Selection of more than 300 letters published by The Times newspaper between 1914 and 1918, as its readers and the nation alike endured the ordeal of the First World War. Much of the correspondence relates to the conflict - the news, or absence of news, from the trenches and the sacrifices being made on the Home Front. Celebrated politicians and the man on the Clapham omnibus both responded to the horrors of gas and the slaughter on the Somme. Yet it was at this time, too, that the newspaper's famous letters page began to take on its distinctive nature, finding room for off-beat or humorous topics and writers who held up a mirror to Britain's character and its changing moods. Among those who wrote to The Times during the war were many of the most notable figures of the era, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, HG Wells, Millicent Fawcett, Edith Wharton, Nancy Astor, Edith Cavell, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. With insights and opinion on diverse subjects such as; * the Russian Revolution * Women's suffrage * the first Zeppelin raids * the rearing of guinea fowl for shooting Great War Letters shines a light on the world of a century ago at the very moment in time that it was about to change forever.

Unsurpassed since their publication fifty years ago, Ezra J. Warner s Genderals in Blue and Generals in Gray provide a complete guide to the military leadership of both the South and the North and remain the most exhaustive and celebrated work on the Civil War s generals. In commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Warner s magnum opus is available, for the first time, as a hardcover boxed set of both volumes containing concise, detailed biographical sketches and photographs of all 425 Confederate and 583 Union generals. Through tireless research and captivating detail, Warner provides fascinating insight into these commanders, well known and obscure, from the legendary Union general George Custer to the youngest brigadier in the Confederate Army, William Paul Roberts, only nineteen years of age in 1861. Hailed by scholars and critics as one of the few indispensable books on the American Civil War, Warner s work offers the only comprehensive reference of the men who led over three million soldiers into the most divisive and bloodiest war in American history.

A professor of architecture at Cambridge University, Marcial Echenique, recently became curious when he found wiring concealed under the floorboards of his country mansion, Farm Hall in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire. The mansion had an astonishing past as an MI6 staging post for some of the most daring secret operations of the Second World War. But in April 1945, Farm Hall was to play an even more astounding role, as a 'country club' for ten of Germany's top nuclear physicists after they had been captured in Germany and secretly flown back to England in a daring raid code-named Operation Big. Every word they uttered was bugged by MI6 eavesdroppers using the wires found by the professor. After the dropping of the bomb these men would claim they could have developed it for the Third Reich but did not 'for the greater good of mankind'. Most believe this to be a deception. But was there an even greater deception? Were they captured not to stop Hitler, but to stop Stalin? Did the US drop the bomb not as a show of power to the Japanese, but to the Soviets? Colin Brown guides us through a world of espionage, scientific discovery and questions of morality as he reveals the extraordinary truth surrounding Hitler's atomic bomb.

Edited by Matthew L. Downs and M. Ryan Floyd, The American South and the Great War, 1914- 1924 investigates how American participation in World War I further strained the region's relationship with the federal government, how wartime hardships altered the South's traditional social structure, and how the war effort stressed and reshaped the southern economy. The volume contends that participation in World War I contributed greatly to the modernization of the South, initiating changes ultimately realized during World War II and the postwar era. Although the war had a tremendous impact on the region, few scholars have analyzed the topic in a comprehensive fashion, making this collection a much-needed addition to the study of American and southern history. These essays address a variety of subjects, including civil rights, economic growth and development, politics and foreign policy, women's history, gender history, and military history. Collectively, this volume highlights a time and an experience often overshadowed by later events, illustrating the importance of World War I in the emergence of a modern South.

Shadow Warriors is a fascinating look at the women of the UK and US secret service branches during the Second World War. These were women of enormous cunning and strength of will, and many of the Shadow Warriors' stories have remained untold until now. In a dramatically different tale of espionage and conspiracy in the Second World War, this book unveils the history of the courageous women who volunteered to work behind enemy lines in Nazi Occupied Europe. Sent by the United States' OSS and Britain's SOE into Occupied Europe, these brave women wove a web of resistance groups across the continent. So effective did the female agents become in their efforts that the Germans often placed a bounty of a million Francs on the heads of operatives disrupting their troops. Their extraordinary heroism, initiative and resourcefulness contributed to the Allied breakout of the Normandy beachheads and even infiltrated Nazi Germany at the height of the war, into the very heart of Hitler's citadel - Berlin. Young and daring, the female agents accepted that they could be captured, tortured or killed, even as others were always readied to take their place.

