A humorous and lively African folktale, specially adapted for children just beginning to read. With colour illustrations on every page, this is another addition to Usborne's hugely popular First Reading series. Find out what happens when trickster Tortoise joins the birds at the Great Feast in the sky, and then gobbles ALL of the food. Perhaps it's time for Tortoise to be tricked too?

A funny re-telling of a West African folktale, in which trickster Tortoise challenges Hippo and Elephant to a tug of war. Brains beat brawn in an enchanting tale with a happy ending.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Introduced into Congress two days before the fall of France and signed into law three months later as Luftwaffe bombs set London afire, the Selective Training and Service Act began the process by which fifteen million Americans were inducted into the armed services during the Second World War. Clifford and Spencer recount a neglected but vitally important development in the transformation of American policies prior to Pearl Harbor--the first time in American history when men were conscripted into military service during peacetime.

Central to the discussion in The First Peacetime Draft is the first important American policy response to Hitler's victory in Europe in the spring of 1940--the Selective Service Act. It marked the effective end of the isolationist tradition in the United States because for the first time while the country remained officially at peace civilians were drafted into the armed forces to face the possible threat of aggression from abroad. Emerging from the initiative of civilians, not from the Army or the White House, the conscription campaign resulted in a colorful three-month public debate that engaged the entire population.

This volume is based on research in more than ninety manuscript collection in the United States, Canada, and Britain, as well as interviews with some two dozen participants. In addition to being a detailed political history of the debate over conscription, it places the draft in the context of Roosevelt's zig-zag path to war and evaluates it in terms of the overall evolution of the American defense and foreign policies since 1940.