Edward Chatterton, a prolific British author of maritime adventures, presents fascinating stories of pirates and their exploits from earliest times through the 19th century. Chapters include the history of piracy in Tudor and Elizabethan times and stories of legendary pirates such as Black Beard, Henry Morgan, and Captain Kidd. - Summary by Larry Wilson

When No More Parades was first published in 1925, a critic in The Observer wrote of the first 100 pages that they "easily surpass in truth, brilliance and subtlety everything else that has yet been written in England about the physical circumstances and moral atmosphere of the war". The second novel in the Parade's End tetralogy, No More Parades places army captain Christopher Tietjens, his beautiful but cruel wife Sylvia, and Tietjens' jealous and tempestuous godfather and commanding officer General...

In this short volume, the British historian, Charles Merivale, describes the long conflict by which the rule of one man replaced the Roman Republic. Here we meet that ineffectual has-been Pompeius, the resourceful military and political genius, Julius Caesar, unbending Cato, brave, dissolute Marcus Antonius, grandiloquent, doomed Cicero, peerless Cleopatra and, almost the sole survivor, crafty, cold, and sagacious young Octavius

The title and a quick glance at the chapter titles of James Grant's The Phantom Regiment--such as "The Romance of the Month," "The Halt in Cork Wood," "Rio de la Muerte ," Pedro, the Contrabandist," "A Legend of Fife," "The Midnight March"--will lead you to realize that this book is filled with excitement, mystery, intrigue, adventure, and cultural conflict with an emphasis on Scottish soldierly daredevilry and pride. It has all the elements that make for an enjoyable and an exciting listen.

"Tarawa Atoll is 2085 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor and 540 miles southeast of Kwajalein in the Marshalls. Betio is the principal island in the atoll. The Japanese seized Tarawa from the British within the first three days after Pearl Harbor. In August 1943, to meet in secret with Major General Julian C. Smith and his principal staff officers, Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance flew to New Zealand from Pearl Harbor. Spruance told the Marines to prepare for an amphibious assault against Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands in November...

In September 2013, Chief of Staff of the Army General Raymond T. Odierno directed the Operation Iraqi Freedom Study Group to research and write an operational history of the U.S. Army’s experience in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011. This volume, The United States Army in the Iraq War, 2003-2006, is the first of two fulfilling that task. It tells the story of the U.S.-led campaigns to remove Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi Ba’athist regime from power in 2003 and to stabilize the country following those operations...

John Lothrop Motley was an American author and popular diplomat, who helped to prevent European intervention on the side of the Confederates in the American Civil War. In 1861, just after the outbreak of the American Civil War, Motley wrote two letters to The Times defending the Federal position, and these letters, afterwards reprinted as [this] pamphlet entitled Causes of the Civil War in America, made a favourable impression on President Lincoln. Partly owing to this essay, Motley was appointed...

James Gillet recounts his adventures with the Texas Rangers 1856-1937. In a very entertaining style he recounts personal stories of wars, feuds, battles with the Apache nation and pursuing robbers and murderers. From these stories, and others like them, arose the many legends of courage and daring among the Texas Rangers. “The Texas Rangers, as an organization, dates from the spring of 1836. When the Alamo had fallen before the onslaught of the Mexican troops and the frightful massacre had occurred, General Sam Houston organized among the Texan settlers in the territory a troop of 1600 mounted riflemen...

A study In the prevalence of war in Europe from 1400 to the present day. This small book summarises historical periods of peace compared to periods of war, as concluded by consultation with other historians, and seeks to answer the question as to if the incidence and duration of periods of national conflict were becoming more intense or not, and how the periods of war may correlate to other social trends. - Summary by Leon Harvey

James Grant was a prolific Scottish writer of novels and "novelettes", particularly centered around military life. Included with this regimental tale, are four such novelettes or short stories.

