They Met at Shiloh


Phillip Bryant - 2011
    Peace is shattered as Confederate and Federal troops meet on the fields and farms surrounding a tiny Methodist church. In the midst of death and destruction, friendships form as four soldiers struggle to survive the battle. Forced to leave his position as minister, Phillip Pearson knows his life is in danger, but not just from the Confederates. The Harper family, incensed at Pearson's refusal to bury a philandering son, has a vendetta against him that is played out on the battlefield. Demoted from his command by a West Point graduate, Capt.Michael Greirson is forced to choose between ambition and duty. When a bumbling youth becomes his shadow, Private Robert Mitchell gains an unlikely friend—something that has been missing from his life. Afraid to trust, he is forced to confront those fears and depend on others in the heat of battle. War is an adventure to Private Stephen Murdoch and his best friend, William Banks. For months they dream of the glory of war before volunteering together. On the eve of battle, they sense something momentous is about to happen. Their idealistic views fade in the blood of their fallen comrades. Of the 40,000 Confederates and 30,000 Federals about to come face to face along the banks of the Tennessee River, these four soldiers will experience fear and questions of faith for what lies beyond. Two days of horrific fighting turn boys into men and sever the sacred bonds of comradeship in the bloodiest days of the war.

Assignment Bletchley: A WWII Novel of Navy Intelligence, Spies and Intrigue (Commander Romella, USN, WWII Assignments series Book 1)


Peter J. Azzole - 1999
    Navy is a specialist in the field of communications intelligence. Little did Tony know that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would have such a direct impact on his career and life. He is urgently ordered from his comfortable duty in Washington, DC to an assignment at Bletchley Park, the British communications intelligence center. This fast-paced, riveting story thrusts Tony into personal, technical and diplomatic situations that test his skills and ingenuity. His love life intermingles with his involvement in a high-level world of intelligence, spies and intrigue. Tony loves every minute of it. Published author, Peter J. Azzole, is a retired U.S. Navy officer with a career in communications intelligence. He crafts this story from history and professional experience.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War


Karen Abbott - 2014
    Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The beautiful widow, Rose O’Neale Greenhow, engaged in affairs with powerful Northern politicians to gather intelligence for the Confederacy, and used her young daughter to send information to Southern generals. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist, hid behind her proper Southern manners as she orchestrated a far-reaching espionage ring, right under the noses of suspicious rebel detectives.Using a wealth of primary source material and interviews with the spies’ descendants, Abbott seamlessly weaves the adventures of these four heroines throughout the tumultuous years of the war. With a cast of real-life characters including Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, General Stonewall Jackson, detective Allan Pinkerton, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and Emperor Napoleon III, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy draws you into the war as these daring women lived it.Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy contains 39 black & white photos and 3 maps.

Over There: War Scenes on the Western Front (Collected Works of Arnold Bennett)


Arnold Bennett - 1915
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Into the Storm: On the Ground in Iraq


Tom Clancy - 1997
    In this first volume of a series on the intricacies of military command, Clancy traces the organizational success story of the U.S. Army's rise from the slough of Vietnam to the heights of victory in the Persian Gulf. In 1972, the Army lacked proper discipline, training, weapons, and doctrine; all these would be overhauled in the next 15 years. For those readers keen on such nuts and bolts, the book will be fascinating. But the book truly sparkles when Franks tells his story. A "tanker" who lost a foot in the invasion of Cambodia, he is a man of great courage, thoughtfulness, and integrity. One cannot help but wince when a civilian tells him, "You and those boys did that for nothing." And for all the acronyms and military history, that is what this book is about: healing the wounds Vietnam inflicted. "But this time [the Gulf War], it was going to end differently. They all would see to that."In his brilliant, bestselling novels, Tom Clancy has explored the most dramatic military and security issues of our time. Now he takes readers deep into the operational art of war with this insightful look at one of America's most important military engagements in recent years: the Gulf War. Never before has the art of maneuver warfare been explored so incisively and in such rich, provocative detail. Clancy and General Frederick M. Franks, Jr.-commander of the main force that broke the back of the Republican Guard-take us deep inside the war councils and command posts and up to the front lines. They give us a war that few people really knew-and that television never showed.

A Man Called Intrepid


William Stevenson - 1976
    NBC News calls it, "A historical document of major significance." The focus is on Sir William Stephenson, Britain's urbane spy chief who inspired James Bond.

Flashman and the Seawolf


Robert Brightwell - 2012
    This first book covers his adventures with Thomas Cochrane, one of the most extraordinary naval commanders of all time. From the brothels and gambling dens of London, through political intrigues and espionage, the action moves to the Mediterranean and the real life character of Thomas Cochrane. This book covers the start of Cochrane's career including the most astounding single ship action of the Napoleonic war. Thomas Flashman provides a unique insight as danger stalks him like a persistant baillif through a series of adventures that prove history really is stranger than fiction.

