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The Watcher
by Monika Jephcott ThomasIt’s 1949 when Netta’s father Max is released from a Siberian POW camp and returns to his home in occupied Germany. But he is not the man the little girl is expecting – the brave, handsome doctor her mother Erika told her stories of. Erika too struggles to reconcile this withdrawn, volatile figure with the husband she knew and loved before, and, as she strives to break through the wall Max has built around himself, Netta is both frightened and jealous of this interloper in the previously cosy household she shared with her mother and doting grandparents. Now, if family life isn't tough enough, it is about to get even tougher, when a murder sparks a police investigation, which begins to unearth dark secrets they all hoped had been forgotten.
The Way To A Soldier's Heart: The Way To A Soldier's Heart Nora's Guy Next Door This Baby Business Navy Seal Promise (Soldiers and Single Moms #2)
by Gina WilkinsA family for her daughter?
We Bled Together: Michael Collins, The Squad and the Dublin Brigade
by Dominic PriceThere is no crime in detecting and destroying in wartime the spy and informer...I have paid them back in their own coin. - Michael CollinsMichael Collins' development of a formidable intelligence network transformed, for the first time in history, the military fortunes of the Irish against the British. The Dublin Brigade of the IRA was pivotal to this defining strategy. In 1919, Collins formed members of the brigade into two Special Duties Units. They eventually joined to form his 'Squad' of assassins tasked with immobilising British intelligence. Eyewitness testimonies and war diaries lend immediacy and insight to this thrilling account of the daring espionage and killings carried out by both sides on Dublin's streets. Dominic Price reveals how the IRA developed Improvised Explosive Devices, and experimented with chemical weapons in the form of poison gas and infecting water supplies.When the Civil War erupted, the devotion of a significant cohort of the Dublin Brigade to Collins, forged during the darkest of days, was unbreakable. Many of them, identified here for the first time, formed the backbone of the Free State in key intelligence and military roles. While not shying away from the revulsions of the Civil War, neither does Price abandon the brigade's story at its conclusion. As well as revealing the disenchantment of some, who took part in the 1924 army mutiny, he exposes the personal horrors that awaited in peacetime, when psychological trauma was common. This is the stirring and poignant story of the human endeavour and suffering at the core of the Dublin Brigade's fight for Irish freedom.
We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America
by Rhodri Jeffreys-JonesWe Know All About You shows how bulk spying came of age in the nineteenth century, and supplies the first overarching narrative and interpretation of what has happened since, covering the agencies, programs, personalities, technology, leaks, criticisms and reform. Concentrating on America and Britain, it delves into the roles of credit agencies, private detectives, and phone-hacking journalists as well as government agencies like the NSA and GCHQ, and highlights malpractices such as the blacklist and illegal electronic interceptions. It demonstrates that several presidents - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon - conducted political surveillance, and how British agencies have been under a constant cloud of suspicion for similar reasons. We Know All About You continues with an account of the 1970s leaks that revealed how the FBI and CIA kept tabs on anti-Vietnam War protestors, and assesses the reform impulse that began in America and spread to Britain. The end of the Cold War further undermined confidence in the need for surveillance, but it returned with a vengeance after 9/11. The book shows how reformers challenged that new expansionism, assesses the political effectiveness of the Snowden revelations, and offers an appraisal of legislative initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic. Micro-stories and character sketches of individuals ranging from Pinkerton detective James McParlan to recent whisteblowers illuminate the book. We Know All About You confirms that governments have a record of abusing surveillance powers once granted, but emphasizes that problems arising from private sector surveillance have been particularly neglected.
