"Featuring compelling biographical essays on individuals from the key groups who experienced the rapid shifts in national boundaries in the Gulf region, this work opens an exciting new perspective on the problems of identity and loyalty in a transnational world."--Rafe Blaufarb, author of "Bonapartists in the Borderlands" "A sparkling set of insightful essays that illuminates the interplay of natives, settlers, maroons, and slaves in a pivotal borderland contested by rival empires. Local, imperial, and racial identities overlapped in a shifting kaleidoscope of power, resistance, and adaptation."--Alan Taylor, author of "The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution" "This expert handling of a crucial period that saw the emergence of the modern nation-states promises to become indispensable reading for specialists and students alike."--Serge Ricard, Emeritus, Sorbonne Nouvelle "Clearly shows how the contest for empire across the Gulf Borderlands between 1763 and 1821 not only shifted international boundaries but also challenged the political loyalties and personal identities of this region's multiethnic and multicultural inhabitants."--Steve Hackel, University of California, Riverside Between 1760 and 1820, many groups in North America grappled with differences of identity, nationality, and loyalty tested by revolutionary challenges. "Nexus of Empire" turns the focus on the people who inhabited one of the continent's most dynamic borderlands--the Gulf of Mexico region--where nations and empires competed for increasingly important strategic and commercial advantages. The essays in this collection examine the personal experiences of men and women, Native Americans, European colonists, free people of color, and slaves, analyzing the ways in which these individuals defined and redefined themselves amid a world of competing loyalties. This volume humanizes the promise and perils of living, working, and fighting in a region experiencing constant political upheaval and economic uncertainties. It offers intriguing glimpses into a fast-changing world in which individuals' attitudes and actions reveal the convoluted balancing acts of identities that characterized this population and this era.

Did you know there was a plane crash on the TCU campus? Or that TCU once had an airport? Were you aware that TCU began integrating during World War II? Discover these and other interesting tidbits in Images and Stories of TCU’s First 100 Years, 1873–1973, which offers a visual and anecdotal history of TCU’s evolution. Images and Stories examines the university’s evolution as it moved from location to location, uncovering stories about TCU’s students and faculty and following the growth and expansion, changes and challenges, and struggles and successes that led to the TCU Centennial 1973. Some of the images and stories are well known, but many will come as a surprise. Enjoy the ride!

Widely regarded as the best eyewitness account of the Battle of New Orleans, Arsene LaCarriere Latour's "Historical Memoir" records first-hand the dramatic events of the climactic military campaign of the War of 1812. This revised and expanded edition includes a substantial new biographical introduction based on a group of manuscripts relating to the battle recently acquired from Latour's descendants in France.
Only months after the battle ended, Latour, who was General Andrew Jackson's principal army engineer, began interviewing witnesses and key participants in order to create a comprehensive record based on first-hand accounts. The work's most significant value derives from these accounts--reproduced in the book's appendix--by numerous individuals who participated in a crucial moment in the history of the United States.
As the first full-length treatment of the New Orleans campaign, the book also offers perceptive analysis of battle preparations, terrain, and strategy by the man who designed many of the American defenses. This edition also includes nine three-color foldout maps illustrating the course of the battle. Latour characterized it as a conflict "which preserved our country from conquest and desolation." As a key figure in the conflict who knew many of the other main actors and personally collected their reports and observations, Latour provides a record that will never be replaced.

Though completely unsung and commonly left out of battle histories, nothing is more important than the details of logistics and support operations during a military campaign. Without fuel, food, transport, communications, and medical facilities, modern military engagement would be impossible. Peter Nash compares the methods the British and American navies developed to supply their ships across the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean during the first part of the twentieth century. He argues that the logistics challenges faced by the navies during World War II were so profound and required such innovative solutions that the outcome was the most radical turning point in the history of mobile logistics support. He shows how the lessons learned during the final campaign against Japan were successfully implemented during the Korean War and transformed the way naval expeditionary force is projected to this day. The foreword was written by the Royal Navy's current Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Sir Alan Massey.

Spanish flotas (convoys) traversed the Atlantic throughout the colonial period, shuttling men and goods between the Old and New Worlds. In August 1750, at the height of hurricane season, a small convoy of seven ships left Havana for Cadiz. A fierce storm scattered the ships from North Carolina's outer banks to Maryland's eastern shore. Spanish merchants, military officers, and sailors struggled to survive, protect their valuable cargo, and, eventually, find a way home. They faced piracy, rapacious English officials, and discord among crew and passengers (including dozens of English prisoners). Two and a half centuries later, the discovery of the wreckage of the convoy's flagship, La Galga, set off a legal battle between Spain and American treasure companies over salvage rights.