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage


Sherry Sontag - 1998
    Now, after six years of research, those missions are told in Blind Man's Bluff, a magnificent achievement in investigative reporting. It reads like a spy thriller -- except everything in it is true. This is an epic of adventure, ingenuity, courage, and disaster beneath the sea, a story filled with unforgettable characters who engineered daring missions to tap the enemy's underwater communications cables and to shadow Soviet submarines. It is a story of heroes and spies, of bravery and tragedy.

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo


Tom Reiss - 2012
    The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today yet with a story that is strikingly familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of the best loved heroes of literature.Yet, hidden behind these swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: the real hero was the son of a black slave -- who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. Enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution in an audacious campaign across Europe and the Middle East – until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.

Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad (Updated)


Gordon Thomas - 1999
    Gordon Thomas's 1999 publication of Gideon's Spies, resulting from closed-door interviews with Mossad agents, informants, and spymasters as well as from classified documents and top-secret sources, revealed previously untold truths about the Israeli intelligence agency. And now, in this edition, Thomas updates his classic text and shows the Mossad as it truly is: brilliant, ruthless, and flawed, but ultimately awesome.Three all-new chapters cover topics including:- How the Mossad planned to assassinate Saddam Hussein- Saddam's food-testing ritual, and the surprising "source" within his government- China's U.S.-based front-companies, and its relationship with bin Laden- Mossad's untold role in the events before and after 9/11- Mossad and revelations about Princess Diana's death- The disappearance of the millions transferred from the Vatican Bank to the Polish Solidarity movement- How extremists recruit suicide bombers, including women- Mossad's untold role in the Iraq war and the hunts for Saddam and bin Laden- Saddam's plans for trial

What If?: The World's Foremost Historians Imagine What Might Have Been


Robert CowleyLewis H. Lapham - 1999
    In these twenty never-before-published essays, some of the keenest minds of our time ask the big, tantalizing questions: Where might we be if history had not unfolded the way it did? Why, how, and when was our fortune made real? The answers are surprising, sometimes frightening, and always entertaining..

The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground


Michael Harris - 2005
    Strangelove.Except it really happened.Operation Redwing, the biggest and baddest of America's atmospheric nuclear weapons test regimes, mixed saber rattling with mad science, while overlooking the cataclysmic human, geopolitical and ecological effects. But mostly, it just messed with guys' heads.Major Maxwell, who put Safety First, Second and Third. Except when he didn't.Berko, the wise-cracking Brooklyn Dodgers fan forced to cope with the H-bomb and his mother's cookies.Tony, who thought military spit and polish plus uncompromising willpower made him an exception.Carl Duncan, who clung to his girlfriend's photos and a dangerous secret.Major Vanish, who did just that.In THE ATOMIC TIMES, Michael Harris welcomes readers into the U.S. Army's nuclear family where the F-words were Fallout and Fireball. In a distinctive narrative voice, Harris describes his H-bomb year with unforgettable imagery and insight into the ways isolation and isotopes change men for better--and for worse.

Operation Red Wings: The Rescue Story Behind Lone Survivor


Peter Nealen - 2013
    Navy SEALs were inserted into the mountains of eastern Afghanistan with the task of collecting intelligence and finding—or killing—a top al Qaeda commander. The SEALs were ambushed by over one hundred Taliban fighters and a horrific battle ensued. The rescue helicopter carrying eight SEALs was shot down by a reported Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG), killing them instantly and erasing any hope for the SEALs already on the ground. Luttrell was the only survivor. OPERATION RED WINGS is an in-depth examination of the recovery mission to rescue Luttrell, filled with never-before-told details and shocking new revelations. Author Peter Nealen (former USMC Force Recon) and the team at SOFREP have an expansive network within the Special Operations community, providing them with access to exclusive interviews, after action reports, military intel and previously untold accounts of the rescue mission. Nealen and his team have uncovered eyewitness reports that put the "official" story into question as to how the initial rescue helicopter was shot down. If true, this potential coverup will have had severe consequences on subsequent helicopter insertion operations and put lives at risk. Complete with a foreword by former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb, this is a must-have companion to the blockbuster book and upcoming film. (12,000 words)

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania


Erik Larson - 2015
    The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship - the fastest then in service - could outrun any threat. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small - hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more--all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history. It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.

The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land


Thomas Asbridge - 2010
    Thomas Asbridge—a renowned historian who writes with “maximum vividness” (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker)—covers the years 1095 to 1291 in this  big, ambitious, readable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history. From Richard the Lionheart to the mighty Saladin, from the emperors of Byzantium to the Knights Templar, Asbridge’s book is a magnificent epic of Holy War between the Christian and Islamic worlds, full of adventure, intrigue, and sweeping grandeur.