The Ghost Road won the 1995 Booker Prize.

    Maass examines how an ordinary Serb could wake up one morning and shoot his neighbor, once a friend--then rape that neighbor's wife. He conveys the desperation that makes a Muslim beg the United States to bomb his own city in order to end the misery. And Maass does not falter at the spectacle of U.N. soldiers shining searchlights on fleeing refugees--who are promptly gunned down by snipers waiting in the darkness. Love Thy Neighbor gives us an unflinching vision of a late-20th-century hell that is also a scathing inquiry into the worst extremes of human nature. Like Michael Herr's Dispatches (also available in Vintage paperback), it is an utterly gripping book that will move and instruct readers for years to come.

    Lee's radical decision to divide his small army - a violation of basic military rules - sending Stonewall Jackson on his famous march around the Union army flank. Jackson's death - accidentally shot by one of his own soldiers - is one of the many fascinating stories included in this definitive account of the battle of Chancellorsville.

    Assuming a new identity, she lived among the Nazis whilst carrying out highly dangerous acts of sabotage, risking her life and the lives of her loved ones.Despite the constant danger she faced, Anna found love – or love found Anna.But as the war drags her away from those she loves, can this passion outlast Germany’s occupation of Norway?Or will it be just one more casualty of the conflict?

    For four centuries, it existed as a quiet residential area in a charming city long known for its ethnic and religious tolerance. On this street of 240 families, Muslims and Christians, Serbs and Croats lived easily together, unified by their common identity as Sarajavans. Then the war tore it all apart.   As she did in her groundbreaking work about North Korea, Nothing to Envy, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick tells the story of the Bosnian War and the brutal and devastating three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo through the lives of ordinary citizens, who struggle with hunger, poverty, sniper fire, and shellings.   Logavina Street paints this misunderstood war and its effects in vivid strokes—at once epic and intimate—revealing the heroism, sorrow, resilience, and uncommon faith of its people.   With a new Introduction, final chapter, and Epilogue by the author

    When young Richard Langley salvages, against all odds, the doomed Landing Craft that becomes known as Bloody Norah, little does he realise that in just a year’s time both of them will be involved in the greatest combined sea and air assault in history.Back in Britain, the preparations for Operation Overlord are being finalised. Crucial to the effort will be the dawn landing on Normandy beach, codenamed Sword, and the capture of a fortified chateau under the command of the ruthless Captain Franz Engel.Success hinges on the contribution of Patrick Ward’s gilder units, Langley and Bloody Norah, and the reconnaissance gathered by nurse turned SOE agent Suzi Jones.The countdown has begun to their appointment with destiny on the 6th June 1944. D-Day. A stunning, action-packed novel of the end of the Second World War, for fans of Jack Higgins, Philip McCutchan and Douglas Reeman.

    Born with a fiery spirit and a strong mind, she finds herself struggling between the common wisdom of the South and the truth she has discovered. The activities of the Underground Railroad and her close friendships with the Cromwell Plantation slaves create difficult choices. But when her decisions put her at odds with her heritage, and challenge her dreams, will she be able to give up all that is precious to her?Originally released as "Under the Southern Moon" by Virginia Gaffney.

    

    . . This book [is] one of the best on that war in Korea. . . . A wonderful account of common, decent men in desperate action."--LeatherneckDuring the early, uncertain days of the Korean War, World War II veteran and company lieutenant Joe Owen saw firsthand how the hastily assembled mix of some two hundred regulars and raw reservists hardened into a superb Marine rifle company known as Baker-One-Seven.As comrades fell wounded and dead around them on the frozen slopes above Korea's infamous Chosin Reservoir, Baker-One-Seven's Marines triumphed against the relentless human-wave assaults of Chinese regulars and took part  in the breakout that destroyed six to eight divisions of Chinese regulars. COLDER THAN HELL paints a vivid, frightening portrait of one of the most horrific infantry battles ever waged."Thoroughly gripping . . . The Chosin action is justly called epical; Lieutenant Owen tells the tale of the men who made it so."--Booklist

    At first, no one could see what was happening. By the time the alarm was raised it was too late. Ireland had been seized: a financial assault consolidated by a military one. But as the island is overrun, it’s soon clear that the invaders did not anticipate the fierce resolve of of their Celtic opponents. Nor the determination of the country’s powerful allies to throw out the occupiers. While a strengthening Irish resistance mounts a fierce guerilla campaign to take their country back, the British bring to bear the full might of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF to liberate their friend and neighbour across the Irish Channel. Dark Rose takes a bold premise and weaves it into a breathtaking, action-packed military thriller. If you like Tom Clancy, Frederick Forsyth, Andy McNab, Chris Ryan, Larry Bond, Dale Brown or Damien Lewis then you’ll love Mike Lunnon-Wood. Perfect for fans of Red Storm Rising, Sniper One or Bravo Two Zero or movies like Red Dawn, Dunkirk or The Siege of Jadotville.

     Born ‘a ragged-arsed kid from the backstreets of Glasgow’, the son of a violent gangster, McCallion joined the Paras to escape a miserable home life and find the family he longed for. After six tense tours in Ulster, McCallion gave up everything to move to South Africa in the hope of qualifying for the highly elite, highly dangerous South African Special Forces. Having succeeded in joining the Recces, McCallion was involved in plots to assassinate Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. Back in Britain, McCallion once again put his body and mind through unimaginable pressure during SAS Selection and ended up back in Ulster for two tours with the SAS anti-terrorist team. But must McCallion must continue his personal feud with the IRA as a policeman in Belfast, before a serious car accident led to him retraining as a lawyer. ‘Killing Zone’ is a story of exceptional endurance, told with grim humour and great psychological insight into the minds of those whose lives depend on killing others. “A stun grenade of a book” - Sunday Express “A story of daring and adventure ... few men have lived more perilously than Harry McCallion” - Daily Mail “KILLING ZONE exposes some of the SAS’s most closely guarded secrets” - Sunday Express “McCallion is the hardest man you could encounter” - The Independent “An extraordinary insight into the psychology of a man who has survived despite choosing to live as dangerously as possible” - The Times “A remarkable tale of life on the edge” - Glasgow Herald Harry McCallion served in the British Army in both the Parachute Regiment and in the SAS, as well as spending two years in the South African Special Forces. After six years with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, he retrained as a lawyer and is now a barrister. Harry McCallion is also the author of two novels: ‘Hunter Killer’ and ‘Double Kill. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter atwww.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook viahttp://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

