The U.S. Border Patrol quietly figured as an instrument of change in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s by supporting the U.S. Marshals Service in protective details for key events, and protecting members of the African-American community in their struggle for desegregation, equal rights, and opportunity. During this period, upholding federal law frequently meant defying state and local governments, including confronting local and state police; and unruly, sometimes violent crowds and demonstrations. This is the story of one of the most significant challenges to the U.S. government and the Constitution in the last century and how Border Patrol Inspectors were the unsung heroes that long night sixty years ago when James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). President John Kennedy lauded the unsung heroes who defended the Constitution and stopped the insurrection on the night of September 30, 1962 and early morning of October 1, 1962. The courage and dedication which you demonstrated while in great personal danger prevented a serious and tragic incident from becoming a disaster for our country. Had you failed, our country would have suffered irreparable damage.
This book shows, for the first time, the indispensable role of the Burford Masons, a group of master masons from the historic quarries around Burford, Oxfordshire, in creating some of the foremost buildings of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The Burford Masons were involved in the construction of such outstanding buildings as St Paul's Cathedral, City churches, and Blenheim Palace, among many others. Whilst credit for many of these buildings generally rests with named architects, Sir Christopher Wren in particular, this book shows how reliant these designers were on their master craftsmen, sometimes involving them in the design process as their ideas evolved. The book further shows how the Burford Masons responded to the challenge of late payments, often of many years, becoming financiers in the process. It reveals how, as risk-taking businessmen, they effectively underpinned both public and private development financially, and how extraordinary success transformed their lives. The reader will learn about the vital part played in the early modern period by master craftsmen of the calibre of the Burford Masons, despite the emergence of the architect as lead designer, whose fame has hitherto overshadowed them. As a result, this book will be a compelling read for anyone interested in architectural, construction or social history.
Detailed profiles bring stories of African American heroism in the U.S. armed forces to life, from the American Revolution through the conflict in Afghanistan. African American war heroes remain largely unsung, their courage and valor relegated to the less traveled corners of history. This work seeks out those heroes—soldiers, sailors, flyers, and marines—who earned their nation's highest medals in defense of freedom and equality. Some of these men and women died on the battlefield. Others returned to civilian life in a segregated country. What they share across time and circumstance is devotion to duty and to the country they defended, even in the face of personal and racial prejudice. Entries profile decorated African Americans from all of the U.S. conflicts since the Revolutionary War. In addition to providing basic biographical data, each profile offers a detailed account of the individual's heroic actions. The book also offers sidebars on events and topics relevant to African Americans in the U.S. armed forces, such as histories of the 54th Massachusetts and the Tuskegee Airmen.
"We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium -- the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it -- and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W.C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption. The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project -- a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivaled uber-dictionary. Book jacket."--Jacket.
An award-winning journalist reveals the dramatic true story of the CIA's Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11. America is reeling; Al-Qaeda has struck and thousands are dead. The country scrambles to respond, but the Pentagon has no plan for Afghanistan—where Osama bin Laden masterminded the attack and is protected by the Taliban. Instead, the CIA steps forward to spearhead the war. Eight CIA officers are dropped into the mountains of northern Afghanistan on October 17, 2001. They are Team Alpha, an eclectic band of linguists, tribal experts, and elite warriors: the first Americans to operate inside Taliban territory. Their covert mission is to track down Al- Qaeda and stop the terrorists from infiltrating the United States again. First Casualty places you with Team Alpha as the CIA rides into battle on horseback alongside the warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. In Washington, DC, few trust that the CIA men, the Green Berets, and the Americans’ outnumbered Afghan allies can prevail before winter sets in. On the ground, Team Alpha is undeterred. The Taliban is routed but hatches a plot with Al-Qaeda to hit back. Hundreds of suicidal fighters, many hiding weapons, fake a surrender and are transported to Qala-i Jangi—the “Fort of War.” Team Alpha’s Mike Spann, an ex-Marine, and David Tyson, a polyglot former Central Asian studies academic, seize America’s initial opportunity to extract intelligence from men trained by bin Laden—among them a young Muslim convert from California. The prisoners revolt and one CIA officer falls—the first casualty in America’s longest war, which will last two decades. The other CIA man shoots dead the Al-Qaeda jihadists attacking his comrade. To survive, he must fight his way out against overwhelming odds. Award-winning author Toby Harnden gained unprecedented access to all living Team Alpha members and every level of the CIA. Superbly researched, First Casualty draws on extensive interviews, secret documents, and deep reporting inside Afghanistan. As gripping as any adventure novel, yet intimate and profoundly moving, it tells how America found a winning strategy only to abandon it. Harnden reveals that the lessons of early victory and the haunting foretelling it contained—unreliable allies, ethnic rivalries, suicide attacks, and errant US bombs—were ignored, tragically fueling a twenty-year conflict. "Masterful, complex, and heartfelt, from the deeply personal to the critically strategic. Captures many lessons on many levels." —Ambassador Hank Crumpton, former senior CIA officer
An obsessive word lover provides an account of the year he spent reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover, offering a selection of obscure and offbeat vocabulary gems he discovered along the way.
This book features the stories of 200 heroic individuals awarded the Medal of Honor for their distinguished military service while fighting for their country, from the Civil War to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. America's Heroes: Medal of Honor Recipients from the Civil War to Afghanistan pays tribute to Americans who have demonstrated uncommon valor in the face of great danger. The Medal of Honor recipients featured in this book all acted heroically to earn this highly coveted award, many of them by risking—or sacrificing—their lives to save the lives of others. The stories of these individuals—chosen to reflect the wide diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, branches of service, and conflicts of the recipients—will broaden readers' understanding and appreciation of the Medal of Honor and the distinguished Americans who have received it. In addition to the gripping stories of these heroic Americans, this unique encyclopedia includes an introduction that chronicles the evolution in the award's significance. The Medal of Honor has changed greatly over the last 150 years, not only in the design of the physical decoration itself, but also in terms of the qualifying criteria for the award's recipients.
During the 1930s many Americans avoided thinking about war erupting in Europe, believing it of little relevance to their own lives. Yet, the Warner Bros. film studio embarked on a virtual crusade to alert Americans to the growing menace of Nazism. Polish-Jewish immigrants Harry and Jack Warner risked both reputation and fortune to inform the American public of the insidious threat Hitler's regime posed throughout the world. Through a score of films produced during the 1930s and early 1940s-including the pivotal Sergeant York-the Warner Bros. studio marshaled its forces to influence the American conscience and push toward intervention in World War II. Celluloid Soldiers offers a compelling historical look at Warner Bros.'s efforts as the only major studio to promote anti-Nazi activity before the outbreak of the Second World War.
HONOR FIRST: The Story of the United States Border Patrol is the first comprehensive history of the U.S. Border Patrol. It is divided into four volumes, each covering a critical stage in its development. In this Volume One, the story is told from its humble beginnings at the end of the 19th Century and turn of the 20th Century through Prohibition and World War II. Volume One addresses the forerunners of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Mounted Guards, Mounted Inspectors, Mounted Watchmen, and Chinese Inspectors, and then, the birth of the U.S. Border Patrol and the first twenty-five years of Service of the Border Patrol Inspectors from 1924 to 1949. Where possible and available, actual quotes from Border Patrol Inspectors, Border Patrol Agents, leadership and historical documents are utilized. Background information is also provided to give additional perspective. Historical photographs are included to complement the writing and hopefully add value to Honor First: The Story of the United States Border Patrol.
