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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence
This first scholarly account of the Royal Navy in the Pacific War
is a companion volume to Arthur Marder's Old Friends, New Enemies:
Strategic Illusions, 1936-1941 (0-19-822604-7, OP). Picking up the
story at the nadir of British naval fortunes - `everywhere weak and
naked', in Churchill's phrase - it examines the Royal Navy's role
in events from 1942 to the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
Drawing on both British and Japanese sources and personal accounts
by participants, the authors vividly retell the story of the
collapse of Allied defences in the Dutch East Indies, culminating
in the Battle of the Java Sea. They recount the attempts of the
`fighting admiral', Sir James Somerville, to train his motley fleet
of cast-offs into an efficient fighting force in spite of the
reluctance of Churchill, who resisted the formation of a full-scale
British Pacific Fleet until the 1945 assault on the Ryukyu Islands
immediately south of Japan. Meticulously researched and fully
referenced, this unique and absorbing account provides a
controversial analysis of the key personalities who shaped events
in these momentous years, and makes fascinating reading for anyone
interested in the Pacific War. This book also appears in the Oxford
General Books catalogue for Autumn 1990.
During the Great War, voluntary medical assistance to British
Forces was organised by the British Red Cross and the Order of St
John. As the conflict escalated there was a shortage of medical
assistance and ancillary services. The solution came with the
creation of the General Service Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD)
which enabled those with little or no medical training to undertake
more routine jobs - cooks, laundry maids, wardmaids, dispensers,
drivers etc. This book is a reprint of the final, and largest,
British Red Cross list giving information of over 18,000 women and
men who were involved. It provides individual detail (name, rank,
unit, destination) together with lists of Headquarters Staff,
Commissioners and Representatives, and also a Roll of Honour
Coral and Concrete, Greg Dvorak's cross-cultural history of
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, explores intersections of
environment, identity, empire, and memory in the largest inhabited
coral atoll on earth. Approaching the multiple "atollscapes" of
Kwajalein's past and present as Marshallese ancestral land,
Japanese colonial outpost, Pacific War battlefield, American
weapons-testing base, and an enduring home for many, Dvorak delves
into personal narratives and collective mythologies from
contradictory vantage points. He navigates the tensions between
"little stories" of ordinary human actors and "big stories" of
global politics-drawing upon the "little" metaphor of the coral
organisms that colonize and build atolls, and the "big" metaphor of
the all-encompassing concrete that buries and co-opts the past.
Building upon the growing body of literature about militarism and
decolonization in Oceania, this book advocates a layered, nuanced
approach that emphasizes the multiplicity and contradictions of
Pacific Islands histories as an antidote to American hegemony and
globalization within and beyond the region. It also brings
Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, and American perspectives into
conversation with Micronesians' recollections of colonialism and
war. This transnational history-built upon a combination of
reflective personal narrative, ethnography, cultural studies, and
postcolonial studies-thus resituates Kwajalein Atoll as a pivotal
site where Islanders have not only thrived for thousands of years,
but also mediated between East and West, shaping crucial world
events. Based on multi-sited ethnographic and archival research, as
well as Dvorak's own experiences growing up between Kwajalein, the
United States, and Japan, Coral and Concrete integrates narrative
and imagery with semiotic analysis of photographs, maps, films, and
music, traversing colonial tropical fantasies, tales of victory and
defeat, missile testing, fisheries, war-bereavement rituals, and
landowner resistance movements, from the twentieth century through
the present day. Representing history as a perennial struggle
between coral and concrete, the book offers an Oceanian paradigm
for decolonization, resistance, solidarity, and optimism that
should appeal to all readers far beyond the Marshall Islands.
This book provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of the
twelve war crimes trials held in the American zone of occupation
between 1946 and 1949, collectively known as the Nuremberg Military
Tribunals (NMTs). The judgments the NMTs produced have played a
critical role in the development of international criminal law,
particularly in terms of how courts currently understand war
crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. The
trials are also of tremendous historical importance, because they
provide a far more comprehensive picture of Nazi atrocities than
their more famous predecessor, the International Military Tribunal
at Nuremberg (IMT). The IMT focused exclusively on the 'major war
criminals'-the Goerings, the Hesses, the Speers. The NMTs, by
contrast, prosecuted doctors, lawyers, judges, industrialists,
bankers-the private citizens and lower-level functionaries whose
willingness to take part in the destruction of millions of
innocents manifested what Hannah Arendt famously called 'the
banality of evil'.
The book is divided into five sections. The first section traces
the evolution of the twelve NMT trials. The second section
discusses the law, procedure, and rules of evidence applied by the
tribunals, with a focus on the important differences between Law
No. 10 and the Nuremberg Charter. The third section, the heart of
the book, provides a systematic analysis of the tribunals'
jurisprudence. It covers Law No. 10's core crimes-crimes against
peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity-as well as the
crimes of conspiracy and membership in a criminal organization. The
fourth section then examines the modes of participation and
defenses that the tribunals recognized. The final section deals
with sentencing, the aftermath of the trials, and their historical
legacy.
In the decade following the first Gulf War, most observers regarded
it as an exemplary effort by the international community to
lawfully and forcefully hold a regional aggressor in check.
