Papa's War
Papa's War

Author: Thérèse van Houten

Publisher:

Published: 2015-04-17

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9780692371138

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This historical narrative follows the lives of a young couple separated by the upheavals of World War II. In May 1940, Jan van Houten, a Dutch journalist working in London, joins the press office of the Dutch government now exiled in England. When bombing raids over London force his wife Marie and infant daughter to leave the city, the couple write daily letters to express their love and commitment to each other. Jan's letters vividly describe life during the Blitz, and the travails of a government-in-exile. Their correspondence resumes when, in September 1944, Jan is asked to organize press censorship in a recently liberated area of The Netherlands. Here he is eyewitness to historic events such as the aftermath of the allied forces' failed attempt to secure a crucial bridge across the Rhine-a defeat that delays the country's liberation by eight long months. Written by Jan and Marie's daughter Thérèse, Papa's War, is based primarily on Jan's letters backed by diaries, Marie's letters, and historical research. It paints a compelling picture of life in wartime England and postwar Holland. Its publication coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Netherlands' liberation from Germany on May 5, 1945.

Lessons of War
Lessons of War

Author: James Alan Marten

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780842026567

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Presents essays, editorials, articles, poems, games, short stories and letters that tell the story of the Civil War.

Dark Trophies
Dark Trophies

Author: Simon Harrison

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0857454986

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Many anthropological accounts of warfare in indigenous societies have described the taking of heads or other body parts as trophies. But almost nothing is known of the prevalence of trophy-taking of this sort in the armed forces of contemporary nation-states. This book is a history of this type of misconduct among military personnel over the past two centuries, exploring its close connections with colonialism, scientific collecting and concepts of race, and how it is a model for violent power relationships between groups.

The British Are Coming
The British Are Coming

Author: Rick Atkinson

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13: 1627790446

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Winner of the George Washington Prize Winner of the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History Winner of the Excellence in American History Book Award Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award From the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy comes the extraordinary first volume of his new trilogy about the American Revolution Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn and two other superb books about World War II, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling. Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.

That Ever Loyal Island
That Ever Loyal Island

Author: Phillip Papas

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2009-03

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 0814767664

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Of crucial strategic importance to both the British and the Continental Army, Staten Island was, for a good part of the American Revolution, a bastion of Loyalist support. With its military and political significance, Staten Island provides rich terrain for Phillip Papas's illuminating case study of the local dimensions of the Revolutionary War. Papas traces Staten Island's political sympathies not to strong ties with Britain, but instead to local conditions that favored the status quo instead of revolutionary change. With a thriving agricultural economy, stable political structure, and strong allegiance to the Anglican Church, on the eve of war it was in Staten Island's self-interest to throw its support behind the British, in order to maintain its favorable economic, social, and political climate. Over the course of the conflict, continual occupation and attack by invading armies deeply eroded Staten Island's natural and other resources, and these pressures, combined with general war weariness, created fissures among the residents of “that ever loyal island,” with Loyalist neighbors fighting against Patriot neighbors in a civil war. Papas’s thoughtful study reminds us that the Revolution was both a civil war and a war for independence—a duality that is best viewed from a local perspective.