We Were the Lucky Ones: Based on the unforgettable story of one family determined to survive war-torn Europe
by Georgia HunterInspired by one family's remarkable wartime story, for anyone enthralled by The Tattooist of Auschwitz‘EXTRAORDINARILY MOVING’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY1939. Three generations of the Kurc family strive to live normal lives despite the growing hardships they face as Jews. But as the realities of war rush to meet them, they are cast to the wind and must do everything they can to find their way through a devastated continent to freedom.Based on an incredible true story that ranges from pre-war Parisian jazz clubs to the desolation of the Siberian gulag, and follows the Kurc family as refugees, prisoners and fighters, We Were the Lucky Ones is a testament to the notion that even in the darkest of times, the human spirit can find a way to survive, and even triumph.‘Brave and mesmerising’ Paula McLain, author of Circling the Sun
We Were Warriors: One Soldier's Story of Brutal Combat
by Johnny MercerAs seen on Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted 2018.'An adrenalin-fuelled, gritty story of heroism on the frontline in Afghanistan' Andy McNabThe rounds were single shot from the same two enemy positions, trying to pick me off. They were kicking up the dirt around me. Then all hell broke loose as the gunship's Gatling vomited ammo right over my head. The sound was deafening. It was now or never. I got up and ran. A captain in 29 Commando, Johnny Mercer served in the army for twelve years. On his third tour of Afghanistan he was a Joint Fires Controller, with the pressurized job of bringing down artillery and air strikes in close proximity to his own troops. Based in an area of northern Helmand that was riddled with Taliban leaders, he walked into danger with every patrol, determined to protect them. Then one morning, in brutal close quarter combat, everything changed . . . In We Were Warriors Johnny takes us from his commando training to the heat, blood and chaos of battle. With brutal honesty, he describes what it is like to risk your life every day, pushing through the fear that follows watching your friends die. He took the fight back to the enemy with a relentless efficiency that came at a high personal cost. Back in the UK, seeing the inadequate care available for veterans and their families, he was inspired to run for Parliament in the hope he could improve their plight. Unflinching, action-packed and laced with wry humour, We Were Warriors is a compelling read.
Westover
by Richmal CromptonWhen Julia Gideon is widowed during the Second World War with five children to look after, she is left to manage Westover House with insufficient means for its upkeep. Urged by her solicitor brother to downsize and turn the family home into flats, she reluctantly agrees. However, as her new tenants move in it soon becomes clear that the manor house cannot contain the fiery personalities that are now living under its roof . . .From the hard up Godfrey and his wife Cynthia, who must share a flat with his brother Hubert and the uncouth Trixie; to Julia’s elderly aunts, Letitia and Lucy, who aspire to very different lives in their old age; and the faux-French Mrs Pollock whose overbearing presence in her daughter Ann-Marie’s life is protective to the point of suffocation – life is anything but simple at Westover. As heated relationships simmer away and family feuds break through to the surface, Richmal Crompton’s Westover is a keenly observed study of what happens when domestic life doesn’t run so smoothly . . .
Where Poppies Blow: The British Soldier, Nature, the Great War
by John Lewis-StempelWinner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writingThe natural history of the Western Front during the First World War'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.'During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-watching, for instance, was probably the single most popular hobby among officers. Soldiers went fishing in flooded shell holes, shot hares in no-man's land for the pot, and planted gardens in their trenches and billets. Nature was also sometimes a curse - rats, spiders and lice abounded, and disease could be biblical.But above all, nature healed, and, despite the bullets and blood, it inspired men to endure. Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of how nature gave the British soldiers of the Great War a reason to fight, and the will to go on.
Whispers Across the Atlantick: General William Howe and the American Revolution
by David SmithGeneral William Howe was the commander-in-chief of the British forces during the early campaigns of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Howe evoked passionate reactions in the people he worked with – his men loved him, his second-in-command detested him, his enemies feared him, his political masters despaired of him. There was even a plot to murder him, in which British officers as well as Americans were implicated. Howe's story includes intrigue, romance and betrayal, played out on the battlefields of North America and concluding in a courtroom at the House of Commons, where Howe defended his decisions with his reputation and possibly his life on the line. The inquiry, complete with witness testimonies and savage debate between the bitterly divided factions of the British Parliament, gives Howe's story the flavour of a courtroom drama. Using extensive research and recent archival discoveries, this book tells the thrilling story of the man who always seemed to be on the verge of winning the American Revolutionary War for Britain, only to repeatedly fail to deliver the final blow.
White Chrysanthemum
by Mary Lynn Bracht'Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.'Hana and her little sister Emi are part of an island community of haenyeo, women who make their living from diving deep into the sea off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day’s catch on the beach. Her mother has told her again and again never to be caught alone with one. Terrified for her sister, Hana swims as hard as she can for the shore. So begins the story of two sisters suddenly and violently separated by war. Switch-backing between Hana in 1943 and Emi as an old woman today, White Chrysanthemum takes us into a dark and devastating corner of history. But pulling us back into the light are two women whose love for one another is strong enough to triumph over the evils of war.A riveting, immersive read in the vein of The Kite Runner and Memoirs of a Geisha.
