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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations
The Battle of Peach Tree Creek marked the beginning of the end for
the Confederacy, for it turned the page from the patient defence
displayed by General Joseph E. Johnston to the bold offense called
upon by his replacement, General John Bell Hood. Until this point
in the campaign, the Confederates had fought primarily in the
defensive from behind earthworks, forcing Federal commander William
T. Sherman to either assault fortified lines, or go around them in
flanking moves. At Peach Tree Creek, the roles would be reversed
for the first time, as Southerners charged Yankee lines. The Gate
City, as Atlanta has been called, was in many ways the capstone to
the Confederacy's growing military-industrial complex and was the
transportation hub of the fledgling nation. For the South it had to
be held. For the North it had to be taken. With General Johnston
removed for failing to parry the Yankee thrust into Georgia, the
fate of Atlanta and the Confederacy now rested on the shoulders of
thirty-three-year-old Hood, whose body had been torn by the war.
Peach Tree Creek was the first of three battles in eight days in
which Hood led the Confederate Army to desperate, but unsuccessful,
attempts to repel the Federals encircling Atlanta. This particular
battle started the South on a downward spiral from which she would
never recover. After Peach Tree Creek and its companion battles for
Atlanta, the clear-hearing Southerner could hear the death throes
of the Confederacy. It was the first nail in the coffin of Atlanta
and Dixie.
Winner of the World War One Historical Association's 2021 Norman B.
Tomlinson, Jr. Prize Global War, Global Catastrophe presents a
history of the First World War as an all-consuming industrial war
that forcibly reshaped the international environment and, with it,
impacted the futures of all the world's people. Narrated
chronologically, and available open access, the authors identify
key themes and moments that radicalized the war's conduct and
globalized its impact, affecting neutral and belligerent societies
alike. These include Germany's invasion of Belgium and Britain's
declaration of war in 1914, the expansion of economic warfare in
1915, anti-imperial resistance, the Russian revolutions of 1917 and
the United States' entry into the war. Each chapter explains how
individuals, communities, nation-states and empires experienced,
considered and behaved in relationship to the conflict as it
evolved into a total global war. Above all, the book argues that
only by integrating the history of neutral and subject communities
can we fully understand what made the First World War such a
globally transformative event. This book offers an accessible and
readable overview of the major trajectories of the global history
of the conflict. It offers an innovative history of the First World
War and an important alternative to existing belligerent-centric
studies. The ebook editions of this book are available open access
under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
"An author's quest to discover what really happened to his uncle
in World War II"
To all appearances, Anthony "Tony" Korkuc was just another
casualty of World War II. A gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress,
Korkuc was lost on a bombing mission over Germany, and his family
believed that his body had never been recovered. But when they
learned in 1995 that Tony was actually buried at Arlington National
Cemetery, his nephew Bob Korkuc set out on a seven-year quest to
learn the true fate of an uncle he never knew.
"Finding a Fallen Hero" is a compelling story that blends a
wartime drama with a primer on specialized research. Author Bob
Korkuc initially set out to learn how his Uncle Tony came to rest
at Arlington. In the process, he also unraveled the mystery of what
occurred over the skies of Germany half a century ago.
Korkuc dug up military documents and private letters and
interviewed people in both the United States and Germany. He
tracked down surviving crewmembers and even found the brother of
the Luftwaffe pilot who downed the B-17. Dozens of photographs help
readers envision both Tony Korkuc's fateful flight and his nephew's
dogged search for the truth.
A gripping chronicle of exhaustive research, "Finding a Fallen
Hero" will strike a chord with any reader who has lost a family
member to war. And it will inspire others to satisfy their own
unanswered questions.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement was one of the defining moments in the
history of the modern Middle East. Yet its co-creator, Sir Mark
Sykes, had far more involvement in British Middle East strategy
during World War I than the Agreement for which he is now most
remembered. Between 1915 and 1916, Sykes was Lord Kitchener's agent
at home and abroad, operating out of the War Office until the war
secretary's death at sea in 1916. Following that, from 1916 to 1919
he worked at the Imperial War Cabinet, the War Cabinet Secretariat
and, finally, as an advisor to the Foreign Office. The full extent
of Sykes's work and influence has previously not been told.
Moreover, the general impression given of him is at variance with
the facts. Sykes led the negotiations with the Zionist leadership
in the formulation of the Balfour Declaration, which he helped to
write, and promoted their cause to achieve what he sought for a
pro-British post-war Middle East peace settlement, although he was
not himself a Zionist. Likewise, despite claims he championed the
Arab cause, there is little proof of this other than general
rhetoric mainly for public consumption. On the contrary, there is
much evidence he routinely exhibited a complete lack of empathy
with the Arabs. In this book, Michael Berdine examines the life of
this impulsive and headstrong young British aristocrat who helped
formulate many of Britain's policies in the Middle East that are
responsible for much of the instability that has affected the
region ever since.
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