In "Selling Air Power," Steve Call provides the first comprehensive study of the efforts of post-war air power advocates to harness popular culture in support of their agenda. In the 1940s and much of the 1950s, hardly a month went by without at least one blatantly pro-air power article appearing in general interest magazines. Public fascination with flight helped create and sustain exaggerated expectations for air power in the minds of both its official proponents and the American public. Articles in the "Saturday Evening Post," "Reader's Digest," and "Life" trumpeted the secure future assured by American air superiority. Military figures like Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and Curtis E. LeMay, radio-television personalities such as Arthur Godfrey, cartoon figures like "Steve Canyon," and actors like Jimmy Stewart played key roles in the unfolding campaign. Movies like "Twelve O'Clock High ," "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell," and "A Gathering of Eagles" projected onto the public imagination vivid images confirming what was coming to be the accepted wisdom: that America's safety against the Soviet threat could best be guaranteed by air power, coupled with nuclear capability. But as the Cold War continued and the specter of the mushroom cloud grew more prominent in American minds, another, more sinister interpretation began to take hold. Call chronicles the shift away from the heroic, patriotic posture of the years just after World War II, toward the threatening, even bizarre imagery of books and movies like "Catch-22," "On the Beach," and "Dr. Strangelove." Call's careful analysis goes beyond the public relations campaigns to probe the intellectual climate that shaped them and gave them power. "Selling Air Power" adds a critical layer of understanding to studies in military and aviation history, as well as American popular culture.

The Shock of America is based on the proposition that whenever Europeans contemplated those margins of their experience where change occurred over the last 100 years or more, there, sooner or later, they would find America. How Europeans have come to terms over the decades with this dynamic force in their midst, and what these terms were, is the story at the heart of this text. Masses of Europeans have been enthralled by the real or imaginary prospects coming out of the USA. Important minorities were at times deeply upset by them. Sometime the roles were reversed or shaken up. But no-one could be indifferent for long. Inspiration, provocation, myth, menace, model: all these categories and many more have been deployed to try to cope with the Americans. Attitudes and stereotypes have emerged, intellectual resources have been mobilised, positions and policies developed: all trying to explain and deal with the kind of radiant supremacy the Americans built in the course of the twentieth century. David Ellwood combines political, economic, and cultural themes, suggesting that American mass culture is a distinctively incisive form of American power over time. The book is structured in three parts; a separation based on the proposition that America's influence as a decisive force for or against innovation was present most conspicuously after Europe's three greatest military-political conflicts of the contemporary era: the Great War, World War II, and the Cold War. It concludes with the emotional upsurge in Europe which greeted the arrival of Obama on the world scene, suggesting that in spite of all the disappointments and frictions of the years, the US still retained its privileged place as a source of inspiration for the future across the Western world.

The mid-fifties and early sixties were times when joy and excitement flourished in the hearts of young Americans. With the birth of controversial 'rock n' roll', and the glitter of inescapable Hollywood, teenagers flooded the streets with hot rods and wild attitudes. The generation enjoyed a care free existence and took their lessons of right and wrong from the rugged John Wayne thundering across the silver screen. Unfortunately, the fun times would not last. A cry from the tropical mountains of Vietnam brought the peaceful tranquility in the United States to an abrupt end. The harsh reality of the county's youth being maimed and killed in a foreign land almost destroyed the nation. "The Final Farewell" is a fictional account of how young lives were changed during the violent years of the Vietnam War. It tells the story of two friends Sergeant Cleat Davis and Sergeant John Truman and their journey through some of the most desolate times in our nation's history. Together the war brothers endure the hardships of a brutal post high school life where they are tested beyond measure on the harsh battlefields of Vietnam. This touching and inspiring story brings to life the heart and soul of one of the most influential times in our country's history.

It was the final speech of a long day, August 28, 1963, when hundreds of thousands gathered on the Mall for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In a resounding cadence, Martin Luther King Jr. lifted the crowd when he told of his dream that all Americans would join together to realize the founding ideal of equality. The power of the speech created an enduring symbol of the march and the larger civil rights movement. King s speech still inspires us fifty years later, but its very power has also narrowed our understanding of the march. In this insightful history, William P. Jones restores the march to its full significance.

