William Walker's Wars
William Walker's Wars

Author: Scott Martelle

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2018-11-06

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1613737327

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In the decade before the onset of the Civil War, groups of Americans engaged in a series of longshot—and illegal—forays into Mexico, Cuba, and other Central American countries in hopes of taking them over. These efforts became known as filibustering, and their goal was to seize territory to create new independent fiefdoms, which would ultimately be annexed by the still-growing United States. Most failed miserably. William Walker was the outlier. Short, slender, and soft-spoken with no military background—he trained as a doctor before becoming a lawyer and then a newspaper editor—Walker was an unlikely leader of rough-hewn men and adventurers. But in 1856 he managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua. Neighboring governments saw Walker as a risk to the region and worked together to drive him out—efforts aided, incongruously, by the United States' original tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt. William Walker's Wars is a story of greedy dreams and ambitions, the fate of nations and personal fortunes, and the dark side of Manifest Destiny, for among Walker's many goals was to build his own empire based on slavery. This little-remembered story from US history is a cautionary tale for all who dream of empire.

A Perpetual Menace
A Perpetual Menace

Author: William Walker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-09-14

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1136594639

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Written by a leading scholar in the field of nuclear weapons and international relations, this book examines ‘the problem of order’ arising from the existence of weapons of mass destruction. This central problem of international order has its origins in the nineteenth century, when industrialization and the emergence of new sciences, technologies and administrative capabilities greatly expanded states’ abilities to inflict injury, ushering in the era of total war. It became acute in the mid-twentieth century, with the invention of the atomic bomb and the pre-eminent role ascribed to nuclear weapons during the Cold War. It became more complex after the end of the Cold War, as power structures shifted, new insecurities emerged, prior ordering strategies were called into question, and as technologies relevant to weapons of mass destruction became more accessible to non-state actors as well as states. William Walker explores how this problem is conceived by influential actors, how they have tried to fashion solutions in the face of many predicaments, and why those solutions have been deemed effective and ineffective, legitimate and illegitimate, in various times and contexts.

Manifest Destiny's Underworld
Manifest Destiny's Underworld

Author: Robert E. May

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2003-04-03

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 0807860409

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This fascinating study sheds new light on antebellum America's notorious "filibusters--the freebooters and adventurers who organized or participated in armed invasions of nations with whom the United States was formally at peace. Offering the first full-scale analysis of the filibustering movement, Robert May relates the often-tragic stories of illegal expeditions into Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries and details surprising numbers of aborted plots, as well. May investigates why thousands of men joined filibustering expeditions, how they were financed, and why the U.S. government had little success in curtailing them. Surveying antebellum popular media, he shows how the filibustering phenomenon infiltrated the American psyche in newspapers, theater, music, advertising, and literature. Condemned abroad as pirates, frequently in language strikingly similar to modern American denunciations of foreign terrorists, the filibusters were often celebrated at home as heroes who epitomized the spirit of Manifest Destiny. May concludes by exploring the national consequences of filibustering, arguing that the practice inflicted lasting damage on U.S. relations with foreign countries and contributed to the North-South division over slavery that culminated in the Civil War.

Betrayal at Little Gibraltar
Betrayal at Little Gibraltar

Author: William Walker

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-05-10

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1501117920

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A vivid, thrilling, and impeccably researched account of America’s bloodiest battle ever—World War I’s Meuse-Argonne Offensive—and the shocking American cover-up at its heart. The year is 1918. German engineers have fortified Montfaucon, an elevated fortress in northern France, with bunkers, tunnels, and a top-secret observatory capable of directing artillery shells across the battlefield. Following a number of unsuccessful attacks, the French have deemed Montfaucon impregnable. Capturing it is the key to success for General John J. Pershing’s 1.2 million troops and his plan to end the war. But a betrayal of Americans by Americans results in a bloody debacle. In his masterful Betrayal at Little Gibraltar, William Walker tells the full story for the first time. After a delay in the assault on Montfaucon, thousands of Americans lost their lives while the Germans defended their position without mercy. Years of archival research show the actual cause of the delay was a senior American officer, Major General Robert E. Lee Bullard, who disobeyed orders to assist in the direct assault on Montfaucon. The result was the unnecessary slaughter of American doughboys during the assault. Although several officers learned of the circumstances, Pershing protected Bullard—an old friend and fellow West Point graduate—by covering up the story. The true and full account of the battle that cost 122,000 American casualties was almost lost to time. A "military history for all libraries" (Library Journal), Betrayal at Little Gibraltar tells of the soldiers who fought to capture the giant fortress and push the American advance. Using unpublished first-person accounts—and featuring photographs, documents, and maps—Walker describes the horrors of combat, the sacrifices of the doughboys, and the determined efforts of two participants to solve the mystery of Montfaucon. This is compelling history, important to be told, an "as valuable account as Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August" (Virginian-Pilot).

Tycoon's War
Tycoon's War

Author: Stephen Dando-Collins

Publisher: Hachette+ORM

Published: 2009-09-22

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0786731613

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Written by a master storyteller, Tycoon's War is the remarkable account of an epic imperialist duel—a violent battle of the capitalist versus the idealist, money versus ambition, and a monumental clash of egos that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. This incredible true story—impeccably researched and never before told in full—is packed with greed, intrigue, and some of the most hair-raising battle scenes ever written.