Interpretations have changed with the times. The Gulf War led to
the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, an important
contributing cause of the 9/11 attacks. The war also led to a long
obsession with Saddam Hussein that culminated in a second, far
longer, American-led war with Iraq. In Into the Desert, Jeffrey
Engel has gathered an all-star cast of contributors to reevaluate
the first Gulf War: Michael Gordon of the New York Times; Sir
Lawrence Freedman, former foreign policy advisor to Tony Blair;
Ambassador Ryan Crocker; Middle East specialist Shibley Telhami;
and Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Engel and his contributors examine the war's origins, the war
itself, and its long-term impact on international relations. All
told, Into the Desert offers an astute reassessment of one of the
most momentous events in the last quarter century.
Richard Brooks examines the strategic importance of the Naval
Brigades and their human side from personal testimonies. They were
introduced by the Royal Navy as a land warfare force to help the
regular British Army during the the 19th century.
Written by twelve expert historians, this well-illustrated account of the great confrontations of medieval Europe (c.700-1500) examines major developments in the methods of warfare from the time of Charlemagne through to the end of the Crusades. The result is a rich and fascinating history of a culture steeped in martial ideas, whose aristocrats were also warriors in a society organized by its desire to wage war.
The Bavarian mountain village of Oberammergau is famous for its
decennial passion play. The play began as an articulation of the
villagers' strong Catholic piety, but in the late 19th and early
20th centuries developed into a considerable commercial enterprise.
The growth of the passion play from a curiosity of village piety
into a major tourist attraction encouraged all manner of
entrepreneurial behavior and brought the inhabitants of this
isolated rural area into close contract with a larger world.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists came to see the play, and
thousands of temporary workers descended on the village during the
play season, some settling permanently in Oberammergau. Adolf
Hitler would attend a performance of the play in 1934, later saying
that the drama "revealed the muck and mire of Jewry." But, Helena
Waddy argues, it is a mistake to brand Oberammergau as a Nazi
stronghold, as has commonly been done. In this book she uses
Oberammergau's unique history to explain why and how genuinely some
villagers chose to become Nazis, while others rejected Party
membership and defended their Catholic lifestyle. She explores the
reasons why both local Nazis and their opponents fought to protect
the village's cherished identity against the Third Reich's many
intrusive demands. On the other hand, she also shows that the play
mirrored the Gospel-based anti-Semitism endemic to Western culture.
As a local study of the rise of Nazism and the Nazi era, Waddy's
work is an important contribution to a growing genre. As a
collective biography, it is a fascinating and moving portrait of
life at a time when, as Thomas Mann wrote, "every day hurled the
wildest demands at the heart and brain."
Shortly after Ponce de Leon discovered La Florida in 1513, early
Spanish settlers found a large and sheltered bay on the Gulf of
Mexico. The bay became known as Pensacola after the Penzacola
Indians who lived along the shore. In 1698, the first permanent
colony was established by pioneers who recognized the strategic
importance of a fine harbor with protective barrier islands and a
high bluff, or barranca, on the mainland across from a defensible
mouth. For centuries the bay was fortified and refortified. Battles
raged in four wars, and five nations raised their flags along the
harbor. Pensacola Bay: A Military History traces the rich military
history of the bay from Spanish times to the present-day Naval Air
Station Pensacola, home of the Navy's Blue Angels. The book
presents over 200 black-and-white images that highlight the
acquisition of Florida by the United States in 1821, the
construction of fortifications and naval installations, the Civil
War, both World Wars, the Old Navy Yard, the Naval Air Station, and
present-day military activity.
Tennessee's Thirteenth Union Cavalry was a unit composed mostly of
amateur soldiers that eventually turned undisciplined boys into
seasoned fighters. At the outbreak of the Civil War, East Tennessee
was torn between its Unionist tendencies and the surrounding
Confederacy. The result was the persecution of the "home Yankees"
by Confederate sympathizers. Rather than quelling Unionist fervor,
this oppression helped East Tennessee contribute an estimated
thirty thousand troops to the North. Some of those troops joined
the "Loyal Thirteenth" in Stoneman's raid and in pursuit of
Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Join author Melanie Storie
as she recounts the harrowing narrative of an often-overlooked
piece of Civil War history.
A moving, immersive, and humanising essay collection charting the daily lives, struggles, and dreams of young people in Gaza.
A teenage girl stares at her roof, hoping it won’t collapse over her head. A young student searches the Internet for photos of libraries around the world, hoping he’ll be able to visit them one day. Another walks around the city, taking notes of all the buildings she dreams of repairing.
These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognised not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams and lives worth living.
We Are Not Numbers was founded in 2014 to give voice to the youth of Gaza. In this collection, vital, urgent and full of heart, spanning over ten years to the present moment, we gain an unparalleled insight into the past, as well as the current and next generation of Palestinian leaders, artists, scientists and scholars and imagine where we might go from here.
