They survived the insanity of the Vietnam War by telling themselves, "It don't mean nuthin'." But it did. This collection of nonfiction short works tells the story of how war damages our soldiers, and then pulls back the curtain of trauma treatment to offer a rare glimpse of how these veterans strive to integrate those combat experiences and to recover. Though intimately revealing the human shadow and darkness of war, this is a hopeful book: it is about transformation, restoring meaning and connection, and navigating the archetypal hero's journey as survivors come home from war. It seeks to unite our warriors and civilian public together in learning and healing. Their stories are this liminal bridge. This narrative arose from the psychotherapeutic process of treating our nation's combat veterans for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But this book is also about the author's own self-discovery, tracing his evolution as a clinical psychologist and combat trauma specialist dedicated to working with Vietnam veterans. The author serves as a therapist, narrator, advocate, keeper of veterans' sacred "dark" wisdom, and fellow traveler.
" Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" is a harvest of creative, redemptive storytelling-nonfiction, fiction, and poetry-spanning five wars and written by those most profoundly affected by it. This poignant collection, compiled from Kingston's healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse. " Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace" includes accounts from people that grew up in military families, served as medics in the thick of war, or came home to homelessness. All struggle with trauma - PTSD, substance abuse, and other consequences of war and violence. Through their extraordinary writings, readers witness worlds coming apart and being put back together again through liberating insight, community, and the deep transformation that is possible only by coming to grips with the past. For more than 15 years, National Book Award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston has led writing-and-meditation workshops for veterans and their families. The contributors to this volume are part of this community of writers working together to heal the trauma of war through art. Maxine Hong Kingston's books-" The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace," and others-have won critical praise and national awards. President Bill Clinton presented her with a National Humanities Medal in 1997.
COLBY AWARD WINNER • “One of the most important books to come out of the Afghanistan war.”—Foreign Policy “A saga of courage and futility, of valor and error and heartbreak.”—Rick Atkinson, author of the Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area’s rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America’s two-decade-long Afghan war. Drawing on reporting trips, hundreds of interviews, and documentary research, Wesley Morgan reveals the history of the war in this iconic region, captures the culture and reality of the conflict through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing missteps—some kept secret from even the troops fighting there—that doomed the American mission. The Hardest Place is the story of one of the twenty-first century’s most unforgiving battlefields and a portrait of the American military that fought there.
This book examines the role of women in politics from the early women’s movement to the female politicians in power today. Engaging profiles of the key players who have shaped our political system are interwoven with an analysis of the most recent election data to provide a comprehensive and unbiased introduction to the study of women and politics.
The oldest and most respected martial arts title in the industry, this popular monthly magazine addresses the needs of martial artists of all levels by providing them with information about every style of self-defense in the world - including techniques and strategies. In addition, Black Belt produces and markets over 75 martial arts-oriented books and videos including many about the works of Bruce Lee, the best-known marital arts figure in the world.
In the beginning, there was only Daedrina, and she dwelled in darkness. Clyde Robbins joins the US Army in 1969 to find purpose in life but quickly learns that in war, life is one's only purpose. But Clyde dies like countless others before him in a rain of fire and lead, and when he thinks it's all over-and the curtain draws shut on his final act-he awakens in the strange land of Irgendwo. He quickly meets a gruff German Luftwaffe pilot from the Second World War and a pudgy British doughboy from the First. Together, they take Clyde into the heart of an ancient city ruled by a shadowy cult to settle him into his rigorous new existence. But the cult's sages discover Clyde is a Shadebringer, a prophesied warrior capable of challenging their power, and the ensuing struggles bring Clyde to the realization that his afterlife is just another war . . . one he cannot lose. In this thrilling first volume of the Shadebringer series, author Grayson W. Hooper introduces a vivid world of Cronenberg monstrosities, magic, soul-eating children, and the reanimated dead. The Land of Irgendwo is a fast-paced adventure flecked with savage humor, emotion, and true purpose: friends worth fighting for.
In the fall of 1864, during the last brutal months of the Civil War, the Confederates made one final, desperate attempt to rampage through the Shenandoah Valley, Tennessee, and Missouri. Price’s Raid was the common name for the Missouri campaign led by General Sterling Price. Involving tens of thousands of armed men, the 1864 Missouri campaign has too long remained unexamined by a book-length modern study, but now, Civil War scholar Mark A. Lause fills this long-standing gap in the literature, providing keen insights on the problems encountered during and the myths propagated about this campaign. Price marched Confederate troops 1,500 miles into Missouri, five times as far as his Union counterparts who met him in the incursion. Along the way, he picked up additional troops; the most exaggerated estimates place Price’s troop numbers at 15,000. The Federal forces initially underestimated the numbers heading for Missouri and then called in troops from Illinois and Kansas, amassing 65,000 to 75,000 troops and militia members. The Union tried to downplay its underestimation of the Confederate buildup of troops by supplanting the term campaign with the impromptu raid. This term was also used by Confederates to minimize their lack of military success. The Confederates, believing that Missourians wanted liberation from Union forces, had planned a two-phase campaign. They intended not only to disrupt the functioning government through seizure of St. Louis and the capital, Jefferson City, but also to restore the pro-secessionist government driven from the state three years before. The primary objective, however, was to change the outcome of the Federal elections that fall, encouraging votes against the Republicans who incorporated ending slavery into the Union war goals. What followed was widespread uncontrolled brutality in the form of guerrilla warfare, which drove support for the Federalists. Missouri joined Kansas in reelecting the Republicans and ensuring the end of slavery. Lause’s account of the Missouri campaign of 1864 brings new understanding of the two distinct phases of the campaign, as based upon declared strategic goals. Additionally, as the author reveals the clear connection between the military campaign and the outcome of the election, he successfully tests the efforts of new military historians to integrate political, economic, social, and cultural history into the study of warfare. In showing how both sides during Price’s Raid used self-serving fictions to provide a rationale for their politically motivated brutality and were unwilling to risk defeat, Lause reveals the underlying nature of the American Civil War as a modern war.