    In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland. Although the British fleet was victorious over the Germans, the cost in ships and men was high, and debates have raged within British naval circles ever since about why the Royal Navy was unable to take advantage of the situation. In this book Andrew Gordon focuses on what he calls a fault-line between two incompatible styles of tactical leadership within the Royal Navy and different understandings of the rules of the games.

    In riveting and revelatory detail, Aftermath documents the ways in which wars have transformed the terrain of the battlefield into landscapes of memory and enduring terror: in France, where millions of acres of farmland are cordoned off to all but a corps of demolition experts responsible for the undetonated bombs and mines of World War I that are now rising up in fields, gardens, and backyards; in a sixty-square-mile area outside Stalingrad that was a cauldron of destruction in 1941 and is today an endless field of bones; in the Nevada deserts, where America waged a hidden nuclear war against itself in the 1950's, the results of which are only now becoming apparent; in Vietnam, where a nation's effort to remove the physical detritus of war has created psychological and genetic devastation; in Kuwait, where terrifyingly sophisticated warfare was followed by the Sisyphean task of making an uninhabitable desert capable of sustaining life.Aftermath excavates our century's darkest history, revealing that the destruction of the past remains deeply, inextricably embedded in the present.

    You couldn't live thirty minutes 'out there' with only six men."                [pg. 13]In 1965 nearly four hundred men were interviewed and only thirty-two selected for the infant LRRP Detachment of the lst Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Old-timers called it the suicide unit. Whether conducting prisoner snatches, search and destroy missions, or hunting for the enemy's secret base camps, LRRPs depended on one another 110 percent. One false step, one small mistake by one man could mean sudden death for all.Author Reynel Martinez, himself a 101st LRRP Detachment veteran, takes us into the lives and battles of the extraordinary men for whom the brotherhood of war was and is an ever-present reality: the courage, the sacrifice, the sense of loss when one of your own dies. In the hills, valleys, and triple-canopy jungles, the ambushes, firefights, and copter crashes, LRRPs were among the best and bravest to fight in Vietnam.

    Initially cast as target-spotters for gunships and air-assault forces, the scout pilots evolved into live bait as enemy weapons and tactics improved. Their small helicopters were vulnerable even to minor damage, and parachuting from a damaged bird was impossible. Casualty rates could be as high as 50%; a scout unit often resembled a WWI fighter squadron, with replacements dying almost before they could unpack. Yet fresh volunteers kept coming, even if only to stay out of the infantry. In his visceral memoir, Smith tells the familiar story of a young man who flunked out of college, sampled the 1960s counterculture and found himself first in the army, then in Vietnam. For Smith, the war was a theater of the absurd whose only meaning was survival. His narrative of low-altitude, high-risk operations in 1969-70 replicates that of others: initial confusion giving way first to proficiency and pleasure in stalking and killing anonymous enemies, later to a sense that both his skill and his luck are running out. Gritty enough to appeal to adventure fans, this memoir makes a useful contribution to a subject, American helicopter pilots in Vietnam, whose recorded history is largely still in its anecdotal stage.

    The Rape of Nanking, or Nanking Massacre, in which at least 369,366 people were slaughtered and 80,000 women were raped by Japanese invasion troops, has become little more than a historical footnote in the West. The horror began on the morning of December 13, 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army captured Nanking (Nanjing), which was then China's capital. Soldiers went through the streets indiscriminately killing Chinese men, women, and children without apparent provocation or excuse until in places the streets and alleys were littered with the bodies of their victims. Thousands of women were raped by Japanese soldiers; death was frequently the penalty for the slightest resistance by a victim or members of her family. Even large numbers of young girls and old women were raped throughout the city, and many cases of abnormal and sadistic behavior in connection with these rapes were reported. Many women were killed after the act and their bodies mutilated. For the next six weeks, while horrific rape continued, wholesale murder of male civilians was conducted with the apparent sanction of the Japanese high command. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and disarmed ex-soldiers were arrayed in formation, their hands bound behind their backs, and marched outside the city wall where, in groups, they were beheaded, or buried alive, or bayoneted, or raked with machine-gun fire, or doused with gasoline and burned. This book, using more than 400 historical photographs, many of which were taken by Japanese soldiers themselves, is published to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Rape of Nanking, to remind the world of the forgotten holocaust of WWII, and to honor history and answer any attempt to deny or change it.

    William H. McRaven helped to devise the strategy for how to bring down Osama bin Laden, and commanded the courageous U.S. military unit that carried it out on May 1, 2011, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history. In Spec Ops, a well-organized and deeply researched study, McRaven analyzes eight classic special operations. Six are from WWII: the German commando raid on the Belgian fort Eben Emael (1940); the Italian torpedo attack on the Alexandria harbor (1941); the British commando raid on Nazaire, France (1942); the German glider rescue of Benito Mussolini (1943); the British midget-submarine attack on the Tirpitz (1943); and the U.S. Ranger rescue mission at the Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines (1945). The two post-WWII examples are the U.S. Army raid on the Son Tay POW camp in North Vietnam (1970) and the Israeli rescue of the skyjacked hostages in Entebbe, Uganda (1976). McRaven—who commands a U.S. Navy SEAL team—pinpoints six essential principles of “spec ops” success: simplicity, security, repetition, surprise, speed and purpose. For each of the case studies, he provides political and military context, a meticulous reconstruction of the mission itself and an analysis of the operation in relation to his six principles. McRaven deems the Son Tay raid “the best modern example of a successful spec op [which] should be considered textbook material for future missions.” His own book is an instructive textbook that will be closely studied by students of the military arts. Maps, photos.

