Brazil, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This engaging, lucid, carefully researched volume provides a thorough review of each battle while examining the repercussions on infrastructure, tradition, language, and more. Some entries cover civilizations and cultures (Han Dynasty, the Huns, the Uzbeks), while others are devoted to selected historical figures (Julius Caesar, Napoleon Buonaparte, Douglas MacArthur). Each chapter provides a map to help readers locate key areas and geographical features. Other features include cross-references, a cumulative bibliography, and a comprehensive subject index.Engaging writing, sensible organization, nice illustrations, interesting and obscure facts, and useful maps make this book a pleasure to read, even if one has no interest in the history of war.Readable and well-researched.An authoritative and thoroughly readable volume that will prove invaluable for everyone from military historians to history buffs to those wanting to know the impact of war on the borders and cultures of countries around the world.  (less)

an American pilot over a period of 37 years and aircraft from early wood and fabric, small horsepower biplanes to the advanced Boeing 707 jetliner. In addition, Ken Jr. adds his intimate perspective on being the son of a professional pilot. Like most pilots of his era, Ken Sr flew military aircraft during World War II. Winged History details major milestones in American political and technological history, interwoven with Chastain's historical aviation adventures.  (less)

essential to discipline in our Army. Inasmuch as the military is a more arbitrary and despotic system than the civil, so is even-handed justice the more necessary in it. Mercy (which is one form of favoritism) should not be confounded with kindness. It implies wrong known both to the offender and the judge. Justice and mercy are totally incompatible. There can be no such compound as justice seasoned with mercy. The least particle of the latter destroys the former. In the Army, if not elsewhere, it is justice, not mercy, that is twice blessed ; it blesses him that gives, and him that receives ; and as justice conveys double blessings, so does mercy bring double evils. The records of our Army sustain the assertion that remissions and mitigations of deserved penalties smooth the way to repetitions of offences and lead offenders deeper and deeper into trouble. But the more common form of favoritism in Army management does not come under the head of mercy. Many Army scandals if not attributable to, have been promoted by, the purer form of this evil. It is a truism that some men cannot stand prosperity. In the Army where regularity and strict routine are the rule, sudden elevation is dangerous, especially whenit does not come from established merit. Take for example the case of . A cadet, he was promoted in 1871 to the grade of 2d Lieutenant. After less than two years' service in that grade he resigned; and without distinction in the Army or out of it he was in 1876 appointed paymaster with the rank, pay, and emoluments of Major, while his classmates who had served faithfully during the time he was out of the Army, were still Lieutenants. He could not stand the sudden and unearned elevation. To him the pay and emolum...@8ë…¸Rÿ¾Û€  (less)

together. As he has done for historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit of power, William McNeill brings a dazzling breadth and depth of knowledge to his study of dance and drill in human history. From the records of distant and ancient peoples to the latest findings of the life sciences, he discovers evidence that rhythmic movement has played a profound role in creating and sustaining human communities. The behavior of chimpanzees, festival village dances, the close-order drill of early modern Europe, the ecstatic dance-trances of shamans and dervishes, the goose-stepping Nazi formations, the morning exercises of factory workers in Japan - all these and many more figure in the bold picture McNeill draws. A sense of community is the key, and shared movement, whether dance or military drill, is its mainspring. McNeill focuses on the visceral and emotional sensations such movement arouses, particularly the euphoric fellow-feeling he calls muscular bonding. These sensations, he suggests, endow groups with a capacity for cooperation, which in turn improves their chance of survival.  (less)

12-novel sequence, which chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.brbrThe novels follow Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles that stand between them and the “Acceptance World.”“I think it is now becoming clear thatbA Dance to the Music of Time/bis going to become the greatest modern novel since Ulysses.”br—Clive Jamesbrbr“I would rather read Mr Powell than any English novelist now writing.”br—Kingsley Amis  (less)

