Collection World War

The Art of War and The Book of Five Rings are two of the most iconic works of literature ever written, regardless of genre. The perceptiveness with which Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi analyzed human behavior and tendencies apply to strategy in virtually any context, from warfare to business and beyond. In The Master of Strategy Collection, AOG brings you both of these timeless works in full and unabridged, along with extensive supplemental study and discussion materials.

The Chinese city of Shunkien is under siege, the Japanese military laying it to waste. In the middle of the city sits the American consulate, a fragile sanctuary packed with refugees, threatened not only by artillery, but by the ravages of starvation and cholera. 200 miles away, on the USS Miami, stands their only hope - Marine Gunnery Sergeant James Mitchell. As tough as Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan - and just as stubborn - if anybody can negotiate a crucial supply of gold and medicine through 200 miles of bullets, bombs and butchery, it’s Sergeant Mitchell.

Here are the extraordinary writings of a generation who fought through a war of unprecedented destructive power, and who had to find new voices to express the horror of what they discovered. The great names - Owen, Sassoon - are fully represented, but there are also many poems by lesser-known or unexpected figures, ranging from serving soldiers like Isaac Rosenberg and Richard Aldington to women such as Edith Nesbit and Vera Brittain.

John F. Kraft was an 18-year-old college student when he received his draft notice in the spring of 1943. He had been brought up in a well-to-do family, and had lived in Chicago, New York, and London. He went through a year of testing and training, and justifiably expected a position of some privilege. As the demand for infantrymen grew, his training was halted, and he was sent to Alabama to join a unit comprised mostly of more local residents. These were not personalities he had dealt with before. Soon afterward, he found himself aboard a ship heading toward the foxholes of Germany.

Seventeen iconic poems from World War One, including: Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Deorum Est"; "In Flanders Fields" by John McRae; "Counter Attack" by Siegfried Sassoon; Rupert Brook's "The Soldier"; and many more that bring the horrors of the Great War vividly to life through the eyes of those living them.

When Adolf Hitler stormed to power in Germany during the 1930's, he experienced little opposition for his plans to rebuild his adopted homeland. The Hitler Conspiracies follows the remarkable plot that very nearly ended Hitler's reign of terror, proving beyond doubt that within his own ranks there were those prepared to risk their lives for that sake of humanity.