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King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West..
Price: $7.50
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Sailing into the Abyss: A True Story of Extreme Heroism on the High Seas--winner of the 2006 US Maritime Literature Award
In the spirit of The Perfect Storm and Shadow Divers, Sailing into the Abyss presents a minute-by-minute account of the sinking of the Merchant Marine vessel the SS Badger State, a cargo ship loaded with bombs being sent to support US troops in Vietnam. A true story that rivals that of any fiction thriller, Sailing into the Abyss uses eyewitness accounts, official documents and rarely seen photos to relate what would become the deadliest sea disaster of the Vietnam War Sailing into the Abyss compellingly documents a tragedy while celebrating the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity..
Price: $9.24
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Under the Eagle: A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions
It is the year 42 AD, and Centurion Macro, battle-scarred and fearless, is in the heart of Germany with the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. Cato, a new recruit and the newly appointed second-in-command to Macro, will have more to prove than most. In a bloody skirmish with local tribes, Cato gets his first chance to prove that he's more than a callow, privileged youth. As their next campaign takes them to a land of unparalleled barbarity - Britain - a special mission unfolds, thrusting Cato and Macro headlong into a conspiracy that threatens to topple the Emperor himself. .
Price: $8.19
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Down to the Sea: An Epic Story of Naval Disaster and Heroism in World War II
This epic story opens at the hour the Greatest Generation went to war on December 7, 1941, and follows four U.S. Navy ships and their crews in the Pacific until their day of reckoning three years later with a far different enemy: a deadly typhoon. In December 1944, while supporting General MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey neglected the Law of Storms, placing the mighty U.S. Third Fleet in harm's way. Drawing on extensive interviews with nearly every living survivor and rescuer, as well as many families of lost sailors, transcripts and other records from naval courts of inquiry, ships' logs, personal letters, and diaries, Bruce Henderson finds some of the story's truest heroes exhibiting selflessness, courage, and even defiance. .
Price: $6.50
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A Tale of Two Subs: An Untold Story of World War II, Two Sister Ships, and Extraordinary Heroism
On November 19, 1943, the submarine USS Sculpin, under attack by the Japanese, slid below the waves for the last time in what would become one of the most remarkable stories in U.S. Naval history Not only did several crewmembers survive the sinking - an extremely rare event in World War II submarine warfare - but several were aboard a Japanese aircraft carrier enroute to a POW camp when it was in turn torpedoed and sunk by the Sculpin's sister ship, the USS Sailfish. At the end of World War II, several unlikely survivors would tell a tale of endurance against these amazing reversals of fortune. For one officer in particular, who knew that being captured could have meant losing the war for the allies, his struggle was not in surviving, but in sealing his own fate in a heartbreaking act of heroism which culminated in the nation's highest tribute, the Medal of Honor. Sculpin Lt. Commander John Phillip Cromwell was one of the few who knew that American Naval Intelligence had succeeded in cracking Japan's top-secret codes. Cromwell also knew that if the Japanese confirmed this by torturing him, it would force Naval Intelligence to change their encryption, which would potentially change the course of the war. This is Cromwell's story as well. The incredible interconnection of the Sculpin and the Sailfish has been thoroughly researched by Jonathan McCullough. Through access to the few living survivors, scores of oral histories, never-before translated Japanese war documents, and interviews with Navy veterans, McCullough delivers a gripping and, intimate account for the reader..
Price: $13.49
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American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day
During the course of his military career, through World War II, Korean, and then Vietnam, Bud Day received every available combat medal, escaped death on no fewer than seven occasions, and spent sixty-seven months as a POW in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, where his roommate was John McCain. Despite incredible torture, Day would not break. He became a hero to POWs everywhere--a man who fought without pause, a prisoner at war. But Day's story didn't end when he returned home from Vietnam. In fact, in some ways, it was just beginning. He became a passionate advocate for veterans' rights, a hero to those who served their country so bravely and selflessly. And when theClinton Administration cut veterans' medical benefits, Bud Day knew that--however weary his bones, however aged his comrades--it was time to suit up for a new battle, this time against an opponent he had never expected to face: the United States government. "Superb....[Coram] has researched thoroughly and written fluently and with sympathy for his subject, an authentic hero worthy of many books."--Booklist.
