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Thoughtful and brilliant insights into the very nature of war--from the ancient Greeks to modern times--from world-renowned historian Margaret MacMillan. War--its imprint in our lives and our memories--is all around us, from the metaphors we use to the names on our maps. As books, movies, and television series show, we are drawn to the history and depiction of war. Yet we nevertheless like to think of war as an aberration, as the breakdown of the normal state of peace. This is comforting but wrong. War is woven into the fabric of human civilization. In this sweeping new book, international bestselling author and historian Margaret MacMillan analyzes the tangled history of war and society and our complicated feelings towards it and towards those who fight. It explores the ways in which changes in society have affected the nature of war and how in turn wars have changed the societies that fight them, including the ways in which women have been both participants in and the objects of war. MacMillan's new book contains many revelations, such as war has often been good for science and innovation and in the 20th century it did much for the position of women in many societies. But throughout, it forces the reader to reflect on the ways in which war is so intertwined with society, and the myriad reasons we fight. |
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Quite possibly the most dangerous and intelligent member of the Nazi hierarchy, Joseph Goebbels’s flair for propaganda and spectacular organization ensured the fu¨hrer’s rise to power. As founder of the Reich Chamber of Culture, gauleiter of Berlin, and architect of complex machinery of modern totalitarian propaganda, Goebbels is considered one of the most evil figures of the twentieth century. It was through his understanding of the instruments of “public enlightenment” that the dictatorship was built and maintained. Through interviews with his friends and family and with information from his own unpublished diary, a remarkable picture of Goebbels emerges. |
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International Bestseller From the author of the international bestseller  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind  comes an extraordinary new book that explores the future of the human species. Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind , envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. In  Homo Deus , he examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between. Homo Deus  explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century – from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is  Homo Deus . War is obsolete You are more likely to commit suicide than be killed in conflict Famine is disappearing You are at more risk of obesity than starvation Death is just a technical problem Equality is out – but immortality is in What does our future hold? |
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#1  NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • The author of  The Devil in the White City  and  Dead Wake  delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis One of  Chicago Tribune ’s Best Books of the Year So Far • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR “Churchill’s lessons of resilience and his style of steady-handed leadership are essential to the state of mind of American readers.”— Vanity Fair On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile , Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.   The Splendid and the Vile  takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together. |
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“How the vulgarization of American popular culture has distorted the image of the United States for millions of people around the world.”—Francis Fukuyama, New York Times bestselling author   What does the world admire most about America? Science, technology, higher education, consumer goods—but not, it seems, freedom and democracy. Indeed, these ideals are in global retreat, for reasons ranging from ill-conceived foreign policy to the financial crisis and the sophisticated propaganda of modern authoritarians. Another reason, explored for the first time in this pathbreaking book, is the distorted picture of freedom and democracy found in America's cultural exports. In interviews with thoughtful observers in eleven countries, Martha Bayles heard many objections to the violence and vulgarity pervading today’s popular culture. But she also heard a deeper complaint: namely, that America no longer shares the best of itself. Tracing this change to the end of the Cold War, Bayles shows how public diplomacy was scaled back, and in-your-face entertainment became America’s de facto ambassador. This book focuses on the present and recent past, but its perspective is deeply rooted in American history, culture, religion, and political thought. At its heart is an affirmation of a certain ethos—of hope for human freedom tempered with prudence about human nature—that is truly the aspect of America most admired by others. And its author’s purpose is less to find fault than to help chart a positive path for the future.   “An extremely intelligent mix of reporting, analysis, and policy prescription.”—Robert Asahina, author of  Just Americans “Informative, witty, and thought-provoking.”—Peter L. Berger, author of Invitation to Sociology |
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The Wars of the Roses were not just fought by men on the battlefield. There were daughters, wives, mistresses, mothers and queens whose lives and influences helped shape the most dramatic of English conflicts. This book traces the women's stories on the Lancastrian side, from the children of Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt, through the turbulent 15th century to the advent of Margaret Beaufort's son in 1509, and establishment of the Tudor dynasty. From Katherine Swynford and Catherine of Valois's secret liaisons to the love lives of Mary de Bohun and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, to the Queenship of Joan of Navarre and Margaret of Anjou, this book explores how these extraordinary women survived in extraordinary times. |
