We must learn more about Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese paradigms in order to untangle the muddled debates about our own. Realizing that we must do this is the first and most important lesson of Vietnam. And it is one we Americans have been exasperatingly slow to learn. We remain far too ready to assume that other people are, or want to be, or should be, like us.

    DK Eyewitness Travel Guides have been updated to include expanded hotel and restaurant listings, better maps, enhanced itineraries, and easier-to-read print.

    Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!)—have become so engrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence. But that's where the real mystery begins. Every edge of the familiar wooden jigsaw pieces of our childhood represents a revealing moment of history and of, well, humans drawing lines in the sand.How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey.How the States Got Their Shapes examines:Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of PennsylvaniaWhy Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to MichiganWhy some Hawaiian islands are not HawaiiWhy Texas and California are so outsized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in sizePacked with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.

    The original text (which traces the complex currents of history and politics of Malaysia and Singapore neighbours with a common past) is also revised to re-evaluate events in the context of an expanded history.

    1935) is Singapore’s longest serving opposition politician. A member of parliament for nearly three decades, Chiam is also one of Singapore’s most iconic, influential and beloved political figures. Through his efforts in shaping Potong Pasir into a “model constituency”, the veteran statesman has greatly contributed towards an increasingly pluralistic Singapore.When he first entered politics in 1976, there was not a single opposition member in Parliament. As the founder of the Singapore Democratic Party, and later the Singapore People’s Party, Chiam has long rallied for the need of an opposition as the essential democratic check on a one-party system. He is respected for his level-headed and non-confrontational stance, and is the only opposition member to have received public apologies and out-of-court damages from cabinet ministers of Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party. Based on extensive interviews, family documents and party archives, Let the People Have Him is the first biography of an opposition politician from post-independence Singapore—a biography of a man who, through his accomplishments and devotion, struggled to build a fairer, more balanced and diverse country. Tracing the first half of a life fully lived, this book sheds light on Chiam’s circuitous and colourful route to Parliament at the age of 49—from his revolutionary family background to his days as a champion school swimmer; from his political awakening in New Zealand to his stint as an inspiring school teacher in Malaysia; from training as a lawyer to his cross-continental romance with his wife Lina; from standing as an independent candidate in 1976 to winning the Potong Pasir seat in 1984 as the leader of the fledging Singapore Democratic Party. Let the People Have Him draws a humanistic picture of Chiam in his early days—as his country changed around him before he was to change it—while revealing the guiding values that have made this humble and unassuming man revered for generations to come.

    The Japanese had promised that there would be no Dunkirk in Singapore, and its fall led to imprisonment, torture and death for thousands of allied men and women. With much new material from British, Australian, Indian and Japanese sources, Colin Smith has woven together the full and terrifying story of the fall of Singapore and its aftermath. Here, alongside cowardice and incompetence, are forgotten acts of enormous heroism; treachery yet heart-rending loyalty; Japanese compassion as well as brutality from the bravest and most capricious enemy the British ever had to face.

    Newly arrived from England, she agrees to see the Marabar Caves with the charming Dr Aziz. Through this one harmless event Forster exposes the absurdity, hysteria and depth of cultural ignorance that existed in British India in the twenties.E.M. Forster's classic novel is here adapted in this highly theatrical, humorous and faithful version for the stage by the author of Bent, Martin Sherman and published to tie in with a major new production of A Passage to India produced by Shared Experience Theatre company.

    When all was said and done, Gilbert Joseph Bland, Jr., had become the Al Capone of cartography. 20 illustrations throughout.

    Told in the veterans' words, Mission to Tokyo is a narrative of every aspect of long range bombing, including pilots and other aircrew, groundcrew, and escort fighters that accompanied the heavy bombers on their perilous mission. Several thousand men on the small Mariana Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian were trying to take the war to the Empire—Imperial Japan—in B-29 Superfortresses flying at 28,000 feet, but the high-altitude bombing wasn't very accurate. The decision was made to take the planes down to around 8,000 feet, even as low as 5,000 feet. Eliminating the long climb up would save fuel, and allow the aircraft to take heavier bomb loads. The lower altitude would also increase accuracy substantially. The trade-off was the increased danger of anti-aircraft fire. This was deemed worth the risk, and the devastation brought to the industry and population of the capital city was catastrophic. Unfortunately for all involved, the bombing did not bring on the quick surrender some had hoped for. That would take six more months of bombing, culminating in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As with Mission to Berlin (Spring 2011), Mission to Tokyo focuses on a specific mission from spring 1945 and provides a history of the strategic air war against Japan in alternating chapters.