    Fergal Keane travelled through the country as the genocide was continuing, and his powerful analysis reveals the terrible truth behind the headlines.‘A tender, angry account … As well as being a scathing indictment – Keane says the genocide inflicted on the Tutsis was planned well in advance by Hutu leaders – this is a graphic view of news-gathering in extremis. It deserves to become a classic’ Independent.

    Yet the sheer, crushing number of murders—over 1,200,000—the overwhelming scale of the crime, and the vast, abandoned site of ruined chimneys and rusting barbed wire isolate Auschwitz from us. How could an ordinary town become a site of such terror? Why was this particular town chosen? Who conceived, created, and constructed the camp? This unprecedented history reveals how an unremarkable Polish village was transformed into a killing field. Using architectural designs and planning documents recently discovered in Poland and Russia and over 200 illustrations, Auschwitz tells how this town became the epicenter of the Final Solution. A National Jewish Book Award winner.

    Shaara captures the disillusionment of both Lee and Hancock early in their careers, Lee's conflict with loyalty, Jackson's overwhelming Christian ethic and Chamberlain's total lack of experience, while illustrating how each compensated for shortcomings and failures when put to the test. The perspectives of the four men, particularly concerning the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, make vivid the realities of war.

     As she grows up, Tess slowly starts to put together the pieces herself. But the outbreak of war brings tragedy and upheaval, changing Tess's priorities. Mal Chandler has travelled the length and breadth of Australia with his feckless father and weary mother. Now, the war brings Mal to England as a pilot for the RAF - and into Tess's world.

    In this book Evola considers the spiritual aspects of war in different spiritual traditions, including the Vedic, Iranian, Islamic and Catholic. In so doing he concludes that war can, in certain circumstances, have a ‘sacred character’ through which man may achieve self-realisation. In the second edition we have added a large number of new footnotes and a comprehensive index.This collection of essays is about war from a spiritual and heroic perspective. Evola selects specific examples from the Aryan and Islamic traditions to demonstrate how traditionalists can prepare themselves to experience wars in a way that could allow them to transcend the limited possibilities of life in our materialistic age, entering the world of heroism, i.e., achieving a higher state of consciousness, an effective realisation of the meaning of life. His call to action, however, is not that of today’s armies, which ask nothing more of their soldiers than to become mercenaries in the service of a decadent class. Rather, Evola presents the warrior as one who lives a cohesive and integrated way of life – one who adopts a specifically Aryan view of the world, which sees the political aims of a war not as war’s ultimate justification, but as being merely a means through which the warrior realizes his calling to a higher form of existence.

    Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he is attacked by an umbrella-wielding mouse in a confrontation that quickly turns into a full-scale war. "A strong anti-war message and lithe, incandescent artwork propel this affecting wordless picture book".--"Publishers Weekly".

    The war was won, they thought, and to win it they had been pushed to what seemed like the limits of endurance. But ahead lay not only an enemy with no thoughts of surrender, but also appalling battle conditions reminiscent of the legendary miseries of Passchendaele. This much-anticipated sequel to The Guns of Normany picks up where its critically acclaimed predecessor leaves off, and it continues in the same absorbing, startlingly vivid style. After the battle for Normandy, Blackburn’s 4th Field Regiment, with the rest of 1st Canadian Army, is called upon to pursue the enemy through the flooded Low Country, clearing the Scheldt estuary – a task equal to that of D-Day – and opening the port of Antwerp to allow for the huge influx of supplies necessary to press on against the German forces, now fighting with mounting desperation and ferocity. After enduring the worst winter in local memory, and spending yet another Christmas far from home, in the spring of 1945 the Canadians are thrust into the crucial Battle of the Rhineland, which will eventually allow Allied forces to plunge into the heart of the Reich.When victory comes, it is with no sense of triumph over a vanquished foe, but with the profoundest relief that this most terrible conflict in history is finally over.Told with Blackburn’s now trademark sense of drama and eye for detail, this story of the desperate struggle for Europe becomes as large as life. It should fully establish Blackburn as the author of an acknowledged classic on the Second World War.From the Hardcover edition.

    For a period of nearly six years, the German U-boat force attempted to blockade and isolate the British Isles in hopes of forcing the British out of the war, thereby thwarting both the Allied strategic air assault on German cities and Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Occupied France. Fortunately for the Allies, the U-boat force failed to achieve either of these objectives, but in the attempt they sank 2,800 Allied merchant ships, while the Allies sank nearly 800 U-boats. On both sides, tens of thousands of sailors perished.     For decades, an authoritative and definitive history of the Battle of the Atlantic could not be attempted, since London and Washington agreed to withhold all official code-breaking and U-boat records in order to safeguard the secrets of code breaking in the postwar years. The accounts that did appear were incomplete and full of false conclusions and errors of fact, often leaving the entirely wrong impression that the German U-boats came within a whisker of defeating the Allies, a myth that is finally laid to rest in this account.     Clay Blair, acclaimed author of the bestselling naval classic Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan, has drawn from the official records as well as the work of German, British, American, and Canadian naval scholars. Never before has Hitler's U-boat war been chronicled with such authority, fidelity, objectivity, and detail. The result is this magnificent and monumental work, crammed with vivid and dramatic scenes of naval actions and dispassionate but startling new revelations, interpretations, and conclusions about all aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic.