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#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL  • CBC • CHATELAINE  • QUILL & QUIRE  • THE HILL TIMES  • POP MATTERS A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott. In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political—from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities.  With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future. |
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So much has been written about the 1916 Battle of the Somme that it might appear that every aspect of the four-month struggle has been described and analyzed in exhaustive detail. Yet perhaps one aspect has not received the attention it deserves the French sector in the south of the battlefield which is often overshadowed by events in the British sector further north. That is why Ian Sumner's photographic history of the French army on the Somme is so interesting and valuable.Using a selection of over 200 wartime photographs, many of which have not been published before, he follows the entire course of the battle from the French point of view. The photographs show the build-up to the Somme offensive, the logistics involved, the key commanders, the soldiers as they prepared to go into action and the landscape over which the battle took place. Equally close coverage is given to the fighting during each phase of the offensive the initial French advances, the mounting German resistance and the terrible casualties the French incurred.The photographs are especially important in that they record the equipment and weapons that were used, the clothing the men wore and the conditions in which they fought, and they provide us with a visual insight into the realities of battle over a hundred years ago. They also document some of the most famous sites on the battlefield before they were destroyed in the course of the fighting, including villages like Gommecourt, Pozires, La Boiselle and Thiepval. |
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Alors que l'Europe est le théâtre d'une guerre sans merci, les Alliés s'inquiètent des avancées scientifiques des Allemands. Les Britanniques veulent prendre de vitesse Hitler et les physiciens du IIIe Reich. L'Angleterre étant trop proche de l'ennemi, c'est à Montréal qu'ils décident d'implanter en catimini un laboratoire de recherche nucléaire. En y déménageant leurs meilleurs scientifiques, ils ont en tête deux objectifs: mettre au point une bombe surpuissante et trouver une nouvelle source d'énergie. La collaboration avec les Américains se transforme en une course à l'atome, alors que le projet Manhattan est lancé par ces derniers. Montréal et la bombe fait revivre cette saga palpitante pendant laquelle des scientifiques européens ont bâti un laboratoire stratégique dans le plus grand secret, au sein de l'Université de Montréal. De grandes figures de la physique moderne, des chimistes audacieux et des espions gravitent autour de cette histoire. Tous avec une seule idée en tête : dompter l'atome pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Gilles Sabourin est ingénieur dans le domaine nucléaire, spécialisé dans la sûreté des centrales. Il a travaillé pendant plus de vingt ans pour le bureau montréalais d'Énergie atomique du Canada. Il a consacré quinze ans de sa vie à mener une enquête sur l'aventure atomique montréalaise pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. |
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For decades, the US military has been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances. Service members, their families, and residents have been exposed—but the US has long hidden the damage and ignored victims. This explosive book reveals the extent of contamination in the Pacific and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it. |
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One of the "10 Must-Read Histories of the Palestine-Israel Conflict" — Ian Black , Literary Hub, on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration The new edition of the acclaimed text that explores the issues continuing to define the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Numerous instances of competing, sometimes incompatible narratives of controversial events are found throughout history. Perhaps the starkest example of such contradictory representations is the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. For over 140 years, Israelis, Palestinians, and scores of peacemakers have failed to establish a sustainable, mutually-acceptable solution.  The Israel-Palestine Conflict  introduces the historical basis of the dispute and explores both the tangible issues and intangible factors that have blocked a peaceful resolution. Author Neil Caplan helps readers understand the complexities and contradictions of the conflict and why the histories of Palestine and Israel are so fiercely contested. Now in its second edition, this book has been thoroughly updated to reflect the events that have transpired since its original publication. Fresh insights consider the impact of current global and regional instability and violence on the prospects of peace and reconciliation. New discussions address recent debates over two-state versus one-state solutions, growing polarization in public discourse outside of the Middle East, the role of public intellectuals, and the growing trend of merging scholarship with advocacy. Part of the Wiley-Blackwell  Contested Histories  series, this clear and accessible volume: Offers a balanced, non-polemic approach to current academic discussions and political debates on the Israel-Palestine conflict Highlights eleven core arguments viewed by the author as unwinnable Encourages readers to go beyond simply assigning blame in the conflict Explores the major historiographical debates arising from the dispute Includes updated references and additional maps Already a standard text for courses on the history and politics of the Middle East,  The Israel-Palestine Conflict  is an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and interested general readers. |
