* Concise but comprehensive overview of the history * Includes approximately 20 primary source documents * Perfect for assigning this work for wide range of undergraduate courses in the U.S., ranging from introductory lecture courses to research seminars * Written by scholars who are experts in Japanese, East and South-East Asian history

"Beautifully researched and masterfully told" (Alex Kershaw, "New York Times "bestselling author of "Escape from the Deep"), this is the riveting story of the heroic and tragic US submarine force that helped win World War II in the Pacific.
Focusing on the unique stories of three of the war's top submarines--"Silversides," "Drum," and "Tang"--"The War Below "vividly re-creates the camaraderie, exhilaration, and fear of the brave volunteers who took the fight to the enemy's coastline in World War II. Award-winning journalist James Scott recounts incredible feats of courage--from an emergency appendectomy performed with kitchen utensils to sailors' desperate struggle to escape from a flooded submarine--as well as moments of unimaginable tragedy, including an attack on an unmarked enemy freighter carrying 1,800 American prisoners of war.
The casualty rate among submariners topped that of all other military branches. The war claimed almost one out of every five submarines, and a submarine crewman was six times more likely to die than a sailor onboard a surface ship. But this valorous service accomplished its mission; "Silversides," "Drum," and "Tang "sank a combined sixty-two freighters, tankers, and transports. The Japanese were so ravaged from the loss of precious supplies that by the war's end, pilots resorted to suicidal kamikaze missions and hungry civilians ate sawdust while warships had to drop anchor due to lack of fuel. In retaliation, the Japanese often beat, tortured, and starved captured submariners in the atrocious prisoner of war camps.
Based on more than 100 interviews with submarine veterans and thousands of pages of previously unpublished letters and diaries, "The War Below "lets readers experience the battle for the Pacific as never before.

On 6 June the greatest landing force ever assembled began the Allied Liberation of France and Europe. In this classic Pitkin Guide, enhanced with many contemporary photographs and maps, visitors and veterans can visit the beaches, landmarks, museums and cemeteries of Normandy. This edition includes a CD of Mongomery and Churchill. Look out for more Pitkin Guides on the very best of British history, heritage and travel.

"In a graphic present-tense narrative, this Holocaust memoir describes what happened to a Jewish girl who is 13 when the Nazis invade Hungary in 1944 . . . A final brief chronology of the Holocaust adds to the value of this title for curriculum use with older readers."--"Booklist," boxed review.

War Crimes and acts of genocide are as old as history itself, but particularly during the 20th century. Yet what are war crimes and acts of genocide? And why did it take the world so long to define these crimes and develop legal institutions to bring to justice individuals and nations responsible such crimes? Part of the answer lies in the nature of the major wars fought in the 20th century and in the changing nature of warfare itself. This study looks at war crimes committed during the Second World War in the USSR, Yugoslavia, Germany, and efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. This led to successful postwar efforts to define and outlaw such crimes and, more recently, the creation of two international courts to bring war criminals to justice. This did not prevent the commitment of war crimes and acts of genocide throughout the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. And while efforts to bring war criminals to justice has been enhanced by the work of these courts, the problems associated with civil wars, command responsibility, and other issues have created new challenges for the international legal community in terms of the successful adjudication of such crimes. This book was based on a special issue of Nationalities Papers.

The Vietnam War was one of the most heavily documented conflicts of the twentieth century. Although the events themselves recede further into history every year, the political and cultural changes the war brought about continue to resonate, even as a new generation of Americans grapples with its own divisive conflict.

America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation reconsiders the social and cultural aspects of the conflict that helped to fundamentally change the nation. With chapters written by subject area specialists, America and the Vietnam War takes on subjects such as women's role in the war, the music and the films of the time, the Vietnamese perspective, race and the war, and veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder. Features include:

• chapter summaries
• timelines
• discussion questions
• guides to further reading
• a companion website with primary source documents and tools (such as music and movie playlists) for both instructors and students.

Heavily illustrated and welcoming to students and scholars of this infamous and pivotal time, America and the Vietnam War is a perfect companion to any course on the Vietnam War Era.