    The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, over a million being massacred on the way. Britain's role as world power came to an end and the course of Asia's future was irrevocably set. Patrick French offers a reinterpretation of the events surrounding India's independence and partition, including the disastrous mistakes made by politicians and the bizarre reasoning behind many of their decisions. Exploring the interplay between characters such as Churchill, Mountbatten and Gandhi, it reveals a tale of idealism and manipulation, hope and tragedy. With sources ranging from newly declassified secret documents to the memories of refugees, Patrick French gives an account of an epic debacle, the impact of which reverberates across Asia to this day.

    Not only was it the first decisive victory for British troops against the Japanese, more significantly, it demonstrated how the Japanese could be defeated. The lessons learned in this tiny and otherwise insignificant corner of the Far East, set up the campaign in Burma that would follow, as General Slim’s Fourteenth Army finally turned defeat into victory.It is an amazing and thrilling story: more gripping than that of Rorke’s Drift, with a more justifiable enemy, and with every bit as many moments of extreme heroism. In this fifteen-day battle of terrifying violence, there was incredible human drama: bloody-hand-to-hand fighting, daring airborne drops, valiant attempts to break the siege, increasingly desperate and suicidal charges by the Japanese, repeated breakthroughs that needed counter-attacking, tragedy, black humour and the ultimate triumph of the defenders.

    Waldo Monk is 65 years old, a widower, and two months away from retirement after a lifetime at Roundly's pool-ball factory in Mattfield, Indiana. Enter Saifon, a twenty-something Lao-American girl with an attitude, who has come to the US under mysterious circumstances. She's just arrived at Roundly's, and it's Waldo's task to train her up for his job as pool-ball quality controller.Saifon hates just about everyone, and even though Waldo is tempted to strangle her at first, a friendship soon grows between them. Two personal disasters in Waldo's life lead to him 'adopting' Saifon instead. But Saifon's mission at the factory is to make enough money, by hook or crook, to get back to Laos - for she has sworn to discover the truth about her past.

    Control stick hard left into a sharp left turn and let the nose drop quickly but smoothly to 40° down. Down. My heart is pumping hard. I'm in a sharp dive. I have to do it right and fast. Line up the target in the sight. It's getting bigger as I get closer to the ground. Airspeed is increasing! Quick! Right there! Pickle at 8,000 feet, only 2,000 feet from roll-in altitude. Not much time. NOW! Pull out! Pull hard, but don't over G! All the remaining ordnance is trying to pull the airplane toward the ground. Smoothly pull to four Gs. Watch the artificial horizon. It's the only visual reference I can count on. Pull! Get the nose up! Don't go below 7,000 feet because rocks can be anywhere below seven. There's level. Bring it on up. Twenty-five degrees nose high. I have plenty of speed, so keep the nose up. Here comes 8,000 feet. Then 9,000. I can let the nose down a little now and look around to see if anyone is shooting. It is 1969 and Dick Diller is on his way to flying warplanes in the Vietnam conflict. He is commissioned to fly A-1 Skyraiders in sometimes harrowing nighttime missions over Laos-surviving not only the danger of the missions he flew, but also the bureaucracy of the air force, from fitness testing to additional duties assigned, to attacking impossible-to-find targets in the dead of night-with minimal fuel supplies. At once entertaining and riveting, as well as thought-provoking, Firefly is the story of one man's journey in a world at war, and a day-to-day description of the fighting force that was flying A-1 Skyraiders in combat. Firefly contains actual transcriptions of dialogue of pilots locating a target and making a strike in northern Laos.

    With a flick of the switch in her head, she feels nothing: no pain, no hate, no sorrow, no joy.THE ARTIST -- Anis takes to painting as an outlet for his rage. His artist's eye knows his subjects before they know themselves, and he paints them all, a gallery of broken people.Can they escape the deadly web of decadence and sin?

    A post-World War II society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary fate. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the house's resident spirits. In the present, a young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in a New Krungthep yet to come, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these lives collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an elegy for what time erases and a love song to all that persists, yearning, into the unknowable future.