A novel with some utopian elements, but primarily dystopian. A French doctor and a German professor both inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who married the rich widow of an Indian prince. They both decide to go to America and establish their own "ideal" society. Dr. Sarrasin, the French doctor, is focused on maintaining public health. He builds Ville-France. Professor Schultze, the German scientist, is a bit of a militarist and racist. He builds Stahlstadt and devotes his city to the production of ever more powerful weapons so that he can destroy Sarrasin's city...

In the early summer of 1942, intelligence reports of the construction of a Japanese airfield near Lunga Point on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands triggered a demand for offensive action in the South Pacific. Completion of the Guadalcanal airfield might signal the beginning of a renewed enemy advance to the south and an increased threat to the lifeline of American aid to New Zealand and Australia. On 23 July 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington agreed that the line of communications in the South Pacific had to be secured. The Japanese advance had to be stopped. Thus, Operation Watchtower, the seizure of Guadalcanal came into being. - Summary by Henry I Shaw

This 1923 memoir of a World War I soldier is a well written much respected first-hand account of the brutal fighting in the last year of the war. - Summary by David Wales

The American Civil War battle at Antietam, Maryland, on 17 September 1862, has been called the bloodiest day of that conflict. Confederate General Lee’s invasion of the North was repulsed, and when the fighting ended, the course of the Civil War had been greatly altered. This victory by the North moved President Abraham Lincoln to issue The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in states then in rebellion against the Union. This 1960 publication is number 31 in the Historical Handbook series put out by the U...

On the gently rolling farm lands surrounding the little town of Gettysburg, Pa., was fought one of the great decisive battles of American history. For 3 days, from July 1 to 3, 1863, a gigantic struggle between 75,000 Confederates and 88,000 Union troops raged about the town and left 51,000 casualties in its wake. Heroic deeds were numerous on both sides, climaxed by the famed Confederate assault on July 3 which has become known throughout the world as Pickett’s Charge. The Union victory gained on these fields ended the last Confederate invasion of the North and marked the beginning of a gradual decline in Southern military power...

One essay lays out tactics for mountain fighting, focused on British Army experience on the Indian frontier , penned by a British officer who fought in that conflict, Wilkinson Dent Bird. The other essay focuses on the British navy in World War I written by an author who specialized in British naval strategy and history, John Leyland. - Summary by david wales

It meant little to most Americans on 25 June 1950 to read in their Sunday newspapers that civil strife had broken out in Korea. They could hardly have suspected that this remote Asiatic peninsula was to become the scene of the fourth most costly military effort of American history, both in blood and money, before the end of the year. With a reputation built largely on amphibious warfare, Marines of the 1st Brigade were called upon to prove their versatility in sustained ground action. On three separate occasions within the embattled Perimeter—south toward Sachon and twice along the Naktong River—these Marine units hurled the weight of their assault force at the enemy...

The Iraq War has been the costliest U.S. conflict since the Vietnam War. To date, few official studies have been conducted to review what happened, why it happened, and what lessons should be drawn. The U.S. Army in the Iraq War is the Army’s initial operational level analysis of this conflict, written in narrative format, with assessments and lessons embedded throughout the work. This study reviews the conflict from a Landpower perspective and includes the contributions of coalition allies, the U...

This is the second of a four-volume history of the First World War, covering the period from the opening of the Dardenelles Campaign in September 1914 through the first stage of The Battle of Verdun, stopping in mid-April, 1916. As David Reader noted for volume 1, "the author took a rather formal approach by describing the war from a more macroscopic level, packed with factual details, but from the perspective of a patriotic British national." - Summary by Lynette Caulkins

Soldiers return from the War to a mixed reception in America. The first novel by one of the 20th century's most poetic writers experimenting in stream of consciousness, and adept at dialogue. - Summary by Czandra

Originally published anonymously in 1924, this intriguing work of science fiction, categorized by Bleiler under 'imaginary wars and inventions' . Alexander Forbes was a Harvard physiologist who contributed considerably to the fields of physiology and neuroscience in the 20th century. - Summary by E F Bleiler paraphrased

"William Jesse "Bill" McDonald in the 1880s served as a deputy sheriff in Wood County. After moving to Hardeman County, he served as deputy sheriff, special Ranger, and U. S. Deputy Marshal of the Northern District of Texas and the Southern District of Kansas.. . . .In 1891 McDonald was selected to replace S. A. McMurry as Captain of Company B, Frontier Battalion. He served as a Ranger captain until 1907. Capt. McDonald and his company took part in a number of celebrated cases including the Fitzsimmons-Maher prize fight, the Wichita Falls bank robbery, the Reese-Townsend feud, and the Brownsville Raid of 1906...