Tuesday, 8 May 1945: Victory in Europe Day. A day of joyous celebration, as the end of a conflict which had engulfed the world came within touching distance. Millions of people celebrated in the streets throughout Britain. Yet not all was right in the world. Struggles remained ahead - war still raged on between the Allies and Japan. Agreements and treaties were yet to be forged. Lives continued to be lost around the world. Meanwhile in Britain, although the pressure of supporting active military campaigns was reduced, lives were irrevocably changed in other ways. Bonds forged by the momentum of struggle, by hardship, unity and common purpose would begin to fade, and give way to the wounds of sorrow, upheaval and trauma that six years of conflict had riven. What was it really like to be living in Britain as the war drew to a close, giving way to a new era of hope, but also of deep uncertainty? In The Day the War Ended, bestselling author Jacky Hyams delivers a sweeping story, weaving together illuminating untold stories with contemporary records and photographs. The result is a moving, personal insight into hearts and minds across the home front right through the momentous year of 1945, as war ended and 'everything after' took root, shaping the world we know today.

`Napoleon is an out-and-out masterpiece and a joy to read' Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad A landmark new biography that presents the man behind the many myths. The first writer in English to go back to the original European sources, Adam Zamoyski's portrait of Napoleon is historical biography at its finest. Napoleon inspires passionately held and often conflicting visions. Was he a god-like genius, Romantic avatar, megalomaniac monster, compulsive warmonger or just a nasty little dictator? While he displayed elements of these traits at certain times, Napoleon was none of these things. He was a man and, as Adam Zamoyski presents him in this landmark biography, a rather ordinary one at that. He exhibited some extraordinary qualities during some phases of his life but it is hard to credit genius to a general who presided over the worst (and self-inflicted) disaster in military history and who single-handedly destroyed the great enterprise he and others had toiled so hard to construct. A brilliant tactician, he was no strategist. But nor was Napoleon an evil monster. He could be selfish and violent but there is no evidence of him wishing to inflict suffering gratuitously. His motives were mostly praiseworthy and his ambition no greater than that of contemporaries such as Alexander I of Russia, Wellington, Nelson and many more. What made his ambition exceptional was the scope it was accorded by circumstance. Adam Zamoyski strips away the lacquer of prejudice and places Napoleon the man within the context of his times. In the 1790s, a young Napoleon entered a world at war, a bitter struggle for supremacy and survival with leaders motivated by a quest for power and by self-interest. He did not start this war but it dominated his life and continued, with one brief interruption, until his final defeat in 1815. Based on primary sources in many European languages, and beautifully illustrated with portraits done only from life, this magnificent book examines how Napoleone Buonaparte, the boy from Corsica, became `Napoleon'; how he achieved what he did, and how it came about that he undid it. It does not justify or condemn but seeks instead to understand Napoleon's extraordinary trajectory.

A graphic account of this long-running global drama, The Compact Guide: The Cold War is published in a new era of fear and uncertainty. It encompasses moments of high tension, such as the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the nuclear alerts of 1973 and 1983. At several times the world stood on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, but these dangerous moments all ended with both sides drawing back, until the long confrontation ended peacefully. Written by a leading American defence analyst, Dr Norman Friedman, The Compact Guide: The Cold War is supplemented with 60 photographs and documents that allow the reader to witness the events as they unfolded. Maps, diaries, letters and other items which, up till now, have remained filed or exhibited in the Imperial War Museum and other museum collections in Northern Europe and America include a 1963 nuclear attack protective booklet produced for homeowners by the British government and the official pack for US troops passing through Checkpoint Charlie, with practical advice on visiting Communist-controlled East Berlin.

