Into the Hands of the Soldiers

Into the Hands of the Soldiers

Author: David D. Kirkpatrick

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1408898470

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A poignant, deeply human portrait of Egypt during the Arab Spring, told through the lives of individuals A FINANCIAL TIMES AND AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This will be the must read on the destruction of Egypt's revolution and democratic moment' Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch 'Sweeping, passionate ... An essential work of reportage for our time' Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families In 2011, Egyptians of all sects, ages and social classes shook off millennia of autocracy, then elected a Muslim Brother as president. New York Times correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick arrived in Egypt with his family less than six months before the uprising first broke out in 2011. As revolution and violence engulfed the country, he lived through Cairo's hopes and disappointments alongside the diverse population of his new city. Into the Hands of the Soldiers is a heartbreaking story with a simple message: the failings of decades of autocratic rule are the reason for the chaos we see across the Arab world. Understanding the story of what happened in those years can help readers make sense of everything taking place across the region today – from the terrorist attacks in North Sinai to the bedlam in Syria and Libya.


Rommel in North Africa

Rommel in North Africa

Author: David Mitchelhill-Green

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2017-08-30

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 1473892228

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Erwin Rommel is the arguably the most well-known German general of the Second World War. Revered by his troops and applauded by his enemies, the so-called Desert Fox achieved legendary status for his daring exploits and bold maneuvers during the North African campaign. In this book, richly illustrated with over 400 images, the author examines the privations and challenges Rommel faced in leading his coalition force. Endeavoring to reach the Nile Delta, we find Rommel's Axis soldiers poorly prepared to undertake such an audacious operation. Much-admired by his men in the front lines, we discover a demanding and intolerant leader, censured by subordinate officers and mistrusted by his superiors in Berlin. Certainly no diplomat, we observe posed interactions with Italian and junior German officers through an official lens. We note Rommel's readiness to take advantage of his enemy's weakness and study his extraordinary instinct for waging mobile warfare. We consider his disregard for the decisive factor of supply and view his army's reliance on captured equipment. We learn how this brave and ambitious commander was celebrated by German propaganda when the Wehrmacht's fortunes in the East were waning. Conversely, analyze why Winston Churchill honored him as a daring and skillful opponent. Finally, we picture this energetic, ambitious, at times reckless, commander as he roamed the vast Western Desert battlefield. This is the story of Rommel in North Africa.


Islam and the Army in Colonial India

Islam and the Army in Colonial India

Author: Nile Green

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-05-14

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1139479245

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Set in Hyderabad in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book, a study of the cultural world of the Muslim soldiers of colonial India, focuses on the soldiers' relationships with the faqir holy men who protected them and the British officers they served. Drawing on Urdu as well as European sources, the book uses the biographies of Muslim holy men and their military followers to recreate the extraordinary encounter between a barracks culture of miracle stories, carnivals, drug-use and madness with a colonial culture of mutiny memoirs, Evangelicalism, magistrates and the asylum. It explores the ways in which the colonial army helped promote this sepoy religion while at the same time attempting to control and suppress certain aspects of it. The book brings to light the existence of a distinct 'barracks Islam' and shows its importance to the cultural no less than the military history of colonial India.


The Wizard of the Nile

The Wizard of the Nile

Author: Matthew Green

Publisher: Granta Publications

Published: 2012-03-22

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1846274818

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A foreign correspondent’s chronicle of the Ugandan warlord and his Lord’s Resistance Army of abducted child soldiers: “a readable and compelling account” (Independent, UK). Somewhere in the jungles of Uganda, there hides a fugitive rebel leader: he is said to take his orders directly from the spirit world and, together with his ragged army of brutalized child soldiers, he has left a bloody trail of devastation across his country. Joseph Kony is now an internationally wanted criminal, and yet nobody really knows who he is or what he is fighting for. To get the truth behind the rumors and myths, Matthew Green ventures into the war zone, meeting the victims, the peacemakers and the regional powerbrokers as he tracks down the man himself. The Wizard of the Nile is the first book to peel back the layers of mysticism and murky politics surrounding Kony, to shine a searching light onto this forgotten conflict, and to tell the gripping human story behind an inhumane war and a humanitarian crisis. Winner of the Jerwood Award Long-listed for the Orwell Prize


The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile

The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile

Author: Kostas Buraselis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1107355516

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With its emphasis on the dynasty's concern for control of the sea – both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea – and the Nile, this book offers a new and original perspective on Ptolemaic power in a key period of Hellenistic history. Within the developing Aegean empire of the Ptolemies, the role of the navy is examined together with that of its admirals. Egypt's close relationship to Rhodes is subjected to scrutiny, as is the constant threat of piracy to the transport of goods on the Nile and by sea. Along with the trade in grain came the exchange of other products. Ptolemaic kings used their wealth for luxury ships and the dissemination of royal portraiture was accompanied by royal cult. Alexandria, the new capital of Egypt, attracted poets, scholars and even philosophers; geographical exploration by sea was a feature of the period and observations of the time enjoyed a long afterlife.


Red Nile

Red Nile

Author: Robert Twigger

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2014-10-07

Total Pages: 641

ISBN-13: 1466853905

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From religion, to language, to the stories rooted in our faith and history books, the Nile River has proven to be a constant fixture in mankind's tales. In this dazzling, idiosyncratic journey from ancient times to the Arab Spring, Red Nile navigates a meandering course through the history of the world's greatest river, exploring this unique breeding ground for creativity, power clashes, and constant change. Seasoned historical writer Robert Twigger connects the comprehensive history of the Nile with his personal experience of living in Egypt while researching the Nile's historical origins. Twigger covers the entirety of the river, charting the length of the Nile from its disputed origins through Africa on a whirlwind tour of the rulers, explorers, conquerors, generals, and novelists who painted the Nile "red." Both comprehensive and intimate, this narrative guides readers through history by way of the mighty river known across the world. The result of this meticulously researched book is an all-inclusive history of this epic river and the incredible connections throughout history. The stories of excess, love, passion, splendor, and violence are what make the Nile so engaging, even after centuries of change.


Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt

Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt

Author: Christelle Fischer-Bovet

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-04-10

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 1107007755

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This book examines how the army developed as an engine of socio-economic and cultural integration in Egypt under Greco-Macedonian rule.