Modern War

A cultural and intellectual history of sincerity, from its emergence during the Protestant Reformation to its present incarnations and adversaries. People have long been duped by "straight-talking" politicians, confessional talk-show hosts, and falsely earnest advertisers. As sincerity has become suspect, the upright and honest have taken refuge in irony.

In the dog days of August 2008, a column of Russian tanks and troops rolled across the Republic of Georgia’s northern border and into South Ossetia, sparking a war that was over almost before it began. The war, while not insignificant, lasted all of five days. The number of casualties did not exceed one thousand, the threshold most political scientists use to classify a war, although thousands of Georgians were displaced. By historical comparison, when Soviet tanks entered Hungary in 1956 and Afghanistan in 1979-89, the fatalities totaled 2,500 and roughly 14,000 respectively.

The modern US Army was largely created in the years between the two world wars. Prior to World War I, officers in leadership positions were increasingly convinced that building a new army could not take place as a series of random developments but had to be guided by military policy. In 1920, Congress accepted that idea and embodied it in the National Defense Act.

New Deal Law and Order follows President Franklin Roosevelt, Attorney General Homer Cummings, and their war on crime coalition, which overcame the institutional and political challenges to the legitimacy of national law enforcement. Promises of law and order helped to manage tensions among key Democratic Party factions—organized labor, Black Americans, and white Southerners. Their anticrime program, featuring a strengthened criminal code, an empowered FBI, and the first federal war on marijuana, was essential to the expansion of national authority previously stymied on constitutional grounds.

In The Making of Modern Britain, Andrew Marr paints a fascinating portrait of life in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century as the country recovered from the grand wreckage of the British Empire. Between the death of Queen Victoria and the end of the Second World War, the nation was shaken by war and peace. The two wars were the worst we had ever known and the episodes of peace among the most turbulent and surprising.

Die Neunziger als Schlüsseljahrzehnt unserer Gegenwart und Zukunft. In den neunziger Jahren wurde die Welt geschaffen, in der wir immer noch leben - und die gerade krachend kollabiert. Dagegen setzt dieses Buch kämpferischen Optimismus. Ziel ist es, die Geschichte dieser Dekade zu nutzen, nicht zur Abrechnung, sondern zur Aufklärung. Denn darum geht es: Wir müssen wieder trainieren, in Alternativen zu denken. Wir müssen die Möglichkeiten erkennen, die in jedem Krisenmoment vorhanden sind. Wir müssen wieder an unsere Handlungsfähigkeit glauben, als Einzelne, in der Gemeinschaft, als Demokratie.

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, widely known as NTR, was not merely a film star who strayed into politics and captured power in Andhra Pradesh. The actor-politician redefined the political culture in the state and scripted a new political idiom.His rather dramatic entry into politics, the profound...

After helping 100s of men, I've realized that all men share the same struggle. You don't have to look very far to see that men don't seem to hold the same amount of meaning and purpose they once did. Inside this audiobook, we'll uncover the internal battle each man must face and overcome, the external forces killing his masculinity, and the path to becoming the master of yourself.

The goddess Fuamnach kidnapped me when I was a child, she taught me magic, then she made me her assassin and slave. If that was all she did to me, I might’ve escaped and let it pass. But she changed me—in ways I still don’t completely understand.

On the morning of July 16, 1964, a white police officer in New York City shot and killed a black teenager, James Powell. Two nights later, a peaceful demonstration in Harlem degenerated into violent protests. During the next week, thousands of rioters looted stores from Brooklyn to Rochester and pelted police with bottles and rocks. Michael W. Flamm draws on personal interviews and delves into the archives to move briskly from the streets of New York, where black activists like Bayard Rustin tried in vain to restore peace, to the corridors of the White House.

Earth was being watched from afar...by creatures far greater than man...and which coveted what man possessed. The War of the Worlds is invasion literature at its finest. H.G. Wells' popular classic has never been out of print, and is presented here in a stunning new, modern edition. Bonnem's insightful narration runs the gamut of emotions, simultaneously communicating both the horror of events and the innate humanity of this timeless tale.

Delve into the heart of religious history, where the enduring legacy of the Abrahamic faiths converge with tales of war and theology, revealing their profound impact on contemporary society. In this compelling narrative, religious historian Frank Kenny navigates the complex evolution of a warlike deity from the early scriptures of Jerusalem to the verses of the Bible and Qur’an they inspired. Challenging the one-dimensional portrayal of a benevolent God, The God of War offers a multifaceted view that spans the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

In the ever-changing modern international landscape, men serving at the tip of the spear need to be able to adapt, adjust, and excel in any environment, under any rules of engagement, at any time. This can lead to men making hard decisions that toe, and sometimes cross, the line between right and wrong.

In 1958, Richard Nixon described Afghanistan as "unconquerable." On August 15, 2021, he was proven right. After twenty years of intervention, US and NATO forces retreated, enabling the Taliban to return to power. Tens of thousands were killed in the long, unwinnable war, and millions more were displaced—leaving the future of Afghanistan hanging in the balance. Leading expert Amin Saikal traces the full story of America's intervention, from 9/11 to the present crisis.

The advice handed down by Sun Tzu in "The Art of War" is surprisingly practical. Strategic principles such as planning, precise timing, and gaining the advantage are just as important to modern political campaigns as they were 2000 years ago. In "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Campaigns," Caitlin Huxley, a campaign strategist with over 15 years of experience, translates the ancient time-honored wisdom and shares relevant personal stories from the campaign trail, taking candidates through the process of planning, organizing, and winning political campaigns using these proven methods.

World War II had a profound impact on American brands. In addition to brands directly aligning their products with the war effort, some brands used the war as a clever way to engender positive perceptions by distributing products to American forces. Other brands actually had their roots in the war.

An inside look at today's special operations sniper and an in depth look at the career of Chris Kyle from those who knew him and fought alongside him. Most people think of snipers as shooters perched in urban hides, dealing out death unseen from a considerable distance. But this description...

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz died almost 200 years ago, yet he remains one of the most important and influential of all military thinkers. Few men were more influential on the military tactics and strategy of 19th century warfare than Antoine-Henri Jomini. Why is it that Jomini has been forgotten while Clausewitz’s name is now far more famous than it ever was during his lifetime? One of the reasons is that Clausewitz attempted to develop a philosophy of war that went well beyond the mechanics of combat.

As the first decade of the 21st century has made brutally clear, the very definitions of war and the enemy have changed almost beyond recognition. Threats to security are now as likely to come from armed propagandists, popular militias, or mercenary organizations as they are from conventional armies backed by nation-states. In this timely book, national security expert Max G. Manwaring explores a little-understood actor on the stage of irregular warfare - the gang.

America is at an important turning point. Remote warfare is not just a mainstay of post–9/11 wars, it is a harbinger of what lies ahead—a future of high-tech, artificial intelligence–enabled, and autonomous weapons systems that raise a host of new ethical questions. Most fundamentally, is...