War Time Biographies

Two young people are recruited into the news-gathering enterprise in Egypt by an agent for a major European newspaper, called the Tribune.

When SPC Kayla Williams and SGT Brian McGough met at a mountain outpost in Iraq in 2003, only their verbal sparring could have betrayed a hint of attraction. Neither could have predicted the sequence of events that would shape their lives. Brian, on his way back to base after mid-tour leave, was wounded by a roadside bomb that sent shrapnel through his brain. Kayla waited anxiously for news and, on returning home, sought out Brian. The two began a tentative romance and later married, but neither anticipated the consequences of Brian’s injury on their lives.

In December 1937, the Chinese capital, Nanjing, falls and the Japanese army unleash an orgy of torture, murder, and rape. Over the course of six weeks, hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war are killed. At the very onset of the atrocities, the Danish supervisor at a cement plant just outside the city, 26-year-old Bernhard Arp Sindberg, opens the factory gates and welcomes in 10,000 Chinese civilians to safety. He becomes an Asian equivalent of Oskar Schindler, the savior of Jews in the Holocaust.

Charles Parsons is one of St. Louis' and the nation's most influential yet little-known figures. He was instrumental to the Union cause as a Civil War quartermaster and advisor to generals, politicians, and presidents alike. As a world-traveling art connoisseur, he helped found the first art museum west of the Mississippi, to which he donated his remarkable collection of American, European, and Asian art. To this day, his philanthropic work and dedication to education live on in some of the country's grandest institutions.

“It is glorious to see such courage in one so young!” So declared Confederate General Robert E. Lee on December 13, 1862, during the battle of Fredericksburg as he watched Major John Pelham fight at least five Union batteries with just one lone gun. The dashing and handsome 24-year-old Alabama officer earned the compliments and admiration of his men, the war gods of Virginia (Lee, Jackson, and Stuart), and Southern society—all while helping transform the concept of horse artillery on Civil War battlefields across Virginia and Maryland.

They Touched Our Heroes for the Last Time documents the 24-year career of Air Force Navigator John E. "Jack" O'Connor, who flew the first mission into Vietnam to recover the remains of POWs in Vietnam. Follow his career from his enlistment into the air force, through OCS school and many of his death-defying missions with the air force.

Step into the extraordinary life of Dr. Robert Pickard in My Lessons Learned: My Life and Times. This compelling autobiography takes you on a journey from his humble beginnings through an illustrious career filled with service, dedication, and personal triumphs.

Been there, done that, indeed. Texas-born and Harvard-educated, Jack Valenti led several lives, any one of which could have provided ample material for an unforgettable memoir. As it is, This Time, This Place is the gripping story of a man who saw the terrible face of war; who was in the room as political decisions were made that would benefit or devastate countless lives; and who championed the interest of the vast and globally influential movie industry with tenacity and vision.

Tim Hetherington (1970-2011) was one of the world’s most distinguished and dedicated photojournalists, whose career was tragically cut short when he died in a mortar blast while covering the Libyan Civil War. Tim won many awards for his war reporting, and was nominated for an Academy Award for the critically acclaimed documentary Restrepo. Hetherington’s dedication to his career led him time after time into war zones, and unlike some other journalists, he did not pack up after the story had broken.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o es estudiante en una prestigiosa escuela de Nairobi cuando la guerrilla Mau Mau reclama la independencia de Kenia. La etapa de más represión del gobierno británico coincide con su entrada al instituto, donde se siente protegido. Así, cuando Ngũgĩ visita su pueblo lo encuentra devastado y trasladado cerca de la vigilancia de las autoridades en un conjunto de pueblos a modo de campo de concentración.

George Armstrong Custer attended West Point, graduating in the Class of 1861. He served as an officer in the United States Army during the Civil War. He was present at the Civil War's first major engagement, the First Battle of Bull Run, and was the officer who received General Robert E. Lee's Flag of Truce, marking Lee's surrender, at the end of the war.

The long-awaited biography of the frontier Founding Father whose heroic actions and neglected writings inspired an entire generation, from Paine to Madison. On May 10, 1775, in the storm-tossed hours after midnight, Ethan Allen, the Revolutionary firebrand, was poised for attack. With only two boatloads of his scraggly band of Vermont volunteers having made it across the wind-whipped waters of Lake Champlain, he was waiting for the rest of his Green Mountain boys to arrive....

A teenager from Amish country enlists as an Army DJ during the Vietnam War, beginning a life of adventure and a storied career spanning decades and continents. When he first opened his mic in Utapao, Thailand, he played music and dodged court-martial, unaware he was impacting troops and foreign nationals in surprising and unexpected ways. Find out how America's broadcasters in uniform influenced hall of fame rockers, shaped the attitudes of foreign politicians, and fought off censorship.

A hauntingly enchanting creature dwells in the westernmost reaches of Cornwall near Land's End. The Daisy Faerie. Long a subject of rumor and ancient legend, the tiny faerie cannot be seen by human eyes. At least adult human eyes. Of course, children know all about Daisy Faeries. But don't children know more of all the wonderful things in life than cynical old adults? The tale of Daisy Faeries began long ago and ever so far away. But it continues today and on into the future as far as the mind can see.

On June 6, 1944, US troops on Omaha suffered the worst casualties of any of the five Allied invasion beaches — so many casualties, and so much tactical difficulty, that Omaha almost didn’t succeed. One big reason why Americans gained a foothold on Omaha was Gen. Norman “Dutch” Cota. A graduate of the West Point class of 1917 (alongside famous classmates Matthew Ridgway, Mark Clark, and Lightning Joe Collins), Norm Cota played football with Dwight Eisenhower, who graduated two years earlier.

Soldier, spy, lawyer, politician - Airey Neave was assassinated in the House of Commons car park in 1979. Forty years after his death, Patrick Bishop’s lively, action-packed biography examines the life, heroic war and death of one of Britain’s most remarkable 20th-century figures.

Snapshots of one soldier’s time overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, Time Cap fearlessly lets listeners peer inside the windows at both the light and dark sides of military service. Many passages are lifted straight from the author Nick Rucker’s journal, shedding light on his battle with alcoholism and his struggle to maintain relationships and readjust to a “normal” life upon returning to the States. Relatable to soldiers and to any who’ve had their lives turned suddenly upside-down, Rucker offers a message of hope: you can turn your life back around, no matter how far you think you’ve fallen.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Tuohy follows Richard O'Kane, America's undersea ace of aces, and a few fearless submariners, during the U.S. submarine war in the Pacific. This grueling battle saw 10 million tons of Japanese shipping sunk by U.S. submarines, but the cost to the U.S. Navy was one in five of its boats, the highest casualty rate of the U.S. armed services.

Con Thien was a United States Marine Corps firebase that was the scene of fierce combat for months on end during 1967. Staving off attacks and ambushes while suffering from ineffectual leadership from Washington as well as media onslaughts, courageous American Marines protected this crucial piece of land at all costs. They would hold Con Thien, but many paid the ultimate price. By the end of the war, more than 1,400 Marines had died and more than 9,000 sustained injuries.

John Roebling was one of the 19th century's most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the US in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the 19th century's most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn.