Filled with colorful characters, dramatic battles like Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, and an inexorable narrative momentum, this unsurpassed history details the sixty-year existence of the world's mightiest African empire; from its brutal formation and zenith under the military genius Shaka , through its inevitable collision with white expansionism, to its dissolution under Cetshwayo in the Zulu War of 1879.

      From the Japanese soldiers’ carefully calculated—and ultimately foiled—attempt to build a series of impregnable island forts on the ground to the tireless efforts of the Americans who struggled against a tenacious adversary and the temperature and terrain of the island itself, Robert Leckie captures the loneliness, the agony, and the heat of twenty-four-hour-a-day fighting on Guadalcanal. Combatants from both sides are brought to life: General Archer Vandegrift, who first assembled an amphibious strike force; Isoroku Yamamoto, the naval general whose innovative strategy was tested; the island-born Allied scout Jacob Vouza, who survived hideous torture to uncover the enemy’s plans; and Saburo Sakai, the ace flier who shot down American planes with astonishing ease. Propelling the Allies to eventual victory, Guadalcanal was truly the turning point of the war. Challenge for the Pacific is an unparalleled, authoritative account of this great fight that forever changed our world.

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    Following treatment for this he returned to the Western Front, remaining until the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

    Lee's army. In The Gleam of Bayonets, James V. Murfin gives a compelling account of the events and personalities involved in this momentous battle. The gentleness and patience of Lincoln, the vacillations of McClellan, and the grandeur of Lee--all unfold before the reader. The battle itself is presented with precision and scope as Murfin blends together atmosphere and fact, emotions and tactics, into a dramatic and coherent whole. Originally published in 1965, The Gleam of Bayonets is now recognized as a classic and the standard against which all books on Antietam are measured.

    Stalin renovated Suvorov's reputation by borrowing his title, the unprecedented rank ""Generalissimo of the Russian Army,"" and by incorporating Suvorov's image into propaganda posters depicting himself. Longworth demonstrates that Suvorov is quite capable of standing magnificently upright in history without Stalin's aid. Coming from a rather middle-class family at a time when wealthy young aristocrats dominated the officer class, Suvorov rose slowly; he did not achieve his greatest eminence until nearly seventy. Nor did he ever really lose touch with the common footsoldier. As a tactician, he broke every rule and abandoned classical strategy in favor of loose organization on the field that allowed for fluid adaptation to events. When slow, deliberate plodding of troops was considered absolutely necessary, he instead struck like a mongoose. He was the bane of fellow officers, and was indeed a vain, impish eccentric...An absorbing portrait of a quixotic pragmatist who never lost a battle.

    He describes Washington’s capitulation at Fort Necessity, Braddock’s defeat at the Monongahela, and Forbes’s successful campaign to retake Fort Duquesne.  Although most of the action in the book takes place at the strategically important forks of the Ohio, where present-day Pittsburgh stands, O’Meara’s narrative relates the two forts to the larger story of the French and Indian War and elucidates their roles in sparking a global conflict that altered the course of world events and decided the fate of empires.

    Flying Whitleys with 10 Squadron and Halifaxes with 76 Squadron, Tom Sawyer became one of World War II's most experienced station commanders. His account is full of highly readable anecdotes about squadron life in Bomber Command and how, night after night, the crews struck at the enemy heartlands.