The astonishing true story of how the CIA, MI6 and a Soviet defector saved the world in 1962, as told in the new film, The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. In August 1960, a Soviet colonel called Oleg Penkovsky tried to make contact with the West. His first attempt was to approach two young American students in Moscow. He handed them a bulky envelope and pleaded with them to deliver it to the American embassy. MI6 and the CIA came to believe Penkovsky was genuine and so the two agencies decided to run the operation jointly. It ran right through the Berlin crisis - in an astonishing near-miss, Penkovsky learned that the Wall was going to be built four days before it happened but was unable to contact his handlers - and the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which rocket manuals Penkovsky had handed over were crucial in determining what President Khrushchev was doing, and helped President John F. Kennedy and his team end the crisis and avert a nuclear war. Penkovsky, codenamed HERO, is widely seen as the most important spy of the Cold War, and the CIA-MI6 joint operation to run him has never been bettered. But had the KGB already 'turned' Penkovsky and were the Russians making sure he saw the information they wanted him to see? If so, it may even have been possible that the whole Cuban Missile Crisis might have been a Russian deception operation. Thrilling, evocative and hugely controversial, Dead Drop blows apart some of the myths about one of the Cold War's most well-known operations as the world stood on the brink of nuclear destruction.

'The English have for centuries been a puzzle to the people of other countries', explains this guide produced for overseas forces stationed in England during the Second World War. The English and Their Country attempts to solve this puzzle, providing an account of English characteristics for confused guests. Including everything from a description of England's geography and climate, to an explanation of the English class system and the Englishman's 'reserved', 'sensitive' and 'shy' behaviour, this book is a lighthearted and amusing take on English life and customs.

The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war. In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act of self-immolation - what was then called The Great War. On the eve of its centenary, Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife. He finds the evidence overwhelming, that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy, he argues passionately against the 'poets' view', that the war was not worth winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe, he says, that the Kaiser's Germany should be defeated. His narrative of the early battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of mud, wire, trenches and steel helmets. Hastings describes how the French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes, in uniforms of red and blue, led by mounted officers, with flags flying and bands playing. The bloodiest day of the entire Western war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead. Four days later, at Le Cateau the British fought an extraordinary action against the oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in history. In October, at terrible cost they held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia and Galicia, where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians, Russians and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties. This book offers answers to the huge and fascinating question 'what happened to Europe in 1914?', through Max Hastings's accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of statesmen and generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers of seven nations. His narrative pricks myths and offers some striking and controversial judgements. For a host of readers gripped by the author's last international best-seller 'All Hell Let Loose', this will seem a worthy successor.

Through a series of critical essays this book concerns itself with the relationships and possibilities in and between "prose" and "disability". The critical and/or personal essays in this book all try to explore this potent inbetween space - a place full of possibilities. These prose pieces reflect on prose themselves as they stretch in an uneven yet interesting line from Hay's 'modern' essay on deformity through nineteenth century literary and cultural sensibilities about working bodies, wars and "normalcy" and also through contemporary considerations over the role of metaphor as it marks the disabled body in critical-creative "personal" essays that pose even as they prose the considerable possibilities for disability as represented in and through prose. This book was first published a special issue of Prose Studies.

"Suzanne Simons is a masterful storyteller. But make no mistake-Master of War is not a work of fiction...A powerful and true account." -Wolf Blitzer, anchor, CNN's The Situation Room Master of War is the riveting true story of Eric Prince, the ex-Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater and built the world's largest military contractor, privatizing war for client nations around the world. A CNN producer and anchor, Suzanne Simons is the first journalist to get deep inside Blackwater-and, as a result of her unprecedented access, Master of War provides the most complete and revelatory account of the rise of this powerful corporate army and the remarkable entrepreneur who brought it into being, while offering an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'The thing that haunts me most to this day is that blokes were dying and I could do bugger all about it - do you look after the bloke who you know is going to die or the bloke who's got a chance?' - Australian ex-POW doctor, 1999 During World War II, 22 000 Australian military personnel became prisoners of war under the Japanese military. Over three and a half years, 8000 died in captivity, in desperate conditions of forced labour, disease and starvation. Many of those who returned home after the war attributed their survival to the 106 Australian medical officers imprisoned alongside them. These doctors varied in age, background and experience, but they were united in their unfailing dedication to keeping as many of the men alive as possible. This is the story of those 106 doctors - their compassion, bravery and ingenuity - and their efforts in bringing back the 14 000 survivors. 'You are unfortunate in being prisoners of a country whose living standards are much lower than yours. You will often consider yourselves mistreated, while we think of you as being treated well.' - Japanese officer to Australian POWs, 1943

Illustrated with detailed artworks of Japanese aircraft and their markings, Japanese Aircraft of World War II is a detailed guide to all the aircraft deployed by the Japanese military from the Second Sino-Japanese War to the surrender in the Pacific in August 1945. Organised alphabetically by manufacturer, this book includes every type of aircraft, from fighters to seaplanes, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, torpedo bombers and carrier aircraft. All the best-known types are featured, such as the Mitsubishi G4M 'Betty', Nakajima B6N2 Tenzan, Aichi B7A2 Ryusei torpedo bomber and the world- famous Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero' fighter. The entries are accompanied by exhaustive captions and specifications. The guide is illustrated with profile artworks, three-views, and special cutaway artworks of the more famous aircraft in service, such as the Aichi D3A1 'Val', Mitsubishi A6M2 Reisen, and Nakajima Ki.27 'Nate'. Illustrated with more than 120 artworks, Japanese Aircraft of World War II is an essential reference guide for modellers and enthusiasts with an interest in military aircraft of World War II.