a new approach to understanding the circumstances that drive technological change, stressing its episodic, irregular nature. The result is nothing less than a sweeping history of technological transformation from ancient times until now. Rare in antiquity, the bursts of innovations that mark the advance of technology have gradually accelerated and now have become an almost continuous feature of our culture. Repeatedly shifting in direction, this path has been shaped by a host of interacting social, cultural, and scientific forces rather than any deterministic logic. Thus future technological developments, Adams maintains, are predictable only over the very short term.Adams's account highlights Britain and the United States from early modern times onward. Locating the roots of the Industrial Revolution in British economic and social institutions, he goes on to consider the new forms of enterprise in which it was embodied and its loss of momentum in the later nineteenth century. He then turns to the early United States, whose path toward industrialization initially involved considerable ""technology transfer"" from Britain. Propelled by the advent of mass production, world industrial leadership passed to the United States around the end of the nineteenth century. Government-supported research and development, guided partly by military interests, helped secure this leadership.Today, as Adams shows, we find ourselves in a profoundly changed era. The United States has led the way to a strikingly new multinational pattern of opportunity and risk, where technological primacy can no longer be credited to any single nation. This recent trend places even more responsibility on the state to establish policies that will keep markets open for its companies and make its industries more competitive. Adams concludes with an argument for active government support of science and technology research that should be read by anyone interested in America's ability to compete globally."  (less)

today? These are only a few of the many questions addressed in this highly readable exploration of kids and popular culture. Writer Kathleen McDonnell confronts these issues which both plague and challenge parents and educators today. With clarity and humour she discusses why pop culture is an irresistable lure to kids; at the same time, it's an adhesive which binds them together in a subculture of their own. Kid Culture is a must read for anyone trying to navigate the treacherous road of parenthood. An adult's guide to the world of kids, Kid Culture both explains and reassures.  (less)

which depicts early Christianity and the persecutions. Sienkiewicz was known for his gigantic scenes, bright contrasts and the epic sweep of his works. He was a master in creating mass-action scenes and battles. The Knights of the Cross is a noble historical romance. The time and scene of the story are set in the middle ages during the conquest of Pagan Lithuania by the military and priestly order of the Knights of the Cross. An interesting read-the strategic computer game, Knights of the Cross is based upon historical fact and Sienkiewicz''s novel.  (less)

which depicts early Christianity and the persecutions. Sienkiewicz was known for his gigantic scenes, bright contrasts and the epic sweep of his works. He was a master in creating mass-action scenes and battles. The Knights of the Cross is a noble historical romance. The time and scene of the story are set in the middle ages during the conquest of Pagan Lithuania by the military and priestly order of the Knights of the Cross. An interesting read-the strategic computer game, Knights of the Cross is based upon historical fact and Sienkiewicz''s novel.  (less)

also bad onesthe Space Shuttle CHALLENGER exploded and the worst nuclear power accident in history occurs at Chernobyl. Read more about the 1980s in this photo-driven book.  (less)

path into this rich past of the English landscape, as read in local names.brTime and time again, the British Isles have been overrun by invading nations--the Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans, to name a few--each leaving their language and locations etched into the countryside. The traces of these successive tongues can be heard in such places as Humber (pre-Celtic), York (Celtic), Lincoln (Latin), Scunthorpe (Scandanavian), Basingstoke (Old English), Devizes (French), and Broadstairs (Middle English). Chester, for example, began as a Roman military base, and originated as a latin word for a camp. Mills reveals how local names reflect such elements as the size of a place (as in Much Wenlock), its location (High Barnet), a local product (Saffron Walden), the tribe that settled there (Essex), natural features (Bromsgrove), or pre-Christian worship (Wednesbury).brThis fascinating resource offers clear, concise entries that discuss the meaning and origin of these names, tracing their development from the earliest appearances to the present day. Mills provides earlier forms of each name, along with the earliest date and its spelling in the Domesday Book (William the Conqueror's famous survey of England) if it appears there. He also covers recent place-names and establishes the contemporary location of each site. Additional features include a select bibliography, maps of England's changing counties, and a helpful glossary of common elements in English place-names.brCovering cities and suburbs, towns and villages, counties and districts, rivers and coastlines, The Dictionary of English Place Names offers an authoritative reference and a unique historical tour through the Eng?è  (less)

How many of us remember, every time we read of plunder, torture, and murder by corrupt military regimes in Central and South America, that almost all of them employ officers trained in these arts at Fort Benning's SOA, and that their clandestine education is funded by our tax dollars?PIn School of Assassins -- vital reading for anyone who stills harbors delusions about America's role abroad -- the author records the history of the school and its graduates. More important, he shows how the school's very existence is a hidden consequence of the imperialistic foreign policy shamelessly pursued by our government for decades, all with the express purpose of maintaining world dominance.PNelson-Pallmeyer offers ideas for ways to work toward closing the school, but he suggests that the true task ahead of us is continual, active opposition to the death-bringing hunger for power and control -- not only in the public arena, but in our personal lives.  (less)