as the general-in-chief who would finally implement the bloody strategy and dramatic campaigns that would bring victory.

At the same time, with the North sick of the war, Lincoln was facing a reelection battle in which hundreds of thousands of "Peace Democrats" were ready to start negotiations that could leave the Confederacy as a separate American nation, free to continue the practice of slavery. In his personal life, he had to deal with the erratic behavior of his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and both Lincolns were haunted by the sudden death, two years before, of their beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie.

"1864" is the story of Lincoln's struggle with all this -- the war on the battlefields and a political scene in which his own secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, was working against him in an effort to become the Republican candidate himself. The North was shocked by such events as Grant's attack at Cold Harbor, during which seven thousand Union soldiers were killed in twenty minutes, and the Battle of the Crater, where three thousand Union men died in a bungled attempt to blow up Confederate trenches. The year became so bleak that on August 23, Lincoln wrote in a memorandum, "This morning, as for several days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be reelected." But, with the increasing success of his generals, and a majority of the American public ready to place its faith in him, Lincoln and the nation ended 1864 with the close of the war in sight and slavery on the verge of extinction.

"1864" presents the man who not only saved the nation, but also, despite the turmoil of the war and political infighting, set the stage for westward expansion through the Homestead Act, the railroads, and the Act to Encourage Immigration.

As 1864 ends and Lincoln, reelected, is planning to heal the nation, John Wilkes Booth, whose stalking of Lincoln through 1864 is one of this book's suspenseful subplots, is a few weeks away from killing him.

The mutiny as seen by a Lancer's wife
This account, which briefly covers life in India immediately preceding the Indian Mutiny, was originally titled A Lady's Life Before and During the Indian Mutiny. The 'red' year of 1857 was an apocalyptic one for many of the British in India and Mrs. Ouvry's account as she gives us the perspective of a wife of a senior regimental officer in a British Army cavalry regiment is, of course, harrowing. Henry Ouvry was an officer of the 3rd Light Dragoons before transferring to the 9th Lancers who saw much action and earned themselves a fearsome reputation during the Mutiny. Although Mrs. Ouvry was spared the experiences of the wives of officers of native regiments whose men rose up to slaughter them, this was still a time of anguish, terror and uncertainty for her, and this memoir brings her experiences vividly to life for anyone interested in the period. Her husband's book, Cavalry Experiences is also available from Leonaur and is an excellent companion work touching on the same events.
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.