    In this revelatory portrayal of the lives of the regular infantrymen who struggled to contain the Japanese advance, Eric Bergerud has given us a compelling and chilling record of the incredible hardships endured by these soldiers, and the heroic efforts that resulted in the reversal of the course of the war. Bergerud spent hundreds of hours interviewing the last surviving veterans of this remarkable campaign, and he has placed their personal experiences at the center of his analysis of military strategy."Aspires to do for the ground war in the South Pacific what Keegan achieved in Six Armies in Normandy."--Los Angeles Times

    Some were keen to enlist from the start, others were conscripted and some dead against. Eventually, all eight would be swept up into its devastating path as, despite astonishing displays of courage and strength of character, they met their fates on the battlefields of France, Flanders, East Africa and Gallipoli. Their's was a tragedy almost without parallel and one that has remained forgotten and unmarked for nearly 90 years. Until now...Kept in a small brown case handed down by the brothers' youngest sister, Edie, were hundreds of letters sent home from the front by the Beechey boys: scraps of paper scribbled on in the firing line and sent to their widowed mother Amy, heartfelt letters written from a deathbed, exasperated correspondences detailing the absurdities of life in the trenches. From it all emerges the remarkable tale of a family forced to sacrifice everything.

    This well-written, technically accurate, and even exciting account captures the urgency of the race to win World War II, the people behind the magnetrons, screens and antennae, and the use of radar in the cold war.

    But she is forced to admit she respects and admires Dr Peter Schmidt and they begin a relationship. Then, however, typhoid strikes.

    

    As the young couple struggle to build their homestead, World War I breaks out. Ages 8+ years.

    He compares the army's organization and strategic doctrine with those of its chief opponents and explores in detail the reality of battle: tactics, weaponry, leadership, and, most of all, the important issue of morale.

    Author Cecil B. Currey makes one primary reason clear: North Viet Nam's Senior Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Victory at Any Cost tells the full story of the man who fought three of the world's great powers—and beat them all.

    

    He is one of the few writers of the era who actually fought in the war, who participated in its daily routines and experienced the senseless confusion, the terror, and the blood-letting of battle. As such, his crisply evocative first-hand accounts--both fictional and nonfictional--of life and death on the firing line set the standard for historical accuracy as well as dramatic power.William McCann has sifted through Ambrose Bierce's vast literary opus to present a collection of his most outstanding stories of the Civil War: seven selections from the author's memoirs and twenty works of fiction in all.From the minute-by-minute- heartbeat-by-heartbeat recreation of combat in "What I Saw of Shiloh" to the graphic realism and tragedy of such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Biere's craftsmanship--the intensity of his vision, the precision of his prose--is evident throughout.Whether you're a history enthusiast, Civil War buff, or simply a lover of good, tough, evocative writing, Ambrose Bierce's Civil War is your opportunity to discover some of the grittiest and most vivid depictions of battle on record. --jacket flapContains:On a mountain --What I saw of Shiloh --A little of Chickamauga --The crime at Pickett's Mill --Four days in Dixie --What occurred at Franklin --A bivouac of the dead ; A horseman in the sky --An occurrence at Owl Creek bridge --Chickamauga --A son of the gods --One of the missing --Killed at Resaca --The affair at Coulter's Notch --The coup de grace --Parker Adderson, philosopher --An affair of outposts --The story of a conscience --One kind of officer --One officer, one man --George Thurston --The mocking-bird --Three and one are one --A baffled ambuscade --Two military executions --A resumed identity --Jupiter Doke, brigadier-general.

    Delgado, a noted marine archaeologist with the National Park Service, visited Bikini in the late 1980s to explore and document the condition of the sunken ships. His work is more than an archaeological study; it is the history of the nuclear age. This book chronicles the development of the bomb, its deployment in Japan, the preparations for the tests, the attempted clean-up afterward, and the beginning of the Cold War.

    Four years later, another flag was raised in its place while the city burned below. A thirteen-year-old girl compared the stars and stripes to "so many bloody gashes." This richly detailed, absorbing book brings to life the years in which Richmond was the symbol of Southern independence and the theater for a drama as splendid, sordid, and tragic as the war itself. Drawing on an array of archival sources, Ashes of Glory portrays Richmond's passion through the voices of soldiers and statesmen, preachers and prostitutes, slaves and slavers. Masterfully orchestrated and finely rendered, the result is a passionate and compelling work of social history."Furguson is a lively writer with an eye for the apt quotation and the telling incident...He brings to life a diverse cast of characters."--Newsday"Succeeds to a remarkable extent...Furguson brings war-torn Richmond to life."--Baltimore Sun

    Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as the pacification of the past). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.

    In exploring the question of why Nazism flourished in the 'Athens of the Isar', David Clay Large has written a compelling account of the cultural roots of the Nazi movement, allowing us to see that the conventional explanations for the movement's rise are not enough. Large's account begins in Munich's 'golden age', four decades before World War I, when the city's artists and writers produced some of the outstanding work of the modernist spirit. He sees a dark side to the city, a protofascist cultural heritage that would tie Adolf Hitler's movement to its soul. Large prowls his volatile world of seamy basement meeting places, finding that attacks on modernity and liberalism flourished, along with virulent anti-Semitism and German nationalism. From the violent experience of the Munich Soviet, through Hitler's failed Beer-Hall Putsch of 1923 and on to his appointment as German chancellor in 1933, Large unfurls a narrative full of insight and implication.

    Wolfgang Hirschfeld, whose diaries Geoffrey Brooks has translated is a born story teller. The principal chapters describe his experiences during six war patrols in U-109, in which he served as the senior telegraphist. His is a tale which covers the whole kaleidescope of emotions shared by men at war - a story of immense courage and fortitude, of remarkable comradeship born of the dangers, frustrations and privations shared and of transitory moments of triumph. Throughout runs a vein of humour, without which resistance to stress would have been virtually impossible. We get to know one of Germany's great U-boat aces, 'Ajax' Bleichrodt, holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and, in a special biographical appendix, learn how he finally cracked under the strain. The role of Admiral Karl Donitz, the dynamic commander of the U-boat service, so fascinatingly described by Hirschfeld, is of special interest - not least because even this dedicated Nazi had clearly realized by September, 1942, that the war was fast being lost. In 1944 Hirschfeld was promoted Warrant Officer and found himself on a large, schnorkel-equipped boat (U-234) heading for Japan with a load of high technology equipment and, in addition, a quantity of uranium ore. The possible significance of that uranium has been deeply researched by Geoffrey Brooks and is discussed in a second appendix.