The opening speech of the day was delivered by the leader of the march, the great trade unionist A. Philip Randolph, who first called for a march on Washington in 1941 to press for equal opportunity in employment and the armed forces. To the crowd that stretched more than a mile before him, Randolph called for an end to segregation and a living wage for every American. Equal access to accommodations and services would mean little to people, white and black, who could not afford them. Randolph s egalitarian vision of economic and social citizenship is the strong thread running through the full history of the March on Washington Movement. It was a movement of sustained grassroots organizing, linked locally to women s groups, unions, and churches across the country. Jones s fresh, compelling history delivers a new understanding of this emblematic event and the broader civil rights movement it propelled."

By 1945, both the US State Department and US Intelligence saw Czechoslovakia as the master key to the balance of power in Europe and a chessboard for the power-game between East and West. In this book, Igor Lukes illuminates the early stages of the Cold War in postwar Prague. He paints a critical portrait of Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt and shows that although Washington understood that the outcome of the crisis in Prague might shape the political trends elsewhere in Europe, it ignored signs that democracy in Czechoslovakia was in trouble. A large section of the book deals with US Intelligence in postwar Prague. The American intelligence officials who served in Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1948 were committed to the mission of gathering information and protecting democracy. Yet they were defeated by the Czech and Soviet clandestine services that proved to be more shrewd and better informed. Indeed, Lukes reveals that a key American officer may have been turned by the Russians. Consequently, as the Communists moved to impose their dictatorship, the American Embassy was unprepared and helpless.

The Korean War occupies a unique place in American history and foreign policy. Because it followed closely after World War II and ushered in a new era of military action as the first hot conflict of the cold war, the Korean War was marketed as an entirely new kind of military campaign. But how were the war-weary American people convinced that the limited objectives of the Korean War were of paramount importance to the nation?
In this ground-breaking book, Steven Casey deftly analyzes the Truman and Eisenhower administrations' determined efforts to shape public discourse about the war, influence media coverage of the conflict, and gain political support for their overall approach to waging the Cold War, while also trying to avoid inciting a hysteria that would make it difficult to localize the conflict. The first in-depth study of Truman's and Eisenhower's efforts to garner and sustain support for the war, Selling the Korean War weaves a lucid tale of the interactions between the president and government officials, journalists, and public opinion that ultimately produced the twentieth century concept of limited war.
It has been popularly thought that the public is instinctively hostile towards any war fought for less than total victory, but Casey shows that limited wars place major constraints on what the government can say and do. He also demonstrates how the Truman administration skillfully rededicated and redefined the war as it dragged on with mounting casualties. Using a rich array of previously untapped archival resources--including official government documents, and the papers of leading congressmen, newspaper editors, and war correspondents--Casey's work promises to bethe definitive word on the relationship between presidents and public opinion during America's "forgotten war."

This oral history of the air war in Vietnam includes the stories of more than thirty pilots who all had one thing in common-after returning from Southeast Asia and separating from the service, they were hired as pilots by Western Airlines. As the chapters begin, Bruce Cowee tells his story and introduces us to each pilot. The interesting theme is that all of these men served in Southeast Asia and in most cases never knew each other until they came home and went to work for Western Airlines. Each of the pilots featured in this book is the real thing, and in an age of so many "Wannabees," it is reassuring to know that each of them was a pilot for Western Airlines and someone who Bruce worked with or knew professionally. The stories span a 9 year period, 1964 - 1973, and cover every aspect of the Air War in Southeast Asia. These 33 men represent only a small fraction of the Vietnam veterans hired as pilots by Western Airlines, but this book pays tribute to all of them.

Some see the 1980s as a Golden Age, a "Morning in America" when Ronald Reagan revived America's economy, reoriented American politics, and restored Americans' faith in their country and in themselves. Others see the 1980s as a new "Gilded Age," an era that was selfish, superficial, glitzy, greedy, divisive, and destructive. This multifaceted exploration of the 1980s brings together a variety of voices from different political persuasions, generations, and vantage points. The volume features work by Reagan critics and Reagan fans (including one of President Reagan's closest aides, Ed Meese), by historians who think the 1980s were a disastrous time, those who think it was a glorious time, and those who see both the blessings and the curses of the decade. Their essays examine everything from multiculturalism, Southern conservatism, and Reaganomics, to music culture, religion, crime, AIDS, and the city. A complex, thoughtful account of a watershed in our recent history, this volume will engage anyone interested in this pivotal decade.