In the summer of 1940, the future of Britain and the free world depended on the morale and skill of the young men of Fighter Command. This is their story. The Battle of Britain is one of the most crucial battles ever fought, and the victory of Fighter Command over the Luftwaffe has always been celebrated as a classic feat of arms. But, as Patrick Bishop shows in this superb history, it was also a triumph of the spirit in which the attitudes of the pilots themselves played a crucial part. Reaching beyond the myths to convey the fear and exhilaration of life on this most perilous of frontlines, Patrick Bishop offers an intimate and compelling account that is a soaring tribute to the exceptional young men of Fighter Command.

'How much I learned from this brave man... The ultimate Holocaust testimony.' HEATHER MORRIS, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey

With an Afterword by JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Eddy de Wind, a Dutch doctor and psychiatrist, was shipped to Auschwitz with his wife Friedel, whom he had met and married at the Westerbork labour camp in the Netherlands. At Auschwitz, they made it through the brutal selection process and were put to work. Each day, each hour became a battle for survival.

For Eddy, this meant negotiating with the volatile guards in the medical barracks. For Friedel, it meant avoiding the Nazis’ barbaric medical experiments. As the end of the war approached and the Russian Army drew closer, the last Nazis fled, taking many prisoners with them, including Friedel. Eddy hid under a pile of old clothes and stayed behind. Finding a notebook and pencil, he began to write with furious energy about his experiences.

Last Stop Auschwitz is an extraordinary account of life as a prisoner, a near real-time record of the daily struggle to survive but also of the flickering moments of joy Eddy and Friedel found in each other - passing notes through the fence, sometimes stealing a brief embrace. Documenting the best and the worst of humanity, it is a unique and timeless story that reminds us of what we as humans are capable of, but that there is hope, even in Hell. Thought to be the only complete book written within Auschwitz itself, it will linger with you long after the final page has been turned.

'Powerful and moving.' WENDY HOLDEN, author of Born Survivors

'Julie Summers has an amazing instinct for unearthing good stories and telling quotes.' Craig Brown, The Mail On Sunday. 'This is an enjoyable book, peppered with examples of under-reported wartime heroism.' Robert Leigh-Pemberton, The Daily Telegraph 'It's hard to believe that there are still untold stories about Britain and World War II, but Julie Summers has unearthed a fascinating one that she tells with great verve and style. All in all, Uninvited Guests is a sheer delight.' Lynne Olson, author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island A remarkable narrative set against the dark days of World War Two, from one of the country's foremost social historians. Our Uninvited Guests perfectly captures the spirit of upheaval at the beginning of the Second World War when thousands of houses were requisitioned by the government to provide accommodation for the armed forces, secret services and government offices as well as vulnerable children, the sick and the elderly, all of whom needed to be housed safely beyond the reach of Hitler's Luftwaffe. Julie Summers gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in some of Britain's greatest country houses that were occupied by people who would otherwise never have set foot in such opulent surroundings.Blenheim Palace was colonised by schoolboys who slept in the Long Library; Polish special agents trained in the grounds of Audley End House, learning to forge and lie their way into occupied Europe in the old nursery. Brocket Hall, former home of Queen Victoria's favourite Lord Melbourne, was used as a maternity home for women from the East End of London, and the Rothschilds' magnificent French chateau-inspired Waddesdon Manor housed a hundred children under five. The Northern Highlands, where the fierce warriors of Scotland's past developed their unconventional military skills, played host to the most extreme form of warfare, training agents in the fine arts of sabotage, subterfuge and assassination. The juxtaposition of splendour and opulence with the everyday activities of people whose needs were at odds with their new surroundings is at the heart of this book. This thought-provoking and evocative narrative captures a crucial period in the social history of Britain. Praise for Julie Summers: 'Superb...highly recommended' Who Do You Think You Are Magazine 'A remarkable collection of stories...a rich and moving book' Mail on Sunday 'Summers is a good and knowledgeable writer...powerful, emotional stuff' Independent 'A poignant, lingering account' BBC History Magazine 'A revelation - full of information, reminiscences, humour and social history. Reading it not only gave me great pleasure but also made me proud to be a member of such a long lasting, valuable and vital organisation' Helen Carey OBE, former chairman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes

'An unforgettable love story set in perilous times' Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The greatest love blossoms in the darkest hour.

In the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, two people meet fleetingly in a chance encounter. One is an underground resistance fighter; the other a prisoner of war. A crumpled note passes between these two strangers and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.