    He was only twenty years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime’s worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, The Wrong Stuff is Smith’s gripping memoir of that time. In a new preface, the author comments with equal honesty and humor on the impact this book has had on his life.

    From being a defence of Portugal and those parts of Spain not under French control, it became an effort by the British, Spanish and Portuguese forces to drive the French out completely. Operations at the end of 1812 included the unsuccessful British siege of Burgos and the subsequent retreat; renewed campaigning on the east coast of Spain, including Murray's actions around Tarragona; and the beginning of the final offensive against the French, including the epic battles of Roncesvalles, Maya and Sorauren.

    French successes in Spain continued but the army under Massena was forced finally to retreat from Portugal. The Allied offensive began to gather momentum, although their attempt to recapture Badajoz was unsuccessful. Beresford's campaign on the southern frontier of Portugal included one of the hardest-fought actions of the era, the Battle of Albuera, and Graham's victory at Barrosa aided the long-running defence of Cadiz against the French siege. Wellington saw victory at Fuentes de Onoro, and smaller scale successes for the British Army also occurred at E1 Bodon, Sabugal and Arroyo dos Molinos.

    Taking issue with revisionist historians, Samuels argues that German success in battle can be explained by their superior tactical philosophy. The book provides a fascinating insight into the development of infantry tactics at a seminal point in the history of warfare.

    Essays and memoirs discuss the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan in 1945.

    In addition to Neil Jordan's complete screenplay for Michael Collins, this book includes the writer-director's personal journal of the making of the movie from its initial conception through its development, on-the-set-shooting and first triumphal screening.

    Intrigue and heroism, adventure and betrayal figure in this account of British-led efforts to defeat the Nazis in wartime France, based on extensive research in records, documents, letters and memoirs, and the author's interviews with surviving agents and officials. Despite sporadic defeat and betrayal, SOE leaders managed to delay the arrival of German reinforcements to the Normandy beachhead, contributing to the eventual Allied victory. Details of the operations of SOE recounted here remained secret for decades after the war, finally revealing the human cost of the reconnaissance and sabotage efforts that helped to shorten the conflict.

    Our Bones Are Scattered recounts the bloodiest acts of one of the bloodiest rebellions in history - the siege and massacre of the European garrison at Cawnpore, India, and the terrible retribution that followed. Set in the doomed world of the British East India Company's domain, this riveting saga of folly, bravery, faith, and rage extends to the furthest reaches of human cruelty and strength. Among the extraordinary characters: Nana Sahib, the Mahratta prince whose extravagant hospitality won him the trust and friendship of the very Europeans who would be slaughtered in his name; the maimed and aging warhorse, Major General Sir Hugh Wheeler, who disastrously staked the lives of his Eurasian wife and children on his dream of commanding the Company's army; the brilliant Azimullah Khan, whose struggle from famine waif to Nana Sahib's emissary to London cultivated a genocidal loathing of the British; Jonah Shepherd, the pious Eurasian clerk who escaped the Entrenchment and survived as a prisoner of the rebels; the Mahratta brigadier Tatya Tope, whose resourceful courage as a guerrilla nearly compensated for his complicity in the Cawnpore massacres; Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson, who escaped the siege of one entrenchment only to withstand the siege of another; four American missionary families whose harrowing exodus down the Ganges would end in their destruction; Brigadier General James Neill, whose martial audacity was subsumed by an atrocious appetite for vengeance; and the beautiful Amy Horne, who was spared her life only tobecome a trooper's concubine. With a historian's authority and a novelist's empathy, Andrew Ward draws on unpublished letters and documents, years of research, and repeated trips to India and Great Britain to bring this monumental epic to life.

    By 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the sixth largest navy in the world and the quality of its officers and men was widely recognised by most European naval observers at the time. The book describes the relationships between naval leaders, the heir to the throne Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and the Parliament in shaping the dual Monarchy's naval policy. It also shows how the changes in foreign policy in Italy and underlying animosities between Rome and Vienna led to a naval race in the Adriatic that eventually bolstered Germany's naval position in respect to Great Britain in the North Sea.

    INFANTRY WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR II is the definitive guide detailing the weapons used by U.S. soldiers during World War II. This comprehensive book includes information about design, purchase, distribution and combatperformance as it describes the hardware that won the famous battles. It is heavily illustrated and includes many combat photos.

    

    . . massively researched . . . those seeking a richly detailed journal of the cavalry's role in one of the war's crucial campaigns will find this book irreplaceable." --Blue & Gray Magazine "This volume is meticulously detailed and comes to some convincing conclusions." --The Journal of American History "A vivid account of the campaign that helped decide the outcome of the Civil War. . . . A rich narrative that will delight students of the Civil War."--Kirkus Reviews Attempting a quick, decisive victory in the 1864 struggle for Atlanta, William Tecumseh Sherman's cavalry wreaked havoc in the countryside around the city. This book, based largely upon previously unpublished materials, tells the story of Sherman's raids. Through exhaustive research, David Evans has been able to recreate a vivid, captivating, and meticulously detailed image of the day-by-day life of the Yankee horse soldier.

