Like all Americans, T. J. Waters was stunned, angry, and griefstricken by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. More than that, he wanted to take action to help prevent such an event from ever happening again. Waters was not alone. In the weeks following the attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency received over 150,000 resumés from people wanting to serve their nation as spies. More than one hundred students were admitted to the CIA’s Clandestine Service to become Class 11, the first post–9/11 CIA training class. It was the largest and most diverse class in the agency’s history. Joining Waters were a World Trade Center victim’s fiancée, an NFL alumni, a New York City comedian, a college athletics coach, a hostage negotiator, and a single mother. Class 11 is the real story of how this band of everyday Americans joined together to endure the challenge of a lifetime and serve their country. Against the backdrop of Osama bin Laden’s videotaped taunts; the Washington, D.C., sniper attacks; and the loss of a CIA field officer in Afghanistan, Waters takes readers behind the scenes, where the trainees learned methods of subterfuge, mastering disguises, withstanding interrogations, and crossing into hostile territory without being detected. Class 11 is a fascinating and moving portrait of an extraordinary group of Americans with the courage and resolve to make a difference in the war on terror.

    When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In Crusaders, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era.Expanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars. Crusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.

    But a breakdown of social boundaries saw nightclub hostesses mixing with aristocrats, and middle-class professionals dabbling in criminality. Meanwhile, Cold War paranoia gripped the public imagination.The Profumo Affair was a perfect storm, and when it broke it rocked the Establishment. In ‘An English Affair’, the author of the critically-acclaimed ‘Titanic Lives’ Richard Davenport-Hines brings Swinging London to life. The cast of players includes the familiar – louche doctor Stephen Ward, good-time girls Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, and Secretary for War John Profumo himself. But we also encounter the tabloid hacks, property developers and hangers-on whose roles have, until now, never been fully revealed.Sex, drugs, class, race, chequebook journalism and the criminal underworld – the Profumo Affair had it all. This is the story of how Sixties England cast off respectability and fell in love with scandal.

    National security historian John Prados offers a comprehensive history of the CIA's secret wars that is as close to a definitive account as is possible today.

    F.W. Winterbotham, was the man responsible for the organization, distribution & security of Ultra. This is his personal account of the operation.

    and Soviet Union.

     Having helped settlers for hundreds of years, five Native American tribes found it increasingly more difficult to relate to and trust the country that had once acted as their allies. The native peoples had fought alongside the Americans to gain freedom from England, the nation that the colonists deemed oppressive and unfair. The native peoples acted as benefactors and teachers, helping the colonists to gain an advantage against an army that was far superior to the small forces that the colonists could muster. The new country owed a lot of its existence to the native peoples, yet the settlers, who were of European descent, did not see it that way. The following topics will be covered in this book: The Early Relationship The Growth of Manifest Destiny The Discovery of Gold and the Indian Removal Act Peaceful Protests and a Push for Recognition The People Versus the President The Militia Force Removal The Trail of Tears Stories of Pain, Loss, and Love Making a New Home And a Great Deal More You Don't Want to Miss Out On! Scroll to the top and download the book now to learn more about the Trail of Tears

    Once an untouchable member of England's establishment-- a world-famous art historian and a man knighted by the Queen of England-- in a single stroke Anthony Blunt became an object of universal hatred when, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher exposed him as a Soviet spy. In "Anthony Blunt: His Lives," Miranda Carter shows how one man lived out opposing trends of his century-- first as a rebel against his class, then as its epitome-- and yet embodied a deeper paradox. In the 1920s, Blunt was a member of the Bloomsbury circle; in the 1930s he was a left-wing intellectual; in the 50s and 60s he became a camouflaged member of the Establishment. Until his treachery was made public, Blunt was a world-famous art historian, recognized for his ground-breaking work on Poussin, Italian art, and old master drawings; at the Courtauld Institute he trained a whole generation of academics and curators. And yet even as he ascended from rebellion into outward conformity, he was a homosexual when homosexuality was a crime, and a traitor when the penalty was death. How could one man contain so many contradictions? The layers of secrecy upon which Blunt's life depended are here stripped away for the first time, using testimony from those who knew Blunt well but have until now kept silent and documents from sealed Russian archives, including a secret autobiography Blunt wrote for his controllers. Miranda Carter's "Anthony Blunt" is the first full biography of the mythical Cold War warrior, and is at once an astonishing history of one the century's greatest deceits and adeeply nuanced account of fifty years in the British power elite, as experienced by one deep inside who wished to bring it down.

    This clash between British general James Wolfe and French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on September 13, 1759, led to the British victory in the Seven Years’ War in North America, which in turn led to the creation of Canada and the United States as we know them today.Rooted in original research, featuring quotations and images that have never appeared before, Northern Armageddon immerses the reader in the campaign, battle and siege through the eyes of dozens of participants, such as British sailor William Hunter, four Quebec residents enduring the bombing of their city and a teenage Huron warrior. Shifting from perspective to perspective, we move from the bombardment of Quebec to the field of combat, where Montcalm and Wolfe gave their orders but thousands of individual soldiers determined the outcome of the battle. In the final chapters, MacLeod traces the battle’s impact on Canada, the United States, both countries’ Aboriginals and the world, from 1759 into the twenty-first century.