Wilsonian Approaches to American Conflicts: From the War of 1812 to the First Gulf War (Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy)
by Ashley CoxThis book explores US foreign policy, specifically the history of America’s entry into the War of 1812, the First World War, the Korean War and the First Gulf War. Using a historical case study approach, it demonstrates how the Wilsonian Framework can give us a unique understanding of why the United States chose to go to war in those four conflicts. Cox argues that the Wilsonian Framework is an important concern for decision makers in the US and that democracy promotion and the concept of international law are driving factors in each of these decisions to go to war. The realist and economic explanations of these conflicts are not sufficient and we must draw on Wilsonianism to gain a clear understanding of these conflicts. Drawing on the history of American liberalism and the work of Walter Russel Mead and Tony Smith, the book presents a definition of Wilsonianism that represents a broad span of the history of The Republic, in order to show consistency across time. It also establishes why the realist and economic explanations fail to provide sufficient explanatory power and how the Wilsonian Framework can give important insights into these conflicts. This book will be of interest to international historians and international relations scholars at both postgraduate and scholar level. It will also be of use to those wishing to conduct future research into the motivations that drive the foreign and security policies of the United States.
Wilsonian Approaches to American Conflicts: From the War of 1812 to the First Gulf War (Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy)
by Ashley CoxThis book explores US foreign policy, specifically the history of America’s entry into the War of 1812, the First World War, the Korean War and the First Gulf War. Using a historical case study approach, it demonstrates how the Wilsonian Framework can give us a unique understanding of why the United States chose to go to war in those four conflicts. Cox argues that the Wilsonian Framework is an important concern for decision makers in the US and that democracy promotion and the concept of international law are driving factors in each of these decisions to go to war. The realist and economic explanations of these conflicts are not sufficient and we must draw on Wilsonianism to gain a clear understanding of these conflicts. Drawing on the history of American liberalism and the work of Walter Russel Mead and Tony Smith, the book presents a definition of Wilsonianism that represents a broad span of the history of The Republic, in order to show consistency across time. It also establishes why the realist and economic explanations fail to provide sufficient explanatory power and how the Wilsonian Framework can give important insights into these conflicts. This book will be of interest to international historians and international relations scholars at both postgraduate and scholar level. It will also be of use to those wishing to conduct future research into the motivations that drive the foreign and security policies of the United States.
The Wind Cannot Read
by Richard MasonWinner of the 1948 John Llewellyn Rhys PrizeA poignant novel of forbidden love, The Wind Cannot Read is the story of Michael Quinn, an English airman, who falls in love with Sabby, his Japanese teacher, in India during the Second World War. "Enemies" in the eyes of his friends and fellow soldiers, they must keep their romance a secret in the face of great danger. And tragedy awaits them both when Quinn is sent behind enemy lines in Burma . . .Cinematic in both its scope and depth of feeling, The Wind Cannot Read was made into a film starring Dirk Bogarde and Yoko Tani in 1958. Richard Mason's descriptive powers are at their zenith in this touching wartime romance, which is a must-read for anyone who loved his timeless bestseller, The World of Suzie Wong.
Wingman (Elite Ops #2)
by Emmy CurtisSizzling hot and full of action, the Elite Ops military romance series is perfect for fans of Suzanne Brockmann, Julie Ann Walker, and Lynne Ray Harris.The higher the risk, the harder the fall.Maj. Missy Malden loves her job, her plane, and its pilot-not that she could ever let him know. He's way too cocky, way too sexy, and in their job, any distraction is way too dangerous. But when a training exercise spirals out of control, Missy's in the hot seat, and Conrad's the only one who can bail her out . . . Lt. Col. Francis Conrad has always valued Missy too much as his weapons specialist to ever tell her how he really feels. But now that she's been accused of treason, he can't sit back and let her fly solo. To keep her safe, he'll put everything on the line-his career, his heart, and even his life.
Winning the Peace: The British in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948
by Christopher KnowlesBy adopting a unique biographical approach, this book examines the aims and intentions of twelve important and influential individuals who worked for the British Military Government in occupied Germany during the first three years after the end of the Second World War. British policy was distinctive, and the British zone was the largest and economically most important of all four zones. Although the three Western Allies all ended in the same place with the creation of an independent Federal Republic of (West) Germany in 1949, they took different paths to get there. The role of the British has been much misunderstood. Winning the Peace strikes a balance between earlier self-congratulatory accounts of the British occupation, and the later more critical historiography. It highlights diversity of aims and personal backgrounds and in so doing explains some of the complexities and apparent contradictions in British occupation policy. The book concludes that, despite diversity among those studied, all twelve individuals followed a policy described as the 'three Rs' - Reconstruction, Renewal and Reconciliation - rather than the 'four Ds' - De-militarisation, De-nazification, De-industrialisation, and Democratisation - highlighted in earlier histories of the occupation. Whilst reflecting on the role of human agency, Christopher Knowles examines why individuals sometimes failed to achieve what they originally intended, and how their aims and perceptions changed over time to reveal broader political, sociological and cultural forces, outside their direct control. This book is an innovative study for those interested in the Allied occupation, the post-war history of Germany and the study of military occupation generally.