    When living in Los Angeles, the author received phone calls from 1200 people in reaction to a campaign raised to help American Jews and other individuals file claims for property they had lost during the Nazi regime in what would later be Eastern Germany. Many of these phone calls were unrelated to the issue of filing the claims. On many occasions someone simply needed to talk to a complete stranger who lent a listening ear and understood. The conversations were usually long monologues about experiences in concentration camps like Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, even Sobibor. The victims talked about their escapes from the hands of the Nazi's, and about their harsh return after the liberation.When the process of filing claims was finished, the author found himself in the possession of a wealth of information, not only about the experiences of Holocaust survivors but also about the post-war generation. The personal, moving and candid witness statements and memories were all transcribed and verified, and provided shocking insights into the psychological aftermath of the first and second generation Holocaust victims.It was felt important to make these stories and memories accessible to a larger audience, especially to young people. The author Simon Hammelburg is a holocaust educator, lecturing in Europe, the United States and Israel. We should never forget what happened during World War II, and how this impacted generations to come. For countless people the war never ended.In this book, the memories of Holocaust survivors and their children have been intelligently woven into characters that play a role in the main storyline; the main character, himself a child from Jewish parents who both survived the Second World War, is trying to come to terms with the loss of a beloved one, Daisy, by traveling back to the place where they first met and were happy together. The book ends with the Kaddish for Daisy, attended by a circle of dear childhood friends, all of them from emotionally damaged and traumatized families. In their youth, they used to escape their homes on Sundays to meet at their Clubhouse from Ichud Habonim, a worldwide Zionist organization. The clubhouse served as a safehaven where they could be children and have fun.Although the tone of the book is generally serious, the author managed to give the book a gentle touch with his dry humor. In The War never Ended - Memories of Holocaust Survivors, Simon Hammelburg shows the trauma’s of his parents’ and of his own generation without ever becoming sentimental. They have been given a voice in an intelligent and natural way. The book is of rare literary quality with some great dialogues; once you start reading, you cannot put it down until you have read the very last page.The War Never Ended – Memories of Holocaust Survivors has been dedicated to Dr Flo Kinsler (1929-2013), a Los Angeles social worker and psychologist specialized in Holocaust trauma’s.

    A product of Northern French provincial society of the 19th century - austere, catholic and nationalist - de Gaulle was, according to Williams, the last great Frenchman. Whatever the arguments concerning de Gaulle's legacy, in his single-minded devotion to his country, and in his skill and strength in pushing it, there would have been no France if there had been no de Gaulle.

    Fessler has meticulously compiled and transcribed more than 200 interviews with American military nurses of the Army, Army Air Force, and Navy who were present in all theaters of WWII. Their stories bring to life horrific tales of illness and hardship, blinding blizzards, and near starvation—all faced with courage, tenacity, and even good humor. This unique oral-history collection makes available to readers an important counterpoint to the seemingly endless discussions of strategy, planning, and troop movement that often characterize discussions of the Second World War.

    The key to getting it back lay with Nazi treasurer, Martin Bormann. This book tells the story of Ian Fleming's raid to snatch Bormann out of Berlin. Creighton led a commando raid into the city.

    Her memoir unfolds before us the poignantly familiar picture of a young girl who, even under the most abominable circumstances, engages in intense adolescent friendships, worries with her companions over her looks, and falls in love. Raised a Catholic by secular Jewish parents, she did not even know she was a Jew until the German occupation of her country in 1939 when she was twelve.    Whereas Anne Frank’s diary ends with deportation to a concentration camp, Fortress of My Youth is the story of another young girl who tells us how she and her family were taken to Terezín, what food she ate there, what work she did, how her friends died from disease, how thousands were sent from there to Auschwitz, how her family members were killed, and how she escaped the gas chamber. But she also tells of love, joy, and sacrifice: musicians, writers, and intellectuals among the inmates who were determined to pass on their cultural heritage to the youth in Terezín; a network of Czechs outside the walls who smuggled in food; her singing in performances of Smetana’s Bartered Bride and Verdi’s Requiem, the most profound experiences of her life.

    Could Ailea ever learn to love a warrior and understand the ways of Adonai, the God of Israel? A captivating story of deception, intrigue, and love.

    Extracts from texts are presented in the original Old English with modern translations and useful information, such as comparative sizes of swords and other weapons, is presented in tables. Appendices give original translations of three important military poems; the battles of Maldon, Finnsburh and Brunanburh. This new edition has been expanded with the results of recent research and more illustrations. This is a very useful book for enthusiast and researcher alike.

    involvement in Vietnam. In his gripping account of this highly charged case, Rudenstine examines new evidence, raises difficult questions, and challenges conventional views of a historic moment.

    But historians have had, until now, only a vague understanding of the roles played by the Soviet Union and by Czechoslovakia, the country whose very existence was at the center of the crisis.In Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler, Igor Lukes explores this turbulent and tragic era from the new perspective of the Prague government itself. At the center of this study is Edvard Benes, a Czechoslovak foreign policy strategist and a major player in the political machinations of the era. The work analyzes the Prague Government's attempts to secure the existence of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in the treacherous space between the millstones of the East and West. It studies Benes's relationship with Joseph Stalin, outlines the role assigned to Czechoslovak communists by the VIIth Congress of the Communist International in 1935, and dissects Prague's secret negotiations with Berlin and Benes's role in the famous Tukhachevsky affair. Using secret archives in both Prague and Russia, this work is an accurate and original rendition of the events that sparked the Second World War.

    The authors interviewed Bachner in 1983, and did extensive historical research.

    A first-hand account of the ordeal of prisoners at the notorious Civil War prison camp.

    Born to a Russian mother and a German father, Sorge's ideals led him into the arms of Soviet intelligence in the late 1920s. Shortly thereafter he was tapped by the Chief Intelligence Directorate (GRU) to assemble an amazingly sophisticated operation under the nose of Japan's military government. Disguised as a respected Nazi journalist, he quickly penetrated the German embassy in Tokyo, and for more than a decade, sent a steady stream of priceless information back to his handlers in Moscow. By the time he was finally betrayed in 1941, Sorge had supplied Stalin with knowledge crucial to Hitler's defeat on the Eastern Front.More compelling than any spy fiction, Whymant's account of Sorge reads like LeCarre and Greene -- full of suspense, bravery, torrents of alcohol, dangerous mistresses, and treason -- but with one exception: it's history.