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An eminent political scientist’s brilliant analysis of economic, social, and political trends over the past century demonstrating how we have gone from an individualistic “I” society to a more communitarian “We” society and then back again, and how we can learn from that experience to become a stronger, more unified nation—from the author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids . Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism—Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today. However as the twentieth century opened, America became—slowly, unevenly, but steadily—more egalitarian, more cooperative, more generous; a society on the upswing, more focused on our responsibilities to one another and less focused on our narrower self-interest. Sometime during the 1960s, however, these trends reversed, leaving us in today’s disarray. In a sweeping overview of more than a century of history, drawing on his inimitable combination of statistical analysis and storytelling, Robert Putnam analyzes a remarkable confluence of trends that brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. He draws inspiring lessons for our time from an earlier era, when a dedicated group of reformers righted the ship, putting us on a path to becoming a society once again based on community. Engaging, revelatory, and timely, this is Putnam’s most ambitious work yet, a fitting capstone to a brilliant career. |
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A fascinating overview of the Allies’ post-WWII program to gain access to advanced Nazi war machines and the technology they ultimately recovered.   Prior to the Allied D-Day assault on Normandy, France, rumors had already been circulating that high-tech Nazi super-weapons ( wunderwaffe ) had reached or were near completion. At the war’s end, a mad scramble ensued to discover the enemy’s secrets, fueled in large part by a US desire to regain its technological edge and to keep these weapons out of Soviet hands. Operation Lusty (LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY) was in full swing.   In Operation Lusty , aviation historian Graham M. Simons delivers a comprehensive and detailed history of the program while cataloging the advanced war equipment that was ultimately discovered—from U-boats, carriers, and battleships to radar equipment and operating systems, to fighters, bombers, rockets, and other V-weapons. With access to previously unreleased documentation and wide-ranging archival materials, Simons distinguishes what was fact in the Nazi arsenal from what was pure fantasy, dreamed up by Joseph Goebbels’s powerful propaganda machine.   Operation Lusty sheds new light on the furious race for postwar technological superiority, and offers an insider’s look at the full spectrum of military spoils that were gained. |
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Riding in an open-topped convertible through Dallas on November 22, 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson heard a sudden explosive sound at 12:30 PM. The Secret Service sped him away to safety, but not until 1:20 PM did he learn that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Sworn in next to a bloodstained Jackie Kennedy at 2:40 PM, Johnson worked feverishly until 3:00 in the morning, agonizing about the future of both his nation and his party. Unbeknownst to him, his actions had already determined the tragic outcome of his presidency. In November 22, 1963 , historian Steven Gillon tells the story of how Johnson consolidated power in the twenty-four hours following the assassination. Based on scrupulous research and new archival sources, this gripping narrative sheds new and surprising light on one of the most written-about events of the twentieth century. |
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A devastating "Black Hawk Down" of the war in Afghanistan, the deadliest day for the U.S. in 12 years of that conflict—and a military investigation that covered up evidence of an inside job by the Taliban to avenge Bin Laden's death by taking out a unit of Navy SEAL Team Six |
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Marc Bloch said that his goal in writing Feudal Society was to go beyond the technical study a medievalist would typically write and ‘dismantle a social structure.’ In this outstanding and monumental work, which has introduced generations of students and historians to the feudal period, Bloch treats feudalism as living, breathing force in Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. At its heart lies a magisterial account of relations of lord and vassal, and the origins of the nature of the fief, brought to life through compelling accounts of the nobility, knighthood and chivalry, family relations, political and legal institutions, and the church. For Bloch history was a process of constant movement and evolution and he describes throughout the slow process by which feudal societies turned into what would become nation states. A tour de force of historical writing, Feudal Society is essential reading for anyone interested in both Western Europe’s past and present. With a new foreword by Geoffrey Koziol |
