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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations
The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 was one of the most brutal conflicts
to have erupted since the end of the Second World War. But although
the war occurred in 'Europe's backyard' and received significant
media coverage in the West, relatively little scholarly attention
has been devoted to cultural representations of the conflict.
Stephen Harper analyses how the war has been depicted in global
cinema and television over the past quarter of a century. Focusing
on the representation of some of the war's major themes, including
humanitarian intervention, the roles of NATO and the UN, genocide,
rape and ethnic cleansing, Harper explores the role of popular
media culture in reflecting, reinforcing -- and sometimes
contesting -- nationalist ideologies.
Even among iconic frontiersmen like John C. FrEmont, Kit Carson,
and Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger stands out. A mountain man of the
American West, straddling the fur trade era and the age of
exploration, he lived the life legends are made of. His adventures
are fit for remaking into the tall tales Bridger himself liked to
tell. Here, in a biography that finally gives this outsize
character his due, Jerry Enzler takes this frontiersman's full
measure for the first time - and tells a story that would do Jim
Bridger proud. Born in 1804 and orphaned at thirteen, Bridger made
his first western foray in 1822, traveling up the Missouri River
with Mike Fink and a hundred enterprising young men to trap beaver.
At twenty he 'discovered' the Great Salt Lake. At twenty-one he was
the first to paddle the Bighorn River's Bad Pass. At twenty-two he
explored the wonders of Yellowstone. In the following years, he led
trapping brigades into Blackfeet territory; guided expeditions of
Smithsonian scientists, topographical engineers, and army leaders;
and, though he could neither read nor write, mapped the tribal
boundaries for the Great Indian Treaty of 1851. Enzler charts
Bridger's path from the fort he built on the Oregon Trail to the
route he blazed for Montana gold miners to avert war with Red Cloud
and his Lakota coalition. Along the way he married into the
Flathead, Ute, and Shoshone tribes and produced seven children.
Tapping sources uncovered in the six decades since the last
documented Bridger biography, Enzler's book fully conveys the drama
and details of the larger-than-life history of the 'King of the
Mountain Men.' This is the definitive story of an extraordinary
life.
Again available in paperback is Eric Sevareid's widely
acclaimed Not So Wild a Dream. In this brilliant first-person
account of a young journalist's experience during World War II,
Sevareid records both the events of the war and the development of
journalistic strategies for covering international affairs. He also
recalls vividly his own youth in North Dakota, his decision to
study journalism, and his early involvement in radio reporting
during the beginnings of World War II.
In May 1944, with American forces closing in on the Japanese
mainland, the Fifth Fleet Amphibious Force was preparing to invade
Saipan. Control of this island would put enemy cities squarely
within range of the B-29 bomber. The navy had assembled a fleet of
landing ship tanks (LSTs) in the West Loch section of Pearl Harbor.
On May 21, an explosion tore through the calm afternoon sky,
spreading fire and chaos through the ordnance-packed vessels. When
the fires had been brought under control, six LSTs had been lost,
many others were badly damaged, and more than 500 military
personnel had been killed or injured. To ensure the success of
those still able to depart for the invasion--miraculously, only one
day late--the navy at once issued a censorship order, which has
kept this disaster from public scrutiny for seventy years.
"The Second Pearl Harbor" is the first book to tell the full story
of what happened on that fateful day. Military historian Gene
Salecker recounts the events and conditions leading up to the
explosion, then re-creates the drama directly afterward: men
swimming through flaming oil, small craft desperately trying to
rescue the injured, and subsequent explosions throwing flaming
debris everywhere. With meticulous attention to detail the author
explains why he and other historians believe that the official
explanation for the cause of the explosion, that a mortar shell was
accidentally detonated, is wrong.
This in-depth account of a little-known incident adds to our
understanding of the dangers during World War II, even far from the
front, and restores a missing chapter to history.
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Principal Events, 1914-1918
(Hardcover)
Great Britain Committee of Imperial D; Henry Terence Skinner; Created by Harry Fitz Maurice Stacke
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R983
Discovery Miles 9 830
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The Battle of Ezra Church was one of the deadliest engagements in
the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War and continues to be one of
the least understood. Both official and unofficial reports failed
to illuminate the true bloodshed of the conflict: one of every
three engaged Confederates was killed or wounded, including four
generals. Nor do those reports acknowledge the flaws - let alone
the ultimate failure - of Confederate commander John Bell Hood's
plan to thwart Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's southward
advance. In an account that refutes and improves upon all other
interpretations of the Battle of Ezra Church, noted battle
historian Gary Ecelbarger consults extensive records, reports, and
personal accounts to deliver a nuanced hour-by-hour overview of how
the battle actually unfolded. His narrative fills in significant
facts and facets of the battle that have long gone unexamined,
correcting numerous conclusions that historians have reached about
key officers' intentions and actions before, during, and after this
critical contest. Eleven troop movement maps by leading Civil War
cartographer Hal Jespersen complement Ecelbarger's analysis,
detailing terrain and battle maneuvers to give the reader an
on-the-ground perspective of the conflict. With new revelations
based on solid primary-source documentation, Slaughter at the
Chapel is the most comprehensive treatment of the Battle of Ezra
Church yet written, as powerful in its implications as it is
compelling in its moment-to-moment details.
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