    Seventeen-year-old Juan Guillermo feels aloof from the rest of his family, until he spends time with his grandmother, a landowner in rural Colombia, is caught up in the fighting between the guerillas and the army, and comes to realize the importance of family ties.

    As Grant moved toward Vicksburg, the Lincoln administration needed to know more about what was happening in the remote western theater. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton dispatched a respected newspaperman, Charles A. Dana, ostensibly to straighten out payroll matters but actually to observe Grant and the situation in the army and report back daily. Dana became “the government’s eyes at the front.” Recollections of the Civil War, drawing largely on his reports and originally published in 1898, is a classic to rank with Grant’s Personal Memoirs. Dana’s candid assessment of Grant, other officers, and campaign operations carried weight with Lincoln and Stanton and undoubtedly influenced the course of the war. In these pages, Dana is with Grant and General Sherman throughout the siege of Vicksburg, riding into the city “at the side of the conqueror.” Later he is with Grant at Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. He is with General Rosecrans at Chickamauga; he watches General Sheridan’s troops scale Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga; he walks through the ruins of Richmond; he attends Lincoln on his deathbed. Finally, he sees Jefferson Davis in chains at Fortress Monroe.

    In his bestselling autobiography, Unreasonable Behaviour, Don McCullin told the extraordinary and sometimes harrowing story of how he grew up in north London's gangland and graduated from poverty to stardom as the most daring and self-sacrificing reporter of wars around the world - from Cyprus to Israel, the Congo and Biafra to Vietnam, Pakistan to Cambodia, Beirut to Iraq. But his interests go far beyond the battleground in all its degradation which he has captured so brilliantly. In this book he has collected some 200 of what he considers to be his best pictures. A few have become well-known icons, many have not been seen in a book before. They depict unemployed miners collecting coal from the beach at dawn, down-and-outs in the East End, the homeless in Bradford, but they also reveal a passion for landscape, especially in the mysterious light of India, and a moving contact between human beings in a harsh environment.

    What does the Jew stand for in modern culture? The conscious or unconscious, often hysterical repetition of myths and exaggerations, and the repertory of cliches, fantasies and phobias surrounding the stereotypes of the Jew and the Jewess, have meant that they are figures frequently represented both in the world of literature and art and in the industries of popular culture.

    Brady, who photographed the Civil War 1861-65 and sold his wonderful collection of negatives to the United States Government, was unique as a photographic artist. The reproduction of his famous War negatives shows history in this History of The Civil War that he was fifty years in advance of his time, for many of his photographs compare favorably with the best quality of work-to-day. That he was well equipped for this great work is shown by his remarkable career. In the early 50's he was well equipped for this great work is shown by his remarkable career. In the early 50's, he was the representative photographic artist of the day. His studios on Broadway, New York City, were patronized by the famous men and women of the period. The list of famous men and women who posed before his magic camera is too long to receive more than passing mention in this brief notice. A few of the prominent negatives now in the possession of the United States Government may, however, be mentioned such as portraits of Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Cullen Bryant, John G. Saxe, John Lothrop Motley, and the great authors and poets of the period. This list, taken at random from thousands, shows beyond dispute that Brady was the leader in his profession. The most important of all Brady's work, as General Greeley says, in his marvelous collection of Civil War photographs. It was Brady who left his profitable business to take pictures of the war. He secured permission from President Lincoln, and under the protection of Allan Pinkerton of the Secret Service Bureau, Brady and his men started taking pictures, thinking the War would not last more than two or three months, but for four long, weary years, they were actively at work throughout the country, and his wonderful collection of negatives of the great historical scences were actively at work throughout the country, and his wonderful collection of negatives of the great historical scenes and portraits of the leaders on both sides now attest to his energetic and remarkable work. It was these negatives that he sold to the United States Government, and by special permission of the War Department, reproductions have been made direct from the originals which so fittingly illustrate, as nothing else could do, the vivid text of Dr. Lossing in this History of the Civil War.

    The old adage epitomizes Jerry Cook, who spent 28 years at the controls of Air Force jets, including some 400 hours flying F-4 Phantoms on combat missions over Vietnam. Here is an unflinching account of his experiences--alternately poignant and side-splitting, always extraordinarily honest and compelling.Cook gives you a rare insider's glimpse into the world of flying's elite, describing the rigorous training required to become an Air Force fighter pilot and revealing the true nature of men thought of as swaggering, larger-than-life top guns. You'll meet flesh-and-blood human beings who feel all the fears and misgivings you would expect of people facing death almost daily.Cook also whisks you along on heart-stopping combat missions. Fly with him in Air Force F-4 Phantoms over enemy territory dodging shrapnel, missiles, and other aircraft.Along the way, you'll get an eye-opening look at one of the most tumultous eras in U.S. history--as seen through the eyes of men who risked their lives for a cause that threatened to tear a nation apart.

    Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman prepared their inexperienced troops for a massive offensive by an equally green Confederate army in April 1862, the outcome of the Civil War was still very much in doubt. For two of the most chaotic and ravaging days of the War, the Union forces counterattacked and fended off the Rebels. Losses were great--more than 20,000 casualties out of 100,000 Union and Confederate troops. But out of the struggle, Grant and Sherman forged their own union that would be a major factor in the Union Army's final victory. For the Confederates, Shiloh was a devastating disappointment. By the time the siege was over, they had lost both the battle and one of their ablest commanders, Albert Sidney Johnston.Eyewitness accounts by battle participants make these guides an invaluable resource for travelers and nontravelers who want a greater understanding of five of the most devastating yet influential years in our nation's history. Explicit directions to points of interest and maps--illustrating the action and showing the detail of troop position, roads, rivers, elevations, and tree lines as they were 130 years ago--help bring the battles to life. In the field, these guides can be used to recreate each battle's setting and proportions, giving the reader a sense of the tension and fear each soldier must have felt as he faced his enemy.