In the early days of the Civil War, Richmond was declared the
capital of the Confederacy, and until now, countless stories from
its tenure as the Southern headquarters have remained buried. Mary
E. Walker, a Union doctor and feminist, was once held captive in
the city for refusing to wear proper women's clothing. A coffee
substitute factory exploded under intriguing circumstances. Many
Confederate soldiers, when in the trenches of battle, thumbed
through the pages of Hugo's "Les Miserables." Author Brian Burns
reveals these and many more curious tales of Civil War Richmond.
The New International Version is the world’s bestselling modern-English
Bible translation—accurate, readable, and clear, yet rich with the
detail found in the original languages. The NIV is the result of over
50 years of work by the Committee on Bible Translation, who oversee the
efforts of many contributing scholars. Representing the spectrum of
evangelicalism, the translators come from a wide range of denominations
and various countries and continually review new research to ensure the
NIV remains at the forefront of accessibility, relevance, and
authority. Every NIV Bible that is purchased helps Biblica translate
and give Bibles to people in need around the world.
• 6.75-point print size
Surviving Images explores the prominent role of cinema in the
development of cultural memory around war and conflict in colonial
and postcolonial contexts. It does so through a study of three
historical eras: the colonial period, the national-independence
struggle, and the postcolonial. Beginning with a study of British
colonial cinema on the Sudan, then exploring anti-colonial cinema
in Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia, followed by case studies of films
emerging from postcolonial contexts in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon,
and Israel, this work aims to fill a gap in the critical literature
on both Middle Eastern cinemas, and to contribute more broadly to
scholarship on social trauma and cultural memory in colonial and
postcolonial contexts. This work treats the concept of trauma
critically, however, and posits that social trauma must be
understood as a framework for producing social and political
meaning out of these historical events. Social trauma thus sets out
a productive process of historical interpretation, and cultural
texts such as cinematic works both illuminate and contribute to
this process. Through these discussions, Surviving Images
illustrates cinema's productive role in contributing to the
changing dynamics of cultural memory of war and social conflict in
the modern world.
The Battle of Fredericksburg is known as the most disastrous defeat
the Federal Army of the Potomac experienced in the American Civil
War. The futile assaults by Federal soldiers against the
Confederate defensive positions on Marye's Heights and behind the
infamous stone wall along the "Sunken Road" solidified Ambrose
Burnside's reputation as an inept army commander and reinforced
Robert E. Lee's undefeatable image. Follow historian James Bryant
behind the lines of confrontation to discover the strategies and
blunders that contributed to one of the most memorable battles of
the Civil War.
Marion is proverbially the great master of strategy?the wily fox of
the swamps?never to be caught, never to be followed, ?yet always at
hand, with unconjectured promptness, at the moment when he is least
feared and is least to be expected. South Carolina's ?Swamp Fox, ?
Francis Marion, is one of the most celebrated figures of the
American Revolution. Marion's cunning exploits in the Southern
theater of the Revolution earned him national renown and a place in
history as an American hero and master of modern guerilla warfare.
Although dozens of works have been written about Marion's life over
the years, this biography -- written by William Gilmore Simms,
South Carolina's greatest author -- remains the best. First
published in 1844, The Life of Francis Marion was Simms's most
commercially successful work of nonfiction. It offers a treatment
of Marion's life that is unparalleled in its scope and accuracy,
all in Simms's inimitable style.
Lord Derby, Lancashire's highest-ranked nobleman and its principal
royalist, once offered the opinion that the English civil wars had
been a 'general plague of madness'. Complex and bedevilling, the
earl defied anyone to tell the complete story of 'so foolish, so
wicked, so lasting a war'. Yet attempting to chronicle and to
explain the events is both fascinating and hugely important.
Nationally and at the county level the impact and significance of
the wars can hardly be over-stated: the conflict involved our
ancestors fighting one another, on and off, for a period of nine
years; almost every part of Lancashire witnessed warfare of some
kind at one time or another, and several towns in particular saw
bloody sieges and at least one episode characterised as a massacre.
Nationally the wars resulted in the execution of the king; in 1651
the Earl of Derby himself was executed in Bolton in large measure
because he had taken a leading part in the so-called massacre in
that town in 1644.In the early months of the civil wars many could
barely distinguish what it was that divided people in 'this war
without an enemy', as the royalist William Waller famously wrote;
yet by the end of it parliament had abolished monarchy itself and
created the only republic in over a millennium of England's
history. Over the ensuing centuries this period has been described
variously as a rebellion, as a series of civil wars, even as a
revolution. Lancashire's role in these momentous events was quite
distinctive, and relative to the size of its population
particularly important. Lancashire lay right at the centre of the
wars, for the conflict did not just encompass England but Ireland
and Scotland too, and Lancashire's position on the coast facing
Catholic, Royalist Ireland was seen as critical from the very first
months.And being on the main route south from Scotland meant that
the county witnessed a good deal of marching and marauding armies
from the north. In this, the first full history of the Lancashire
civil wars for almost a century, Stephen Bull makes extensive use
of new discoveries to narrate and explain the exciting, terrible
events which our ancestors witnessed in the cause either of king or
parliament. From Furness to Liverpool, and from the Wyre estuary to
Manchester and Warrington...civil war actions, battles, sieges and
skirmishes took place in virtually every corner of Lancashire.
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