Walker's Way
Walker's Way

Author: William Greer

Publisher:

Published: 2020-07-15

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9781734734607

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Joseph Walker is born into slavery on a Tennessee cotton plantation in 1846, but his circumstances are mitigated by the fact that he lives in the bosom of a loving family, surrounded by a supportive slave community. That all changes when he is sold to Jackson Budreau, a Louisiana sugarcane farmer, at the age of nine. Joe's life becomes a living hell, marked by daily aggressions that scar his body and his soul. The advent of the Civil War provides Joe the opportunity to escape from his masters. Hungry for justice but lacking allies or resources, he joins the Union army and literally fights his way to freedom. After the war, Joe goes in search of his family and, after some trials, he reunites with his older brother, Amos. Together, they migrate west in search of the spoils of freedom, but Walker's violent past follows him like a dragging chain. Walker's Way follows Joe Walker's journey from slavery to freedom and self-determination. Along the way, he becomes a soldier, a settler, a cowboy, and a bounty hunter. Although a fictional account, Walker's Way reflects the real-life stories of thousands of enslaved people who were "set free" after the Civil War to pursue lives of uncertainty and deprivation. Their courage, stamina, and ingenuity have gone largely unchronicled in mainstream history books. It is important that we reclaim their stories and tell them again and again, lest we forget who they were and their vital role in shaping the American identity.

Danzig
Danzig

Author: William N. Walker

Publisher:

Published: 2016-05-13

Total Pages: 506

ISBN-13: 9781533073921

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The looming menace of Nazi oppressionhung like a dark cloud over the Free City of Danzig.Inspired by actual events, Danzig is a story of diplomatic conflict and political intrigue in Central Europe during the 1930's. Richly atmospheric, it is gripping historical fiction in the grand tradition. The Free City of Danzig was established by the Treaty of Versailles as a mandate to be protected by the League of Nations and its High Commissioner. In 1933, the Nazi party took control of Danzig and pursued a hostile and violent agenda aimed at overthrowing the League's High Commissioner and subverting its constitutional protections. Sean Lester, an Irish diplomat, was the League's High Commissioner and Paul Muller, a young man fresh from university, was his secretary during this tense period. The story portrays the roles played by Lester and Muller as repeated crises engulfed Danzig and high stakes confrontations led to diplomatic clashes and, finally, political betrayal. Their story vividly captures the struggle between rampant Nazi ascendency and the League's mandate to preserve Danzig's fragile democracy. Through the eyes of Lester and Muller, from their perch at the epicenter of the Danzig conflict, we watch Hitler consolidating power and flexing growing German strength; we see Britain embracing a policy of feckless appeasement, unwilling to confront the looming German menace; and we are caught up in the hothouse atmosphere of a hesitant League of Nations, brimming with intrigue and infighting and ultimately failing to deliver on its promise of peace through diplomacy and collective security.The story encompasses fast-paced events in Geneva, Berlin, Warsaw and London, as well as Danzig itself, capturing the drama of unfolding crisis that engulfed Europe in the 1930's on what we now know was the path to war. This is a work of fiction, but aficionados of interwar novels will relish the authenticity of the narrative. Most of the story's characters were real people and the events described actually happened. Danzig brings them vividly back to life and invites readers to experience the drama of clashes within the Nazi leadership, rivalries among Western politicians pursuing competing agendas, and the lonely role of the League's High Commissioner trying to face down dangerous adversaries.It is a gripping tale in a fateful time: the struggle for the Free City of Danzig.

A Spy in Vienna
A Spy in Vienna

Author: William Walker

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-01-30

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9781983986888

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The eagerly-awaited Paul Muller sequel, A Spy in Vienna, is a novel of political intrigue, dramatizing the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938. It is the second Paul Muller novel set in Europe before World War II. Muller is recruited to become a spy to resist Hitler's campaign to absorb Austria into the German Reich and, from his perch in Vienna, finds himself at the epicenter of the desperate struggle to preserve Austrian independence. Muller plays a dangerous game in helping Austria oppose Hitler's demands and he hatches a bold plan to divert Austria's gold reserves so they stay out of Hitler's grasp. The novel captures this gripping drama in rich and vivid detail as political pressures mount and the threat of war looms. A Spy in Vienna re-creates for readers the fraught atmosphere of 1930's, when the threat of Nazi violence hung over Europe. Aficionados of that epoch will relish the authenticity of the novel, which reawakens the tensions and turbulence of the era, with its undercurrent of violence and fear. The narrative recaptures the urgency of the crisis as repeated confrontations escalated to an explosive conclusion. Today, sitting at the safe remove of eighty years, we know the outcome. Hitler's bald aggression prevailed; his takeover of Austria became a crucial stepping stone leading to World War II. But the characters in the novel know none of this; for them, the events they are caught up in are frightening and bewildering, confronting them with dire choices and fearful consequences. The novel transports the reader into that contemporary maelstrom of intrigue and danger-combining real history with a compelling story. Admirers of Paul Muller in Danzig will revel in his new adventures in Vienna, as once again he confronts Nazi tyranny.