    But that’s just the start of the story, as historian Alan Axelrod so brilliantly shows in this eye-opening book. Axelrod offers a fascinating examination of what really caused the breach across the Atlantic and how the revolutionary movement began. The American Revolution brought something unique to the world: an entirely new kind of nation, founded on a set of ideas. In engrossing, conversational prose, Axelrod brings the birth of America to life by digging beneath the classically taught history to explore everything from little-known facts to alternate realities, along with the eyewitness testimony, pop culture, and art of the period. From the seeds of dissent through the long fight to glorious victory, the astonishing story of America’s revolution finally comes fully to light.

    These wars between cousins functioned as crucial anvils on which various religious, ethnic, and political alliances were hammered out between the English-speaking cousin-nations, setting them on a unique two-track path toward world leadership - one aristocratic and aloof to dominate the imperial nineteenth century and the other more egalitarian and democratic to take over in the twentieth century. They also functioned as unfortunate and deadly cultural crucibles for African Americans, Native Americans, and the Irish. Phillips's analysis shows exactly how these conflicts are inextricably linked and how they seeded each other. He offers often surprising interpretations that cut across the political spectrum - for instance, that the Constitution of the United States, while brilliant in many respects, was also a fatally flawed political compromise that contributed mightily in setting the stage for the final - and the bloodiest - cousins' war: the American Civil War. With the new millennium upon us and triggering widespread assessment of our nation's place in world history, The Cousins' Wars provides just the kind of magisterial sweep and revisionist spark to ignite widespread interest and debate. This grand religious, military, and political epic is the multi-dimensional story of the triumph of Anglo-America.

    Waterloo changed almost everything.’Bestselling author Bernard Cornwell is celebrated for his ability to bring history to life. Here, in his first work of non-fiction, he has written the true story of the epic battle of Waterloo – a momentous turning point in European history – a tale of one campaign, four days and three armies.He focuses on what it was like to be fighting in that long battle, whether officer or private, whether British, Prussian or French; he makes you feel you are present at the scene. The combination of his vivid, gripping style and detailed historical research make this, his first non-fiction book, the number one book for the upcoming 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.It is a magnificent story. There was heroism on both sides, tragedy too and much misery. Bernard Cornwell brings those combatants back to life, using their memories to recreate what it must have been like to fight in one of the most ghastly battles of history. It was given extra piquancy because all of Europe reckoned that the two greatest soldiers of the age were Napoleon and Wellington, yet the two had never faced each other in battle. Both were acutely aware of that, and aware that history would judge them by the result. In the end it was a victory for Wellington, but when he saw the casualty lists he wept openly. ‘I pray to God,’ he said, ‘I have fought my last battle.’ He had, and it is a story for the ages.

    The history of the Second World War is typically told through its decisive battles and campaigns. But behind the front lines, behind even the command centers of Allied generals and military planners, a different level of strategic thinking was taking place. Throughout the war, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin—the “Big Three”—met in various permutations and locations to hash out ways to defeat Nazi Germany. And, just as important, to determine the shape of the postwar world. Focusing on the riveting interplay between these three larger-than-life personalities, Jonathan Fenby’s vivid narrative ranges from the great conferences at Tehran and Yalta to a secret shipboard meeting in a deserted Newfoundland cove, from late-night vodka-fueled sessions in the Kremlin to summer picnics at the presidential estate. Through a rich assortment of original documents, telling anecdotes, and detailed character portraits, we learn how this remarkable alliance was constructed and maintained, and how it finally crumbled, introducing the world to a new kind of “cold” warfare.

    Once a maritime superpower and ruler of half the world, Britain now occupies an isolated position as an economically fragile island often at odds with her European neighbors. Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive and insighful history of the British Empire. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.

    At the highest levels of the government, its code name was Operation Shocker. Lured by a double agent working for the USA, ten Russian spies, including a University of Minnesota professor, his wife & a classic sleeper spy in NYC, were sent by Moscow to penetrate America's secrets. Two FBI agents were killed & secret formulae were passed to the USSR in a dangerous ploy that may have spurred Moscow to create the world's most powerful nerve gas. Cassidy's Run tells this true story for the 1st time, following a trail that leads from DC to Moscow, with detours to Florida, Minnesota & Mexico. Based on documents secret until now & scores of interviews in the USA & USSR, the book reveals that: more than 4500 pages of classified documents, including US nerve gas formulas, were passed to the USSR in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars; an Armageddon code: a telephone call to a number in NYC, was to alert the sleeper spy to an impending nuclear attack--a warning he would transmit to the Soviets by radio signal from atop a rock in Central Park; two FBI agents were killed when their plane crashed during surveillance of one of the spies as he headed for the Canadian border; secret drops for microdots were set up by Moscow from NY to Florida to DC. More than a cloak-&-dagger tale, Cassidy's Run is the story of one ordinary man, Sergeant Joe Cassidy, not trained as a spy, who suddenly found himself the FBI's secret weapon in a dangerous clandestine war.