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The greatest and best emperor in Chinese history, Emperor Li Shi Min of the Tang Dynasty made great political and military achievements during his reign. This book tells how he helped his father Li Yuan to establish the Tang Dynasty and the contributions he made to unify China.  Hung Hing Ming draws on Chinas historical records and chronicles  to recount the battles to conquer the warlords and local powerful men in different parts of China, how Li Shi Min became the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, the ways he governed the empire, what policies he adopted, the means by which he inspired officials to put forward good suggestions and how he accepted criticism from the officials. Li Shi Min conquered the powerful Eastern Turkic Khanate and other khanates in the north and northwest, making China the greatest empire in Asia. He set a good example for the emperors of subsequent dynasties. His deeds, his polices and his constructive way of interacting with his ministers and generals were compiled into guides and teaching materials for successors of the Chinese throne. Much of this advice is still useful today. Officials in government and business management can draw on the experience of Emperor Li Shi Min in governing the Tang Dynasty. This book will be an asset to US libraries as there are few works in English that cover these intriguing stories about a nation so important to ours. In preparing to write these histories, Mr. Hung studied the great Chinese classics including Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (145 BC-87 BC), Book of Han, a history of the Former Han Dynasty by Ban Gu (AD 32-92), and the "Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government" by Sima Guang (1019-1086), and by way of general background familiarized himself as well with Shakespeare's historical plays and books on the history and wars of Medieval England, Scotland and Ireland. |
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With the publication of the texts included in this the last part of volume X, Sumerian Liturgical and Epical Texts, the writer arrives at a definite stage in the interpretation of the religious material in the Nippur collection. Having been privileged to examine the collection in Philadelphia as well as that in Constantinople, I write with a sense of responsibility in giving to the public a brief statement concerning what the temple library of ancient Nippur really contained. Omitting the branches pertaining to history, law, grammar and mathematics, the following résumé is limited to those tablets which, because of their bearing upon the history of religion, especially upon the origins of Hebrew religion, have attracted the attention of the public on two continents to the collections of the University Museum. Undoubtedly the group of texts which have the most human interest and greatest literary value is the epical group, designated in Sumerian by the rubric zag-sal. This literary term was employed by the Sumerian scribes to designate a composition as didactic and theological. Religious texts of such kind are generally composed in an easy and graceful style and, although somewhat influenced by liturgical mannerisms, may be readily distinguished from the hymns and psalms sung in the temples to musical accompaniment. The zagsal compositions are mythological and theological treatises concerning the deeds and characters of the great gods. The most important didactic hymns of the Nippur collection and in fact the most important religious texts in early Sumerian literature are two six column tablets, one (very incomplete) on the Creation and the Flood published by Dr. Poebel, and one (all but complete) on Paradise and the Fall of Man. |
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Дража Михајловић је био цењен војник и официр, победник из два балканска и из Првог светског рата. По слому Југославије, постао је први европски побуњеник против Хитлера, министар војни краљевске Владе, главни заповедник војске у отаџбини, носилац највећих одликовања Де Гола, Рузвелта и Трумана.  Михајловић је био веран представник српског народа, носилац српског војног отпора који је током рата сукобљен са агресивним и вишеструко штетним комунистичким покретом. На концу рата, победници комунисти, уздигнути на крилима црвене армије и западне сплетке су Михајловића демонизовали, представили као заповедника криминалних кољачких бригада, видећи га пак пре свега као опасног идеолошког противника и представника српске државотворне снаге. По његовој коначној издаји и хапшењу, Михајловићу је суђено у тешким условима где је он неумитно осуђен на смрт и стрељан, у тајности и без трагова гроба.  Историјска оцена о Дражи Михајловићу и четничком покрету, створена у потпуности од стране победника - комуниста, до данас суштински опстаје. Јасни подаци и упоредна оцена два покрета, њихових мана, врлина и дугорочних утицаја на српски народ и државу остају потпуно недоречено подручје, о коме се историја па и јавност мало изјашњавају - може се претпоставити онеспособљени и због утицаја деценија нетачних или, како се сумња, фабрикованих података о Михајловићу, каквима су се дичиле како Озна тако и све тајне полиције источне европе у то доба.  Драшковић се у "Ноћи ђенерала" бави последњим данима Михајловићевог живота. Михајловић у затвору и током суђења размишља о свом покрету и њима супротстављеним комунистима, сопственим слабостима, узроцима и последицама пораза. Драшковић тежи потпуном осветљавању ове тешке историјске пресуде и прекретнице за српски народ, у нади да ће се разумом и здравом логиком доћи до исправних историјских закључака, ако је то већ немогуће учинити путем непоуздане историје прекрајане по вољи победника. Ноћ ђенерала, Вук Драшковић. 182 стране, ћирилица. Издање иБиблиотеке (www.ibiblioteka.net). |