Winning the Peace: The British in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948
by Christopher KnowlesBy adopting a unique biographical approach, this book examines the aims and intentions of twelve important and influential individuals who worked for the British Military Government in occupied Germany during the first three years after the end of the Second World War. British policy was distinctive, and the British zone was the largest and economically most important of all four zones. Although the three Western Allies all ended in the same place with the creation of an independent Federal Republic of (West) Germany in 1949, they took different paths to get there. The role of the British has been much misunderstood. Winning the Peace strikes a balance between earlier self-congratulatory accounts of the British occupation, and the later more critical historiography. It highlights diversity of aims and personal backgrounds and in so doing explains some of the complexities and apparent contradictions in British occupation policy. The book concludes that, despite diversity among those studied, all twelve individuals followed a policy described as the 'three Rs' - Reconstruction, Renewal and Reconciliation - rather than the 'four Ds' - De-militarisation, De-nazification, De-industrialisation, and Democratisation - highlighted in earlier histories of the occupation. Whilst reflecting on the role of human agency, Christopher Knowles examines why individuals sometimes failed to achieve what they originally intended, and how their aims and perceptions changed over time to reveal broader political, sociological and cultural forces, outside their direct control. This book is an innovative study for those interested in the Allied occupation, the post-war history of Germany and the study of military occupation generally.
Winston Churchill: Politics, Strategy and Statecraft
by Richard ToyeWinston Churchill is a renowned historical figure, whose remarkable political and military career continues to enthral. This book consists of short, highly readable chapters on key aspects of Churchill's career. Written by leading experts, the chapters draw on documents from Churchill's extensive personal papers as well as cutting–edge scholarship. Ranging from Churchill's youthful statesmanship to the period of the Cold War, the volume considers his military strategy during both World Wars as well as dealing with the social, political and economic issues that helped define the Churchillian era. Suitable for those coming to Churchill for the first time, as well as providing new insights for those already familiar with his life, this is a sparkling collection of essays that provides an enlightening history of Churchill and his era.
Winston Churchill: Politics, Strategy and Statecraft
by Richard ToyeWinston Churchill is a renowned historical figure, whose remarkable political and military career continues to enthral. This book consists of short, highly readable chapters on key aspects of Churchill's career. Written by leading experts, the chapters draw on documents from Churchill's extensive personal papers as well as cutting–edge scholarship. Ranging from Churchill's youthful statesmanship to the period of the Cold War, the volume considers his military strategy during both World Wars as well as dealing with the social, political and economic issues that helped define the Churchillian era. Suitable for those coming to Churchill for the first time, as well as providing new insights for those already familiar with his life, this is a sparkling collection of essays that provides an enlightening history of Churchill and his era.
Winston Churchill in British Art, 1900 to the Present Day: The Titan With Many Faces
by Jonathan BlackChurchill is today remembered as a great leader, a war hero, a literary heavyweight and a renowned wit. This incarnation of Churchill is the latest in a long-evolving identity, which at various times has sustained his power, enhanced his popularity and enabled him to personify aspects of British national identity.Indeed Churchill was more aware than most of the performative power of his public life. He lived in an age of the illustrated mass-produced newspaper, with its cartoons and 'Kodak-snappers'. He was well-known for his readiness to appear in uniform for photo opportunities during the Second World War and he not only wrote about the art of political caricature, but collected cartoons of himself, his allies and opponents.In this heavily-illustrated book, Jonathan Black considers the changing image of Churchill in visual art, from cartoons and paintings to photographs and sculptures. He asks how and why his image developed right up to the present day and examines the extent to which Churchill was complicit in its production.
With Their Bare Hands: General Pershing, the 79th Division, and the battle for Montfaucon
by Gene FaxWith Their Bare Hands traces the fate of the US 79th Division – men drafted off the streets of Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia – from boot camp in Maryland through the final years of World War I, focusing on their most famous engagement: the attack on Montfaucon, the most heavily fortified part of the German Line, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918. Using the 79th as a window into the American Army as a whole, Gene Fax examines its mistakes and triumphs, the tactics of its commander General John J. Pershing, and how the lessons it learned during the Great War helped it to fight World War II. Fax makes some startling judgments, on the role of future Army Chief-of-Staff, Colonel George C. Marshall; whether the Montfaucon battle – had it followed the plan – could have shortened the war; and if Pershing was justified in ordering his troops to attack right up to the moment of the Armistice. Drawing upon original documents, including orders, field messages, and the letters and memoirs of the soldiers themselves, Fax tells the engrossing story of the 79th Division's bloody involvement in the final months of World War I.
Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam
by Gregory A. DaddisA "better war." Over the last two decades, this term has become synonymous with US strategy during the Vietnam War's final years. The narrative is enticingly simple, appealing to many audiences. After the disastrous results of the 1968 Tet offensive, in which Hanoi's forces demonstrated the failures of American strategy, popular history tells of a new American military commander who emerged in South Vietnam and with inspired leadership and a new approach turned around a long stalemated conflict. In fact, so successful was General Creighton Abrams in commanding US forces that, according to the "better war" myth, the United States had actually achieved victory by mid-1970. A new general with a new strategy had delivered, only to see his victory abandoned by weak-kneed politicians in Washington, DC who turned their backs on the US armed forces and their South Vietnamese allies. In a bold new interpretation of America's final years in Vietnam, acclaimed historian Gregory A. Daddis disproves these longstanding myths. Withdrawal is a groundbreaking reassessment that tells a far different story of the Vietnam War. Daddis convincingly argues that the entire US effort in South Vietnam was incapable of reversing the downward trends of a complicated Vietnamese conflict that by 1968 had turned into a political-military stalemate. Despite a new articulation of strategy, Abrams's approach could not materially alter a war no longer vital to US national security or global dominance. Once the Nixon White House made the political decision to withdraw from Southeast Asia, Abrams's military strategy was unable to change either the course or outcome of a decades' long Vietnamese civil war. In a riveting sequel to his celebrated Westmoreland's War, Daddis demonstrates he is one of the nation's leading scholars on the Vietnam War. Withdrawal will be a standard work for years to come.
Women in European Holocaust Films: Perpetrators, Victims and Resisters
by Ingrid LewisThis book considers how women’s experiences have been treated in films dealing with Nazi persecution. Focusing on fiction films made in Europe between 1945 and the present, this study explores dominant discourses on and cinematic representation of women as perpetrators, victims and resisters. Ingrid Lewis contends that European Holocaust Cinema underwent a rich and complex trajectory of change with regard to the representation of women. This change both reflects and responds to key socio-cultural developments in the intervening decades as well as to new directions in cinema, historical research and politics of remembrance. The book will appeal to international scholars, students and educators within the fields of Holocaust Studies, Film Studies, European Cinema and Women’s Studies.
Women in European Holocaust Films: Perpetrators, Victims and Resisters
by Ingrid LewisThis book considers how women’s experiences have been treated in films dealing with Nazi persecution. Focusing on fiction films made in Europe between 1945 and the present, this study explores dominant discourses on and cinematic representation of women as perpetrators, victims and resisters. Ingrid Lewis contends that European Holocaust Cinema underwent a rich and complex trajectory of change with regard to the representation of women. This change both reflects and responds to key socio-cultural developments in the intervening decades as well as to new directions in cinema, historical research and politics of remembrance. The book will appeal to international scholars, students and educators within the fields of Holocaust Studies, Film Studies, European Cinema and Women’s Studies.
Women, Warfare and Representation: American Servicewomen in the Twentieth Century (War, Culture and Society)
by Emerald M. ArcherWomen, Warfare and Representation considers the various ways the American servicewoman has been represented throughout the 20th century and how those representations impact the roles she is permitted to inhabit. While women have a relatively short history in the American military, the last century shows an evolution of women's direct participation in war despite the need to overcome societal sex-role expectations. The primary focus is on the American case, but Emerald Archer also introduces a comparative element, showing how women's integration in the military differs in other countries, including Great Britain, Canada and Israel. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on military history, theory and social psychology to offer a more complete and integrated history of women in the military and their representation in society.
Women, Warfare and Representation: American Servicewomen in the Twentieth Century (War, Culture and Society)
by Emerald M. ArcherWomen, Warfare and Representation considers the various ways the American servicewoman has been represented throughout the 20th century and how those representations impact the roles she is permitted to inhabit. While women have a relatively short history in the American military, the last century shows an evolution of women's direct participation in war despite the need to overcome societal sex-role expectations. The primary focus is on the American case, but Emerald Archer also introduces a comparative element, showing how women's integration in the military differs in other countries, including Great Britain, Canada and Israel. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book draws on military history, theory and social psychology to offer a more complete and integrated history of women in the military and their representation in society.