The first decade of the twentieth century was the Ottoman Empire's 'imperial twilight'. As the Empire fell away however, the beginnings of a young, vibrant and radical Turkish nationalism took root in Anatolia. The summer of 1908 saw a group known as the Young Turks attempt to revitalise Turkey with a constitutional revolution aimed at reducing the power of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhammid II- who was seen to preside over the Ottoman Empire's decline. Drawing on popular support for the efence of the Ottoman Empire's Balkan territories in particular, the Young Turks promised to build a nation from the people up, rather than from the top down. Here, Y. Dogan Cetinkaya analyses the history of the Boycott Movement, a series of nationwide public meetings and protests which enshrined the Turkish democractic voice. He argues that the 1908 revolution the Young Turks engendered was in fact a crucial link in the wave of constitutional revolutions at the beginning of the twentieth century- in Russia (1905), Iran (1906), Mexico (1910) and China (1911) and as such should be studied in the context of the wider rise of democratic nationalism across the world. The Young Turks and the Boycott Movement is the first history to show how this phenomenon laid the foundations for the modern Turkish state and will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Ottoman Empire and of the history of Modern Turkey.

In The Warsaw Pact, 1969-1985, young Czech scholar Mat?j Bily analyzes the internal tensions of the Soviet-led Cold War alliance as its careened toward its end. Starting with the peak of the alliance's power under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the book follows its ossification to its increasing haplessness under Brezhnev's successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Rooted in detailed research in Czech, Polish, and German archives, this book presents much previously unknown information about the alliance's mechanisms as it served as one of the Kremlin's increasingly ineffective tools for managing the Eastern Bloc. Bily's findings prove that the Warsaw Pact never became an initiator of political processes within the Soviet sphere of interest and only reactively addressed military issues. The alliance's framework did not allow it to become an incubator or agent of any independent development in the Soviet sphere of influence. To the contrary, events within the Warsaw Pact reflected the overall dismal situation in the Eastern Bloc and the changing policy of the Kremlin toward its East European satellites. Because of the alliance's lack of flexibility and cumbersome internal mechanisms, it was unable to react to the dynamic challenges of the 1980s and helplessly followed a path to its own end.

From the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 through the years immediately after the collapse of the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, and within the administrations of George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush, soldiers' lives underwent enormous changes. Without the benefit of national conscription, these professionals, nurtured on stories of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, experienced repetitive tours of duty in one combat zone after another to an extent the warriors of earlier eras could never have imagined. They fought every kind of war during this period; high-intensity mechanized war, air and heliborne raids, peace-keeping activities, urban combat, counter-insurgency operations, refugee support, and counter-narcotics operations. What makes the story of this era's soldiers all the more compelling is that these activities took place as the American military actually decreased its military strength during the period, leading to more and longer tours of duty. Some of the operations and issues covered in this volume include: The "Be All That You Can Be Soldier" with new roles for men and women and with new technology to learn The Persian Gulf 1990-91, with Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm Interventions, War, and Insurgency after Desert Storm The book also includes a timeline to put dates and events in better perspective; a comprehensive, topically arranged bibliography; and a thorough index.

If you are interested in the JFK assassination, just starting to research the JFK assassination, or you have been studying the subject for a while you really need to have this book in your JFK library. "The JFK Assassination: A Researcher's Guide" is a compilation of almost 47 years of research, by some of the most noted author's in the JFK assassination community. It is like a depository for some of the most important issues of the assassination and more, all in one volume. The material is in an easy to read format with references so the reader can study an issue further if they wish. The author starts by introducing you to people, places, and issues surrounding the JFK assassination. Then you will walk through a sequential order of events leading up to the shooting, including a broad view of the shooting itself. You will continue through the aftermath of the murder, showing the impact this crime had on our history. You will also see proof Lee Harvey Oswald did not murder President Kennedy. Looking at the sequence of events you will see Oswald did not have time to get into position to do the shooting. The motorcade was scheduled to pass the Book Depository at 12:25 pm. Oswald was in the lunch room at 12:15. A good sniper would have been in position well in advance of his prey's expected arrival, which Oswald was not. Contrary to the WC's claim, authorities never had any "court-worthy" evidence putting Oswald in the sniper's window. Finally, looking at the evidence from a totally new perspective you will see definite proof of a conspiracy. It was a simple case of comparing the wounds, with the bullet count, and the time statistics of the rifle. If you were not convinced of a conspiracy before, you will be

US foreign policy in the Middle East has faced a challenge in the years since World War II: balancing an idealistic desire to promote democracy against the practical need to create stability. Here, Cleo Bunch puts a focus on US policy in Jordan from the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 to 1970 and the run up to 'Black September'. These years saw a phase where the Middle East became a stage on which Cold War rivalries were played out, as the US was keen to encourage and maintain alliances in order to counteract Soviet influence in Egypt and Syria. Therefore, Bunch's analysis of US foreign policy and diplomacy vis-a-vis Jordan will appeal to those researching both the history and the contemporary implications of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East and the effects of international relations on the region.

Stacy Bannerman's husband, Lorin was a 43-year-old Sergeant First Class in the reserve army who had never thought he'd be called upon to wage war, but in October 2003 he was called to active duty as an Infantry Mortar Platoon Sergeant. He had completed his duty and commitment to the U.S. Army as of 22 June, 2004, but due to President Bush's Stop Loss order, he was on the war's front-lines until at least April 2005. Stacy Bannerman has a unique vantage point for writing "When The War Came Home". On the one hand, she is like the many thousands of women left behind while their reservist husbands and partners are sent to fight in Iraq - for as ill-equipped as their husbands are to wage war, the families left behind are often even less equipped to cope. On the other hand, Stacy Bannerman has the singular viewpoint of being a high-profile career peace activist, who ultimately finds herself at odds with her husband fighting on the front lines of Iraq in one of the most dangerous assignments in the Army. Bannerman describes the countdown to her husband's deployment, and documents her ongoing struggle to reconcile her anti-war sentiments with the need to support and honor her husband for the choice he made and for the risks he's taking for his country.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, is often remembered as a pliant instrument of American power during the Cold War. In this book Roham Alvandi offers a revisionist account of the shah's relationship with the United States by examining the partnership he forged with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Based on extensive research in the British and U.S. archives, as well as a wealth of Persian-language diaries, memoirs and oral histories, this study restores agency to the shah as an autonomous international actor and suggests that Iran evolved from a client to a partner of the United States under the Nixon Doctrine. Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah offers a detailed account of three key historical episodes in the Nixon-Kissinger-Pahlavi partnership that shaped the global Cold War far beyond Iran's borders. First, the book examines the emergence of Iranian primacy in the Persian Gulf as the Nixon administration looked to the shah to fill the vacuum created by the British withdrawal from the region in 1971. Then it turns to the peak of the partnership after Nixon and Kissinger's historic 1972 visit to Iran, when the shah succeeded in drawing the United States into his covert war against Iraq in Kurdistan. Finally, the book focuses on the decline of the partnership under Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, through a history of the failed negotiations from 1974 to 1976 for an agreement on U.S. nuclear exports to Iran. Taken together, these three episodes map the rise of the fall of Iran's Cold War partnership with the United States during the decade of superpower detente, Vietnam, and Watergate.

VS-931 Antisubmarine Squadron is a true story which describes the intensive training and tactics used in the search for enemy submarines during the Korean War. The danger of carrier operations, training missions and problems with equipment is born out by numerous close calls and crashes. Sometimes these unpredictable mishaps resulted in injury or death of carrier personnel and flight crews. The humor among squadron personnel often served as relief from the intense, long hour teamwork that was continuously required. When the job at hand was finally completed, service personnel always looked for some way to have fun.

THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA: THE POLITICS OF PERSUASION provides the first comprehensive treatment of why Obama's rhetorical strategies were so effective during the 2008 presidential campaign, during the first four years of his presidency, and once again during the 2012 presidential campaign. From his "Yes We Can" speech, to his "More Perfect Union Speech," to his Cairo "New Beginnings" speech, candidate-Obama-turned-President-Obama represents what a skilled rhetorician can accomplish within the public sphere. Contributors to the collection closely analyze several of Obama's most important speeches, attempting to explain why they were so rhetorically effective, while also examining the large discursive structures Obama was engaging: a worldwide financial crisis, political apathy, domestic racism, Islamophobia, the Middle East peace process, Zionism, and more. THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA will appeal to politically engaged, intelligent readers, scholars of rhetoric, and anyone interested in understanding how the strategic use of language in highly charged contexts-how the art of rhetoric-shapes our world, unites and divides people, and creates conditions that make social change possible. For those new to the formal study of rhetoric, editors Matthew Abraham and Erec Smith include a glossary of key terms and concepts. Contributors include Matthew Abraham, Rene Agustin De los Santos, David A. Frank, John Jasso, Michael Kleine, Richard Marback, Robert Rowland, Steven Salaita, Courtney Jue, Erec Smith, and Anthony Wachs. "From the inspiring slogans and speeches of his campaign to the eloquent successes and failures of his presidency, Barack Obama has been extravagantly praised and sarcastically criticized for the distinctive power of his rhetoric. The essays in this collection persuasively analyze that rhetoric in all its specific tactics and general strategies, in its idealist yearnings and its pragmatic compromises, in its ambitious strivings and its political obstacles. THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA is a must read for anyone interested in how political rhetoric works-and doesn't-in twenty-first-century America." -STEVEN MAILLOUX, President's Professor of Rhetoric, Loyola Marymount University "A readable yet critically engaging collection, THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA offers a robust look at the deft rhetorical strategies deployed by the first African American President. Moving beyond sentimental, hypercritical or otherwise dismissive readings of his oratory, these essays explore how Obama's speeches have addressed substantive issues, such as globalization, the American dream, political gridlock, the legacy of racism and religious bigotry. This book will appeal to rhetorical scholars and laypersons alike." -DAVID G. HOLMES, Professor of English, Pepperdine University "By confronting topics often avoided in politically correct discourse-including religious identity, racial belonging and the cultural politics of difference- THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA doesn't hesitate to engage divisive and difficult issues; producing some of the most challenging, insightful and provocative perspectives to date." -RHEA LATHAN, Assistant Professor of English, Florida State University

Visions of England is a provocative and original exploration of Englishness, in particular English class, in contemporary cinema. Class has been a central part, whether consciously or not, of much of English social analysis and artistic production for over a century. But as a way of interpreting society, class has found itself sidelined in a postmodern world. Visions of England presents a detailed analysis of the changing landscape of English class and culture. Visions of England explores a wide range of film production - from gangster thrillers like Lock, Stock Two Smoking Barrels to the period cinema of Elizabeth, from cult classics like Performance and Trainspotting to the mainstream romantic comedy of Notting Hill and Bridget Jones, from the social realist drama of Billy Elliot and The Full Monty to the multicultural comedy of Bend it like Beckham, and the experimentalism of films such as London Orbital and Robinson in Space. An extraordinarily wide-ranging and incisive study, Visions of England rewrites the relationship of film and Englishness.

Truly an essential reference for today's world, this detailed introduction to the origins, events, and impact of the adversarial relationship between Arabs and Israelis illuminates the complexities and the consequences of this long-lasting conflict. The Arab-Israeli conflict remains one of the most contentious in modern history, one with repercussions that reach far beyond the Middle East. This volume describes and explains the most important countries, people, events, and organizations that play or have played a part in the conflict. Chronological coverage begins with the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and extends to the present day. A one-stop reference, the guide offers a comprehensive overview essay, as well as perspective essays by leading scholars who explore such widely debated issues as the United States' support for Israel and historic rights to Palestine. Important primary source documents, such as the UN Resolution on the Partition of Palestine and the Camp David Accords, are included and put into context. Further insight into drivers of war and peace in the Middle East are provided through biographies of major political leaders like Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Yasser Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Anwar Sadat. Provides a comprehensive overview of one of the most complex conflicts in modern times, clarifying its causes and consequences Inspires critical thinking through perspective essays on topics related to the conflict that generate wide-spread debate Takes into account events such as the impact of the Arab Spring and the ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear capabilities Offers valuable insights into the backgrounds and philosophies of the leaders on both sides who have helped defined the Arab-Israeli conflict

Offering a unique and original perspective on Britain's 'Small Wars' leadership culture - this title is an essential reading for serving soldiers and scholars of military studies. It is based on original archival research. It offers fascinating survey of counterinsurgency operations - with relevance for today's military and security. Between 1948 and 1960, the British army conducted three important counterinsurgency operations in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus. During that time, military leaders inspired the evolution of a distinct organisational culture, known as 'small wars culture', which affected learning, discipline and attitudes towards leadership and fellow soldiers. Using a synthesis of organisational theory and archival research, this book explores how military leaders embedded and transmitted this particular military organisational culture within the British army and provides an analysis of leaders' characteristics, their support networks and past experiences. This book will be of interest to counterinsurgency specialists, the British Army and military historians and sociologists, as well as to serving military forces.

After the Second World War, two contrasting political movements became increasingly active in Italy - the communist and feminist movements. In this book, Walter Baroni uses autobiographical life-writing from both movements key protagonists to shed new light on the history of these movements and more broadly the similarities and differences between political activists in post-war Italy.