'Shrieking from the clouds, the Stukas achieved the measure of surprise they needed. The accuracy of the raid was good. Every runway was hit, the length of them just bomb craters, rock and earth. Fires were started in all the hangers eventually spreading to enormous proportions. As the operations room disappeared in one large explosion, the Station Commander fell dead with a piece of jagged concrete driven straight through his skull...' 500 Squadron was formed in 1930 at Manston in Kent. Initially recruited from Kent men and women, it became international when war broke out. The Battle Honours are the English Channel and North Sea, Dunkirk, Biscay Ports, Atlantic, North Africa, the Mediterranean and Italy. In peacetime, it won the coveted Cooper and Esher Trophy twice for the best performance in the auxiliary squadrons. Sadly, it fell victim to defence cuts in 1957 when allauxiliary squadrons were disbanded. The squadron may have disappeared from the Royal Air Force Order of Battle, but it will never be forgotten.Its history lies in the annals of the service and the fact that the Old Comrades Association of 500 Squadron holds an annual reunion at their ancestral home, RAF Manston in Kent.

This edited volume examines the complexities of the Cold War in Southern Africa and uses a range of archives to develop a more detailed understanding of the impact of the Cold War environment upon the processes of political change.

In the aftermath of European decolonization, the struggle between white minority governments and black liberation movements encouraged both sides to appeal for external support from the two superpower blocs. Cold War in Southern Africa highlights the importance of the global ideological environment on the perceptions and consequent behaviour of the white minority regimes, the Black Nationalist movements, and the newly independent African nationalist governments. Together, they underline the variety of archival sources on the history of Southern Africa in the Cold War and its growing importance in Cold War Studies.

This volume brings together a series of essays by leading scholars based on a wide range of sources in the United States, Russia, Cuba, Britain, Zambia and South Africa. By focussing on a range of independent actors, these essays highlight the complexity of the conflict in Southern Africa: a battle of power blocs, of systems and ideas, which intersected with notions and practices of race and class

This book will appeal to students of cold war studies, US foreign policy, African politics and International History.

Sue Onslow has taught at the London School of Economics since 1994. She is currently a Cold War Studies Fellow in the Cold War Studies Centre/IDEAS

This book is the first study of the mentality of anti-Communist underground fighters and presents, especially, their thinking, ideals, stereotypes and customs. The models and psychological processes that the volume analyses are relevant not only to the Polish partisans, but also to members of other underground organisations, in East-Central Europe, South America and Asia. It explores how the underground organizations were created, who joined them and why, what thoughts and emotions were involved, and what were the consequences of the decisions to join them. Experiences and situations are illustrated with excerpts of diaries and memoirs which reveal the thinking of people in extreme situations, when their lives are in danger, when they are caught in desperate conflicts, or are fighting against overwhelming government forces. The Mentality of Partisans is useful for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in the history of Europe, resistance movements, anticommunism, military and political conflicts, World War Two and non-classical historiography.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2013 'Dazzling' Sunday Times 'Magnificent' Guardian 'Sparkling' Daily Telegraph In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk. On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen. Using a range of forgotten Afghan and Indian sources, William Dalrymple's masterful retelling of Britain's greatest imperial disaster is a powerful parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris. Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important. 'As taut and richly embroidered as a great novel ... this book is a masterpiece' Sunday Telegraph

On 9 November 1939, two unsuspecting British agents of the Special Intelligence Services walked into a trap set by German Spymaster Reinhard Heydrich. Believing that they were meeting a dissident German general for talks about helping German military opposition to bring down Hitler and end the war, they were instead taken captive in the Dutch village of Venlo and whisked away to Germany for interrogation by the Gestapo. The incident was a huge embarrassment for the Dutch government and provided the Germans with significant intelligence about SIS operations throughout Europe. The incident itself was an intelligence catastrophe but it also acts as a prism through which a number of other important narrative strands pass. Fundamental to the subterfuge perpetrated at Venlo were unsubstantiated but insistent rumours of high-ranking Germany generals plotting to overthrow the Nazi regime from within. After the humiliation suffered when Hitler tore up the Munich Agreement, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was anxious to see just how much truth there was in these stories; keen to rehabilitate his reputation through one last effort to find a peaceful rapprochement with Germany. When Franz Fischer, a small-time petty crook and agent provocateur, persuaded British SIS operatives in the Netherlands that he could act as a go-between for the British government with disaffected German generals, the German Security chief Reinhard Heydrich stepped in and quietly took control of the operation. Heydrich's boss, head of the Gestapo Heinrich Himmler, was anxious to explore the possibility of peace negotiations with Britain and saw an opportunity to exploit the situation for his personal benefit. On the day before a crucial meeting of conspirators and British agents on the Dutch-German border, a bomb exploded in the Burgerbraukeller in Munich in the exact spot where Hitler had stood to deliver a speech only minutes earlier. The perpetrator was quickly arrested, and Hitler demanded that Himmler find evidence to show that the two events were intimately connected-the British agents were snatched hours later. While the world was coming to terms with the fearsome power of German military might the British intelligence capability in northern Europe was consigned to the dustbin in the sleepy Dutch town of Venlo. This first full account of the Venlo incident explores the wider context of this German intelligence coup, and its consequences.

Prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in "The Savior Generals," a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus)who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise--it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser. Sudden, sharp changes in fortune can reverse the course of war.These intractable circumstances are sometimes mastered by leaders of genius--asked at the eleventh hour to save a hopeless conflict, one created by others and frequently unpopular politically and with the public. The savior generals often come from outside the established power structure, employ radical strategies, and flame out quickly. Their careers regularly end in controversy. But their dramatic feats of leadership are vital slices of history--not merely as stirring military narrative, but as lessons on the dynamic nature of consensus, leadership, and destiny.

From its origins to its terrible legacy, the tortuous course of the Great War is vividly set out in a series of 174 fascinating maps. Together the maps form a comprehensive and compelling picture of the war that shattered Europe, and illustrate its military, social, political and economic aspects. Beginning with the tensions that already existed, the atlas covers:

• the early months of the war: from the fall of Belgium to the fierce fighting at Ypres and Tannenberg:
• the developing war in Europe: from Gallipoli to the horrors of the Somme and Verdun
• life at the front: from living underground, the trench system and the mud of Passchendaele to the war graves
• technology and the new horrors: from phosgene gas attacks to submarines, tanks and mines
• the home fronts: from German food riots to the air defence of Britain, the Russian Revolution and the collapse of Austria-Hungary
• the aftermath: from war debts and war deaths to the new map of Europe.

This third edition contains an entirely new section depicting the visual remembrance of the war; a fascinating visitors' guide to the memorials that commemorate the tragedy of the Somme.

• Designed to be concise yet comprehensive with the undergraduate student in mind • Will serve as a companion to many secondary and primary sources on Wilson • Contains primary source documents to help bring the subject to life

Early in May 1861, twenty-one-year-old Sam R. Watkins of Columbia, Tennessee, joined the First Tennessee Regiment, Company H, to fight for the Confederacy. Of the 120 original recruits in his company, Watkins was one of only seven to survive every one of its battles, from Shiloh to Nashville. Twenty years later, with a "house full of young 'rebels' clustering around my knees and bumping about my elbows," he wrote this remarkable account of "Co. Aytch" -- its common foot soldiers, its commanders, its Yankee enemies, its victories and defeats, and its ultimate surrender on April 26, 1865.

Co. Aytch is the work of a natural storyteller who balances the horror of war with an irrepressible sense of humor and a sharp eye for the lighter side of battle. Among Civil War memoirs, it is considered a classic -- a living testament to one man's enduring humanity, courage, and wisdom in the midst of death and destruction.

A Black Cat Abroad is the untold WWII story of a 'Terrier' nicknamed 'Oscar': R.E.H. Hadingham (1915-2004), CBE, MC & Bar TD, better known as 'Buzzer', who was later chairman of Slazenger's and then the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Beginning with his work in London and Territorial Army training, it describes life in Wimbledon under the cloud of impending war. On 29th July 1939, Buzzer was commissioned into 167 Brigade, 67th (East Surrey) Anti-Tank Regiment R.A. T.A., the 'Black Cats'. Three years later he embarked from Liverpool, carrying a sun-helmet, destination unknown. Momentous challenges followed, not least a 3-year separation from his family. Here are fresh aspects of an epic 3,000-mile journey from Iraq to action in North Africa, before conflicts in Italy: Salerno, Anzio, and the lesser-known 'Monte Cassino of the Adriatic': Gemmano. Leading toward the 80th Anniversary of the Italian Campaign (1943-1945), relevant historic anecdotes and key operational recollections reveal a young, energetic 303 Anti-Tank Battery Commander's personal perspectives, and the first officer in his Territorial Regiment to receive a batt le honour. This remarkable, first-hand account by the 'poet of Wimbledon' is intended as a special tribute to all brave men who served in the 'Black Cats' - and as a commemoration of the fallen.