In this brief book I have lifted a very small corner of the curtain of war, to tell of my adventures — a week in the North Sea, and a breathless score of days in Northern France. I have touched upon both Tragedy and Comedy as they came my way. The tragedy is terrible enough - I have put it down plainly and unvarnished. From Tragedy to Comedy, it is but a step, along the gloomiest corridor of life one sees the flash of the cap and hears the rattle of the bells. Otherwise, it would be unbearable...

A collection of brief histories addressing the major campaigns or phases of the Korean War.

Lord Dunsany brings his lucid and magical prose to the subject of the harsh realities of war by providing a series of vignettes that are at times grim and grounded but also at times eerie and fantastical. Summary by Ben Tucker.

Campbell Stuart, a Canadian, was involved in British efforts of propaganda during the two World Wars. His most active work was done during the first World War. This book is a detailed and illustrated account of his work during WWI, and more generally the efforts of British persons to direct propaganda campaigns against Germany and their allies with the intent of weakening German morale and shortening the war. Translations of some of the propaganda materials appear in the appendix and are read . - Summary by Patrick McHaffie

James Green was a Methodist minister who was a chaplain to Australian troops in the Boer War and in the Australian Imperial Force in World War I. This memoir was published 1917, while the war was on-going. “In spite of necessary suppression, or vagueness of names of localities, my comrades of the Fifty-fifth Battalion, to which I was attached, will recognize many of the incidents described, and I can only hope that reading what the padre has to say may cheer them in some lonely places, or help them to be happy though miserable in some indifferent billets...

“…I have charged Dame M. Columban to give a detailed account of all that has befallen the Community, since the coming of the Germans to Ypres till our safe arrival at Oulton Abbey. I can therefore certify that all that is in this little book, taken from the notes which several of the nuns had kept, is perfectly true, and only a simple narrative of our own personal experiences of the War.” The Abbey of the Irish Dames of Ypres was established in 1665. It was a favorite Abbey for the daughters of Irish nobility and was supported by influential Irish families living in exile...

The Inchon Landing was a major amphibious operation, planned in record time and executed with skill and precision. Even more, it was an exemplification of the fruits of a bold strategy executed by a competent force. The decision to attack at Inchon involved weakening the line against enemy strength in the Pusan Perimeter in order to strike him in the rear. It involved the conduct of an amphibious attack under most difficult conditions of weather and geography. It ultimately culminated with combat in the heart of Seoul. - Summary by Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr. and Aaron Bennett

Edward Lamplough describes 22 battles that all occurred in Yorkshire over many time periods and political contexts. - Summary by lightcrystal

The US national policy on space includes the objective of developing and exploiting this Nation's space capability as necessary to achieve national political, scientific, and security objectives. The establishment of a manned outpost in the lunar environment will demonstrate United States leadership in space. It will also provide a basis for further explorations and operations on the lunar surface, as well as a supporting capability for other US operations in space. - Summary from the text

The sketches and stories in this little volume must be read as fiction. But they are all, or nearly all, founded on fact, and built up from scenes and incidents I myself either witnessed or heard, first-hand, during my sojourn in France and Flanders as Special Correspondent for a London morning newspaper. Private Pinkerton I met in the flesh several times—a gallant young English gentleman, if there ever was one, a cool and clever fighter, a dead shot, but shy as a schoolgirl when it came to the telling of his own adventures. I have rarely met a millionaire so engaging, so kindly, so well loved by 'the boys', but so courageous withal.