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A sweeping historical narrative of the life of Carl Akeley, the famed explorer and taxidermist who changed the way Americans viewed the conservation of the natural world During the golden age of safaris in the early twentieth century, one man set out to preserve Africa's great beasts. In this epic account of an extraordinary life lived during remarkable times, Jay Kirk follows the adventures of the brooding genius who revolutionized taxidermy and created the famed African Hall we visit today at New York's Museum of Natural History. The Gilded Age was drawing to a close, and with it came the realization that men may have hunted certain species into oblivion. Renowned taxidermist Carl Akeley joined the hunters rushing to Africa, where he risked death time and again as he stalked animals for his dioramas and hobnobbed with outsized personalities of the era such as Theodore Roosevelt and P. T. Barnum. In a tale of art, science, courage, and romance, Jay Kirk resurrects a legend and illuminates a fateful turning point when Americans had to decide whether to save nature, to destroy it, or to just stare at it under glass. |
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A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush.” In Thunderstruck , Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,” nearly commits the perfect murder. With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate. |
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In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald’s "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. “Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples. Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day. The prose is gripping, the analysis is incisive, and the narrative is so chilling that it leaves its reader stunned and disturbed. For days after reading it, I was unable to shake a profound sense of sorrow. This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest.” Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana |
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The “dean of Cold War historians” ( The New York Times ) now presents the definitive account of the global confrontation that dominated the last half of the twentieth century. Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, John Lewis Gaddis explains not just what happened but why —from the months in 1945 when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in its drama, The Cold War stands as a triumphant summation of the era that, more than any other, shaped our own. Gaddis is also the author of On Grand Strategy.  |
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Winner of the 2012 Colby Award and the first Afghanistan memoir ever to be written by a Marine Harrier pilot, A Nightmare’s Prayer portrays the realities of war in the twenty-first century, taking a unique and powerful perspective on combat in Afghanistan as told by a former enlisted man turned officer. Lt. Col. Michael “Zak” Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of VMA-513, “The Flying Nightmares,” while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But what should have been a standard six-month deployment soon turned to a yearlong ordeal as the Iraq conflict intensified. And in what appeared to be a forgotten war half a world away from home, Franzak and his colleagues struggled to stay motivated and do their job providing air cover to soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain. I wasn’t in a foxhole. I was above it. I was safe and comfortable in my sheltered cocoon 20,000 feet over the Hindu Kush. But I prayed. I prayed when I heard the muted cries of men who at last understood their fate. Franzak’s personal narrative captures the day-by-day details of his deployment, from family good-byes on departure day to the squadron’s return home. He explains the role the Harrier played over the Afghanistan battlefields and chronicles the life of an attack pilot—from the challenges of nighttime, weather, and the austere mountain environment to the frustrations of working under higher command whose micromanagement often exacerbated difficulties. In vivid and poignant passages, he delivers the full impact of enemy ambushes, the violence of combat, and the heartbreaking aftermath. And as the Iraq War unfolded, Franzak became embroiled in another battle: one within himself. Plagued with doubts and wrestling with his ego and his belief in God, he discovered in himself a man he loathed. But the hardest test of his lifetime and career was still to come—one that would change him forever. A stunning true account of service and sacrifice that takes the reader from the harrowing dangers of the cockpit to the secret, interior spiritual struggle facing a man trained for combat, A Nightmare’s Prayer brings to life a Marine’s public and personal trials set against “the fine talcum brown soot of Afghanistan that permeated everything—even one’s soul.” |
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From the award-winning author of A People's Tragedy and Natasha's Dance , a landmark account of what private life was like for Russians in the worst years of Soviet repression There have been many accounts of the public aspects of Stalin's dictatorship: the arrests and trials, the enslavement and killing in the gulags. No previous book, however, has explored the regime's effect on people's personal lives, what one historian called "the Stalinism that entered into all of us." Now, drawing on a huge collection of newly discovered documents, The Whisperers reveals for the first time the inner world of ordinary Soviet citizens as they struggled to survive amidst the mistrust, fear, compromises, and betrayals that pervaded their existence. Moving from the Revolution of 1917 to the death of Stalin and beyond, Orlando Figes re-creates the moral maze in which Russians found themselves, where one wrong turn could destroy a family or, perversely, end up saving it. He brings us inside cramped communal apartments, where minor squabbles could lead to fatal denunciations; he examines the Communist faithful, who often rationalized even their own arrest as a case of mistaken identity; and he casts a humanizing light on informers, demonstrating how, in a repressive system, anyone could easily become a collaborator. A vast panoramic portrait of a society in which everyone spoke in whispers—whether to protect their families and friends, or to inform upon them— The Whisperers is a gripping account of lives lived in impossible times. |
