"When Major Finaly Urquhart was lasto n the battlefield, he shared a sizzling moment with daring Isabella Romero. Two years later, Finlay has one final duty to perform for his country-- one that reunites him with this rebellious senorita! Except Isabella has her own mission, which means that no matter how much she craves Finlay's touch, she can never tell him the truth"--Page 4 of cover.
Despite peace agreements, demobilization, and reintegration processes, the end of war does not automatically or necessarily make combatants abandon their wartime rebel networks. In Liberia such structures have lingered long after the civil war came to an end in 2003. Weak formal security institutions with a history of predatory behavior have contributed to the creation of an environment where informal initiatives for security and protection are called upon. In fragile postwar settings, former soldiers can be used as intimidators but have paradoxically reemerged as security providers, challenging our understanding of both the setting and the actors beyond the sphere of war. Based on original interview material and findings from fieldwork, Repurposed Rebels follows former rebel soldiers from the time of civil war to 2013. These actors have reemerged as "recycled" warriors in times of regional wars and crisis and as vigilantes and informal security providers for economic and political purposes. Through these actors, Mariam Bjarnesen examines the relevance of postwar rebel networks and ex-combatant identity in contemporary Liberia, with an eye to understanding the underlying aims of demobilization when reintegration is challenged. Bjarnesen argues that these ex-combatants have succeeded in reintegrating themselves due to, not despite, the fact that they have not been truly demobilized.
Haunted by history. Bound by mystery. Lori Chase doesn't know what to think about ghosts. She may have seen a few in the past, but those were just childish imaginings . . . right? Only now that she is living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, spirits seem to be on everyone's mind. The town is obsessed with its bloody Civil War history, and the old inn that Lori's parent run is supposedly haunted by the souls of dead soldiers. Then Lori meets one such soldier -- the devastatingly handsome Nathaniel Pierce. Nathaniel's soul cannot rest, and he desperately needs Lori's help. Because Nathaniel was not killed in the famous battle. He was murdered. Lori begins to investigate the age-old mystery, stumbling upon shocking clues and secrets. At the same time, she can't help falling for Nathaniel, just as he is falling for her . . . .
The author of Like a Sword Wound weaves an “ambitious and intelligent thriller about love and war” in the early twentieth-century Ottoman Empire (Kirkus Reviews). Love in the Days of Rebellion is the second installment in Ahmet Altan’s masterful saga of Turkish history, The Ottoman Quartet. Following the vast and vivid cast of characters introduced in Like A Sword Wound, it opens with the attempted suicide of Hikmet Bey, the son of the sultan’s personal physician. Hikmet is driven to this extreme in an attempt to forget his wife, the beautiful and proud Mehpare Hanim. While Hikmet is recovering in a hospital in Thessaloniki, slowly regaining his strength and will to live, radical changes are afoot in the Ottoman capital. The power of the sultan is eroding, a rebellion is brewing, and violence erupts on the streets of Istanbul. It is the eve of the 1909 countercoup, an event that will lead to the Empire’s collapse. With striking clarity and imaginative power, Altan evokes the traumas and upheavals of Ottoman history, showing how the events and wounds of that time still resonate in the tensions and contradictions of today’s Turkey.
General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.
Sir Philip Hampton seems to be exactly what he claims: a loyal Royalist newly returned from exile in France. But Alysa Leighton must be without doubt, for in 1659 England, Civil War has set Royalist against Roundhead, and those who support the king, like Alysa's family, are always in peril. If Philip proves a Roundhead spy, everyone Alysa loves is in grave danger. But the more Alysa learns of Philip, the more she likes him. Soon a marriage proposal is in the air and Alysa realizes she is in love. But is Philip friend or foe? REVIEWS "A blend of romance, conspiracy, and hidden identities... with just the right mix of action and seduction." ~Susan Tanner, author of Winds Across Texas HEARTS OF REBELLION SERIES, in order: Pretender's Game Lover's Knot Dangerous Desires
A cultural history of gay filmmaking in Israel that explores its role in the rise of gay consciousness over the past three decades. Despite the canonical status of the written word in forging the Zionist-Israeli national narrative and its subversive derivatives, the emergence of gay consciousness in the mid-1970s relied more on cinematic representations than those found in literature, journalism, or popular music. Film's global distribution reached wide overseas audiences and emphasized gay men and lesbians' roles in representing "liberal" Israel to the world. In Soldiers, Rebels, and Drifters: Gay Representation in Israeli Cinema author Nir Cohen studies the role of cinema in portraying gay identities, environments, and lifestyles in Israel over the past three decades, particularly in the wake of a series of legal battles for gay rights in the 1980s and 1990s. In five chapters, Cohen examines the past, present, and future of gay filmmaking in Israel. In chapter 1, he traces the roots of an imagined Israeli gay community in film by examining the parallels between constructing gay identity on screen and representing the city of Tel Aviv as a cosmopolitan metropolis, with a focus on the early films of Amos Guttman and Eytan Fox. In chapter 2, he explores Guttman's films in detail to trace their contribution to the evolution of a gay identity in 1980s Israel. Chapter 3 shifts to the work of Eytan Fox, probably the most prolific gay Israeli director since Guttman. In chapter 4, Cohen tackles nonfiction gay filmmaking in Israel in the form of documentaries and self-authored films. Chapter 5 concludes the volume with a look at the current state of gay filmmaking in Israel, including the new directions that recent films have taken and the increasing interest in the experience of gay men and lesbians from religious communities. Beyond simple textual analysis, Cohen addresses the institutional apparatuses of the movie industry, including the politics behind funding, censorship, and television broadcasting, and relates the films studied to the cultural and political history of Israel since the late 1970s. Film and television scholars, as well as those interested in queer studies and the cultural history of Israel will be grateful for this thorough study of gay Israeli cinema.