The Note Through the Wire is the stunning true story of Josefine Lobnik, a resistance heroine, and Bruce Murray, an imprisoned soldier, as they discover love in the midst of a brutal war. Woven through their story of great bravery, daring escapes, betrayal, torture and retaliation is their remarkable love that survived against all odds.

Spies, bed-hopping, treachery and executions - this story of espionage in wartime Bordeaux is told for the first time. Game of Spies uncovers a lethal spy triangle at work during the Second World War. The story centres on three men - on British, one French and one German - and the duels they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination, in which comrades sold fellow comrades, Allied agents and downed pilots to the Germans, as casually as they would a bottle of wine. In this thrilling history of how ordinary, untrained people in occupied Europe faced the great questions of life, death and survival, Paddy Ashdown tells a fast-paced tale of SOE, betrayal and bloodshed in the city labelled `la plus belle collaboratrice' in the whole of France.

'It is as if I have been waiting for someone to ask me these questions for almost the whole of my life' From 1945, more than four million British servicemen were demobbed and sent home after the most destructive war in history. Damaged by fighting, imprisonment or simply separation from their loved ones, these men returned to a Britain that had changed in their absence. In Stranger in the House, Julie Summers tells the women's story, interviewing over a hundred women who were on the receiving end of demobilisation: the mothers, wives, sisters, who had to deal with an injured, emotionally-damaged relative; those who assumed their fiances had died only to find them reappearing after they had married another; women who had illegitimate children following a wartime affair as well as those whose steadfast optimism was rewarded with a delightful reunion. Many of the tales are moving, some are desperately sad, others are full of humour but all provide a fascinating account of how war altered ordinary women's lives forever.

Crazy Horse was as much feared by tribal foes as he was honored by allies. His war record was unmatched by any of his peers, and his rout of Custer at the Little Bighorn reverberates through history. Yet so much about him is unknown or steeped in legend.Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life corrects older, idealized accounts - and draws on a greater variety of sources than other recent biographies - to expose the real Crazy Horse: not the brash Sioux warrior we have come to expect but a modest, reflective man whose courage was anchored in Lakota piety. Kingsley M. Bray has plumbed interviews of Crazy Horse's contemporaries and consulted modern Lakotas to fill in vital details of Crazy Horse's inner and public life. Bray places Crazy Horse within the rich context of the nineteenth-century Lakota world. He reassesses the war chief's achievements in numerous battles and retraces the tragic sequence of misunderstandings, betrayals, and misjudgments that led to his death. Bray also explores the private tragedies that marred Crazy Horse's childhood and the network of relationships that shaped his adult life. To this day, Crazy Horse remains a compelling symbol of resistance for modern Lakotas. Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life is a singular achievement, scholarly and authoritative, offering a complete portrait of the man and a fuller understanding of his place in American Indian and United States history.

General Jannie Geldenhuys is widely regarded as one of the leading military commanders South Africa has ever produced. As Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990 he brought his experience to bear on the South African Border War, and was part of the negotiating team which brought an end to the conflict in 1989. In this edition, Geldenhuys reflects on a life defined as much by a military career spanning more than four decades as it was by politics and indeed the need for peace on the African sub-continent. At the Front covers the years before and during the protracted Border War. But rather than a blow-by-blow official history, it consists of Geldenhuys’ personal experiences and insights. These include facts unknown to civilians and even to some high-ranking military officials. In particular, Geldenhuys sheds light on the final years of the conflict and the negotiated settlement. Geldenhuys also writes of his early years, as he evolved from a rugby-mad young subaltern officer to a deep-thinking, reflective man with ever-sharpening insights into, war, peace, politics and, most of all, himself.