Price: $9.52
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DAY OF THE PANZER: A Story of American Heroism and Sacrifice in Southern France
This is a rarely detailed "you are there" account of World War II combat, describing a brief but bloody tank/infantry action in August 1944. Based on six years of research-drawing from interviews, primary documents, and visits to the battlefield-"The Day of the Panzer" transports the reader into the ranks of L Company, 15th Regiment, Third Infantry Division, and its supporting M4s of the 756th Tank Battalion as they grapple head-on with the Wehrmacht. L Company was nearly wiped out during the bloody Anzio breakout of May 1944. Under the fiery leadership of Captain James "Red" Coles, the unit was rebuilt and molded into a tough, colorful bunch in preparation for "Operation Dragoon." On August 15, 1944, they hit the beaches in southern France, joined by the tank crews of 2nd Lt. Andrew Orient's 3rd Platoon, all veterans of Cassino. After overcoming pockets of resistance along the coast, the tanks and infantry swept inland, nipping at the heels of the retreating German Nineteenth Army. A sudden German artillery salvo dispatched six L Company men and left Lt. Orient dead. 1st Lt. Edgar Danby, an armor instructor (the author's grandfather), was flown in from Italy to replace him. Despite logistics problems, the Third Division forged north through the Rhone River valley until they found the Germans holding fast, L Company and its supporting tanks leading the regimental charge. In the haste and chaos of the day, they managed to slip the German rearguard and unwittingly attacked the German LXXXV Armeekorps headquarters in the small town of Allan. Both sides were shocked by the ferocity of the battle. Led by a rampaging Panther tank, the Germans counterattacked, knocking out the Sherman of Lt. Danby while threatening to cut L Company's positions in half. Surrounded and facing annihilation-but steeled by the courageous leadership of Captain Coles and others-L Company held fast despite dead and wounded on all sides and 13 men captured. The seemingly unstoppable Panther, stalking the battlefield like some black knight from a Teutonic fantasy, continued to hold off American reinforcements in the morning, until the Armeekorps headquarters executed a withdrawal. In this book, the minute-by-minute confusion, thrill and desperation of WWII combat is placed under a microscope, as if the reader himself were a participant. In this small but singular battle, the courage of US troops in their liberation of France is given full due. REVIEWS "Danby resurrects the forgotten campaign of World War II in this excellent popular history... a sprightly and evocative tribute to the troops of Operation Dragoon." Publishers Weekly, 05/2008 "...one of the most interesting and absorbing battles histories that this reviewer has ever read...remarkably realistic and personal..."History Book Club, 06/2008 "...clearly written, pacey and exciting whilst giving a clear account of the sequence of events, a first hand perspective and a "flow" that keeps one keen to thumb over the next page."Military Modeling (UK), 07/2008 "a powerful, punchy story...outs the reader in the middle of a raging battlefield populated with humans who far transcend the one dimensional paper soldiers often found in military history..."Bill Stone, 07/2008 "...well-written and entertaining book capturing the chaotic nature of combat for the average infantryman."AFV Modeler, 09/2008.
Price: $6.85
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Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do
In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard heard the Mayday calls and immediately dispatched a patrol boat. Within an hour, the Coast Guard boat was in as much trouble as the tanker, having lost its radar, depth finder, and engine power in horrendous seas. Pilot boat Captain Frank Quirk was monitoring the Coast Guard’s efforts by radio, and when he heard that the patrol boat was in jeopardy, he decided to act. Gathering his crew of four, he readied his forty-nine-foot steel boat, the Can Do, and entered the maelstrom of the blizzard.
Using dozens of interview and audiotapes that recorded every word exchanged between Quirk and the Coast Guard, Tougias has written a devastating, true account of bravery and death at sea.
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Price: $2.95
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Warriors in Uniform: The Legacy of American Indian Heroism
Native Americans have willingly served in the U.S. military during each of this country’s wars, and their current numbers in the armed forces exceed the percentage of any other ethnic group. Their stories encompass heroism and tragedy, humor and stoicism, loyalty and conflictall part of the riveting experience of Warriors in Uniform. This illustrated history divulges the exploits of the last Confederate generala Cherokeeto lay down his arms...the code talkers who used tribal languages to thwart the enemy in World War II...the first Native American woman to give her life as a soldier...those serving in Iraq today...and many others. Spiritual, poignant, gripping, even shocking (warriors still took scalps in Vietnam), it reveals how ancient traditions of war persevere and how the warrior designation is a great honor to the Native American community. Packed with first person accounts and sharing little-known insights into a culture that is still misunderstood, Warriors in Uniform is a page-turning epic and a stunning gallery of never-before-seen artifacts from personal collections. Former senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and other distinguished Native Americans have contributed to the collection. Following on the success of Native Universe and Trail to Wounded Knee, this book is already generating great interest throughout the Native American community. As the only book to cover Native American warriors from the 1700s to present, it stands out among other titles on the market..
Price: $18.69
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