    In Postcards from the Trenches, Allyson Booth traces the complex relationship between British Great War culture and modernist writings. She shows that, through the experience of the Great War, both civilian and combatant modernist writers found that language could no longer represent experience. She goes on to identify and contextualize several of the resulting modernist tropes: she links the dissolving modernist self to soldiers' familiarity with corpses, the modernist mistrust of factuality to the apparent inaccessibility of facts regarding the rape of Belgium, and the modernist interest in multiple viewpoints to the singularity of perspective with which generals studied battlefield maps. Though her emphasis is on literary works by Robert Graves, E.M. Forster, and Vera Brittain, among others, Booth's analysis extends to memorials, posters, and architecture of the Great War. This interdisciplinary quality of Booth's study results in a much deeper understanding of how the Great War affected cultural representations and how that culture represented the War.

    Examines the system of warfare between 1792 and 1815, including the methods for infantry, cavalry, and artillery.

    272pp. 60 illus. 13 maps/diags. 16x24c. Hardback in D.J. all fine

    . .In four and a half years in Vietnam, the Marines of the Third Reconnaissance Battalion repeatedly penetrated North Vietnamese and Vietcong sanctuaries by foot and by helicopter to find enemy forces, learn the enemy's intentions, and, when possible, bring deadly fire down on his head. Heavily armed, well-camouflaged teams of six and eight men daily exposed themselves to overwhelming enemy forces so that other Marines would have the information necessary to fight the war.It's all here: grueling, tense, and deadly recon patrols; insertions directly into NVA basecamps; last-stand defenses in the wreckage of downed helicopters; pursuit by superior North Vietnamese forces; agonizing deaths of men who valiantly put their lives on the line.NEVER WITHOUT HEROES is the first book to recount the story of a Marine reconnaissance battalion in Vietnam from the day of its arrival to its withdrawal. In Vietnam, Larry Vetter served as a platoon leader in Third Recon Battalion. He supplements his own recollections with Marine Corps records, exhaustive interviews with veterans, and correspondence to capture the bravery, and self-sacrifice of war.

    Ninety-five percent of the Jewish population was restricted to a life of poverty and starvation in the ghetto and barred from schools and universities. Ultimately, four million Jews left Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1924, three million of whom settled in America. Monumental though this mass migration was, it is even more surprising to learn that twice as many Jews decided not to leave Eastern Europe, despite the horrid conditions they endured. This puzzling statistic lends even sharper emphasis to the reasons surrounding the biggest movement of people in world history. Milton Meltzer has gathered eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, documents, songs, maps, poems, and memoirs, weaving them into an historical narrative that details the Jews' motivation to abandon their old world and venture into a new one. It is a story that will at once educate and inspire the reader, delight and disappoint, while restoring a world practically unfathomable to today's American Jews, most of whom can find their roots in that rich and wondrous past.

    

    This theme is developed over time and across military cultures. A comparative framework allows the treatment of the overall theme by examining the concept of the operational art in the context of different nationalities, different military organizations, and different societies. This study situates the current operational art in its historical context.

    It includes: great classic poems of the war, the war's most popular and propagandist verse, war poetry of well-known fiction writers, women poets of the war, poetry exploring the common experiences of the war, extracts from diaries, personal letters and autobiographies of poets and contemporaries, historical and biographical background material, the role of poets in the war, and many photographs, drawings, maps and diagrams.

    In contrast, The King's Army--a meticulously researched analysis of the royal army during the early civil wars--brings warfare back to the center of the picture. The King's Army makes an important contribution to the history of military forces, warfare, religion and society in France, and will be of great interest to those engaged in the debate over the Military Revolution in early modern Europe.

    Keyed to official highway maps, this richly illustrated guide leads the traveler to virtually every principal landmark associated with the war, from Fort Phil Kearny where the Sioux besieged soldiers sent to guard the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s to Fort Buford, the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.

    In the midst of the fighting in France during World War I, a soldier named Arthur forms a special friendship with a bantam he calls Bertha.

    Guides the reader through the development of the Lee legend, from the heroic imagery of the Lost Cause to the more critical assessments of Lee.

    Shentalinsky opened the files to find detailed reports describing how these writers--including Isaac Babel and Maxim Gorky--were arrested, tortured, falsely accused of crimes, imprisoned in gulag camps, or secretly executed. of photos.

    The thread that ties these essays together is his criticism of strict historical interpretation of the Constitution, which holds that our modern-day understanding must be strictly limited to the concerns of the Constitution's framers, rather than the underlying principles embodied within. Divided into three parts, the book examines the soundness of Roe v. Wade, defends a broad reading of the First Amendment and attacks the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

    This ground-breaking work presents a wealth of information on the campaign to defend the Allied fleet at Normandy from the torpedoes of Germany's high-performance E-boats.

    Picking up from where The Great Tank Scandal left off, in the winter of 1942/43, The Universal Tank carries the story of British and Commonwealth Armoured Fighting Vehicles forward to 1945 and notes their place in during WWII.

    Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace requires special relationships, structures, and attitudes to promote and protect it.A Natural History of Peace provides the first broadly interdisciplinary examination of peace as viewed from the perspectives of social anthropology, primatology, archeology, psychology, political science, and economics. Among other notable features, this volume offers:a major theory concerning the evolution of peace and violence through human history; an in-depth comparative study of peaceful cultures with the goal of discovering what it is that makes them peaceful;one of the earliest reports of a new theory of the organization and collapse of ancient Maya civilization;a comparative examination of peace from the perspective of change, including the transition of one of the world's most violent societies to a relatively peaceful culture, and the decision-making process of terrorists who abandon violence;and a theory of political change that sees the conclusion of wars as uniquely creative periods in the evolution of peace among modern nations.

    

    In Under the Nazi Regime, Erich Leyens reflects on the effects of authoritarianism on everyday Germans. By contrast, Lotte Andor's Memoirs of an Unknown Actress focuses on the absurdity of an exile's life, telling her story with unusual humor and an appreciation of life's unexpected joys. Both stories present a deep understanding of how human beings learn to cope in the face of evil.