A Kingdom Divided uncovers how evangelical Christians in the border states influenced debates about slavery, morality, and politics from the 1830s to the 1890s. Using little-studied events and surprising incidents from the region, April E. Holm argues that evangelicals on the border powerfully shaped the regional structure of American religion in the Civil War era. In the decades before the Civil War, the three largest evangelical denominations diverged sharply over the sinfulness of slavery. This division generated tremendous local conflict in the border region, where individual churches had to define themselves as being either northern or southern. In response, many border evangelicals drew upon the ""doctrine of spirituality,"" which dictated that churches should abstain from all political debate. Proponents of this doctrine defined slavery as a purely political issue, rather than a moral one, and the wartime arrival of secular authorities who demanded loyalty to the Union only intensified this commitment to ""spirituality."" Holm contends that these churches' insistence that politics and religion were separate spheres was instrumental in the development of the ideal of the nonpolitical southern church. After the Civil War, southern churches adopted both the disaffected churches from border states and their doctrine of spirituality, claiming it as their own and using it to supply a theological basis for remaining divided after the abolition of slavery. By the late nineteenth century, evangelicals were more sectionally divided than they had been at war's end. In A Kingdom Divided, Holm provides the first analysis of the crucial role of churches in border states in shaping antebellum divisions in the major evangelical denominations, in navigating the relationship between church and the federal government, and in rewriting denominational histories to forestall reunion in the churches. Offering a new perspective on nineteenth-century sectionalism, it highlights how religion, morality, and politics interacted, often in unexpected ways, in a time of political crisis and war.

This book is a classic narrative history of the last year of the First World War. Author John Terraine was associate producer and chief screenwriter of the 1963-64 BBC TV documentary The Great War. He was the founder and President of the Western Front Association, a member of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. For the weary Allies, 1918 was truly a year of victories - and at last, the final triumph. First came the defensive victories of the British and the French against the last desperate offensive launched by the Germans in the spring. Then came the turning point of Foch's counter-offensive on the Marne followed by Haig's great attack on 8 August, the black day of the German Army, the breaking of the Hindenburg Line and the pursuit of the defeated German Army across the wasteland of war. This challenging and perceptive book gives honour where it is due: to a victorious British Army in 1918.

**THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER** 25th Anniversary Edition. Foreword by Tom Hanks. The book that inspired Steven Spielberg's acclaimed TV series, produced by Tom Hanks and starring Damian Lewis. In Band of Brothers, Stephen E. Ambrose pays tribute to the men of Easy Company, a crack rifle company in the US Army. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the dangerous parachute landings on D-Day and their triumphant capture of Hitler's `Eagle's Nest' in Berchtesgaden. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. Repeatedly send on the toughest missions, these brave men fought, went hungry, froze and died in the service of their country. Celebrating the 25th anniversary since the original publication, this reissue contains a new foreword from Tom Hanks who was an executive producer on the award-winning HBO series. A tale of heroic adventures and soul-shattering confrontations, Band of Brothers brings back to life, as only Stephen E. Ambrose can, the profound ties of brotherhood forged in the barracks and on the battlefields. `History boldly told and elegantly written . . . Gripping' Wall Street Journal `Ambrose proves once again he is a masterful historian . . . spellbinding' People

Lucy Wood Butler's diary provides a compelling account of one woman's struggle to come to terms with the realities of war on the Confederate home front. Expertly annotated and introduced by Kristen Brill, The Diary of a Civil War Bride brings to light a vital archival resource that reveals Lucy Butler's intimate observations on the attitudes and living conditions of many white middle-class women in the Civil War South. The Diary of a Civil War Bride opens with a series of letters between Lucy Wood and her husband, Waddy Butler, a Confederate soldier whom Lucy met in 1859 while he was a student at the University of Virginia. Serving with the Second Florida Regiment, Butler died at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Lucy's diary spans much of the intervening years, from the spring of 1861 to the death of her husband in the summer of 1863. Through the dual prism of her personal marital union and the national disunion, the narrative delivers a detailed glimpse into the middle-class Confederate home front, as Butler comments on everyday conditions in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as the greater sociopolitical valence of the Civil War. In addition to the details of Lucy's courtship, marriage, and widowhood, the diary provides a humanistic and sentimental lens through which readers can closely examine broader issues surrounding the institution of slavery, the politics of secession, and the erosion of Confederate nationalism. Numerous canonical studies of southern women draw on portions of Butler's letters and diary, which offer insight not only into women's history but into the politics, social pressures, and values of the Confederate South. Now available and unabridged for the first time in book form, The Diary of a Civil War Bride provides an ordinary woman's perspective on extraordinary events.